Den här uppsatsen analyserar och jämför skildringar av konsumtion i Karin Boyes Astarte (1931) och Denise Rudbergs storlek 37 (2002). Detta görs utifrån teoretiska utgångspunkter i Zygmunt Baumans tankar om konsumtionssamhället, samt texter av Max Weber, Walter Benjamin och Giorgio Agamben som diskuterar kapitalismens förhållande till religionen. I Astarte är religionen framträdande som tematik och metaforik i relation till konsumtionen, och det som skildras är ofta hur konsumtionen ersätter religionen, men också hur dessa liknar varandra. I storlek 37 är konsumtionen starkt kopplad till identiteten, och fungerar både som en trygghet och ett måste. Skillnaderna i romanernas skildringar återspeglar konsumtionens roller under två olika tidsperioder: i Astarte är konsumtionen ett relativt nytt fenomen i sin moderna bemärkelse, och i storlek 37 är den i högre grad central för tillvaron, och som sådan mer oreflekterad och självklar. I Astarte finns en tydlig kritik mot konsumtionen, som förs fram genom skildringar av den som ett ändlöst begär eller en illusion. I storlek 37 kan konsumtionen stundtals problematiseras, men framstår som oundviklig. / This essay analyzes and compares depictions of consumption in Karin Boye’s Astarte (1931) and Denise Rudberg’s storlek 37 (2002). The theoretical framework consists primarily of Zygmunt Bauman’s thoughts on the consumer society, as well as texts by Max Weber, Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben discussing capitalism’s relationship to religion. In Astarte, religion is a prominent theme, and often used metaphorically in relation to consumption. Consumption is often depicted as replacing religion, in a way that emphasizes a resemblance between them. In storlek 37, consumption is strongly connected to identity, and functions both as a certainty and a must. The differences between the depictions in the two novels reflect the roles of consumption in two different eras: in Astarte, it is a relatively new phenomenon in its modern sense, and in storlek 37 it has become more central to human life, often occuring without reflection and perceived as a matter of course. Astarte sets out a visible critique of consumption, depicting it as an endless desire or an illusion. In storlek 37, consumption is sometimes questioned, but portrayed nevertheless as inevitable.

The aim of this sociological study is to understand whiteness in relation to available selections of makeup products. The research was made in a small town in Sweden. Data has been gathered from local stores and their selection of makeup with availability of makeup that resembles and matches ones own skin color. The theory includes earlier studies that are considered relevant for the study and also historical background. This is used to explain how whiteness is produced and reproduced and the notion of Swedes as white and discoures therein. The result show that 99 percent of makeup available is for white skin not for dark skin. The reproduction of whiteness directly dictates the available selection of makeup. This confirms the aim of the study that dark skin is excluded and that whiteness in relation to available makeup. / Uppsatsen undersöker hur utbud av foundation i en svensk småstad kan förstås i relation till normer om vithet. Utbudet hos samtliga butiker i staden har räknats. För att förtydliga vilka hudfärger som analyseras i uppsatsen används som analysverktyg en ”karta” över hudfärger, avsedd för konsumenter att finna sin rätta foundation utifrån vilken hudfärg som mest liknar sin egen. Teoridelen innehåller tidigare studier som anses vara relevanta analysverktyg för att kunna besvara syftet. Inläsning av studier om vithetsnorm samt inläsning av historia har ansetts relevant för att förstå de strukturer och relationer som har inverkan på normer om vithet. Teoridelen sammanfattar och presenterar därför relevant historia, om hur föreställningen om svensken som vit skapats och presenterar olika diskurser som skapar och reproducerar vithet. Resultatet visar att en procent av utbudet riktas till mörkhyade medan 99 procent är för ljus hy. Cirkeldiagram och tabeller över utbudet av foundation skapades för att tydliggöra redovisning av resultatet. Socialt skapade strukturer om svensken som vit syns tydligt i resultatet. Resultatet förstås i relation till de strukturer som skapas socialt för att producera och reproducera vithetsnormen. Genom ett nästan uteslutande av mörkhyade tolkas resultatet som en föreställning om svensken som vit och att det är en rådande vithetsnorm som påverkar utbudet. Den historiska kontexten påverkar därmed parallellt med de rådande diskurser som avgör vad vitheten gör. Studien anser därmed ha besvarat sina frågeställningar om hur utbudet av foundation kan förstås i relation till vithetsnorm.

