The aim of this dissertation is to investigate what linguistic meanings the concept of quality is imbued with in different educational arenas and to discuss the consequences of such meanings for education. From this aim the main research question is: What does the concept of quality do to education and what does education do to the concept of quality? The question indicates an interest in understanding how the concept of quality and education mutually influence each other. The empirical material consists of national texts written by the government and the national school authorities, mainly between the years of 1997 to 2008, as well as interviews with different people from three local school authorities and schools. Theoretically the approach is inspired by Quentin Skinner and speech-act theory as well as Reinhart  Koselleck and conceptual history. While Skinner is mainly interested in the rhetorical use of concepts, Koselleck’s interest lies in investigating how concepts carry historical time. For this study, some analytical concepts are lifted from these two theories and are applied to the empirical material. From the analysis, four concluding criteria of application are formulated: education quality, result quality, market quality and system quality. The result shows that certain meanings, which for a long time have been connected to education and, in this study, are incorporated under the umbrella criterion education quality, have been challenged and partly  marginalized. Instead, the dominance of result quality, market quality and system quality lead to an acceptance of new social perceptions in education. The different national and local structures that are developed to measure quality have a high impact on local practice. As a consequence of a shift from goal to result, overriding goals are clarified and made juridically controllable. The changes also lead to consequences for the different actors in the education system, as well as for teachers, national politicians and for national and local school administrations.

This is a conceptual historical study on the dialectic meaning of the concept of freedom. The purpose of this study is to examine John Stuart Mill’s and Jean-Paul Sartre’s usage of the concept of freedom, and to examine its dialectical meaning. This is done by examining concepts such as the nature of man, moral philosophy, political thinking and the meaning and usage of the concept of freedom itself. Using the method of conceptual history and the theoretical framework of Hegelian dialectics, I have studied Mill’sOn Liberty and Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanism. In my research, I have found that the two thinkers share some similarities in what they mean by freedom, but I have also found that there are striking differences. These differences are most notable in how Mill discusses freedom primarily in political and societal terms, whereas Sartre discusses freedom as being the natural human condition and in what ways it is linked to action and morals. I also note how Mill’s thinking is centered around man as an individual, whereas Sartre’s thinking is centered around man as a subject. Finally, I discuss the importance of liberal hegemony in the expected meaning of the term freedom. / Detta är en studie av dialektiken inom frihetsbegreppet. Syftet med denna undersökning är att med begreppshistorisk ansats undersöka John Stuart Mills och Jean-Paul Sartres användande av begreppet frihet, och att undersöka hur begreppets dialektiska innebörd yttrar sig genom en komparativ de bägge tänkarna. Detta görs genom att undersöka respektive tänkares syn på människans natur såväl som deras moralfilosofi, politiska tänkande samt deras användning av frihetsbegreppet som sådant. Med en begreppshistoriskt präglad metod och ett hegelianskt dialektiskt teoretiskt ramverk har jag studerat Mills Om friheten och Sartres Existentialismen är en humanism. I min undersökning har jag funnit att de två tänkarna har vissa likheter i vad de menar med frihet, men jag har även funnit slående skillnader. Dessa skillnader framträder som tydligast i hur Mill diskuterar frihet främst i politiska och samhällsenliga termer, medan Sartre betraktar frihet som människans naturtillstånd och diskuterar frihet som kopplat till handling och moral. Jag noterar även att Mills tänkande kretsar kring människan som individ, medan Sartres tänkande kretsar kring människan som subjekt. Slutligen diskuterar jag betydelsen av liberal hegemoni i utformandet av frihetsbegreppets erfarenhetsrum.

