Since the 1970s, Japanese contemporary popular culture as an academic field has gained increased attention, which has led to the emergence of fan culture and fandom studies. There is a certain academic bias toward otaku (i.e., the normative cis-gendered heterosexual male fan), and as such, maid cafés have become an increasingly popular part of the Japanese contemporary popular cultural phenomenon since the early 2000s, attracting customers from all over the world. Nevertheless, female- oriented popular and fan cultural practises play an equally significant role in the growth of said popular culture – however, notable research tends to favour the fans’ engagement with media texts as strictly 2-dimensional (e.g., anime and manga), particularly in works depicting homoerotic relationships between boys and men (yaoi/boys’ love).  This thesis investigates those inconsistencies through the singular case of butler café Swallowtail, a female-designated fantasy space brought to life. From a fan cultural standpoint, it accumulates netnographic findings (aimed at both regular fans and first-time visitors/tourists) and the ethnographic study done by consistent participant observation during eight months, inspired by previous studies on maid cafés by cultural anthropologist Patrick W. Galbraith. With the motive of bringing awareness to an otherwise secluded space, the study emphasises three of its most crucial elements; the butler, the fan, and the space in which the café exists. As a product of neo-Victorian transcultural media influences, it conjoins various pop cultural media and fan cultural expressions presented from a gendered perspective, with parallels to the maid café as its predecessor and widely acclaimed butler manga Kuroshitsuji (2006–present) as a model for the butler character type.  While the café operates as a place where fantasy and reality intermingle, the results suggest that the imaginative play previously considered limited to the 2-dimensional space has extended beyond the boundary of a fictional location. Much like the staged narratives seen in anime, manga and games, the café also practises certain routinised behaviour which favours repetitive actions done for so-called character building and development. Ultimately, it identifies the physical embodiment of the butler as a 3-dimensionalisation of a manga character type, raising the possibility of the café existing in the 2.5-dimensional space.

This thesis investigates whether a qualitative research method, using phenomenological interviews and analysis, can be successfully applied to perceptual audio research, a field heretofore that has mainly used quantitative methods. The method is investigated by studying the types of information elicited by the method and the information’s usefulness and relevance to the conducted study. The qualitative method is applied in three different conditions: a non-experimental condition, an experimental condition, and an experimental condition using mixed-methods. The thesis also identifies implications associated with using a qualitative method in a quantitative field of research, implications that researchers should acknowledge and consider. All scientific criteria in which the quantitative research is judged cannot directly be applied to a qualitative method. A qualitative method has to be judged on its own framework, departure points, and scientific criteria. The information elicited from the qualitative method contains information that supports known knowledge and adds new knowledge. It supplements the accessibility to the subjects’ perceptions and used methods when conducting a perceptual evaluation task. In conclusion, a qualitative research method that consists of phenomenological interviews and analyses can be successfully applied in all the tested conditions.

The fight for equal rights for LGBTQ+ people in Japan has in recent years led to efforts to enact a law to promote understanding. After intense debates and revisions in the spring of 2021, the bill was shelved just before the Olympics, despite pressure from national and international organizations such as the International Olympic Committee. In 2023 a revised and potentially ineffectual bill was passed. This thesis aims to analyze the main arguments for and against the bill during the 2021 revision. This is done through critical discourse analysis and Fairclough’s three-dimensional model. The analysis is conducted from the perspective of human rights and gender studies. Articles from two major Japanese newspapers, texts from the homepage of the ruling political party, and tweets by a key LGBTQ+ lobby group are examined. The results show that arguments belong roughly to three groups, 1) arguments for and against the general idea of protection for LGBTQ+ people 2) arguments questioning the content of the bill, e.g., ambiguities in language, and 3) arguments concerning the political questions, such as not to pass this bill to not limit the chances of future more meaningful legislation. Many arguments highlight the patriarchal nature of Japanese society centered on the nuclear family. As the bill has recently been passed, its effect is yet to be seen, but it is probable that the only major impact is to stall future proper anti-discrimination legislation. / 日本におけるLGBTQ+の人々の平等な権利を求める闘いは、近年、理解を促進する ための法律制定の取り組みにつながっている。 2021年春の激しい議論と修正の後、 この法案は国際オリンピック委員会など国内および国際機関からの圧力にもかかわ らず、オリンピック直前に見送られた。 2023年には、潜在的に効果のない修正法案 が可決された。 この論文は、2021 年改正における法案の主な賛否両論を分析する ことを目的としている。 これは、批判的言説分析とフェアクラフの 3 次元モデルを 通じて、人権とジェンダー研究の観点から分析が行われる。 日本の主要新聞 2 紙の 記事、与党のホームページの文章、主要な LGBTQ+ ロビー団体のツイートが調査さ れる。 議論は大まかに 3 つのグループに属していて、1) LGBTQ+ の人々の保護に 関する一般的な考え方に対する賛否の議論、2) 法案の内容に疑問を呈する議論(言 葉の曖昧さ等)、3) 将来のより意味のある法案の可能性を制限しないためには、こ の法案を可決しないほうがよいかなど、政治的問題に関する議論となっている。多 くの議論は、核家族を中心とした日本社会の家父長制の性質を強調している。この 法案は可決されたばかりなので、その効果はまだ見えていないが、将来の適切な差 別禁止法制定の遅れに繋がる可能性が高いと考えられる。

