Surprisingly few studies have been performed regarding gender and general staff in higher education, a workforce that in Sweden is called stödpersonal, meaning supportive staff (my translation). Academic staff is called kärnpersonal, meaning core staff (my translation). The academy is a hierarchical organisation where core staff holds the decisive power of the means and the goals of the organisation. These terms can be seen as symbols for gendering processes, constructed by what Acker (1990) calls a gendered organisation. There is a gender imbalance between the categories, for example at Umeå University, 77 percent of those who work with administrative tasks are women (i.e. supportive staff), and 68 percent of the professors are men (i.e. core staff). In order to study the experiences of the supportive staff, qualitative interviews were made with members of the supportive staff at Umeå University. The study shows that supportive staff experiences a lack of participation in meetings and working teams, and it also experiences that the core staff doesn’t recognise its competence. The supportive staff also sees that there are few possibilities to career development. Supportive staff in this study might not know how to improve its situation, but it knows that in order to reach respectability and valuation (Skeggs, 1997, 2014) it should create a distance to an image of a secretary, a subject position that is created for the supportive staff by the university. A secretary represents a woman without a decisive power of her own; she is also a generalist, which is not meritorious in an organisation where the highest power is held by people with high level of specialist knowledge.

This study investigates how power relations were negotiated and expressed through the use of certain linguistic practices in a public context. More specifically, it looks closer at how job applicants presented themselves publically through newspaper advertisements and which discursive codes they made use of to portray themselves as reputable, desirable employees that fit into the bourgeois concept of respectability. The survey accordingly moves within the theoretical frameworks of the respectability discourse, altering power relations, self-presentation and the public sphere, and does so through the application of linguistic methods on a very specific material not commonly looked at from these macro-perspectives. The first part of the analysis identifies which specific social groups that used the press as a channel for self-presentation, focusing on the aspects of gender, marital status, work experience and occupational title. Through establishing this information, we reach an understanding of who can be ascribed an active participation in the public sphere and where to place these individuals along the social scale. Thereafter, the vocabulary of the advertisers is scrutinized and compared to see how strategies to create an air of respectability around yourself may have differed with the personal aspects mentioned above. Conclusively, the results from these enquiries serve as the basis for a larger discussion on whether the assertive self-promotion of the job advertisers can be interpreted as a self-empowerment among a section of London’s labourers, or whether the publication of the adverts rather is to be seen as a consolidation of already existing power relationships. The findings prove that through their strict adherence to the concept of respectability in a desire to win the favour of their social superiors, the linguistic strategies of the adverts cannot be interpreted as an early form of working class-movement with the intention of overthrowing the social order. On the contrary, the hierarchical structure of the 18th century was as present as ever when society moved towards the next centenary and was consolidated even further by the linguistic strategies of the advertisers.

This purpose of this dissertation is to utilize womanism and ratchetness to determine how the actions of Tyler Perry’s Madea and Christianee Porter’s Miss Shirleen characters represent Black women’s agency through their ratchet actions. This dissertation analyzed two Tyler Perry films and five Miss Shirleen videos to determine whether their actions conveyed cultural and liberative significance beyond entertainment. This research discovered that both characters engaged in resistance to disempowering narratives through actions that embraced a radical subjectivity and subsequent dismissal of respectability politics that embraced the strengths of Black womanhood in affirming, creative, and audacious ways. This dissertation also found that ratchetness and womanism as liberative agency leave room for Black women to redefine themselves and evolve based on their own indigenous knowledge and create a language that is familiar and uplifting for themselves. Moreover, Black women can be ratchet, womanist, and respectable simultaneously regardless of class status thereby rejecting a pathologized Black womanhood.

