In the 29 years following \"Our Common Future\" by the United Nations, there is considerable debate among governments, civil society, interest groups and business organisations about what constitutes sustainable development, which constitutes evidence for a contested discourse concerning sustainability. The purpose of this study is to understand this debate in the developing economic context of Brazil, and in particular, to understand and critique the social and environmental accounting [SEA] discursive constructions relating to the State-owned, Petrobras as well as to understand the Brazilian literature on SEA. The discourse theory [DT]-based analysis employs rhetorical redescription to analyse twenty-two reports from Petrobras from 2004-2013. I investigate the political notions by employing the methodological framework of the Logics of Critical Explanation [LCE]. LCE engenders five methodological steps: problematisation, retroduction, logics (social, political and fantasmatic), articulation and critique. The empirical discussion suggests that the hegemony of economic development operates to obfuscate, rhetorically, the development of sustainability, so as to maintain the core business of Petrobras conceived as capital accumulation. Equally, these articulations also illustrate how the constructions of SEA operate to serve the company\'s purpose with few (none) profound changes in integration of sustainability. The Brazilian literature on SEA sustains the status quo of neo-liberal market policies that operate to protect the dominant business case approach to maintain an agenda of wealth-creation in relation to social and environmental needs. The articulations of the case manifested in policies regarding, for example, corruption, which involved over-payments for contracts and unsustainable practices relating to the use of fossil fuels and demonstrated that there was antagonism between action and disclosure. The corruption scandal that emerged after SEA disclosures highlighted the rhetorical nature of disclosure when financial resources were subtracted from the company for political parties and engineering contractors hid facts through incomplete disclosures. The articulations of SEA misrepresent a broader context of the meanings associated with sustainability, which restricted the constructions of SEA to principally serve and represent the intention of the most powerful groups. The significance of SEA, then is narrowed to represent particular interests. The study argues for more critical studies as limited Brazilian literature concerning SEA kept a \'safe distance\' from substantively critiquing the constructions of SEA and its articulations in the Brazilian context. The literature review and the Petrobras\' case illustrate a variety of naming, instituting and articulatory practices that endeavour to maintain the current hegemony of development in an emerging economy, which allows Petrobras to continue to exercise significant profit at the expense of the social and environmental. The constructed idea of development in Petrobras\' discourses emphasises a rhetoric of wider development, but, in reality, these discourses were the antithesis of political, social and ethical developmental issues. These constructions aim to hide struggles between social inequalities and exploitation of natural resources and constitute excuses about a fanciful notion of rhetorical and hegemonic neo-liberal development. In summary, this thesis contributes to the prior literature in five ways: (i) the addition of DT to the analysis of SEA enhances the discussion of political elements such as hegemony, antagonism, logic of equivalence/difference, ideology and articulation; (ii) the analysis of an emerging economy such as Brazil incorporates a new perspective of the discussion of the discourses of SEA and development; (iii) this thesis includes a focus on rhetoric to discuss the maintenance of the status quo; (iv) the holistic structure of the LCE approach enlarges the understanding of the social, political and fantasmatic logics of SEA studies and; (v) this thesis combines an analysis of the literature and the case of Petrobras to characterise and critique the state of the Brazilian academy and its impacts and reflections on the significance of SEA. This thesis, therefore, argues for more critical studies in the Brazilian academy due to the persistence of idea of SEA and development that takes-for-granted deep exclusions and contradictions and provide little space for critiques. / Em 29 anos da publicação \"Nosso Futuro Comum\" apresentado pelas Nações Unidas, ainda há um considerável debate entre governos, sociedade civil, grupos interessados e organizações empresariais sobre o que constitui o desenvolvimento sustentável e, portanto, há evidência