This paper is about the conflict between the Middle East and the Western world after the Danish newspapers’ cartoon publications of the prophet Muhammed in October 2005. The conflict resulted in massive reactions in the Middle East and the Danish-Swedish dairy company Arla Foods, was boycotted during six months in 2006. The aim of this study is to describe how the biggest Swedish daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter and three Saudiarabic newspapers Al-Hayat, Al-Watan and Shark Al-Awsat described "the Other" during the crisis in the year of 2006. Another aim is to describe how Arla Foods managed the consumer boycott. The ideas about "the Other" that were expressed in the media are seen as a discourse with the aim of maintaining and/or creating a "Us and Them viewpoint". Earlier theoretical studies are being presented, not at least Foucault, Schutz and Baumans and Mays contribution to the "Us and Them viewpoint" and their sociological approach. The main questions in the paper are; what ideas were expressed in the Saudiarabic newspapers against the Western world and the other way around; what ideas were expressed in the Swedish newspaper against the Middle East? The third question is; how Arla Foods handled the reactions in Saudi arabia due to the cartoon publications and how the company management reacted in order to reduce the damage of the consumer boycott ? The result of this study shows that an "Us-and Them viewpoint" exists in both the Saudiarabic and Swedish newspapers. Three themes can be outlined. First of all, the Swedish focus on freedom of speech and its lack of understanding on why the cartoons caused such massive reactions in the Middle East. Second, the massive criticism against the Western world for publishing the "islamphobic" cartoons and causing all the hatred. Third, the ideas of more calm and ressentment between the people, respecting Islam as a religion and freedom of speech at the same time. Arla Foods reacted to the crisis by applying risk management and also by dissociating itself from the publications by an information campaign that was published in 25 different Arabic newspapers. Finally, the company made a reset of the communication stra   strategy adopting a more global mindset although being a Scandinavian company.

Research shows that Muslims are often reproduced within the context that reinforces stereotyping of Muslims, see for example Otterbeck and Schielke. They are often regarded as a collective group with no distinct individuals and thereby the Islamic religiosity is portrayed as different and deviant from the more secular and private practiced Protestantism that is a common belief in Sweden. The purpose of this work is to study the already existing representation of Muslim women in a Western context, i.e. Muslim women in Sweden. This is done through an analysis of two ethnographic interviews and observational studies, written by researchers in Sweden (Karlsson Minganti and Sultan Sjöqvist) to investigate the existence of an "us and them" mindset. The two ethnographic studies which are analyzed in this work, deal with different types of Muslims: women who have been Muslims since birth and converted Muslim women. Furthermore, each researcher's results are put in relation to postcolonial theories to interpret and understand the conclusions of the researchers. My conclusion is that there are clear tendencies of an "us and them" mindset, where researchers place their research object as "them". The women are portrayed as different, with different values in relation to the "Swedish society" or the "Western world". Many of the women show awareness of being assigned the position of "the others" by the society. The women, both the converted and the ones who have been Muslim since birth, think that they do not fall into the norm of whiteness, they do not identify themselves as the "normal western woman" and they position themselves as a minority, forming the notion that they are "them" and confirming the exclusion of themselves. Other clear trends are the researchers ways to interpret and understand women's lives on the basis of the white 'middle-class women's experiences and thereby excluding the Muslim women’s own perception of their conditions of life.

My paper, “Us and Them – an analysis of the creation of “the Other” in The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”, aims to examine Mohsin Hamid´s and John Boyne´s novels from the years 2007 and 2008. The paper tries to answer the following questions: How is “the Other”and“Us and Them”created in the novels? And: What consequences does the thinking in terms of “the Other”and“Us and Them”lead to in the novels? The examination is done through the method of close reading and by applying the theory of Orientalism and Edward W. Said’s analysis of the theory to the reading. It is, I believe, of utmost importance for teachers to create unity among their pupils, and peaceful and democratic classrooms where co-work is promoted. This is especially important in multi-cultural classrooms where different ethnicities, cultures, religions, nationalities, and so on, are present and represented. Unity, peace, democracy, and co-work prevent negative ways of thinking in terms of “the Other”or/and“Us and Them”among pupils, and they are also terms that the curriculum refer to. Literature can be a tool and a method to do this by, used properly. This is why I, a becoming teacher, have decided to close examine two novels that many Swedish schools have in class settings and find out whether they are creating unity, peace, and democracy between people or if they on the contrary are creating disruption between people and maybe support negative ways of thinking in terms of “the Other”and“Us and Them”. The examination of the novels revealed that they both do create “the Other”and“Us and Them ”and that it leads to negative consequences in the novels. But this only makes the novels perfect material for teaching, if, the teacher offering this material to pupils does not just expect pupils to read the novels, but helps them reflect upon them and problematize the themes, the events, and the characters in them.

