The Swedish Police Authority aims to increase diversity among employees within the authority. This is asserted in the Swedish Police Authority's own policies and action plans, which together with other internal documents are the subject of my qualitative study. The focus of this study is to look at how the use of the concept of diversity has changed within the Swedish Police Authority by using qualitative analysis of ideas and ideological context, the perspective of discursive psychology and neo-institutional theory. The aim is also to find out what is missing out in the current diversity discourse. My study reveals through an examination of a selection of The Swedish Police Authority’s document that there is a discrepancy between the external discourses on diversity and the internal norms that are to be found within the Swedish Police Authority.

I det här självständiga arbetet framkommer det att notläsning inte alltid ses som någonting nödvändigt av elgitarrelever på gymnasiet, men det finns vissa tillfällen de värderar det högt. I det här självständiga arbetet undersöks diskursiva uppfattningar och diskursivt innehåll i gymnasieelevers utsagor kring notläsning på elgitarr. Fokusgrupper har använts för att samla in data till analysen. Det teoretiska perspektivet i arbetets analys är diskurspsykologi, vilket används för att tolka hur bakomliggande föreställningar, normer och värderingar formar en diskurs. Att förstå någonting diskursivt innebär att ta hänsyn till att det inom olika kulturella, historiska och andra sammanhang finns olika faktorer som formar vad som anses vara det normativa. Arbetets frågeställningar är ”Hur samtalar gymnasieelever om notläsning på elgitarr?” och ”Hur kan gymnasieelevers förhållande till notläsning på elgitarr förstås diskursivt?”. Resultatet visar på två diskursiva uppfattningar kring notläsning på elgitarr: notläsning och självförverkligande samt notläsning som svårt att lära sig men nyttigt. Resultatet visar att gymnasieelever tycker det är viktigt med notläsning i olika sammanhang. De pedagogiska implikationerna är att anpassa notläsningsundervisning efter elevernas nivå samt att främja motivation och engagemang. / In this study, it is evident that sight reading is not always considered necessary by high school electric guitar students. However, there are certain occasions when they highly appreciate it. This study examines discursive perceptions and discursive content in high school students' statements about reading sheet music on the electric guitar. Focus groups have been used to collect data for the analysis. The theoretical perspective in the analysis of this work is discursive psychology, which is used to interpret how underlying assumptions, norms, and values shape a discourse. Understanding something discursively involves considering that within different cultural, historical, and other contexts, there are various factors shaping what is considered normative. The research questions are "How do high school students discuss reading sheet music on the electric guitar?" and "How can high school students' relationship to reading sheet music on the electric guitar be understood discursively?". The results indicate two discursive perceptions regarding reading sheet music on the electric guitar: sheet music and self-realization, as well as sheet music as difficult to learn but useful. The findings show that high school students find sheet music important in various contexts. The pedagogical implications are to tailor sheet music instruction to the students' level and to promote motivation and engagement.

The purpose for this research journey was twofold: (1) to discover the power of certain discourses in the charismatic church context and (2) to challenge disrespectful discursive practices in order to co-operate respectful, ethical and caring ways of being. Seven leaders in charismatic churches committed themselves to this qualitative research project. The research process resulted in a confirmation by the participants that some charismatic discursive practices can be abusive and also to the acknowledgement that they too have at times fulfilled the role of abuser, even in unknowingly. This research journey ended in Hope. Hope for more transparency and trust between leaders and members, resulting in more respectful practices. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

In this dissertation, the researcher presents the findings of a discourse analytic enquiry on the construction of femininity within a contemporary South African magazine. It is argued that gender is a social construction and that women’s magazines provide a channel through which discourse of femininity reaches women. These discourses in women’s magazines are often narrow and stereotypical in nature which may limit the development of women’s feminine gender identities. A discourse analytic approach was utilised to reveal the different discourses of femininity within a contemporary women’s magazines, Cosmopolitan, as well as to indicate how they may contribute to the construction of femininity. From the magazine, relationship-focused articles were selected, from which three predominant discourses of femininity were identified which includes femininity as heterosexual, nurturing, and managerial. An important finding is that competing discourses of empowerment and traditional femininity were evident. This points to the highly complex ways in which gender, specifically femininity, is constructed in the magazine under study. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

