This thesis is a study of contemporary British fascist ideology as expressed in the texts produced by or in association with the British National Party (BNP). It differs from previous studies in that it starts at the depth of the ideology and examines its rhetorical and ideological structure. Drawing on the theory and methodology of critical discourse analysis, this thesis explores the rhetorical and presentational strategies used in contemporary British fascist texts. As such, it examines how constructions of us and the Other are deracialised, warranted and constructed as fact. The thesis also differs from previous studies in that it explores the pattern of contemporary British fascist ideology and emphasises its intrinsically gendered nature. Eugenics is taken as the core ideological theme of fascism, whose focus is on breeding a racially pure and healthy nation. The notion of breeding ensures that gender lies at the core of the ideology. Drawing on the idea of a polarised rhetorical and argumentative structure, this thesis also examines how fascism constructs the ideological opposites of eugenics. The first opposite to eugenics explored in this thesis is liberal ideology and specifically feminism. The analysis examines how fascist opposition to these is based on the essentialist belief in the fixed biological nature of both race and gender. The analysis looks at the presentational strategies as well as the argumentative content of antifeminist discourse in contemporary British fascist texts. The second opposite to eugenics explored is multiculturalism. The thesis explores how stories about rape simultaneously construct race and warrant arguments about the harmful effects of their presence on our society. The analysis examines the various presentational strategies used to portray üs as the victims of the Other. It is by studying the interconnection between these three themes that this thesis argues that fascism, with its eugenic orientation, is not only a racial ideology but a gendered one. The analysis of contemporary British fascist accounts undertaken in this thesis goes some way to providing an understanding of the relationship between gender and race that is at the essentialist core of fascist ideology.

This thesis presents a critical analysis of the dilemmas of doing a PhD in the social sciences from the perspective of discursive psychology. It aims to contribute to qualitative studies of higher education, especially work in the sociology of education on social science doctoral research and training, and discourse analytic work on the dilemmas of education. It argues that there is a crucial bias in the literature on doctoral study. Much of the theory and research on doing a doctorate has been written and carried out by doctoral supervisors and established academic researchers, rather than doctoral students themselves. As a result, researchers have tended to study supervisor rather than student dilemmas and have left certain gaps in their studies, including the experiential dimensions of doctoral research, the discursive construction of postgraduate identities, and the patterns of ideology and power at play in doctoral student life. The present doctorate on doing a doctorate attempts to fill in these gaps, and at the same time introduces a distinctive critical, discursive, and reflexive take on postgraduate education. Detailed discourse analyses are carried out of in-depth semistructured interviews with PhD students in various psychology and social science departments in the United Kingdom. The analysis pays attention to the conversational, rhetorical, and ideological patterning of doctoral postgraduate discourse. In particular, it concerns the academic identity work done by the postgraduates, the ways in which they manage particular interactional, selfpresentational, and ideological dilemmas in their talk, and the different forms of power that are at play as they carry out their doctorates. In addition, a form of practical, analytic reflexivity is developed in the thesis, whereby the authors' own methodological and interviewing practices are analysed, along with text of the thesis itself. The general argument is that the topic of postgraduate academic identity proves a good case study for the investigation of some of the hidden dynamics of power, as well as the use of wider ideological values, in the construction of identities in contemporary institutional settings.

