Bakgrund: Studier visar på att den fackliga organisationsgraden som är central för maktbalansen i den svenska partsmodellen har minskat under 2000-talet men att det samtidigt finns skillnader mellan fackförbunden. Tidigare forskning visar på ett samband mellan individualiseringen i samhället och förändringar i den procentuella andelen som är anslutna till fackförbunden. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att analysera och jämföra hur fackförbundet IF Metall framställer sitt fackliga budskap genom sin medlemstidning Dagens Arbete och hur fackförbundet Unionen framställer sitt fackliga budskap genom sin medlemstidning Kollega. Detta mot bakgrund av de samhällsförändringar som medfört en övergång från ett samhälle präglat av kollektivism och Gemeinschaft till ett samhälle som domineras av individualism och Gesellschaft. Teoretisk referensram: Studiens teoretiska referensram innehåller Goffmans dramaturgiska perspektiv, Brunninges organisatoriska självförståelse, Jenkins sociala identitet samt Tönnies begreppspar Gemeinschaft och Gesellschaft. Metod: Metoden som används är en kvalitativ kritisk diskursanalys. Resultat: I resultatet framkommer att IF Metall framställer och förstår sig själv som traditionell, kollektivistisk, solidarisk, socialistisk samt principfast på ledarsidorna i medlemstidningen Dagens Arbete medan Unionen framställer och förstår sig själv som innovativ, personlig, solidarisk samt pragmatisk på ledarsidorna i medlemstidningen Kollega. / Background: Studies show that the degree of trade union organisation which is central to the balance of power in the Swedish part model has decreased during the 21st century but at the same time that there are differences between the trade unions. Previous research shows a correlation between individualisation in society and changes in the percentage affiliated with trade unions. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to analyze and compare how the trade union IF Metall presents its union message through its member magazine Dagens Arbete and how the trade union Unionen presents its union message through its member magazine Kollega. This in light of changes in society which has entailed a transition from a society characterized by collectivism and Gemeinschaft to a society dominated by individualism and Gesellschaft.   Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework of the study contains Goffmans dramaturgical perspective, Brunninges organisational self-understanding, Jenkins social identity and Tönnies conceptual pair Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. Method: The method is a qualitative critical discourse analysis. Results: The result reveals that IF Metall presents and understands itself as traditional, collectivistic, solidarity-based, socialistic and principled on the editorial pages in the member magazine Dagens Arbete. Unionen presents and understands itself as innovative, personalised, solidarity-based and pragmatic on the editorial pages in the member magazine Kollega.

In recent years, the use of social media has grown significantly, yet associations between digital photo-practices and female self-representation in cyberspaces remain unknown. This thesis aims to assess how female self-images shared on Instagram are being associated and evaluated. Inspired by the cyberfeminist effort to create positive cyberspaces for women by reevaluating the relationship between technology and women, a posthuman feminist framework is applied to allow an analysis beyond modern western dualistic understandings of nature vs. culture and reality vs. virtuality. A focus group discussion with four female-identifying participants, mean age 25 years old, was conducted on October 25, 2022. The discussion focused on three digital photo-practices. The analysis of posting frequency suggests that a regular display of female self-images is generally negatively associated with superficiality due to the incompatibility of patriarchally female attractiveness with female intellectuality. Further it suggests that revealing images are generally negatively associated due to the coupling of cyberspaces with masculinity. A digital affirmation of femininity is associated with self-objectification through the male gaze and therefore with sexual intent directed at men. Lastly, the analysis suggests that photo editing practices are generally negatively associated with artificiality. Due to the acceptance of binary oppositions, “artificial” images are negatively associated as “unnatural”. The analysis concludes that the extent of digital photo-practices determines the extended criticism.