The representation of women in prostitution varies over time and space. This study aims to make visual how women in prostitution are being represented in Swedish judicial system today. The study uses a critical discourse analysis, inspired by Fairclough's three-dimensional model, and is based on a theoretical framework of reification theory, theory of respectability and previous research. The study analyzes 68 court verdicts, published in 2018 on the legal database Karnov Juridik, Kvinnifridspropositionen (Prop. 1997/98: 55) and an evaluation of the law's application and effect (SOU 2010: 49). The study makes visible a two-part image of the woman as occasionally invisible and occasionally defined on the basis of prostitution. The study shows how an overall market discursive perspective through the verdicts relates to a focus on the purchase of sex, rather than the parties involved. The study shows that the focus on the woman in prostitution, which was widely criticized and which the law reform intended to shift towards the sex buyers, continues to stay on the women in prostitution. / Framställningen av kvinnor som befinner sig i prostitution har varierat över tid och rum. Denna studie ämnar undersöka hur svenskt rättsväsende framställer kvinnor i prostitution idag. I studien används en kritisk diskursanalys, inspirerad av Faircloughs tredimensionella modell, och utifrån ett teoretiskt ramverk av reifikationsteori, respektabilitetsteori samt tidigare forskning. Studiens empiriska underlag utgörs av 68 domar, publicerade år 2018 på rättsdatabasen Karnov Juridik, kvinnofridspropositionen (Prop. 1997/98:55) och en utvärdering om lagens tillämpning och effekt (SOU 2010:49). I studien synliggörs en tudelad bild av kvinnan som tidvis osynlig och tidvis definierad utifrån prostitution. Studien synliggör hur ett marknadsdiskursivt perspektiv genom domarna påverkar diskursen genom att fokus riktas mot den sexuella tjänster mot ersättning, snarare än de parter som är involverade. Det kritiserade fokus som tidigare inriktades på kvinnan i prostitution ämnade lagreformen att skifta mot männen, sexköparna. I studien framkommer tendenser av ett fortsatt fokus på kvinnorna som befinner sig i prostitution snarare än sexköparna, som framställs som konsumenter inom ett marknadsfenomen.

In this thesis, I investigate the German-speaking attachment-oriented parenting community on Instagram. Focusing on a debate about new-right activities in the community, I analyze how motherhood (self-)conceptions were discursively entangled with questions of resistance to and tolerance of the new right. Two questions guide my thesis: 1) How was attachment-oriented motherhood conceptualized in the debate? How were these con-ceptions classed and racialized? 2) How did the community produce openness for the appropriation by the new right? How did the community resist appropriation? To answer these questions, I conduct a critical discourse analysis of 45 Instagram posts and their comment sections. My thesis is grounded in motherhood theories, in particular Hays’s intensive mothering, and theories that take seriously the intersectionality of powerstructures. I also refer to Skeggs’s theory on gender, class, and respectability, and workon whiteness and femininity Ahmed and Shome. I find diverse conceptions of attachment-oriented motherhood that differed with regard to their resistance to and reinforcement of intensive motherhood and far-right ideologies. Resistant motherhood concepts sought collective action and mobilized mothers’responsibility for the opposition against the new right. Investment in the respectability of attachment-oriented motherhood on the other hand obstructed the discussion about new-right activities, diverting attention away from politics. Concepts of motherhood from New-Age community members not only tolerated far-right ideology, but at times even reproduced it, in particular in the concept of conspiritual motherhood.

While it is an undeniable historical fact that Buddhism has spread far beyond India, adapting to local circumstances and spawning new variations in the process, the process by means of which it did so is obscure. Recent scholarship has shown that to impute a sense of"mission" to Buddhism is to employ a specifically Christian category which does not fit in well with Buddhism as it was understood by the originators of the Buddhist tradition. For this and related reasons, contemporary scholars of religion prefer to speak of the "transplantation" of Buddhism rather than of "mission''. This work builds on the theories of religious transplantation advanced by Michael Pye, Frank Whaling, Martin Baumann and others. It presents a theoretical perspective on the transplantation of Buddhism that is based on an understanding of Buddhism as consisting of three interrelated "traditions" ranging from the direct perception of reality as Buddhism understands and defines it, to participation in popular Buddhist ritual. The interaction between these three traditions gives rise to four chronologically distinct, but always interacting phases in the transplantation process. The theoretical perspective is demonstrated with reference to Buddhist history in general and South African Buddhist history in particular, and by applying it to various problematic situations in contemporary Buddhism, such as the relation between Buddhism and "other" religions and the predominance of middle-class members (which in South Africa equates to white members) in contemporary western Buddhism. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D.Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

This thesis examines the work of reformer Lugenia Burns Hope and her community organization, the Neighborhood Union, as a case study to unpack scholarly characterizations of black elite uplift strategies during the early 20th century. The Neighborhood Union was established in 1908 in Atlanta by Hope and women from the community to build stronger neighborhoods and to combat the deleterious effects of the 1906 Race Riots and Jim Crow laws. Neighborhood Union settlement houses provided basic and extracurricular services, including kindergartens for working mothers, vocational classes, and lecture series. The organization’s exceptional, multi-class leadership structure enabled members of the black poor and working classes to lead their own projects with the assistance of Neighborhood Union resources. Hope’s background provides evidence against broad generalizations of the black elite as paternalistic, and her vision of creating democratic communities that diminished class barriers provides a counter narrative to characterizations of clubwomen and the black elite as engaging in respectability politics in their social work. Understood within its historical and sociopolitical context, Hope’s life and work also challenge mainstream narratives of the Progressive Era and the Social Gospel movement.

