This thesis focuses on work-life balance policy; one of the key field of EU gender equality policies. The purpose of this study was to analyze most recently proposed policy on work-life balance ‘An initiative to support work-life balance for working parents and carers’ that aims to upgrade existing policy and legal frameworks. The main objective of the study is to identify problem representation(s) of gender equality in the stated policy. The study objectives comprises of problematizing identified problem representation(s) by drawing attention to silences and underplayed issues including its far-reaching implications on various groups. Analysis presented in this thesis is guided by theoretical framework of poststuructural feminism chiefly through discourse analysis methodology. In that endeavor, Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach has been applied for discourse analysis of the policy by employing 3 out 6 postulated questions. The study identifies several problem representations of gender equality in the stated EU reconciliation policy. Among others, childcare responsibility is identified as the most dominant problem representation. Likewise, the study points out silenced issues in the policy. This includes structural challenges affecting accessibility and advancement of women in labour market, the type of work, division of unpaid work besides caring responsibilities, inequalities engendered by intersectional factors, well-being of individuals, family, children, elderly care and commitment from employing organizations. The study finally notes ensuing lived effects on women due to added responsibilities. The study analysis concludes some still present pitfalls in the modernized work-life balance policy.

This study applies a poststructural discourse analysis developed by Carol Bacchi, called the WPR-approach, on Japanese ageing society-related policy. It utilises Foucauldian ideas about how policy creates rather than discovers ‘problems’ through representation, and what effects this can have. The purpose of the study is to analyse how the problems around women and immigration are represented in Japanese policy, if this representation has been affected by the ageing society, and what effects it may have on the people and politics of the country. The results show that both women and immigrants are mainly represented as resources for economic growth. Policy proposals show signs of having been affected by the ageing society, but the representation in the policies indicate that underlying social ideas about gender and immigration are not addressed. A conclusion is drawn that this focus may result in a lack of politics which tackle harmful traditional gender norms and xenophobia.

Fraud risk assessment is an important audit process that has a direct impact on the effectiveness of auditors' fraud detection in an audit. However, prior literature has shown that auditors are generally poor at assessing fraud risk. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) suggests that auditors may improve their fraud risk assessment performance by adopting a fraud specialist mindset. A fraud specialist mindset is a special way of thinking about accounting records. While auditors think about the company's recorded transactions in terms of the availability of supporting documentations and the authenticity of the audit trail, fraud specialists think instead of accounting records in terms of the authenticity of the events and activities that are behind the reported transactions. Currently there is no study that has examined the effects of the fraud specialist mindset on auditors' fraud risk assessment performance. In addition, although recent studies have found that fraud specialists are more sensitive than auditors in discerning fraud risk factors in situation where a high level of fraud risk is present, it remains unclear whether the same can be said for situation where the risk of fraud is low. Thus, the purpose of my dissertation is to examine the effects of fraud specialist and audit mindsets on fraud risk assessment performance. In addition, I examined such effects on fraud risk assessment performance in both high and low fraud risk conditions. The contributions of my dissertation include being the first to experimentally examine how different mindsets impact fraud-related judgment. The results of my study have the potential to help address the PCAOB's desire to improve auditors' fraud risk assessment performance though the adoption of the fraud specialist mindset. In addition, my study contributes to the literature by exploring fraud-related problem representation as a possible mediator of mindset on fraud risk assessment performance. I executed my dissertation by conducting an experiment in which mindset (fraud specialist or audit) was induced prior to the completion of an audit case (high or low in fraud risk). A total of 85 senior-level accounting students enrolled in two separate auditing classes participated in my study. The results from my experimental provide empirical support that it is possible to improve auditors' fraud risk assessment through adapting the fraud specialist mindset. My study also provides preliminary evidence that individuals with the fraud specialist mindset developed different problem representations than those with the audit mindset.