The overall purpose of this paper is to investigate how the concept of democracy was used in Swedish parliamentary debates before the great franchise reform 1919-1921. To use conceptual history to study parliamentary debates is a relatively recent phenomenon and when it comes to Sweden it has mostly been about the period around and after the mentioned great reform. This paper therefore takes a step back and concentrates on the years 1902, 1907 and 1912 when bills and motions were presented that advocated more inclusive voting rights. It is not only a period that has been less researched but an inquiry into these years also complete and enhance the understanding of the later great reform. Since the concept of democracy rarely appears in the parliamentary debates during the first years studied the paper also investigates the context in which the concept was used with a special focus on who were to be allowed to take part in an enlarged franchise. The final analysis shows that the concept of democracy went through substantial change during the period in question. Not only did it become used more frequently in the debates, but most politicians also accepted the future-oriented quality of the concept. The context of the debates shifted during the period but most importantly the view of who among the people were supposed to be included in a democratic society changed. Some of the uses of the concept of democracy that was to reverberate during the debates leading up to the great franchise reform 1919-1921 can also be found during the period here studied.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Swedish right-wing party Allmänna valmansförbundet (AVF) made citizen into a key concept within their political vocabulary and practice. This thesis examines the distribution, meaning and function of the concept of citizen within the AVF between 1915 and 1936. By using theoretical and methodological perspectives from both the English (Skinner) and German (Koselleck) side of conceptual history vis-à-vis Begriffsgeschischte, this study illuminates how a discursive framework took place within the AVF and expanded throughout the organisation. The constitutional reforms 1918/1921 and the organisational strength from opposite parties, stressed the importance for the AVF to assemble the citizens around conservative value laden concepts: responsibility, ansvar, and public participation, offentlighet. This new situation in political and social life, pushed the AVF towards a reorganisation. The aim was to educate the masses, women and youth into conservative citizens. Citizen became the sole tool in (i) upholding the traditional heritage between folk–state, and (ii) enabling the AVF citizen discourse to spread throughout the society. This study shows the multiple meaning and functions of the citizen concept within the AVF.  It provides a new understanding of how collective concepts became an important part of the struggle for power during the democratization process in Swedish political history and must in that respect be seen as an antithesis to the collective concepts of the Social Democratic Party during this period.

Esta dissertação aborda as formas de viver o tempo em meio ao cotidiano da capitania de São Paulo, entre finais do século XVIII e início do século XIX. Chamamos essas formas, genericamente, de vivências e experiências, e buscamos em meio a uma pluralidade de tempos sociais sintetizar o que é, em geral, referido como tempo histórico. Para tanto, os capítulos se dedicam a diferentes formas de viver o tempo: os tempos religiosos, os tempos envolvidos nos ritmos administrativos, questões relativas à morte, padrões, rotinas e formas de dimensionar o tempo, conceitos de tempo elaborados em obras de historiografias do século XVIII. / This master thesis demonstrates ways to experience time in São Paulos captaincy everyday life, between late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. We call, generically, that ways as experience and perception, and seek among a multiplicity of social times to sinthesize what is commonly referred to as historical time. Therefore the following chapters will be about different ways of experience time: religions times, adminstrative times and its rhythms, questions about death, patterns, routines and ways to measure time, concepts of time in 18th-century historians.

Esta dissertação aborda as formas de viver o tempo em meio ao cotidiano da capitania de São Paulo, entre finais do século XVIII e início do século XIX. Chamamos essas formas, genericamente, de vivências e experiências, e buscamos em meio a uma pluralidade de tempos sociais sintetizar o que é, em geral, referido como tempo histórico. Para tanto, os capítulos se dedicam a diferentes formas de viver o tempo: os tempos religiosos, os tempos envolvidos nos ritmos administrativos, questões relativas à morte, padrões, rotinas e formas de dimensionar o tempo, conceitos de tempo elaborados em obras de historiografias do século XVIII. / This master thesis demonstrates ways to experience time in São Paulos captaincy everyday life, between late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. We call, generically, that ways as experience and perception, and seek among a multiplicity of social times to sinthesize what is commonly referred to as historical time. Therefore the following chapters will be about different ways of experience time: religions times, adminstrative times and its rhythms, questions about death, patterns, routines and ways to measure time, concepts of time in 18th-century historians.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O presente estudo pretende observar as relações entre as imagens do homem existentes nas páginas da revista Cultura Política (1941-1945) e os projetos de educação que disputaram espaço no debate público a partir da década de 1930. O periódico, editado por Almir de Andrade no âmbito do Departamento de Imprensa e Propaganda, consistiu num dos mais importantes veículos oficiais de comunicação ao longo do Estado Novo. Ao pesquisar o conceito de homem em Cultura Política, fica evidente a exigência constante de um processo formador para este homem, ao final do qual um novo tipo humano emergirá. Este novo tipo humano é apresentado, então, como a base de uma nova sociedade e de um novo Estado. O protagonista destas reflexões na revista é o autor Paulo Augusto de Figueiredo, que tem seu pensamento e obra analisados em maior detalhe. O argumento central deste trabalho é que a imagem de homem construída por Figueiredo e outros articulistas do periódico, bem como os artigos educacionais publicados na revista, apontam para o favorecimento do projeto católico de educação para o país, apenas um dentre outros que disputavam hegemonia sobre o processo de formação dos homens no período / The present work aims to observe the existing relation between the concept of man in the pages of Political Culture (1941-1945) and the different educational projects that have fought for hegemony in public space during the 1930‟s. The review, edited by Almir de Andrade, was one of the most important intellectual instrument in the Estado Novo regime. When we look to the concept of man in Political Culture, the demand for formation process becomes evident. The request for a new man, compatible with the new society emerging is a common point in the texts analyzed. The main author in this effort is Paulo Augusto de Figueiredo, whose work is discussed in detail. Through the analysis of Figueiredo‟s writings, along with the educational articles published in Political Culture, we conclude that the periodical adopted a line of proximity with the catholic educational thought, only one among other available at the time..

