The focus of this thesis is how identities are construed in adult education. According to the theoretical framework inspiring the study, identities are viewed as discursive constructions that are negotiated in social arenas. Hence, identities are considered versatile, plural and contradictory. The study has an ethnographic case study design and the field work was conducted 1998–2001. Various sources of data collection, such as interviews and participant observations were utilised. Every day practice at three different institutions of adult education in the case study municipality ”Nystad” were studied: Folk high school, Komvux and Liber Hermods flexgymnasium. Participants (27) were studied extensively, and a follow-up containing biographical interviews with the participants was also done 18 months after the main study. The result will show how the discourse of life long learning produce different technologies applying to different institutions of adult education defining what counts as knowledge, the relationships between actors and the demands participants will be posed with. Although the institutions of education are different, there are also similarities. The differences, however, are important in the recruitment of participants. The requirements of the education as to who you are supposed to be as a participant in adult education show a similar pattern, irrespective of the institution of education; the student with an interest in studying, prone to change, independent and well-behaved. Different strategies are detected when focusing the staging of participants’ identities, adaptive and defiant. An adaptive strategy means the adults meet the requirements of the education and a defiant strategy that they resist. The strategies may be applied by one and the same participant depending on the situation. Biographies show how different interpretative repertoires are used to stage different identities. The participants use four repertoires relevant to the subject: that of making a living, learning, earning credits and self realization. The repertoires applicable to the forms of teaching are teacher oriented, selfdirected and conversational. The repertoires used in relation to the teachers in adult education are expert, person, supervisor and administrator. The repertoires used by the adults in order to describe other participants are adult student, study mate and friend. The result of the study inspires the discussion of adult education in terms of social inclusion and exclusion.

This thesis is a study of bullying narratives, mainly co-produced in a process of ongoing interaction. The focus is on how narrators rhetorically organize their storytelling and identity work by using discursive resources. The empirical material consists of 12 interviews with, and 12 written stories by people who have been exposed to workplace bullying plus information from three websites about bullying, and previous research. The overarching aim of the study is to identify how a bullying discourse is produced, reproduced, challenged and negotiated in bullied persons’ narratives. Specific aims are to determine how bullying is portrayed publicly, how narrators with experience of being bullied build their stories, how the narratives stand in relation to victimization, what makes it possible to talk about vulnerability and what are its limits, and finally to develop a narrative approach.Theoretically and methodologically, the study has its basis in narrative analysis, discursive psychology, conversation analysis, and metaphor analysis. The study shows how the narrators categorize themselves as active, competent, and consensus seeking. They resist being victimized, but by their use of the interpretative repertoire and a standard story of bullying, they nevertheless become indirectly victimized. What’s at stake, in the narratives, is the question of guilt, which they rhetorically evade by the use of different metaphors. These metaphors depict bullying as a mystery, a lifelong source of suffering, a transformation, a learning experience, a battle, a contagious virus, and a trap. The narrators are constrained by the narrative conditions, the interpretative repertoire, standard story, and narrative form and content – a story of good and evil when creating their own story. The narrative conditions at the same time set the limit for expressing oneself in the identity work. This also means we are part of the production and reproduction of the bullying discourse when I, as a researcher, and the narrators use the repertoire and the standard story in mutual understanding. / <p>Helena Blomberg är verksam som universitetsadjunkt i sociologi vid Mälardalens högskola sedan 2001och vid Örebro universitet sedan 2003. Hennes huvudsakliga verksamhetsområde rör metodologiska frågeställningar kopplat till den kvalitativa forskningstraditionen, främst diskurs- och narrativ analys. Hon ingår även i Diskursgruppen vid Stockholms universitet, en tvärvetenskaplig forskargrupp som arbetar med olika diskursanalytiska ansatser.</p>