The clothing industry can be linked to problematic issues of social equity and environmental sustainability worldwide. This is manifested in the every-day consumer behavior of industrialized societies, which heavily relies on geographically distant labor and resources. Therefore, this thesis looked at the interconnection of social equity and environmental sustainability from a nexus perspective. Nexus approaches are increasingly defining the pathway to sustainable development, yet they typically represent resource-efficient and technological solutions. This form of problematizing water sustainability can keep long-term societal justice problems ‘beneath the surface’, meaning that they are less considered. The WPR approach was used as an analysis tool to understand underlying implications of water sustainability problematizations in the clothing industry. An embedded single case study on the Sweden Textile Water Initiative (STWI) was conducted, which included and integrated literature review, brand document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The initiative’s goal is to help clothing brands to address water sustainability issues along the supply chain. The results show that water sustainability stands in connection to four overarching themes; environmental issues, economic issues, technological issues and socio-political issues. There is a consensus in the literature and amongst the industry representatives that the problems connected to water sustainability in the clothing industry mainly occur on factory level in producing countries. Additionally, the results show that brands have difficulties to act on their responsibility as strong influencers of the supply chain if there is not a business case. Overall this thesis concludes that the classical nexus approach is not a sufficient solution to water sustainability issues if resources make up the center of analysis and social implications are only considered secondary effects.

Since the Supreme Court's decision of overturning Roe v. Wade’s protection of abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022, multiple states in the U.S. has put abortion bans into effect. “Problems” are not a fixed concept but rather changeable and dependent on who is looking at it. By using Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the problem represented to be?” approach to policy analysis, the problem representations in the U.S. abortion bans and in human rights are identified and contrasted. The problem representation in the abortion bans is identified as “violations of the rights of unborn children” and the problem representation in human rights is identified as “violations of women’s equal rights.” While the problem representations are found to be opposites, they can both still be critiqued by feminist theory and arguably create inequality for women in different ways. How the problem of abortion is represented to be, and the way rights are used and argued for in the abortion bans as well as in human rights shows how they are not giving women equal rights to rights.

In June 2022, a new law will be implemented in the Swedish legal system, making honour- violence a certain crime. Before the new law has been implemented, investigations have been made by government officials trying to present how honour-related violence and oppression is a problem in the Swedish society. The aim for this thesis is to examine how the policy makers has presented the problematisation according to the method ‘What is the problem represented to be? (WPR). The questions that are being asked are how the policy makers problematise honour-related violence and oppression the Swedish society and how they present the Previous research has shown how social isolation and mobility plays a crucial role to those who experience honour-related violence and oppression. The thesis has therefore undertaken the theoretical framework of intersectionality to show how social and political identities can cause a person to experience a social isolation and subordination in society. The purpose is to examine how the policy makers problematise honour-violence and oppression in the law proposal and if they account for any particular vulnerabilities that can cause social isolation. Results shows that the victims of honour-related violence and oppression are being left without protection from their family, are the government including them in their policy documents to make sure that they are protected by laws and legislations? How the problem with honour-related violence and oppression is produced within policy documents and referral documents and if they account for particular vulnerability is what will be examined in this thesis and see if the government are subordinating an already subordinated group.

I denna uppsats används diskursanalys för att undersöka vad som framställs som problemet i jämställdhetspolitiken och vilka konsekvenser problemets framställning får för jämställdhetsarbetet och jämställdhetsintegrering som politisk åtgärd.  Studien har gjorts i en lokal kontext genom att analysera Karlstad kommuns jämställdhetspolicy, två jämställdhetsplaner samt ett samordningsmöte för jämställdhetsfrågor. Den diskursanalytiska metoden som ligger till grund för analysen är Carol Lee Bacchis policyanalysverktyg ”What is the problem represented to be?”. Det är ett angreppsätt som analyserar policys med syftet att skapa förståelse för hur problem ”skapas” i policys problemformulering. Efter att materialet analyserats framkom det att jämställdhetsarbetet utgick från flertalet olika problem som inte alltid hade en självklar koppling till jämställdhetsbegreppet. Jämställdhetsarbetet används till smått som stort för att förbättra den kommunala verksamheten. Detta kan medföra en avpolitiserande effekt på jämställdhetsintegrering som politisk åtgärd.  Analysen visade även att avsaknaden av en tydlig problemformulering, med utgångspunkt i ett könsmaktsperspektiv, utgjorde en försvårande faktor för att åstadkomma en positiv förändring mot ett mer jämställt samhälle. Det som i synnerhet lämnas oproblematiserat i jämställdhetsarbetet är ett strukturellt maktperspektiv, så som könsmaktsordningen. Könsmaktsordningen kan sägas utgöra ”elefanten i rummet” i jämställdhetsarbetet eftersom den är närvarande som teoretisk utgångspunkt men kan samtidigt inte benämnas utan att väcka motstånd. / This paper uses discourse analysis to examine what is portrayed as the problem of gender equality policies and the consequences of the problem representation for gender equality and gender mainstreaming as a political measure. The study was performed in a local context by analyzing Karlstad municipality's equality policy, two gender equality programs as well as a coordination meeting on gender equality issues. The discourse analytic method which is the basis for the analysis is Carol Lee Bacchis policy analysis "What is the problem represented to be?". It is a method approach that analyzes policies with the aim to create an understanding of how problems is "created" in the policies of problems. After the material has been analyzed, it emerged that gender equality was based on several different issues that had not always an obvious connection to the concept of equality. The gender equality work is used for both large and small to improve municipal operations. This can cause a depoliticize effect on gender mainstreaming as a policy measure. The analysis also showed that the lack of a clear problem, starting with a gender perspective, constituted an aggravating factor to effect a positive change towards a more equal society. What in particular is left un-problematised in gender equality work is a structural perspective of power, as gender power relations. Gender power relations can be said to be "the elephant in the room" for gender equality, since it is present as a theoretical basis, but can also not be named without arousing opposition.