Målet med denna uppsats var att undersöka huruvida Färgargårdssamlingen på Norrköpings stadsmuseum används och tillgängliggörs av museet samt om och hur samlingen brukas av olika intressegrupper. Undersökningens utgångspunkt var två receptböcker för växtfärgning. Uppsatsen tar upp olika perspektiv kring diskussionen om bevarande och bruk för att skapa en bild av båda sidorna. Uppsatsen utforskar även växtfärgningens historia i Sverige och undersöker huruvida växtfärgning kan ses som ett immateriellt kulturarv utifrån befintlig litteratur. För att undersöka hur Norrköpings stadsmuseum använder sig och tillgängliggörsamlingen utfördes en intervju med museets föremålsintendent. För att få kunskap om de olika intressegrupperna använder sig eller ville använda sig av samlingen utfördes en enkätundersökning. Undersökningen kom fram till att Färgargårdssamlingen inte brukas i museets verksamhet för tillfället och inte heller är tillgängliggjord för allmänheten. Det var även endast ett fåtal av personerna i enkätundersökningen som kände till samlingen sedan tidigare. Dock fanns det ett stort intresse från alla intressegrupper att ta del avsamlingen för att använda sig av den i kunskapsbildande syfte. Undersökningen resulterade i tre olika teman som intressegrupperna var intresserade av att använda samlingen till. Dessa tre teman var historieintresse, kunskapsinhämtande och att anpassa recepten till dagens samhälle. / The aim with this thesis was to look in to how Färgargårdssamling at Norrköpings stadsmuseum is used in the museum and how it is made accessible to the public. As well as explore if and how different interest groups use the collection. The thesis used two notebooks including recipes for natural dyeing. Different perspectivesof the use or preserve debate is explored to create a wider picture of the topic. The history of natural dyes in Sweden is research in order to put it in perspective and form an argument if natural dye can be considered as an intangible heritage. In order to understand how the museum use and makes the collection accessible an interview was conducted with the person responsible for the collection. To gain knowledge if or how the different interest groups use the collection a survey was sent out. The thesis conclude that the collection was not used or made accessible to the public as of right now. Therewere only a few people in the survey that had previous knowledge of the collection. However, there was a big interest in gaining more knowledge and use the recipe books in the collection from all of the different interest groups. The answers from the survey shed light on three different aspects the interest groups wanted to use the collection for. These are: interest in history of the craft, to gain more knowledge of the craft and to adaptand try out the different recipes to today’s regulations.

“Playing pretend” is often regarded as childish, but many people continue to role-play wellinto adulthood. Existing literature has reported instances of bleed between character andplayer identity, but usually in an autoethnographic report, small study, or only in theory. Inmy study, I attempt to establish links between primary identities, self-discovery,self-acceptance, and role-play. My findings may help in development of serious and appliedgames, as well as role-play’s use in therapeutic settings. I surveyed players online from aspecific Art Role-Playing Game (ARPG) community, Pouflons, to find out how theircharacters’ personas and identities spill over and bleed-out into the player’s primary identity,what effects this had, and if players were able to notice these effects.