A refugee reception has been placed in Kungshall, one of Nybros residential areas. The area has a bad reputation and there are arguably prejudices about the area from the local population. I therefore want to investigate if an ethnic residential segregation exists in Kungshall, from a postcolonial perspective. The following research questions have been formulated: How do residents who doesn’t live in the refugee reception, look at ethnic residential segregation in Nybro? How has Kungshall changed since the refugee reception? Does a cultural racism exist in Kungshall?   The study is a qualitative study using semi structured interviews of four people living in the residential area, a person who has moved out of the area and a person working on the housing corporation “Nybro bostads AB”, who is one of the housing corporation responsible for the residential area Kungshall. The study is based on post-colonial theory. According to all the interviewees, there is an uneven balance between Swedes and immigrants in the neighborhood. And according to all the interviewees living in the area, too many refugees have been placed in Kungshall, and the residential area has changed for the worse in recent history. One of the interviewees has already moved, and the others living in the area either know someone who has moved out of the area or is planning to themselves. And the main reason to ethnic residential segregation is often explained in terms of cultural differences between “us-and- them”: between the refugees and the others. It is clear from the interviews that there is a cultural racism among people and the main reason for people moving out of the area could arguably be related to cultural racism.

<p>The purpose of this paper is to examine the Kenyan school and how they describe the western world in their textbooks. To answer this I have asked two questions. How do the Kenyan textbooks describe the west? and How do the textbooks describe Kenyan and African relations with the west? I have used a method of qualitative analysis with a tool based on theories about “us and them” for my study. The textbooks are the four most commonly used in Kenyan High Schools.</p><p>The west is described in an extensive way in all the books. They describe relations that have influenced Kenya or Africa in one way or another. A lot of the descriptions are about the colonisation. Something that is not only described as negatively, it is instead used positively in the image of the African man. A general phenomenon for the most of the descriptions of the texts.</p> / <p>Mitt syfte med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur den kenyanska skolan skildrar väst genom sina läroböcker. För att svara på detta har jag formulerat två frågeställningar. Hur skildras väst i de kenyanska läroböckerna? och Hur beskrivs och skildras Kenyas och Afrikas relationer med väst i läroböckerna? Jag har använt mig av en kvalitativ analysmetod och utifrån ett analysverktyg, som jag formar utifrån teorier om ”vi och dom”, har jag sedan studerat böckerna. Mina valda böcker är de fyra vanligast använda i kenyanska High Schools.</p><p>Väst skildras relativt omfattande i alla de fyra böckerna och beskriver saker och relationer som på något sätt har anknytning med Kenya och Afrika, mycket av skildringarna berör då kolonialismen på något sätt. Något som inte beskrivs på ett allt för omfattande negativt sätt utan nyanseras och används till något positivt i den Afrikanska självbilden. Ett fenomen som är genomgående för de flesta beskrivningarna av texterna.</p>

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Kenyan school and how they describe the western world in their textbooks. To answer this I have asked two questions. How do the Kenyan textbooks describe the west? and How do the textbooks describe Kenyan and African relations with the west? I have used a method of qualitative analysis with a tool based on theories about “us and them” for my study. The textbooks are the four most commonly used in Kenyan High Schools. The west is described in an extensive way in all the books. They describe relations that have influenced Kenya or Africa in one way or another. A lot of the descriptions are about the colonisation. Something that is not only described as negatively, it is instead used positively in the image of the African man. A general phenomenon for the most of the descriptions of the texts. / Mitt syfte med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur den kenyanska skolan skildrar väst genom sina läroböcker. För att svara på detta har jag formulerat två frågeställningar. Hur skildras väst i de kenyanska läroböckerna? och Hur beskrivs och skildras Kenyas och Afrikas relationer med väst i läroböckerna? Jag har använt mig av en kvalitativ analysmetod och utifrån ett analysverktyg, som jag formar utifrån teorier om ”vi och dom”, har jag sedan studerat böckerna. Mina valda böcker är de fyra vanligast använda i kenyanska High Schools. Väst skildras relativt omfattande i alla de fyra böckerna och beskriver saker och relationer som på något sätt har anknytning med Kenya och Afrika, mycket av skildringarna berör då kolonialismen på något sätt. Något som inte beskrivs på ett allt för omfattande negativt sätt utan nyanseras och används till något positivt i den Afrikanska självbilden. Ett fenomen som är genomgående för de flesta beskrivningarna av texterna.

