The ‘technology’ of risk structures social relationships within and outside of organisations, even though risk tends to be perceived externally as objective, neutral and apolitical. In adopting a poststructuralist perspective, this research investigates the impact of ‘calculating’ risk and how cultural, economic, social, psychological and political aspects influence the concept of risk and risk management practices. Hence, it provides a contextualized understanding of how risk and risk management are constructed intra-organisationally. This is a study of risk based on immersion. After six months of critical ethnographic fieldwork in a Brazilian development bank, called BrazBank, and applying the Discourse Theory of Laclau and Mouffe as well as the Logic of Critical Explanation of Glynos and Howarth, this research contextualises and challenges the universal logic of the discourse of ‘risk’, from a regulatory point of view. This research links macro- and micro-discourses of risk to reveal its ‘hidden power’ and to provide a glimpse into the fundamental contingencies in this discourse of control. It considers that the potential multiple interpretations of risk allows the construction of a hegemonic discourse, with boundaries that constitute and subvert certain claims in a rhetorical historic (re-)articulation of power. By doing so, it exposes how a technology that was supposed to simplify and enable, creates miscommunication in an organisation. ‘Risk’ became a battleground as controlling the understanding of risk, meant control of the organisation. Therefore, reflecting shifts in the international macro-context of risk regulation, the power of risk shifted between departments and their managers over political mandates and empowered and constructed experts and non-experts. This research illustrates different articulations of risk in the BrazBank context, how different individuals and groups developed competing interpellations of risk and, by examining the role of ideology, how and why certain conceptions of risk management practice were conserved, even as an illusion or secret, to maintain hierarchical positions and power imbalances.

The aim of the study is to analyze how the concept of responsibility is used within Swedish and Finnish educational discourse. The basic claim is that the concept of responsibility has many different meanings, which makes it problematic to use as a guideline for teaching practices, as well as understanding what values actually are foundational. Using the discourse theory and method of Ernesto Laclau combined with theoretical insights of Bauman, Habermas, Foucault, Rose, Piaget and Säljö, eight different curricula published between 1994-2015 are analyzed. The main conclusions of the study is that the concept of responsibility in some aspects has remained the same and changed in others. The trend of responsibility as something that is primarily linked to the individual rather than the group, has been persistent throughout. In Swedish curricula, however, responsibility has become more synonymous with what Rose and Foucault calls governmentality, and in Finnish curricula, the concept of responsibility has become more diversified and has obtained a distinct link to collective and democratic values and practices. In my concluding remarks I ask whether it would be better to limit the language use of responsibility as to decrease the confusion. I also state that Laclau’s discourse theory is useful for analyzing curricula, however, it contains deficiencies in terms of grasping the relationship between economy and educational discourse.

The aim of this study is to go into depth and analyze the concept of criminality (kriminalitet)and how it is constituted in Swedish parliamentary debates. During the election campaigns leading up to the 2022 election, a big part of the campaigns dealt with the growing criminality, which shows an increased interest in the issue. In April 2022, the "Easter riots"(påskkravallerna) took place, where a number of people for example threw stones at the police and other emergency vehicles personell. The study aims to investigate what the use ofthe term criminal in the parliamentary debates studied means, and what attributes are put to the term, based on statements made from politicians from three political parties in Sweden -Socialdemokraterna, Sverigedemokraterna and Moderaterna. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate whether the discourse in the parliamentary debates has undergone any changeafter the Easter riots, and if so, what type of change has taken place. The study also aims to find out whether a securitization of criminality has taken place. The first main contribution of this study is that discourses around the term mean that a large part of crime is due to immigration and segregation. The result shows no major change in the discourse after the Easter riots. The second main contribution of this study is that criminality has not become a security issue, but a speech act has been initiated by Sverigedemokraterna and Moderaterna