Aktuell forskning belyser betydelsen av sensoriska upplevelser och rörelse i inlärningsprocessen. Sensoriska upplevelser påverkar hjärnans aktiveringsmönster på ett positivt sätt, vilket leder till en mer effektiv inlärningsupplevelse. Montessoripedagogiken betonar lärande genom sensoriska upplevelser som en nyckelaspekt i barns utveckling. Ett noggrant utformat utbildningsmaterial anses vara en viktig tillgång med stor betydelse, men samtidigt skapar montessorimaterialet förväntningar och en läraridentitet associerad med montessoripedagogiken, vilket ger upphov till dilemman i den dagliga praktiken. Syftet med denna studie är att analysera montessoripedagogernas berättelser om hur det språkmaterial som designats av Maria Montessori för barns skriv- och läsutveckling lever vidare, tolkas och används i samtiden. I studien användes en kvalitativ forskningsansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex informanter från fyra montessoriförskolor. Deltagarna informerades om forskningens syfte och gavs möjlighet att dra sig ur när som helst, samt att pseudonymer användes för att säkerställa konfidentialitet. Tematisk analys användes för att identifiera mönster i montessoripedagogernas berättelser om språkmaterialet. Studiens teoretiska ram är baserad på Michael Billigs begrepp om ideologiska dilemman, vilket användes för att analysera montessoripedagogernas berättelser om språkmaterialen. Detta gjordes för att lyfta fram montessoripedagogernas åsikter, nuvarande användning och tolkning av språkmaterialet designat av Maria Montessori. Montessoripedagogerna uppskattar språkmaterialet, men en läraridentitet konstrueras genom materialet där de navigerar genom ideologiska dilemman och konflikter mellan det vedertagna "common sense" inom montessorisystemet och deras egna erfarenheter och strategier. Slutsatsen om att en läraridentitet konstrueras genom materialet kan vägleda skolledare vid implementering av utbildningsmaterial. Ett dilemmaperspektiv kan vara en tillgång för att stödja pedagogers och arbetsgruppens arbete för att förstå sitt material och anpassa sig till nya metoder och verktyg för att möta barnens behov. Vid utformningen av nya utbildningsmaterial kan studiens resultat bidra med viktiga insikter att beakta.

This study analysed the reporting of the debate over the Guggenheim Bilbao in the Basque nationalist newspapers Egin and Diario Vasco. I was looking at differences/similarities between the newspapers, and at how argumentation changed over time (1997/1998), drawing upon content analysis, discourse analysis of the ideological themes in the reporting and an indepth analysis of two editorials, one in Spanish and one in Basque. The content analysis confirmed that economy and Basque culture/identity were highly controversial themes; and that in 1998 the museum became more accepted. An analysis of rhetorical strategies e.g. quantification rhetoric for economic predictions; vagueness/evasiveness to portray the Basques' reception of modem architecture/art, permitted the examination of intragroup/intergroup models of interaction, strategies and underlying ideological dilemmas (Billig et ai, 1988). After the inauguration, Diario Vasco claimed that the museum was concerned with Basque modem art, while Egin maintained a cautious distance. The in-depth comparative analysis of political rhetoric in two Egin's editorials, reporting similar events in Basque or Spanish, confirmed that the use of these different languages involves different construction of the readership; and different strategies to convey communality between writer/reader. In the Basque language editorial, communality was cautiously constructed until an assertive we Basques stressed search of unity, differentiation, and sovereignty: conflict/differences between Basques were omitted, backgrounded or ironized, while differences with the Spanish foregrounded. In the Spanish editorial, an impersonal third person tone avoided using the rhetoric of we. Specific Basques were blamed for the repression of Basque secessionism. A dramatic tone suggested subtle criticism against ETA, yet implying that it was reasonable to include ETA among the human victims. The explicit nation state's deixis in the Spanish editorial implied Spain was the nation state. In the Basque context the nation state's deixis was ambiguous: we Basques might be used to address Basques beyond French-Spanish boundaries, suggesting a long-term representation/project that imagined Basqueness beyond its present-day administrative division or actual political influence. The implications of such fine detail differences were discussed.