This thesis identifies and describes the diversity aspects of police discourse based on the accounts of police trainees in their final year. Specifically, the focus is on culture, religion and ethnicity, and four main questions are addressed: What is said about diversity? How is it articulated? What subject positions are offered and assumed? In what ways are discourses of diversity sustained and challenged? The analysis of discourse in use is based on field studies conducted at the Swedish National Police Academy and focus group interviews with police trainees in the educational setting and during their trainee placement period. The analytical concepts of interpretative repertoire, ideological dilemmas, subject positions and discursive devices are employed to identify how different meanings are ascribed to diversity. Three central discourses of diversity are presented: diversity as inescapable difference (a hegemonic practice), diversity as political goal (recognition of diversity) and diversity as potential likeness (regulation of diversity). These are competing discourses on how police officers should be and how their role is understood in relation to a pluralistic society. The study shows that the contradictory diversity discourses reflect a struggle of different ‘us’, which regulates the conception of the ideal police officer, professional conduct and the performance of policing. In addition, five dilemmas originating in the tension between the discourses are outlined. Diversity is found to involve ideological dilemmas regarding how policing should be conducted in relation to profiling and social categories, how humour and jargon are viewed and handled, and how lack of knowledge may mean attributing subject positions to others with discriminatory implications. The thesis contributes to showing how diversity discourses reproduce the social order by affirming the social categories that the representatives of diversity are assumed to embody. It closes with a discussion of some practical and theoretical implications of its findings. / Ordningsmakter inom ordningsmakten visar hur mångfald, med fokus på kultur, religion och etnicitet, ges skilda betydelser i blivande polisers samtal och att det pågår en kamp om hur samhällets mångfald ska förstås i relation till polisens sammansättning och arbete. Kampen mellan diskurser är vare sig en ny kamp eller exklusiv för polisen. Däremot kan striden om hur mångfald ska förstås ses som en modern företeelse, som ställs på sin spets inom polisen vars uppdrag är att skydda demokratiska värden och lagar om människors rättigheter. I denna avhandling beskrivs hur kampen tar sig uttryck inom ordningsmakten. Hur kan vi förstå det paradoxala i att polisen har som uppgift att arbeta mot fördomar, samtidigt som vissa arbetsuppgifter motiveras av fördomar? Vad innebär ett behov av ökad kunskap om olika grupper, som samtidigt sätter dessa grupper i en diskriminerande utgångspunkt? Varför förekommer en diskriminerande humoristisk jargong i ett yrke som har i uppdrag att främja rättvisa och motverka diskriminering? Detta är några av de frågor och dilemman som mångfald aktualiserar i en polisiär kontext. Avhandlingen synliggör hur mångfaldsdiskurser återskapar social över- och underordning och att kampen mellan diskurser är en kamp om olika ’vi’.

Esta tesis se inscribe en una trayectoria de pensamiento libre de la diferencia sexual para nombrar en femenino la injusticia. Estudia específicamente lo negativo que encierra la creación y la gestión de la casa, el trabajo, el matrimonio y la maternidad. Teniendo en cuenta la teoría psicosocial sobre la percepción de injusticia y siguiendo la necesidad de ampliar el conocimiento de la justicia, la investigación profundiza en la representación de la injusticia en lengua materna. Participan 95 mujeres de la Región de Murcia narrando el trabajo y los cuidados en el ámbito doméstico y familiar. Se han utilizado varias metodologías y teorías de investigación: teoría feminista, teoría basada en los datos y psicología discursiva. La hipótesis de trabajo principal es que las palabras de las mujeres trascienden el sentido corriente de la injusticia de un modo inaudito. Los resultados re-significan los denominados paradigmas populares de la justicia. / The present study focuses on the meaning of injustice for women from the thinking of sexual difference. The negative about household labor is studied. In response to psychosocial theory on the perception of injustice and to continue with justice knowledge, this research explores the representation of injustice for 95 women from Region of Murcia. These female participants were invited to narrate work and care in their families. It have been used several research methodologies and theories: feminist theory, Grounded theory and discursive psychology. The strongest support is for the hypothesis that suggests that women's words transcend the ordinary sense of injustice in a way unheard of. Findings give a new meaning of justice for social sciences.