Esta dissertação versa sobre a importância e a transformação do conceito de equidade no direito ocidental ao longo da história e seus reflexos no direito civil e processual civil brasileiro contemporâneo, a partir da metodologia desenvolvida por Reinhart Koselleck em sua história dos conceitos. Em síntese, a história dos conceitos Begriffsgeschichte propõe investigar a semântica dos conceitos fundamentais a uma determinada experiência histórico-temporal e, nesta medida, dedica-se ao conceito e à terminologia plasmados na experiência que se estuda e aos termos e conceitos a ela correlatos, que revelam algum grau de conteúdo significativo Bedeutungsgehalt em termos político-sociais. A equidade se apresenta como objeto complexo de estudo, o que se confirma por sua polissemia e perpetuidade no curso dos séculos, e sua correlação com o ideal de justiça é uma constante. Destarte, em atenção aos limites físicos e temporais desta dissertação, os esforços foram concentrados no estudo de seis casos principais sobre equidade, que possibilitam identificar suas raízes a partir dos conceitos de para Aristóteles e aequitas para os juristas romanos e alcançar seu significado ou significados no direito civil e processual civil brasileiro hodierno. / This dissertation discusses the importance and the transformation of the concept of equity in law in the western world throughout history and its reflections in contemporary Brazilian civil law and civil procedural law, based on the methodology developed by Reinhart Koselleck in his conceptual history. In short, the conceptual history Begriffsgeschichte proposes to investigate the semantics of fundamental concepts to a particular historical and temporal experience and, therefore, it is dedicated to the concept and the terminology embodied in the experience studied and to the terms and concepts correlated to it, which reveal some degree of meaningful content Bedeutungsgehalt in political and social terms. The equity is presented as a complex object of study, which is confirmed by its polysemy and perpetuity over the centuries, and its correlation to the ideal of justice is a constant. Thus, considering the physical and temporal limitations of this dissertation, efforts were concentrated on the study of six major cases of equity, which enable the identification of its roots from the concepts of to Aristóteles and aequitas to Roman jurists and achieve their meaning or meanings in current Brazilian civil law and civil procedural law.

Hunting ground graves were distinguished as a separate category during the 1930s.         There is however no clear definition of what a hunting ground grave is. They have been constructed over a large area over a long period of time (200 BC-1200 AD) and their morphology varies. This paper investigates how the archaeologists have discussed the hunting ground graves since they were distinguished as a separate category until today. It investigates what concepts that have been used to define and categorize the graves as a group. It also investigates if the choices of concepts are depending on a broader societal perspective. To find the answers to these questions two surveys have been done. In the first one, texts about the hunting ground graves, written by scientists from 1931 to 2009, are analyzed. The second survey is a questionnaire sent to archaeologists working at museums and at the County Administrative Board in the regions of northern Svealand and Norrland.     The source material in both surveys is mainly studied qualitatively, where phrases and choices of words are analyzed using the concepts and methods derived from the research tradition of conceptual history. In the second survey quantitative elements is also analyzed, which aims to show how different views on the hunting ground graves are spread over different counties. The results of the surveys show that the concepts used to define the graves contain locked dichotomies concerning location, economy and ethnicity. The research from the twenty-first century is however increasingly thinking about hunting ground graves as an expression of meetings and mixtures of cultures. The second survey shows that there is no clear consensus on the concept of lake graves (the concept lake graves was used in the questionnaire) among the archaeologists answering the questionnaire. On the contrary, they consider the concept unclear and difficult to use.

