Change is a timely issue across organisations, particularly since the start of the economic crisis, and especially within English local government. Yet, this question remains dominated by macro and micro explanatory models which tend to exclude conflict, mess and power in favour of enumerating universalistic steps or leadership factors for successful change. This thesis problematises this literature, drawing on Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985) political discourse theory and its mobilisation by critical management studies of organisational change. Three avenues are identified to further this literature. First, the organisation is analysed as an ongoing and fragile hegemonic project in which spaces are defined and consent must be constantly renewed. Second, the organisation is recast as a discursively constituted ‘site’ within a flat ontology, where change is not the result of some ‘bigger’ phenomena such as neo-liberalism or austerity, but instead is the product of situated articulations, disparate demands being mobilised as threats or opportunities requiring change. Finally, a third proposition articulates leadership in organisations as a set of multiple and changing practices, pragmatically deployed by organisational players. In exploring those avenues, a five-step ‘logics of critical explanation’ approach is deployed, characterising organisational change practices according to social (rules and norms), political (inclusions and exclusions), and fantasmatic (fears and hopes) logics (Glynos and Howarth, 2007). A nine month case study of an English County Council and its local strategic partnership’s organisational change project, Integrated Commissioning 2012 (IC 2012), is analysed to problematise the emergence, transformation and failure of practices of change in organisations. Rather than a set of factors or top-down causes and effects, this research demonstrates how change, organisations and leadership are best explained as discursive constructions, where a set of conditions drawn from a given site must be problematised. This research contributes to critical explanations of organisational change politics in three ways. First, by developing the concept of hegemony and hegemonic spaces, this thesis evidences how organisations and change are the result of ongoing struggles, consent being notably gathered by the constant refuelling of the fantasmatic appeal of change. Second, framing the organisation as a site generates a more complex, situated and dynamic understanding of the mobilisation of disparate demands within change discourses. Third, by considering leadership as a set of changing discursive practices and developing four situated dimensions of leadership in the case study, this research adds to critical leadership studies and discursive discussions of the role of individuals in organisational politics.

A Comissão Intergestores Bipartite (CIB) foi instituída pela Norma Operacional Básica 01/93 e responde pelos aspectos operacionais do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). É um espaço de negociação e pactuação entre gestores municipais e estaduais, promovendo a integração dos diferentes sistemas municipais de saúde sob coordenação do governo estadual. As normas expedidas pela CIB, na forma de resoluções, têm natureza jurídica de direitos-meio, isto é, estabelecem os procedimentos específicos para realização do direito à saúde, permitindo que todos os potenciais destinatários destas normas possam conhecer, aderir, criticar ou mesmo judicializá-las. O poder normativo da CIB decorre da previsão legislativa expressa para regular os aspectos operacionais do SUS e da legitimidade democrática, exercida diretamente pelo cidadão, ou através dos Conselho Estadual de Saúde (CES). As normas que emanam deste fórum deliberativo devem ser respeitas por integrarem o ordenamento jurídico e cumprirem sua função de instrumentalização normativa do SUS. Nesse sentido, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi discutir o poder normativos da CIB e a efetividade de suas normas, a partir do paradigma do discurso do direito. Realizamos uma análise documental, a partir das resoluções e das atas da CIB, para compreender sua dinâmica discurso-deliberativa e caracterizá-la, ou não, como um espaço de gênese democrática de direitos. Identificamos e classificamos as propostas aprovadas quanto à correspondência com as resoluções do CES, quanto ao conteúdo, à forma de aprovação à dinâmica da discussão das propostas aprovadas que resultaram em resoluções. Foi possível perceber que há um grande potencial democrático na CIB, um potencial que precisa ser explorado. Mas há também fragilidades e contradições na dinâmica das discussões no interior da Intergestores. Há indício de uma institucionalização que mina o potencial democrático-discursivo e se fecha à participação e controle social. Em tempos de uma democracia e de um sistema jurídico em crise de legitimidade, espaços como a CIB devem cada vez mais se abrir para a participação popular, estimulando uma radicalização democrática, construindo instrumentos de participação da sociedade civil e de abertura às novas formas de expressão da democracia participativa, que escapa às formas institucionais tradicionais / The Intermanager Bipartite Commission (IBC) was instituted by the Basic Operational Norm 01/93 and responds for the operational aspects of the Unified Health System (UHS). It is a forum for negotiation and pactuation between municipal and state managers, promoting the integration of the various municipal health systems coordinated by the state government. The norms issued by the IBC in the form of resolutions , have the nature of procedural rights, in other words, establish specific procedures for fulfill the right to health , allowing all potential receivers of these norms to acknowledge, support, criticize or even challenge them in court. The normative power of the ICB results from express legal prevision to regulate the operational aspects of the UHS, and its democratic legitimacy is the result of the control exercised directly by citizens or through the State Council of Health (SCH). The norms that emanate from the ICB should recognize as a part of the legal order and fulfill its operational goal inside the legal health system. Accordingly, the objective of this research was to discuss the normative power of the IBC and the effectiveness of its resolutions, under the paradigm of the discourse theory of law. The methodology was fulfilled through the documentary analysis of the resolutions and discussions of IBC, to understand its deliberative and discursive dynamics to characterize it, or not, as a forum for democratic genesis of rights. We identify and rank the proposals approved as its correspondence with the resolutions of the SCH, as its the content, its approval procedures, and the dynamics of the discussion to approve proposals that resulted in resolutions. We observed that there is a great democratic potential in IBC, a potential that needs to be explored. But there are also weaknesses and contradictions in the dynamics of the discussions within the Intermanager. There is evidence of a potential institutionalization that undermines democratic discourse and closes the IBC to social participation and control. In times of a democracy and a legal system in a crisis of legitimacy, spaces like the IBC must increasingly open to popular participation, encouraging democratic radicalization, building instruments for civil society to participate and openness to the new forms of expression of democracy, which escapes the traditional institutional forms

