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Denna uppsats syftar till att studera den diskursiva kampen kring dieter. Vi har satt fokus på hur kontroverser kring dieten LCHF gestaltas i media. LCHF är en diet som innebär att man håller en kost som till grunden innebär ett lågt intag av kolhydrater och ett högt intag av fett. Utifrån diskursanalys som teoretisk och metodologisk utgångspunkt studeras mediers framställning av LCHF. Studiens empiriska material omfattas av 50 stycken tidningsartiklar från svensk tryckt press under åren 2007–2017. I studien så används socialkonstruktionism som teori och diskursanalys används som metod. Resultat visar att det finns två huvudsakliga diskurser kring den diskursiva kampen om LCHF i media. Dessa har vi benämnt som den traditionella diskursen om kost och en modern hälsosam kosthållning: LCHF. Denna uppsats bidrar till tidigare forskning som inte har studerat den diskursiva kampen kring dieter i någon större utsträckning.   Nyckelord: LCHF, health, media, diet, discourse, social construction

Low-income affordable housing remains an issue for the town on Martha's Vineyard where this study was conducted, in which an estimated 54% of low-/moderate-income households spend more than 50% of monthly income on housing. Using Schneider and Ingram's work regarding the social construction of target populations as the foundation, the purpose of this qualitative research was to assess how the perceived social standing and political power contributed to determining the benefits and burdens allocated to the town's low-income households. Data for this study consisted of 14 individual semistructured interviews with members of low-income households who were seeking or in affordable housing. The research concentrated on the obstacles and reactions the low-income households experienced in the quest for affordable housing. Data were coded and analyzed using a value coding procedure followed by thematic analysis. Three themes emerged from the research: a perception by the participants of not being valued in the community and a lack of attention by town leadership to their affordable housing struggles; a self-reliance to find affordable housing; and coping strategies by renting bedrooms with shared kitchen and living areas or resorting to a 9-month lease and being displaced during the summer tourist season. The research illuminated the low-income community's housing experiences and perceptions, thereby helping town leaders to form housing policy and make fiscal decisions. The implications for positive social change include recommendations to town leadership to examine incentivizing homeowners to offer affordable rentals, investigating congregate housing solutions, and developing multifamily affordable housing for the town's low-income households.

It was unclear what the actual role of the Family Readiness Group (FRG) was in helping the spouses of U.S. Navy submariners (SMSs) in learning to live the submariner-family lifestyle. Submarines deploy in regular cycles regardless of world conflict. Submariners and their spouses are isolated from each other during deployments, communities of submariner spouses are smaller than other Navy communities, and spouses must acquire unique social capital to manage unique challenges. The purpose of this study was to explore how SMSs experience or perceive the FRG role in their social construction and adaptation to the SMS lifestyle. The examination was guided by Ingram, Schneider, and DeLeon's social construction and policy design theory. Data were collected using an open-ended survey distributed to 83 SMSs through an online survey platform. Data were coded for themes and subthemes using an iterative process including values and process coding. Key results were that SMSs construct themselves differently than how they are constructed by policy principals. Among SMSs, benefits and burdens perceived to be distributed by the FRG program are different than the distribution of actual benefits and burdens. These differences influenced participants' engagement with the FRG program. More research is needed to define this influence and to explore the origins of relationships that increase lifestyle capital. The implication for social change is that a better understanding of the nature of SMS lifestyles can contribute to better policy decisions and improved program design, leading to better outcomes for military spouses.