Hiphopen har i alla dess tider varit en mansdominerad musikgenre och bransch men detta har under de senaste åren kommit att förändras, inte minst inom den svenska kontexten. Svensk hiphop karakteriseras idag av en utpräglad feminism, då till exempel det kvinnliga kollektivet Femtastic har växt fram. Att kvinnor idag har en minst lika stor roll som män inom den svenska hiphopen och att denna har en stark relation till feminism, visar på att den sexism vänd emot kvinnor som har präglat många raptexter skrivna av män här har kommit att förlora sin popularitet. Vi har genom att använda Edleys kritiska diskurspsykologi undersökt hur svenska kvinnliga rappare uttrycker sig och positionerar sig själva och andra i sina låttexter utifrån aspekterna kön och sexualitet, aspekter som manliga rappare ofta har använt vid beskrivning av kvinnor. Vi har med hjälp av tolkningsrepertoarer, subjektspositioner, ideologiska dilemman och Judith Butlers begrepp subversivitet kunnat urskilja olika mönster i konstruktioner av kön och sexualitet och funnit att artisterna i fråga många gånger agerar på ett sätt som bryter eller frångår köns- och sexualitetsbundna normer. Vi har även kunnat uttyda hur artisterna använder språkliga resurser som ett verktyg för att till exempel framhäva en kvinnlig styrka, såväl individuell som kollektiv. / Hip hop has throughout the years been a male dominated music genre and industry but this has recently come to change, not least within the Swedish context. Today Swedish hip hop is largely characterized by its pronounced feminism, partly because of the development of the female collective Femtastic. The fact that women today have an at least equally clear role in the Swedish hip hop industry as men indicates that sexism, which has been a frequently reoccurring theme in male rap lyrics, has come to lose its popularity. We have, through the use of Edleys critical discourse psychology, examined how Swedish female rappers express gender and sexuality and how they position themselves and others with regard to these aspects, aspects that male rappers often have used to describe women. By using interpretative repertoires, subject positions, ideological dilemmas and Judith Butlers term subversivity, we have been able to distinguish certain patterns in the constructions of gender and sexuality. We have found that the artists frequently express themselves in ways that digresses from stereotypical norms of gender and sexuality and distinguished how they use linguistic resources as tools with which they, among other things, accentuate female strength, individual as well as collective.

This ethnographic study explores treatment practices and staff-resident interaction at a detention home for young men, drawing on video recorded conversations and interviews. It investigates ideological dilemmas inherent in the institutional setting and how these produce complex subject positions to uptake, negotiate or refuse. Study I explores a core treatment dilemma: coercion vs. freedom, involving the dual institutional goal of coercing residents into norm abiding behavior and of producing individuals who behave "properly" out of their own free will. It focuses on staff members’ talk about token economy, illuminating rhetorical resources deployed to avoid the troubled subject position of a disciplinarian. Study II investigates disciplinary humor, illuminating how humor is used both to impose and disrupt social order. It shows how staff members and youths skillfully deploy humor in negotiating local hierarchies related to authority, generation, and age. Humor was also found to be a useful way of navigating ideological dilemmas. Study III explores behavior modification practices, focusing on how selfassessment practices can be conceptualized as responsibilization that emphasizes self-regulation. It documents the participants’ engagement in strategic deployment of specific subject position relations, “young boy”-caregiver rather than delinquent-disciplinarian. In brief, the thesis shows that subject positions are essentially co-constructed, and how positions related to age are highly relevant in this institutional setting. Paradoxical aspects of subject positions provide discursive resources that can be deployed to navigate ideological dilemmas such as that of coercion vs. freedom, but also to handle issues of authenticity. / Denna etnografiska studie undersöker behandlingspraktiker och interaktion mellan personal och ungdomar på ett särskilt ungdomshem för unga män. Materialet består framförallt av videoinspelad interaktion och intervjuer. I studien utforskas ideologiska dilemman samt hur dessa producerar komplexa subjektspositioner att uppta, förhandla om eller neka. Studie I undersöker ett huvuddilemma: tvång vs. frihet, vilket involverar de dubbla institutionella målen att tvinga ungdomarna till önskvärt beteende och att producera individer som beter sig ”korrekt” av egen fri vilja. Fokus ligger på personalens tal om teckenekonomi och studien synliggör retoriska resurser som används för att undvika positionen ”disciplinär personal”. Studie II utforskar disciplinerande humor och synliggör hur humor används både för att skapa och omskapa den sociala ordningen. Studien visar hur personal och ungdomar skickligt använder humor i förhandlingar om lokala hierarkier relaterade till auktoritet, generation och ålder. Humor var också ett sätt att navigera ideologiska dilemman. Studie III undersöker beteendemodifieringspraktiker, med fokus på hur självutvärdering kan förstås som responsibilisering med fokus på själv-reglering. Studien dokumenterar deltagarnas strategiska användning av specifika subjektspositionsrelationer, ”liten pojke”-vårdare snarare än ungdomsbrottsling-disciplinär personal. Sammantaget visar avhandlingen att subjektspositioner i grunden är samkonstruerade och att positioner rörande ålder är ytterst relevanta i denna kontext. Paradoxala aspekter av subjektspositioner bidrar med diskursiva resurser vilka kan användas för att hantera ideologiska dilemman och för att hantera frågor rörande autenticitet.

