<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>The aim of this Master thesis is to explore why some Swedes want to consume”eco-friendly” and whether this fact gives rise to articulated information needs. Two possible explanations for this ”eco conscious” consumption are being tested, either if it is based on a normative belief that it is the right thing to do if you, as a consumer, want to do something about the environmental degradation, or that it is a reaction to a perceived risk, due to the environmental degradation. The method chosen by the author in this thesis is a qualitative text analysis of five Swedish journals. The author also tries to find articulated expressions for information needs based on the will to consume ”eco friendly” that could either be a result of a perceived risk or a feeling of normative rightness. The findings of this thesis are the following: the opinion among Swedish consumers that it is normatively right to select products perceived to be good for the environment, is the most commonly expressed in the  material examined followed by the view that they (the consumers) need more information as to what products to chose if the they are to satisfy their “environmental ambitions”.</p><p> </p>

Cette thèse propose d’explorer les modalités de formation des savoirs urbains et leur processus de normalisation. Dès lors, à rebours de la majorité des approches en vigueur en études urbaines, elle n’étudie pas les politiques urbaines à travers les acteurs qui les organisent ou les structures qui les déterminent. De ce fait, en déplaçant le champ d’analyse des acteurs et des structures vers la production des savoirs et de leur normativité, la thèse propose de revisiter les approches traditionnellement employées dans l’analyse des politiques urbaines contemporaines. Au plan théorique, ce choix se construit autour de deux courants sociologiques issus des sociologies dites « pragmatistes ». Premièrement, la thèse développe un travail ethnographique sur des situations spatialement et temporellement délimitées dans lesquelles se jouent des épreuves d’urbanités. Celles-ci révèlent et distribuent les statuts des différents êtres qui participent à la composition de l’urbanité de la ville. C’est donc à l’examen de telles épreuves que peuvent se reconstruire les modalités de production de savoirs sur la ville qui donnent forme aux mondes urbains. Ce travail se complète ensuite d’une étude du processus de normalisation, inspiré de la théorie de l’acteur-réseau. La notion d’épreuve est là conçue comme un ensemble de situations où s’observe la stabilisation de différentes formes de savoirs. Cette stabilisation peut ainsi se comprendre comme un processus de normalisation de certains cadres cognitifs qui conditionnent des manières différentes d’agencer l’ordre urbain, c’est-à-dire de le gouverner. Au plan empirique, ce type d’approche implique l’étude de situations concrètes où se joue le gouvernement de la ville. De ce fait, la thèse structure la description du processus d’internationalisation de la ville à travers l’ethnographie de six situations spécifiques où le lien entre la ville et son internationalisation est mis à l’épreuve : un débat parlementaire, une assemblée consultative, la constitution d’un groupe de pression, une exposition d’architecture, une occupation artistique d’espace public et la production d’un guide touristique. L’étude de telles situations permet d’isoler cinq modèles du gouvernement de la ville (administrer, gérer, projeter, dénoncer et imaginer). Ceux-ci sont observés autant dans leur version purement discursive au sein de l’assemblée parlementaire que dans le contexte matériel, discursif et visuel qui organise leur pratique dans les cinq autres situations. Cette étude permet ainsi d’aborder, en profondeur, une histoire très contemporaine de l’internationalisation de Bruxelles qui montre la manière dont certaines modalités de son gouvernement se sont développées et stabilisées. Enfin dans une dernière partie, les différents modèles sont respécifiés afin de saisir le processus de normalisation de certaines manières de gouverner la ville. Cette respécification des modèles passe par l’exploitation de la notion de "régime" telle qu’elle est conçue dans les sociologies pragmatistes, c’est-à-dire l'isolement, à partir des observations de terrain, d’un ensemble conventionnel qui ordonne la tenue des situations. Une telle respécification des modèles en régimes s’opère par l’intermédiaire d’une grille d’analyse qui rassemble dix-sept valeurs correspondant à six régimes particuliers (les régimes d’énonciation publique, d’action, d’engagement, cognitif, figuratif et d’urbanité). Ceux-ci permettent d’appréhender dans le même mouvement autant les modalités d’action retrouvées dans l’ensemble des modèles que le type d’urbanité auquel il fait droit. Dans un deuxième temps, les modèles sont évalués dans leurs rapports réciproques afin de saisir les valeurs qui les caractérisent le plus par rapport aux autres. Enfin, ce travail permet de hiérarchiser les différentes valeurs orientant les cinq régimes de gouvernement de la ville et d’évaluer les rapports de domination et de marginalisation entretenus entre les différents modèles. Une telle exploitation de l’hypothèse des « régimes de gouvernement de la ville » permet ainsi de ne pas dissocier les modalités de gouvernement de la ville des situations dans lesquelles elles sont mises à l’épreuve. De ce fait, cette hypothèse incite directement à un travail comparatif qui permettent leur réévaluation à partir de nouveaux terrains. L’examen de leur hiérarchie permet en outre d’appréhender la question des rapports de force et de pouvoir non entre acteurs mais entre cadres cognitifs.

