This paper investigates the phenomenon of digital vision boards on the platform Landing, focusing on their alignment with postfeminist media culture and the empowerment narratives of neoliberal principles. Through a discourse analysis of vision boards and user interviews, the study explores the values and behaviours within this digital subculture. Drawing on Foucault's "technologies of the self" and Lauren Berlant’s “women’s intimate publics” the research reveals how vision boards have evolved into tools for shaping identity and aspirations in a postfeminist media culture.

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Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur änglars funktion beskrivs i en kristen respektive nyandlig kontext. Materialet utgörs av texter från sex samtida författare som på olika sätt behandlat frågan; Harold Bloom, Billy Graham, David Albert Jones, Susan R. Garrett, Lorna Byrne och Doreen Virtue. Metoden är kvalitativ innehållsanalys vilken möjliggör för en jämförelse av skillnader och likheter mellan de olika perspektivens syn på änglar. Uppsatsens teoretiska ansats bygger på Meredith B. McGuires beskrivning av meningssystem som en viktig aspekt i förståelsen av religion eftersom olika meningssystem länkar samman en individ med en större social grupp. De textanalyser som gjorts har visat att änglar i både en kristen och nyandlig kontext bidrar till att forma och skapa en upplevelse av mening i människors liv, detta trots olika meningssystem och stora skillnader i föreställningen av änglar. Ett av undersökningens resultat har visat att individer har ett större handlingsutrymme inom New Age kulturer än vad de har i en kristen kontext. Inom New Age beskrivs människor själva kunna ta hjälp av änglar som gudomliga eller spirituella agenter av healing för att uppnå ett tillstånd av lycka, kärlek och harmoni utan att först vända sig till/eller förlita sig på en mellanhand, dv s den kristna Gudsgestalten. Änglar inom New Age har visat sig vara mer personliga och separata från Gud än vad de är i ett kristet sammanhang eftersom människor, inom ramen för de New Age strömningar som analyserats, själva kan tillbe och kalla på änglars vägledning medan Bibeln innehåller tydliga varningar för att tillbe och dyrka änglar eftersom det anses vara en ära som enbart tillhör Gud. En skillnad mellan en kristen resp. nyandlig syn på änglars funktion bygger m a o på föreställningen att människan besitter en förmåga att hela sig själv, vilket saknas inom kristen tro.

Denna kandidatuppsats syftar på att undersöka diskursen om COVID-19 inom svensk nyreligiös media. I samband med att den globala krisen utvecklades har olika religiösa gemenskaper format den offentliga diskursen och bidragit till olika individuella övertygelser. Denna studie syftar på att specifikt belysa de olika perspektiv som producerats i den svenska medieplattformen och tidningen Free – Din ledstjärna. Genom innehållsanalys och tematisk kodning har olika mönster kring COVID-19 upptäckts och lyfts fram. Dessa mönster har sedan analyserats med hjälp av Colin Campbells teori kring den kultiska miljön och Peter L. Bergers teori om den religiösa pluralismen, och även ställts i linje med den tidigare forskning som lyfts fram. Genom att identifiera gemensamma teman, olika synpunkter och framväxande trender ger denna forskning nya insikter i hur en svensk nyreligiös medieplattform engagerat sig i COVID-19.