In my earlier work, ‘First steps towards a rhetorical hermeneutics of literary interpretation’ (2006), I argued that academic reading takes the form of an argument between readers. Four serious weaknesses in that account are its elision of the distinction between reading and discourse on reading, its inattention to non-academic reading, its exclusive focus on ‘interpretation’ as if this constituted the whole of reading or of discourse on reading, and its failure to theorise the object of literary reading, ie. the work of literature. The current work aims to address all of these problems, together with those created by certain other approaches to literary reading, with the overall objective of clearing the ground for more empirical studies. It exemplifies its points with examples drawn primarily from non-academic public discourse on literature (newspapers, magazines, and the internet), though also from other sources (such as reading groups and undergraduate literature seminars). It takes a particular (though not an exclusive) interest in two specific instances of non-academic reception: the widespread reception of Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses as an attack on Islam, and the minority reception of Peter Jackson’s film trilogy The Lord of the Rings as a narrative of homosexual desire. The first chapter of this dissertation critically surveys the fields of reception study and discourse analysis, and in particular the crossover between them. It finds more productive engagement with the textuality of response in media reception study than in literary reception study. It argues that the application of discourse analysis to reception data serves to problematise, rather than to facilitate, reception study, but it also emphasises the problematic nature of discourse analysis itself. Each of the three subsequent chapters considers a different complex of problems. The first is the literary work, and its relation to its producers and its consumers: Chapter 2 takes the form of a discourse upon the notions of ‘speech act’ and ‘authorial intention’ in relation to literature, carries out an analysis of early public responses to The Satanic Verses, and puts in a word for non-readers by way of a conclusion. The second is the private experience of reading, and its paradoxical status as an object of public representation: Chapter 3 analyses representations of private responses to The Lord of The Rings film trilogy, and concludes with the argument that, though these representations cannot be identical with private responses, they are cannot be extricated from them, either. The third is the impossibility of distinguishing rhetoric from cognition in the telling of stories about reading: Chapter 4 argues that, though anecdotal or autobiographical accounts of reading cannot be taken at face value, they can be taken both as attempts to persuade and as attempts to understand; it concludes with an analysis of a magazine article that tells a number of stories about reading The Satanic Verses – amongst other things. Each of these chapters focuses on non-academic reading as represented in written text, but broadens this focus through consideration of examples drawn from spoken discourse on reading (including in the liminal academic space of the undergraduate classroom). The last chapter mulls over the relationship between reading and discourse of reading, and hesitates over whether to wrap or tear this dissertation’s arguments up.

In this thesis the focus is on upper secondary school students’ meaning-making in sustainability in science civic education. The aim is to study how meaning is created, if/how natural science is used and how democratic participation is constructed in students’ group discussions. The thesis also aims to create an awareness of the role science has in both the creation of meaning and the construction of democratic participation. The study is based on audio-recorded group discussions arising from two different sustainability tasks. Discursive psychology is used as an analytical framework, through the concepts of interpretative repertoires, ideological dilemmas and subject positions. The students use different interpretative repertoires that draw on different conceptions of the “world” (discourses) in their meaning-making. These different conceptions create ideological dilemmas that recur several times during the discussions and are therefore negotiated in different ways. The students then use strategies where these dilemmas are solved in a relatively simple manner. They construct the sustainability issue they discuss so that their ways to live and act/not act are portrayed as acceptable in the current situation. The students use their knowledge in and about science in their meaning-making. Science is used to make the "world" more understandable and raise questions; to evaluate, decide and act; to give authority to arguments; and to solve societal problems. The students’ science-making process contains various kinds of use of scientific knowledge, for example, clarify the conditions, identify consequences, scrutinize information, compare, assess, evaluate and use scientific methods. The discussions increase the students’ experience of using scientific knowledge and which functions scientific knowledge can have. The students construct democratic participation in various ways: trust in science and technology are expressed and awareness of what is considered as actions that are “good” for the environment; different perspectives are expressed and ideological dilemmas discussed; students use their scientific knowledge in socioscientific reasoning to create a deeper understanding of the issues discussed; scientific knowledge is also used for evaluating actions in relation to sustainability issues. However, the students see themselves having a major responsibility to act “good”, but without power to influence the development of society as a whole. The students have two projects going on during their discussions: to discuss and learn about the sustainability issue and make their own existence acceptable.