Svensk media rapporterar återkommande att det grova språkbruket är ett växande problem bland barn- och ungdomar och att det har spridit sig längre ned i åldrarna. Olika former av verbala kränkningar kan i längden leda till allvarliga konsekvenser. Trots problematiken kring barnens grova språkbruk är forskningen kring ämnet i stort sett obefintlig. I föreliggande kvalitativa studie med socialkonstruktivistisk ansats är syftet att få en djupare förståelse för de bakomliggande maktstrukturerna i grundskoleelevers grova språkbruk och undersöka grundskoleelevers användning och upplevelser av grovt språkbruk samt dess sociala konsekvenser. Studien utgår från kvalitativa metoder och insamling av data har skett via fokusgrupper och semistrukturerade intervjuer av tolv grundskolebarn i åldrarna tio till tolv år. Resultatet i studien visar på tre huvudsakliga orsaker till att barn använder ett grovt språkbruk och det är för att demonstrera känslomässiga yttringar, markera en grupptillhörighet eller inta en högre social status i gruppen och därmed tas på större allvar och få mer respekt. Det visade sig även att miljön påverkar användandet av grovt språkbruk och att barnen väljer mellan olika tolkningsrepertoarer beroende på kontexten. / In the Swedish media, it is repeatedly reported that crude language is a growing problem among young adults and that it is spreading and increasing among younger children. Various forms of verbal abuse can in the long run lead to serious consequences. Despite the increase in children's crude language use, research on the subject is largely non-existent. This qualitative study used a social constructivist approach, aiming to achieve a deeper understanding of elementary school students' underlying power structures, and to examine their experience of crude language and its social consequences. The study is based on qualitative methods, data collection from focus groups and semi-structured interviews with twelve primary school children between the ages of ten and twelve. The results of the study show three main reasons why children use crude language; to demonstrate emotional expressions, to mark group affiliation and to take a higher social status in the group, in order to be taken more seriously and gain more respect. It was also shown that home and school environments also play a role in influencing the use of crude language, where children choose between different interpretative repertoires depending on the context.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:31:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mariana Prioli Cordeiro.pdf: 1316244 bytes, checksum: a6a76ba58d3d1fcda936b3892e7fcd21 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-10-30 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The social movements created by deficient people have had a profound effect on the quality of their lives. Such initiatives pertain to education, work, health and the involvement of these people in every social aspect of life. This work is about one of these movements, the Independent Living Movement (ILM). In this study, we aimed to identify the terms used to convey the feeling of independent living, as well as the possibilities associated with this life style. To complete this work, we acquired input from deficient people, an uncommon practice for projects of this nature. Besides allowing those people to speak, this work also aimed to fill a gap in the literature about deficiency and social movements the scarce literature regarding ILM. This movement s principles are in place in various countries and play an important role in international politics, which is why we thought these studies were important. To perform our studies, we analyzed, according to a constructionist perspective, documents from public domain produced by ILM and we conducted two focus groups with some of its members. Our findings indicated that independent life is understood as praxis, i.e., the process of putting theoretical knowledge into practice. In addition, we verified that the terms used to convey the concept of independent life were: independence, autonomy, empowerment, self-determination, participation and equal opportunities. The analysis of the documents from public domain and the focus groups allowed us realize that all these terms contributed to a new way of understanding deficiency. Using and practicing these terms, ILM members seek recognition as social actors, involvement in society and control of their lives. They believe the personal autonomy and the independent living are the factors that turn this reality possible. In other words, they believe that deficient people need to be accepted as ordinary citizens, without being stratified and be able to help each other to confront the social stigma that labels them as second-class citizens / Os movimentos sociais em defesa das pessoas com deficiência têm assumido um papel cada vez mais importante na luta pela melhoria da qualidade de vida dessa população. Suas principais reivindicações são relacionadas à educação, ao trabalho, à saúde e aos serviços que implicam maior participação dessas pessoas em todos os momentos do convívio social. Este trabalho aborda um desses movimentos, o Movimento de Vida Independente (MVI). Nessa abordagem, buscamos identificar os repertórios