O Objetivo deste trabalho é tratar da Homeopatia e da Medicina Científica, e de sua convivência institucional, considerando principalmente o cenário posterior à década de 1980, quando de sua assimilação pela Medicina Oficial brasileira. O que se pretende demonstrar, fundamentalmente, é que a Medicina Científica e a Homeopatia são essencialmente diferentes, e acima de tudo demonstrar que este caso particular de relações institucionais deve ser entendido sob pelo menos duas perspectivas, de uma epistemológica, e de outra sociológica. Essas duas perspectivas são essenciais para entender a moderna relação institucional entre Homeopatia e Medicina Científica, que acontece num contexto de assimilação institucional da Homeopatia pela Medicina Oficial. Ainda que essa integração nunca possa vir à ser concretizada completamente, essa assimilação é resultado de uma grande mudança no universo simbólico das culturas ocidentais, principalmente dos conceitos e valores ligados ao imaginário da saúde. Neste novo contexto simbólico, a ciência como instituição é ressignificada e e devidamente recontextualizada, em termos de cultura popular e senso comum (universo simbólico da vida cotidiana), de modo que passa a poder acomodar os mais diversos tipos de conhecimentos em seu universo. É sob a perspectiva do processo de racionalização e desencantamento do mundo que essas instituições são analisadas e a compreensão dos universos simbólicos mantidos por cada grupo é o objetivo central desse trabalho. / This study deals with Homeopathy and Scientific Medicine and focus its institutional relationship, especially considering the latter scenario to the 1980s decade, after its assimilation by brazilian Official Medicine. It intends to demonstrate that Scientific Medicine and Homeopathy are fundamentally and essentially different things and, above all, demonstrate that this particular case of institutional relations should be understood in, at least, two perspectives: epistemological, and sociological. These perspectives are essential to understand the modern relationship between Homeopathy and Official Medicine -­ which takes place in a context of institutional assimilation of homeopathy by the Official Medicine (although this integration could never come to be fully realized). This assimilation is the result of a change in the symbolic universe of western cultures, especially the concepts and values linked to the health imaginary. In this new symbolic context, science, as an institution, is resignified and recontextualized in terms of popular culture and common sense (the symbolic universe of everyday life), allowing to accommodate all different types of knowledge in this new resigninified universe of science. Its from the process of rationalization and disenchantment of the worlds perspective that these institutions are analyzed, and the understanding of the symbolic universes maintained by each group is the central objective of this work.

O Objetivo deste trabalho é tratar da Homeopatia e da Medicina Científica, e de sua convivência institucional, considerando principalmente o cenário posterior à década de 1980, quando de sua assimilação pela Medicina Oficial brasileira. O que se pretende demonstrar, fundamentalmente, é que a Medicina Científica e a Homeopatia são essencialmente diferentes, e acima de tudo demonstrar que este caso particular de relações institucionais deve ser entendido sob pelo menos duas perspectivas, de uma epistemológica, e de outra sociológica. Essas duas perspectivas são essenciais para entender a moderna relação institucional entre Homeopatia e Medicina Científica, que acontece num contexto de assimilação institucional da Homeopatia pela Medicina Oficial. Ainda que essa integração nunca possa vir à ser concretizada completamente, essa assimilação é resultado de uma grande mudança no universo simbólico das culturas ocidentais, principalmente dos conceitos e valores ligados ao imaginário da saúde. Neste novo contexto simbólico, a ciência como instituição é ressignificada e e devidamente recontextualizada, em termos de cultura popular e senso comum (universo simbólico da vida cotidiana), de modo que passa a poder acomodar os mais diversos tipos de conhecimentos em seu universo. É sob a perspectiva do processo de racionalização e desencantamento do mundo que essas instituições são analisadas e a compreensão dos universos simbólicos mantidos por cada grupo é o objetivo central desse trabalho. / This study deals with Homeopathy and Scientific Medicine and focus its institutional relationship, especially considering the latter scenario to the 1980s decade, after its assimilation by brazilian Official Medicine. It intends to demonstrate that Scientific Medicine and Homeopathy are fundamentally and essentially different things and, above all, demonstrate that this particular case of institutional relations should be understood in, at least, two perspectives: epistemological, and sociological. These perspectives are essential to understand the modern relationship between Homeopathy and Official Medicine -­ which takes place in a context of institutional assimilation of homeopathy by the Official Medicine (although this integration could never come to be fully realized). This assimilation is the result of a change in the symbolic universe of western cultures, especially the concepts and values linked to the health imaginary. In this new symbolic context, science, as an institution, is resignified and recontextualized in terms of popular culture and common sense (the symbolic universe of everyday life), allowing to accommodate all different types of knowledge in this new resigninified universe of science. Its from the process of rationalization and disenchantment of the worlds perspective that these institutions are analyzed, and the understanding of the symbolic universes maintained by each group is the central objective of this work.

