<p>Nonverbal communication such as body language is a vital component of our communication, and since scholars agree that there are some notable differences in the way men and women use body language, the study of gendered nonverbal communication as a social construction is vital to our understanding of how we create gendered identities. The aim of this paper is to investigate how social gender norms concerning body language appear in constructed communication. By studying the body language of the characters in the American sitcom Friends, and with focus on leg postures, I examine how the show Friends enacts and represents stereotyped sex differences in body language. The study encompasses both the distribution of leg positions between the genders, and what these postures seem to accomplish in interaction. As for the relationship between gender and leg postures, I observed the sitting positions of the characters Chandler, Ross, Joey, Monica and Rachel in six episodes from the 1999/2000 season of Friends for the first study. For the analysis of leg postures in relation to the communicative situation, the entire corpus of ten episode recordings was used. Based on repeated inspection of scenes where leg positions could be studied in relation to gender and communication, systematic patterns were identified.</p><p>The results of the study are consistent with the findings of scholars like Vrugt and Luyerink (2000); women tend to sit in closed postures or with their legs crossed, which is regarded feminine, while men sit in wide positions with their legs spread, which is regarded masculine. Furthermore, the characters/actors in Friends seem to perform their gender roles partly by using different leg positions and wideness of postures. However, leg positions alone were not found to be decisive in the messages communicated, and emotions and stance were communicated using verbal and other non-verbal channels and cues. Instead, leg positions remained gender-stereotypical regardless of the message communicated, and men and women seem to communicate the same message using different leg positions. It is therefore concluded that leg positions are an inherent part of “doing gender”, but that leg positions as such are not necessarily related to the type of message or emotional stance that is communicated.</p>

<p>The aim of this thesis is to investigate the discursive construction of school leadership in a gender perspective and the meanings attached to school leadership. Theoretically, I draw on discourse analysis, and feminist poststructuralist theories have been my source of inspiration. Discourse, subjectivity, subject positions and power are key concepts applied to the analysis of the data. Four male and four female school leaders representing eight primary and secondary schools were interviewed. Furthermore, interviews were carried out with two teachers at each of these schools: in total nine female and seven male teachers were interviewed.</p><p>The leaders and teachers talk about leadership in relation to four different arenas, which I have labelled the teachers’, the children’s, the parents’ and the societal arena respectively. Three main positions have been identified for the school leaders: (1) the supporter, (2) the manager and (3) the pedagogical leader. Most of the statements deal with the relation to the teachers, whereas the parents’ arena is not much talked about.</p><p>As for gender, both male and female school leaders construct themselves as leaders in rather similar ways. Both men and women activate the three positions in similar ways. Women do not repeat the supporter position more often than men, and men do not position themselves as managers more frequently than women. This indicates that traditional gender discourses do not govern the school leaders’ talk about school leadership. For the position of pedagogical leader, some gender differences have been distinguished. The men position themselves as pedagogical leaders, whose mission it is to take the lead in pedagogical issues, whilst the women talk about the importance of evaluating and reflecting on their pedagogical leadership. Gender discourses seem to affect the way teachers construct school leadership, as male leaders who act as supporters are sometimes positioned as deviant. Instead, especially female teachers expect their male leader to act as a manager. Furthermore, the female teachers construct female school leaders as supporters to a higher extent than the male teachers.</p>

The idea of accounting as a constitutive means, making people think and act in particular ways, is well established in the social strand of accounting literature. In professional organisations, for example, accounting is claimed to be critical to processes of turning people into rational and responsible economic actors. However, this thesis refocuses the empirical attention away from the organisation and into the private sphere of people’s everyday financial lives. As this is a field partly inhabited by people who for various reasons are believed to have difficulty in making sense of financial accounts, a dilemma arises regarding how to influence people’s way of managing their own finances by means of accounting information. How this dilemma is assumed to be resolved in order to make accounting matter is the query of this thesis. Through a study of four cases, the thesis investigates the practices of public authorities, a television makeover show, and a pension insurance company – here referred to as accounting framers – whose task it is to construct accounting in such a way so as to make it come across as important, relevant and useful to various groups of the general public. By examining how people’s accounting interpretations are elaborated in order to make them responsive to financial accounts, the thesis contributes to problematising the constitutive role of accounting and the conditions believed to enable it to turn people into financially responsible actors.