In this exploratory thesis project, I consider what emerging approaches we can take as social scientists to showcase and critically engage self-representations of diasporic individuals, who often lack visibility and legibility within the dominant cultural archive. Filmmaking as a social research practice can provide rich audiovisual data, physical and social access to materials for nonacademics, and opportunities to document and share subjects' comments and settings without the limitations of transcription. This is especially salient in the emerging media landscape of Web 2.0, where digital communications technology applications (such as Facebook, Skype, and Snapchat) are accessible by a global audience, and can act as tools for cultural identity production by diasporic individuals. This project documents the experiences of several first- and second-generation Bangladeshi American immigrants in relation to digital communications technology advances within the past decade, for the purposes of collecting and sharing stories of diasporic individuals, offering a venue for self-expression through empathetic interviewing and collaborative oral history methods, and contributing to the American cultural archive in the context of emerging media and academic landscapes. The full project is comprised of this text document, alongside a short documentary film containing portions of audiovisual data from interviews which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh9puazpdrw. / Master of Science

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores an analysis of autobiographical illustration, as it relates directly to autobiographical devices employed in Bitterkomix and my own visual journals. The result is a practitioner-specific approach that frames my own work within a discourse of comics and consequently within the larger discourse of visual narrative. These devices are analysed in the works of artists in Bitterkomix who employ autobiography, not only as a means of effecting more intimate interactions between the reader and the narrative, but also as a form of legitimising narrative. A principal deduction that I have made is that autobiographical writing operates through the filter of memory and language translation. A divergence occurs within Bitterkomix, as well as within my own work, between the artist as himself and the artist as his autobiographical self - the two are never identical. I choose to define autobiographical illustration as an interpretative and experimental visual writing process used to affirm and negate perceived concepts of self through the filters of memory, language translation and imagination. Imagination acts as an extension of current memory from which perceived past, present and future identity constructs emanate and extend. These constructs are by no means indicative of historical fact but often appear to be so given autobiography's association as a referential text. The visual journal as an autobiographical object, like Bitterkomix, seeks to legitimise itself in 'naturalising narrative' by feigning to make it the outcome of a documentative process. It is exactly the tension between autobiography's perceived characteristic as a genre that involves 'real' experiences and its actual function as a narrative construction of identity that merits its use as a strategic device. I argue how my visual journals constitute autobiographical narrative objects and archives of autobiographical illustrative form and content. This tension is amplified in my visual journals in their association as deeply personal objects and as a result of what is perceived to be the artist's natural process. Most importantly, these narrative objects are placed within the public's gaze and are made to be read as autobiographical texts, ultimately as documents of this process. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek outobiografiese illustrasie wat direk verband hou met outobiografiese praktyke wat in Bitterkomix en in my eie visuele joernale gebruik word. Die resultaat is 'n praktisyn-spesifieke aanslag wat my eie werk binne die diskoers van stripkuns plaas, en sodoende binne die groter diskoers van visuele narratief. Hierdie praktyke word geanaliseer in die werk van Bitterkomix-kunstenaars wat outobiografie gebruik, nie net as 'n manier om meer intieme interaksies tussen die leser en die narratief te bewerkstellig nie, maar ook om die narratief legitiem te maak. Ek maak die afleiding dat outobiografiese skryfwerk deur die filters van geheue en taal werksaam is. In beide Bitterkomix en my eie werk is 'n skeiding tussen die kunstenaar self en die kunstenaar se outobiografiese self sigbaar – die twee is nooit identies nie. Ek verkies om outobiografiese illustrasie te definieer as 'n interpretatiewe en eksperimentele visuele skryfproses wat gebruik word om waargenome begrippe van die self deur die filters van geheue, vertaling en verbeelding te bevestig en te negeer. Die verbeelding dien as 'n voortsetting van huidige geheue waaruit waargenome identiteitskonstrukte van die verlede, hede en toekoms voortvloei. Hierdie konstrukte is geensins aanduidend van historiese feite nie, maar kom dikwels so voor gegewe outobiografie se assosiasie as verwysende teks. My argument is dat my visuele joernale beide outobiografiese narratiewe objekte én argiewe van outobiografiese illustratiewe vorm en inhoud is. Visuele joernale as outobiografiese objekte, soos in die geval van Bitterkomix, probeer sigself legitiem maak deur middel van 'naturaliserende narratief', deur voor te gee dat dit die resultaat van 'n dokumenterende proses is. Dit is juis die spanning tussen outobiografie se aard as 'n genre wat gegrond is op 'ware' ervaringe, en outobiografie se funksie as 'n narratiewe konstruksie, wat die gebruik daarvan as 'n strategiese middel die moeite werd maak. Hierdie spanning word in my visuele joernale verhoog deur hulle diep persoonlike aard, en as gevolg van wat gesien word as die kunstenaar se natuurlike proses. Belangriker nog is dat hierdie narratiewe objekte binne die publiek se sigveld geplaas word om as outobiografiese tekste gelees te word, en ook uiteindelik as dokumente van die proses.