According to Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, our postmodern era and its correlate political problematic requires a shift in positing socialist strategy. Their wager is that by shifting away from essentialist Marxism, and towards a post-Marxist theory of hegemony which they adapt from Gramsci, the analytic for overturning contemporary hegemony will take the form of a radical democratic politics. My contention is that in shifting away from essentialist Marxism through their post-structuralist deconstructive stance, Laclau and Mouffe overstep and make their analytic for socialist strategy impotent. In order to show where Laclau and Mouffe have gone wrong I use primarily the work of Michel Foucault and Slavoj Žižek in order to demonstrate how a post-structuralist theory of ideology need not be a post-Marxist theory of ideology. / Master of Arts

Mediante a teoria do discurso de Ernesto Laclau, a tese analisa as concepções de Estados Falidos e nation-building presentes em documentos produzidos durante a administração George W. Bush. Almejamos entender como o fracasso estatal foi concebido como um evento eminentemente doméstico, assim como as ideias de que a democracia liberal é a melhor instituição para os Estados Falidos, e que os EUA possuem capacidade reconhecida para reconstruir Estados. Nossas hipóteses são as seguintes: primeiramente, por meio de premissas do institucionalismo da escolha racional, a história dos Estados Falidos é vista de maneira pejorativa, julgada à luz do desenvolvimento político e econômico ocidental. Em segundo lugar, a democracia é aqui compreendida como um significante vazio, visto que, seria não apenas o melhor e mais justo sistema político e econômico, mas também aquele que permitiria que países executassem de maneira mais eficiente funções estatais consideradas essenciais. Finalmente, com base em uma série de estudos de casos, os documentos apresentam uma visão dos EUA enquanto país historicamente engajado em nation-building, começando com as intervenções na Alemanha e no Japão ao final da Segunda Guerra Mundial, até as recentes operações no Afeganistão e no Iraque após os atentados de 11 de setembro de 2001. / Using Ernesto Laclaus discourse theory, this dissertation analyzes the conceptions of failed states and nation-building presented in documents produced during George W. Bushs administration. We intend to understand how it was possible to conceive state failure as an essentially domestic event, as well as the ideas that democracy is the best institution for failed states and that the U.S has a proven capacity to rebuild states. Our hypotheses are the following: firstly, through assumptions based upon rational choice institutionalism, the history of failed states is seen in a depreciative manner by being judged in light of a Western model of economic and political development. Secondly, democracy is here understood as an empty signifier, given that it is not only the best and the fairest political and economic system, but also the one that today enables countries to perform essential state tasks in a more efficient fashion. Finally, through a series of case studies, the documents present the idea that the U.S is historically engaged in nation-building, from the occupations of Germany and Japan at the end of World War II to the recent interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq after the September 11th, 2001, attacks.

The present study explores how representations of an underclass in Sweden is being constructed and negotiated by a diversity of so-called spokesmen of an existing underclass in Sweden within the Swedish hiphop genre. In their song lyrics, they state to speak up for an underclass in Sweden. They are, a strategically selected Swedish hiphop collective, Kartellen, whose song lyrics constitutes the study’s empirical material. Through a qualitative approach, inspired by the discourse theorists Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe the analysis critically investigates and elucidates how the representation is being carried out and through their use of language. The empirical material has firstly been deconstructed and after that, analyzed within a discourse theoretical framework, consisting of postmarxist and poststructuralist influences. More specifically it aims to focus on statements regarding and constructing the prior group and representation of an underclass by exposing how it has been articulated and further represented. The study shows that there is a tendency to describe an underclass based on a leftist discourse consisting of a series of political manifestations. There are in addition, competing articulations concerning terms of alienation and nation present in the song lyrics. Moreover, descriptions of an underclass as a homogeneous group are given from their exclusive position of the social community, which neglects differentiations. This creates an ambiguous representation, reflecting on the arbitrariness of the use of language and therefore, exposes the risk of the representations’ fictive nature.