Pedagogical documentation is a certain procedure for documenting that, in recent years, has been embraced in several Swedish preschools. Teachers document children’s actions and conversations usually by photos or video recordings. This documentation is to be used for a pedagogical purpose. However, studies and governmental inspections have shown that pedagogical documentation gives rise to many questions among preschool teachers. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into what is being expressed when preschool teachers discuss pedagogical documentation, focusing on themes of content and on the participants’ expressions of their points of view. The data is comprised of transcriptions from audio recordings of discussions conducted in a research circle. The participants are eight preschool teachers that met over the course of one year. Each meeting focused on the documentation provided by a different participant. In that way the contents of the discussions were framed by the teachers own questions and narratives. Theoretically, the study departs from Social Constructionism and Discursive Psychology. The preschool teachers’ utterances have been analyzed using concepts of interpretative repertoires and ideological dilemmas. The results show the main themes to be: Knowledge content in a preschool setting, children’s learning, the teacher’s role and implementation of pedagogical documentation. The participants’ joint position is that the knowledge content at the preschool level is defined by the curriculum for the preschool. Concerning children’s learning and the teacher’s role, two main standpoints are disclosed. Ideologically those standpoints derive from two opposing theories of education. Based on how the standpoints have been expressed I have called them ”predetermined learning” versus ”non-predetermined learning”. One main distinction between the standpoints is that predetermined learning emphasizes the results of learning, while non-predetermined learning emphasizes the processes of learning. The participants’ utterances show that teachers tend to subscribe to the idea that there is only one acceptable way of working with pedagogical documentation. This sometimes creates performance anxiety and feelings of not succeeding and has led to arguments advocating an alternate approach; pedagogical documentation can be done in many ways. The ideological dilemmas within the discourse can be perceived as resources by which the participants argue about knowledge, learning, teaching and about the implementation of pedagogical documentation. / <p>Licentiatuppsatsen har författats inom forskarskolan "Utforskande lärprocesser och literacy: förskolebarns lärande i språk, matematik och naturvetenskap" som genomförts i samarbete mellan Stockholms universitet, Uppsala universitet, Umeå universitet och Högskolan i Dalarna.</p>

Abstract  Pedagogical documentation is a certain procedure for documenting that, in recent years, has been embraced in several Swedish preschools. Teachers document children’s actions and conversations usually by photos or video recordings. This documentation is to be used for a pedagogical purpose. However, studies and governmental inspections have shown that pedagogical documentation gives rise to many questions among preschool teachers. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into what is being expressed when preschool teachers discuss pedagogical documentation, focusing on themes of content and on the participants’ expressions of their points of view. The data is comprised of transcriptions from audio recordings of discussions conducted in a research circle. The participants are eight preschool teachers that met over the course of one year. Each meeting focused on the documentation provided by a different participant. In that way the contents of the discussions were framed by the teachers own questions and narratives. Theoretically, the study departs from Social Constructionism and Discursive Psychology. The preschool teachers’ utterances have been analyzed using concepts of interpretative repertoires and ideological dilemmas. The results show the main themes to be: Knowledge content in a preschool setting, children’s learning, the teacher’s role and implementation of pedagogical documentation. The participants’ joint position is that the knowledge content at the preschool level is defined by the curriculum for the preschool. Concerning children’s learning and the teacher’s role, two main standpoints are disclosed. Ideologically those standpoints derive from two opposing theories of education. Based on how the standpoints have been expressed I have called them ”predetermined learning” versus ”non-predetermined learning”. One main distinction between the standpoints is that predetermined learning emphasizes the results of learning, while non-predetermined learning emphasizes the processes of learning. The participants’ utterances show that teachers tend to subscribe to the idea that there is only one acceptable way of working with pedagogical documentation. This sometimes creates performance anxiety and feelings of not succeeding and has led to arguments advocating an alternate approach; pedagogical documentation can be done in many ways. The ideological dilemmas within the discourse can be perceived as resources by which the participants argue about knowledge, learning, teaching and about the implementation of pedagogical documentation. / Forskarskola för förskollärare "Utforskande lärprocesser och literacy:Förskolebarns lärande i språk, matematik och naturvetenskap"