This thesis is a discursive investigation of contested political discourse. Using Discursive Psychology, I analyse broadcast political debates on the European Union to explore how politicians advocate and defend their political positions in an argumentative context of justification and criticism. Past research in social psychology and cognate disciplines has investigated ideology from a multitude of views. Following a move away from mainstream approaches I demonstrate how some qualitative approaches treat it as a live matter in broadcast political debates. For my data I have chosen the controversial political battleground that is the European Union and what it means for Britain. The contribution of Discursive Psychology comes in highlighting the contested, rhetorical, nature of ideology . In this thesis I draw upon Discursive Psychology to explore how this contestation unfolds as situated practice in multi-party conversations about the EU. Politicians will argue in favour or against the EU, often on the grounds of what the implication is for Britain. In this thesis I argue that Discursive Psychology is best equipped to allow us to study this as an activity; an observable, and contextual, social action. The analytical chapters focus on three interrelated aspects of political argumentation: the construction and use of factual claims (including demonstrations of knowledge statuses ) and counterclaims, the role of overlapping talk, and the function of laughter and derision. The first analytical chapter seeks to elucidate some of the ways in which facts and situated knowledge displays of them are oriented to as an argumentative matter and how they can be challenged. The second analytic chapter illustrates the role played by overlapping talk and challenges in managing the argument at hand. The last analytic chapter focuses on the accomplishment of derision in broadcast political debates, particularly on how derision can be used as form of counterclaim. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates the usefulness of Discursive Psychology in understanding the discursive dynamics of mobilisation, contestation, and defence of contrasting viewpoints in the service of political argumentation. Discursive Psychology can help social psychologists get a much deeper appreciation of the situated, and discursively dynamic, nature of political argumentation and conflict in talk.

This thesis critiques and describes the prevalent discourses regarding notions of 'difference' in counselling psychologist's talk. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants and were tape-recorded, transcribed and analysed. Participants were asked to speak about notions of 'difference' in their counselling psychology practice. Transcripts were then coded and analysed using a critical discursive psychological approach which looked for prevalent interpretive repertoires, ideological dilemmas and subject positions. This critical discursive psychology approach seeks to employ a twin focus of discourse analysis, attending to both the micro and macro levels of interactions and constructions. The prevalent discourses were described and critiqued by the researcher. Analysis of transcripts provided a rich range of possible constructions of 'difference' and were then grouped into headings and subheadings and presented to the reader. These notions of 'difference' are explored in relation to counselling psychology practice and the impact that they may have on therapeutic relationships. Interpretive repertoires included constructions of where 'differences' originate, how dimensions of 'difference' were constructed, positive and negative constructions of 'difference', 'difference' in relation to notions of power and prejudice and finally professional discourses on 'difference'. This thesis addresses how important it is for counselling psychologist's to analyse the discourses and constructions available to them so that their clients' are facilitated in the therapeutic encounter and so that practitioners' constructions of 'difference' do not hinder therapy. This study contributes to highlighting the need for counselling psychology's continued commitment to anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practices.

This study is a discourse analysis of leadership among Thai staffworking in non-profit cross-cultural organizations in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The purpose is to study the pervading leadership discourses, how these are affected by the fact that they are working in non-profit cross-cultural organizations, and how the staffexperiencesconflicting discourses in the organization. The material consists of six interviews with Thai staff. The result includeseight leadership discourses, where the two greatest are relational leadership and national culture. Relational leadership includes the importance of relationship between leaders and followers, something that also characterizes the Thai culture. The national culture discourse consists of descriptions of leadership stylesthatdepend onnational culture. Several of the other leadership discourses presented also include similarities with the Thai culture as explained by for example Hofstede (1980) and Ukosakul (2005), while others are descriptions of transformationalleadership, a leadership style said by some to be universal(Den Hartog, House,Hanges, & Ruiz-Quintanilla, 1999). The leadership discourses are affected by the fact that the informants are working in non-profit cross-cultural organizations, causing for example challenges in communication. The informants also describe that they adapt to theculturesof the people they are working with, but also expect leaders to adapt to the local culture and context. Despite differences in national culture, the organizational goals create a common base. The conflicting discourses that are describedhave to do with national cultures, both between different national cultures, but also between culture and personality or religious discourses.

This study aimed to examine the power relations in a TV-show called Kvartsamtalet between the host Parisa Amiri and her guests. The empiric material consisted of four programs which were guested by Ebba Busch, Jason Diakité, Anders Ygeman and Nanna Blondell. The material was analyzed with discursive psychology which is a form of discourse analysis that focuses on psychological themes in text, talk, and images. Our study aimed to analyze the talk between Amiri and her guests. The material is analyzed with theories of power by Michel Foucault, performative gender by Judith Butler, theatrical performance by Erving Goffman and intersectionality by Nina Lykke, Paulina De los Reyes and Diana Mulinari. The result of the study shows that power relations through intersectionality mostly is negotiated between identity categories such as gender and ethnicity. The interviews showed that the power relations through intersectionality are both maintained and contradicted by every individual on the show, and the negotiation also takes place in a larger societal perspective. The analysis has shown that power is created in social interaction depending on how individuals talk to each other.