保護責任（R2P）是當前國際社會最受矚目，但同時也最受爭議的概念之一，有人認為這個概念有助於實踐國際人權，幫助國際社會向需要幫助的人民伸出援手；有學者認為這是為了解決主權與人權之間的爭端；更有人認為這只是「人道干涉」的借屍還魂，不過是西方強權為了干涉他國的手段而已。 隨著時間進展，當2005年保護責任在世界高峰會（World Summit）中得到聯合國會員國一致共識同時，有人認為R2P原本試圖修正「人道干涉困境」與國際法架構的雄心壯志，淪落對現有國際法架構的確認，無疑地呈現顯著的概念質變（conceptual change）。然而當民主春風吹過中東與北非地區，阿拉伯之春導致許多政府爆發侵犯人權情事，R2P再度受到矚目，甚至在2011年被聯合國安理會引用，作為干涉利比亞局勢的重要說辭，產生與2005年世界高峰會截然不同的內容。儘管被視為R2P概念成形以來的一大勝利，但也掀起新一波對R2P概念的爭辯。 本文主張，R2P面臨如此爭議，「定義」以及「與主權關係」不明是最主要的原因之一。對於支持者而言，這是有別於人道干涉，且根據現行「負責任主權」的全新人權執行機制，符合「即時性」、「有效性」的大原則。但對於反對者而言，這是人道干涉藉由「責任」一詞改頭換面，「換湯不換藥」，表面說詞再動人，都無法掩蓋他基於國家私利，干涉他國完整，破壞國家主權體系的意圖。 為了解決這項爭議，本研究試圖透過「語料庫語言學」的方法回答以下研究問題：第一，對於實際參與聯合國決策的各國代表而言，到底何謂「R2P」？在聯合國的場域中，「R2P」的出現是否真如部分學者所主張，漸漸改變「主權」的內涵？第二，如果主權概念與「R2P」的概念確實存在連動關係，那關係為何？ 根據本研究的研究成果可以發現，第一，在聯合國安理會的場域中，2005年世界高峰會的共識確實取代既有概念，讓「R2P」內容產生質變。但過去的「預防」概念依舊得到存續。第二，「R2P」概念的出現確實為「主權」增加更多的「責任」，儘管在安理會的場域中幅度並不大，但當有意識地使用「R2P」時，會特別強調「責任」的重要性。第三，儘管許多學者主張「R2P」的概念已經形成共識，重點在於「實踐」而非「爭辯」，但實際上真正重視「實踐」者，恐怕只有聯合國秘書長本人。 / Although generally recognized in World Summit Outcome Document, Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is one of the most controversial concepts of International Relations (IR). Especially, its relationship with sovereignty is one of the most debatable ones. For answering the questions, it is purposed to inquiry texts of meeting verbatim record of United Nations (UN), with the assistance of discourse analysis and digital toolkits. While scholars of IR and Political Thoughts have analyzed its theoretical, definition, legal and implementation dimensions, little attention is paid to its discursive change to examine their mutual influence. For proceeding full and large-scale research, present techniques of text mining enable researchers to work on “big texts”, and to extract the linguistic context beyond them. In general, this thesis is intended to complete the following advancements of IR studies: firstly, establish the contextual understanding of conceptual change of R2P and sovereignty, and find if hidden information exists behind those texts; secondly, if text mining and related toolkits does assist fulfillment of this proposal, it might be possibly new research skill to be applied in IR. This thesis investigates the present understandings of Sovereignty and R2P in IR. It hypothesizes that, firstly, most of present researches on R2P neglected the role of language; secondly, the generation of R2P might be related to the conceptual change of sovereignty in twenty-first century.