da contestabilidade do discurso sobre sustentabilidade. A proposta desse estudo é entender esse debate em um contexto de desenvolvimento econômico no Brasil e, em particular, entender e criticar as construções discursivas de contabilidade social e ambiental [CSA] relacionadas à estatal Petrobras, assim como discutir a literatura brasileira de CSA. A análise baseada na Discourse Theory [DT] usa redescrição retórica para analisar vinte e dois relatórios da Petrobras entre 2004 e 2013. Eu investigo as noções políticas através do emprego da metodologia chamada Logics of Critical Explanation [LCE]. A LCE tem cinco passos metodológico: problematização, explicação retrodutiva, lógicas (sociais, políticas e fantasmáticas), articulação e crítica. Os resultados sugerem que a hegemonia do desenvolvimento econômico opera para obscurecer retoricamente o desenvolvimento da sustentabilidade que mantém o core business da Petrobras igualmente concebido como acumulação de capital. Igualmente, essas articulações também ilustram como as construções de CSA operam para servir o propósito da empresa com pouca (ou nenhuma) profunda mudança na integração com a sustentabilidade. A literatura brasileira de CSA sustenta o status quo de políticas de mercado neoliberais que operam para proteger a dominante abordagem do business case para manter a agenda de geração de riqueza num cenário de necessidade sociais e ambientais. As articulações do estudo de caso manifestaram essas políticas, por exemplo, em relação à corrupção, no qual envolveu superfaturamento de contratos e práticas insustentáveis relacionadas ao uso de combustíveis fósseis os quais demonstraram que há antagonismo entre ação e disclosure. O escândalo de corrupção que surgiu após as divulgações de CSA marcou a natureza retórica do disclosure em que recursos financeiros subtraídos da empresa para partidos políticos e empreiteiras esconderam fatos através de disclosures incompletos. As articulações da CSA deturpam um contexto amplo dos significados associados com a sustentabilidade, que restringiram as construções da CSA para principalmente servir e representar a intenção dos grupos mais poderosos. A significância da CSA é, portanto, limitada para representar interesses particulares. O estudo argumenta por mais estudos críticos já que a limitada literatura brasileira sobre CSA mantém uma \'distância segura\' de substantivas críticas das construções de CSA e suas articulações no contexto brasileiro. A revisão da literatura e o caso da Petrobras ilustram a variedade de nomes, instituições e práticas articulatórias que se esforçam para manter a atual hegemonia de desenvolvimento numa economia emergente que permite à Petrobras continuar a exercer significante lucro à custa do social e do meio ambiente. A ideia construída de desenvolvimento nos discursos da Petrobras enfatiza uma retórica ampla de desenvolvimento, mas, na realidade, esses discursos são antíteses de questões políticas, sociais e éticas de desenvolvimento. Essas construções objetivam esconder as lutas entre desigualdades sociais e exploração dos recursos naturais as quais constituem pretextos sobre uma fantasiosa noção de desenvolvimento retórico, hegemônico e neoliberal. Em resumo, esta tese contribui para a antecedente literatura em cinco principais aspectos: (i) a adição da DT para a análise da CSA engrandece a discussão de elementos políticos tais como hegemonia, antagonismo, lógica de equivalência/diferença, ideologia e articulação; (ii) a análise de uma economia emergente como o Brasil incorpora uma nova perspectiva nas discussões dos discursos da CSA e do desenvolvimento; (iii) esta tese também inclui um foco na retórica para discutir a manutenção do status quo; (iv) a estrutura holística da abordagem LCE amplia os entendimentos das lógicas sociais, políticas e fantasmáticas dos estudos de CSA e; (v) esta tese combina uma análise da literatura e do caso da Petrobras para caracterizar e criticar o estado da academia brasileira e seus impactos e reflexos na significância da CSA. Esta tese, portanto, argumenta por mais estudos críticos na academia brasileira devido à persistente ideia de desenvolvimento que taken-for-granted profundas exclusões e contradições e proporciona pouco espaço para críticas.