Denna avhandling har godkänts i Sydafrika och sedan publicerats av Svenska Institutet för Missionsforskning (SIM) i efterhand.

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.

In processes of economic integration, neoliberal discourse and corresponding notions of development comprise some of the most readily available imaginaries of political and social interaction and change. However, these processes are always also locally produced and negotiated. Engaging with discourse theory, Marxism and postcolonial feminist theory, this dissertation brings together “macro” and “micro” aspects of globalization. The aim is to interrogate discursive reinforcements of and challenges to global orders of production and divisions of labor. With a focus on representations of Free Trade Zones (FTZs), which are tax-exempted enclaves for export production, the study explores competing meanings attributed to the operation of transnational capital in Nicaragua. Based on policy documents, political speeches, promotional videotapes and interviews, the political rhetoric of two governments with competing agendas is analyzed: the neoliberal/conservative government of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (2002–2007), which framed the FTZs in terms of national progress, and the leftist government of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (2007– ), which attempts to reconnect to the country’s revolutionary past. In this way efforts to formulate legitimate political agendas in the context of shifting relations between states and markets are detailed, together with constructions of citizens and workers along differentiations of class and gender. Relying on interviews with FTZ workers, the study examines ways to interpret, inhabit or resist imperative subject positions at the intersections of contending projects of nation-building and transnational orders of production, in conjunction with a discussion of the uneasy distinction between representation and appropriation that troubles transnational feminist research projects.

This study aims to investigate how principals in Stockholm as recruiters talk about the recruitment process and ethnicdiversity and how these statements could affect the possibilities of a Romany acquiring a Student Aid position within theschool in question. The statements will be interpreted through a discursive perspective inspired by Foucault and Laclau &Mouffe with a special focus on the power aspect and its consequences in terms of inclusion and exclusion. The resultpresents that defining the right and wrong person for the job is the central theme (nodal point) in the discourse were theRomanies are seen as just almost right as their competence mainly works as a complement to the existing work-force.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how LKAB are portrayed in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN). The methods that were used were: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) combined with Critical Linguistic Analysis. These were used since they help to reveal the structures and unconscious meaning and power of word. It gives the tools to see how authority, power and meaning of words are constructed during social practice of the way they are used. To complement the method the theories that’s used are discourse analysis since CDA is both a method and a theory. A theory concerning journalism has also been included for the paper.As a result of the analysis, it shows that LKAB is portrayed as a large company with huge amount of economic resources. In articles with a positive attitude against the company they are regarded as a strong and active company in the Swedish economy during the financial crisis that generates a lot of money for the Swedish state. Articles that portrait LKAB in a negative way, regards them as a company that with the power of the state are allowed to look past the individuals that lives near the mines or the environment as long as it generates money for them and the state. The people living near the mines will have to accept the thing that’s happening to them. This paper also shows that the articles that were analyzed, all of them confirm and legitimize the power to certain sources used for facts which confirms that journalists needs certain sources to appear as secure but that also let the sources with power keep their power.

For the past decades, culture has been given a role as a factor for local and regional development. But what is meant by development and in what ways culture can be of importance in this aspect can be unclear. This thesis examines the perception of the role for local and regional development of one specific cultural place and network – the cultural cooperative Not Quite in Fengersfors, Sweden. I study the way the role as developer is expressed and interpreted in the discourse of the cultural workers who are members of the network and in the discourse of public cultural policy in the region Västra Götaland and in Åmål municipality. The study shows that there are both similarities and differences between the discourses concerning how the role as developer is expressed. What differs is the focus on economic growth, which is expressed to be of great importance in the public cultural policy discourse. The cultural workers within Not Quite express a lack of interest in economic growth, or even a negative attitude towards it. They instead express a ”discourse of meaning”. For them, the main purpose of their artistic work is to create meaning and value for other people rather than economic growth. However, the practical effects of the differences seem quite small. There seem to be a balance between the different kinds of development Not Quite is expected to contribute to, and the cultural workers express a relaxed attitude to goals and expectations from the Västra Götaland region and Åmål municipality.

