<p>In this essay I try to find out how the local political climate in the Swedish Municipal Örebro looks like through the eyes of Michel Foucault. I’ve been focusing on the concept power, knowledge and politic. I’ve been applying the discourse theory on the study and the founder of that theory is Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau, the discoursetheory is a refinement of Foucaults thoughts about discourse. The object of study is the Mayor of Örebro, Staffan Werme and the position connected to that post. I’ve used the method “shadowing”, and I’ve been following the Mayor in every physical room that he appears in for nearly two weeks. The aim is too see which subject-position that the Mayor ascribes to in those different rooms, and also how the concept of power is used.</p>

In the German Democratic Republic (GDR) the overthrow of the socialist regime did not only bring about both an economic and political shift, it resulted also in the inclusion of the GDR into the Federal Republic of Germany. The fall of the Wall brought with it transformations in everyday life as well as changes in social identities. This study examines how people who grew up in the GDR define the East and the West in unified Germany, as well as identifying which concepts play a role in the self-interpretations given by former GDR citizens. Through applying discourse theory, I investigate how identities are partially fixed and change over time, relating this always to historically situated discourses. In the analysis, East and West are considered as floating signifiers, which, through articulations made with other categories such as class, nation, place and gender, come to be filled with meaning. The study is based on twenty-five life story interviews conducted in Eastern Germany. The group of interviewees consisted of fifteen women and ten men born in the GDR between the years of 1970 and 1979, all of whom had different levels of education. The demise of the socialist state and the transition to a capitalist society is central in the interviewees’ life stories. Their narratives about the past are formed in a discursive order other than the one in which the events themselves took place. Conversely, the past is used as a foil against which the present is compared. With the dislocation, the interviewees have developed a reflexive stance to both themselves and the world. The study reveals both how East and West are still used to make the world intelligible in a number of fields and, at the same time, how these same concepts are transcended. It shows in what ways the interviewees employ different strategies to adapt to the new circumstances and to handle a potentially marked position in unified Germany.

In this thesis I have studied the conflicts that arose in Vara when the municipality ordered a sculpture by the artist Katharina Grosse in collaboration with The National Swedish Public Art Council and the Swedish Transport Administration in 2012. The aim of the study is to analyze the meaning-making of the sculpture as a process determined by social negotiations concerning variables such as identity, societal hierarchies and education. The material is foremost consisting of interviews with employees from The National Swedish Public Art Council and Vara municipality, a local objector whom organized a protesting Facebook group and a local newspaper journalist. The material is analyzed with discourse theory in order to examine how the discourses about public art are characterized in a local context today and how its meaning continually is being constructed and reconstructed through this. By studying the resistance and critique against The Blue Orange in Vara as local fragments of a more global context the analysis also targets how the practices and meaning-making of art in the public domain are conditioned by political ideologies and societal structures such as the neoliberal market, economic growth and competition. The protesters and protagonists of the art work places the sculpture in different narratives about the municipality where the municipality is either described as something progressing; moving from a state where something is lacking, or as something with a fixed identity and already defined. The latter narrative is used by those who criticize the art work because it does not reflect their perceived shared identity while the former motivates the advocates who want to create a more distinct municipal identity, a branding of sorts, to attract tourists and stimulate economic growth. These narratives demonstrates how debates revolving art works and the public domain can bring up articulations and everyday experiences of power structures, citizenship and societal norms.

Den här studien ämnade undersöka utommusikaliska dimensioner av gymnasieskolans ensembleundervisning, med fokus på pop- och rockensemble. Ambitionen var att identifiera möjliga roller och identiteter hos elever för att synliggöra eventuella maktrelationer. Detta för att bidra till ökad kunskap i strävan efter en jämlik och inkluderande musikundervisning. Datainsamlingen skedde genom enskilda semistrukturerade intervjuer och fokusgrupper med gymnasieelever vid estetiska programmet. Dessa transkriberades till text och analyserades tematiskt utifrån diskursteorins begreppsapparat.  Resultatet visar ojämlika maktrelationer där framför allt gruppbildningar utifrån könsidentitet och instrument avgör vilka som kan inta attraktiva positioner och roller. Dessa maktrelationer upprätthålls genom att utesluta subjekt och grupper som kan förstås som motsatser. Vidare synliggör resultatet att ensembleformatets utgångspunkt i genrepraktiken pop- och rock kan ses som en anledning till att normer och stereotyper upprätthålls. Slutsatserna visar ett behov av en breddad undervisningsrepertoar, en bredare representation samt en ökad social medvetenhet bland lärare och elever. / This study intended to examine the extra-musical dimensions of upper secondary school ensemble teaching, pop and rock in particular. The ambition was to identify the student’s possible roles and identities in order to make any power relations visible in order to contribute to increased knowledge in the pursuit of an equal and inclusive music education. Data collection was made through individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups with students off the upper secondary high school arts program. These were transcribed into text and analyzed thematically based on the concepts of discourse theory. The results show unequal power relations where, above all, group formations based on gender and instruments are the decisive factor in who can take attractive positions and roles. Positions of power are maintained by excluding other groups that can be understood as opposites. Furthermore, the results show that the ensemble’s starting point in the practice of pop -and rock genre can be seen as a reason for norms and stereotypes to be maintained. The conclusions show a need for a broader teaching repertoire, a broader representation and an increased social awareness among teachers and students.

