This study investigates Skolbibliotek för bildning och utbildning (SOU 2021:3) through a political discourse analysis from the perspective of Isabela and Norman Fairclough. The main focus of the study is to analyse the arguments political actors used when proposing claims for action in order to strengthen the school libraries in Sweden and how these might affect options for action and the subjects of school librarians. Since a main aim for this study is to focus on the portrayal of the school librarians in the discourse, the parts of the report dealing with questions regarding staffing is used as the main empirical material. The analysis’ first part is a reconstruction of the argumentation, placing the different parts into the different premises of practical reasoning in accordance with the framework proposed by Fairclough and Fairclough (2012). The results are later discussed on a macro level drawing upon the social context, including professional theory, and the power structures behind. The analysis reveals that the argumentation in favour of the actions to achieve expedient school libraries, proposed in the empirical material, is not sufficient enough to be reasonable acceptable, which in turn could affect the school libraries and school librarians’ position negatively. In a wider perspective the results show that the discourses and narratives used in the report consolidates the invisibility and the ambivalent subjects of the school librarians.

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The objective of this thesis was to investigate intersectional (categorical/social) invisibility and the extent to which this phenomenon occurs in a comparison of dominant (i.e., Caucasian), and non-dominant (African-American and Latino) social/ethnic groups. It has been found that intersectional invisibility occurs among African-American women with respect to Caucasian men and women, and African American men (Sesko & Biernat, 2010), but little of this research has been done regarding Latinas. Thus, this experiment aims to not only examine whether Latinas are also subject to intersectional invisibility among dominant (i.e., Caucasian) and non-dominant (i.e., African American and/or Latino) groups, but to determine whether the theory can be extended to perceptions between non-dominant groups such as African-Americans and Latinos. Determining whether intersectional invisibility occurs among Latinas, moreover, may provide theoretical and practical insights of what advantages/disadvantages Latinas may particularly endure as members of the rapidly growing Latino population in the U.S.

This dissertation provides a critical and constructive interpretation of “A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God” [NA], the sole primarily theological essay written by the logician, scientist, and philosopher C. S. Peirce (1839-1914). Despite recent scholarly attention, NA has confused its readers from its publication in 1908 until today. This dissertation interprets NA in light of: (a) Peirce’s philosophy of science and his theory of signs (semeiotic); and (b) a close reading of the published essays and unpublished manuscripts Peirce composed during the decade before NA’s publication and the six years he lived post-publication. These primary materials suggest that the key to understanding the so-called humble argument at the heart of NA is Peirce’s conviction that the universe is a divine sign. The humble argument is a recommendation that one make musement, or the playful contemplation of the universe, a daily habit. Since Peirce believed that the universe is a divine sign, he predicted that anyone who mused for forty to fifty minutes daily would eventually come to believe in God’s reality. Peirce describes the humble argument as the innermost of three nested arguments, the latter two defending the reasonableness of the humble argument. The second argument, which Peirce accuses theologians of neglecting, appeals to the instinctiveness of the idea that God is real as evidence of the truth of that idea. As stated, that argument is flawed, but it can be reformulated as an empirical prediction that intelligent extraterrestrial lifeforms will tend to develop conceptions of God or Ultimate Reality. The third argument defends the reasonableness of the humble argument by construing the idea of God as arising, like scientific hypotheses, through abductive inference. Contra Peirce, this dissertation argues that, although analogous to certain abstractions that play important roles in science, the idea of God is not a valid scientific hypothesis because it entails no testable predictions. Given this lack of testable consequences, Peirce’s pragmatic defense of the meaningfulness of the idea of God is inconsistent with his pragmaticism, having more in common with William James’s individualistic interpretation of pragmatism, which Peirce had previously opposed.

Tidigare forskning framhåller nutida organisationers behov av att implementera hållbarhetsinitiativ i sin verksamhet för att vara en relevant marknadsaktör. Det grundläggande vinstsyftet i företagsvärlden leder till att finansiell argumentation utgör en väsentlig del av besluten som fattas inom bolagsstyrning. Likväl behöver implementeringen av hållbarhetsinitiativ underbyggas med finansiell argumentation. Denna studie utgår från fyra, i tidigare forskning återkommande, parametrar inom denna argumentation vilka består av intäkt, kostnad, vinst och finansiering. Då hållbarhet utgör ett brett område har arbetet avgränsats mot miljöinitiativ och sociala initiativ för att möjliggöra en djupare analys. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur finansiell argumentation påverkar hållbarhetsinitiativ. För att uppnå syftet tillämpas en kvalitativ metod med grund i semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studiens resultat bekräftar ett starkt samband mellan finansiell argumentation och implementeringen av hållbarhetsinitiativ där argumentationen är avgörande för samtliga beslut som rör den undersökta organisationen. Dessutom framkommer riskbegreppets starka anknytning till de fyra finansiella parametrarna. Sambandet mellan risk och de övriga argumenten visar sig vara starkare i praktiken än vad tidigare forskning beskriver rent teoretiskt. Studien finner vidare hur finansiell argumentation inte uttrycks i samma omfattning när det kommer till extern kommunikation. Resultatet betonar vikten av lyckat implementerade hållbarhetsinitiativ i både nutida och framtida bolagsstyrning. Den finansiella argumentationen har en avgörande påverkan på hållbarhetsinitiativ och det slutgiltiga resultatet kopplat till de fyra finansiella parametrarna, och risken kopplat till dessa, definierar beslutsprocessen. Det kan exempelvis handla om ökade intäkter, sänkta kostnader, högre vinst eller långsiktig lönsamhet.

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