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This thesis explores the Danish public discourse about biological reproduction by focusing on how three fertility campaigns, issued by public agencies, produce and reproduce gendered identities and contribute to shape a national identity. The theoretical framework is built on insights from feminist research in international relations, sociology and gender studies and highlights how ideas about femininity and masculinity are central regarding both biological reproduction and national identity. The method used in this thesis is a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. The results show that traditional gendered identities in many ways are reproduced in these campaigns. However, the results also show that the campaigns give masculinity and men more space in the discourse of biological reproduction and the campaigns somewhat challenge traditional notions of masculinity. In the campaigns it is acknowledged that it takes both eggs and sperm to create a baby, but the results show that women still are ascribed the main responsibility for biological reproduction. The results also show that the construction of Denmark as a nation can be connected to the myth of “common origin” which creates a homogenous and exclusionary vision of the nation. Further, since these campaigns in many ways reproduce traditional gendered identities, Denmark is argued to be constructed as a traditional and conventional nation.

The purpose of this research is to study the discourse constructions of the Palestinians in the diaspora residing in Jordan. The discourse constructed of the Palestinian, enables the government to discriminatory actions towards the Palestinians residing in Jordan, where for example Palestinian-origin Jordanian citizens have in recent years experienced their Jordanian citizenship been revoked. Jordan does this as an action to protect their own cultural and national identity. The theoretical framework which will be used in this research will be the one of constructivism, where the theory is used to analyze the construction of a threat. The research will be using a critical discourse analysis and will be analyzing speeches held from King Abdullah II of Jordan. The conclusions of this research will show how the Palestinian discourse in Jordan enables the Jordanian government to implement discriminatory policies toward the Palestinian-origin Jordanian citizens.

This dissertation focuses on the function of human bodies in articulations of the nation in contemporary British multicultural fiction, more specifically in novels by Salman Rushdie, V. S. Naipaul, Hanif Kureishi, and Monica Ali. Combining the Andersonean claim that narrative fiction is an especially sensitive medium for imagining the nation with Daniel Punday‘s assertion that the human body is the basic organizing principle of narrative structure, this study examines the ways in which corporeal representations in novels negotiate dominant paradigms of the national imaginary. Each chapter focuses on a key text from which it opens up the discussion to the authors‘ oeuvre. The study establishes the palimpsest as a mode of representation and interpretation of cultural and national identities showcased in Rushdie‘s The Moor‘s Last Sigh. The fragmentation of narrative and human subjectivity via the trope of the palimpsest in this novel is central to conceptualizations of the nation in Rushdie‘s oeuvre as well as in the other texts in this study. Based on the make-up of Rushdie‘s palimpsests, the characters‘ bodies manifest not a mixture of different elements but a conglomerate of often mutually exclusive, yet intrinsically combined alternatives. For V. S. Naipaul, the function of corporeality is the negotiation of the national imaginary via representations of narrative space. In The Enigma of Arrival as in his other novels, Naipaul uses circuitous movement and palimpsestic layering of the kinetic space to complicate agency for his characters, to emphasize the illusory nature of narrative authority, and to call attention to the ambiguous operations of national and postcolonial discourse. Hanif Kureishi‘s The Body among his other novels shows a ground-breaking attitude toward the possibilities of narrativity in the age of transmutable corporeality. His characters‘ diminishing corporeal presence is the source of their agency and their increasingly complex cultural identifications. In Brick Lane, Monica Ali‘s keen attention to kinetic space creates unexpected ripples in the narration and the protagonist‘s cultural identification, which shift the meaning of the novel from an optimistic ethnic/gender emancipation narrative to claiming agency by resisting cultural affiliations. / English

