Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and oppression of the Palestinian people has manifested itself in countless ways. The built environment, fueled by spatial theory, has been transformed into an instrument of war that serves a military agenda. In this context, the physical environment is not simply the arena of conflict, but a weapon wielded by occupying forces. This research investigates spatial control through seemingly mundane architecture and military practices, which are deployed deliberately to strangulate Palestinian livelihood and prosperity. Derived from Deleuze and Guittari’s delineation of smooth and striated space, with an emphasis on walls and barriers, this thesis subverts the spatial weaponization by envisioning design as both a retaliatory and reparative force. In doing so, it critiques and protests against the status quo.

<p>My dissertation explores how constructions of memory, space, and violence intersected in the history of early Christianity. It analyzes the crucial roles of memory and space/place in the formation, practice, and understanding of late ancient asceticism in Egypt's northwestern desert (Scetis, Kellia, Nitria, and Pherme). After a "barbarian" raid of Scetis in the early fifth century supposedly exiled Christian monks from the desert, Egypt came to be remembered as the birthplace of ascetic practice. Interpreting texts (in Coptic, Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Classical Arabic) and archaeological remains associated with the northwestern Egyptian desert, my dissertation investigates ascetic ideas about the relationship between memories and places: memory-acts as preserved in the liturgical and literary texts, memory in the liturgical contexts of church and cell, the ascetic use of Scriptural interpretation to thwart "worldly" recollection caused by demonic incitement to abandon the desert, and remembrance of a past moment through the perceived loss of Scetis. Wedding textual evidence, material culture, and theoretical insights, I highlight how the memorialization of a particular moment in the history of early Christian asceticism overshadowed other, contemporary late ancient asceticisms. My dissertation produces a new understanding of the negotiations between memory and space, often a process of contestation, and sheds new light not only on how violence was performed in late antiquity, but also on modern struggles over memorialized locales.</p> / Dissertation

Secondary school staffrooms serve a genuine need for teachers not easily replaced by subject department workrooms, yet staffroom use in many schools has declined. As a result, some staffrooms are being turned into classrooms or even abolished altogether from secondary school designs. This dissertation investigates the causes and effects of the decline of secondary school staffroom use in a large Canadian school board. Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad is applied to situate the investigation into spaces that are perceived, conceived, and lived. Staffrooms are analyzed as perceived spaces in the context of the production and reproduction of teachers’ labour, and the sub-communities of teaching found in workrooms. Staffrooms are viewed as conceived spaces by investigating their physical design and placement, as well as the role of secondary-level administrators in supporting or repurposing staffroom space. Staffrooms are understood as lived spaces by exploring how time, history, metaphor, and habit – especially habits formed in the early years of teaching – influence meaning for the users. Quantitative data drawn from a 23-question survey (256 responses) confirmed that although staffroom use had declined for the majority of respondents, secondary school staffrooms were still overwhelmingly considered to be necessary components of secondary schools even among non-users. The data analysis revealed that this decline was influenced by factors such as the isolated location of a staffroom, long distances from workrooms and classrooms to staffrooms, increased workloads, and habit. The findings of are supported by qualitative data in the form of 717 optional comments provided by survey participants, field notes from observing two secondary staffrooms: one inactive and the other frequently used, and through 26 semi-structured interviews held in five different staffrooms. It is my contention that staffrooms remain important to secondary school teachers as potential places for increasing perceptions of staff collegiality, providing opportunities for informal professional learning, developing cross-curricular connections, and managing teacher health and retention. The conclusion suggests how secondary school staffrooms might be reconfigured to better suit the needs of those who wish to use them.

Chuck Palahniuk’s Lullaby is a novel that evaluates modern spaces both abstract and physical, especially in regards to an individual’s experience in and attachment to domestic, regulated space as a source of identity, intimacy, and spatial representation. My thesis demonstrates how the destabilization of domestic space as a result of loss and grief led the characters of the novel to question their normative perceptions of space, and in turn, incited them to produce a new kind of space, a heterotopia, to compensate for their loss of identity and place in the world. The critical analysis of this text within this thesis demonstrates how Chuck Palahniuk employs his literary style, complex characters, and surreal plot to highlight the significance of how individuals interact and are affected by space, especially in regards to identity and relationships within society, particularly when confronting cognitive dissonance and uncanny affect. By assessing the haunting attributes of domestic space, the heterotopia that arises from cognitive dissonance, and the sentimental traits that anchor us to certain social spaces, readers will be able to value the influence of spatial practice, not only in the novel, but also in everyday life.