"This thesis presents learning and interaction algorithms to support a human teaching hierarchical task models to a robot using a single or multiple examples in the context of a mixed-initiative interaction with bi-directional communication. Our first contribution is an approach for learning a high level task from a single example using the bottom-up style. In particular, we have identified and implemented two important heuristics for suggesting task groupings and repetitions based on the data flow between tasks and on the physical structure of the manipulated artifact. We have evaluated our heuristics with users in a simulated environment and shown that the suggestions significantly improve the learning and interaction. For our second contribution, we extended this interaction by enabling users to teaching tasks using the top-down teaching style in addition to the bottom-up teaching style. Results obtained in a pilot study show that users utilize both the bottom-up and the top-down teaching styles to teach tasks. Our third contribution is an algorithm that merges multiple examples when there are alternative ways of doing a task. The merging algorithm is still under evaluation. "

This thesis adopts a bottom-up, qualitative approach to Palestinian identity construction in East Jerusalem and asks how the new politics and altered geography of the city since Oslo are recreating Palestinian subjectivities and redefining Palestinian struggle. I make the case that East Jerusalemites are doubly marginalised, first as Palestinians spatially and politically dislocated from the West Bank, then as residents of Israel, inside the politics and economy of the state but permanently excluded from the national project. Distanced from both state projects and from the discursive structures through which Palestinian identity was constructed after 1967, East Jerusalem residents are redefining from below what it means to be Palestinian in ways that are unfamiliar to Palestinians elsewhere in the occupied territories. Drawing on the vocabulary and theoretical contours of discourse theory, I problematise the top-down optic favoured by mainstream academic approaches which essentialises identities and privileges an occupation/resistance binary. I suggest that a ground-level approach to everyday practices in East Jerusalem sheds light on the extent to which existing nationalist and resistance discourses have either lost or changed meaning for Palestinian residents and makes evident the complexities of domination which are not visible from an elevated perspective. I suggest that the view from the ground in East Jerusalem is significantly underexplored and that from this position, the assumptions underlying existing analytic approaches to Palestinian identity and struggle are called into question.

