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This PhD examines the role of the transnational media in articulating and mobilizing different political and identity positions for migrants. It explores the complex linkages between Kurdish and Turkish transnational ethnic media and migrant communities. It is based on 74 in-depth interviews and 6 focus groups with Kurdish and Turkish migrants of diverse age, gender, political affiliation, occupation and length of migration in London, Berlin and Stockholm. Drawing upon the concepts of “imagined community” (Anderson 1991) and “banal nationalism” (Billig 1995), it seeks to understand how migrants make sense of the media representations of the ethno-national conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurds and how they position themselves in relation to these media texts. The thesis explores how the media impact differentially on migrants’ views and ethnic identities in the three countries. This study argues that transnational media speak on behalf of the nation to the nation, even if the members of these imagined national communities live in different places, connecting people across different geographical spaces and thus building transnational imagined communities. They create a sense of belonging to a meaningful imagined community defined as “our” nation. The mediated Turkish-Kurdish ethno-national conflict has contributed to this transnational imagined community. The analysis of interviews found that the mediated conflict has hardened ethnic-based divisions and differentiation between Kurdish and Turkish migrants in Europe. Transnational media have contributed to deterritorialization, differentiation and division among migrants. Kurds and Turks have developed distinct identities in Europe and cannot be viewed any longer as a homogeneous group. The thesis concludes by suggesting a three-way framework for the analysis of ethno-national identities of migrants, taking into account firstly the country of settlement, secondly Turkish and thirdly Kurdish media as significant in constructing imagined national communities.

[pt] A proposta da dissertação é uma comparação da idéia de identidade nacional no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos do final do século XIX, com enfoque nas obras de Oliveira Lima no Brasil e de Jackson Turner nos Estados Unidos. O conceito analítico utilizado na questão da identidade nacional é o de comunidades imaginadas, de Benedict Anderson, em que os membros de uma sociedade, desconhecidos uns dos outros na sua maioria, se sentem ligados entre si por símbolos, referências e experiências em comum. Na obra de Oliveira Lima, a comunidade imaginada é construída pelo Estado-Monarquia (instalado com a vinda de D. João VI), num sincretismo com a natureza local e os grupos raciais presentes (índios e negros). A centralização política e a criação de uma matriz institucional de cunho nacional possibilitam ao Brasil sua consolidação como Nação, principalmente pelo viés das artes e da ciência. Na obra de Jackson Turner, a comunidade imaginada é construída pelas bases da sociedade: homens comuns e livres enfrentam a natureza selvagem num embate em que tanto homem como meio ambiente são transformados. A interação homem-meio ambiente, que se caracteriza como a experiência da Fronteira, gera um produto cultural distintamente americano, rompendo assim os laços com a Europa e criando uma sociedade caracterizada pelo movimento, atrito e a eterna busca do melhoramento e do Progresso. / [en] This dissertation aims to compare two distinct ideas of national identity in Brazil and the United States in the late 19th century. The focus is on the works of Oliveira Lima in Brazil and Jackson Turner in the United States. The idea of national identity is analyzed in terms of the concept of imagined communities proposed by Benedict Anderson, in which members of a society, unknown to each other, feel bound together by common symbols, references and experiences. In the work of Oliveira Lima, the imagined community is constructed by the State - in this case the Monarchy, which came to Brazil with D. João VI in the early 19th century. It is an idea of identity characterized by the fusion of European symbols and institutions with local elements - the natural environment and racial groups (Indians and Blacks). Political centralization and the creation of a national institutional network made it possible for Brazil to be consolidated and conceived of as a Nation, especially through the intellectual efforts of artists and scientists. In the work of Jackson Turner, the imagined community is constructed from the grassroots, through the efforts of free, common men in their confrontation with the natural environment. The duel between Man and Nature, in which each element transforms and is transformed by the other, creates a uniquely American product. It is a new cultural type distinct from its European counterpart. This idea of identity is characterized by the Frontier experience and creates a society marked by movement, conflict and the eternal pursuit of material improvement and Progress.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka två samtida svenska filmfestivaler, Göteborg International Film Festival och Malmö Arab Film Festival, utifrån två teoretiska perspektiv på filmfestivalen med den mer övergripande målsättningen att bidra till ett spirande och stadigt växande forskningsfält kring filmfestivalen i den nationella kontexten. De aktuella festivalerna inringar i förhållandevis god mån den svenska filmfestivalflorans allsidighet; en omfångsrik historisk publik festival respektive en smalare tematisk nykomling.                       De teoretiska perspektiven innefattar festivalen betraktad som en del av ett internationellt nätverk utifrån Thomas Elsaessers och Marijke de Valcks definition, samt som en kulturell yttring av föreställda gemenskaper. Med utgångspunkt i dessa teoretiska positioner kommer festivalerna granskas med fokus på dess uppkomst, visioner och agenda, filmprogram, publik, ekonomisk beskaffenhet och liknande kontextualiserade förhållanden.                       För Göteborg International Film Festival utgör spridningen av filmkultur, de huvudsakliga fundamenten i dess målsättningar och agenda, i synnerhet med fokus på nordisk film, medan tematiken, den arabiska kulturen, utgör det bärande för Malmö Arab Film Festival. Göteborg International Film Festival uppvisar i samstämmighet med de nätverksteoretiska perspektiven på festivalen en mångfacetterad beskaffenhet av filmceremoni, marknadsplats, internationell plattform och tävlingsmästerskap, i kontrast till Malmö Arab Film Festival där festivalens textur är mer komplex än föreliggande bestämningar. Båda festivalerna har uppstått i den post-industriella staden och dess återskapande som centrum för kreativitet, kultur och kunskap.                       Malmö Arab Film Festival adresserar en uppenbar arabisk (föreställd) gemenskap i sitt tematiska fokus. Denna föreställda gemenskap kan emellertid även appliceras på Göteborg International Film Festival och dess bestämning som en internationell publik festival, med hänsyn till dess faktiska demografi med övervägande del lokala besökare.