Detta är en uppsats som genom diskursanalys undersöker hur den nyanlände invandrarens identitet konstrueras i samband med utformningen av etableringsreformen, en reform som trädde i kraft december 2010 med syftet att underlätta etableringen på den svenska arbetsmarknaden för vissa nyanlända invandrare, samt vilka konsekvenser denna identitetskonstruktion kan leda till. Den diskursanalytiska metod som ligger till grund för utformningen av analysen är Carol Lee Bacchis ”What’s the problem represented to be?”, vilken fokuserar på hur ett politiskt problem framställs genom att studera vilka lösningar som föreslås. Efter en noggrann genomgång av ett antal policydokument som framställdes under processen som föranledde införandet av etableringsreformen framkom det att den nyanlände invandraren i den politiska diskursen implicit framställs som omotiverad och oförmögen till att träda in på den svenska arbetsmarknaden om inte staten ingriper med åtgärder och krav, samtidigt som det svenska civilsamhällets agerande lämnas oproblematiserat. De följder detta kan få är dels att de nyanlända invandrarnas tilltro till den egna kapaciteten försvagas och dels att det civila samhällets attityd gentemot dessa riskerar att försämras. Detta är två utfall som ytterligare kan försvåra de nyanlända invandrarnas möjligheter till arbetsmarknadsetablering. / This is an essay that through discourse analysis examines how the newly arrived immigrant's identity is constructed in relation to the design of a legal reform, called the "establishment reform”, which came into force in Sweden in December 2010 with the aim to facilitate the establishment on the labor market of newly arrived immigrants. The implications of where this identity construction can lead are also discussed. The discursive analytical approach that is the basis for the design of the analysis is Carol Lee Bacchi's "What's the problem Represented to be?”, an approach that focuses on how a political problem is presented by studying the solutions that are suggested in order to solve it. After a careful review of a number of policy documents that were produced during the process that led to the entry of the establishment reform, it emerged that in the political discourse the newly arrived immigrant implicitly is portrayed as unmotivated and unable to enter the Swedish labor market unless the state intervenes with actions and demands, while problems in the behavior of Swedish civil society are left unaddressed. The impact this could have is partly that newly arrived immigrants lose confidence in their own capacities, and partly that civil society's attitudes towards immigrants may deteriorate. These are two outcomes that could further complicate the newly arrived immigrants' establishment on the labor market.

