This thesis describes how social work language practice circulates around the implementation process of an evidence based structured assessment tool – Savry. The purpose is to examine and understand the social workers language practice in a working group that uses this structured assessment tool in their work with youth. The purpose is also to look for dimensions of identity in terms of discourse. The ontological viewpoint is post-structuralism where language is in focus. The theoretical framework is discourse theory based upon the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. This theory is used as a basis of the creation of an analytical toolkit which emphasises the concept chains of equivalence and nodal points. The study is based upon qualitative interviews with social workers in a group in the social services for children and youth, who uses the evidenced based structured assessment tool - Savry. The study concerns the structuring around two identities. Theese identities circulate around the nodal point “knowledge” and defines it in two different ways through chains of equivalence. One of the identities equivalates scientific research to the nodal point knowledge, the other equivalates the unique experience to the same nodal point. Theese identities seames to be the result of a hegemonic strategy articulated by one of the two. The purpose of the strategy seams to be the incorporation of as many discursive elements as possible into one dominating discourse. This is also done through the principal exclusion of certain discursive elements, witch is the characterisation of power in discursive theory. The character of the struggle for dominance is not equal. It is instead characterised by the expansion of the chains of equivalence by the scientific knowledge based identity to incorporate discursive elements form other discourses. This is identified as a hegemonic strategy with the purpose of organising consent around the definition of the concept of knowledge and its consequences for social work practice.

Syfte med den här avhandlingen är att empiriskt kartlägga framväxten och utvecklingen av varietéunderhållningen i Stockholm 1870-1920, för att kunna förstå både förhållandet till dess transnationella förebilder, ekonomiska dynamik, kulturella dragningskraft, samt förklara hur genren kom att uppfattas i den offentliga debatten. Med teorier hämtade från Antonio Gramsci och Pierre Bourdieu diskuteras varietéerna som ett uttryck för det sena 1800-talets samhällsförändringar och marknadskapitalistiska dynamik, som bl.a. synliggjordes i nya urbana livsstilar och mönster. Resultatet av dessa undersökningar visar hur den tyska, brittiska, amerikanska och franska varietéunderhållningen influerade den svenska motsvarigheten. Samtidigt var faktorer som de nationella och lokala ekonomiska, politiska och sociala förhållandena avgörande i skapandet av de specifika uttrycksformer varietéunderhållning fick i Stockholm. Avhandlingen visar också hur varietésalongernas sociala praktiker, genom en medveten disciplineringssträvan från såväl entreprenörer som politiker, kom att genomgå en förändringsprocess där den sociala samvaron minskade till förmån för en allt starkare fokus på föreställningarnas innehåll. Genom sina samhällsutmanande drag kom varietéunderhållningen även att fungera som plattform varifrån viktiga värden och normer förhandlades och medierades. Detta bidrog till att underhållningsformen blev en måltavla för sedlighets- och nykterhetsrörelsen. Moulin Rouge på svenska är, genom att sätta fokus på hur entreprenörer, artister, skribenter, musikkompositörer och kritiker tänkte och agerade i den framväxande offentliga urbaniteten, ett viktigt bidrag i förståelsen av hur den tidiga svenska massproducerade populärkulturen tog form i slutet av 1800-talet. / The purpose of this dissertation is to chart and analyze the growth and development of variety entertainment in Stockholm 1870-1920 in order to reach an understanding of its transnational models, economic dynamics, and cultural attraction, as well as to explain how this genre was understood in the public debate. With the help of theories derived from Antonio Gramsci and Pierre Bourdieu variety entertainment is discussed as an expression of the social changes and the dynamics of market capitalism that became visible in new urban life styles and patterns at the end of the 19th century. The results of this investigation show how German, British, American and French variety entertainment influenced their Swedish counterparts. At the same time factors such as national and local economics and existing political and social conditions were determinants in the creation of the specific forms of expression that variety entertainment assumed in Stockholm. The dissertation also shows how social practice in the variety halls went through a process of change due to a conscious attempt on the part of both the entrepreneurs and politicians to discipline behaviour. In this process social interaction declined and a sharper focus came to be placed on the content of the performances. Because many of its characteristics challenged social values, variety entertainment came to function as a platform for the mediation of important norms and values. This was a contributing factor in making this form of entertainment a target for the temperance and morality movements. By focussing on how the entrepreneurs, actors, writers, composers and critics thought and acted in the growing public urbanity, Moulin Rouge in Swedish makes an important contribution to understanding how early mass produced Swedish culture took shape in the end of the 19th century.