Par son recours à diverses formes d’expression, Unica Zürn (1916-1970) redynamise l’espace de la feuille en le faisant activement participer à l’écriture de soi. Le « je » semble en effet se démultiplier grâce à des jeux « anagrammatiques » sur les divers signes mobilisés, qu’ils soient alphabétiques, picturaux ou musicaux. L’autoreprésentation s’inscrit alors au sein d’une œuvre pluridisciplinaire inusitée, qui renouvelle l’esthétique quelque peu « essoufflée » du mouvement surréaliste. Cette attitude vis-à-vis de la feuille, où plusieurs signes « décomposables » et « recomposables » se partagent l’espace, est observable tant dans l’œuvre littéraire que picturale d’Unica Zürn. Le processus de création par la lettre, le trait et la note de musique, tend à revaloriser le support matériel utilisé par l’effacement des frontières entre les disciplines artistiques, qui appelle un regard distancié du lecteur/spectateur sur l’œuvre. Afin d’interpréter les travaux de Zürn dans la pluralité des moyens artistiques qui y sont déployés, l’approche intermédiale sera favorisée. Dans le premier chapitre de ce mémoire, il s’agira d’abord de voir comment s’articule un certain dialogue entre le discours des chercheurs de l’intermédialité et l’œuvre d’Unica Zürn. Le rapport à l’objet sera notre porte d’entrée dans la matière intermédiale. Par un retour à la matérialité de l’expérience médiatique, nous constaterons que Zürn met à l’avant-scène les instruments et supports de la création, ce qui mène à une représentation distorsionnée de soi, de l’espace et du temps. Une fois le parallèle établi entre les concepts de l’intermédialité et les travaux de Zürn, nous nous concentrerons sur le pan musical de l’œuvre pluridisciplinaire de l’auteure-artiste. Le second chapitre traitera de l’intrusion du sonore dans l’univers textuel, qui se fera notamment par la réappropriation de l’opéra Norma, de Vincenzo Bellini. Cette réécriture s’intitule Les jeux à deux et prend une distance considérable par rapport au texte originel. Elle s’accompagne de dessins effectués par l’auteure-artiste à même les partitions de l’opéra. Le regard multiple posé sur l’œuvre zürnienne permettra de comprendre que l’écriture palimpseste participe du processus d’autoreprésentation, tout en élaborant un discours sur la rencontre entre littérature, dessin et musique, ainsi que sur l’influence de cette juxtaposition sur le débordement des frontières médiatiques traditionnelles. / Having recourse to many forms of expression, Unica Zürn (1916-1970) revitalizes the space of the sheet by having it take an active part in the individual writing. The “I” seems to increase thanks to “anagrammatic” games on the many mobilized signs, whether they are alphabetical, pictorial or musical. The self-representation is inspired by an unusual multidisciplinary work, which renews the aesthetics, somewhat “worn”, of the surrealist movement. This attitude towards the sheet, where many “decomposable” and “recomposable” signs share the space, is observable in Unica Zürn’s literary work as well as in her pictorial work. The process of creation through the letter, the stroke and the musical note tends to reassert the value of the material support used by the abolition of the boundaries among the artistic disciplines, which calls for a distanced look from the reader/spectator on the work. In order to interpret Zürn’s work in the plurality of the artistic means that are deployed, the intermedial approach will be favoured. In the first chapter of this dissertation, we will see how a certain dialog is structured between the views of the intermediality’s researchers and Unica Zürn’s work. The relation to objects will be our entry point in the intermedial subject. Through a return to the materiality of the media-related experience, we will notice that Zürn puts at the forefront the instruments and the supports to the creation, which leads to a contorted representation of oneself, space and time. Once the parallel established between the intermediality’s concepts and Zürn’s work, we will focus on the musical aspect of the author-artist’s multidisciplinary work. The second chapter will deal with the intrusion of sound in the textual universe, which will occur through the reappropriation of the Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “Norma”. This revising is called “Les jeux à deux” and is significantly different from the original text, and is paired with drawings made by the author-artist directly on the opera’s partitions. The multiple look placed upon the zurnian work will allow to understand that the palimpsest writing takes part in the self-representation process, through elaborating a view regarding the interrelation of literature, drawing and music, as well as the influence of this juxtaposition on the overflow of the traditional media boundaries.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This dissertation explores the regimes of truth surrounding Muslims in Sweden. The main focus lies on the production of knowledge regarding Muslims in the context of the guided tours of a mosque in Stockholm. Special attention is given to how regimes of truth regarding Muslims inform the conversations during the visits, how they are debated in this particular arena and how that is dependent on positionality. It is a situation in which a Muslim, in the position of the guide, has an opportunity to present alternative storylines, or stories, about who Muslims are and what they do. The visitors for their part can assess, respond to and challenge those stories. In other words, the study explores who can speak with authority. The study is based mainly on participant observations made during 14 guided tours from 2003-2006 and on interviews with guides and visitors regarding their experiences on