disponíveis para dar sentido à noção de vida independente, bem como as possibilidades de ação dos sentidos assim produzidos. Com isso, objetivamos, primeiramente, dar voz às próprias pessoas com deficiência, já que esta é uma prática pouco comum em trabalhos acadêmicos. Além disso, objetivamos, também, suprir uma lacuna na literatura sobre Vida Independente. Além de ser um grupo reivindicativo bastante ativo em diversos países, seus princípios direcionam políticas públicas internacionais. Por esta razão, pensamos ser da maior importância estudar esses princípios. Em especial, a noção de Vida Independente, uma vez que ela constitui o fundamento de todos eles, norteando a filosofia e as estratégias de luta e resistência desse movimento. Para tanto, analisamos, a partir dos pressupostos do construcionismo social, documentos de domínio público produzidos pelo MVI e realizamos dois grupos focais com alguns de seus membros. De acordo com essas análises, constamos que vida independente é entendida como práxis, ou seja, não há filosofia sem a prática de vida independente e vice-versa. Constatamos, também, que os principais repertórios utilizados para dar sentido a essa noção são: independência, autonomia, empoderamento, autodeterminação, participação e igualdade de oportunidades. A análise dos documentos e dos grupos focais nos permitiu concluir que todos esses repertórios contribuem para colocar em prática uma nova forma de compreender a deficiência. Por meio desses repertórios, temos indicativos de que os militantes do Movimento de Vida Independente buscam ser reconhecidos como atores sociais, participar ativamente da sociedade e assumir o controle de suas vidas. Eles acreditam que isso é possível somente por meio da conquista da autonomia pessoal e da vida independente. Ou seja, que isso é possível somente quando as pessoas com deficiência passam a ser protagonistas de suas vidas, passam a ser cidadãs plenas, desinstitucionalizadas, que se ajudam mutuamente e que confrontam o sistema social, sanitário e institucional que as colocam na condição de desviantes

I denna studie riktas fokus mot hur samhället ordnar för barns välfärd när de generellt inriktade insatserna inte räcker till. Studien baseras på observationer och intervjuer i tre olika verksamheter för unga i åldern 12-16 år: 1) ett hem för vård eller boende, HVB, med egen skola, 2) en kommunal särskild undervisningsgrupp, f d skoldaghem, och 3) ett HVB för utredning och behandling utan egen skola. Kännetecknande för dessa verksamheter är att de fått i uppdrag att fostra unga och att arbetet utförs i gränsområdet mellan undervisning och behandling. Vad händer i verksamheter som samtidigt ska åtgärda både sociala och pedagogiska problem och där diskurser från olika institutionella och vetenskapliga fält korsas? Genom att studera hur samhället hanterar unga som avskilts från den reguljära skolan syftar studien till att synliggöra hur olika diskurser om ”problembarn”, undervisning och behandling, skapar möjligheter och begränsningar för verksamheternas mål, medel och aktörer. Studiens metodologi är en kombination av etnografi och diskursanalys. Studien tar sin utgångspunkt i interaktion, vardag och identitetsformande processer. I dessa kommunikativa praktiker som är intimt relaterade till identitetsskapande, arbetar lärare och behandlare. Analys av vardagssituationer i dessa pedagogiska och sociala praktiker samt intervjuer av de unga och de anställda ger en ökad förståelse för vad som händer där och vad arbetet betyder för dess aktörer. Miljöerna består till stor del av informella mötesplatser där en flexibilitet i tolkningsmöjligheterna skapar förhandlingsutrymme om både vad som sker där, men också vilka de unga är. Användningen av informella miljöer, lekfullhet, kroppskontakt och humor upprätthåller konsensus och bygger relationer. Relationen möjliggör att de anställda kan skapa tillit och förtroende hos de unga och används för att stödja de unga och påverka dem i önskvärd riktning. Relationen innebär att de unga, samtidigt som de får stöd och omsorg, också kan kontrolleras. Två olika strategier, omsorg och kontroll, kopplas samman i vad Foucault beskriver som en pastoral maktutövning. Relationen är grunden för intersubjektivitet, d v s en delad kunskap om situationen och dem själva. Diskurserna som används utgår från att de unga ska förändras. Diskurserna tydliggör att de ungas förändring främst ses som avhängiga dem själva, men att förändring är sannolik och möjlig genom de ungas involvering. De unga själva ses i hög grad som ansvariga för att leva upp till de krav som samhället ställer på individer i den åldern. De anställda förväntas klara av fysisk gränssättning, använda tvångsåtgärder och hantera andra repressiva inslag. De ungas aktörskap synliggörs genom deras motstånd inför det som strider mot deras motiv och det som står på spel för dem, d v s deras normalitet. Intervjuer med de unga har sammanfattat de möjliga identitetsalternativ de unga uppfattar finns tillgängliga för dem och handlar om skapandet av vilka de varit och vilka de kan bli. Identiteterna beror på vilka tolkningsrepertoarer som används i de olika verksamheterna. Repertoarerna gör