Denna uppsats tar sin början i ett intresse av att studera ungdomars konstituerande av identitet. Vi valde att utföra vår studie i Rädda Barnens projekt Ellen & allan som arrangerar samtalsgrupper med en normkritisk agenda för ungdomar i 14-års ålder. Syftet är att genom en kvalitativ studie skapa förståelse för hur ungdomarna som deltar i Ellen & allan konstituerar en maskulin respektive feminin identitet, samt betydelsen av ungdomarnas sociala relationer för detta konstituerande.  Studiens omfattning utgörs av tre intervjuer med projektledare och samtalsledare för projektet och av sex timmars observation vid fyra separata tillfällen i en Ellengrupp och i en allangrupp. Intervjuerna bidrog till kunskap om projektet som förberedde oss och skapade ett tydligt fokus inför vårt möte med fältet. Intervjuerna var utformade på ett sådant sätt att de kom att generera material som korrelerade med våra observationsdata.  Från vår analys av intervjuer och observationer drar vi slutsatsen att ungdomarnas behov av att skapa och upprätthålla sociala relationer leder till en konformitet inom samtalsgrupperna som bidrar till att ungdomarnas konstituerande av maskulin respektive feminin identitet görs med ursprung i en maskulin heterosexuell hegemoni. I denna hegemoni förknippas den maskulina identiteten med överordning och makt medan den feminina identiteten är passiv och underordnad och anses vara den maskulina identitetens motsats. / The notion of this study initially started taking shape through our interest in studying the constitution of identity in young adolescent people. The study was carried out in the Save the Children project Ellen & allan which organizes discussion groups with a norm-critical agenda for young people in the age of 14. The purpose of this study was to analyze how young people participating in Ellen & allan constitutes a masculine and feminine identity, and the importance of young people's social relationships for this constituent.  The study consists of three interviews with project managers and discussion leaders of the project, and of six hours of observation on four separate occasions in an Ellen-group and in an allan-group. The interviews contributed to an understanding of the project which prepared us and created a clear focus for our meeting with the field. The interviews were also designed in such a way that they came to produce data that could be correlated with our observation data.  From our analysis of the interviews and observations, we conclude that young people’s need to create and maintain social relationships lead to conformity within the discussion groups, contributing to adolescents constituting a masculine and feminine identity that originates from a masculine heterosexual hegemony. In such hegemony the masculine identity consists of attributes of agency and power, whereas the feminine identity is passive and subordinate and is considered being the opposite of a masculine identity.

This thesis uses critical discourse analysis to examine how the English-speaking press in Hong Kong constructs the conflict between the political movement Occupy Central and the Chinese central government. The empirical material consists of ten articles from the region’s two largest English-speaking newspapers, Hong Kong’s oldest newspaper, the South China Morning Post, and China’s only national English-speaking newspaper, the China Daily. Building on the works of Teun van Dijk, Norman Fairclough, Ruth Wodak and John E. Richardson it examines what political ideologies that are favoured by the press and what attitude the press shows for democratic development. The study reveals which different political ideologies and attitudes were communicated in the two newspapers. In this conflict the China Daily has been favouring the dominating political ideology and the South China Morning Post has been favouring the pan-democratic political ideologies. The results show that the South China Morning Post also was favouring the pan-democratic political ideologies in articles that were critical of the Occupy Central movement. All of the examined material from the China Daily has been unilaterally critical of the Occupy Central movement and has favoured the hegemonic communist ideology. / Denna uppsats använder kritisk diskursanalys för att undersöka hur den engelskspråkiga pressen i Hongkong konstruerar konflikten mellan den politiska rörelsen Occupy Central och den kinesiska staten. Det empiriska materialet består av tio artiklar från regionens två största engelskspråkiga tidningar, Hongkongs äldsta dagstidning, the South China Morning Post, och Kinas enda nationella engelskspråkiga tidning, the China Daily. Med utgångspunkt i forskning av Teun van Dijk, Norman Fairclough, Ruth Wodak och John E. Richardson undersöker arbetet vilka politiska ideologier som gynnas av pressen och vilken attityd pressen visar för demokratisk utveckling. Studien visar vilka olika politiska ideologier och attityder som har kommunicerats i de två dagstidningarna. I denna konflikt har the China Daily visats gynna den dominerande politiska ideologin och the South China Morning Post har gynnat utmanande pan-demokratiska politiska ideologier. Resultaten visar att the South China Morning Post har gynnat pan-demokratiska politiska ideologier även i artiklar som varit kritiska mot Occupy Central-rörelsen. Det undersökta materialet från the China Daily har varit ensidigt kritisk mot Occupy Central-rörelsen och har gynnat den hegemoniska kommunistiska ideologin.