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This thesis aims to contribute to the study of how established political parties deal with an increasingly popular radical right parties, focusing on the case of Sweden and the Sweden Democrats (SD). Swedish parties have had a different approach compared to established parties in other European countries, when being challenged by the radical right. The trend has been that the major parties have formed government with support of the radical right and also adapting some of their political positions, in order to regain lost voters. Although, in the case of Sweden, the initial strategy of the major parties was to distance themselves from SD:s policies, while also making efforts to isolate them from positions of power and minimizing their influence in all levels of government.  Anders Backlund (2020) has studied the case of Sweden and argues, with the use of the modified spatial theory (Meguid 2008), that the initially rejective strategy of the major parties towards SD, might have forced them to adapt their policies to a large extent further down the line. The thesis explores Sweden as a least-likely case for a theory-testing purpose. Through the means of a combination of qualitative and quantitative content analysis the election manifestos from all parliamentary parties in Sweden, from the last five elections are being analyzed. The thesis tries to explain to what extent, and in what manner, the parliamentary parties have adapted their policies to those of SD – and furthermore, to what degree these adaptations can be explained in terms of the strategic pursuit of votes.  The Sweden Democrats are placed far out on the TAN-scale, on the socio-cultural political conflict dimension GAL-TAN – where TAN stands for Tradition, Authoritarianism and Nationalism. Therefore, the extent to which the remaining parties have included policies related to TAN in their election manifestos is examined. The result shows that most parties in Sweden increasingly have included policies related to TAN in their election manifestos for the more recent elections – hence showing an adaptation to both SD:s policy suggestions and their way to formulate issues. Especially the parties that have been shown to lose particularly many voters to SD, but also the parties that are not competing for their votes to any bigger extent, exhibit a political conformity in the direction of SD.  The thesis strengthens the modified spatial theory by highlighting how Swedish parties swiftly have modified their strategy of handling SD – from initial rejection, to adaptation of rhetoric and policy. The thesis further contributes a few theoretical adjustments, to more fully explain how all major Swedish parties have managed their strategies when facing the increasing popularity of SD.

The information about the first-century synagogue provided by Flavius Josephus must be handled with care when used in historical reconstructions. Josephus was a skilled rhetorician who was ideologically invested in the presentation of this institution. Due care must therefore be placed on understanding the context of his various mentions of synagogues within the overall rhetorical context of his works if we are interested in historical reconstruction of this Jewish institution. However, the tendentious nature of Josephus’ writings does not preclude historical study, not least because the assumptions and ideologies inherent in this tendenz are themselves historical. Especially in his later works (Antiquitates judaicae, Vita, and Contra Apionem), we find a deliberate presentation of the synagogue as a viable, supra-local rallying point for the Jews throughout the known world, as this institution represents an assembly in which the customs and Law of Judaism may be practiced and disseminated following the loss of the Temple and the Land. Even in the earliest work of Josephus, Bellum judaicum, we find a tendentious presentation of the synagogue as a ‘holy place’ whose precincts were breached due to the impiety of the Jewish insurgents and certain non-Jewish troublemakers. Due to the rhetorical nature of Josephus’ writings and the many hermeneutical issues that arise when we deal with space, the language of Edward Soja’s spatial theory is utilized, where heuristically profitable, in order to distinguish between the ‘spaces themselves’ (firstspace), the ideals held by the author regarding the institution (secondspace), and the combination of the two in the experience represented in the passages (thirdspace). It is precisely the rhetoric with which Josephus presents the synagogue that will lead us to a better understanding of the ideological importance that synagogues had in the lives of the communities and individuals inhabiting these spaces during the period in question. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Due to growing populations and urbanization, a common trend in contemporary Swedish planning is that of densification. Open spaces within cities are being exploited to fit more housing and to prevent urban sprawl. This means that green areas which have traditionally been used by children for play and recreation transition into urban areas.  This study aims to examine how a child perspective has developed within physical planning and how it has transformed over time. Henri Lefebvre's theory about the production of space has been used to gain a greater understanding about the different ways in which adults and children interpret and use public space. Lefebvre's theory has then been used to characterize the literature which this study builds upon. The study also presents two examples of planning in Sweden and examines to what extent children's needs have been met and what level of participation children have had in the planning process. The results show that Lefebvre's third dimension – lived space – is how children view and understand their environment. This is also the dimension that has been given less space in physical planning over time. The implementation of a child perspective within Swedish planning processes has been shown to vary from one municipality to another. These differences stem from a lack of national guidelines regarding how and when children should be included in the planning of the physical environment.

