From a view of health strategies and techniques this thesis wants to throw a light on how the individual in its"health thinking"is governed. A thinking that, according to the author, can lead to a new way of governing as in municipal activity, an activity whose focus is on health and ill-health. The study is done whit a theoretical approach of power, with qualitative interviews as method and analysed from a perspective of Governmentality. The object for the study is Socsam and Rehabrådgivarna in Finspång. Socsam is a local project, and their main task is to create cooperation between health- and medical services, social services and social insurance. The health advisor in Finspång directs its activity towards sick-listed people and their main task is to help the sick-listed back to work as soon as possible. The analysis is done from both the perspective of what the individuals’ state about Rehabrådgivarnas treatment in relation to their own health and life of quality and how Socsam and Rehabrådgivarna can be analysed as health technologies and health strategies from Governmentality as theory. The author argues for the opinion, that from a specific way of thinking about health and how the individual have to act to achieve this health, this way of thinking creates a health technique. This health technique leads to a social demand on the individuals, a demand that the individuals have to achieve to be accepted in the community. They, whom not have the capacity or the will to achieve this health demand, will be regarded as maladjusted. Because of that, the individuals as well as the community need a self regulatory health strategy to persuade them self as well as others to become a healthy citizen. From this point of view the author argues for that Socsam can be regarded as a health strategy like this and that Rehabrådgivarna is the practical tool that is used to implement the health strategy and health technology to the people.

Denna studie syftar till att studera hur jämställdhet fylls med innehåll i regeringens nationella strategi för regional hållbar tillväxt och attraktionskraft perioden 2015–2020 och handlingsplaner från tre valda regioner som alla ingår i projektet ”regional jämställd tillväxt”, samt vilka effekter det får för möjligheten att politisera kön. Detta görs utifrån Carol Bacchis metodologi för policyanalys som heter ”What’s is the problem represented to be?” Även den tidigare Alliansregeringen har drivit liknande projekt, men studien avgränsas till den nuvarande regeringens strategi. Utifrån Bacchis sex steg för policyanalys, som bygger på filosofen Michel Foucaults teori om styrning och makt som kallas för ”governmentality”, konstrueras tre forskningsfrågor som alla har en angränsande följdfråga: Hur representeras problemet av regeringen och regionerna och på vilka premisser dessa representationer bygger på? Hur legitimeras problemrepresentationerna och vad som lämnas oproblematiserat? Vilka effekter kan problemrepresentationerna innebära för jämställdhetsdiskursen, individernas liv och hur de ser på sig själv och andra, samt hur problemrepresentationen produceras, sprids, försvaras och hur den kan ersättas? För att kunna reflektera kring detta sista steg tillförs ytterligare teori i form av Chantal Mouffes och Ernesto Laclaus ”diskursteori”. Studien visar på att problemet är brist på kunskap bland de regionala aktörerna och kvinnors bristande kapacitet att verka på marknaden. Jämställdhet problematiseras inte utifrån ett rättviseperspektiv, utan ses som ett medel för ökad regional tillväxt. En problemrepresentation som legitimeras av en problematisk demografisk utveckling och globaliseringen. För att ta till vara på all tillväxtpotential framställs människor som kreativa, vars entreprenörskap ska främjas. En problemrepresentation som sprids genom stora internationella institutioner och framställs som moraliskt rätt. Problemrepresentationen kan ersättas genom att konstruera ett politiskt klimat där motståndares åsikter ses som legitima och därmed möjliggöra politisering av kön och även fler sätt för människor att identifiera sig på. / The purpose of this thesis is to study how gender equality is filled with meaning in the governments national strategy for a regional sustainable economic growth and attractiveness during 2015-2020 and in the strategies from three selected regions, that are all included in the project “regional economic growth with a gender equality perspective”, as well as it has on the ability to politicize gender. This is done with help of Carol Bacchis methodology for analyzing policy called ”What’s the problem represented to be?”. The former government Alliance for Sweden have been working with a similar project, but this thesis is delimited to the strategy of the current government. With starting point in Bacchis six steps for analyzing policy, based on the philosopher Michel Foucaults theory about governing and power called “governmentality”, there are three research questions constructed, and each one is associated with a follow up question: What is the problem represented to be by the government and by the regions and on what premises are they build upon? How has this problem representation been legitimized and what is not problematized? What effects can this problem representation generate for the gender equality discourse, the way the subjects think about themselves and others, their lives and how are this problem representation being produced, disseminated and defended and how can it be replaced? Too be able to reflect on this last step, Chantal Mouffes and Ernesto Laclaus “discourse theory” is applied. This thesis shows that the problem is represented as a lack of knowledge about gender equality among the regional actors, and women’s capacity to act on the market. Gender equality is not being problematized as a matter of justice, rather as a mean for an increased regional growth. The problem representation is legitimized by referring to a problematic demographic development and globalization. To take advantage of the potentials for economic growth, humans are being portrayed as creative, and their entrepreneurship needs to be promoted. This representation of the problem is spread through major international institutions and is being portrayed as morally correct. This problem representation can be replaced by create a political climate where other opponents opinions are seen as legitimate, which makes it possible to politicize gender and also for humans to identify in more ways.