This thesis is intended as a contribution to a discussion about education, especially when related to democracy and gender equality, in other words citizenship education. A strategy for the inquiries is developed, termed a feminist pragmatist attitude. The focus is on thqualitative content of education i.e. three theoretically demarcated relationships: feminine/masculine, home/society and home/school. When studying educational policy documents in order to identify different views on these relationships, I draw on a tradition of curriculum theory/curriculum history/didactics and the inquiries are influencedy a post-structuralist view of meaning. In agreement with Arendt, history is used to understand the present times and to propose alternatives for the future. Three discourses on home economics, ie. different ways of understanding home economics, are constructed. Home economics as: (1) Vocational education for women, (2) An education for women's mission in life and (3) Women's education for efficiency. Further, an alternativdiscourse for the future is proposed: (4) Home economics as citizenship education. This alternative discourse is constructed from "the forgotten potentials of the past", i.e. ideas from three phases or debates during the 20th century. The three phases are: thdiscussion of the relevance of home economics for the education of boys; the national curriculum from 1969, Lgr 69; and the parliamentary debate during the 1990s. The discourse is further underpinned by a discussion of feminist critique of traditional views of rationality, reason and ethics and by feminist alternatives such as ethics of care. Within the alternative discourse the norm of masculinity in education is criticised and the possibilities of breaking the dominance of thinorm is examined. The potentids of education about and for the home, e.g. education in home economics, as contributing to citizenship education of boys as well as girls are discussed.

Under verksamhetsförlagda utbildningar har det framkommit att tematiskt arbete inte är ett entydigt begrepp. Lärare ute på fältet har haft delade meningar om arbetssättets innehåll och genomförande. Tematiskt arbete har dessutom ofta blivit bortprioriterat till förmån för den traditionella undervisningen. Syftet med undersökningen är att ur ett lärarperspektiv synliggöra hur verksamma lärare arbetar med tematiskt arbete. Undersökningens forskningsfrågor är vilken syn på lärande har de lärare som arbetar tematiskt, hur arbetar lärarna tematiskt och på vilket sätt gynnar tematiskt arbete elevers utveckling och lärande? För att besvara forskningsfrågorna användes en kvalitativ metod där fyra intervjuer genomfördes med lärare som arbetar tematiskt i årskurs F-3. Resultatet visar att de intervjuade lärarna är positiva till tematiskt arbete och menar att det skapar en helhet för eleverna. I arbetet anser lärarna att man integrerar alla ämnena i det arbete som utförs. Dock visas det tydligt att lärarna har svårt för att helt gå ifrån de traditionella ämnena för att uppfylla kunskapsmålen som finns. Det viktiga med tematiska arbetet är att man utgår ifrån elevernas intresse och att det är deras lärande som skall komma i första hand.

This thesis contributes to the knowledge about the role of sociocultural resources in students’ learning in Science Education. In the analyses, both individual experiences and situation are taken into account. Different sociocultural resources – the teacher, artefacts and texts – that students encounter in educational settings are focused with the aim to study what role they play for which meaning making is made possible and relevant. To study these encounters, a pragmatist approach called practical epistemology analysis – i.e. an analysis of what students use as relevant information, valid questions and relevant attentiveness – is used and advanced. The empirical material consists of video recordings from Science Education classrooms in Swedish compulsory school. The first paper is an introduction to the line of work subsequently performed. In the second paper, a method for analysing the role of teaching for students’ meaning making – epistemological moves analysis – is developed and illustrated. This method focuses on those actions of the teacher that have a function of influencing what direction students’ learning takes. In the third paper, the practical epistemology approach is applied in order to clarify, within a sociocultural understanding of learning, the role of the interplay between students’ prior experiences and the use of artefacts in students’ meaning making. In the fourth paper, the practical epistemology approach is applied as a method for investigating the role of instructional texts in laboratory settings for students’ meaning making. The thesis shows how individual continuity can be understood and analysed within a sociocultural perspective on learning. The developed methods make it possible to study learning as constituted in action without ascribing teachers, artefacts or texts a pre-determined meaning prior to their use in a practice. The results show that the way sociocultural resources are made intelligible by the students shapes the conditions for further meaning making.