Thesis (MA (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--Stellenbosch University, 2009. / ENGLISH SUMMARY: Women’s livelihoods are not only experienced differently, but are articulated in different ways. This dissertation begins from the understanding that women’s livelihoods are processual, complex and contextual. They are embedded in multifarious processes, structures, discourses and everyday practices, which are locally defined and globally linked. This thesis interrogates women’s articulations of empowerment and agency that were central to their community and entrepreneurial activities. Women’s social actions and responses to constraints and transformation they encountered in the valley were sites of struggle. Informed by local women’s perspectives and articulations of empowerment, this ethnography focuses on how women practiced their livelihoods: how they manoeuvred, negotiated and performed their livelihood tactics in response to local, national and global constraints. The study narrates how women in a rural valley in the Winelands of the Western Cape (South Africa) spoke of how they felt ‘empowered’ despite constraints. They claimed that they exhibited productive moments and harnessed opportunities to rise above constraints. They felt that in general men in their communities were passive in their response to crisis in the valley. Women’s narratives of empowerment in the Dwars River Valley invoked ideas of ‘women of steel’ and ‘moments’ of agency. These helped to re-fashion local gender orders and rehabilitate notions of ‘appropriate’ women’s work. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die bestaanswyses van vroue word nie slegs in die uitleef daarvan waargeneem nie, maar is dikwels ook ‘n fokus van gespreksvoering. Die uitgangspunt van hierdie tesis is dat vroue se bestaanswyses metodies, kompleks en kontekstueel is. Dit word begrond deur uiteenlopende prosesse, strukture, diskoerse, en alledaagse gebruike wat plaaslik gedefinieer word en globaal gebonde is. Hierdie tesis ondersoek vroue se artikulasie van bemagtiging en agentskap wat sentraal tot hul gemeenskap en entrepreneurskap aktiwiteite staan. Vroue se sosiale handelinge en reaksies tot struikelblokke en transformasie wat hulle in die vallei in die gesig gestaar het, is beduidend van ‘n plek van worsteling. Hierdie etnografie word toegelig deur plaaslike vroue se perspektiewe en artikulasie van bemagtiging en fokus op hoe hulle hul bestaanswyse beoefen het: hoe vroue bestaanswyse taktieke gemanipuleer, onderhandel en ook uitgevoer het as reaksie op plaaslike, nasionale en globale beperkinge. Hierdie studie vertel hoe vroue in ‘n landelike vallei van die Wynlande in die Wes-Kaap (Suid-Afrika) praat oor hoe hul ‘bemagtig’ voel, ten spyte van beperkinge. Hulle voer aan dat hul produktiewe oomblikke vertoon en gebruik maak van geleenthede om bo beperkinge uit te styg. Hulle voel dat mans oor die algemeen passief in hul reaksie op krisis is. Vroue se verhale van bemagtiging in die Dwars Rivier Vallei roep beelde op van ‘vroue van staal’ en ‘oomblikke’ van agentskap. Dit het bygedra tot die herskepping van plaaslike gender rolle en die hervestiging van idees oor ‘gepaste’ werk vir vroue.