Denna studie syftar till att studera hur jämställdhet fylls med innehåll i regeringens nationella strategi för regional hållbar tillväxt och attraktionskraft perioden 2015–2020 och handlingsplaner från tre valda regioner som alla ingår i projektet ”regional jämställd tillväxt”, samt vilka effekter det får för möjligheten att politisera kön. Detta görs utifrån Carol Bacchis metodologi för policyanalys som heter ”What’s is the problem represented to be?” Även den tidigare Alliansregeringen har drivit liknande projekt, men studien avgränsas till den nuvarande regeringens strategi. Utifrån Bacchis sex steg för policyanalys, som bygger på filosofen Michel Foucaults teori om styrning och makt som kallas för ”governmentality”, konstrueras tre forskningsfrågor som alla har en angränsande följdfråga: Hur representeras problemet av regeringen och regionerna och på vilka premisser dessa representationer bygger på? Hur legitimeras problemrepresentationerna och vad som lämnas oproblematiserat? Vilka effekter kan problemrepresentationerna innebära för jämställdhetsdiskursen, individernas liv och hur de ser på sig själv och andra, samt hur problemrepresentationen produceras, sprids, försvaras och hur den kan ersättas? För att kunna reflektera kring detta sista steg tillförs ytterligare teori i form av Chantal Mouffes och Ernesto Laclaus ”diskursteori”. Studien visar på att problemet är brist på kunskap bland de regionala aktörerna och kvinnors bristande kapacitet att verka på marknaden. Jämställdhet problematiseras inte utifrån ett rättviseperspektiv, utan ses som ett medel för ökad regional tillväxt. En problemrepresentation som legitimeras av en problematisk demografisk utveckling och globaliseringen. För att ta till vara på all tillväxtpotential framställs människor som kreativa, vars entreprenörskap ska främjas. En problemrepresentation som sprids genom stora internationella institutioner och framställs som moraliskt rätt. Problemrepresentationen kan ersättas genom att konstruera ett politiskt klimat där motståndares åsikter ses som legitima och därmed möjliggöra politisering av kön och även fler sätt för människor att identifiera sig på. / The purpose of this thesis is to study how gender equality is filled with meaning in the governments national strategy for a regional sustainable economic growth and attractiveness during 2015-2020 and in the strategies from three selected regions, that are all included in the project “regional economic growth with a gender equality perspective”, as well as it has on the ability to politicize gender. This is done with help of Carol Bacchis methodology for analyzing policy called ”What’s the problem represented to be?”. The former government Alliance for Sweden have been working with a similar project, but this thesis is delimited to the strategy of the current government. With starting point in Bacchis six steps for analyzing policy, based on the philosopher Michel Foucaults theory about governing and power called “governmentality”, there are three research questions constructed, and each one is associated with a follow up question: What is the problem represented to be by the government and by the regions and on what premises are they build upon? How has this problem representation been legitimized and what is not problematized? What effects can this problem representation generate for the gender equality discourse, the way the subjects think about themselves and others, their lives and how are this problem representation being produced, disseminated and defended and how can it be replaced? Too be able to reflect on this last step, Chantal Mouffes and Ernesto Laclaus “discourse theory” is applied. This thesis shows that the problem is represented as a lack of knowledge about gender equality among the regional actors, and women’s capacity to act on the market. Gender equality is not being problematized as a matter of justice, rather as a mean for an increased regional growth. The problem representation is legitimized by referring to a problematic demographic development and globalization. To take advantage of the potentials for economic growth, humans are being portrayed as creative, and their entrepreneurship needs to be promoted. This representation of the problem is spread through major international institutions and is being portrayed as morally correct. This problem representation can be replaced by create a political climate where other opponents opinions are seen as legitimate, which makes it possible to politicize gender and also for humans to identify in more ways.

Interest in ‘science-based targets’ (SBTs) as a means of helping the private sector achieve greater environmental sustainability has sharply increased in recent years. However, the significant ambiguity around what SBTs for Earth systems are and how they relate to broader sustainability issues has received little attention. This study adopts an interpretive approach to explore how different ‘framings’ of SBTs reflect very different storylines about sustainability problems and the role of SBTs in delivering solutions. It treats environmental governance not as a search for solutions to a pre-defined problem, but as a struggle over the definition of the environmental problem itself. In doing so, the study addresses deeper questions about whether sustainability science and practice should work within ‘the system’ to change it or critique it as part of the problem. It uses Q methodology to explore the perspectives of 22 scientists and practitioners engaged in SBTs for Earth systems. The results show two main framings of SBTs: ‘we need to develop science-based targets for the Earth system’ and ‘we need systemic economic, political and social change – and science-based targets.’ Results indicate that two distinctive storylines exist around SBTs, which emerge from reformist and radical environmental discourses. Alongside areas of consensus, they diverge on crucial issues regarding the nature of SBTs, sustainability problems and solutions, and the role of SBTs in transformation. The study suggests that the SBT is a boundary object; its ambiguity can both promote collaboration between diverse actors and conceal more radical discourse. It concludes that the plural interpretations of SBTs and their contribution to sustainability transformations have important implications. This highlights a need for greater reflexivity within sustainability science and practice, which could move them towards their sustainability aims.