Symbols in the hands of politicians can be a powerful tool of manipulation. The usage of symbols in speeches or texts can change a person’s will, without him or her ever knowing it. We have compared the usage of symbols in the articles surrounding the ratification of the constitution in 18th century America with that of today’s European Union, to see if any similarities between these two cases exists, and what implications this could have for the future of the EU. We have divided the symbols in both cases into different categories so as to enable us to compare the cases to each other. With the help of Masters Theory and the writings of Benedict Anderson and Murray Edelman we have concluded that there indeed exist some similarities between 18th century America and the EU. There seem have been some manipulation on the part of the politicians in order to rebuild the respective unions on more solid foundations. Could the European Union, on the basis of these findings, be assumed to take a course comparable with that of 18th century America?

In this thesis, depending on Benedict Anderson’s Studies of nationalism in his book The Imagined Communities, I will prove that in her historical fiction for children, Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands, the Palestinian writer Sonia Nimr is reviving and reforming Arab national identity. Anderson identifies the nation as a group imagined by its members; the people who perceive and identify themselves as equal members in this group. For the people to imagine their nation, Anderson states three tools: the map as a representation of the geographical space, the census as a representation of population identity categories that live in a particular land, and the museum as the representation of historical and the legal continuity of certain ethnicities in a certain geographical space. The three tools are thoroughly abstracted and used in Nimr’s book as we follow the footsteps of Nimr’s heroine in her travels, we see her drawing Arab historical map, when Palestine was a canton in the great Arab State. The social fabric Nimr weaves by the characters in her book reflects the real and the reformed census of Arab ethnicities and their social classes with the highlighting of the essential role of Arabic women in society. The narrated society of Nimr’s work reforms nation’s census which accords with the extended pan Arab geography of Arab nation. The nation imagining requirements are completed by visiting the history and wandering in the historical Arabic cantons and cities which materialize Nimr’s trail to perpetuate those important places in her textual museum, which she builds in her addressed work to children to answer their question about who we are and how we are the most eligible ethnicities to live on this land. Nimr does not promote a certain political agenda nor casts a holy cover on the past; by contrast, she teaches Arab children past lessons to revive and reform their modern Arab national identity as a remedy for the catastrophic national present.

The study centers around The Scandinavian Socialist Federation and its newspaper based in Chicago called Facklan. This newspaper and its association has not been thoroughly researched before in a qualitative manner and existed in a time when communism started to spread around the world which makes them both interesting to research. A qualitative text analysis will allow a study that aims to examine how the newspapers content built or strengthened a feeling of fellowship within the federation. This will be researched through three aspects – communist, swedish and as a federation. With a contextualizing chapter the study is set into a historical period. This enables the reader to understand the context around the federation and its newspaper. Furthermore the study uses Benedict Anderssons idea of imagined communities. The source that has been used to enable this study is a digital archive made by Minnesota historical society, in which Facklan is included. The results show that Facklan indeed did build or strengthen a feeling of fellowship amongst its readers. It did this primarily by connecting the Comintern´s ideas and values with the news around Sweden and the federation. It is difficult to point out how deeply this affected the federation but it most likely brought the divided federation closer together and possibly enabled the merging with another American-Scandinavian socialist federation.

