The Western imagination has ascribed histories and identities of the Marquesas Islands throughout centuries of evolving discourses and representations as a paradoxical paradise, bolstering colonialist ideologies of social evolutionary theory. The islands have either been represented as backwards on a social scale to justify Western dominance, or have been represented as being in a state of authentic human nature out of colonial guilt and imperialist nostalgia. These representations reveal a paradox in which the Marquesas is ascribed in the Western imagination as a degenerate space, yet also as a space where the regeneration of human nature is made possible— provided that a time-backwards Marquesas is dependent on a civilized West.

Since colonial contact in North America in 1492, First Nations identity, history and culture has been displaced, erased and fictionalized by dominant colonial representations. The long history of dominance of these representations has embedded them in the consciousness of both the colonizers and the colonized, and effectively suppressed and controlled First Nations history, culture and identity. This dissertation examines how First Nations artists have resisted and critically analyzed the representation of their identity, history, and culture from the 1970s until today. Four key themes that First Nations artists have identified in the past forty years are stereotypical representations, exclusion of representation, western framing of representation, and the appropriation of representation. The research in the study employs a new method titled Ab/Originography, that is an analysis of literary, narrative and artistic accounts that come directly from the `original' source. This approach is grounded in a post-colonial analytic methodology that explores the Egocentric ideological underpinnings of representations of First Nations covering the period of colonial contact up until today, As a researcher, I propose that deconstruction and reconstruction must come directly from the First Nations voice and epistemological framework in order to give balance and validity to First Nations representation. To that end, forty artworks arc reviewed in this text with interviews of six First Nations artists. As well, I also include my own narrative, chronicling of art production in relation to my lived experience as a First Nations artist. The overall aim of this research is to raise public awareness about the predominant role of colonial ideology in the representation of First Nations peoples so that distorted constructions, habitual recycling and western ideological projections will diminish. Vltimately. this deconstructivc process provides a new space in the literary canon for the reconstruction of First Nations representation by First Nations people, especially as it pertains to First Nations art. This body of research is intended ultimately to contribute to a profound cultural and political transformation in the perception and representation of First Nations. Through this deconstruction of representation and the revealing of issues relevant to First Nations and First Nations artists in Canada, a foundation has been laid to rewrite art *story from the First Nations perspective.

The concept of moral panic has enjoyed a rich history in sociological literature. Since Stanley Cohen (1972) published his seminal study on the Mods and Rockers, scholars have used the concept of moral panic to identify and explain disproportional and exaggerated societal reactions to perceived threats against the social order posed by some condition, episode, person or group of people. However, recent scholars have sought to revise or problematize Cohen’s initial conceptualization, culminating in calls to ‘rethink’ (McRobbie and Thornton, 1995) and ‘think beyond’ (Hier, 2008) moral panic, as well as to ‘widen the focus’ of moral panic analysis (Critcher, 2008). In response, my thesis seeks to strengthen the conceptual and methodological approach to the concept of moral panic by integrating the meta-theoretical principles of critical realism. Critical realism, I argue, provides both the conceptual clarity and methodological insight necessary to enhance scholarly research on moral panic. In addition, the integration of critical realism allows me to more fully explore the internal dynamics and causal mechanisms involved in the genesis of moral panic. The result is a deeper understanding of the ontological nature of moral panic.

This study explores fatherhood in contemporary Canadian society by drawing on the experiences of nine full-time care-giving fathers in Vancouver, Canada. Using a social constructionist epistemology, the study explored how fathers who are primary caregivers to their young children construct masculinity, how they enact primary care-giving, and how they can be better supported within communities. Fathers were recruited through posters in community centres and through snowball sampling and volunteered to participate in interviews lasting between one and three hours. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed and analysed using pragmatic thematic analysis. Three key themes were constructed to represent the fathers’ self-reported experiences: fathers’ enactment of primary care-giving; fathers’ constructions of masculinity within dominant discourses of masculinity and care; and father’s support needs. Findings suggest that for these primary care-giving fathers, care-giving is active and adventurous, and egalitarian beliefs and roles regarding child care and domestic responsibility predominate within their co-parenting relationship. Traditional Euro-western masculine ideology tends to give way to a “hybrid” ideology that emphasizes affection, emotional intelligence, and caring for one’s family as a whole. Fathers indicated a preference for supports that are self-sought such as the internet and support from partners, and informal supports such as community events and time with peers to structured supports provided by community programs. Fathers who reported benefits from formal community programs offered insight into father-friendly practices. Stigma about primary care-giving by fathers was a significant theme constructed from the data. Implications for community programs for families and primary care-giving fathers in particular are discussed. / Graduate