The aim of this thesis is to examine discourses that surround the role of libraries as democratic institutions. This is done by studying the proposal for a National Strategy for Libraries, The Treasure Trove of Democracy. and the reactions to that document in two library journals. The questions asked are the following: how is the democratic role depicted in the proposal for a national library strategy? What were the reactions and what discourses characterized the relationship between the two library journals and the proposal for a national strategy? Are there any lines of conflict or tension within the identified discourses? Four discourses were identified: the library-democracy discourse, the children discourse, the political-administrative discourse and judiciary-argumentative discourse. Three out of the four discourses were present in both the library journals and the proposed strategy except the library- democratic discourse which was only explicitly found in the latter. The results indicate that the tension within the child discourse concerned means rather than objectives. The political-administrative discourse concerned demarcation questions regarding the municipal self-government. The judiciary- argumentative discourse permeated the entire empirical material and was rarely contested. The library-democratic discourse was the only discourse identified which was clearly present in the proposal for a National Strategy for Libraries and not in the two library journals. We suggest that this omission could be explained against the background of that the democratic role often is taken for granted.

This study is about information and materiality, more specifically how the different material manifestations of information affects the archivists in the Swedish Court archives. The primary focus is on how materiality affects archivists work with physical and digital information and how materiality affects the archivists themselves. This study uses interviews with archivists within the Swedish court archives as its primary source for analysis. By using primarily Actor-Network Theory and Discourse-theory alongside other scientific texts this study has shown in what ways materiality affects the daily work of archivists and their self-image. This study is relevant in many ways but primarily because there is little to none research of this kind that focuses on the court archives and as a result of that this study is relevant in the way it illustrates the importance and possibilities court archives for a dedicated scholar within archival science and other areas of information science. The results are as follows: materiality have many different ways of affecting the archivists and it does so on many different levels. With the focus on digital and physical information this study has come to the conclusion that materiality is an important aspect that cannot be overlooked. It affects how archivists work, how they think and how they practically handle physical and digital information.

Vad innebär egentligen social hållbarhet? Forskningen presenterar en rad olika förklaringar av begreppet, menar att det bland annat är möjligt att se begreppet som ett ramverk eller verktyg, men det kan även ses som ett sätt att uppnå hållbarhet i generell mening - men är dessa sätt att betrakta social hållbarhet något som även används i kommunernas praktiska verksamhet? Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att undersöka hur begreppet social hållbarhet används och beskrivs på kommunal nivå. Undersökningen har utgått från ett diskursteoretiskt perspektiv och en diskursanalytisk metod som syftar till att dekonstruera och analysera användningen av social hållbarhet på kommunal nivå. Inom ramen för denna uppsats är det två kommuner som har undersökts; Haninge och Huddinge kommun. Undersökningen och analysen av de båda kommunerna har visat att det finns många likheter i hur de båda kommunerna väljer att beskriva social hållbarhet. Analysen visar att det hos kommunerna finns en tilltro till att den fysiska planeringen ska kunna hjälpa kommunerna att skapa social hållbarhet, detta mestadels på liknande sätt. Beskrivningarna för hur social hållbarhet ska skapas i de båda kommunerna är likartade och visar tendenser på att vara ”stigberoende”.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera två för Sverige betydelsefulla kulturpolitiska styrdokument, för att analysera hur relationen mellan kultur och ekonomi gestaltas i respektive diskurs. Genom att jämföra 1970-talets med det tidiga 2000-talets kulturpolitik, med de kulturella och ekonomiska begreppens historiska utveckling från senmedeltiden och framåt, förklaras det spända förhållandet mellan kultur och ekonomi. De idéer och teorier som utgör grunden för de kulturpolitiska diskurserna kommer att analyseras genom att använda den hermeneutiska metoden, innehållsanalys och semiotisk diskursanalys, där olika strategier för kulturell och ekonomisk planering utgör idealtyper för uppsatsens undersökning. Samtidigt som kultur och ekonomi har en delad historisk utveckling i samband med det moderna samhällets uppkomst, blir det tydligt att det rör sig om två motsatta synsätt där antingen kulturen eller ekonomin ges prioritet i kulturpolitiken, där den ena blir ett ändamål för att uppnå den andra. / The purpose of this essay is to analyze two key documents in relation to Swedish culture policies, and to analyze how the relationship between culture and economy manifest in their respective discourses. By comparing the 1970’s to the early 2000’s cultural policies, with the cultural and economic terms and historical development from the late middle ages forward, theories and ideas from which the tense relationship between culture and economics will be explained. Also, by using the method of hermeneutics, content analysis and semiotic discourse analysis with the ideal types of different strategies for culture and economic, the ideas which formed the basics of the policies discourses will be shown. While showing that culture and economy has a shared historical development in conjunction with the development of modern society, the result showed two opposite points of view in which either culture or economics is considered a priority which leads to achieving the other.