Boken handlar om hur vi föreställer oss organisationer och om vad det är som gör att vi förknippar vissa föreställningar med vissa organisationer, men inte med andra. Mer specifikt handlar den om privatiserade organisationer, definierat som offentliga organisationer som fått privata ägare. Analysen sker med utgångspunkt i empiriska studier av tre privatiserade organisationer: ett byggföretag, en vårdcentral och en auktionsfirma. I boken diskuteras hur "generaliserade andra", "offentligheten" och "specifika andra" fungerade som referenspunkter vid konstruktionen av de privatiserade organisationerna. En huvudslutsats är att privatiserade organisationer konstrueras genom sex konstruktionsmetoder: anonymisering, ideologisering, avveckling, utveckling, fjärmande och närmande. Konstruktionerna visade sig vidare vara mångsidiga i sin karaktär. En andra huvudslutsats är att privatiserade organisationer är multimetodkonstruktioner. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1999. Författaren har publicerat sin avhandling under namnet Karin Svedberg Nilsson. Sammanfattning på engelska med titeln: From public service to private business? : on the construction of privatised organisations</p><p> </p>

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the discursive construction of school leadership in a gender perspective and the meanings attached to school leadership. Theoretically, I draw on discourse analysis, and feminist poststructuralist theories have been my source of inspiration. Discourse, subjectivity, subject positions and power are key concepts applied to the analysis of the data. Four male and four female school leaders representing eight primary and secondary schools were interviewed. Furthermore, interviews were carried out with two teachers at each of these schools: in total nine female and seven male teachers were interviewed. The leaders and teachers talk about leadership in relation to four different arenas, which I have labelled the teachers’, the children’s, the parents’ and the societal arena respectively. Three main positions have been identified for the school leaders: (1) the supporter, (2) the manager and (3) the pedagogical leader. Most of the statements deal with the relation to the teachers, whereas the parents’ arena is not much talked about. As for gender, both male and female school leaders construct themselves as leaders in rather similar ways. Both men and women activate the three positions in similar ways. Women do not repeat the supporter position more often than men, and men do not position themselves as managers more frequently than women. This indicates that traditional gender discourses do not govern the school leaders’ talk about school leadership. For the position of pedagogical leader, some gender differences have been distinguished. The men position themselves as pedagogical leaders, whose mission it is to take the lead in pedagogical issues, whilst the women talk about the importance of evaluating and reflecting on their pedagogical leadership. Gender discourses seem to affect the way teachers construct school leadership, as male leaders who act as supporters are sometimes positioned as deviant. Instead, especially female teachers expect their male leader to act as a manager. Furthermore, the female teachers construct female school leaders as supporters to a higher extent than the male teachers.

Archaeology in Bolivia has two strong tendencies: nationalism and regionalism. The proposal aims for an academic reconstruction and expansion of this science in order to develop new scientific criteria, that can be institutionalized and become normative to the whole country to cover the expectations of different regions with regard to its past. A fundamental aspect of providing Bolivian archaeological research with new perspectives is the study of formation and development of Andean central places of historic, infrastructural and ritual importance, such Huari, Quillacas, Sevaruyo, Pampa Aullagas and San Miguel de Uruquilla. Research conducted in the south basin of the Lake Poopo identifies evidence of early settlement in Huari towards the Late Archaic period (approximately 4000 to 2000 BC) and the Formative (2000 BC to AD 300), when the first villages were established. This indicates that the formation of agricultural towns was produced by consolidation of multiethnic central places that first consisted of ayllus, socio-dynamic units that gathered together settlers from different regions that simultaneously formed an ample network of centres interconnecting the Andean complex geography, interweaving their cultural diversity owing to the common ideology of Tiwanaku. Routes and llama caravans (llama trekking) integrated this network of central places. As indicated by surveys and excavations, convergence of groups from different regions has been recognized in rests of material culture as shown in the ceramic distribution: Local Tiwanaku, Tiwanaku from Cochabamba, Yura, Huruquilla, Puqui, Mojocoya and remains of festivities at the centres during redistribution ceremonies, as well as ritual offers during the Early Regional Development period (300 to AD 900). This dynamic and preponderant ideology was completely transformed during Late Regional Developments (900 to AD 1460) when a series of regional conflicts determined the formation of the regional confederation known as Quillacas- Azanaques. At the time of the Inka Conquest (1460– AD 1530), the Lake Poopo basin was integrated into the Tawantinsuyo region through the implementation of the Royal Road and construction of Paria, Quillacas, San Miguel de Uruquilla and the Sevaruyo lodgings. During the Colonial (1530 - 1825) and Republican periods (1825 - ), the Spaniards made changes that imply a deterioration of the socio-political structures of the ayllus, its territorial fragmentation and creation of new reductions for mining operations. Recent archaeological research supports the proposition that populated centres in the Andean region of Bolivia were adapted to take advantage of the ecological variability through the social construction of the ayllu and the markas, centres that maintain dynamics, fluctuants and confluence in productive and ritual places.