Abstract The aim of this Master thesis is to explore why some Swedes want to consume”eco-friendly” and whether this fact gives rise to articulated information needs. Two possible explanations for this ”eco conscious” consumption are being tested, either if it is based on a normative belief that it is the right thing to do if you, as a consumer, want to do something about the environmental degradation, or that it is a reaction to a perceived risk, due to the environmental degradation. The method chosen by the author in this thesis is a qualitative text analysis of five Swedish journals. The author also tries to find articulated expressions for information needs based on the will to consume ”eco friendly” that could either be a result of a perceived risk or a feeling of normative rightness. The findings of this thesis are the following: the opinion among Swedish consumers that it is normatively right to select products perceived to be good for the environment, is the most commonly expressed in the  material examined followed by the view that they (the consumers) need more information as to what products to chose if the they are to satisfy their “environmental ambitions”.

Enhetschefens arbete balanserar mellan önskemål och krav från personal, brukare, anhöriga, tjänstemän och politiker. Informella ledare kan då vara ett hot eller en möjlighet.Uppsatsens syfte är att bidra med förståelse för hur enhetschefer inom äldreomsorgen resonerar kring informella ledare. Det handlar om de möjligheter och svårigheter samt de strategier cheferna resonerar om och använder i sitt arbete.Den teoretiska referensramen utgörs av symbolisk interaktionism och verksamhetsnära- och situationsanpassat ledarskap. Utifrån en kvalitativ ansats har halvstrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med sex enhetschefer i två kommuner i Östergötland.Resultatet visar att cheferna resonerar kring både möjligheter och svårigheter avseende informella ledare i verksamheten. Möjligheterna kan bestå av att informella ledare ofta är insatta och engagerade i verksamheten. Cheferna använder också informella ledare för att övertyga övriga i personalgruppen om sin linje vid neddragningar eller förändringsarbete. Möjligheterna kan vändas till svårigheter då de informella ledarna genom sitt engagemang på ett negativt sätt drar med sig övriga i personalgruppen. De kan också medverka till skapandet av en negativ kultur där personalen inte vågar uttrycka sig fritt. Sammantaget handlar chefernas strategier om tydlighet, kommunikation, delaktighet och utbildning.

Departing from humanist models of American intellectual history, this dissertation proposes an alternative posthumanist approach to the thought of Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Charles Sanders Peirce. Beginning with Perry Miller’s influential scholarship, American thought is often cast as a search for “face to face” encounters with the unaccountable God of Calvinism, a figure that eventually evolves to encompass Romantic notions of the aesthetic, imagination, or, most predominately, individual human feeling. This narrative typically culminates in the pragmatism of William James, a philosophy in which human feeling attains priority at the expense of impersonal metaphysical systems. However, alongside and against these trends runs a tradition that derives from the Calvinist distinction between a fallen material world and a transcendent God possessed of absolute sovereignty, a tradition that also anticipates posthumanist theory, particularly the self-referential distinction between system and environment that occupies the central position in Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. After systems theory, the possibility for “face to face” encounters is replaced with the necessary self-reference of communication and observation, an attribute expressed in Edwards, Emerson, and Peirce through, respectively, the figures of “true virtue,” an absent and inexpressible grief and, in its most abstract form, Peirce’s concept of a sign. In conclusion, Edwards, Emerson, and Peirce represent an alternative posthumanist genealogy of pragmatism that displaces human consciousness as the foundational ground of meaning, communication, or semiosis.

In this thesis I characterize, through an analysis of some of the key themes and central insights of both Charles Sanders Peirce’s pragmatism and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, what Bernstein (2011) has called a “sea change” in contemporary philosophy. I illustrate how their main insights are profoundly educational and how they offer us an effective means of reconceptualising what education means within the context of our world today. I will particularly stress two important elements of this ‘sea change’ that figure prominently in both Peirce and Gadamer’s work. First, the central importance of situated agency, and second, the affirmation of a relational process ontology. When taken together, these insights entail a conception of education that radically affirms the transformative potential of human agency based on the fecundity of educational experience. This ‘sea change’ will be presented in juxtaposition to the problematic modern/Cartesian framework that is current in educational thought today.

In this thesis I characterize, through an analysis of some of the key themes and central insights of both Charles Sanders Peirce’s pragmatism and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, what Bernstein (2011) has called a “sea change” in contemporary philosophy. I illustrate how their main insights are profoundly educational and how they offer us an effective means of reconceptualising what education means within the context of our world today. I will particularly stress two important elements of this ‘sea change’ that figure prominently in both Peirce and Gadamer’s work. First, the central importance of situated agency, and second, the affirmation of a relational process ontology. When taken together, these insights entail a conception of education that radically affirms the transformative potential of human agency based on the fecundity of educational experience. This ‘sea change’ will be presented in juxtaposition to the problematic modern/Cartesian framework that is current in educational thought today.