This thesis takes a discursive/rhetorical approach to the topic of support for modern constitutional monarchy. It examines in detail some of the rhetorical devices used by modern Japanese speakers when they discuss monarchism. In so doing the thesis highlights both the discursive and social dilemmas involved in contemporary monarchism. In Britain, another constitutional monarchical state, critical psychologists have analysed what have been called 'dilemmas of lived ideology' (BiIIig et al., 1988). Billig (1992) analysed ordinary people's discourses about British monarchism. He points out that people employ dilemmatic themes as they justifY, mitigate and make sense of their own non-privileged positions under egalitarianism. I use Billig's work as a main reference, and apply his analytical frameworks (discursive psychology) for my investigation ofJapanese monarchism. Amongst several features ofJapanese conversation, I focus on its complicated naming and honorific systems. These systems almost always encode power structures amongst speaker-addressee, speaker-referent as well as addressee-referent relationships. Analysing people's mundane (family) conversations about the Emperor system, I have found contradictory rhetorical common-places, which are not always voiced explicitly, but are often formulated implicitly through these linguistic implications (i.e. naming, honorifics). Moreover, these codes have to be managed in their particular discursive contexts where the different systems of showing honour can conflict. By analysing news articles, in addition, I focus on a terminology which is employed exclusively to describe an Emperor's death. Lookingat the contexts in which terms are used (and not used), the process of construction ofthe social reality (i.e. monarchism under egalitarian social norm) is illustrated. Through my analysis, I believe, a new perspective for Japanese monarchism is introduced: people represent the institutional reality and accept the inequality simultaneously through mundane discursive interaction.

Det övergripande syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om det sätt som svenska politiker talar om och beskriver samhället (framförallt det svenska) på har förändrats över tid. Studiens perspektiv är socialkonstruktionistiskt, vilket innebär att det sätt som politikerna talar om samhället på ses som en del i den ständigt pågående konstruktionen av vårt medvetande om, och därmed av, samhället. Det material som undersöks är fem svenska borgerliga regeringsförklaringar, framförda 1976, 1979,1991, 2006 och 2010. Den textanalytiska metod som används för att analysera dessa regeringsförklaringar är en form av kvantitativ innehållsanalys. Konkret är studiens syfte att longitudinellt undersöka om det finns skillnader i vilka ideologiska idéer som dominerar i de analyserade regeringsförklaringarna. Detta görs med hjälp av två olika sorters innehållsanalys. Dels jämförs förekomsten i materialet av vissa ideologiskt laddade termer, och dels jämförs andelen i materialet uttryckta ”nyhöger-” (dvs. nyliberala ochnykonservativa) kontra alternativa, främst socialliberala idéer. Analysen visar att det, mätt på detta sätt, finns betydande skillnader i ideologisk orientering mellan regeringsförklaringarna. Det starkaste resultatet, som också kan ses som en bekräftelse på flera tidigare studier, är ett som pekar på en högervåg – det vill säga en ökning av andelen nyhögeridéer och en korresponderande minskning av andelen alternativa idéer – mellan 1979 och1991. Analysen visar också att andelen nyhögeridéer sedan 1991 varit i det närmaste konstant, men att det från 1991 till 2010 skett en gradvis förskjutning inom dessa nyhögeridéer från utpräglat nyliberala till nyliberala med ett inslag av nykonservativa, vad det verkar närmast nationalistiska idéer. / The general aim of this study is to investigate whether the way that Swedish politicians speak about and describe society (mainly Swedish society) has changed over time. The perspective of the study is a social-constructive one, which means that the way that politicians speak about society is viewed as a part of the constant construction of our consciousness of, and thereby of, society. The examined material is five Swedish right-wing statements of government policy, issued in 1976, 1979, 1991, 2006 and 2010. The method used to analyze these statements is a form of quantitative content analysis. Concretely the aim of the study is to longitudinally examine if there are differences regarding which ideological ideas that are dominant in the analyzed statements of government policy. This is done with the help of two different forms of content analysis. Comparisons are made both regarding the occurrence of certain ideologically charged terms in the different statements, and regarding the share of neoright (libertarian- and neoconservative) as opposed to alternative, mainly social-liberal ideas expressed in the material. The analysis shows that measured in this way there are considerable differences in ideological orientation between the different statements of government policy. The strongest result, which can also be seen as a confirmation of the results of several previous studies, is one which points to a swing to the right between 1979 and 1991. The analysis also shows that since 1991 the share of neoright ideas has remained relatively stable, but that a gradual shift within the neoright spectrum of ideas has taken place since then, a shift from markedly libertarian ideas in 1991, to libertarian with an element of neoconservative, almost nationalist ideas in 2010.

