The present compiled dissertation explores culture jamming as a social movement in late capitalist information society. Culture jamming embraces groups and individuals practicing symbolic protest against the expansion and domination of large corporations and the logic of the market into public and private life. The central aim is to understand the meaning of culture jamming; its “model” of collective identification, and its protest and mobilizing strategies. International social movement research mostly focuses upon well established movements that are traditionally organized and directed against conventional political institutions. Studying culture jamming as a social movement therefore entails implications for social movement theory and research. For instance, concepts must be adjusted to cover emerging “individualized” forms of collective action and the effects of cyberspace on collective identification. Furthermore, attention is directed to emotions in culture jamming. It is thereby also argued that social movement research generally may have a lot to gain from incorporating emotion theory. Data consists of texts and visuals from the organization Adbusters Media Foundation, and seven interviews with culture jammers. The groups represented in the interviews are Institute for Applied Autonomy, Reverend Billy’s Church of Stop Shopping, New York Surveillance Camera Players, Bureau of Inverse Technology, Rtmark, and the French Casseurs de Pub. The method of analysis is “abductive” qualitative text analysis inspired by hermeneutic qualitative analysis and the epistemological and ontological foundations of discourse theory and post-structuralism. Analysis is carried out in five separate studies presented in text I-IV (previously published) and in chapter eight. Text I maps the Adbusters Media Foundation (AMF) along the lines of narrative, organization, ends, means, and strategy. Text II offers an analysis of the various nodal points in the AMF discourse and discusses the tensions inherent to the AMF effort to “hegemonize” the meaning of culture jamming. Text III offers an analysis of culture jamming as political activism from the thematic perspective of culture, place and identity, based on four of the interviews. In text IV the AMF visuals are analyzed from the perspective of emotions and social movement mobilization. Chapter eight brings together the seven interviews and the AMF material into an analysis of emotions in culture jamming.

This thesis describes how social work language practice circulates around the implementation process of an evidence based structured assessment tool – Savry. The purpose is to examine and understand the social workers language practice in a working group that uses this structured assessment tool in their work with youth. The purpose is also to look for dimensions of identity in terms of discourse. The ontological viewpoint is post-structuralism where language is in focus. The theoretical framework is discourse theory based upon the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. This theory is used as a basis of the creation of an analytical toolkit which emphasises the concept chains of equivalence and nodal points. The study is based upon qualitative interviews with social workers in a group in the social services for children and youth, who uses the evidenced based structured assessment tool - Savry. The study concerns the structuring around two identities. Theese identities circulate around the nodal point “knowledge” and defines it in two different ways through chains of equivalence. One of the identities equivalates scientific research to the nodal point knowledge, the other equivalates the unique experience to the same nodal point. Theese identities seames to be the result of a hegemonic strategy articulated by one of the two. The purpose of the strategy seams to be the incorporation of as many discursive elements as possible into one dominating discourse. This is also done through the principal exclusion of certain discursive elements, witch is the characterisation of power in discursive theory. The character of the struggle for dominance is not equal. It is instead characterised by the expansion of the chains of equivalence by the scientific knowledge based identity to incorporate discursive elements form other discourses. This is identified as a hegemonic strategy with the purpose of organising consent around the definition of the concept of knowledge and its consequences for social work practice.

This is a study of how expository information is presented in the metatext (title, subtitle, prefaces, dedications, the dramatis personae, announcements of act and scene, stage directions etc.) and the dialogue in seven one-act plays by August Strindberg: The Stronger (1889), Pariah (1889), Simoom (1889), Debit and Credit (1892), The First Warning (1892), Facing Death (1892), and Motherly Love (1892). Exposition in this study is defined as a semiotic temporal-structural element that: (1) is not restricted to any specific part of the drama; (2) is present in both the metatext and the dialogue; (3) transfers information about the prescenic time/action (time/action preceding the scenic time/action), interscenic time/action (scenic and non-scenic time/action between scenes), simultaneous scenic time/action (non-scenic time/action that takes place simultaneously with the scenic time/action, and postscenic time/action (time/action that follows the scenic time/action). The study shows that the expository information is presented gradually in the dramas, in both metatext and dialogue, and in all the four categories of time/action presented above. One important result is that the seven one-act plays, despite their naturalistic qualities, also contain components pointing towards Strindberg’s more expressionistic drama. It is possible to talk about a naturalistic or an expressionistic period in Strindberg’s authorship. It is, however, impossible to regard Strindberg as a naturalist or an expressionist in a stricter sense. Strindberg’s drama is too complex and rich to be placed in a certain theoretic doctrine. It is clear from the dissertation that the study of expository information is useful in dramaturgic analyses, and generates various discussions about for example themes, motives, and metaphors. A complete analysis of the exposition, therefore, must also consider elements such as language and imagery.