Informationssystemen blir en allt större del av vår vardag och ger oss nya möjligheter attinteragera med varandra men det är dess design som bestämmer hur vi gör det. Genomanvändningen av system genereras mängder av värdefull information om oss ochproblematiken uppstår när system, direkt eller indirekt, skadar användare. Studiensforskningsfrågor handlar om hur makt, design, kapitalism, brist på etik och konsekvenstänkkan leda till skadligt bruk av design samt vad Weaponised Design är och varför begreppet ärviktigt. Studiens primära syfte är att undersöka hur man som konsument, individ ochsamhälle påverkas av design samt att definiera begreppet Weaponised Design. Studien ärkvalitativ och består av en semistrukturerad intervju samt litteraturinsamling för att kunnabesvara forskningsfrågorna. Undersökningen visade på att design kan leda till ett skadligtbruk på åtskilliga sätt. Användare kan nyttja system för att utöva makt och skada varandra.Felsteg i konsekvenstänk vid skapandet av design kan leda till skadligt bruk av design.Användares inflytande inom den digitala världen är näst intill obefintligt vilket kan leda tillett skadligt bruk av design eftersom det leder till att designteamen sitter på ensidig makt. Dendigitala kapitalismen som vill få användare att hyra tjänster via licensavtal kan leda till ettskadligt bruk av design eftersom användare inte får möjlighet till att förhandla om villkoren.Weaponised Design beskriver när ett system agerar som det är menat att agera menfortfarande leder till ett dåligt utfall. Weaponised Design är ett viktigt begrepp eftersom detger ett namn på en problematik som finns men som tidigare inte haft någon tydlig benämning. / Information systems are becoming a bigger part of our everyday lives and provide us withnew opportunities to interact with each other and its design decides how we do it. The use ofsystems generates a great amount of valuable information about us and a problem emergeswhen systems directly or indirectly harm users. The research questions concerns how power,design, capitalism, lack of ethics, and thought of consequence can lead to harmful use ofdesign and what Weaponised Design is and why the term is important. The primary purposeof the study is to research how consumers, individuals and society are affected by design andto define the concept of Weaponised Design. The study is qualitative and consists of asemi-structured interview and literature collection to be able to answer the research questions.The study shows that design can lead to harmful use in several ways. Users can use systemsto exercise power and harm each other. Incorrect steps in consequential thinking whencreating design can lead to harmful use of design. Users' influence in the digital world isalmost non-existent, which can lead to a harmful use of design as it leads to the design teamssitting on one-sided power. Digital capitalism that wants users to rent services throughlicensing agreements can lead to a harmful use of design because users are not given theopportunity to negotiate the rules. Weaponised Design describes when a system acts as it ismeant to act but still has a bad outcome. Weaponised Design is an important concept becauseit gives a name to a problem that exists but has not previously had a clear name.

This essay investigates how the United States has been portrayed by Swedish artists in the 1960´s and 1970’s. The aim is to discover what signs and attributes these posters utilize and how these signs and attributes given to America is reflective of the culture and conception of America in Sweden during this time period. Firstly, using Mieke Bal and Norman Brysons semiotic methodology, presented in Semiotics and art history from 1991, to analyze the signs and connect them to the right contexts in each poster. Secondly, to identify reoccurring themes and conceptions about America, visual culture theory based on Nicholas Mirzoeffs An introduction to visual culture will be used.  In these posters USA is visualized in different ways, sometimes expressively with just the text “USA”, but most commonly through representative signs likes the American flag, presidents and pictures from Vietnam. USA is depicted as an imperialistic, capitalistic, militaristic nation with a double standard. The posters are created and contributes to a visual culture. And these negative signs are reflective of the Swedish culture and opinions about the United States that could be found during this time period. The political and social commentary in art is also reflective of the 1960´s and 1970´s Sweden and the changing landscape of the Swedish artworld.