The purpose of this study is to use a qualitative method to investigate the Swedish curriculums of 1919, 1962 and 2011 in search of attitudes and different usages of the popular culture of the time. To reach these conclusions Antonio Gramsci’s theories about cultural hegemony have been applied to prove how the superior classes, in this study these classes are represented by the Swedish school as an institution, use popular culture to maintain sovereignty of the lower classes. Ergo the problem highlighted in this study is whether the cultural class society exists in a fixed state since the 1919’s with the school as the institution to implement the tradition of cultural hegemony. The study shows that, as the usage of popular culture has not become a more frequent tool recommended from the Swedish government, it has become more accepted that teachers do use it in various forms and that the demand of a canonised aesthetical selection has become almost eradicated.

The following study examines the construction of political identities in the cinematic adaptations of Suzanne Collins "The Hunger Games". This is done through the lense of a post-structuralist, discourse-oriented, theoretical framework. Drawing on Chantal Mouffe's and Ernesto Laclau's concept of hegemony as well as Kimberle Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality (amongst others), I used the series main protagonist - Katniss Everdeen - as the focal point of my analysis. Situated in the intersection between class, gender and race, she is a pivotal subject in the hegemonic struggle of the films, having been labelled as a feminist icon. My aims were as follows: Firstly, I wished to establish the hegemonic structures of The Hunger Games. Secondly, I interpreted in what ways Katniss Everdeen related to these, and lastly, I sought to connect my findings to central concepts of school democracy - as I am to become an upper secondary teacher in social studies.       The analysis leaves one ambiguous as to whether Katniss is to be seen as a subversive or conformist figure. If we look at the narrative where she acts as the unifying "Mockingjay" in the struggle against "The Capitol", several subversive acts can be found - especially concerning class. However - the parallell narrative of the love-triangle, the one between Katniss, Peeta and Gale, distorts the picture. The revolutionary subversiveness of Gale is contrasted with the democratic conformity of Peeta. In the end, Katniss chooses the latter. This is to be seen against the horizon that most characters in disadvantaged positions die in their hegemonic resistance. Democracy is thus construed as the safe option, whereas heteronormativity and racism remain largely unchallenged. Regarding the reality of pupils - Katniss can be used to illustrate the limits and possibilities of the intersectional experience, and more so, to demonstrate the precariousness of diverging from the norm.

This thesis is an attempt to have a critical look at the very craft of teaching within the social sciences. The scope of my study is teachers own accounts of their teaching practices within the Swedish secondary education (gymnasieskolan). This is done through interviews which I have performed with two teachers, whose answers I have analyzed textually. My aim is to explore their motivations for their practices with the theory and method of Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis to discover how different discourses emerge, compete and work together. Among my results is that the teachers motivations express a variety of discourses covering topics as: preparations for university studies, civic responsibility, critical thinking, objectivity and secularism, among other things. This is then compared and discussed in relation to some of the Swedish curriculum studies.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att göra en kritisk diskursanalys av begreppet brottsoffer i internationella, nationella och vetenskapliga dokument. Utgångspunkten i analysen är Norman Faircloughs tredimensionella modell. Analysen leder till en redovisning av brottsofferdiskursen och dess konsekvenser för samhället. De huvudsakliga slutsatserna är att brottsofferdiskursen är en del av en större diskursordning och underordnas en diskurs i vardera typen av text, internationell, nationell och vetenskaplig typ av text. Synen på brottsoffer och brottsofferdiskursen är avgörande för hur brottsoffer bemöts och vilket stöd de får. / The purpose of the essay is to perform a critical discourse analysis of the concept: crime victim in international, national and scientific documents. The basis of the analysis is Norman Faircloughs three-dimensional model. The analysis demonstrates the discourse of crime victims and its consequences for society. The main results are that the discourse of crime victims is part of a larger order of discourse and is subordinate to a discourse of each type of text, the international, the national and the scientific type of text. The general view of crime victim and the discourse of crime victims are decisive of the treatment of crime victims and the support they receive.