Immigration is one of the effects, one of the symptoms of the ill-functioning and outdated machine that is the elite. Immigration and asylum-seeking have been frequent topics in public debates for years. The number of refugees making their way from war-torn regions of the world to Sweden makes the citizen versus asylum-seeker dichotomy highly relevant for social psychology research about discursively constituted identities. That is to say: how social-categorizations, emotions and attitudes are created in text and talk. Today, public opinion is largely produced online, this makes it possible to explore the motivations, strategies and goals of “the nonracist racist” on Facebook. This study utilizes a dual-edged approach in that coding is done both from an inductive- and a deductive direction. It adheres to a discursive psychology approach and follows Potter and Edward’s (2001) situated, action-oriented and constructed features of discourse. These theoretical features inform the deductive coding and are contextualized using Sakki and Pettersson’s (2016) three representation of otherness with subsequent six discourses produced by the populist radical right. Findings indicate that cultural comparison constructing cultural incompatibility is the main rhetorical resource for constructing the citizen versus asylum-seeker dichotomy. However, this dichotomy is not the most dominant “us and them” construction by the “nonracist racist”. “The elite versus the people” is the most common “us and them” construction. It carries significant weight that the seemingly unfiltered expressions of hatred on anti-immigration pages on Facebook are more concerned with what “we” are doing wrong rather than what is wrong with any “deviant others”. It is more about an internal clash of moral compasses than it is about a supposed clash of civilizations. Along with the occasioned feature of discourse, this partly explains why anti-immigration advocates for example position themselves as victims or defenders.

This study uses a longitudinal case study approach to observe change in ‘US and THEM-thinking’. Its purpose is to increase awareness of identity processes among participants and to test if the Attitude-Behaviour-Context-Triangle (the ABC-triangle) may be a way to achieve that. The ABC-triangle is modified as an ‘identity-analysis tool’ rather than a ‘conflict-analysis tool’.               Aspects relating to recognition of multiple identity affiliations compared to singular-identity categorisation is of interest. The traditional identity theories suggest that high identity salience increase singular-identity categorisation and thereby increase positive emotions for ingroup and negative emotions for outgroup. This study is partly based on the social identity perspective but complements it with Thoits’ identity-accumulation hypothesis and Hogg’s uncertainty-identity theory. Hogg’s theory locates uncertainty reduction as a main contributor to singular-identity categorisation together with its’ implied negative consequences. Hogg’s solutions are located both in multiple identity affiliations, as do Thoits, and in perceived cognitive ability to deal with uncertainty. This study emphasises awareness of identity processes to be the single most important factor for decreasing negative views of ‘THEM’. Overlooked in the more dominant theories of this area, it finds that recognition of multiple identity affiliations influences the perceived singular-identity terms imposed by an ‘US and THEM-situation’. Thereby, challenging imposed identity-restrictions and perceived intergroup competition. Furthermore, it questions the theoretical importance given to identity salience in previous research and theories since high identity salience, in this case, does not equal a singular-identity categorisation or increase negative views of ‘others’.

Football is the biggest sport in Sweden with the most spectators and the biggest amount of generated money. Sweden though has the longest and most violent history of footballviolence compared to its Scandinavian neighbours, however not many studies exist about this topic in Sweden. This study focuses on the regular footballsupporters who use violence connected to football. The six persons in this study are not hooligans, they do not seek violence as a footballhooligan, still they admit that they have used violence in connection to footballseveral times. The purpose of this study is to get a broader understanding for the culture of violence within the Swedish footballsupporters. How come that individuals step inside a violent culture and what can we learn from their own stories in how they got in to participating violence and sustaining it. The study has together with three theoretical frameworks and previous studies explained how the culture of violence exist in Swedish supporterculture. It also gives an broader explanation to what it does to the individuals existing in the culture. The three theoretical framworks are Bourdieu’s habitus, Goffman’s dramaturgical theory and Elias’s the established and the outsiders toghether with previous studies focusing on subculture, policing in football and hooliganism in popular culture. The study consist of interviews with six swedish male footballsupporters in the ages between 23 and 28 years old. With their stories about their own experiences four themes were found in analysis, culture of violence, culture of loyalty, us vs. Them and subculture. The results in the study shows that the supporterculture works as a subculture, with its own norms, behavior and expectations on the individuals existing in the culture.

Authors: Karin Lindberg &amp; Erika Losciale Title: The West and the Rest Level: BA Thesis in Media and Communication Studies Location: Linnaeus University Language: Swedish In today's media, the use of stereotypes and simplifications of the world and of different groups are common. It is a part of how humans make sense of the world. The problem is that these simplifications tend to encourage false notions of reality. The way charities communicate in advertising is important in order to engage the audience to donate. This study aims to examine how the non-profit organization SOS Barnbyar Sverige portray underprivileged individuals in their commercials. We have chosen to focus on two different commercials in relation to the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe. The first commercial has no relation to the crisis and the second one is an attempt to show the viewer the situation of a refugee. We have studied the material through a qualitative semiotic method, also using colonialism, stereotypes and representation as theoretical frame- work in order to examine whether or not certain notions and simplifications are reproduced in the commercials from this organization. Our study has shown that there were a lot of colonial ideals and stereotypes to be found in SOS Barnbyars commercials, thus fueling the polarization of us and them and the Other.