Nous allons délimiter et analyser la problématique liée à l’utilisation et l’appropriation de Technologies de la Communication et de l’Information (TIC’s) en contexte éducatif, en particulier dans les pays en voie de développement, où des difficultés d’orientation du développement social surgissent à partir de leur usage, parce qu’elles aboutissent à des formules déterministes qui renforcent l’orientation linéaire de la relation technologie-développement.Dans ce sens, les institutions responsables de la prise de décisions politiques qui exigent la mise en place de mécanismes de planification gouvernementale (priorisation de la dépense publique) et d’investissement, conçoivent des programmes d’informatisation des écoles basées sur cette conception linéaire, caractérisée par un sens palliatif et d’assistance, qui finissent par générer des relations de paternalisme et de dépendance.Dans ce contexte, le projet de recherche prétend élaborer une proposition d’analyse sociotechnique des technologies aussi bien théorique que méthodologique pour faire face au problème de la relation technologie-éducation à travers l’analyse du cas colombien du programme Computadores para Educar (CPE).La présente recherche doctorale propose comme objectif principal d’étudier les relations entre les acteurs impliqués dans les processus d’insertion des ordinateurs dans les écoles publiques, en prenant comme base d’analyse le programme d’État CPE. Nous nous demandons alors, quelles sont ces nouvelles relations entre les utilisations des technologies et le rôle des enseignants et des élèves dans cette nouvelle école dans laquelle le rôle des technologies paraît si essentiel et important, mais dont les résultats de l’inclusion des technologies en processus pédagogiques paraissent peu significatifs.La question centrale de notre recherche serait la suivante: Quelles relations se sont nouées, et de quelle manière, entre les acteurs concernés par le processus d’introduction des ordinateurs au sein des écoles ayant reçu les ordinateurs fournis par le programme CPE, en Colombie, au cours de la période 2004-2008 ? / The main objective of this thesis is the delimitation and analysis of use and appropriation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) in educational contexts especially in developing countries where exists problematic orientations about social development policy based in the use of these technologies. These problematic approach arise because there is a tendency to apply deterministic formulas that reinforce the linear relationship between development and technology.In this sense, the institutions responsible for policy decisions that require the establishment of mechanisms for government planning (prioritization of public expenditure) and investment, designs schools computerization programs based on this linear approach, characterized by a palliative direction and assistance, which eventually generate relationships of paternalism and dependency.In this context the research claims to develop a sociotechnical analysis proposal for technologies, both theoretical and methodological, to face the problem of the relationship between technology-education through the analysis of the case of the Colombian program Computadores para Educar (CPE).The present doctoral research suggests as a main objective, the study of the relationship between the actors involved into the processes of inclusion of computers in the public schools, by taking as basis of the analysis the state program CPE in Colombia. The principal interest of these research is to identify the new relationships between the uses of the technologies and the role of the teachers and the students in this new school in which the role of the technologies seems so essential and important, but whose results of the inclusion of the ICT’s into educational processes seem to be little significant.The central question of our search would be the following one: Which and how the relationships between the actors concerned by the process of introduction of computers within schools having received computers supplied by the program CPE in Colombia were stablished, during the period 2004-2008?

This thesis examines the ways in which public sector organisations communicate with people from lower socio-economic communities. The study is guided by the research question: Do the existing communication strategies of public sector organisations serve the needs of low decile communities in New Zealand? The study looks at the communication strategies used by three public sector organisations - Ministry of Social Development, Inland Revenue and Hamilton City Council - to interact with residents of a low-decile neighbourhood in Hamilton. Positioned within the critical theoretical paradigm (e.g., Deetz, 2005; Mumby, 2000) which looks at issues of power, domination and asymmetry in terms of communication practices, the research shows how social policy is socially constructed in order to serve the political aims of the public sector but is not necessarily constructed in terms of the target publics of that organisation. The study uses a three dimensional discourse analysis - text, context, and social practices (Fairclough, 1992) - to analyse the formal communication and information dissemination structures, processes, and texts of these organisations and to examine the ways in which some of the intended target publics of these organisations make sense of them and respond to them. The study includes an analysis of public documents put out by the organisations as well as interviews with youth workers, social workers, and representatives of the specific neighbourhood community. Juxtaposing the textual analysis with the analysis of the interviews facilitates an evaluation of whether the communication strategies of the organisations relate to the context of the socio-cultural practices of lowdecile neighbourhoods.

The diagnosis of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has increased over the last few years in Australia. ADHD is currently understood largely through a medical perspective, and in that context, the treatment recommended is stimulant medication. ADHD is a mental health label given to children who exhibit challenging behaviour. These children are diagnosed according to the categories stated in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) – IV. To date, there is no medical test children can undertake to show that they ‘have’ ADHD. This research focuses on an alternative view of ADHD. Focussing upon families’ experience of ADHD, and the medicalisation of children’s behaviour, it argues that behaviour is socially influenced and constructed. It is because insufficient attention has been given to the family experience and the social implications of ADHD, that the child is often seen as ‘the problem’. The gap in our understanding of ADHD is situated in our understanding of the broader social context. To challenge this I will explore perceptions of the ‘good child’, ‘good mothers’ and the social consequences of inappropriate behaviour. Each family was interviewed five times every three months over a two-year period. Their stories and experiences are presented in this thesis.