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-04-29T15:11:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ziel Ferreira Lopes_.pdf: 1233100 bytes, checksum: af64ec74e4ce6bd2c1b0781880079475 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T15:11:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ziel Ferreira Lopes_.pdf: 1233100 bytes, checksum: af64ec74e4ce6bd2c1b0781880079475 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-11-12 / Nenhuma / Discute os métodos de controle das decisões judiciais. Coloca-se como tema a fundamentação dos enunciados sobre o processo judicial, atravessando os paradigmas filosóficos. Objetiva-se conciliar a crítica ao formalismo jurídico com a defesa de garantias processuais. Procede-se sistematizando os grandes esquemas metodológicos do processo; historiando a aplicação do direito pré-moderna e moderna, ligadas ao esquema sujeito-objeto (estado-da-questão); comparando as perspectivas contemporâneas, no paradigma da intersubjetividade (estado-da-arte); explorando, afinal, uma Ciência Processual capaz de rearticular as contribuições filosóficas da Teoria Discursiva do Direito e da Crítica Hermenêutica do Direito. O método de abordagem foi hermenêutico-fenomenológico: mais do que sintetizar as posições, interessou compreender o que ficou claro, a identidade que se manifesta em meio a essas diferenças. Como resultado, chegou-se à seguinte sistematização: método monológico (processo inquisitorial), método dialógico (Teoria discursiva do Processo Judicial) e um controle das decisões judiciais para além do método (Crítica Hermenêutica do Direito). Na história do direito processual, viu-se a transição dos ordálios para o processo racionalista como uma mudança do objetivismo para o subjetivismo, sendo o processo um método moderno de aplicação do direito pelo juiz. Na análise comparativa, viu-se a relação de “totalidades complementares” entre o controle judicial enfatizado pela Teoria do Discurso e o enfatizado pela Crítica Hermenêutica do Direito. Puderam rearticular-se nos seguintes termos: Teoria da Decisão sem Teoria do Processo é cega; Teoria do Processo sem Teoria da Decisão é vazia. / I discuss the methods of controlling the judicial decisions. My theme is the philosofical grounds of judicial statements about process. My objective is to reconcile the critique of legal formalism and the defense of procedural garantees. To that matter, I proceed: systematizing the major methodological schemes of the process; studying the history of adjudication in the pre-modern and modern law, linked to the subject-object scheme (state of the question); comparying the contemporary perspectives on the paradigm of intersubjectivity (state of the art); exploring, after all, a Procedural Science able to reorganize the philosophical contributions of Discourse Theory of Law and Hermeneutical Critique of the Law. The method of approach was hermeneutic-phenomenological: more than synthesize the positions, my concern was to understand what became clear, the identity that manifests among these differences. As a result, I came to the following systematization: monological method (inquisitorial process), dialogical method (discursive Theory of Judicial Procedure) and a control of judgments beyond the method (Hermeneutical Critique of Law). In the history of procedural law, I saw the transition of the ordeals to the rationalist process as a shift from objectivism to subjectivism, and the process as modern method of adjudication. In the comparative analysis, I saw the relationship between the judicial control emphasized by Discourse Theory and the one enphasized by Hermeneutical Critique of Law as "complementary totalities". I was able to reorganize it all in the following manner: Theory of Decision without Theory of Process is blind; Theory of Process theory without Theory of Decision is empty.

In the 29 years following \"Our Common Future\" by the United Nations, there is considerable debate among governments, civil society, interest groups and business organisations about what constitutes sustainable development, which constitutes evidence for a contested discourse concerning sustainability. The purpose of this study is to understand this debate in the developing economic context of Brazil, and in particular, to understand and critique the social and environmental accounting [SEA] discursive constructions relating to the State-owned, Petrobras as well as to understand the Brazilian literature on SEA. The discourse theory [DT]-based analysis employs rhetorical redescription to analyse twenty-two reports from Petrobras from 2004-2013. I investigate the political notions by employing the methodological framework of the Logics of Critical Explanation [LCE]. LCE engenders five methodological steps: problematisation, retroduction, logics (social, political and fantasmatic), articulation and critique. The empirical discussion suggests that the hegemony of economic development operates to obfuscate, rhetorically, the development of sustainability, so as to maintain the core business of Petrobras conceived as capital accumulation. Equally, these articulations also illustrate how the constructions of SEA operate to serve the company\'s purpose with few (none) profound changes in integration of sustainability. The Brazilian