Ongoing scholarship on the impact of speculative fiction demonstrates how science fiction and fantasy are fundamentally concerned with interrogating the socio-political networks that define contemporary life, and in constructing alternative environments that both critique and offer solutions to present-day inequalities. This project contributes to this scholarship by focusing on the ways in which recent speculative fiction re-envisions space—including urban sites, new architectural forms, and natural landscapes—to theorize innovative forms of socio-political organization. This work draws from the spatial turn in cultural studies and critical theory that has gained popularity since the 1970s, and which takes on assumption that space and politics are always intertwined. Drawing predominantly from assemblage theory, assemblage urban theory, and new materialist theory, this project examines how human and nonhuman agents—including space itself—interact to create new spaces and relations that resist hegemonic neoliberal modes of spatial, political, and social organization. Chapter Two analyzes utopian assemblages and spaces in Bruce Sterling’s novel Distraction, deploying Noah De Lissovoy’s concept of “emergency time” and David M. Bell’s theories of place-based and affective utopias. Chapter Three examines place-making tactics in Lauren Beukes’ novel Zoo City through the lens of Abdou-Maliq Simone's concept of people as infrastructure, Deleuze and Guattari's theory of nomadology, and Jane Bennett's theory of “thing power.” Chapter Four uses the work of Bruno Latour and Jane Bennett to explore the thing power of the non-human and nature in China Mieville’s Kraken and Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy. In sum, this work attempts to demonstrate how examining speculative spaces through the lens of assemblage theory can illuminate new paths for political resistance. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Flera studier visar att en del ungdomar har en negativ och föråldrad inställning till vad folkbiblioteket är och erbjuder. Till detta framkommer det även att folkbibliotekarier tycker att ungdomar är en svår målgrupp att arbeta mot. Dock har folkbiblioteken en vägledande roll när det kommer till utvecklandet av barn och ungdomars läsförmåga och kunskapsinhämtning där det finns studier som visar att utformningen av biblioteksrummet påverkar ungdomars läsning. Därför är syftet med denna studie att undersöka hur folkbibliotekarier arbetar med målgruppen ungdomar genom sitt arbete med biblioteksrummet och hur detta arbete är tänkt att påverka ungdomars läsning. I denna studie har semistrukturerade samtalsintervjuer används som metod tillsammans med en miniobservation för att samla in empiriskt mateiral ifrån sju folkbibliotek. Resultatet för denna stuide har analyserats genom ett rumsligt teoretiskt ramverk med Henri Lefebvres rumsliga enhetsteori. Studiens resultat visar att det är viktigt att arbeta med biblioteksrummet för att kunna påverka ungdomars läsning. För att kunna arbeta läsfrämjande med målgruppen ungdomar behöver man utforma biblioteksrummet som en trygg plats med låga trösklar och skapa relationer till ungdomarna. / Several studies show that some young people have a negative and outdated attitude towards what the public library is and offers. In addition, it appears that public librarians think that young people are a difficult target group to work with. However, public libraries have a guiding role when it comes to the development of children´s and young people´s reading ability and knowledge acquisition, where are studies that show that the design of the library room affects young people´s reading. Therefore, the purpose of this studiy is to investigate how public librarians work with the target group of young people through their work with the library room and how this work is intended to affect young people´s reading. In this study, semi-structured interviews have been used as a method together with a mini-observation to collect empirical material from seven public libraries. The results of this study have been analyzed through a spatial theoretical framework with Henri Lefebvre´s spatial theory of unity. The resutls of the study show that it is important to work with the library space in order to influence young people´s reading. To be able to work to promote reading with the target group of young people, you need to design the library room as a safe place with low thresholds and create relationships with the young people.