det möjligt att skapa olika identitetskonstruktioner där en del kan ses som mer normala än andra. En del av identitetsalternativen innebär att se sig själv som kriminell eller med brister av olika slag. Kamratkretsen på hemmaplan och som elev i skolan är den plats och det sammanhang där de unga känner sig mest som alla andra. / This study examines how society handles children who for different reasons can’t manage, or be managed, in compulsory schools. Observations and interviews were made in three different settings: 1) a foster home with its own school, 2) a small school for troubled youth, and 3) a home for assessment and treatment, without its own school. Common for these arenas are that the children have been separated and set apart from regular school, and they take place on the boundary, or in the intersection between, teaching and treatment. The aims are to reveal how different discourses about troubled youth, education and treatment create possibilities and limitations in relation to the goal of the practices targets, their means, and the actors. The study is based on research into interaction, daily life, and processes of identity transformation. The data is collected by ethnographic methods in the form of participant observations, and the analysis is informed by discourse analysis. In these communicative practices, educators and social workers were active in an area of research that is intimately related to identity. Analysis of everyday situations in pedagogical and social practices provides valuable knowledge for understanding what is going on in this practices and what the implications are for the actors. Examinations of the studied children’s environments and activities reveal the different emphases of efforts addressing the children’s needs which are informed by (connected to) the use of different discourses. The use of informal settings, playfulness, humour, and body contact help maintain consensus and build relationships. The relationships provide a basis for exerting influence. To offer support is also a means by which the young people can be controlled. Two strategies care and control are found to be linked in what Foucault describes as an exercise of pastoral power. These relationships are also the basis for intersubjectivity, that is, shared knowledge of the situation, including self-knowledge of the actors involved. The emphasis on informal environments and flexibility in interpreting the situation allows negotiation about who the children are and what they are expected to become. The balance in child welfare activities between coercion and free choice can be described as a balancing act in which employees have great responsibility for the children. The study discusses how different discourses affect young people’s identity. Considering the various working methods based on different discourses together with the specific child welfare activities suggests that there are several different ways to define the problem situation affecting the children; the children are in this way exposed to a number of troubled identities. The results also indicate that the children can refuse to make these identities their own. The children are actors who become visible through their resistance to what threatens their motives and through what is at stake for them, that is, their normality. Interviews with children have identified possible alternative identities that depend on repertoires of identities, in which some constructions are seen as more normal than others. The children prefer seeing themselves with friends at school and as pupils in school.

Syftet med denna studie är att utforska och förstå de sätt på vilka manliga samkönade föräldrapar pratar om de kvinnor som varit delaktiga vid barnens tillblivelse. De manliga samkönade föräldraparens berättelser rör dels kvinnan som burit barnet, dels kvinnan som donerat ägg. Denna studie består av nio intervjuer, varav sju involverar båda papporna och två intervjuer involverar ena pappan. Reproduktionsstrategi skiljer sig något åt, men en majoritet av paren har fått barn via värdgraviditet samt äggdonation. Materialet har samlats in via semistrukturerad intervju och analyserats med hjälp av diskursanalys.Resultatet visar att de manliga samkönade föräldraparen använder olika tolkningsrepertoarer då de pratar om bäraren och donatorn. En tolkningsrepertoar som uppkommer när deltagarna pratar om bäraren är bäraren som en nära släkting, men inte en mamma, där det blir synligt att deltagarna behöver förhålla sig till diskurser kring föräldraskap, moderskap och omsorg. En annan tolkningsrepertoar är bäraren som aktiv och självständig och därför inte utsatt, där deltagarna förhåller sig till diskurser kring värdgraviditet och bäraren som en utsatt kvinna. I deltagarnas berättelser om donatorn framkommer tolkningsrepertoaren donatorn som nära kontra avlägsen där deltagarna förhandlar kring hur nära relation de vill ha till donatorn samt tolkningsrepertoaren om donatorn som en betydelsefull individ kontra en instrumentell gengivare där deltagarna behöver förhålla sig till processen med att välja en äggdonator och huruvida man väljer en individ eller ett ursprung.