<p>This thesis focuses on politically active women within The Swedish Social Democratic Women’s Association, also known as S-women. By applying discourse analysis to interviews with active s-women and to meeting conversations between the association’s members, the study approaches ideas of feminism, feminist politics and political commitment. “Solidarity” – the central concept of the labour movement – serves as the point of departure for a feminist discussion about class, gender, ethnicity and age/generation. Political inclusion and exclusion are other keywords when the power relations within feminism in general and this women’s association in particular are examined. The theoretical framework of the thesis covers post-structuralist feminism, intersectionality and discourse psychology.</p>

Le nationalisme est souvent présenté comme étant civique ou ethnique. En réalité, toute nation se définit avant tout par sa culture. Les États, le plus souvent composés de deux ou plusieurs nations, sont le théâtre permanent d'une guerre culturelle. Inspiré par le cadre théorique défini par le post-structuralisme et le post-colonialisme, l’objectif de la recherche est de montrer que le sport en tant qu’agent culturel actif a historiquement été instrumentalisé pour alimenter la guerre culturelle au sein des États. L'analyse critique des différents écrits académiques touchant au Canadien de Montréal montre comment la guerre culturelle s’est déployée sur le territoire du Québec à travers les pratiques discursives qui ont sculpté les représentations symboliques de cette équipe de hockey. / The theory of nationalism is often delineated by its civic or ethnic counterparts. In fact, every nation is defined by its culture. Therefore, the state is permanently under siege in a culture war of the nations. The aim of this research is to show in a historical perspective how sport as a cultural agent can be instrumentalised in the conduct of the culture war. Critical analysis of the discursive practices surrounding the hockey club Montreal Canadiens show how the culture war took place on the territory of Québec. Post- structuralism and post-colonialism are used as a theoretical framework.

Because of critical neglect, there is no established terminology to describe techniques of suspense. Borrowing from Aristotle, Koestler, and others, a new body of concepts is suggested and importantly, a distinction of tense is established, between types of suspense which relate to the narrative past, present, and future. The classical world's intuition of a connection between mental uncertainty and the physical state of hanging has conditioned Western man's notion of narrative suspense until a comparatively recent date. Eighteenth-century theories of the sublime helped to create an understanding that suspense was not necessarily painful. Through an analysis of novels by Jane Austen, George Eliot, Dickens, Hardy, and Conrad, an attempt is made to identify and evaluate the most common suspense strategies in the period's popular genres, notably the Austenian romance, mystery, and tragedy. The Austenian romance is compared to the detective story in that narrative presentation is determined by the need to control the reader's expectations, and to achieve an ending which is both satisfactory and surprising. The latter requirement may have contributed to the gradual disappearance of the authorial "voice" in the course of the nineteenth century, and a consequent reduction in the pleasures of irony and comedy. During the Victorian period, many genres are combined in the long novel, but mystery gradually advances in popularity and sophistication, to the point where narrative events are often inappropriately exploited as secrets. Tragedy involves a creative conflict between the reader's hopes and expectations, so he is permitted to glimpse the overall tragic process, and suspense is generated on the levels of theme and causaliy. The problems incurred by an inability or unwillingness to conclude structures of theme suspense are considered finally.

This performance-as-research project incorporated a five-month residency inside a working power station, Swanbank, Ipswich, a provider of electricity to Australia's eastern states via the national grid. The concept 'power station' is compelling because it involves the transformation of material form (coal) to immaterial phenomena (electricity), a process analogous to making electronically-mediated art. Three linked interdisciplinary works were created out of the artist's immersion on site: Swanshift, a music-video eulogy to the closure of the station's oldest coal-fired facility, Swanbank 'A'; The Industrial Theatre, a photographic series featuring Swanbank workers; and unstatic, a live, video-mediated performance. As an enquiry into meaning within contemporary art practice, this research project used allegory as its symbolic mode of thought and formation. Through allegory, the Swanbank site was explored metaphorically to reveal a fictional, parallel world beyond the literal surface of danger, authority and rigour. In this space of excess, unreality and overflowing boundaries, meaning is multiple and celebrated. Hand-in-hand with an exploration of allegory, this exegesis also presents an insight into methodologies for industrial, site-specific, interdisciplinary practice, and arts-industry collaboration.