This essay aims to investigate what discourses and what forms of exercise of power that can appear in the description of intercultural work in the book Interkulturellt arbete i förskolan med läroplanen som grund (2019) by Jonas Stier &amp; Bim Riddersporre. The entrance to the essay is a wonder about which discourses are actualized and whether they can be seen to contribute to the categorization of individuals being constructed and to norms being anchored on the basis of these categorizations. We also wonder how power relations emerge in relation to these discourses. Our research questions: 1. What discourses appear in the descriptions of intercultural work in the book Interkulturellt arbete i förskolan by Stier &amp; Riddersporre? 2. What forms of power can be seen in these discourses that appear in the intercultural work in the book by Stier &amp; Riddersporre?  The theoretical starting point for our analysis is discourse theory as it focuses on how the creation of discourses contributes to the design of different types of categorizations, power, and norms. This starting point becomes, when we analyze parts of Stier &amp; Riddersporre's book, relevant to how and what positions individuals are attributed through the language used by the authors and educators. In the analysis, we also use Foucault's forms of power to highlight how the text's description of intercultural work through various forms of power imputes other individuals to an identity through the construction of discourses on ethnicity, gender and religion. Our results show inequalities in positions of power through categorizations, norms and values and that it’s difficult to know what really characterizes intercultural work.

In this essay I investigate the role of civil society in relation to migrants in the municipality of Kalix, in a rural area in northern Sweden. The purpose is to discover which subject positions that leaders from the civil society describe as possible and which positions they see as possible for migrants. I also want to see which discourses the leaders from the civil associations are a part of and contribute to. The material comes from interviews completed with people involved in civil society and from meetings, organized by the municipality and with participants from civil associations, discussing the subject. The method used is discourse analysis, influenced by Laclau and Mouffes theory about discourses. Foucault´s theory of governmentality is used to examine how civil society and migrants are affected by state control. This control manifests in control mechanisms such as the Swedish government’s establishment program, legislation about migrants rights and economic grants. The analysis is supported by earlier research and theories about multiculturalism and rights. The leaders mainly moved within four discourses: ´multicultural´, ´repressive liberalism´, ´rural preservation´ and ´quality of life and humanity´. The multicultural discourse had a positive view of cultural and religious differences. This discourse made the subject positions of organizer of cultural activities possible for the leaders. Migrants were described as having the position of representatives of specific cultural groups and as group members in need of extra support. The repressive liberalism discourse viewed difference as something negative. The goal was for migrants to be assimilated into the local culture. The leaders adopted the role of tutors. Migrants were described as occupying the subject positions of employment oriented, able to assimilate, and as representatives of all immigrant people. In the discourse about ‘rural preservation’ activities were motivated by goals for a bright future for Kalix. The leaders’ subject positions were understood as coordinators, mentors and debaters. Migrants were understood as competent in particular professions and as desirable long term residents of Kalix. Governmental Control mechanics were considered to be something that limited migrants’ possibilities. The quality of life and humanity discourse has the goal that everyone shall have the possibility to live a good life. The leaders adopted the role as creators of safety and confidence and migrants were considered to be both victims of unfair regulation that limited their legitimacy, and as developers of civil associations. There were antagonisms between the discourses about rights/justice, integration and culture. Because of these conflicts the activities are striving towards different goals and consider different phenomena to be obstacles. Cooperation and the possibilities of getting along are therefore made difficult. Both these antagonisms and the governmental control mechanisms affect which activities can be performed and thereby which subjects positions that are made possible.