This thesis identifies and describes the diversity aspects of police discourse based on the accounts of police trainees in their final year. Specifically, the focus is on culture, religion and ethnicity, and four main questions are addressed: What is said about diversity? How is it articulated? What subject positions are offered and assumed? In what ways are discourses of diversity sustained and challenged? The analysis of discourse in use is based on field studies conducted at the Swedish National Police Academy and focus group interviews with police trainees in the educational setting and during their trainee placement period. The analytical concepts of interpretative repertoire, ideological dilemmas, subject positions and discursive devices are employed to identify how different meanings are ascribed to diversity. Three central discourses of diversity are presented: diversity as inescapable difference (a hegemonic practice), diversity as political goal (recognition of diversity) and diversity as potential likeness (regulation of diversity). These are competing discourses on how police officers should be and how their role is understood in relation to a pluralistic society. The study shows that the contradictory diversity discourses reflect a struggle of different ‘us’, which regulates the conception of the ideal police officer, professional conduct and the performance of policing. In addition, five dilemmas originating in the tension between the discourses are outlined. Diversity is found to involve ideological dilemmas regarding how policing should be conducted in relation to profiling and social categories, how humour and jargon are viewed and handled, and how lack of knowledge may mean attributing subject positions to others with discriminatory implications. The thesis contributes to showing how diversity discourses reproduce the social order by affirming the social categories that the representatives of diversity are assumed to embody. It closes with a discussion of some practical and theoretical implications of its findings. / Baksidestext Ordningsmakter inom ordningsmakten visar hur mångfald, med fokus på kultur, religion och etnicitet, ges skilda betydelser i blivande polisers samtal och att det pågår en kamp om hur samhällets mångfald ska förstås i relation till polisens sammansättning och arbete. Kampen mellan diskurser är vare sig en ny kamp eller exklusiv för polisen. Däremot kan striden om hur mångfald ska förstås ses som en modern företeelse, som ställs på sin spets inom polisen vars uppdrag är att skydda demokratiska värden och lagar om människors rättigheter. I denna avhandling beskrivs hur kampen tar sig uttryck inom ordningsmakten. Hur kan vi förstå det paradoxala i att polisen har som uppgift att arbeta mot fördomar, samtidigt som vissa arbetsuppgifter motiveras av fördomar? Vad innebär ett behov av ökad kunskap om olika grupper, som samtidigt sätter dessa grupper i en diskriminerande utgångspunkt? Varför förekommer en diskriminerande humoristisk jargong i ett yrke som har i uppdrag att främja rättvisa och motverka diskriminering? Detta är några av de frågor och dilemman som mångfald aktualiserar i en polisiär kontext. Avhandlingen synliggör hur mångfaldsdiskurser återskapar social över- och underordning och att kampen mellan diskurser är en kamp om olika ’vi’.

