This thesis investigates the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) in order to engage debates about neoliberalism in African development policy. In identifying limitations with commentaries of Nepad and pervasive narratives of neoliberalisation, I employ an analytic of governmentality to reinterpret neoliberalisation as the governmental re-management of populations into societies of free, entrepreneurial, self-regulating subjects. Firstly, I investigate how Nepad makes Africa knowable and amenable to technical intervention in the form of “development”, particularly drawing attention to how the African subject is understood and the intimacy between technical solutions and expert diagnosis. Secondly, I explore four initiatives and techniques that attempt to render these rationalities reality. The conclusions elucidate how neoliberalism ought not to be understood as a monolithic, unrolling totality that simply implants itself through coercive power relations, but rather is comprised of a patchwork of rationalities, knowledges and discourses and given effect through prosaic governing practices.

As a social practice, being part of the school band stylizes our lives—individually and collectively. The pedagogical band world, a world made up primarily of school and university wind bands, is in many ways similar to the world of community/civic bands of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Based on an examination of professional discourses, however, I argue that processes of institutionalization have altered the nature of music making via band participation. The pedagogical band world, like other bounded worlds, operates according to what Michel Foucault calls “regimes of truth”—the regulative norms that delimit what can be said and done. The specific ways in which the subject is fashioned, in other words, are a function of the truths we endorse about ourselves and, in the present case, about music making. Studying the discourses in the disciplinary practice of large ensemble (band) music making is of paramount importance for music educators to better understand the effects of disciplinary practices. Employing a conceptual framework based on the work of Michel Foucault, the following question guided this inquiry: “What ‘regimes of truth’ are fashioned in school music (bands) discourse, how did they come to be, and what are their potential effects on the subject?” Methods from the field of corpus linguistics were used to concordance the journal of the Canadian Band Association, 1978-2008. Concordance lists were used to introspectively examine each occurrence (approximately 25,000 in total) of a downsampled set of words related to subject formation in order to generate statements making truth claims. While there is no mistaking that a primary goal in music education discourse is to foster a “love of music,” this investigation suggests the kind of musicality fashioned in today’s pedagogical discourse has become a relationship to music (based on the study of music; music as something to know) rather than the kind of relationship fashioned in band participation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which I describe as a relationship with music (music as something to do).

This dissertation is an exploration of the role of Euro-North American Philosophy of Education discourse in the genealogy of race struggle. I examine how the reliable narration of Philosophy of Education functions as a project of racial rule premised on moral/temporal/spatial notions of (White) civility and respectability. Tracing the history of race war from the 17th century to present day, I look at how racism has shifted from sovereign power to disciplinary power to biopower as a mode of population management, operating not only through race but through gender and class distinctions as well. I analyze the racialized narrative conventions of liberal modern Enlightenment philosophy and the role these conventions continue to play in the creation and maintenance of a violent racial state. Drawing upon Critical Race Theory, feminist epistemologies, narrative theory, and the work of Michel Foucault, I look at what reliable narration does for philosophers, educators, and students, examining what we/they might have invested in maintaining a distinction between ‘reliability’ and ‘unreliability.’ I ask: How is reliable narration used as a tool by philosophers, educators, and ultimately, the state to distinguish between the civil and uncivil, between those worthy and unworthy of moral consideration, political engagement, and basic human rights? How do the impartiality, univocality, universality, and dispassion of reliable narratives become tied to race and the management of racialized bodies? My aim is to examine the ways in which race as a method of governance acts on a text, its author(s), and its audience. “How are racialized subjectivities constituted through and constitutive of language and knowledge,” I ask, “and to what effect?” I want to trace the social and civil relations mapped out by particular narrative conventions and examine the consequences of failing to adhere to such conventions. I suggest that by questioning the function of reliable narration in philosophical and pedagogical practice, educators, scholars, and students can intervene in the operation of race as a mode of discipline, creating the possibility of a more equitable society in which all have the opportunity to flourish.