The new phenomenon of “police influencers” consist of police officers who, under their private names, use their platform to share posts with both police content and humorous messages. The public's perception of the phenomenon is divided, and critical voices say it is inappropriate. The Swedish police force is known for their fellowship, often called “the spirit of the union”. But how does this fellowship correspond to front figures like police influencers?  In this study we examine how Swedish police officers and police students respond to the police influencers by applying a theoretical framework based on a discourse psychological perspective and theories about identity and organizational culture. The empirical material consists of semi- structured interviews with both police officers and police students.  The result shows that the organizational culture within the police force can be affected by police influencers. The informants show a strong feeling of unity within the force and are making a strong effort to maintain the police authority's legitimacy and trust. Police students seem to be negative to the phenomenon in large, but positive to the fact that police influencers can share important knowledge about the police profession. Experienced Police officers on the other hand are more concerned about how communication made by police influencers can damage the reputation of the police force. This divided perception can result in a split within the organization depending on how one views the phenomenon. There is a strong norm for what a police officer should do, and this characterizes the informants' perception of the phenomenon and in what way it affects the police force.  Keywords: Police, influencer, social media, public authority, identity, discursive psychology, organizational culture.

The coronavirus was classified as a pandemic at the beginning of the year 2020. As the virus spread across the globe, businesses and their employees had to act quickly. Businesses were preparing to conduct their meetings virtually via digital tools and their employees started to work from home and had to quickly adapt to the new normality as well. The purpose of this thesis is to delve into employees' experiences of shifting from physical to virtual meetings. The empirical material is based on six semi-structured interviews that later were transcribed and analyzed using discursive psychology (DP) as a second method. To examine the participants' relation between language and identity the theoretical framework of the thesis drawn from the approach of Stuart Hall’s cultural studies, Erving Goffman's dramaturgical theory and the sociological perspective, and Joanne Franklin's theory about self and self-identity in the modern age. The results showed that it has been difficult to maintain a professional and private role while working from home. While it has generally been easy to adapt to new technologies, some people faced challenges with the transition and usage of new technologies, especially older generations. The study also demonstrated that digital meetings can be effective, but successful creative meetings are difficult to implement digitally. There are also no guidelines on how and when to use all the different tools and functions during a digital meeting, however, when participating in a digital meeting there are social norms to relate to.

Background: Most likely given the increase in sick leave absence with mental health issues as the dominant cause, the Swedish Work Environment Agency has released a new regulation regarding the organisational and psychosocial work environment. Shiftwork has been given special attention. Nurses often perform shiftwork and are one of the professions most vulnerable to work stress, ill health and burnout syndrome. Swedish municipalities has therefore initiated an organisational change to implement a schedule model that considers research on work health, but also to solve staffing issues and keep the budget in balance. Assistant nurses have taken to social and traditional media to raise objections to these new schedules.  Objectives: The aim is to examine how discursive practices are used in opinion texts to argue against the organisational change within Swedish municipalities through looking at the narrative structure of the texts and how the nurses’ identities are made relevant in the text.  Methods: A discursive psychological analysis that examines the way language is used to establish the definition of the situation and gain control over the narrative. Data sources included 27 opinion texts from Swedish media newspapers that were publicly available. Results: Three themes were identified: the structure of the narrative, the issue of money and the construction of the nurses. The structure of narrative drew on two linguistic trends: pseudo-academic language and emotive language to describe the situation at hand. In the issue of money they attributed saving money and greed as behind the implementation of the new schedule model, rather than concern over the staff’s welfare. In contrast they constructed themselves as being humble, reasonable and caring about the care receivers. Conclusions: The assistant nurses used language in the opinion texts to take control over the narrative by drawing on aspects relating to health, attributions of motive for the implementation of this organisational change and constructing themselves as being reasonable, humble and caring for the care receivers in contrast to a calculating, greedy employer who cares only about money. The nurses’ working environment is constructed as impacting on the well-being of care-receivers. The nurses position themselves against discourses relating to cost efficiency, rationalisation, and emphasis on administration.

This study analyzes discussions from online language teacher education to understand how conversations between monolingual and bilingual preservice teachers (PSTs) in the US create and delimit structural constraints on teachers’ agency, (re)positioning teachers’ capacity to act in the instruction of emergent bilingual students (EBs). Employing positioning theory within a critical discursive psychology approach, findings demonstrate how bilingual PSTs pushed back on structural constraints introduced as potential barriers to achieving linguistic pluralism in monolingual teachers’ posts, asserting teachers’ agency by simultaneously positioning themselves and others as capable and responsible for education of EBs. These findings inform theoretical understandings of agency as a discursive construct and offer insights for teacher educators as they conceptualize the role of discursive exchanges in developing PSTs’ understanding of structures and agentive possibilities regarding the equitable education of EBs.

Necessitated by a heightened focus on global migration and its impact on educational realities across the globe, this study examined how educational experiences of students with refugee backgrounds are characterized in US educational news outlets. 385 articles from three online education news sites in the US were examined using a narrative-discursive approach. Analysis demonstrated how mutually dependent narrative patterns constructed students as resilient survivors, while schools were positioned as safe havens designed to support them. We show how these narrative patterns were accomplished through the use of common discursive features, positioning refugee student populations and the institutional responsibility of schools in bounded ways. We consider these findings in light of how broader discourses visible in news media narratives shape and reflect the reality of refugee-background students’ educational experiences in the US.

This study explores how six teachers worked up becoming and being activists in response to education reforms in the southeastern US. The reforms, which involved increasing student testing and implementing high-stakes teacher evaluations, were enacted following the authorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act, federal legislation governing elementary and secondary education. Discourse analysis of interview data demonstrates how engaging in activism was constructed and positioned by teachers in response to these policy changes. We describe two interrelated patterns: (1) characterizing activism as requiring ‘professionalism’ on the part of the teacher-activist; and (2) justifying their actions by contrasting versions of activism in the media with their own activism, which they aligned with commonly accepted category-bound activities tied to ‘doing’ being a teacher. Findings shed light on the nuanced negotiation of educators’ roles as teacher-activists within the current policy context and the complicated nature of framing professionalism and activism for public audiences.