Den svenska regeringen anser att idrottsrörelsen är en plattform för integration av nyanlända. På grund av detta vill regeringen utöka sitt ekonomiska stöd till idrotten för att ge idrottsrörelsen möjlighet att utveckla sin verksamhet och dess arbete med integration. Sedan länge har det funnits föreställningar om idrottens betydelse som gränsbrytare och samlande när det gäller samhällets olika sociala klasser. Dessa föreställningar kring idrotten har gjort att staten sedan lång tid tillbaka gett idrottsföreningar ekonomiskt stöd. Med detta som bakgrund är syftet med denna studie att genom innehållsanalys av offentliga tryck granska hur begreppet integration fylls med mening inom svensk idrott. Nio olika offentliga tryck har analyserats. Utifrån våra frågeställningar och valda teorier har ett antal frågor arbetats fram för att kunna samla in empiri från urvalet. Därefter har vi tolkat empirin för att kunna urskilja mönster och teman. För att kunna formulera tydligare mönster och teman har vi sedan analyserat dessa utifrån Foucault ́s teorier kring makt, diskurs och governmentality samt Carol Bacchis teoretiska metod ”What’s the problem represented to be?”. Det som blir synligt i resultatet är att det finns någonting outtalat kring vad som ska ske när man talar om integration, och detta outtalade begränsar den som står utanför idrotten från just idrotten. Den som begränsas framstår vara personer med annan etnisk bakgrund, tillhörighet och kultur än idrotten, vilket är ett särskiljande som ger idrotten makt i form av legitimitet. Men även denna makt är begränsad, då idrotten endast ges denna makt under förutsättning att man håller sig inom vissa ramar. / The Swedish government consider the sports movement to be a platform for integration of newly arrived. Because of this, the government wants to increase the financial support to allow the sports movement to develop their business. Therefore, the purpose of this study is through content analysis of public documents examine how the concept of integration is filled with meaning in Swedish sports. The study show that in the concept of integration power appears, in a way that it is given legitimacy. The meaning of the concept of integration is about legitimizing the sports movement, its obvious place, its ability, its knowledge and its inherent power.

Within various sectors of society, a shift of responsibility from society to the individual is visible. Within crisis preparedness a change is noticeable, but the issue is that it is not clear in the public debate what constitutes a reasonable distribution of responsibility. The purpose of this study is to examine how the distribution of responsibility between individuals and authorities is expressed in Sweden´s county boards risk and vulnerability analyses and to observe any changes over time between 2016 – 2022. Additionally, the study aims to investigate the methods authorities employ to involve individuals. The documents under study are analyzed from Michel Foucault´s governmentality perspective, which is a way of governing citizens without coercion. The study´s findings reveal that documents from 2022 more clearly delineate responsibilities of individuals, partly due to the altered security situation globally.

