Forskning har visat att metoder som inbegriper filosofisk dialog i skolan kan varafördelaktig för utvecklingen av en mängd färdigheter hos elever. Endast ett fåtal studier harundersökt effekterna av filosofisk dialog hos socioekonomiskt utsatta elever, och den härstudien syftar till att avhjälpa detta. Mer precist har denna studie fokuserat på utvecklingenav argumentationsförmågor i årskurs 4 (elever med en ålder av ungefär 10 år) i en svenskkommunal skola. Under en period av åtta veckor deltog gruppen av elever på 12 sessionermed filosofisk dialog baserad på Philosophy for Children-metoden. Varje session utom denförsta spelades in (bild och ljud). Datan bearbetades sedan med observationsverktyget Argumentation Rating Tool. Resultatet från tidigt i interventionen jämfördes med resultatetfrån slutet av interventionen, och positiva förändringar i att kunna diskutera kritiskt ochdiskutera tillsammans kunde noteras. Mer forskning om effekterna av filosofiska samtal försocioekonomiskt utsatta elever behövs. / Research has shown that methods of philosophical dialogue in schools can be beneficialfor the development of a variety of skills among students. Few studies have examined theeffects of philosophical dialogue for students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged,and this study aims to help remedy this. More precisely this study focused on thedevelopment of argumentation skills in a fourth year-class (students approximately 10 years of age) in a Swedish municipal school. During a period of eight weeks the group ofstudents participated in 12 sessions of philosophical dialogue based on the Philosophy for Children-method. Every session except the first was recorded (image and sound). The datawas then analysed with the Argumentation Rating Tool. The results from early on in theintervention were compared to the results from the end of the intervention, and positivechanges in ability to discuss critically and discuss together were found. Further research onthe effects of philosophical dialogues for socioeconomically disadvantaged students isneeded.

Denna uppsats utforskar vikten av att läsa Platon inte bara som en filosof men också som en poet med utgångspunkt i dialogformen och genom begreppet mimesis.

This compilation thesis engages with practices that in some way place stakes in the social existence of Övdalsk (also älvdalska, Elfdalian, Övdalian), a marginal form of Scandinavian used mainly in Sweden’s Älvdalen municipality. The practices at hand range from early 20th century descriptive dialectology and contemporary lay-linguistics to language advocacy and language political debate. The four studies focus on the logic by which such practices operate, on the historically produced visions that they bring into play, as well as on the symbolic effects that they have produced. Study I provides a zoomed-out account of the ordering of Övdalsk in Sweden’s linguistic market. Focusing on a relatively recent debate over the institutional regimentation of Övdalsk, it analyses the forms of agreement upon which the exchange in question has come to rest. The contention has mainly developed over the classification of Övdalsk, percolating in the question of whether Övdalsk ‘is’ a ‘language’ or a ‘dialect’. Analysing this debate, the study takes interest in the relationship between state power and metapragmatic exchange. Study II deals with the history of linguistic thought and research on Övdalsk. It analyses the genesis of some durable visions of the relationship between Övdalsk and linguistic authenticity, focusing on the research practice of the Swedish dialectologist Lars Levander (1883–1950), whose work on Övdalsk commands representative authority to this day. By engaging with Levander’s techniques of scholarly objectivation, as well as with their language theoretical fundaments, the study seeks to create some perspectives on, and distance to, the canonical representations of Övdalsk that have precipitated from Levander’s research. Study III looks into the reuse and reordering of such representations. It provides an ethnographic account of a metapragmatically saturated exchange over Övdalsk grammar, in which descriptivist artefacts play an important part. Through an analysis of texts, in situ interaction, and interviews, the study seeks to grasp the ways in which textual renditions of grammar interrelate with practically sustained, socially recognized models of language and language use (i.e. registers). Study IV tracks the ways in which such visions of authenticity have been drawn into institutionally and politically invested metapragmatic exchanges. It looks into a process of naming of roads in Älvdalen, in which ideas about the contrast between Swedish and Övdalsk played a central part. In all studies, various visions of Övdalsk authenticity and authentic Övdalsk constitute a central theme. The thesis maintains that such visions must be understood in relation to the practices in which they hold currency. Following Silverstein, this epistemological stance entails an engagement with the dialectic between historical formations and situated exchange. Through this analytical orientation, the studies seek to account for the visions of authenticity that have been at the forefront of various symbolic struggles over Övdalsk. Thus, in addition to their respective analytical accounts, the separate studies seek to add shifting temporal horizons to the superordinate heuristic, combining a deep historical backdrop with accounts of protracted institutional processes and analyses of situated linguistic interaction. Ultimately, this mode of analysis provides an in-depth understanding of the object of inquiry. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Submitted.</p>