I likhet med många andra länder har våld i nära relation, sexuellt våld och våld mot barn uppmärksammats mer och mer i Sverige de senaste fem decennierna. I takt med att kunskapen om våld i nära relation har ökat har det också vuxit fram en kritik mot brister inom rättsväsendet, i synnerhet när det gäller att ge skydd och upprättelse till de som utsätts för dessa former av våld. Genom denna utveckling ställs det idag andra krav på de rättsliga aktörerna gällande kunskap och bemötande. Syftet med denna avhandling är att utforska hur relationsvåldsspecialiserade åklagare förhandlar om sina professionella identiteter i relation till de förändrade diskurserna om professionalitet inom rättsväsendet. Studien bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med 32 relationsvåldsspecialiserade åklagare på åtta åklagarkammare runt om i Sverige. Utifrån en narrativ och emotionsteoretisk ansats belyser avhandlingen hur dessa åklagare iscensätter en respektabel professionalitet i relation till möten med målsägande, tilltalade och rättsliga aktörer samt i relation till särskilda arbetsuppgifter, så som att leda förundersökningar, fatta beslut om åtal samt vara part i rätten. Avhandlingen synliggör de normativa motsättningar och spänningar som åklagarna upplever och hanterar i sitt arbete. I sina narrativ rör de sig mellan, och förenar, positioneringar kring objektivitet-engagemang, rationalitet-magkänsla, skepticism-lyhördhet, auktoritet-ödmjukhet, distans-närhet och iscensätter på detta sätt en komplex professionell respektabilitet. En av avhandlingens centrala slutsatser är att den professionella respektabiliteten iscensätts genom en prövande och ambivalent hållning till den auktoritet och makt som arbetet bygger på. Genom berättelser om tvivel och maktlöshet, snarare än genom berättelser om ofelbarhet och autonomi, konstrueras professionalitet som ett lärande, reflexivt projekt. Inom en professionell kontext där känslor kan anses vara särskilt nedtystade, bidrar analysen av åklagarnas tal om emotioner med ett viktigt perspektiv. Analysen visar att tal om känslor tänjer den diskursiva uppdelningen mellan ett professionellt respektive ett privat jag och fungerar som ett narrativt element som både bekräftar och utmanar gränserna för den professionella respektabiliteten. Som helhet, bidrar avhandlingen till det kriminologiska forskningsfältet i de nordiska länderna genom att synliggöra en central rättslig aktör, åklagare, och bidrar till fältet om våld i nära relationer genom att belysa varför strukturer och praktiker som har kritiserats under så lång tid består men också hur de kan förändras. / As in many other countries, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and violence against children have been the focus of an increasing amount of attention in Sweden over the past five decades. As the knowledge on relationship violence has increased, the Swedish criminal justice system (CJS) has faced growing criticism for its failure to protect and provide redress to the victims of these forms of violence. Justice system actors are facing new demands in terms of their levels of knowledge and the quality of the service they provide for those they meet in the context of their work. The aim of the dissertation is to explore how prosecutors who specialise in relationship violence negotiate their professional identities and their normative boundaries in relation to the changing discourses of professionalism within the criminal justice system. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 32 prosecutors specialised in relationship violence, from eight prosecutors’ offices in different parts of Sweden. On the basis of a narrative and emotion theoretical approach, the dissertation explores how these prosecutors accomplish professional respectability in relation to situations where they meet with complainants, defendants and legal actors as well as in relation to specific work tasks, such as the leadership of police investigations, making indictment decisions and presenting the prosecution case in court. The dissertation discusses the normative dilemmas and tensions the prosecutors experience and handle in their work. In their narratives, they both shift between, and manage to reconcile, objectivity-engagement, rationality-gut feeling, scepticism-receptiveness, authority-humility and distance-intimacy, and in doing so perform a complex professional respectability. One of the dissertation’s central conclusions is that professional respectability is performed by maintaining an exploratory and ambivalent attitude towards the power and authority that their work is based on. By means of narratives of doubt and powerlessness, rather than narratives of infallibility and autonomy, professionalism is constructed as a learning, reflexive project. In a professional context in which emotions may be viewed as being particularly suppressed, the analysis of the prosecutors’ speech on emotions constitutes an important perspective. The speech about feelings disrupts the discursive separation between a professional and a private self and often serves to both confirm and challenge the boundaries of professional respectability. Overall, the dissertation contributes to the field of Nordic criminology by raising the visibility of prosecutors as a central legal actor, and to the field of relationship violence by illuminating why structures and practices that have been criticised for such a long time endure, but also how they may be changed.

This project explores, identifies, and interrogates how Swedish online mass media represent the issue of 'racisms' between people with migrant background/migrant groups and the implications of these representations on their lives. The materials are analyzed using the WPR approach (Bacchi 1999) and content media analysis. The theoretical background draws from social psychological theory of intergroup relations, postcolonial theory and critical race theory in order to establish an overview of the concept of ‘racism’ and how it can be used in relation to migrant groups. Where the media representations maintained that migrants can produce 'racism', led to further stigmatization and exclusion of migrant groups. Internalizing racism by migrants can result in self-hatred and practicing migrant respectability in order to differentiate themselves from undesirable migrants as represented in the materials. This project contributes in exploring the system of hierarchies which can deepen our understanding of how tensions and conflicts work between migrant groups.