‘The Swedish model’ is a term which has a long history in the Swedish political debate. In recent years, the term has often been contested in terms of what it actually means; it has even been accused of being inherently meaningless. The purpose of this thesis is thus to examine how meaning is constructed in relation to the Swedish model through examining statements by the party leaders of the two biggest Swedish parties, the Social Democrats and the Moderates, during 2009, 2014 and 2018. Through applying aspects of the theoretical framework laid out by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe to articulations of the Swedish model in party leader debates in the Swedish parliament, chains of equivalence and discourses centered around nodal points are constructed. A distinction can be drawn between several discourses, the threats to the model that they emphasize, and their construction of liberty and safety in relation to the Swedish model.

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Taking as motivation Chantal Mouffe’s critique of Habermasian deliberative democracy, this thesis sets out to evaluate her conception of democracy — agonistic pluralism — in relation the deliberative approach of Rainer Forst. The evaluation was performed with the aid of a specific conceptualization of legitimacy as to its function, source, and connection to democracy. The evaluation found that the Forstian model of democracy was more aligned to the thesis’ concept of legitimacy. However, the evaluation also found that aspects of Mouffe’s democratic theory was not at such odds with the deliberative approach as it would have you believe.

A Ópera Mouffe (1958) é um filme inaugural na obra da cineasta Agnès Varda. Um \"documentário-ficcional\" que utiliza diferentes modos expressivos, construído a partir de imagens em fluxo constituídas de forma ficional, a partir de elementos simbólicos, ou registradas em situações observacionais na rua Mouffetard, em Paris. De natureza subjetiva, o filme exibe, ainda, o primeiro registro do corpo de Varda em sua obra, na ocasião grávida de sua primeira filha, Rosalie. Foi a gestação que a mobilizou para a feitura do filme e a maternidade é o foco da narrativa. Varda faz desse pequeno curta uma espécie de manifesto feminista sensorial, ao apresentar, de forma poética, os conflitos reveladores das angústias das mulheres no interior da sociedade patriarcal, através da expressão em consonância dos arquétipos de Vênus e Deméter, respectivamente a Amante e a Mãe, conjugados na personagem central. Em vários de seus filmes posteriores, Varda irá expandir a configuração e combinação destes mitos, através de personagens que apresentam conflitos em relacionamentos, comportamentos, ou traços de personalidades que ecoam esses arquétipos. Essa característica possibilitou a Varda apresentar narrativas que permitem analisar criticamente o papel reservado às mulheres em nossa sociedade. / The Mouffetard Opera (1958) is an inaugural film in the work of French filmmaker Agnès Varda. A \"fictional documentary\" that uses different expressive modes, constructed from a flow of images constituted of fictional form, symbolic elements, and documentary images registered in observational situations at the Mouffetard Street, in Paris. Of subjective nature, the film also shows for the first time Varda\'s body in her work, at the time when she was pregnant of her first daughter, Rosalie. It was the gestation that mobilized her to make the film and motherhood functions as the trigger of the narrative. That short film is as a kind of sensorial feminist manifesto which reveals, in a poetic way, conflicts engendered by the anguish women experience within patriarchal society through the consonant expression of the archetypes of Venus and Demeter, respectively the Lover and the Mother, combined in the central character. In several of her ulterior films, Varda will expand the configuration and combination of those myths through characters that present conflicts in relationships, behaviors, or personality traits that echo those archetypes. Such tools allowed Varda to present narratives that allow a critical perspective over the role offered to women in our society.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T23:13:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo3384_1.pdf: 867123 bytes, checksum: fe89fdad5938f4de78df413d813c856a (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Neste trabalho buscamos investigar continuidades e descontinuidades da tradição marxista no pós-marxismo de Ernesto Laclau e Chantal Mouffe. Tomamos como ponto de partida a identificação de conceitos e formas discursivas oriundos do marxismo que são prolongados na transição para o enfoque pós-marxista. Para tanto, discutimos, primeiramente, a complexidade intrínseca à idéia de tradição marxista em diferentes momentos de sua história. Essa discussão permitiu apreender os debates e preocupações desenvolvidos no interior da tradição marxista que foram herdados pelo pós-marxismo, como a tentativa de combater o economicismo e afirmar a centralidade da política. O pós-marxismo também herda os dilemas políticos decorrentes da crise do marxismo e tenta repensar uma estratégia socialista na nova conjuntura do último quartel do século XX. Num segundo momento, abordamos as respostas à crise do marxismo que contribuíram para a constituição de um terreno pós-marxista e assinalamos como o grupo Socialismo ou Barbárie, a retomada do pensamento de Gramsci, as idéias de Derrida e a psicanálise exerceram forte influência sobre o enfoque de Laclau e Mouffe. Como desdobramento dessa análise, analisamos o desenvolvimento intelectual de Laclau e Mouffe e ressaltamos que há um contínuo diálogo crítico com a tradição marxista e um esforço no sentido de superar todo pressuposto essencialista inerente ao pensamento marxista. Por fim, investigamos de que maneira categorias oriundas do marxismo, como o materialismo, o antagonismo e a noção de hegemonia, como meio de repensar a estratégia socialista, são reelaboradas por Laclau e Mouffe, em que se definem como pós-marxistas. Nesta análise consideramos que, apesar dos autores tomarem tais categorias como ponto de partida, há uma ruptura com o pensamento de Marx na reformulação dessas categorias