literature on SEA sustains the status quo of neo-liberal market policies that operate to protect the dominant business case approach to maintain an agenda of wealth-creation in relation to social and environmental needs. The articulations of the case manifested in policies regarding, for example, corruption, which involved over-payments for contracts and unsustainable practices relating to the use of fossil fuels and demonstrated that there was antagonism between action and disclosure. The corruption scandal that emerged after SEA disclosures highlighted the rhetorical nature of disclosure when financial resources were subtracted from the company for political parties and engineering contractors hid facts through incomplete disclosures. The articulations of SEA misrepresent a broader context of the meanings associated with sustainability, which restricted the constructions of SEA to principally serve and represent the intention of the most powerful groups. The significance of SEA, then is narrowed to represent particular interests. The study argues for more critical studies as limited Brazilian literature concerning SEA kept a \'safe distance\' from substantively critiquing the constructions of SEA and its articulations in the Brazilian context. The literature review and the Petrobras\' case illustrate a variety of naming, instituting and articulatory practices that endeavour to maintain the current hegemony of development in an emerging economy, which allows Petrobras to continue to exercise significant profit at the expense of the social and environmental. The constructed idea of development in Petrobras\' discourses emphasises a rhetoric of wider development, but, in reality, these discourses were the antithesis of political, social and ethical developmental issues. These constructions aim to hide struggles between social inequalities and exploitation of natural resources and constitute excuses about a fanciful notion of rhetorical and hegemonic neo-liberal development. In summary, this thesis contributes to the prior literature in five ways: (i) the addition of DT to the analysis of SEA enhances the discussion of political elements such as hegemony, antagonism, logic of equivalence/difference, ideology and articulation; (ii) the analysis of an emerging economy such as Brazil incorporates a new perspective of the discussion of the discourses of SEA and development; (iii) this thesis includes a focus on rhetoric to discuss the maintenance of the status quo; (iv) the holistic structure of the LCE approach enlarges the understanding of the social, political and fantasmatic logics of SEA studies and; (v) this thesis combines an analysis of the literature and the case of Petrobras to characterise and critique the state of the Brazilian academy and its impacts and reflections on the significance of SEA. This thesis, therefore, argues for more critical studies in the Brazilian academy due to the persistence of idea of SEA and development that takes-for-granted deep exclusions and contradictions and provide little space for critiques. / Em 29 anos da publicação \"Nosso Futuro Comum\" apresentado pelas Nações Unidas, ainda há um considerável debate entre governos, sociedade civil, grupos interessados e organizações empresariais sobre o que constitui o desenvolvimento sustentável e, portanto, há evidência da contestabilidade do discurso sobre sustentabilidade. A proposta desse estudo é entender esse debate em um contexto de desenvolvimento econômico no Brasil e, em particular, entender e criticar as construções discursivas de contabilidade social e ambiental [CSA] relacionadas à estatal Petrobras, assim como discutir a literatura brasileira de CSA. A análise baseada na Discourse Theory [DT] usa redescrição retórica para analisar vinte e dois relatórios da Petrobras entre 2004 e 2013. Eu investigo as noções políticas através do emprego da metodologia chamada Logics of Critical Explanation [LCE]. A LCE tem cinco passos metodológico: problematização, explicação retrodutiva, lógicas (sociais, políticas e fantasmáticas), articulação e crítica. Os resultados sugerem que a hegemonia do desenvolvimento econômico opera para obscurecer retoricamente o desenvolvimento da sustentabilidade que mantém o core business da Petrobras igualmente concebido como acumulação de capital. Igualmente, essas articulações também ilustram como as construções de CSA operam para servir o propósito da empresa com pouca (ou nenhuma) profunda mudança na integração com a sustentabilidade. A literatura brasileira de CSA sustenta o status quo de políticas de mercado neoliberais que operam para proteger a dominante abordagem do business case para manter a agenda de geração de riqueza num cenário de necessidade sociais e ambientais. As articulações do estudo de