A Comissão Intergestores Bipartite (CIB) foi instituída pela Norma Operacional Básica 01/93 e responde pelos aspectos operacionais do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). É um espaço de negociação e pactuação entre gestores municipais e estaduais, promovendo a integração dos diferentes sistemas municipais de saúde sob coordenação do governo estadual. As normas expedidas pela CIB, na forma de resoluções, têm natureza jurídica de direitos-meio, isto é, estabelecem os procedimentos específicos para realização do direito à saúde, permitindo que todos os potenciais destinatários destas normas possam conhecer, aderir, criticar ou mesmo judicializá-las. O poder normativo da CIB decorre da previsão legislativa expressa para regular os aspectos operacionais do SUS e da legitimidade democrática, exercida diretamente pelo cidadão, ou através dos Conselho Estadual de Saúde (CES). As normas que emanam deste fórum deliberativo devem ser respeitas por integrarem o ordenamento jurídico e cumprirem sua função de instrumentalização normativa do SUS. Nesse sentido, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi discutir o poder normativos da CIB e a efetividade de suas normas, a partir do paradigma do discurso do direito. Realizamos uma análise documental, a partir das resoluções e das atas da CIB, para compreender sua dinâmica discurso-deliberativa e caracterizá-la, ou não, como um espaço de gênese democrática de direitos. Identificamos e classificamos as propostas aprovadas quanto à correspondência com as resoluções do CES, quanto ao conteúdo, à forma de aprovação à dinâmica da discussão das propostas aprovadas que resultaram em resoluções. Foi possível perceber que há um grande potencial democrático na CIB, um potencial que precisa ser explorado. Mas há também fragilidades e contradições na dinâmica das discussões no interior da Intergestores. Há indício de uma institucionalização que mina o potencial democrático-discursivo e se fecha à participação e controle social. Em tempos de uma democracia e de um sistema jurídico em crise de legitimidade, espaços como a CIB devem cada vez mais se abrir para a participação popular, estimulando uma radicalização democrática, construindo instrumentos de participação da sociedade civil e de abertura às novas formas de expressão da democracia participativa, que escapa às formas institucionais tradicionais / The Intermanager Bipartite Commission (IBC) was instituted by the Basic Operational Norm 01/93 and responds for the operational aspects of the Unified Health System (UHS). It is a forum for negotiation and pactuation between municipal and state managers, promoting the integration of the various municipal health systems coordinated by the state government. The norms issued by the IBC in the form of resolutions , have the nature of procedural rights, in other words, establish specific procedures for fulfill the right to health , allowing all potential receivers of these norms to acknowledge, support, criticize or even challenge them in court. The normative power of the ICB results from express legal prevision to regulate the operational aspects of the UHS, and its democratic legitimacy is the result of the control exercised directly by citizens or through the State Council of Health (SCH). The norms that emanate from the ICB should recognize as a part of the legal order and fulfill its operational goal inside the legal health system. Accordingly, the objective of this research was to discuss the normative power of the IBC and the effectiveness of its resolutions, under the paradigm of the discourse theory of law. The methodology was fulfilled through the documentary analysis of the resolutions and discussions of IBC, to understand its deliberative and discursive dynamics to characterize it, or not, as a forum for democratic genesis of rights. We identify and rank the proposals approved as its correspondence with the resolutions of the SCH, as its the content, its approval procedures, and the dynamics of the discussion to approve proposals that resulted in resolutions. We observed that there is a great democratic potential in IBC, a potential that needs to be explored. But there are also weaknesses and contradictions in the dynamics of the discussions within the Intermanager. There is evidence of a potential institutionalization that undermines democratic discourse and closes the IBC to social participation and control. In times of a democracy and a legal system in a crisis of legitimacy, spaces like the IBC must increasingly open to popular participation, encouraging democratic radicalization, building instruments for civil society to participate and openness to the new forms of expression of democracy, which escapes the traditional institutional forms

