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.

Title: What is a refugee, crisis & disaster? A comparative discourse analyses of SVT:s and Avpixlats reporting about refugees. The war in Syria, refugees and ISIS have been on the news agenda for a while. The perspective have been shifting throw different happenings about refugees, crisis, disaster and terrorism on one side. On the other side is what kind of newsagent that is reporting and there standing in society. Public service like SVT have there place on how to inform the public about different events around the world and then you have smaller news-agents thats growing in readers like Avpixlat who call themselves alternative journalism. They have less rules and regulations to follow in there news reporting and can therefor frame and angle information in a more free way. The purpose in this study is to compare how the image of refugees are created by reports from SVT and Avpixlat and how it relates to xenophobia of different kinds. The method that is used is discourse analysis and more precise Chantal Laclau och Ernesto Mouffes discourse theory. The specifik theories for the framework are ”orientalism", ”whiteness”, ”islamofobia”, ”myths”, earlier studies whit the theory of ”communitarian figures” and statistik misrepresentation of muslims as terrorists in news channels. Two different discourses where found in the material, ”refugee-crises” and refugee-crieses whiteout situation marks. The first one origins från Avpixlat and build on that there are no crises alongside the war in Syria, ISIS and refugees that flee from these factors. Refugees are fake, they are immigrants that come whit economic and potential terrorist purpose to other parts around the globe, with Europe in mind and especially Sweden. Refugees where seen as ”the other” in negativ terms, high rates if islamofobia were found, Sweden represent ”the good moral” and Syria represent the ”worst moral” in terms on symbolic witness. Europe and mostly Sweden portrays as the victim rather than refugees, SVT portrays the other way around and a drowned boy symbols refugee disasters around Mediterranean.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how public librarians, including school librarians, express themselves about librarians in library journals. Questions asked in the study are: How is the knowledge, tasks and roles of librarians described? How do the librarians describe their own and others perceptions of librarians? Are there any contradictions in how the librarian profession is described and if so, what are they? 56 articles from three Swedish library journals, Biblioteksbladet, bis and DIK-forum in the period from 1990 to 2007, are analysed. The theory and method used is discourse analysis. Concepts from Ernesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory, such as elements and nodal points are used in an analysis model in four steps. The results show that the knowledge of librarians is described with such words as information, literature, tacit knowledge and their ability to systematize and organize. Tasks and roles described are mostly related to the pedagogical aspects of the librarian profession, such as teaching, conveying and guiding. Two positions are distinguishable in the discourse, information and culture. Both are important parts of librarians’ work, but the information tasks are sometimes seen as too dominating at the expense of the cultural aspects of the librarians’ work. The contradiction can also be seen in how perceptions about librarians are described. The librarians express, often in a negative tone, that others mostly associate them with books. They also express that they need to be more visible and become better at communicating the knowledge of their profession.

The aim of this thesis is to study through discourse analysis how users talk about librarians and the librarian profession and what perceptions they have regarding it. I have tried to do this by asking the questions: How do the users describe librarians and the librarian profession? Are there any patterns in what they say? The method and theory I have used is Laclau and Mouffes’ discourse theory and partially structured interviews. The material consists of interviews with eight users that are both women and men, both students and members of the public and they were between 25 and 50 years old. In the material I found two discourses: the discourse about librarians and the discourse about the librarian profession. I have come to the conclusion that images exists of librarians being older women who are caring and forthcoming but also inaccessible. The image of the librarians also includes them working with books in different ways and that they read and know a lot about literature. When the users have talked about the librarians’ knowledge they have described that librarians have different knowledge based on what they work with. Some librarians work with inter library loans and therefore have more knowledge about that.