Bakgrund. Föräldrar till barn som har cancer upplever en livssituation som präglas av osäkerhet och oro och de ställs inför sociala och känslo­mässiga utmaningar. Jämfört med föräldrar till friska barn, upplever de också högre stress och drabbas i större utsträckning av posttraumatiska stres­symptom. Trots att information om barnets sjukdom är ett centralt behov för föräldrarna, upplever de otillfredsställelse med den information som ges. Syfte. Syftet med denna avhandling var att inom barnonkologisk vård beskriva vårdares och föräldrars upplevelser av information, studera deras inbördes interaktion samt beskriva upplevelser och effekter av en intervention för personcentrerad information till föräldrar. Metod. I delstudie I–III användes fokusgruppintervjuer (I, II), individ­uella intervjuer (II, III) och deltagande observationer (III). Deltagarna bestod av 20 vårdare (I), 14 föräldrar till barn med cancer (II) respektive 25 vårdare och 25 föräldrar (III). Data analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys (I, II) och diskurspsykologi (III). I delstudie IV testades en intervention för per­son­cen­tre­rad information på åtta föräldrar med hjälp av en experimentell single-case-design. Data samlades in med kvalitativa intervjuer och internetenkäter. Upplevd stress, kroppsliga symptom på stress, ångest, nedstämdhet och tillfredsställelse med information var utfallsmått. Resultat. I delstudie I bestod resultatet av två teman: anpassa mängden information till föräldrarnas behov, som handlade om skillnader i hur mycket information som gavs till föräldrarna utifrån vårdarnas bedömning av föräldrarnas behov, och navigera i en vag struktur, som handlade om brister i ansvar, miljö, tajming och språk när informationen lämnades. I delstudie II konstruerades två teman. Känna sig bekräftad som en viktig person handlade om att föräldrarna kände sig trygga, kunde hålla hoppet uppe och fick stöd från andra föräldrar. Temat var mer framträdande under behandlingens tidiga skeden. Det andra temat var känna sig som en objuden gäst vilket handlade om att kännas övergiven vid viktiga milstolpar, att tvingas tjata sig till information och att belastas av att själv behöva informera andra inom sjukvården. I delstudie III använde vårdarna tolkningsrepertoarer som var barn-, föräldra- eller familjeorienterade, vilket avspeglade deras primära fokus i interaktionen. Föräldrarna använde tolkningsrepertoarer som talesperson, observatör eller familjemedlem. Hur dessa kombinerades inbördes påverkade interaktionen. I delstudie IV erfor föräldrarna stor tillfredsställelse med den per­son­cen­tre­rade informationen och upplevde att de hade nytta av att på egen hand få diskutera barnets sjukdom och ställa frågor de annars inte skulle ställt. Interventionen visade ingen effekt på stress eller kroppsliga symptom på stress, ångest och nedstämdhet. Slutsatser. För att förbättra information till föräldrar som har barn med cancer är det en central uppgift att bedöma hur mycket och vilken information som ska ges vid varje tillfälle, att uppmärksamma att föräldrarna kan ha andra informationsbehov än barnet och att möten med föräldrarna ska ske i lugn och ro samt att organisera vården så att ansvaret är tydligt. I synnerhet bör det ske förbättringar kring det som föräldrarna upplever som viktiga milstolpar under barnets sjukdomstid. Interventionen för per­son­cen­tre­rad information uppskattades av föräldrar som har barn med cancer men effekten på föräldrarnas psykosociala välbefinnande behöver utforskas ytterligare. / Background. Parents of children with cancer experience a life situation characterised by uncertainty and worries, and they face ongoing social and emotional challenges. Compared to parents of healthy children, they also experience increased levels of perceived stress and they suffer to a greater extent from post-traumatic stress symptoms. Even though information about the child’s disease is crucial for parents, they still experience low satis­faction with the information given to them. Aim. The aim of this thesis was to, within the field of paediatric oncology care, describe health care professionals’ and parents’ experiences from infor­mation, study their joint interaction and describe experiences and effects from an intervention based on person-centred information to parents. Methods. For study I–III, focus group interviews (I, II), individual inter­views (II, III), and participant observations (III) were used. Participants were 20 health care professionals (I), 14 parents of children with cancer (II) and 25 health care professionals and 25 parents (III). Data were analysed by qualitative content analysis (I, II) and discursive psychology (III). In study IV, an intervention for person-centred information was tested on 8 parents using a single-case experimental design. Data were collected with qualitative interviews and web questionnaires. Outcome measures were perceived stress, physical symptoms from stress, anxiety, depression, and satisfaction with information. Results. In study I, the analysis resulted in two themes, Matching the amount of information to the parents’ needs, which dealt with differences in the amount of information provided to parents according to the health care professionals’ assess­ment of parental needs, and Navigating through a vague structure, which was about shortcomings in responsibilities, setting, timing, and language when parents were informed. In study II, two themes were constructed. Feeling acknowledged as a person of significance was about feeling safe and secure, having one’s hopes supported and getting relief from other families. This was accentuated early in the treatment trajectory. Feeling like an unwelcome guest was about feeling abandoned at important milestones, feeling forced to nag for information and being burdened by informing others. In study III, the health care professionals used interpretative repertoires that were child, parent, or family oriented, which mirrored the primary focus of the inter­action. Parents used repertoires as a spokesperson, an observer, or a family member. The combination of the repertoires steered the interaction. In study IV, parents reported a high satisfaction with the person-centred information intervention and perceived benefits from having their own time to discuss the child’s disease and pose questions that they otherwise would not have an opportunity to ask. No effects from the intervention were demon­strated on perceived stress, physical symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depressive mood. Conclusion. To improve information to parents of children with cancer, a central task is to assess the amount of and what information given to parents, pay attention to possible differences in infor­mation needs between parents and children, as well as to organise the care so that the respon­si­bilities are clear and that parents are met in a calm setting. Improvements at important milestones during the illness period should be pri­ori­tised. A person-centred information inter­ven­tion is perceived as bene­ficial by parents, however, its effect on perceived parental stress has further to be investigated.