Svenska värderingar har blivit en mycket välanvänd politisk term under de senaste åren, i allt från debatter och uttalanden i media till offentligt tryck. Jag vill med hjälp av Laclau och Mouffes diskursteori analysera hur begreppet svenska värderingar konstrueras i politisk debatt, hur detta påverkar subjekten och hur begreppets aktualitet kan förklaras. De texter jag analyserat är uttalanden från Stefan Löfven, Anna Kinberg Batra och Jimmie Åkesson. Resultatet visar att svenska värderingars aktualitet förklaras med bakgrund i flyktingkrisen, medias bevakning och diskursens påverkan på väljare. Alla partiledare ger uttryck för en övergripande dikotomidiskurs där det "svenska" ställs i motsats till det "icke-svenska". De subjektspositioner som konstrueras i det politiska talet, och tillskrivs de som ses som "icke-svenska", påverkar hur dessa människor förstår sig själv och hur de förstås av andra. I partiledarnas olika diskurser går det att utläsa både skillnader och likheter, vilket konstruerar svenska värderingar på delvis olika sätt. Det uppstår hegemoniska drag i bl.a. hur svenska värderingar konstrueras som under hot, vilket jag tillskriver kulturdiskursens övertag i den diskursiva kampen. Svenska värderingar uttrycks som ett komplext begrepp som artikuleras på flertalet olika sätt.

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus in Sweden on the library as a “public room” - a public space open to all. In light of this, the aim of this thesis were to explore existing discourses in the Swedish library-field surrounding users who use the libraries primarily in this capacity, i.e. users who use the libraries public open spaces without necessarily accessing in the library's other functions. The following research questions was formulated: How are users of the libraries public room categorised? What notions of the users are expressed in these categorizations? What discourses can be linked to these notions? How do the discourses relate to each other? To answer the research questions sixty-seven articles in three publications aimed at library professionals (Biblioteksbladet, Bibliotek i samhället and Framsidan) were analyzed. Using Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory and Hedemark and Hedman's (2002) four-step analytical model for discourse analysis, four discourses were identified: (1) educational, (2) democratic, (3) norm-critical, (4) market economy. The discourses, except the market-economy discourse, outlined democratic aims for the user's stay in the public room. The educational discourse aimed at fostering the user's ability to reason and function in society, the democratic discourse aimed at empowering the user while the norm-critical discourse aimed at enhance the user's ability to improve societal equality. The thesis concludes that there might exist disparities between how the library-field and the user attributes meaning to the concept “public room” and that further research is needed to define the concept.

The rapid rise of alternative organisations such as social enterprises is largely due to the promotional activities of intermediary organisations. So far, little is known about the affective nature of such activities. The present article thus investigates how intermediary organisations make social entrepreneurship palatable for a broader audience by establishing it as an object of desire. Drawing on affect-oriented extensions of Laclau and Mouffe's poststructuralist theory, hegemonisation is suggested as a way of understanding how social entrepreneurship is articulated through a complementary process of signification and affective investment. Specifically, by examining Austrian intermediaries, we show how social entrepreneurship is endowed with a sense of affective thrust that is based on three interlocking dynamics: the articulation of fantasies such as 'inclusive exclusiveness', 'large-scale social change' and 'pragmatic solutions'; the repression of anxiety-provoking and contentious issues (constitutive quiescences); as well as the use of conceptually vague, floating signifiers (moments of indeterminacy). Demonstrating that the hegemonisation of social entrepreneurship involves articulating certain issues whilst, at the same time, omitting others, or rendering them elusive, the article invites a counter-hegemonic critique of social entrepreneurship, and, on a more general level, of alternative forms of organising, that embraces affect as a driving force of change, while simultaneously affirming the impossibility of harmony and wholeness.

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.

(in English): Main goal of this diploma is to analyze the relationship between populism and representative democracy. The theoretical part of my work is researching populism as a vague concept and determining its minimal definition and esential constituents (I have declined the possibility that populism is only anti-essentialy formed attitude/phenomenon). In the analytical part I've studied the relationship between populism and representative democracy, and defined drawbacks of this uneasy coexistence. However I believe that representative democracy can't be successfully fulfiled without this phenomenon and I have also found not only positive moments of this relationship - I assume that populism is necessary supplement of representative democracy.