Denna studie fokuserar på yrkeskunnandet på Barn - och fritidsprogrammet, ett av gymnasieskolansyrkesprogram. Programmet utbildar till yrken inom pedagogiska och sociala yrkesområden samtinom fritids- och friskvårdssektorn och har yrkesutgångar som väktare, personlig assistent,elevassistent, personlig tränare, barnskötare och personal inom boende för personer medfunktionsnedsättning. Eleverna uppmanas att skaffa sig både en yrkesexamen ochhögskolebehörighet.Inom en socialkonstruktionistisk ram och med en diskursteoretisk ansats studeras huryrkeskunnande konstrueras. Studiens empiri utgörs av styrdokument, informationsmaterial ochgymnasieskolors hemsidor. Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för yrkeskunnandet på nyaBarn - och fritidsprogrammet. Med en diskursteoretisk ansats studeras den bild som de olikaaktörerna ger av yrkeskunnandet på programmet. Studieobjektet är inte programmets egentligainnehåll utan den bild som konstrueras i det empiriska materialet. I tolknings- och analysarbetetframträder flera diskurser som alla har olika stor betydelse och som får varierat utrymme.Hälsodiskursen och ledarskapsdiskursen är de som framträder tydligast. Andra diskurser som görsig gällande är demokratidiskursen, samverkansdiskursen och identitetsdiskursen. En viktig faktorsom hela tiden är central är arbetsmarknaden som i tolkningsarbetet framträder som en nodalpunkt.

No description available.

The aim of this thesis is to deepen our knowledge about the value of the Swedish Public Library as expressed in the local press during the corona pandemic. The empirical material consists of 54 articles published in December 2020 and January 2021. Debates and discourses regarding the public library are analyzed with Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory and Åse Hedemarks formulated library discourses. The study finds that Hedemarks discourses all appear to various extent. The book discourse and the community centre discourses are more visible yet the information mediation discourse is also notable. The complexity of the Public Library is further highlighed during a period when access to the physical library space is limited. The meeting place is a common way to describe the library and a function that, at the time of the study, was unavalible. The findings show that the concept is not clearly defined or fixed in one specific discourse and therefore concludes that the Public Library is far more than a meeting place and serves many purposes.

Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka den svenska debatten omsurrogatmödraskap där metod och teori utgörs av diskursanalys. Det textmaterialjag valt att undersöka består av tre artiklar med medföljande kommentarer från desvenska tidsskrifterna Bang och Ottar. Debatten om surrogatmödraskap i Sverigeär polariserad, antingen är man för eller så är man mot. Mitt syfte med dennauppsats är att redogöra för och analysera de argument och föreställningar somkommer till uttryck inom dessa två motsatta positioner. Min teoretiskautgångspunkt är Laclau & Mouffes diskursteori. Denna teori utgörs av begreppsåsom nodalpunkter och ekvivalenskedjor. I mitt material har jag kunnat urskiljatre centrala nodalpunkter. Dessa är kvinnans kropp, barn och mänsklig rättighet.Beroende på position har jag kunnat urskilja olika former av ekvivalenskedjorknutna till dessa tre nodalpunkter. I positionen mot surrogatmödraskap har jagkunnat urskilja ekvivalenskedjor vilka består av begrepp såsom exploaterande,biologism, handelsvara och moderskap. Medan jag i positionen som är för harkunnat urskilja begrepp såsom frivillighet, självbestämmande, efterlängtade ochsocialt föräldraskap. I mitt avslutande kapitel problematiserar jag dessa tvåpositioners föreställningar av surrogatmödraskap utifrån ettsocialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv. Här menar jag på att motsidan i allt för höggrad ser människan som endast en biologisk varelse och bortser ifrån attmänniskan även konstrueras i en kulturell kontext. Försidan kan i sin tur kritiserasför att utgå ifrån att alla människor oavsett kön och etnicitet har lika möjligheter.Avslutningsvis finner jag det intressant, utifrån ett diskursanalytiskt perspektiv, attförsidan vill använda ordet värdmamma istället för surrogatmamma. / The present study is a discourse analysis of the surrogate motherhood debate inSweden analyzing three articles with supplied comments from Internet of theSwedish magazines Bang and Ottar. The debate of surrogate motherhood inSweden is characterized by polarization, with strong pro- and con-positions. Theoverall objective is to analyze the arguments and conceptions that are constructedin these two opposing positions. The combined theory and method applied isErnesto Laclau & Chantal Mouffe's discourse theory. In this theory, concepts likenodal points and chains of equivalence are dominant. Three nodal points areidentified in the analysis: women´s body, children's and human right. Dependingon the position, I have found different kinds of chains of eqvivalence that areconstructed in relation to these nodal points. In the position against surrogatemotherhood I found chains of equivalence that was constructed in relation toconcepts like exploitation, commodification, biologism and motherhood. In theother position I discerned chains of equivalence which consisted of concepts likevoluntary, self-determination, longed-for and social parenting. The discourseanalysis applied is in turn, based on a social constructionist view and in the finalchapter I examine how these constructions, that I have discern in the empiricialmaterial, can be problematized. I argue that the con-position can be critizised fordescribing women as biological beeings and disregard that humans also arecultural beeings. The pro-positions in turn can be critizised for assuming that allpeople regardless of gender and ethnicity, have equal opportunities. From adiscourse analysis perspective, it is interesting to note that the pro-position forsurrogate motherhood suggests the word “host motherhood” instead of surrogatemotherhood.