Over the last six decades, the Eurovision Song Contest has tried to embody the voice of European unification and international corporation. Previous scholars have depicted Eurovision as something highly influential and beneficial for all participating parties, whether that relates to the opportunity for commercial profit, outspoken Europeanist aspirations, or desired political progress– the song contest is utilized by multiple actors for varying reasons. In this study, I aim to demonstrate how it functions as an alternative cultural battlefield, a unifying apparatus, a signifier of projections, and a vehicle for soft power politics in warfare. It is an essay about political storytelling– the dichotomies between collaboration and resistance, Europeanist aspirations versus nationalistic objectives, the democratic against the totalitarian, the good and the bad. The Eurovision rationale aims to encourage certain rules of behavior and regulate conduct towards those nations that have failed to adhere to these rules. When these assumptions gain terrain in the public discourse, epistemological hegemonies are maintained, power relations sustained and public opinion affected. The study uses a methodological framework of qualitative research, and the empirical data consists of seven interviews followed by a visual analysis of the performances and context surrounding entries from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia over the years. Three main narratives emanated from this study. The Eurovision Song Contest can be understood as an imagined community created by language and imagined through symbols of meaning. The governing body of Eurovision is the sovereign player who gets to control the political discourse by managing the selection of songs and participating countries. With impression management, the participating nations try and regulate how they are perceived in a public setting. It is communicated through carefully curated performances and acted out by constructed characters. When one fails to adhere to the rules set by the ESC organizers, disturbances occur, and the competition's core values are threatened.

Educational textbooks have the power to influence pupils’ perception of the world. In the subject of English, this specifically concerns learning about cultures in different parts of the world where English is used. The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of cultural representation in two English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks with the aim to make the hidden curriculum visible and to raise awareness among publishing houses and teachers. Using a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) based on Fairclough’s (2001) three-dimensional model in combination with Barthes’ (1977) Visual Semiotics methodology, we investigated which regions and countries were presented and how their cultures were constructed through texts and images. These findings were further compared to the cultural values and content of the Swedish curriculum, the genre of textbooks, and existing hegemonic discourses in society. In the analysis, Kachru’s (1986) Circles of World Englishes, Machin and Mayr’s (2012) toolkit for CDA, McKay’s (2010) interpretation of Anderson’s (1983) imagined communities, and Said’s (2003) concept of Orientalism were applied. Our findings show that the inner circle dominates and is depicted as superior in contrast to the outer and expanding circles. Although the textbooks include a variation of different cultures which is in line with the curriculum, representation of the outer and expanding circles is often stereotypical and underdeveloped which reinforces hegemonic discourses instead of acting to restructure them. This corresponds to previous studies in the genre, and hence, educators must work to ensure that the hidden curriculum in ELT textbooks is continuously made visible and challenged.

Nostalgia for the Soviet past has been relevant for more than three decades since the demise of the USSR in 1991. The first scholars who studied this phenomenon believed that it related to backward Soviet mentality typical of the old generations. However, with the passage of time it has become clear that young people also not only express interest in the Soviet legacy, but many of them clearly state that they have nostalgia for the USSR. Here, we encounter an intriguing question: can we contend that nostalgia may be provoked by the live experience only, or it can be a longing for the unexperienced past? Nowadays, there are many online nostalgic Russian-speaking communities that provide rich material for studying post-Soviet nostalgia. But Russian language should not be confused with “Russianness”. Moreover, as we go deeper into this topic, we understand that those people who are nostalgic for the USSR, experience longing for different aspects of the Soviet life, depending on their ethnic belonging. This study addresses the difference between Russians who long for the grandeur of the Soviet Union which was the most powerful and effective embodiment of the Russian empire, and the representatives of other nationalities who have another perspective on their Soviet past. This thesis deals a lot with the issue of values, because, as it is shown in the research, longing for socialism is not a matter of age, but rather a matter of values. The most essential point which is recalled by many nostalgic persons is aspiration for the future. Now Russia and other post-Soviet countries do not have a clear plan for the future, while the USSR provided its population with a goal for future development. On the other hand, many nostalgic subjects admit, that a unique spirituality that was embedded in Soviet life is lost. It is another paradox, because the Soviet state was atheist, and now in Russia and other former Soviet republics, religion plays a significant role, however, the decrease of morals in comparison to Soviet times is apparent. Therefore, this thesis discusses compatibility of Communist (socialist) values and religion. Many nostalgic subjects feel that the USSR was a bastion of science and technological advancement in comparison to the backward obscurantist Russia of today. They mourn the downfall of the USSR as a failed project of modernity. This is another important topic that is addressed in the thesis. This study is based on online ethnographies of a few nostalgic communities on three Russian-speaking internet platforms: VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Facebook. Initially, the focus of the study was on a group level of analysis, but the most valuable portion of this project turned out to be interviews conducted with individual participants of the studied communities. The research participants were from the following countries: Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian and Ukraine. The task of this research was to understand the nature of their nostalgia and to reveal their visions of the to-be-restored USSR. Depending on their worldviews (socialist/ non-socialist, nationalist/internationalist) the research participants provided very different and instructive pictures of this new potential unity which the researcher approached from the perspective of Benedict Anderson’s theory on imagined communities.