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This thesis studies consumption among young people who identify as mainstreamers in a Swedish small town. In order to map patterns of clothing consumption and to understand what was central in the young people’s self-identification, the research was conducted using a mix of ethnographic methods and wardrobe studies. This is an inverted study of the subcultural, that problematizes the assumption that the majority (the mainstream) and the minority (the countercultural) are opposites when it comes to identity creation. The central concepts used here are ordinary (vanlig), mainstream, and subculture. One of the main findings is that the youth studied self-identify as ordinary. This finding is used to problematize not only the traditional markers of masculinity and femininity as they present themselves in this context, but also what is characterized as new patterns of consumption. There are two main conclusions. First, being mainstream and ordinary was not a static identity position, as the literature would have it; instead, being an ordinary mainstreamer required constant work in order to stay within certain culturally negotiated boundaries. Second, the ethnographic findings contribute in the field of subcultural studies by questioning the convention of portraying the mainstream and the subcultural as polar opposites: contrary to the literature, it is argued that neither is so very different from the other, making it an unhelpful dichotomy in understanding young people today.

Avsikten med denna studie har varit att undersöka pedagogers samtal och utsagor kringestetiska arbetsformer och ämnesöverskridande arbetsområden i relation till utformandet av en”öppen ateljé” på skolan. Frågorna jag ställde mig var; Hur legitimerar pedagoger behovet aven ”öppen ateljé” på skolan? Vilka samband ser pedagoger mellan lärmiljöers utformning ochvilka läraktiviteter som kommer till uttryck? Vilka tolkningsrepertoarer om lärande ochlärmiljöer kommer till uttryck i dessa sammanhang och hur kan de förstås ur ett makt- ochkontrollperspektiv? Jag valde en kvalitativ metod med en diskursanalytisk ansats, som byggdepå fokusgruppssamtal genomförda på en mindre fristående F-9 skola i norra Sverige. En skolasom med utgångspunkt för sin verksamhet tagit ställning för att låta sig genomsyras av ReggioEmilias pedagogiska filosofi. Jag har i min studie tyckt mig finna ett antal diskurser på dennaskola, där en stor diskurs representerande skola, undervisning och lärarroll är överordnad ochdär några mindre tycks bjuda den större motstånd. Dessa diskurser kommer till uttryck i detolkningsrepertoarer pedagogerna använder för att legitimera utformandet av en öppen ateljépå skolan. Samtidigt som erkännandet av en mer progressiv filosofi tycks innebära ettdiskursivt dilemma på denna skola, tycks det också innebära att utrymmet för möjligahandlingar breddas något i det diskursiva glapp som här uppstår. Avslutningsvis för jag ettresonemang kring en additiv syn på lärande och estetik och om en motståndets diskurs.

This thesis examines queer feminine representation in the movie Stonewall (2015). One aim has been to analyse if and how the queer feminine characters have been constructed in a negative way based on hegemonic ideas about queer femininity. Another aim has been to analyse if and how the queer feminine characters can be recognized in a way that is subversive in relation to these hegemonic ideas. The material consists of the fictional movie Stonewall (2015), produced by Roland Emmerich, which is inspired by ”the Stonewall riots”. The Stonewall riots was a series of violent demonstrations carried out by queer people against the police that broke out on June 28th 1969 in New York City. Stonewall Inn was the name of the bar where the riots started, hence the name ”Stonewall”. My theoretical perspectives is based on theories about cultural dominance and deconstruction. My methodology consists of two different readings of the movie in line with the thesis’ two aims. The first reading shows that the queer feminine characters are represented in different negative ways in the movie based on hegemonic ideas of queer femininity. One example is how the older queer feminine characters are portrayed as sexual offenders and how their ”non-passing” femininity is made visible in different ways. Other findings in the thesis show how a deconstructive reading enables a different interpretation of the queer feminine representation. One finding shows how the queer feminine identity is used for provocation as a political strategy that turn a vulnerable position into a subversive position. Another finding shows how dreaming enable a space were the queer feminine characters can express themselves in a more freer way. My conclusions are that a deconstructive perspective enabled both a critique and a transformation of the hegemonic structures in my material. Because of lack of previous research on the historical construction of the Stonewall riots my thesis fill a knowledge gap. The thesis has relevance for gender studies as a field since it examines how norms of gender affect the writing of queer history.

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