the respective tours. Most of the visitor groups were making study visits as a part of educational training. Seven of these were in primary and secondary education and two of them at the college level. Four groups came from social clubs at a workplace or from interest groups, and one was organised by Stockholm City Museum. To frame and contextualise the tours I have furthermore used data from mass media, mainly press clippings, but also features from TV shows. Other categories have been archival data, leaflets and brochures handed out at the mosque, as well as fictional books and a mailing list for Muslims. These sources have helped me discern regimes of truth that are, and are not, articulated on the guided tours. The central results concern the fact that the guides see the tours as a chance to alter other stories about Muslims and allow the visitors who tour the mosque to hear something that is not mediated or taught in school; however, they experience difficulties in terms of gaining credibility with regard to their presentation of alternative stories. Even when the guides talk about their private life, as is often the case, they are challenged and sometimes mistrusted. The guides, and hosts, use their private lives to explain their position in Sweden, but the visitors also expect them to expose their personal opinions regarding how they, as Muslims, would act in morally difficult scenarios; thus, the tours present a situation where the visitors seem more comfortable than the hosts. Another significant result is that both the guides and visitors expressed the importance of the tours becoming a respectful meeting place. Religiosity, religion and secularism seem in themselves to represent otherness. What is respectful in practice, however, is not very clear. There is an ongoing debate in Swedish society concerning whether it is respectful to shake hands with a Muslim in a working situation, as is customary in Sweden. Moreover, the showing of respect is given a gender dimension on the tours, since the main way to perform respect is for every woman to wear a robe when entering the mosque. Respect as a practice seems to be mired in social inequality. It seems difficult to become a guest if you are simultaneously appropriated the position of a Swede, and difficult to pass as a host if you position yourself as a Muslim.

This research study examined what the motivations and consequences of self-disclosure on Instagram were as well as its correlation with Impression Management Theory. The research used a 37 question survey which was distributed on social media, through the Department of Media and Communication at ETSU as well as a public speaking class. There were 232 participants in this study who were 18 or older and used Instagram. Research found that individuals’ self disclose using levels of relationship management, showing off, information sharing and habitual behavior. Future research includes the opportunity to incorporate a sample of participants across different cultures to analyze the differences in self-disclosure styles on Instagram.

The Author and the Shepherd: The Paratextual Self-Representations of James Hogg (1807-1835) This project establishes a literary-cultural trajectory in the career of Scottish poet and author James Hogg (1770-1835) through the close reading of his self-representational paratextual material. It argues that these paratexts played an integral part in Hogg’s writing career and, as such, should be considered among his most important works. Previous critics have drawn attention to Hogg’s paratextual self-representations; this project, however, singles them out for comprehensive analysis as literary texts in their own right, comparing and contrasting how Hogg’s use of such material differed from other writers of his period, as well as how his use of it changed and developed as his career progressed. Their wider cultural significance is also considered. Hogg not only used paratextual material to position himself strategically in his literary world but also to question, challenge and undermine some of the dominant socio-cultural paradigms and hierarchies of the early-nineteenth century, not least the role and position of ‘peasant poets’ (such as himself) in society. Hogg utilised self-representational paratextual material throughout his literary career. Unlike other major writers of the period Hogg, a self-taught shepherd, had to justify and explain his position in society as ‘an author’ through these pseudo-autobiographical paratexts, which he attached to most of his works (in such forms as memoirs, introductions, dedications, notes and footnotes, and introductory paragraphs to stories). Via these liminal devices he created and propagated his authorial persona of ‘The Ettrick Shepherd’, whose main function was to draw attention to Hogg’s preeminent place in the traditional world, and to his status as a ‘peasant poet’. It was on the basis of this position that he argued for his place in the Scottish literary world of the early-nineteenth century and, ultimately, in literary history. His paratextual self-representations are thus a crucial element in his literary career. Drawing on Gerard Genette’s description of ‘the paratext’, the authorial theories of Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault (along with more recent authorial criticism), as well as autobiographical theory, this project traces Hogg’s changing use of self-representational paratexts throughout his career, from his first major work The Mountain Bard (1807) to his final book of stories Tales of the Wars of Montrose (1835). By reading Hogg’s paratexts closely, this project presents a unique view – from the inside out – of the specific literary world into which Hogg attempted to position himself as an author.