Magister Artium - MA / Through a literary analysis of two contemporary novels, J.M. Coetzee's Life & Times of Michael K (1983) and Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006), in which a common concern seems to be an exploration of what it means to be human, the thesis seeks to explore the relationship between human consciousness and language. This dissertation considers the development of a conception of the human based on rationality, and which begins in the Italian Renaissance and gains momentum in the Enlightenment. This conception models the human as a stable knowable self. This is drawn in contrast to the novels, which figure the absence of a stable knowable self in the representation of their protagonists. The thesis thus interrogates language's capacity to provide definitional meanings of the ''human.'' On the other hand, although language's capacity to provide essential meanings is questioned, its abundant expressive forms give voice to the experience of human being. Drawing on a range of fields of enquiry, both philosophical, linguistic, and bio-ethical, this thesis seeks to explore the connection between human consciousness and the medium of language. It considers how the two novels in question play with the concept of language to produce or imagine other ways of thinking about human existence, and other ways of creating meaning to human existence through the representation of their novels.

[pt] A presente dissertação busca oferecer uma leitura crítica sobre as performances militarizadas de (in)segurança que constituem a guerra às drogas na América Latina. Entendemos a guerra às drogas como um conjunto de normas, políticas e saberes relacionado ao controle, via proibição, de drogas ilícitas , que prioriza estratégias militarizadas nas tentativas de suprimir a produção e a comercialização dessas substâncias pela via da oferta e que opera primordialmente através da cooperação bilateral ou multilateral com agências estatais e atores políticos estadunidenses. Situamos a discussão proposta no contexto mais amplo das leituras feministas/de gênero, pós-estruturais e póscoloniais sobre Relações Internacionais e segurança internacional, com foco no processo de construção de imaginários políticos sobre o mundo social através de performances (discursivas e não discursivas) de (in)segurança. Utilizamos como principal (embora não única) estratégia de pesquisa a análise de discurso, olhando para as principais práticas discursivas da guerra às drogas que se colocam como discursos oficiais do Estado estadunidense. Argumentamos que as performances militarizadas da guerra às drogas são tornadas possíveis por uma forma de imaginar as relações internacionais que constrói o Estado nacional moderno como sujeito primordial da política internacional através da (re)produção de fronteiras de (in)segurança. Mais ainda, esse processo reflete complexas hierarquias e dinâmicas de poder que também são informadas por performances de gênero – seja a fluida dualidade entre feminilidades e masculinidades , seja a contraposição entre uma masculinidade hegemônica e masculinidades e feminilidades subalternas . Nesse sentido, a guerra às drogas é tornada possível pelo mesmo imaginário político que (re)produz: um que (re)afirma as fronteiras de possibilidade da política (inter)nacional. / [en] This dissertation aims at offering a critical reading on the militarized (in)security performances that constitute the war on drugs in Latin America. We understand the war on drugs as a cluster of norms, policies and knowledge related to the control, via prohibition, of illicit drugs that prioritizes militarized strategies in their attempts to inhibit the production and commercialization of such substances at the supply side and that operates primarily through bilateral or multilateral cooperation with state agencies and political actors from the United States. We locate our discussion within the wider context of feminist/gender, poststructural and post-colonial studies, focusing on the process of construction the social world through (discursive and non discursive) (in)security performances. Our primary research strategy (among others) consists on discourse analysis, in order to look at the main discursive practices of the war on drugs that posit themselves as the official discourses of the United States as a state. We argue that the militarized performances of the war on drugs are rendered possible by a political imaginary on international relations that constructs the modern nation state as the primordial subject of world politics through the reproduction of borders of (in)security. Moreover, this process reveals complex power hierarchies and dynamics that are also informed by gender performances - being those the fluid duality between femininities and masculinities or the contraposition between a hegemonic masculinity and subaltern masculinities and femininities . In this sense, the war on drugs becomes possible by the same political imaginary that it (re)produces: one that (re)affirms the borders of possibility of (inter)national politics.

Beginning with Plato's expulsion of the poets in the Republic, this dissertation looks at the often hostile, yet also symbiotic, relationship between poetry and philosophy. Aristotle's 'response' to Plato is regarded as a significant origin of literary theory. Nietzsche's critique of Western philosophy as being an attempt to suppress its own metaphoricity, leads to a revaluation of truth and consequently of the privileging of philosophy over poetry. Post-structuralism sometimes overemphasizes this constitutive force of metaphoricity, at the expense of conceptual modes. However, Derrida's notion of philosophy as play retains a balance between concept and metaphor: there is no attempt to transcendentally ground philosophy, but neither is it reduced to a merely metaphorical discourse. Finally, Wittgenstein's notion of meaning as determined by use can help us distinguish pragmatically between poetry and philosophy by looking at the contexts in which they function. / English Studies / M.A. (English)