This study extends the understanding of leadership emergence from a relational perspective (Hosking, 2011; Cunliffe & Eriksen, 2011; Uhl-Bien, 2006), specifically related to the forming of trusting relationships. The argument follows from the conceptual development of subjectification processes referred to as “care of the self” (Foucault M. , 1988; Foucault M. , 2005) and the implications of “regimes of practices" (Foucault M. , 2010; Dean, 2010). The findings contribute to our understanding of the relation between patterns of differentiation and reciprocity (as contextual definitions) and the relational emergence of leadership. We conceive leadership formed by actions that have no instrumental purpose beyond constructing a subject able to form trusting relationships and judge this to be a phronetic practice. The research is based on a case study of the executive team of a large copper mining company implementing a sustainability strategy that has as its central purpose the construction of trusting relations within a complex net of stakeholders. Based on this case, my second contribution is to conceptualise the function of “parrhēsia practice” (Foucault M. , 2010), a “truth game” about truth, truth-telling and action in the relation of the self and others, which is significant in the formation of the relational leadership of the “conscious pariah” (Arendt, 1978). The study examines how it is that “truth games” of examining the self and “reframing” interactional patterns can facilitate the relational emergence of phronetic forms of leadership. The research methodology, designed to deal from a non-dualistic perspective with the relational emergence of leadership, uses a narrative research approach to describe practices (Czarniawska, Narratives in Social Science Research, 2011). It is “uncovered” as representational and dualistic in the research relation, and a discussion of how a non-dualistic research approach could be developed is provided.

Building on a literature that identifies the technologies of liberal governance in the urban fabric of the nineteenth-century ‘liberal city’, my thesis explores the built environment of unified Berlin as a space within which power relations are performed and resisted. The original contribution to knowledge made by this thesis is through its contention that none of the forms of governmentality that have thus far been identified in the literature are adequate for an analysis of the Berlin Republic. To this end it posits the existence of a specifically post-authoritarian governmentality and uses the built environment of Berlin to explore its features and the ways in which it is continually (re)asserted, challenged and (re)negotiated in the German context. More specifically, it analyses post-1990 responses to National Socialist prestige buildings in Berlin which had also been incorporated into the highly politicised narratives of the Cold War: the former Aviation Ministry, the Olympic Stadium and the former Tempelhof Airport. Using these sites’ status as heterotopia, or ‘other spaces’, it highlights how the politics of the past inform the negotiation of the tensions between the celebration / delimitation of heterogeneity, the valorisation / instrumentalisation of ‘objective’ knowledge and the balance between freedom/ control. As well as uncovering evidence to support the idea of post-authoritarian governmentality, the thesis also finds indications that this is a transitional phase and that, in some respects, Germany can be seen to be moving towards the advanced liberal governance seen elsewhere in the western world.

In recent decades, international feminist activism and research has had significant success in pushing gender issues onto the international agenda and into global governance institutions and processes. The goal of gender equality is now widely accepted and codified in international legal instruments. While this appears to be a remarkable global success for feminism, widespread gender inequalities persist around the globe. This paradox has led scholars to question the extent to which feminist concepts and goals can retain their transformative potential when they are institutionalized in global governance institutions and processes. This thesis examines the institutionalization of feminist ideas in global governance through an analysis of how, and with what effects, gender equality norms are constructed, interpreted and applied in the global governance of refugees: a field that has thus far received little attention in the growing literature on feminism, gender and global governance. This aim is pursued through a case study of humanitarian aid practices in refugee camps in Bangladesh and Thailand. The study is based on interviews with humanitarian workers in these two contexts, and its theoretical framework is informed by postcolonial feminist theory and Foucauldian thought on power and governing. These analytical perspectives allows the thesis to capture how gender equality norms operate as governing tools, and situate the politics of gender equality in refugee camps in the context of global relations of power and marginalization. The findings of this thesis show that in the global governance of refugees, gender equality is rarely treated as a goal in its own right. The construction, interpretation and application of gender equality norms is mediated and shaped by the dominant governing projects in this field. Gender equality norms are either advocated on the basis of their usefulness as means for the efficient management of refugee situations, or as necessary components of a process of modernization and development of the regions from which refugees originate. These governing projects significantly limit the forms of social change and the forms of agency that are enabled. Nevertheless, gender equality norms do contribute to opening up new opportunities for refugee women and destabilizing local gendered relations of power, and they are appropriated and used by refugees in ways that challenge and go beyond humanitarian agendas.