Mediante a teoria do discurso de Ernesto Laclau, a tese analisa as concepções de Estados Falidos e nation-building presentes em documentos produzidos durante a administração George W. Bush. Almejamos entender como o fracasso estatal foi concebido como um evento eminentemente doméstico, assim como as ideias de que a democracia liberal é a melhor instituição para os Estados Falidos, e que os EUA possuem capacidade reconhecida para reconstruir Estados. Nossas hipóteses são as seguintes: primeiramente, por meio de premissas do institucionalismo da escolha racional, a história dos Estados Falidos é vista de maneira pejorativa, julgada à luz do desenvolvimento político e econômico ocidental. Em segundo lugar, a democracia é aqui compreendida como um significante vazio, visto que, seria não apenas o melhor e mais justo sistema político e econômico, mas também aquele que permitiria que países executassem de maneira mais eficiente funções estatais consideradas essenciais. Finalmente, com base em uma série de estudos de casos, os documentos apresentam uma visão dos EUA enquanto país historicamente engajado em nation-building, começando com as intervenções na Alemanha e no Japão ao final da Segunda Guerra Mundial, até as recentes operações no Afeganistão e no Iraque após os atentados de 11 de setembro de 2001. / Using Ernesto Laclaus discourse theory, this dissertation analyzes the conceptions of failed states and nation-building presented in documents produced during George W. Bushs administration. We intend to understand how it was possible to conceive state failure as an essentially domestic event, as well as the ideas that democracy is the best institution for failed states and that the U.S has a proven capacity to rebuild states. Our hypotheses are the following: firstly, through assumptions based upon rational choice institutionalism, the history of failed states is seen in a depreciative manner by being judged in light of a Western model of economic and political development. Secondly, democracy is here understood as an empty signifier, given that it is not only the best and the fairest political and economic system, but also the one that today enables countries to perform essential state tasks in a more efficient fashion. Finally, through a series of case studies, the documents present the idea that the U.S is historically engaged in nation-building, from the occupations of Germany and Japan at the end of World War II to the recent interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq after the September 11th, 2001, attacks.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-07-10T15:03:44Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Dissertação_Memórias_do_Mar_AyrtonBarros_2016.pdf: 953497 bytes, checksum: 30d4d0e0b6baea4e823a4150ded17e07 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T15:03:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Dissertação_Memórias_do_Mar_AyrtonBarros_2016.pdf: 953497 bytes, checksum: 30d4d0e0b6baea4e823a4150ded17e07 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-21 / Investiga-se a relação entre a educação informal e a manutenção da pesca artesanal e do modo de vida dos pescadores na Colônia de pescadores Z-9 em São José da Coroa Grande, cidade do litoral sul pernambucano. Utiliza-se, desde uma articulação metodológica entre Paul Ricoeur e Ernesto Laclau, a história oral, explorando categorias como trabalho artesanal, economia solidária, economia popular, educação informal. Os dados coletados foram transcritos e analisados de forma cautelosa, a partir de categorias estabelecidas pelo encontro entre teoria e dados empíricos. Concluímos que a identidade dos pescadores é essencialmente discursiva, construindo ou perdendo potência política na medida de sua capacidade de não se deixar enredar pelas lógicas sociais dominantes, hegemonizadas pelos interesses do capital e, especificamente falando, da pesca industrial. Nisto, a educação informal se relaciona intrinsecamente com a pesca artesanal, sendo essencial a sua manutenção, na medida em que possa se contrapor aos efeitos nefastos de uma escolarização voltada para o mercado. / We investigate the relationship between the informal education and the maintenance of artisanal fisheries and the livelihood of fishermen in the colony of fishermen Z-9 in São José da Coroa Grande, a city of the southern coast of Pernambuco. We used, since a methodology joint between Paul Ricoeur and Ernesto Lacrau, the oral history, exploring categories such as craftsmanship, solidarity economy, popular economy, informal education. The collected data were transcribed and analysed carefully, using categories established by the encounter between theory and empirical data. We concluded that the identity of the fishermen is essentially discursive, building or losing political power to the extent of its ability to not to get caught by the dominant social logic, equalized by the interests of the Capital and, specifically, by the Industrial fisheries. This informal education is closelyrelated to artisanal fisheries, being essencial for its maintainance, to the extent that it can counteract the harmful effects of a market-oriented schooling.