Haruki Murakami is no stranger to criticism in Japan, having been described as 'Westernized' by Japanese critics for much of his career. The heavy use of Western culture in his novels seems to suggest that Murakami writes without attention to his nationality, as his books are devoid of references to Japan's popular and artistic canons, and his writing style and the genres he works within owe much to Western origins. Despite these characteristics, I argue in this thesis that Murakami has been unfairly labeled by scholars and critics and seek to show how the author deals directly with Japanese issues of national identity, middle-class disillusionment, and historical memory through his novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Murakami's importance as a Japanese author lies in his progressive outlook for Japan, in which he challenges loss of individuality under Japanese nationalism and pushes for a nation more in tune with the outside world. / Master of Arts / In this thesis, I address the popular claim that Murakami has ignored his Japanese identity by describing how Murakami works through various issues related to Japan in his novels. In my first chapter, I show how the author returns to the mindset of Japan's Meiji Era---an era in which Western themes and forms were incorporated into Japanese society while retaining 'Eastern spirit'---by his use of what Donald Keene calls Japan's 'virtuoso approach.' In my second chapter, I discuss the similarities between John Updike's Rabbit, Run and Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to argue that Murakami uses characteristics of Western suburban literature to better express his thoughts on the tensions those in Japan's middle-class face under the nation's corporate environment. In my final chapter, I analyze Murakami's reception in Korea through a film adaptation of his short story "Barn Burning" and look at the ways he confronts Japanese history in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to show that Murakami acts to the outside world as a forward-thinking voice for Japan. I suggest that the significance of Murakami to the nation can be found in his attempt to confront and diversify Japan's narrowly-defined national identity and controlling structures.

Willingness to defend has been stated as a fundamental prerequisite for the Swedish total defense. Despite this, research regarding the subject is limited, and there is a lack of knowledge on what willingness to defend means from the citizens’ point of view. Drawing on theories on territory, national identity and institutionalization processes, I explore the conceptualization of willingness to defend from a socio-spatial perspective through semi-structured interviews. This study engages in what people believe is worth defending, and why, and how this differs depending on the geographical scale. The results show that willingness to defend is a versatile concept with a breadth of connotations, as are the ideas about what is worth defending. The democratic system is recurrently described as a central issue worthy of defense, but this also creates a dilemma in the context of the total defense service. Some consider engaging in defense a citizen-duty, others express that participation must be based in free choice. On the global scale, willingness to defend is connected to, challenged, and affected by international actors and events, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, Sweden's new NATO membership creates another moral dilemma, as considered positive from a security perspective, while at the same time challenging Swedish exceptionalism as a moral superpower.

This thesis analyzes Badan Tenaga Atom Nasional (BATAN, the Indonesia National Nuclear Energy Agency and the the Ulama of Pengurus Cabang Nahdlatul Ulama (PCNU, the Islamic scholars of District Branch of Nahdlatul Ulama) Jepara’s different risk assessments of the purposed nuclear power plant in Muria, Indonesia. Using a discourse analysis combined with the social construction of risk from a science and technology studies (STS) perspective, this thesis focuses on the Ulama’s risk assessments, and looks at how the Islamic interpretations of fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) and the knowledge of perceived risk of the State’s nuclear inexpertise, environmental degradations, the type of the reactor, and foreign technological dependence are used simultaneously by the Ulama of the PCNU Jepara to construct maslahah (benefits) and mafsadah (disadvantages) on the fatwa to the proposed Muria nuclear power plant. I argue that the different risk assessments converge on the proposed Muria nuclear power plant, which are based on not only scientific and political discourse but also Islamic beliefs. In contrast to alternative forms of knowledge, Islamic belief not only has orientations to the social world but also the afterlife. I found the Ulama’s concerns regarding perceived risk of the State’s nuclear inexpertise did not change whether from the authoritarian regime to the democratic model. Across the contesting political regimes, the Ulama articulated their concerns of perceived risk of the State’s nuclear inexpertise through distrust of the State’s capacities and capabilities in handling a commercial nuclear power plant. Furthermore, the different ways of constructing risk through BATAN and the Ulama depict the contested meaning of national identity after the Indonesia independence. Lastly, this thesis offers a unique view of studying Islam and the social construction of risk from a non-Western context. / Master of Science / As a response to Badan Tenaga Atom Nasional (BATAN, the Indonesia National Nuclear Energy Agency)’s plan to construct a nuclear power plant in Muria, Indonesia, on September 2nd 2007 the Ulama (Islamic scholars) of Jepara’s District Branch of Nahdlatul Ulama (PCNU Jepara) declared a fatwa (legal opinion based on Islamic interpretations) that the proposed the nuclear power plant was haram (forbidden in Islamic law). The fatwa is mainly concerned with the perceived risk of the State’s nuclear inexpertise, environmental degradation, the type of the reactor, and foreign technological dependence, which affect the local community in Muria. Using a discourse analysis combined with the social construction of risk from a science and technology studies (STS) perspective, I analyze how these risks are constructed by the Ulama. The thesis demonstrates the different risk assessments converge on the proposed the Muria nuclear power plant is based on not only scientific and political discourse but also Islamic beliefs. In contrast to alternative forms of knowledge, Islamic belief not only has orientations to the social world but also the afterlife. Furthermore, the different ways of constructing risk through BATAN and the Ulama depict the contested meaning of national identity after the Indonesia’s independence. Lastly, this thesis offers a unique view of studying Islam and the social construction of risk from a non-Western context.