Par son recours à diverses formes d’expression, Unica Zürn (1916-1970) redynamise l’espace de la feuille en le faisant activement participer à l’écriture de soi. Le « je » semble en effet se démultiplier grâce à des jeux « anagrammatiques » sur les divers signes mobilisés, qu’ils soient alphabétiques, picturaux ou musicaux. L’autoreprésentation s’inscrit alors au sein d’une œuvre pluridisciplinaire inusitée, qui renouvelle l’esthétique quelque peu « essoufflée » du mouvement surréaliste. Cette attitude vis-à-vis de la feuille, où plusieurs signes « décomposables » et « recomposables » se partagent l’espace, est observable tant dans l’œuvre littéraire que picturale d’Unica Zürn. Le processus de création par la lettre, le trait et la note de musique, tend à revaloriser le support matériel utilisé par l’effacement des frontières entre les disciplines artistiques, qui appelle un regard distancié du lecteur/spectateur sur l’œuvre. Afin d’interpréter les travaux de Zürn dans la pluralité des moyens artistiques qui y sont déployés, l’approche intermédiale sera favorisée. Dans le premier chapitre de ce mémoire, il s’agira d’abord de voir comment s’articule un certain dialogue entre le discours des chercheurs de l’intermédialité et l’œuvre d’Unica Zürn. Le rapport à l’objet sera notre porte d’entrée dans la matière intermédiale. Par un retour à la matérialité de l’expérience médiatique, nous constaterons que Zürn met à l’avant-scène les instruments et supports de la création, ce qui mène à une représentation distorsionnée de soi, de l’espace et du temps. Une fois le parallèle établi entre les concepts de l’intermédialité et les travaux de Zürn, nous nous concentrerons sur le pan musical de l’œuvre pluridisciplinaire de l’auteure-artiste. Le second chapitre traitera de l’intrusion du sonore dans l’univers textuel, qui se fera notamment par la réappropriation de l’opéra Norma, de Vincenzo Bellini. Cette réécriture s’intitule Les jeux à deux et prend une distance considérable par rapport au texte originel. Elle s’accompagne de dessins effectués par l’auteure-artiste à même les partitions de l’opéra. Le regard multiple posé sur l’œuvre zürnienne permettra de comprendre que l’écriture palimpseste participe du processus d’autoreprésentation, tout en élaborant un discours sur la rencontre entre littérature, dessin et musique, ainsi que sur l’influence de cette juxtaposition sur le débordement des frontières médiatiques traditionnelles. / Having recourse to many forms of expression, Unica Zürn (1916-1970) revitalizes the space of the sheet by having it take an active part in the individual writing. The “I” seems to increase thanks to “anagrammatic” games on the many mobilized signs, whether they are alphabetical, pictorial or musical. The self-representation is inspired by an unusual multidisciplinary work, which renews the aesthetics, somewhat “worn”, of the surrealist movement. This attitude towards the sheet, where many “decomposable” and “recomposable” signs share the space, is observable in Unica Zürn’s literary work as well as in her pictorial work. The process of creation through the letter, the stroke and the musical note tends to reassert the value of the material support used by the abolition of the boundaries among the artistic disciplines, which calls for a distanced look from the reader/spectator on the work. In order to interpret Zürn’s work in the plurality of the artistic means that are deployed, the intermedial approach will be favoured. In the first chapter of this dissertation, we will see how a certain dialog is structured between the views of the intermediality’s researchers and Unica Zürn’s work. The relation to objects will be our entry point in the intermedial subject. Through a return to the materiality of the media-related experience, we will notice that Zürn puts at the forefront the instruments and the supports to the creation, which leads to a contorted representation of oneself, space and time. Once the parallel established between the intermediality’s concepts and Zürn’s work, we will focus on the musical aspect of the author-artist’s multidisciplinary work. The second chapter will deal with the intrusion of sound in the textual universe, which will occur through the reappropriation of the Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “Norma”. This revising is called “Les jeux à deux” and is significantly different from the original text, and is paired with drawings made by the author-artist directly on the opera’s partitions. The multiple look placed upon the zurnian work will allow to understand that the palimpsest writing takes part in the self-representation process, through elaborating a view regarding the interrelation of literature, drawing and music, as well as the influence of this juxtaposition on the overflow of the traditional media boundaries.