Forensic DNA databases are expanding in both use and range. In particular, the U.K. and U.S. are developing new techniques and policies in regards to their forensic DNA databases with the hope of increasing the role of forensic DNA databases in criminal investigations. Despite the goal of reducing crime, there are ethical concerns that arise with the ways in which these forensic DNA databases are being developed. This paper outlines the technical aspects of forensic DNA databases and then describes different conceptions of identity, using race as an example of a constructed identity that is relevant in the use of forensic DNA databases. Then it explains how forensic DNA databases construct a unique identity with the goal of ascribing this to people and groups. This ascribed identity is problematic, and different problems that are related to identity are discussed. Despite the benefits of forensic DNA databases, these problems are ethically relevant and as such, a series of policy recommendations are made with the aim of balancing the harms and benefits of forensic DNA databases.

The main concern of this thesis is to analyze the transformation of domestic human rights discourse by looking at the shifting representations of the idea of human rights. The representation of the idea of human rights in &lsquo / Turkey Human Rights Movement Conferences&rsquo / in different political contexts during the period 1998-2010 is evaluated with reference to three areas of literature on the idea of human rights and with a social constructionist perspective which begins with the proposition that ideas and practices concerning human rights are created by people in particular historical, social, and economic circumstances. The different conceptualizations of legitimation of the idea of human rights, the shifting representations of the idea of human rights as civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights and the varying constructions of domestic human rights language amongst local and universal claims in respect of human rights within different political contexts is explored. In this framework, the research design of the study is envisioned to evaluate these issues in the context of &lsquo / Turkey Human Rights Movement Conference&rsquo / texts. The final reports of eleven conferences held in the period 1998-2010 are analyzed by the method of &lsquo / qualitative content analyses&rsquo / .

Studiens syfte var att försöka belysa två sätt att se på missbruk (biologisk och psykosocial) som dominerar i missbruksdebatten i dagens Sverige. Vår avsikt var att kartlägga vilket synsätt socialsekreterarna inom missbruksvården har och hur deras synsätt påverkar vilken behandling deras klienter får. Våra huvudfrågeställningar var - vilka synsätt har de utredande socialsekreterarna? Kan socialsekreterarnas olika synsätt på missbruk påverka val av behandlingsmetod för klienter? För att kunna få svar på våra frågeställningar tog vi hjälp av två underfrågeställningar. Dessa var - vilka kunskaper har socialsekreterarna om den senaste hjärnforskningen och om psykosociala förklaringsmodeller? Går det att kombinera dessa två olika synsätt? Metoden vi använde var kvalitativa halvstrukturerade intervjuer med fem socialarbetare. Resultaten analyserades med hjälp av meningskoncentrering och en meningstematisering och utifrån våra valda teoretiska utgångspunkter – socialkonstruktivism, Durkheims begrepp ”sociala fakta” samt Berglinds handlingsteori. Resultaten visade att valet av respektive sätt att se på missbruk inte hade någon påverkan på valet av behandling. Dessutom visade vår studie att sättet att se på missbruk bland de fem intervjupersonerna vi träffade var ganska lika.

Categories are semantic objects that create order in markets. By categorization, market actors and products become comparable and understandable to various audiences. This thesis examines the construction of the product category of public relations (PR) consultancy in Sweden; a market that has arisen, become economically successful and gained  recognition over the past thirty years, but which still lacks the legitimacy and clarity normally thought of as basic criteria of market categories. Using a semiotic framework and a mixed-method approach, I explore category construction 1) over time, and 2) in practice. In generalized terms, my findings suggest that market categorization processes cannot be understood without taking into account the characteristics of the product being categorized. Whereas ambiguity around labels, denotations and connotations is normally regarded as incompatible with categorization, such fuzziness should be expected to be intrinsic in markets for professional service products like PR consultancy, where the product itself is often thriving on, as well as continuously creating, ambiguity. For instance, the lack of clarity and lack of legitimacy in the Swedish PR consultancy market are found to be both logical outcomes, and enablers, of visibilization and amalgamation, referring to PR consultants’ conscientious management of visibility, and tendency to span boundaries in constructing their services, respectively. Categorization in the traditional sense is further hampered by the dominant label of “PR consultancy” being stigmatized, i.e. suffering from “sticky” negative connotations. In the cultural context of Sweden, the emergence of a PR consultancy market has al-so meant commodification, i.e. the introduction of something hitherto not sold into a sphere of exchangeable things. In this process, PR consultancy seems to have gotten “stuck” between the sphere of salable and unsalable things, as the product is widely sold but continues to be contested across various audiences. Again, my analysis puts this difficulty of PR consultancy finding legitimacy in relation to the product category’s actual content, i.e. rendering legitimacy to others. Finally, I argue that the emergence of PR consultancy, by providing a market place for corporate legitimacy, might be under-stood as a case of a cognitive-cultural market logic on the rise, characterized by struggles for organizational visibility and semiotic sophistication.