The purpose of the study is to examine how the image of the TV series Skam was constructed in the Swedish press during the winter of 2016-2017, with a focus on how Skam’s importance for individuals and society was expressed in the texts. To analyze how the discourse of Skam was constructed in the Swedish press, a discourse theoretical perspective based on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory was used, along with various theories of the media, the audience's production of meaning and pleasure, realism and psychology of religion. Different discursive tools from Laclau and Mouffe’s conceptual world are put into practice during the analysis part. Metaphors are also used as a method to understand and analyze the material.  In the analysis of the media discourse of Skam, four main themes emerged in the analyzed texts; Realism, identification, moralism and Norway and the Norwegian language. The discourse of realism raised the question whether Skam is realistic or not, and whether it is possible to understand teenagers by watching the series. The discourse of identification included questions like; whether participants could identify with the characters and situations in Skam or not, often from a nostalgic point of view. The discourse of moralism focused much on the different characters in the series and how they acted, or were portrayed. Topics such as feminism and homosexuality were discussed, along with other things. The discourse of Norway and the Norwegian language was a lot about the Swedish relations with Norway and the Norwegian language spoken in Skam. The discourse was very homogenous and notably it concerned the phenomena that Swedes have begun to speak Norwegian, and Swedish people creates a closeness and understanding of Norway and the Norwegians through the tv-series.  Skam was also constructed as something sacred that brings people together, in discussions as well as in cultural identity. A great majority of the texts discussed however adults should watch the tv-series or not.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A respeito do Direito contemporâneo, é possível dizer que ele esgota a referência a antigas figuras de linguagem que o caracterizavam, ou eram fundamentais à concretização do imaginário que lhe dava suporte: a catacrese (o juiz é a boca da lei) e a prosopopeia (a lei diz que...). No entanto, do vazio que emana dessa transformação, defendo aqui que outras figuras de linguagem são capazes de emergir da teoria social de forma a cumprir satisfatoriamente a função que se espera desse tipo de teoria, isto é, contribuir para a inteligibilidade dos fenômenos sociais. Nesse caso, especificamente, contribuir com a inteligibilidade do Direito. Refiro-me à metonímia (metáfora baseada na contiguidade) e à sinédoque (substituição do todo pela parte) que irrompem da teoria do discurso de Ernesto Laclau e Chantal Mouffe, quando tratam de caracterizar a categoria Hegemonia, herdada de Antonio Gramsci. O plano sobre o qual pretendo desenrolar essa substituição de figuras de linguagem chaves na compreensão do Direito é exatamente um romance: a caracterização dada por Ronald Dworkin ao exercício da jurisdição, a que rotula de um Romance em Cadeia. E claro, como não poderia deixar de ser, a referência empírica que subjaz o experimento é esse exercício jurisdicional na democracia brasileira. / About contemporary Law, it is possible to say that it exhausts references to figures of speech that characterized it or that have been essential for its understanding. I am talking about catachresis ("the judge is the mouth of Law") and prosopopoeia ("the law says that..."). However, from the emptiness that remains from this changing, I argue here that other figures of speech are able to emerge from social theory in order to perform the function expected of such a theory, that is, to contribute to understand social phenomena. In this case, specifically, it would contribute to understand Law. I refer to metonymy (a metaphor based on contiguity) and synecdoche (the substitution of the whole by the part) that arise from the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, when they are characterizing the category Hegemony, inherited from Antonio Gramsci. The background on which I intend to conduct the replacement of those figures of speech to understand Law is exactly a novel: the characterization given by Ronald Dworkin to the exercise of jurisdiction, that he calls a Chain Novel. And, of course, the empirical reference that underlies that experiment is the exercise of jurisdiction in Brazilian democracy.