This thesis is concerned with both the dangers and opportunities of China’s relations with the contemporary world and with the U.S.-led West in particular. It takes an unconventional approach to these issues in critically examining mainstream Western studies of Chinese foreign policy as a particular kind of discourse. The thesis focuses, more specifically, on the two dominant Western perspectives on China, (neo)realism and (neo)-liberalism. In doing so, it engages the questions of how Western discursive practice has come to shape and dominate the ways we think of and deal with ‘China’ in international relations, and how, as a result, China has often come to formulate its foreign policy in line with the prescribed meaning given to it by Western-based China scholars. In this context, the thesis argues that to deconstruct the processes by which China is given particular ‘meanings’ by Western discourses—and by which those meanings are transformed into both Western and Chinese foreign policy—is the key to a more profound understanding of Sino-Western relations and, perhaps, a first step towards ameliorating its problems and realising its potential for long-term peace and mutual prosperity.

<p>Användning av Informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) är idag ett naturligt inslag i många människors vardag. Samtidigt uppmärksammas risken med digitala klyftor av flera samhällsinstanser. I detta sammanhang nämns äldre som en av de grupper som riskerar att hamna efter, vilket i förlängningen kan leda till ett utanförskap från den demokratiska processen på grund av bristande tillgång till eller kunskap om datorer och Internet. Studiens syfte är att belysa äldres upplevelser och erfarenheter av datorer och IT och sin delaktighet i IT-samhället idag. Studien är inspirerad av etnografisk metod och har ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv där ålder kan förstås som en skapad social kategori. Empirin baseras på sex intervjuer med äldre som börjat på en datorkurs, samt av deltagande observationer som genomfördes under datorkursen. I resultatet framkommer det att ett tvång upplevs gällande att hänga med i den tekniska utvecklingen, vilket kan vara stressande och frustrerande. Samtidigt känner informanterna att det är viktigt att ”hänga med” i samhället, och de uttrycker en nyfikenhet inför tekniken. Informanterna tar sig an datorn på ett aktivt sätt. Betydelse för att lära sig är vinningar man ser i vardagen som att hålla kontakt med barnbarn, söka information och klara sig själv. Samtidigt finns en underliggande tanke om sig själv och andra, där ålder ges betydelse i fråga om att det är svårare att lära sig som gammal, eller att äldre lärare är att föredra då de har mer förståelse. I motsats till detta uttrycks att en god lärare inte är avhängigt ålder, och de personer som finns som stöd i informanternas omgivning oftast är yngre.</p> / <p>The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a natural part of many people's everyday life today. At the same time the risk of digital divides are highlighted by several community agencies in society. One of the risk groups mentioned here are elderly people, risking of falling behind and also to be left out the whole democratic process, because of lack of access to or knowledge of computers and the Internet. The aim of this study is to highlight elderly people's experiences of computers and IT and their participation and involvement in the IT society of today. The study is inspired by the ethnographic method and has a perspective of Social constructionism in which age can be understood as a social created category. The empirical material is based on six interviews with elderly people taking a computer course for beginners, as well as participant observations carried out during the computer course. It appears in the result, that a feeling of being forced is connected to keeping up with the technological development in our society, which can be stressful and frustrating. At the same time the informants feels that it is important to “keep up” with the society, and a curiosity is expressed towards technology. Informants learn computers in an active way. Meaningfulness in learning the computer is seen in everyday life as to maintain contact with grandchildren, search for information and to manage on your own. At the time, an underlying view of themselves and others exist, where the age is given importance in that it is harder to learn when you are old, or that older teachers are preferred since they have more understanding. In contrast to this it is expressed that good teachers will not depend on age, and those in the informants surroundings that supports them are usually young.</p>

<p>This thesis has been written within the research project “Tillfälligt Uppbrott”, which concerns youths who have run away or been thrown out of their homes. The project is based on a na-tional poll among more than 3000 high school students. Our purpose has been to study youths who have left home and their own experiences. We have looked at all the question-naires in which the youths stated they had left home and focused on their answers to five open questions. The answers have been categorized in themes and the results have been put up against a certain amount of background variables. The concentration is foremost qualitative but there are also features of quantitive data. In our analysis we have used the new sociology of childhood which is based on social constructionism. In our result we have learned what the youths see as the reasons for the breakups, what they missed, how they provided for them-selves and what happened to them during the time away from home, as well as gotten exam-ples on how the experience affected them, both positively and negatively.</p>