This study explores how presidential candidates during the 2020 American election were tied to external others, taking the shape of China and Russia. The study argues that an identity perspective becomes fruitful for addressing the research problem, as it becomes a matter of who "we" as a nation are. In general, identity studies tend to focus on the external other, while this study aims to contribute with an understanding of how the internal and external other can be interconnected.  American exceptionalism - the notion that the US has a unique role to play on the world stage - is a prominent part of American political identity. Nonetheless, the concept of exceptionalism also implies that being an American is an act of choice and not exclusively a birthright, thus individuals and values can be labeled as "un-American". Drawing on and combining the theoretical insights from Michel Foucault, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, and Ty Solomon, politics in itself becomes a narrative war to fill nodal points with a hegemonic substance based on a wish for identity-fulfillment. The study finds that the other candidate is separated from the idea of what constitutes the US by reference to foreign and threatening powers. The other candidate is framed as unfit to be president, and since he does not correspond with the identity of the nation itself, he can not lead and personify the US. Thus, the other candidate is narratively constructed as unable to grant the wish for national identity fulfillment. The substance of the nodal points also does not exhibit a value in themselves but has to be contrasted against something or someone - in this case, an Other.

The gangsta rap has topped the Swedish music charts in recent years and the controversial message of the music genre has led people in the community to question what the gangsta rap message convey. The purpose of the study is to investigate how a normalization and encouragement of crime are characterized in the contemporary song texts, and how men and women are portrayed in connection with the power aspects of society. The method choice is a qualitative thematic and linguistic content analysis with the aim of examining the significance of the song texts in deph. The study has been conducted on the 24 songs that have been streamed the most number of times according to P3´s DigiLista since 2018. The result shows that the gangsta rap encourages and romanticizes crime through its choice of personal pronouns and semantics in the song lyrics. Women and men are portrayed in an unequal way, where women are portrayed as objectified as opposed to the hegemonic masculinity with which masculine men are equated. Power has been proven to be a dominant concept throughout the performance analysis and the power aspect has conveyed different viewpoints in each theme. The power that gangster rappers get through their coveted music may come to encourage criminal acts through their choice of words. / Gangsterrapen har toppat de svenska musiklistorna de senaste åren och musikgenrens kontroversiella budskap har fått människor i samhället att ifrågasätta vad gangsterrapens budskap förmedlar. Syftet med studien är att undersöka på vilket sätt en normalisering och uppmuntran av kriminalitet präglas i de nutida låttexterna och hur män och kvinnor skildras i koppling till samhällets maktaspekter. Metodvalet är en kvalitativ tematisk och språklig innehållsanalys med syftet att kunna granska låttexternas betydelse på djupet. Studien har genomförts på de 24 låtarna som har streamats flest antal gånger enligt P3’s DigiLista sedan 2018. Av resultatet framkommer att gangsterrapen uppmuntrar och romantiserar kriminalitet genom dess val av personliga pronomen och semantiken i låttexterna. Kvinnor och män skildras på ett ojämlikt sätt, där kvinnor framställs som objektifierade gentemot den hegemoniska manligheten som maskulina män likställs med. Makt har påvisats vara ett dominerande begrepp genom hela resultatanalysen och maktaspekten har förmedlat olika synvinklar i respektive tema. Makten som gangsterraparna får genom deras eftertraktade musik bidrar till att de kan komma att uppmuntra till kriminella handlingar genom deras val av språkbruk.