This thesis examines the rich and layered intertextual relationship between five artisticrepresentations of the razed neighborhoods of Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles, and its former residents. These works include Seattle-based photographer Don Normark’s 1999 photography collection Chávez Ravine, 1949: A Los Angeles Story; the full-length dramatic play Chavez Ravine, written and first performed by Los Angeles-based Chicano comedy troupe Culture Clash in 2003; Jordan Mechner’s 2004 short documentary film Chávez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story; Ry Cooder’s musical album Chávez Ravine: A Record by Ry Cooder; and lastly, high school history teacher Ken Aven’s 2006 debut novel, Chavez Ravine Echoes. Together, these five productions make up a case study that engages with the theoretical debate about privileged groups speaking for, or on behalf of, underrepresented groups. This analysis emphasizes a process of representation that is shared and driven by dialogue between the artists of these productions and the place and people they represent. Through the inclusion of resident involvement in the production process and the weaving of narrative elements from both Mexican American and dominant cultural traditions, these projects promote the Ravine’s cultural wealth and visibility within a popular culture dominated by the symbol of Dodger Stadium. This study, through close readings and textual analysis, demonstrates how these works, considered together, open up spaces for cross-cultural discussions about Chavez Ravine and the various roles it plays within U.S. cultural history. More importantly, these five representations of Chavez Ravine figuratively practice and promote a “speaking to and with” model of intercultural communication between dominant and minority cultures.

<p>Högskolan i Gävle har på senare år påbörjat ett samarbete med utländska universitet och en stor andel utbytesstudenter vid högskolan kommer från Kina (Högskolan i Gävle, 2007). Att lyckas akademiskt är till viss del beroende av individens förmåga att anpassa sig till den akademiska kulturen och de rådande normerna. Studenter utbildade i konfucianistisk kultur har ofta annan syn på läraren än studerande i västerländsk kultur då man inom konfucianismen anser att läraren är en person med hög auktoritet och forskning visar att stressnivån för nyanlända utbytesstudenter är stark i början av deras akademiska utbildning i ett främmande land (Brown, 2008). Syftet med vår uppsats var att undersöka de kinesiska utbytesstudenternas kulturella upplevelser av att studera på Högskolan i Gävle och se hur dessa påverkar dem.</p><p>En kvalitativ metod genomfördes med inspiration av ett fenomenologiskt förhållningssätt. Detta skedde i form av en semistrukturerad fokusgruppsintervju med sex stycken utbytesstudenter från Kina som studerat minst två år på Högskolan i Gävle. Resultatet visade att respondenterna upplevt kulturskillnader som de fått anpassa sig till under sin tid som utbytesstudenter. De största kulturkrockarna skedde i att anpassa sig efter den svenska undervisningen och ett främmande språk. Språkliga brister var troligen den största faktorn till att de inte hade kontakt med svenska studenter. Dock verkade respondenterna inte uppleva kulturchock i så stor utsträckning. Störst stress upplevde de i början av en ny kurs då de var tvungna att anpassa sig efter främmande ord på engelska och inför tentamenstillfällen. I början av respondenternas vistelse som utbytesstudent upplevde de dock hemlängtan och svårigheter att följa med i undervisningen vilket kunde upplevas som stressande. Detta verkade dock ha avtagit med tiden och utbytesstudenterna upplevde situationen vara tillfredställande trots en annorlunda kultur.</p> / <p>The University of Gävle has in recent years started a relation with foreign universities and a large share of exchange students come from China (Högskolan i Gävle 2007). To succeed academically is to some extent dependent on the individual´s ability to adapt to the prevailing standards in the academic culture. Students educated in a konfucianistic culture have often a different view of the teacher than students in Western culture when in Confucianism believe that the teacher is a person of high standing and research shows that stress levels for newly arrived exchange students are strong in the beginning of their academic training in a foreign country (Brown, 2008). The purpose of our study was to get an insight into the Chinese</p><p>exchange student’s cultural experiences of studying at the University of Gävle and to see how this can affect them.</p><p>A qualitative method with inspiration of the phenomenogical approach was carried out. This took the form of a semistructrued focus group interview with six exchange student´s from China who has studied at least two years at the University of Gävle. The result implied that the respondents experienced differences in culture that they had to adapt to during their time as exchange students. The largest clash of cultures came when they were trying to adapt to the Swedish education and a foreign language. Linguistic deficiencies were probably the largest factor to affect the lack of contact with Swedish students. However, the respondents didn't seem to experience culture chock at a large extent. They experienced most stress at the beginning of a new course when they were forced to adapt to unfamiliar words in English and for examinations. At the beginning of the respondents sojourn however, they experienced homesickness and difficulties in keeping up with the tutoring which could be experienced as stressful. However, this seems to have declined by time and the exchange students experienced the situation as satisfying despite a different culture.</p>