caso manifestaram essas políticas, por exemplo, em relação à corrupção, no qual envolveu superfaturamento de contratos e práticas insustentáveis relacionadas ao uso de combustíveis fósseis os quais demonstraram que há antagonismo entre ação e disclosure. O escândalo de corrupção que surgiu após as divulgações de CSA marcou a natureza retórica do disclosure em que recursos financeiros subtraídos da empresa para partidos políticos e empreiteiras esconderam fatos através de disclosures incompletos. As articulações da CSA deturpam um contexto amplo dos significados associados com a sustentabilidade, que restringiram as construções da CSA para principalmente servir e representar a intenção dos grupos mais poderosos. A significância da CSA é, portanto, limitada para representar interesses particulares. O estudo argumenta por mais estudos críticos já que a limitada literatura brasileira sobre CSA mantém uma \'distância segura\' de substantivas críticas das construções de CSA e suas articulações no contexto brasileiro. A revisão da literatura e o caso da Petrobras ilustram a variedade de nomes, instituições e práticas articulatórias que se esforçam para manter a atual hegemonia de desenvolvimento numa economia emergente que permite à Petrobras continuar a exercer significante lucro à custa do social e do meio ambiente. A ideia construída de desenvolvimento nos discursos da Petrobras enfatiza uma retórica ampla de desenvolvimento, mas, na realidade, esses discursos são antíteses de questões políticas, sociais e éticas de desenvolvimento. Essas construções objetivam esconder as lutas entre desigualdades sociais e exploração dos recursos naturais as quais constituem pretextos sobre uma fantasiosa noção de desenvolvimento retórico, hegemônico e neoliberal. Em resumo, esta tese contribui para a antecedente literatura em cinco principais aspectos: (i) a adição da DT para a análise da CSA engrandece a discussão de elementos políticos tais como hegemonia, antagonismo, lógica de equivalência/diferença, ideologia e articulação; (ii) a análise de uma economia emergente como o Brasil incorpora uma nova perspectiva nas discussões dos discursos da CSA e do desenvolvimento; (iii) esta tese também inclui um foco na retórica para discutir a manutenção do status quo; (iv) a estrutura holística da abordagem LCE amplia os entendimentos das lógicas sociais, políticas e fantasmáticas dos estudos de CSA e; (v) esta tese combina uma análise da literatura e do caso da Petrobras para caracterizar e criticar o estado da academia brasileira e seus impactos e reflexos na significância da CSA. Esta tese, portanto, argumenta por mais estudos críticos na academia brasileira devido à persistente ideia de desenvolvimento que taken-for-granted profundas exclusões e contradições e proporciona pouco espaço para críticas.

Title: The Lilja case – a study about discourse and media representations of violence within ice hockey The purpose of this study is to examine the discourses that influenced the debate in Swedish sport media around the professional ice hockey player Jakob Liljas 10-game suspension and subsequent assault conviction by the Swedish legal system. The aim is to see how Lilja’s violence was defined and what voices were the most prominent in the debate. The study is based on a theoretical framework consisting of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and Agamben’s ideas of the Homo Sacer and the State of Exception. Using Laclau and Mouffe, an analytical toolbox was assembled to deconstruct the discourses present in the debate. The analysis found two dominant discourses within the debate: a sports discourse and a law discourse. The study found two nodal points that defined how the discourses treated Lilja’s violence; the nodal point “crime” within the law discourse, and the nodal point “rule violation” within the sports one. The sports discourse argued against the legal process maintained that Lilja had already received a sufficient punishment through his suspension. The law one was centred around the premise that legal action was required to properly punish Lilja. The analysis found that the sports discourse unsuccessfully tried to position the sport of ice hockey as a State of Exception where the laws of regular society should not apply. There were also similarities between the underlying masculine norms that informed how the sports discourse treated player health and Agambens Homo Sacer, how people’s life worth is reduced in order to justify certain conditions imposed on them. While a true State of Exception or Homo Sacer does not exist in this scenario, as Lilja was ultimately convicted according to the rules of the law discourse, it is interesting that ideas that align with these concepts were well represented in the medial debate.