Syftet för denna studie är att undersöka vilka vithetsdiskurser som artikuleras visuellt och verbalt i högstadieskolans bildundervisning i konsthistoria, samt att undersöka hur elever förhåller sig till dessa diskurser i det bildarbete som genomförs i anslutning till momentet. Dessutom syftar studien till att diskutera bildlärarens uppdrag att lyfta frågor om etniska maktrelationer och samtidigt överföra ett nationellt kulturarv, enligt aktuella styrdokument. Studiens övergripande frågeställningar är: Vilka vithetsdiskurser artikuleras och reproduceras, visuellt och verbalt, i det material som introducerar momentet konsthistoria i högstadieskolans bildundervisning? Hur förhåller sig elever till dessa diskurser i det bildarbete som genomförs i anslutning till momentet? De teoretiska utgångspunkterna är diskursteori, socialsemiotik, och intersektionell vithetsteori. Materialet består av ett introduktionsmaterial som en bildlärare använt när denna introducerat momentet konsthistoria för en klass i årskurs 9, intervjuer med åtta elever från denna klass och åtta bilder som dessa elever arbetat med i anslutning till momentet. Materialet analyseras med diskursanalys. Resultat, analys och tolkning visar att presentationen reproducerar en vit, västerländsk, hegemonisk konsthistorieskrivning i sin presentation av området. Vithetsdiskursen förblir omarkerad genom att inte artikuleras alls. Eleverna förhåller sig till denna diskurs genom att uppfatta den artikulerade konsthistorien som den enda giltiga och nödvändiga för att ingå i en västeuropeisk och nationell gemenskap. Dessutom markeras vithetens hegemoni i det praktiska bildarbetet genom att synliggöra hur hegemonin reglerar hur elever blandar (vit) hudfärg. Resultatet leder till en diskussion om aktuella styrdokument och hur bildlärare kan använda normkritisk (bild)pedagogik för att markera vitheten som norm och därigenom motverka exkludering.

This study was conducted in order to interpret claims of antisemitism in Malmö, Sweden, depicted as an effect of political events in Palestine/Israel. It is argued that contemporary antisemitism is a new phenomenon, where hostility towards Jewish people is argued to be motivated by hostility towards Israel by perpetrators identified as ”Muslims” and/or people with roots in the Middle East and North Africa. Using previous literature, this view is contrasted with arguments that antisemitism as a phenomenon should not be delimited to such group formations and rather that different arguments are often projected on Palestine/Israel, in relation to antisemitism for political agendas. This paper investigates the meaning making processes of two news reports depicting claims of antisemitism in Malmö, Sweden as an effect of events in Palestine/Israel in May 2021 by using the Discourse Theory of Ernesto Laclau & Chantal Mouffe. The analysis investigates the ideas and underlying assumptions found in the material and posits the depictions made, with alternative possible ascriptions of meaning, excluded from the discursive formations made in the material. The conclusion reached is that reproducing many arguments of “new antisemitism” and of Malmö as “antisemitic” may misdirect the “combat” of antisemitism at the disadvantage for pro-Palestinian movements and further strengthen arguments many of which are taken for granted within the empiric material, for the salience of the existence of Israel and Zionism, due to the prevalence of antisemitism. Due to the limited nature of this paper, the author hopes that it can inspire future research within the field, as more extensive research, according to the author, is highly needed.