Projektet utforskar rådande maktbalans mellan staden och landsbygden, och riktar kritik åt den dominerande urbana normen. Ur en sarkastisk vinkel implementeras kasinot som medel för landsbygden att hävda sig mot staden i en värld styrd av kapital. Kasinot används som en symbol för den kapitaldrivna och ofta moraliskt ifrågasättbara världsutvecklingen, och genom denna allusion söker projektet ifrågasätta i vilken utsträckning målet om tillväxt kan tillåtas helga de allt mer extrema medel som används för att nå dit. Projektets tematik utvecklades som ett svar på det av skolan ställda kravet att rita en hybridbyggnad innehållandes ett folkets hus och ett egenvalt plusprogram omfattande totalt 2000 kvadratmeter på landsbygden i Nynäshamns kommun. Då den största delen av produktraffineringen som tidigare skedde i Sorunda, där projektet tar plats, har tvingats lägga ner på grund av centralisering uppstod en svårighet att finna ett trovärdigt plusprogram som kunde ge skäl för ett folkets hus. Då orten dessutom drabbas kraftigt av av den ökade lastbilstrafiken som Stockholm stads omläggning av Frihamnen till Nynäshamn har gett upphov till kom frågan om urban norm att hamna i fokus, och projektet att kretsa kring landsbygdens möjligheter att parasitera på samma maktförhållanden som den förtrycks av. / This project explores the current power dynamic between urban and rural, and aims to critique the domineering urban norm. From a sarcastic point of view the casino is implemented as a means for the countryside to assert power over the city in a world ruled by capital. The casino is used as a symbol for the capital-driven and often morally questionable world development. Through this allusion the project seeks to question to what extent the goal of growth should be allowed to justify the ever more extreme means used to achieve this end. The thematic of the project was developed as an answer to the schools requirement to design a hybrid building containing a peoples house and a self chosen plus-programme to an extent of 2000 metres squared in Nynäshamn municipality. As most of the product refinement that used to exist in Sorunda, where the project takes place, har been forced to shut down due to centralisation there was an issue with finding a feasible plus-programme that could support the peoples house-function. Further, as the region has been heavily affected by the increasing heavy traffic caused by Stockholm Stads relocation of Frihamnen to Nynäshamn, the question of urban norm came into focus, and the project was oriented towards the possibility for the countryside to parasitize on the same power structures that oppress it.

The ideas of Richard Sennett in his most influential book The Fall of Public Man from 1974 are many, but the main point is that the resolution of the lines between the public life and the private life has affected society, the democracy and individuals in a negative way. The main point of this essay is to understand the nature of Sennet’s thinking, ideas and philosophy and how they are connected. I am focusing on the true nature of the way he is formulating the issues and conflicts he is dealing with. Even though Sennett is a very influential thinker, very few people actually have analyzed his works, especially The Fall of Public Man. “Res publica” is the Roman expression of the bigger responsibility each citizen has in a society that goes beyond themselves. This is when you are a part of something bigger than yourself, your friends and your family, you are a part of a close connected community and society. You are not strangers to each other, you are all one. This is exactly the type of society that sociology professor of London School of Economics Richard Sennett means has gone away. Richard Sennett is often described as a person standing on the left on the political scale when it comes to economics and at the same time culturally conservative. The result of this essay shows that Richard Sennett blames industrial capitalism, secularism and urban planning for the new modern society when the distinction between public life and private life has gone away. This is the new kind of society in the western world where people shifted focus from an extrovert personality to an introvert one, a world where we are trapped in our own minds instead of stepping out of it and actually living in it. Many times, the sociology professor goes back to the mid 18th century to understand the thriving public life in Paris and London. My theoretical perspective is based upon Collingwoods thoughts about question and answer which you need to understand the question in order to understand the thinker's answer. You could call Sennett either a nostalgic or a very sharp critic of the modern world, it all depends on how much you resonate and believe in his ideas.

This thesis explores the ideological underpinnings of political soteriological discourse. Through analyzing key texts in liberation theology, using critical theorists such as Theodor W. Adorno and Wendy Brown, I aim to understand to how this soteriological discourse respond to the predicaments that afflict theology in modernity – and to explore the ideological issues with these responses. I then turn to present day Swedish theological conversations concerning salvation and its political use, in order to discuss whether the issues exposed in liberation theology can be considered to continue to be a problem for the present discussion. I also discuss the ethical and theological obstacles connected to the translocation of liberation theology from the Latin America of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s to present day Sweden, or, in other words: from an exploited continent in protest against imperialism and capitalism, to the continent guilty of so much of the suffering that Latin American liberation theology condemned. What does it mean to turn to liberation theology in this context? I find, in this discourse, a certainty and assuredness concerning the salvation of all, which I find to be at least in part ideologically grounded. Instead, I suggest another direction for political revolutionary soteriology: to unsettle and disturb the modern image of the God-like man; to reconnect with the prehistoric fear of nature through a vigilant and restless immanent critique and through the subversive act of rituals and sacrifice.