<p>The purpose of this study has been to examine how the image of the gambler is described by studying a report published by Folkhälsoinstituet [FHI] and a number of chosen articles from the Swedish Evening Press. Discourse theory has been used both as theory, together with social constructionism, and as a research method. The main conclusions of the study are that three different discourses can be identified: <em>the normal gambler</em>, <em>the professional gambler </em>and<em> the problem gambler</em>. The image of the problem gambler is described as a deviant and problematic minority characterized by loss of control, irrational thoughts and dissociative behaviour. The construction of the problem gambler fills three possible purposes for the state: As a solvable problem to handle criticism against negative consequences of gambling, as an argument to avoid competition on the market and as an individual characterized by loss of control in order to legitimize and make the construction of the normal gambler possible.</p>

<p>Since HIV and AIDS were discovered in the early 1980s the infection rates have taken on the proportions of a global pandemic. Whilst the rates are still quite low in the Western World there are areas like Sub-Saharan Africa, of which South Africa is a part, where the rates are as high as 25%. In light of this a debate as to how the situation should be handled and dealt with has developed. In 2000 the United Nation Security Council debated HIV/AIDS as a threat tonational and international peace and security. This was the first time a virus or disease had been debated in this forum. The debate was instigated by, among others, the United States. If states in the Western World, where infection rates are still low, can view this issue as a threat to security, how are HIV/AIDS viewed in a country like South Africa with a prevalence rate of 25%? There are those who claim that in order to say that an issue poses a threat to security one has to define what constitutes a threat and define the concept of security. Is it a subjective value? Could a disease and/or a virus be declared a security threat and what would the logic behind that be? Following the end of the Cold War the study of security was developed as some scholars wanted to widen the traditionally state-centred and military concept of security and reconceptualize it so that it would be applicable to non- traditional security-threats. The theory of securitization was developed with this purpose. It introduces a security-concept that is shaped by a grammar of drama and urgency based in a logic of existential threats that call for measures beyond the normal code-of-conduct. Thus, studies into how military, health, social and political issues etc can be defined as issues of security, i.e. become securitized, are made possible. The aim of this thesis is to, through the theoretical lenses of securitization- theory and the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, establish which meanings are involved in the structuring of the issue of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Further we aim to establish whether these meanings can be related to a broader security concept, i.e. if there is a case of ‘securitization’ at hand. We have found, by analysing speeches given by government officials and key political documents between the years 1998 to 2002, that there are different trends in how HIV and AIDS have been defined, i.e. which meaning they have been given, and how these have been structured. Between 1998 and 2000 HIV and AIDS were seen as a threat and dealt with as such; they were securitized. In the years that followed we argue that there was a more cautious tone; the issue was desecuritized as the level of drama and urgency that had characterized the discourse of 1998-2000 was lowered between 2000-2002. The thesis acknowledges that it is too early to say whether this (de)securitizing move will succeed or not as time has yet to see the full effect of the move on a full desecuritization.</p>

Since HIV and AIDS were discovered in the early 1980s the infection rates have taken on the proportions of a global pandemic. Whilst the rates are still quite low in the Western World there are areas like Sub-Saharan Africa, of which South Africa is a part, where the rates are as high as 25%. In light of this a debate as to how the situation should be handled and dealt with has developed. In 2000 the United Nation Security Council debated HIV/AIDS as a threat tonational and international peace and security. This was the first time a virus or disease had been debated in this forum. The debate was instigated by, among others, the United States. If states in the Western World, where infection rates are still low, can view this issue as a threat to security, how are HIV/AIDS viewed in a country like South Africa with a prevalence rate of 25%? There are those who claim that in order to say that an issue poses a threat to security one has to define what constitutes a threat and define the concept of security. Is it a subjective value? Could a disease and/or a virus be declared a security threat and what would the logic behind that be? Following the end of the Cold War the study of security was developed as some scholars wanted to widen the traditionally state-centred and military concept of security and reconceptualize it so that it would be applicable to non- traditional security-threats. The theory of securitization was developed with this purpose. It introduces a security-concept that is shaped by a grammar of drama and urgency based in a logic of existential threats that call for measures beyond the normal code-of-conduct. Thus, studies into how military, health, social and political issues etc can be defined as issues of security, i.e. become securitized, are made possible. The aim of this thesis is to, through the theoretical lenses of securitization- theory and the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, establish which meanings are involved in the structuring of the issue of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Further we aim to establish whether these meanings can be related to a broader security concept, i.e. if there is a case of ‘securitization’ at hand. We have found, by analysing speeches given by government officials and key political documents between the years 1998 to 2002, that there are different trends in how HIV and AIDS have been defined, i.e. which meaning they have been given, and how these have been structured. Between 1998 and 2000 HIV and AIDS were seen as a threat and dealt with as such; they were securitized. In the years that followed we argue that there was a more cautious tone; the issue was desecuritized as the level of drama and urgency that had characterized the discourse of 1998-2000 was lowered between 2000-2002. The thesis acknowledges that it is too early to say whether this (de)securitizing move will succeed or not as time has yet to see the full effect of the move on a full desecuritization.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how the image of the gambler is described by studying a report published by Folkhälsoinstituet [FHI] and a number of chosen articles from the Swedish Evening Press. Discourse theory has been used both as theory, together with social constructionism, and as a research method. The main conclusions of the study are that three different discourses can be identified: the normal gambler, the professional gambler and the problem gambler. The image of the problem gambler is described as a deviant and problematic minority characterized by loss of control, irrational thoughts and dissociative behaviour. The construction of the problem gambler fills three possible purposes for the state: As a solvable problem to handle criticism against negative consequences of gambling, as an argument to avoid competition on the market and as an individual characterized by loss of control in order to legitimize and make the construction of the normal gambler possible.

