University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

Through six months of ethnographic and autoethnographic fieldwork, which included participant observation and ten individual semi-structured interviews, I sought to determine how dominant discourses in dance, especially those pertaining to professionalism, ability, validity, and legitimacy, are circulated in and through training, and how we as dancers responded to these discourses. Following the stand alone thesis format, this thesis is comprised of two publishable papers. The first is an ethnography of one integrated dance company’s members’ experience with negotiating space for alternative forms of dance in contemporary dance. The second is an autoethnographic piece of writing where I show the challenges of resisting dominant discourses of validity and legitimacy in both qualitative research as well as contemporary dance. Together, these papers form a thesis that strengthens our scholarly understanding of the discourses and associated tensions at work in participating in and writing about integrated dance.

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With theories of creativity and aesthetic learning processes as a basis, this study explores the usage of the concept of creativity in the curriculum for the Swedish compulsory school (Lgr11) and in the various syllabi’s commentaries and the assessment guidelines for the subject of Sloyd produced by the Swedish National Agency for Education. The purpose of the study is, to examine to which extent an education and assessment that is directed towards the development of creativity among pupils in the subject of Sloyd, is underpinned and supported for in these texts, and furthermore how these wordings relate to the various other subjects’ wordings about creativity. Creativity is a concept around which there is no proper consensus. Therefore, a qualitative text analysis, grounded in discourse analysis, was chosen as the method to explore how this concept and phenomena is handled and which meaning and place it is given in the examined texts. The analysis reveals many similarities, but also significant differences, between the usage of the concept of creativity in the analyzed texts and in the research and between the various subjects’ wordings. Creativity is portrayed as being the main benefit from the subject of Sloyd and is primarily connected to an employment discourse. The analysis also shows that the criteria for assessment of creativity in Sloyd differ from what the research provides.

Because water is basic to life, an ethical dimension persists in every decision related to water. By explicitly revealing the ethical ideas underlying water-related decisions, human society's relationship with water, and with natural systems of which water is part, can be contested and shifted or be accepted with conscious intention. Water management over the last century has privileged immediate human needs over those of future generations, other living beings, and ecosystems. In recent decades, improved understanding of water's importance for ecosystem functioning and ecological services for human survival is moving us beyond this growth-driven, supply-focused management paradigm. Environmental ethics challenge this paradigm by extending the ethical sphere to the environment. This research in water ethics considers expanding the conception of whom or what is morally considerable in water policy and management. <br /><br /> First, the research proposes a water ethic to balance among intragenerational equity, intergenerational equity, and equity for the environment. Second, the proposed ethic acts as an assessment tool with which to analyse water policy. <em>Water for Life: Alberta's Strategy for Sustainability</em> is the focal policy document for this analysis. This document is an example of new Canadian policy; it represents the Government of Alberta's current and future approach to water issues; and it implicitly embodies the ethical ideas that guided the document's production. To assess Water for Life's success in achieving the principles of the proposed water ethic, this case study used discourse analysis, key informant interviews, and comparison to a progressive international policy document, <em>Securing Our Water Future Together</em>, the 2004 White Paper of Victoria, Australia. <br /><br /> Key conclusions show that <em>Water for Life</em> is progressive by embracing full public participation, a watershed approach, knowledge-generation initiatives, a new planning model, and water rights security. However, barriers exist that can disrupt the strategy's success, including the first-in-time first-in-right water allocation system, the strategy's lack of detail, inadequate protection of aquatic ecosystems, ambiguity of jurisdiction over water in First Nations communities, and under-developed connections between substantive issues. The thesis also outlines recommendations for Alberta and implications for other jurisdictions. Additionally this research offers guidelines and an assessment tool grounded in broad ethical concepts to water policy development; and it encourages making ethical ideas explicit in assessment and formation of equitable and sustainable water policy.

This thesis is a contribution to the research of media discourse. During the last decades the media landscape has changed dramatically. These changes have been especially evident in German TV programs and the rise of private TV channels. The purpose of this thesis is to explore some of these changes more thoroughly, focusing on the live TV coverage of three soccer matches during the Soccer World Cups of 1974 and 2006 in Germany. The major research question is how these commentaries changed over the years. The thesis analyses how the reporters describe the players, the team and the coach, as well as the sport and the match itself. The relationships between the reporters and their respective audiences as well as the changing functions of the reporters are subsequently examined. The methodological approach used is Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2001; Fowler 1985; van Dijk, 2001). It provides a framework that allows analysing of language in its cultural and social context. Hence, discourse is seen as “language as a form of social practice” (Fairclough, 2001, p.18). Cultural and social contexts as well as extralinguistic factors such as images and sounds are also considered part of the discourse. The overall results indicate that in 2006 soccer has taken on greater importance in the lives of the audience. Live broadcasts of soccer matches have turned more and more into spectacles. This has led to phenomena such as the media’s growing preoccupation with entertainment (“infotainment”). Besides that, an increased presence of the ‘private’ in the public sphere can be discerned. In conclusion, this thesis identifies five principles prevalent in current live media broadcasts: commercialization, individualization, emotionalization, identification, and globalization. Even though some of these principles had already begun to emerge in the 1974 broadcast, their presence in 2006 attests to their increased importance in the German media landscape over time.

The purpose of the study is to expose how the US newspaper New York Times and the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter mediate the war in Afghanistan. Furthermore a comparison is done to map out possible differences and similarities. To fulfill the purpose of the study a critical discourse analysis has been used. The results have shown both differences and similarities between the newspapers. The main conclusions are tendencies of correspondence with previous research and theoretical base, such as the furtherance of elite sources, the promotion of the national political agenda and the national identity and an obvious construction of us and them.