A possible "discursive turn" is believed to have been observed within Swedish political science in later years. The purpose of this study is to examine whether or not such a turn has actually taken place, in order to further determine if a resulting theoretical homogeneity poses a risk to the ability of Swedish political science to identify and respond to its full width of possible research problems, and to determine its perspectives on both these problems and the results that are later communicated to the general society. To do so, the study poses the following primary research question: "Has a discursive turn occurred within Swedish political science?" This question is then broken down into two specified research questions. "Has discourse analysis become a more common approach for doctoral dissertations in political science during the period of 2000-2013?" "Have ideas corresponding with discourse theory become more common within doctoral dissertations in political science that are not pure discourse analyses during the period of 2000-2013?" These questions are then answered by examining all known 406 doctoral dissertations in political science published in Sweden during the 21st century up until (and including) the year of 2013, using two forms of content analysis, one manual and one computer-assisted. The study finds no clear evidence of a discursive turn in Swedish political science since the turn of the century. The results demonstrate, however, that while ideas corresponding with discourse theory do not appear to have become unambiguously more common in recent times, they do appear in some form in a majority of the examined dissertations, albeit most often on the margin. The study finds no significant indications of a theoretical homogenisation that might impede upon the ability of political science to identify and respond to its full width of research problems. Discourse analysis appears to have a stable presence within Swedish political science, but does not appear to risk contributing to a homogenous research climate that might damage the plurality of research. Instead, it might be seen as a contribution to this plurality.

Female and male managers in crisis - A qualitative study of how daily and evening newspapers produce female and male managers in crisis The purpose of this studie was to investigate how female and male managers are produced in daily and evening newspapers. The newspapers that has been used in this study is Dagens Nyheter, as a representation for daily newspapers, and Aftonbladet, as an representation for evening tabloids. To answer the purpose three issues has been formulated: what are the female and male managers importance in emergency situations in the articles? How are power attributed to women and men in the articles? What similarities and differences are there between the representations from Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet? The theories that has been used in this studie are mainly gender theory, critical discourse analysis (CDA). The results of the analysis showed that female managers in subjectivily presented articles reports are produced in a more negative way than male managers. Further could the male managers be interpreted to be attributed more power in the articles than the female managers.

The purpose of this study is that through a discourse theoretical perspective, analyze young girls 'statements about living with self-injuring by sexual behavior. The aim is to locate the discourses that surround them, visualize how discursive constructions affect these young girls' identity as victims and/or actors in relation to self-injury, the sexual violence and in meetings with the professionals within the health authorities. In addition discourse theory as an analyze method, the authors also use Nils Christie's (2001) theory of the ideal victim and Ingrid Landers (2003) theoretical perspectives on normative femininity. The authors of the study show a diversity of discourses that surround the young girls. All discourses contain normative actor- and victim’s positions that young girls constantly are obliged to relate to, which partially conflict with social constructions of the idea of victim and femininity. These positions are assigned, claimed or opposition to, and characterizes not only the young girls self-image, but also how professionals within the health authorities look at them and what support and assistance that’s offered or deprived. Finally, the authors argue for a broader approach to young girls who self-injuring by sexual behavior, they can be both victims and actors and advocates a questioning of oppressive norms to detect and identify the young girls who self-injure by sexual behavior, when it is a prerequisite to widen their options and discretion.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att beskriva hur socialarbetarens yrkesroll och yrkesidentitet kan konstrueras i uppdraget som biståndshandläggare och i förhållande till rådande diskurser inom området. Kunskapsläget inom fältet visade att arbetet som biståndshandläggare är komplext och att det därför kan vara svårt att arbeta på det sätt lagen föreskriver. Dels beroende på att den ideologiska och ekonomiska samhällsutvecklingen kan leda till lagändringar och organisatoriska förändringar, dels beroende på hänsynstagandet till det allmänna intresset. Studiens empiriska material utgörs av intervjuer med fem biståndshandläggare/socialsekreterare, varav den ena inte hade ett myndighetsutövande uppdrag. Ett diskursteoretiskt perspektiv användes som verktygslåda för att analysera socialsekreterarnas utsagor och för att besvara studiens syfte och frågeställningar. Studiens resultat visade på att yrkesrollen konstrueras diskursivt, avhängigt kontexten och i förhållande till organisationens uppdrag för den enskilde socialsekreteraren. Socialarbetaridentiteten/ identiteterna tillskrevs olika former av betydelser men också olika former av diskursiva krav och förväntningar på både beteende och handlande. / The aim of this study was to describe how the social worker’s professional role and work identity can be constructed in the case manager’s assignments and in relation to the existing discourses in the field. Previous research in this field has shown that a case manager’s work is complex and that it can be difficult to perform their assignments according to the law. Partly because of the ideological and economic development in society, which might lead to changes in the organization, and partly due to the consideration of public interest. The empirical part of the study consists of interviews with five social workers. One of these social workers did not have a regulatory exercise assignment. To reach the aim of the study, a theoretical discourse perspective was used. The result showed that the work identity of the case manager is constructed through the discourses of the context and in relation to the assignments given to each case officer from the organization. The social worker identity was assigned with different meanings and different discursive requirements and expectations regarding how to behave and act.