The relationship between the state and the people is a central theme in political theory. Discussions in this field have often centered on how a people can come to constitute a state. Less attention, however, has been directed toward the state’s role in constituting and recreating its people. This book examines the Swedish state’s role in forming the people by regulating the use of reproductive techniques: insemination, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and donations of sperm and eggs. The study focuses on how the issue of assisted reproduction was handled and problematized in Swedish policymaking between 1981 and 2005. What problem representations dominated the political debates and decision-making processes surrounding assisted reproduction? How was conflict expressed within the field of reproductive politics (i.e., what aspects caused conflict or political disagreement)? How did collective fantasies play into the political treatment of reproductive technologies? Using historical government and Riksdag material, four major policy debates have been analyzed, from the first legal regulation of assisted reproduction in Sweden in the 1980s up until the inclusion of lesbian couples as beneficiaries of gamete donation. Theoretically, the study is inspired by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s political discourse theory, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and the “logics approach” developed by Jason Glynos and David Howarth. This combination of perspectives allows for a dual focus on both the form of political articulations and their affective force. Thus, the analysis tries to capture what was taken for granted within the discourse on reproduction (social logics), what arose as points of political conflict or contention (political logics), as well as the affective underpinnings of these social constructions and struggles (fantasmatic logics). The main result of the study is that even though the period saw a quite revolutionary development of new reproductive technologies, the reproduction policies under study took on much more moderate and hesitant character. Throughout the analyzed period there was a more or less consensual view that new reproductive technologies should only be allowed if they did not go against the “child’s best interest.” At the same time, there was significant political conflict over what constituted this interest. Moreover, the reforms that were made never fully embraced the radical implications of the new technologies. Rather, they clung on to previously established patterns of what a “real” family looked like. Thus, every move to allow a new technology or include another category of people as legitimate users of that technology was contingent upon the articulation of a discursive equivalence with previously naturalized methods of reproduction, ultimately taking the heterosexual, nuclear family as an implicit model. Finally, I argue that the production of “sense” in this terrain of radical undecidability was dependent on the mobilization of a series of collective fantasies about “natural life processes,” “nature’s imperfections,” “a humanist view of mankind,” “the stable, original nuclear family”, and so on.

This doctoral thesis investigates the interrelatedness between school policy and practice. In the thesis, the construction of “the teacher” is analysed in school policy documents and teacher interviews. I am particularly interested in the relation between school policy and school practice in light of the two latest curriculum reforms 1994 and 2011 and the teacher accreditation registration reform of 2011. The analysis focuses on two topics: grading and the professional teacher. In fact, an analytic link is made between the emphasis on grading and the discursive construction of the teacher in Swedish education policy. The theoretical framework is positioned within institutional theory within which I combine curriculum theory and the sociological new institutionalism with discourse theory. The analyses of policy documents reveals three types of different discursive constructions of “the teacher”. In the period of deregulation and decentralization, a professional teacher is constructed and the need for an autonomous teacher for school quality is expressed. By the 1990s -2000s an unprofessional grading teacher is constructed. In the period signifying the teacher accreditation and registration reform, a quality assured teacher is constructed. It is a teacher who is formally authorized and in need of continuing evaluation. In the focus groups interviews teachers constructs two types of professionalism. One is in line with the professionalism articulated in the policy texts and is about control and formal regulation and the other is about autonomy. Furthermore, the teachers relate to grading and teachers' ability to act in accordance with their overall teaching assignment. Grading were often constructed opposed to teaching. Demands for documentation, quality reports or the requirement of teacher accreditation is described as institutional practices defined from above. These practices make it difficult for teachers to complete their teaching assignments. The study indicates that teachers' ability to operate in an increasingly regulatory schooling culture has, through the types of requirements for transparency in teachers’ work, resulted in the decline of autonomy in their professional practice.