This project examines the construction of the Taiwan high-speed rail (THSR; 台灣高鐵) technology as a vehicle of Taiwanese identity formation. The THSR project is a product of a hybridization of design from Japan and Europe. The Japanese and Europeans transferred their HSR technology to Taiwan, but Taiwanese policy actors and engineers localized and assimilated it to their politics, society and history. They reconstructed the meanings of HSR technology in an indigenized (Ben-Tu-Hua; 本土化) and democratic way. In addition to focusing on the THSR's technological content and engineering practice, this dissertation explores how Taiwan identity formation has shaped technology and vice versa. The identity formation and technological construction in Taiwan tell one techno-political story. Since the 1960s and 1970s, Taiwanese engineers were forced by international politics to cannibalize technological projects, but later they began to localize and hybridize different foreign engineering skills and knowledge. This growing engineering culture of hybridity generated impacts on the development of Taiwan's identity politics. Some critical political leaders exploited their engineers' capability to hybridize to introduce international power into Taiwan. This power then was used to either strengthen the Taiwanese population's Chinese identity or to build their Taiwanese identity. Both politics and technology offered each other restrains and opportunities. This project offers an approach from science and technology studies to understand postcolonial technopolitics. The engineering practice of hybridity in Taiwan has become a locally transformed knowledge to reframe and negotiate with the more advanced technologies from the West and Japan, even though it was a contingent outcome of earlier international politics. In addition to technological non-dependence, this engineering culture of hybridity has given the Taiwanese an independent political vision not only against China but the West and Japan. However, Taiwan paid significant prices to acquire technological non-dependence and international independence. In addition to extra wasted money and time, some over design was often seen in their public projects. Large technological projects also often draw political patronage. Moreover, techno-political survival alone might not be enough to represent postcolonial resistance. / Ph. D.

No / Though India and Pakistan emerged as independent nation states sixty years ago, debates about the basis of Indian and Pakistani nationhood continue to reverberate through the politics of the two countries. Pakistan has been wracked by disputes over identity from its very inception. It split into two countries in 1971 when the eastern wing broke away to form Bangladesh. It has since been wrestling with issues of Punjabi dominance and Islamisation, which have put minorities of all sorts on the defensive. Independent India under Nehru¿s leadership proclaimed secular and egalitarian goals but theory and practice were often divergent. In recent years, the success of Hindu nationalist forces at the polls has raised new and uncomfortable questions for Indian minorities too. In Fault Lines of Nationhood, Gyanendra Pandey and Yunas Samad reflect on the construction of national identity in India and Pakistan from colonial times to the present day and examine how the working of democracy has created new majorities and minorities and helped to politicise issues of religion and ethnicity, region and language, class and caste. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the dynamics of state building in India and Pakistan and the conflicting demands of national unity and social and political inclusiveness.

This study examines national identity formation processes among individuals with foreign backgrounds, particularly those from former Yugoslavia who are raised in Sweden. It takes its starting point in the complex phenomenon of identity formation and belonging, drawing inspiration from the question "Where are you from?".  Previous research shows that individuals with foreign backgrounds experience a sense of duality in their identities as they navigate between their parents' culture and the culture in the new country. The study aims to understand the social structures and relationships that shape these individuals’ national identity processes. By exploring their experiences of national belonging and identifying the social structures and social relations that influence their identity construction, the study hopes to contribute to a better understanding of the complex dynamics surrounding national identity formation for this specific group. To achieve the purpose of the study, a qualitative approach was employed, involving six semi-structured interviews with individuals aged between 20 and 35, whose parents immigrated from former Yugoslavia and raised them in Sweden. The theoretical framework for this study is based on ethnic identity and national identity as a form of ethnic identity. The results shows that social structures and social relationships influence individuals experiences of national belonging and identity formation. Individuals shape their national identity based on a "we" and "them" structure. Another important conclusion is that societal structures and norms can affect an individual's experience of her national identity. Institutions such as schools, workplaces, and the "Swedish family " can be seen as important social structures that influence the individual. Furthermore, place plays a central role in shaping national identity.