This thesis identifies and describes the diversity aspects of police discourse based on the accounts of police trainees in their final year. Specifically, the focus is on culture, religion and ethnicity, and four main questions are addressed: What is said about diversity? How is it articulated? What subject positions are offered and assumed? In what ways are discourses of diversity sustained and challenged? The analysis of discourse in use is based on field studies conducted at the Swedish National Police Academy and focus group interviews with police trainees in the educational setting and during their trainee placement period. The analytical concepts of interpretative repertoire, ideological dilemmas, subject positions and discursive devices are employed to identify how different meanings are ascribed to diversity. Three central discourses of diversity are presented: diversity as inescapable difference (a hegemonic practice), diversity as political goal (recognition of diversity) and diversity as potential likeness (regulation of diversity). These are competing discourses on how police officers should be and how their role is understood in relation to a pluralistic society. The study shows that the contradictory diversity discourses reflect a struggle of different ‘us’, which regulates the conception of the ideal police officer, professional conduct and the performance of policing. In addition, five dilemmas originating in the tension between the discourses are outlined. Diversity is found to involve ideological dilemmas regarding how policing should be conducted in relation to profiling and social categories, how humour and jargon are viewed and handled, and how lack of knowledge may mean attributing subject positions to others with discriminatory implications. The thesis contributes to showing how diversity discourses reproduce the social order by affirming the social categories that the representatives of diversity are assumed to embody. It closes with a discussion of some practical and theoretical implications of its findings. / Ordningsmakter inom ordningsmakten visar hur mångfald, med fokus på kultur, religion och etnicitet, ges skilda betydelser i blivande polisers samtal och att det pågår en kamp om hur samhällets mångfald ska förstås i relation till polisens sammansättning och arbete. Kampen mellan diskurser är vare sig en ny kamp eller exklusiv för polisen. Däremot kan striden om hur mångfald ska förstås ses som en modern företeelse, som ställs på sin spets inom polisen vars uppdrag är att skydda demokratiska värden och lagar om människors rättigheter. I denna avhandling beskrivs hur kampen tar sig uttryck inom ordningsmakten. Hur kan vi förstå det paradoxala i att polisen har som uppgift att arbeta mot fördomar, samtidigt som vissa arbetsuppgifter motiveras av fördomar? Vad innebär ett behov av ökad kunskap om olika grupper, som samtidigt sätter dessa grupper i en diskriminerande utgångspunkt? Varför förekommer en diskriminerande humoristisk jargong i ett yrke som har i uppdrag att främja rättvisa och motverka diskriminering? Detta är några av de frågor och dilemman som mångfald aktualiserar i en polisiär kontext. Avhandlingen synliggör hur mångfaldsdiskurser återskapar social över- och underordning och att kampen mellan diskurser är en kamp om olika ’vi’.

This thesis identifies and describes the diversity aspects of police discourse based on the accounts of police trainees in their final year. Specifically, the focus is on culture, religion and ethnicity, and four main questions are addressed: What is said about diversity? How is it articulated? What subject positions are offered and assumed? In what ways are discourses of diversity sustained and challenged? The analysis of discourse in use is based on field studies conducted at the Swedish National Police Academy and focus group interviews with police trainees in the educational setting and during their trainee placement period. The analytical concepts of interpretative repertoire, ideological dilemmas, subject positions and discursive devices are employed to identify how different meanings are ascribed to diversity. Three central discourses of diversity are presented: diversity as inescapable difference (a hegemonic practice), diversity as political goal (recognition of diversity) and diversity as potential likeness (regulation of diversity). These are competing discourses on how police officers should be and how their role is understood in relation to a pluralistic society. The study shows that the contradictory diversity discourses reflect a struggle of different ‘us’, which regulates the conception of the ideal police officer, professional conduct and the performance of policing. In addition, five dilemmas originating in the tension between the discourses are outlined. Diversity is found to involve ideological dilemmas regarding how policing should be conducted in relation to profiling and social categories, how humour and jargon are viewed and handled, and how lack of knowledge may mean attributing subject positions to others with discriminatory implications. The thesis contributes to showing how diversity discourses reproduce the social order by affirming the social categories that the representatives of diversity are assumed to embody. It closes with a discussion of some practical and theoretical implications of its findings. / Baksidestext Ordningsmakter inom ordningsmakten visar hur mångfald, med fokus på kultur, religion och etnicitet, ges skilda betydelser i blivande polisers samtal och att det pågår en kamp om hur samhällets mångfald ska förstås i relation till polisens sammansättning och arbete. Kampen mellan diskurser är vare sig en ny kamp eller exklusiv för polisen. Däremot kan striden om hur mångfald ska förstås ses som en modern företeelse, som ställs på sin spets inom polisen vars uppdrag är att skydda demokratiska värden och lagar om människors rättigheter. I denna avhandling beskrivs hur kampen tar sig uttryck inom ordningsmakten. Hur kan vi förstå det paradoxala i att polisen har som uppgift att arbeta mot fördomar, samtidigt som vissa arbetsuppgifter motiveras av fördomar? Vad innebär ett behov av ökad kunskap om olika grupper, som samtidigt sätter dessa grupper i en diskriminerande utgångspunkt? Varför förekommer en diskriminerande humoristisk jargong i ett yrke som har i uppdrag att främja rättvisa och motverka diskriminering? Detta är några av de frågor och dilemman som mångfald aktualiserar i en polisiär kontext. Avhandlingen synliggör hur mångfaldsdiskurser återskapar social över- och underordning och att kampen mellan diskurser är en kamp om olika ’vi’.