Sociala medier har blivit ett givet sätt att kommunicera genom och att vara en del av den sociala gemenskapen på Internet har sina fördelar. Men vad många inte tänker på är vad som händer med den information vi delar med oss av i olika sociala forum på Internet. Att det finns en kontroll över oss, subtil eller inte, är självklart. Vi övervakas dagligen och många gånger utan att vi ens vet om det. Google som sökmotor på Internet har under det senaste decenniet uppnått en enorm popularitet. Det vardagliga användandet av företagets söktjänst över hela världen har kommit att bli så stor att det har verbaliserats – Idag söker vi inte information på Google, vi googlar. Föreliggande uppsats tittar på Google som företag och hur deras tjänst har en stor del i individers informationssökning på Internet. Syftet med föreliggande uppsats är att undersöka på vilket sätt Google förmedlar sin nya sekretesspolicy och vilket eller vilka budskap som förs fram. Därefter kommer detta sättas i in ett övervakningsperspektiv, där ambitionen är att se huruvida Internet som fenomen, framför allt användandet av Googles tjänster, har kommit att problematisera den privata integriteten hos användarna. Syftet besvaras med hjälp av två frågeställningar: Vad förmedlar Google med sin nya policy? Hur påverkas den enskilda användarens integritet i Googles nya policy? Det teoretiska ramverket för uppsatsen består av Michel Foucaults vidareutveckling av begreppet panopticon, samt Thomas Mathiesens icke-panoptiska begrepp synopticon. De båda begreppen tas upp som metaforer för övervakning idag. Studien genomfördes genom att först titta på Googles sekretesspolicy som nylanserades i mars 2012. Denna policy analyserades genom att använda Carol Lee Bacchis metod – What’s the problem represented to be (WPR). Denna analytiska metod har ett kritiskt förhållningssätt till policys med inspiration från Foucaults maktdefinition och handlar om att granska problematiseringen i en policy. När sekretesspolicyn analyserats med hjälp av den valda metoden, sattes detta resultat in i ett övervakningsperspektiv. Jag framhåller att Google genom att beskriva processen vid informationsinsamlandet lägger fokus på varför information samlas in om sina användare, som ett resultat av det faktum att information samlas in. De fördelar som Google menar kommer med varför information samlas in om sina användare, används som incitament, med vilket företaget legitimerar denna subtila form av övervakning. Denna form av övervakning som kommer av informationslagring menar jag dock inte nödvändigtvis, ensidigt, bör ses som en nackdel. Slutsatsen för uppsatsens analys argumenterar för att vi som konsumenter på Internet kan se såväl fördelar som nackdelar med detta informationsutbyte då vi, mer eller mindre, deltar i denna maktprocess.

While it is well understood that many resource-based communities are transitioning to tourism to provide a new economic foundation, few studies have probed in-depth the rationale and mechanisms influencing decision-making processes. This case study does that, providing the rationale behind Nanaimo’s City Council’s decision to build a conference centre and in so doing exposes the processes, actors and events that helped framed its decision. A coastal community in British Columbia, Canada, Nanaimo’s downtown suffered continual decline for nearly two decades. In an attempt to reverse the decline, City Council voted 8 to 1 in favour of a conference centre proposal based on its conviction that a centre would serve as a calling card for the community and function to attract both lifestyle residents and tourists. Moreover, Council’s vote signalled its commitment as an active partner in re-establishing the downtown and repositioning Nanaimo as a post-industrial city with high-level infrastructure and amenities. Although there was initial widespread community support, as the conference centre evolved through a series of iterations, one community group surfaced to challenge its merit and the lack of public engagement in the process. In response, another group surfaced to defend the decision. Through a community referendum, the decision was upheld and the community moved forward with the plan. Nonetheless, the viability of the project was threatened a second time with the civic election as several community residents who resisted the project ran for City Council on a platform that would have halted the project. The community, once again, affirmed the decision to proceed. This case has two steps. First, I present a descriptive analysis to illuminate how the community’s social networks played a role in moving a specific agenda forward. There were two phases of data collection from which data were compiled and analysed. The first phase of data collection examined a variety of written documents in the community and principally included minutes of the various City Committees, independent studies commissioned by the City, newspaper accounts, and sources of information provided by the participants. The information collected in this first phase of study helped to inform the 37 in-depth interviews collected in the second phase of the study. Critical discourse analysis was used to demonstrate how and why different groups in the community justified and rationalized an ideological stance supporting a political and economic framework underwritten by tourism. Overall, the strength of the case is in its details. In demonstrating how the social networks and the local coalitions’ capacity-building efforts shaped civic decision-making and public policy, one gains, in a Foucauldian sense, how governmentality played out as different groups engaged in resistant and counter-resistance mechanisms. Tracing these movements reveals how this community was conditioned towards an economic framework underwritten by a political economy of tourism. Moreover, this case demonstrates that although consideration should be given to the broader economic and political climate, it supports claims in the literature that a high degree of autonomy exists within community decision-making processes. Complementing this consideration is the need to theorize more carefully the role of democracy and governance in determining the satisfaction of outcomes. Finally, more consideration should be given by tourism scholars to be more reflexive about their research, its contested and emotive moments.