Abstract: This ethnographic study compares and contrasts performative masculinities of the overwhelmingly male heavy metal (HM) and hardcore (HC) subcultures. Conclusions derived from this research indicate the following: identities associated with HM and HC conflate masculinity with working-classness, HM and HC identities (and thus masculinities) are merging at present; participation in HM and HC enclaves can serve to symbolically marginalize constituents, and this symbolic marginalization can result in repercussions in the lived world outside of subculture; the hegemonic masculinity of HM and HC subcultures is subsidiary hegemonic masculinity, meaning that it supports the male-dominated structure of mainstream culture without empowering HM and HC males in an extra-subcultural sense; and that despite these negative ramifications, HM and HC participants still find the shared identities and community interaction of these enclaves to be empowering. Keywords: heavy metal, hardcore, subculture, masculinity, performativity, gender, class, ideology, rock music, identity

The purpose of this research was to determine if there is a model of ideal femininity communicated through advertising in girls’ and women’s magazines. To assess the representations of women in magazine advertisements, a content analysis of advertisements appearing in three top-selling, demographically-defined women’s magazines (Girls’ Life, Seventeen, and Cosmopolitan) was conducted. Using feminist theory and hegemony theory as critical lenses, advertisements were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Each advertisement was assessed using five criteria: physical characteristics, social context, personality and attitude, and subtext. Using this data to establish the dominant representations of women, it was determined that there is a model of ideal femininity which is developed through establishing common ideals shared by all three magazines and by gradually introducing new ideals which correspond to shifts in real-world interests and experiences of women. It was concluded that a model of ideal femininity is developed through advertising in girls’ and women’s magazines, this model is used as a guide to direct girls and women towards specific ideal preferences, attitudes and behaviours, and this model continues to emphasise traditional cultural values and gender ideals which are not necessarily reflective of the range of roles women assume in today’s society.

Why do ordinary individuals participate in mass violence perpetrated against civilians? That is the question I will attempt to answer in the following paper. I consider these men ordinary to the extent that the majority was not socially deviant. Looking at the case of Nazi Germany, two groups stand out as good case studies: the SS Einsatzgruppen and the SS cadres in the Death camps. The following analysis will focus on the motivations of these men to commit mass murder. I argue for a causal sequence of action, beginning with the onset of Nazi ideology, further followed by the dehumanization of the victim and the brutalization of the perpetrator. I will demonstrate how the ideology present during German interwar society influenced these men into participation. Dehumanization and brutalization are complimentary factors that push these men into action.

Julia Rolandsdotter, Idéer om samhälle och individ: Abortdebatten under 1960- och 1970-tal med inriktning på realpolitik och ideologi, Uppsala Universitet: Institutionen för idé- och lärdomshistoria, C-uppsats, HT 2013. This essay aims to investigate and scrutinize the debate surrounding abortion during the years of 1964 and 1974 respectively. By analyzing elements of different opinions in the debate from daily press, a wide range of aspects concerning the issues of free abortion have been distinguishable. This analysis shows that the abortion debate was, to a high degree, a question of Realpolitik and ideology whereas the differences over time have been visible rather than the differences between parties of varying opinion. By applying the theories of Ian Hacking concerning the effects of categorization, ideas surrounding people and society among others, have been highlighted in the debate. In 1964 we see ideas about the woman as motherly or a victim and the society as defective or exposed among other factors. In 1974 on the other hand discussion about the free woman and the irresponsible society is very common.