Over the last decade, and particularly the last five years, state officials in Ghana’s capital city, Accra, have intensified their resolve to ‘modernize’ the city and make it a competitive destination for global investments. In the same period, exercises by city authorities to remove or at least suppress practices of ordinary residents in the informal sector have become more frequent and intensified. Groups such as street hawkers, market women, and slum dwellers have become the main target of periodic ‘decongestion exercises’. In this dissertation I investigate how the policies and practices associated with the ‘globalizing’ and ‘modernizing’ ambition of the state intersect with the interests of the majority of urban residents whose everyday social and economic practices are concentrated in the informal sector, a sector deemed to be deleterious to the desired image for the city. I argue that contemporary city-making in Ghana is driven mainly by a combination of economic, nationalist and individual interests. In examining how cultural and social locations such as gender and ethnicity mediate the relationship between the state and residents, I demonstrate how contemporary forms of neoliberal urban governance shape, and are being shaped by, the unique historical, cultural and developmental dynamics of African cities. / Thesis (Ph.D, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2013-11-06 15:09:39.653

Contrary to many major sporting leagues such as the NHL, NFL, NBA, and MLB, or the Olympic Games as a whole, the professional tennis industry has not been individually scrutinized in terms of governance, social control, and surveillance practices. This thesis presents an in-depth account of the major governing bodies of the professional tennis circuit with the aim of examining how they govern, control, constrain, and practice surveillance on tennis athletes and their bodies. Foucault’s major theoretical concepts of disciplinary power, governmentality, and bio-power are found relevant today and can be enhanced by Rose’s ethico-politics model and Haggerty and Ericson’s surveillant assemblage. However, it is also shown how Foucault, Rose, and Haggerty and Ericson’s different accounts of “modes of governing” perpetuate sociological predicaments of professional tennis players within late capitalism. These modes of surveillance are founded on a meritocracy based on the ATP and WTA rankings systems. A player’s ranking affects how he or she is governed, surveilled, controlled, and even punished. Despite ostensibly promoting tennis athletes’ health protection and wellbeing, the systems of surveillance, governance, and control rely on a biased and capitalistically-driven meritocracy that actually jeopardizes athletes’ health and contributes to social class divisions, socio-economic inequalities, gender discrimination, and media pressure. Through the use of top-players’ accounts, it is also shown how some players resist certain governing, controlling, and surveillance practices designed for their benefit, while others understand and accept the resultant constraints as part of their choice to be a professional tennis player. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2013-11-12 09:25:44.284

The past decade has been witness to a growing concern with the political, moral and social capacity of young people to demonstrate ‘active citizenship’. Alongside the introduction of citizenship education in schools there has been evidence of increased political and public anxiety about how young people integrate within their local communities. All of this has taken place in the context of broader social policy debates about how individuals demonstrate social responsibility in late modern, advanced liberal democracies. This study investigated how young people define and experience active citizenship in their everyday, real world settings. It comprised workshops and focus groups with 93 young people aged 14-16 living in the East Midlands. Using an adaptive theory design, the investigation utilised definitions generated by young people to build an applied theory of active citizenship. Young people in this study defined active citizenship in terms of membership and status, social responsibility and to a lesser extent, political literacy. Through a process of deliberation, they determined six concepts to be most important in thinking about active citizenship. These were ‘rights’; ‘responsibilities’; ‘care for others’; ‘control’; ‘making decisions’, and ‘respect’. These concepts were explored in relation to the everyday experiences of young people. Young people experience active citizenship differently within and between each context of their lives (proximate, community and institutional levels) showing high degrees of related skills and awareness. Whilst communities and institutions offer some opportunities for young people to test and develop citizenship identities, they also present significant barriers.