Målet med studien är att presentera hur elever på gymnasiesärskolan upplever delaktighet, med fokus på sin nutid och den framtid som följer efter studenten. Studien har ett narrativt förhållningssätt och resultatet har uppnåtts genom att två elever, som snart tar studenten från ett specialutformat program på gymnasiesärskolan, delger oss sina livsberättelser. Studiens teoretiska ram är hämtad från Foucaults tankar kring maktförhållanden som är till den s.k. normales fördel. Att vara en avvikare innebär därmed en svagare ställning i samhället. Samtalen med eleverna fokuserar på deras upplevelse av livet nu och deras förhoppningar och planer för framtiden. Begreppet delaktighet är utgångspunkt eftersom detta begrepp kan ses som en hörnsten för ett så självständigt liv som möjligt. Studien utgår frånföljande frågeställningar: Hur är upplevelsen av delaktighet hos elever på gymnasiesärskolans nationella/specialutformadeprogram när det gäller deras nutid och deras framtidsplaner? Vilka tankar om framtiden har elever inom gymnasiesärskolans nationella/specialutformadeprogram för tiden närmast efter studenten? Resultatet visar att elever inom gymnasiesärskolan har ett ganska komplext förhållande till sin egen livssituation. Särskoleplaceringen, som i dessa elevers fall, gjordes relativt sent har en central och i vissa sammanhang avgörande betydelse för hur de ser på sin livssituation nu, men också framgent. De kämpar mot att bli stämplade som avvikare och mot att andra ska styra deras framtid samtidigt som de kan berätta om att just bli exkluderad och erbjuden en plats på särskolan varit positivt i andra avseenden. De berättar om upplevelser där skolan är det sammanhang som lär dem och gör dem delaktiga men samtidigt är den plats som krymper deras möjligheter till detsamma.

This essay aims to show how Clarice Lispector uses a double narrative to wright beyond the rules of representation that are given for all literature. All writing is determined by the social hierarchies that exist in a society, and thus the essay shows how Lispector uses a specific literary strategy in order to give voice to a character that would otherwise be invisible. Using the philosophy of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze as a means of contextualization, the essay further discusses the social and political impact of Lispectors novel. Through a thematic close reading of the novel The Hour of the Star the essay aims to deepen the understanding of the unique characterization in the novel and its implications. The first chapter is devoted to an analysis of the first person narrative in the novel and its development into a extra diegetic narrative. The second chapter aims to go further into the narrative with an analysis of the dichotomy between body and thought and its interplay with the two main characters in the novel. Sequently, the essay explores one of the main topics, the representation of silence in the novel, as a further and more abstract developement of the representation of the protagonist in the novel. The last chapter explores the social and political implications of the literary strategies at work in The Hour of the Star.

I april 2009 började media uppmärksamma influensautbrott i Mexico och USA, och i loppet av veckor kom ämnet att dominera den svenska nyhetsbilden och det allmänna vardagstalet. De huvudsakliga nyhetsrubrikerna konstruerade influensan i ett brett spektra av definitioner i allt ifrån yttre hot med hög dödlighet och stor spridningsrisk, till uttryck för olika ekonomiska och politiska vinstintressen. Genom diskursanalys undersöker denna uppsats hur fenomenet svininfluensa konstruerats i media och myndighetspublikationer under våren, sommaren och hösten 2009. Analysen och den teoretiska referensramen bygger på Michel Foucault och Ernesto Laclau & Chantal Mouffes diskursteorier. Resultatet visar att svininfluensan konstrueras som en offentlig angelägenhet, som sjukdom, som hot och fara, och som skrämselstaktik genom ett antal diskurser. I diskussionen följer också resonemang om hur individen i relation till dessa konstruktioner framställs som bräcklig.

Syftet är att se hur Aftonbladet publicerar sina artiklar rörande vikt. Vi vill undersöka vad det skrivs om och hur de framställer artiklarnas innehåll. Teori Michel Foucault (1926-1984) studerar maktförhållande i samhället och hur dessa indirekt påverkar människor. Mike Featherstone (1946-) studerar det växande konsumtionssamhället och hur det förhåller sig till människokroppen. Thomas Johansson (1959-) studerar synen på kroppen i samhället och att hälso- och kostindustrin har kommit att bli en skönhetsindustri.Metodologi Kritisk diskursanalysResultat Artiklarnas innehåll påbjuder mirakelkurer på alla hälso- och viktproblem. Experter uttalar sig och Aftonbladet ämnar genom det legitimera artiklarna de publicerar. Vi anser att majoriteten av artiklarna är riktade till kvinnor.

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