Högskolan i Gävle har på senare år påbörjat ett samarbete med utländska universitet och en stor andel utbytesstudenter vid högskolan kommer från Kina (Högskolan i Gävle, 2007). Att lyckas akademiskt är till viss del beroende av individens förmåga att anpassa sig till den akademiska kulturen och de rådande normerna. Studenter utbildade i konfucianistisk kultur har ofta annan syn på läraren än studerande i västerländsk kultur då man inom konfucianismen anser att läraren är en person med hög auktoritet och forskning visar att stressnivån för nyanlända utbytesstudenter är stark i början av deras akademiska utbildning i ett främmande land (Brown, 2008). Syftet med vår uppsats var att undersöka de kinesiska utbytesstudenternas kulturella upplevelser av att studera på Högskolan i Gävle och se hur dessa påverkar dem. En kvalitativ metod genomfördes med inspiration av ett fenomenologiskt förhållningssätt. Detta skedde i form av en semistrukturerad fokusgruppsintervju med sex stycken utbytesstudenter från Kina som studerat minst två år på Högskolan i Gävle. Resultatet visade att respondenterna upplevt kulturskillnader som de fått anpassa sig till under sin tid som utbytesstudenter. De största kulturkrockarna skedde i att anpassa sig efter den svenska undervisningen och ett främmande språk. Språkliga brister var troligen den största faktorn till att de inte hade kontakt med svenska studenter. Dock verkade respondenterna inte uppleva kulturchock i så stor utsträckning. Störst stress upplevde de i början av en ny kurs då de var tvungna att anpassa sig efter främmande ord på engelska och inför tentamenstillfällen. I början av respondenternas vistelse som utbytesstudent upplevde de dock hemlängtan och svårigheter att följa med i undervisningen vilket kunde upplevas som stressande. Detta verkade dock ha avtagit med tiden och utbytesstudenterna upplevde situationen vara tillfredställande trots en annorlunda kultur. / The University of Gävle has in recent years started a relation with foreign universities and a large share of exchange students come from China (Högskolan i Gävle 2007). To succeed academically is to some extent dependent on the individual´s ability to adapt to the prevailing standards in the academic culture. Students educated in a konfucianistic culture have often a different view of the teacher than students in Western culture when in Confucianism believe that the teacher is a person of high standing and research shows that stress levels for newly arrived exchange students are strong in the beginning of their academic training in a foreign country (Brown, 2008). The purpose of our study was to get an insight into the Chinese exchange student’s cultural experiences of studying at the University of Gävle and to see how this can affect them. A qualitative method with inspiration of the phenomenogical approach was carried out. This took the form of a semistructrued focus group interview with six exchange student´s from China who has studied at least two years at the University of Gävle. The result implied that the respondents experienced differences in culture that they had to adapt to during their time as exchange students. The largest clash of cultures came when they were trying to adapt to the Swedish education and a foreign language. Linguistic deficiencies were probably the largest factor to affect the lack of contact with Swedish students. However, the respondents didn't seem to experience culture chock at a large extent. They experienced most stress at the beginning of a new course when they were forced to adapt to unfamiliar words in English and for examinations. At the beginning of the respondents sojourn however, they experienced homesickness and difficulties in keeping up with the tutoring which could be experienced as stressful. However, this seems to have declined by time and the exchange students experienced the situation as satisfying despite a different culture.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and University of California, Irvine, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 285-297).