Denna essä skildrar Erik Johanssons konstnärskap under utbildningsperioden vid Kandidatprogrammet för Fri Konst på Konstfack. Essän beskriver vägen fram till kandidatutställningen Ytspänning genom att göra nedslag vid tre olika tillfällen under loppet av tre läsår. Genom personliga erfarenheter och reflektioner, samhälleliga händelser och teoretiska diskurser vävs en bild av ett konstnärskap fram samtidigt som det situeras i en historisk kontext och en rådande politisk verklighet. I Essän belyses några av vår tids djuprotade och mer nytillblivna problematiker genom en reflektion om vad som osynliggörs när något utges för att vara neutralt, och vad som går förlorat när en logik överskrider alla andra. I granskandet av olika värderande hierarkier och särskiljande praktiker skulpteras en rad konstverk fram tillsammans med en personlig och kollektiv historia av exploatering, förfrämliganden och närmanden.

The aim of this essay is to examine the significance of the concept of sanctification in biblical theological reflection on economics through a comparative textual study. The theologians analyzed are Albino Barrera, Wayne Grudem, and Kathryn Tanner. In what way are their biblical and systematic theologies of economics related to their understanding of the concept of sanctification? What is the relationship between sanctification and the Bible’s words on economics? In a broader perspective, the essay aims to reflect on how the concept of sanctification can be viewed and enunciated in the light of a capitalist economic system. The theologians used in the essay all have their origins in disparate theological discourses, Christian communities, and academic disciplines. Barrera is a biblical scholar, economist and a priest in the Catholic Church. In Biblical Economic Ethics, Barrera writes an economic theology with an emphasis on social justice. Grudem is a Calvinist Baptist biblical scholar and systematic theologian, active in conservative evangelical theological discourse. In Politics according to the Bible, Grudem presents his biblical theology on politics and society. Tanner is a systematic theologian in the Episcopal Church, active in the disciplines of feminist and constructive theology. In Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism, she critiques the economic paradigm she describes as the new spirit of capitalism. Barrera, Grudem, and Tanner all make different readings of what the Bible has to say about economic life. Grudem actively endorses the economic system of today, while Barrera and Tanner have a more critical voice. Barrera sees sanctification as a gift of divine friendship from God. Grudem views sanctification as what comes after conversion from sin and the blessings granted by God. Tanner means that sanctification takes place through the work of the Spirit and by Jesus’ gift of a life in holiness. Through the essay a connection has been established between a person’s view on sanctification and their biblical theology on economics. Barrera’s, Grudem’s, and Tanner’s biblical theology on economics is closely connected to their understanding of the concept of sanctification. There seems to be a connection between the biblical material that is being analyzed, how it is analyzed, and what is being left out. A central finding in the essay is the connection between the understanding of sanctification as either a gift or a reward.

I denna uppsats undersöker vi hur kapitalistisk realism, så som formulerat av Mark Fisher, uttrycks i två samtida romaner: The Road (2006) av Cormac McCarthy och Another Now (2021) av Gianis Varoufakis. Vi undersöker även romanernas relation till hopp och använder Ernst Blochs idéer i ämnet. I McCarthys skildring av människan, samhället och tiden, bekräftas kapitalistisk realism genom glorifiering av bland annat irrationalitet, brutal individualism och det "eviga nuet". Hoppet i romanen är av religiös natur. I Another Now, å andra sidan, ifrågasätts kapitalistisk realism, och alternativa synsätt och sociala arrangemang föreslås. Hoppet sammanfaller här med Blochs idé om det begripliga hoppet. / In this paper we examine how capitalist realism, as formulated by Mark Fisher, is expressed in two contemporary novels: The Road (2006) by Cormac McCarthy and Another Now (2021) by Yanis Varoufakis. We also examine how the novels relate to hope, and use Ernst Blochs ideas on the subject. In McCarthy's depiction of humanity, society, and time, capitalist realism is validated through, among other things, the glorification of irrationality, brutal individualism, and the "eternal present". Hope in the novel is of a religious character. In Another Now, however, the same ideology is questioned, and alternative views as well as concrete post-capitalist social arrangements are proposed. Here, hope aligns with Bloch's idea of comprehended hope.