The stories about prison are infinite, and ultimately affect our understanding of incarceration. Punishment and prison are also political, and the shape of the penal system is fundamentally different in different countries. In Sweden, prison has been understood as part of the welfare state, and depicted as a rehabilitative measure, employed on the road towards a better society. It is essential to study how punishment is constructed in political and cultural discourse, because of how it affects the understanding and legitimacy of the penal system. Building on previous research on the relationship between punishment and the welfare state, as well as on prison in culture, this study investigates how The Swedish Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården) depict their operations in their podcast Without Passing Go and in their advertising campaign in the fall of 2023. Drawing on the concept of Nordic exceptionalism, and a cultural criminological understanding of how fact and fiction blur when it comes to crime and criminal justice, this thesis revolves around what stories of the Swedish carceral system are told in Kriminalvården’s own channels of communication. Ultimately, prison and the work Kriminalvården perform are often legitimized through calling upon welfare ideals, but the study also encountered deviations from this approach. Furthermore, Kriminalvården at times make use of the danger and thrill of prison, reproducing cultural understandings of incarceration, and the inmate is constructed as at times dangerous, and at times reformable. Lastly, the advertisement is discussed, and how it seems to indicate Kriminalvården’s crucial role in ensuring the continuation of our ‘normal’ lives, reproducing notions of normalcy and deviancy. Taken together, the thesis thereby discusses several different aspects of Kriminalvården’s legitimacy-making.

Belly dance is popularly practised in the West, and every year, thousands of enthusiasts and professionals from around the world travel to attend belly dance festivals in Egypt, which is considered the cultural centre of the dance. This bachelor’s thesis examines the discourses produced by Western or ʽwhiteʼ belly dancers from Sweden and Finland, on the topics of tourism in Egypt and belly dance festivals in Egypt. The texts are analysed using James Paul Gee's discourse analytical framework, combined with postcolonial theory, complemented with an intersectional approach. From the postcolonial and feminist perspectives, belly dance discourse in the West and tourism discourse are problematic, as they perpetuate Orientalist tropes and unequal global power structures, which build on colonial discourse. It is hoped that by identifying and questioning these aspects of discourse that are problematic in terms of equity, this study will make a small contribution towards mitigating its adverse effects, and towards social change. / <p>ORCID for Mavis Hooi : 0000-0002-0049-1095</p>