Interkulturellt arbetssätt är givande för alla barn oavsett kulturell bakgrund. Det interkulturella arbetssättet bidrar till att barn utvecklar sin kulturella identitet och får förståelse för mångfalden i vårt samhälle. På förskolor där pedagogerna inte aktivt arbetar med interkulturalitet riskerar barn med utländsk bakgrund att bli exkluderade eller inte får kulturellt utrymme i förskolans utbildning. Det påverkar också barn med en svensk kulturell bakgrund, då de inte får  möjligheten att lära sig mer om andra kulturer än sin egen.  Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskaper om hur förskollärare resonerar kring ett interkulturellt arbetssätt inom förskolans verksamhet. Datainsamlingen är av en kvalitativ ansats, där semistrukturerade intervjuer har använts för att samla empirin. Intervjuerna skedde både individuellt och i grupp. Totalt deltog nio förskollärare från fem olika förskolor i Sverige. Analysen omfattar det sociokulturella perspektivet och det interkulturella perspektivet för att få en större förståelse för de faktorer som påverkar förskollärarnas arbetssätt.  Resultatet visar att förskollärarna har ett interkulturellt förhållningssätt när de arbetar för att främja barns modersmåls utveckling och för att integrera olika kulturer i förskolans verksamhet. I mötet med familjer från andra länder lyfte förskollärarna fram olika faktorer att ta hänsyn till, vilket visade på deras interkulturella kompetens.  Det framkom även i studien att förskollärarna uttryckte att olika uppfattningar av kultur kan leda till kulturkrockar och kulturella begränsningar i förskolan. Förskollärarna upplevde det som en utmaning i arbetet med interkulturalitet. / The intercultural way of working contributes to children developing their cultural identity and gaining an understanding of the diversity in our society. In preschools where the pedagogues do not actively work with interculturality, children with a foreign background run the risk of being excluded or not given cultural space in the preschool's education. It also affects children with a Swedish cultural background, they do not get the opportunity to learn more about cultures other than their own.  The purpose of this study is to contribute with knowledge about how preschool teachers reason about intercultural working methods in preschool activities. The data collection is of a qualitative nature, where semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather empirical data. The interviews were conducted both individually and in groups. A total of nine preschool teachers from five different preschools in Sweden participated. The analysis incorporates a sociocultural perspective and the intercultural perspective to provide a detailed understanding of factors influencing preschool teachers' workings.  The study concludes that the preschool teachers have an intercultural approach when they work to promote children's mother tongue development, and to integrate different cultures in the preschool's activities. In the meeting with families from different countries, the preschool teachers highlighted different factors, which showed their intercultural competence. This study showed that the preschool teachers expressed that our different perceptions of culture can lead to cultural clashes and cultural limitations in preschool.  The preschool teachers perceived the work with interculturality as challenging.

January 7, 2015, the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which among other things has published satirical images of the Prophet Muhammad, became a victim of a terror attack where 12 people lost their lives. This horrible act was performed to avenge Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, something that aroused reactions all over the world. In the media a debate began whether to re-publish the drawings that might have caused the attack or not. Despite the fact that freedom of expression has an important role in the society there were different opinions on the matter.   The aim of this study is to identify how the swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter and the turkish newspapers Today’s Zaman and Hürryiet Daily News framed the circumstances around the terror attack against Charlie Hebdo. By applying a framing analysis on 40 columns with various authors, 20 from each country, we could discern five dominant frames within the texts: Je suis Charlie, why publish/not publish caricatures, motives behind the attack, impacts of the attack and solutions. Our theoretical basis of the study include the concepts of freedom of expression, cultural differences and framing. The results showed similarities as well as differences between the turkish and the swedish journalists ways of framing the circumstances around the attack. In each frame we have identified what the authors consider to be the main issue, the underlying cause and suggestions on how to solve the problem. Here we saw patterns between the different frames, where many of the subjects were demonstrated in several frames.

In my essay, I write about the work at a pre-school in a segregated suburb. I begin my essay with examples from my workday. In one case, it is about Sara, playing games where other children are excluded and she also exhibits a power game towards me. In the second example, it is about how a group of children conspire and expose both themselves and others for destructive conspiracy patterns. When I write down what happens in the group of children at my pre-school, I see patterns reminiscent of destructive gangs. I reflect about whether I am witnessing that my preschooler is in the preliminary stage of youth gangs with destructive patterns. The purpose of my essay is that for my own sake, and from a social perspective to provides deeper understanding of the causes that can generate power game and conspiracy patterns in children in segregated neighborhoods. I also describe how it can be to work in a kindergarten in a segregated suburb. M y questions are what happen to children when norms in the home are in conflict with the norms of the preschool. The norms in the homes may also be an illegal act in Sweden, when punishment and spanking occurs. Children may be in a conflict of loyalties when they know that parents may not spank their children in Sweden, but still do it. I examine whether there may be negative factors in the family's integration that allows contexts do not meet in a positive direction, and therefore can cause cultural clashes. I start from my own experiences as child-minder in the suburbs during twenty five years. I do this by writing the essay, I reflect on my own thoughts, but also through reflective conversations with others. To obtain scientific perspective on my research, I have chosen as the starting point to the support of other studies in ethnological and sociological aspects. I have come to the conclusion that there may be several reasons for pre-school children of my workplace to act as they do. One reason that I think is important is that families in my pre-school are segregated in the segregation, their meetings consisting mostly of their own countrymen and relatives. The majority of parents have no work and their contact with the Swedish society is done by the authorities and at the pre-school. I have met families where parents have lived in Sweden for twenty years, but still have limited language in Swedish. I have also seen that there is an aversion to the "Swedish" and that there is a conscious choice to refrain from it.