Abstract The purpose of this essay is to study how undocumented migrants situation is constructed inSwedish massmedia discourse. The purpose has also been to study how the compromisedhuman rights of undocumented migrants in Sweden are legitimated in massmedia discourseand how resistance is constructed. The following main questions have been processed in this essay: - How are undocumented migrants and their situation constructed in Swedish massmediadiscourse?- How is society’s part in the situation constructed? Following questions are related to the main questions:- How is the situation that undocumented migrants face in Sweden legitimated in discourse?-What social consequences do the constructions have for undocumented migrants and for theSwedish society? The questions have been answered through a discourse analysis on empirical materialconsisting of ten news clips from Swedish public service television SVT and ten articles fromthe online editions of the main national newspapers Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet and Expressen. The analysis was done with analytic methods from discursivepsychology and with the sociological theories at hand in this essay. The conclusions drawn from the analysis are that the situation is constructed according todifferent interpretative repertoires drawing on humanitarian discourses and economicdiscourses, which lead to separate social consequences and ideological categorisations of ”usand them”. The rethoric constructions of the situation in massmedia contributes to thelegitimation of the marginalisation of undocumented migrants in Sweden through the focus onpolitical and financial aspects and the legal status of the migrant before human rights. / Sammanfattning Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur irreguljära migranter, eller ”papperslösa” flyktingars situation konstrueras diskursivt i svensk massmedia. Syftet är även att studera hur ”papperslösa” flyktingars villkorade mänskliga rättigheter i Sverige legitimeras diskursivt i massmedia och hur konstruktioner av motmakt görs. Följande frågeställningar behandlas i uppsatsen: - Hur konstrueras ”papperslösa” flyktingar och deras situation diskursivt i svensk massmedia?- Hur konstrueras samhällets roll i situationen? Följande underfrågor är relaterade till frågeställningarna:- Hur legitimeras situationen som ”papperslösa” ställs inför i Sverige diskursivt?- Vilka sociala konsekvenser kan konstruktionerna ha för ”papperslösa” och för samhället? Frågeställningarna besvaras genom en diskursanalys av ett empiriskt urval bestående av tio nyhetsinslag som sänts i Sverige Television och tio nyhetsartiklar från Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet och Expressens Internetupplagor. Analysen genomförs med diskurspsykologiska analytiska verktyg utifrån de befintliga sociologiska teorierna. Resultatet visar att situationen konstrueras enligt skilda tolkningsrepertoarer som bygger på humanitära och ekonomiska diskurser som leder till olika sociala konsekvenser och ideologiska kategoriseringar av ”vi och dom”. Resultatet visar även att retoriska konstruktioner av situationen i massmedia bidrar till att legitimera att ”papperslösa” individer marginaliseras i Sverige genom att fokus i rapporteringen ligger på politiska och ekonomiska aspekter samt ”papperslösa” individers legala status framför mänskliga rättigheter.

The marketing campaign ”Låna dig rik” [Get rich by lending] involved 25 public libraries in three regions; Kronoberg, Kalmar and Blekinge. This paper examines 28 news-articles concerning this campaign, found in eight publications in the responding regions. The purpose of this is to determine to what extent the description of the campaign found therein responded to the intents of its founders and to what extent the public had a say in these articles. The result found indicates that the overall image of the campaign presented in the news-articles was well in correspondence with the intents of the campaign itself but that the public views where arguably absent.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om det går att finna relevanta skillnader i framställandet av mannen över tidsperioden 1999 till 2011. Om en förändring har skett vill vi försöka ta reda på hur den ser ut. Utifrån en socialkonstruktivistisk utgångspunkt och med hjälp av begreppsliga redogörelser av genus, maskuliniteter och homosocialitet ämnar vi analysera de båda livsstilsmagasinen Café och Slitz. Vi kommer särskilt ta fasta på studier om massmedia och dess inverkan på människors vardagliga liv. Metoden som används för att vi närmare ska kunna analysera materialet är kritisk diskursanalys, som går ut på att skärskåda textens grundläggande meningssammanhang. Materialet vi utgår ifrån är begränsat till alla Cafés och Slitz utgåvor från 1999. För att se om förändring skett analyserar vi två utgåvor av Café från 2010 och sex från 2011, samt sex utgåvor av Slitz från 2009 och tre från 2011. Därigenom är vår ambition att försöka presentera en intressant bild av denna mångnyanserade kontext och dess diskursiva aspekter. Det generella resultatet är följande: i Slitz har vi inte funnit någon relevant skillnad, men däremot i Café finner vi en diskursiv skillnad från 1999 till 2011. / The purpose of this essay is to examine whether it is possible to find relevant differences in the presentation of the man over the time period from 1999 to 2011. If a change has occurred, we want to try to find out how it looks like. From a social constructivist approach and using conceptual explanations of gender, masculinity and homosociality, we intend to analyze the two Swedish lifestyle magazines Café and Slitz. We will take particular note of studies on mass media and its impact on people's everyday lives. The method used to enable us to further analyze the material is critical discourse analysis, which is to scrutinize the basic sentence context of the text. The material we assume is limited to all Café’s and Slitz’ editions from 1999. To see if changes are made, we analyze two editions of Café from 2010 and six from 2011, and six editions of Slitz from 2009 and three from 2011. Thus, our aim is to try to present an interesting picture of these multi-nuanced contextual and discursive aspects. The general results are as follows: in Slitz, we found no relevant difference, but in the Café, we find a discursive difference between 1999 to 2011.