This research study takes a multi-disciplinary perspective, using critical discourse theory, transactional communication theory and cross-cultural theory to contribute insight into the experiences of alternative entry students as they strive to access and participate in higher education. The study seeks to determine how these students learn to persevere: how they construct their means of succeeding in the university culture. The methodological structure of the research comprises a collective case study design, encompassing critical ethnography, action research and reflexive approaches to guide a deeper understanding of the experiences of studying at a regional Australian university. The reflexive nature of the research facilitated the development of an original theoretical construct, the ‘deficit-discourse’ shift, which challenges higher education policy and practice, in particular, in relation to academics’ roles in making their discourses explicit and in collaborating with students to facilitate students’ perseverance and success. The research has also generated two models: the Framework for Student Engagement and Mastery and the Model for Student Success at University. The Framework re-conceptualises the university as a dynamic culture made up of a multiplicity of sub-cultures, each with its own literacy or discourse. The Framework recasts the first year experience as a journey, with students’ transition re-conceptualised as the processes of gaining familiarity with and negotiating these new literacies and discourses whereas perseverance is viewed as the processes of mastering and demonstrating them. The Model provides a three step practical strategy (incorporating reflective practice, socio-cultural practice and critical practice) for achieving this engagement: for empowering students to negotiate, master and demonstrate their mastery of the university culture’s multiple discourses. Together, the two models provide students with a means of succeeding in the new university culture.

Uppsatsen syftar till att studera svenska tidningars rapportering om Kina och klarlägga hur bilden av Kina konstrueras i tidningarna. Detta görs genom en diskursanalys av artiklar från tre av Sveriges största dagstidningar. Både teori och metod har sin utgångspunkt i Laclau & Mouffes diskursteori. Valet av artiklar grundar sig i att artiklarna på ett eller annat vis handlat om, eller tagit upp Kina och därigenom hjälpt till att konstruera en bild av landet. I analysen har det insamlade materialet sorterats in i tre olika teman utifrån vad artiklarna berör, dessa teman är, ekonomi, politik, och orientalism. De två första innefattar artiklar om Kinas ekonomiska och politiska förfarande. I det tredje temat, orientalism, innehåller artiklar där landet och dess invånare framställs som ”Den andre”, motsatsen till väst. Resultatet visar att de tre utvalda tidningarnas likartade rapportering kring de olika temana skapar en enhetlig bild av Kina. Det är den liberala demokratin och marknadsekonomins hegemoniska position som genomsyrar samtliga tidningars konstruktion av Kina. / This essay aims to study how Swedish newspapers are constructing China textually. This is done by a discourse analysis of articles from three of the biggest newspapers in Sweden. The essays theoretical and methodical background stems from Laclau & Mouffe’s discourse theory. The selection of newspaper articles is based on the simple fact that they are written about China or that they mention China, and thereby helps to construct an image of the country. In the analysis of the gathered articles, the material has been sorted into three different themes depending on what the subject matter of the articles was. The themes are economics, politics, and orientalism. The first two themes address Chinas economic and political actions. The third theme, orientalism, includes articles where the country and its inhabitants are portrayed as “the other”, the opposite to the western world. The results show that the three newspapers selected all portray the same things in regards to the different themes that helps create a unified image of China. It is the liberal democracy and the market economy’s hegemonic position that permeates the reporting on China in the newspapers.

This essay examines how the Baphomet symbol is understood in three different contexts. Firstly, the understanding of the Baphomet is analysed in the book Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, written by the French 19th century occultist Éliphas Lévi. Secondly, I analyse the symbol in The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey, the person responsible for having introduced Satanism to modernity. Thirdly, the Baphomet as understood in contemporary metal music culture is analysed. Ultimately, I find the Baphomet to be viewed as a symbol associated with Satan, but in very different ways. The reason to why these differences exist I find to be partially explained by the initial mystery surrounding the Baphomet. The understanding of the Baphomet depends also on the role of Satan in each context. Due to Satan representing different things in the three different contexts, so does the Baphomet. / <p>All images removed.</p>

No description available.

The goal of this essay is to analyse how women belonging to a right wing political discourse talk about feminism and equality. This analysis will be used to determine if right wing feminism exists. The analysis is based on Laclau and Mouffe´s  discourse theory as the primary base. The focus is articulation, antagonism and hegmony; the central terms of Laclau and Moffe´s theroy. The material consists of five interviews with representatives of women wings of liberal political in Sweaden; Liberala kvinnor, Centerkvinnor and Moderatkvinnor. The study shows that there are different opinions regarding feminism in the liberal political discouse, and that those opinions have an antagonistic relationship. This has resulted in a re-articulation of feminism and feministic issues.