This thesis explores the history of the New Age movement through a political analysis of influential New Age books. By drawing upon cultural, religious and American studies, and concepts from literary criticism and political science, a new understanding of the movement becomes possible. This thesis analyses the ideological representations and rhetorical strategies employed in both New Age literature and American presidential discourse. It is argued that their shared imagery and discursive features indicate that New Age writings derive their ideological underpinnings and textual devices from dominant beliefs of American nationalism. This historical examination begins with the Cold War in the late 1940s and ends with the 1990s. Each chapter traces parallels between a particular presidential discourse and New Age texts published in the same decade commencing with Dwight D. Eisenhower and The Doors of Perception and finishing with William J. Clinton and The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure. It argues that the appropriation of particular spiritualities in New Age texts is closely related to contemporary American geo-political interests and understandings. Major New Age spiritual trends are derived from regions, most often in the third world, which are considered to be under threat from forces such as Communism. New Age writings construct an imaginary possession of these worlds, reconfiguring these sites into frontiers of American influence. In particular, this study examines the influence of the jeremiads and the ensuing Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny ideologies upon post-war national beliefs and the extent to which these understandings of nationalism inform New Age discourse. Representations of time and space, destiny and landscape, and self and other in these literary and political contexts are analysed. From this perspective, the eclecticism that marks the New Age can be historically understood as a shifting cultural expression of Cold War and post-Cold War political responses. Consequently, New Age literature is one of the means by which dominant American identity is reproduced and disseminated in what seems to be an alternative spiritual context.

Cette thèse a pour objet les formes d'adhésion au discours sur les « Créatifs Culturels », saisi comme courroie de transmission dogmatique du « capitalisme vert ». À la croisée de la sociologie de l'engagement, de l'écologie et de l'étude des croyances, la thèse retrace, dans un premier temps, la construction sociale, au sein de la configuration sociale du « capitalisme vert », d'un « mouvement entrepreneurial » réformiste. Apparu au début des années 1990, ce mouvement est engagé dans un travail d'imbrication entre des valeurs New Age et écologiques et d'autres propres au champ économique. Dans un deuxième temps, l’enquête de terrain, qui s'appuie sur la réalisation d'entretiens biographiques auprès d’acteurs engagés dans la diffusion de ce discours, montre comment la mise en pratique de cette idéologie fait l'objet de positionnements sur un continuum allant d'un pôle dogmatique à un pôle utilitariste, ces logiques de sens résultant in fine de socialisations hétérogènes / This thesis deals with the forms of adherence to the discourse on « Cultural Creatives », grasped as a strap of dogmatic transmission of « green capitalism ». At the crossroads of sociology of commitment, ecology and the study of beliefs, the thesis first traces social construction within the social configuration of « green capitalism », of reformist entrepreneurial movement. Appearing in the early 1990s, this movement is engaged in a work of interweaving between New Age values and other ecologies specific to the economic field. In a second phase, the field survey, which is based on the production of biographical interviews with a cast committed to the dissemination of this discourse, shows how the putting into practice of this ideology is the subject of positioning a continuum going from an area of belief to a utilitarian one, resulting in ultimate heterogeneous socialisations

Self-help counselling is an important industry that not only influences its immediate users’ behavior but also society and social behaviors more generally. Since New Ageis a main branch of self-help, and since positivity is a dominant concept in (New Age) self-help discourse, it is worth analyzing how positivity might be achieved in terms of language use. The present study investigates whether the adjectives in a couple of New Age publications contribute to communicating positivity and, if yes, how. What adjectives are used and how can they be categorized in terms of positive, negative, neutral or undetermined connotations as well as semantic prosody? The findings support the hypothesis that the use of “positive adjectives” (Rozin, Berman & Royzman, 2010, p. 536) is what helps to make New Age self-help books convey a positive spirit.

Dans cette thèse, nous nous demandons comment les mouvements contreculturels ont trouvé de nouveaux lieux d’expression grâce à la plus grande accessibilité de l’audiovisuel, grâce aussi au combat des « radios libres ». Plus précisément, nous cherchons à savoir pourquoi et comment la société et l’audiovisuel français ont permis la constitution d’un média alternatif radiophonique comme Radio Ici et Maintenant (RIM) et comment cette radio a trouvé un modèle économique viable pour diffuser son idéologie. Nous verrons que l’existence et la persistance de RIM est due à la conjonction de deux phénomènes : d’une part la diminution du coût d’entrée dans la radiophonie grâce au développement et au combat des « radios libres » qui ont donné naissance aux radios associatives (avec leur modèle juridico-économique spécifique), et d’autre part la diminution du coût d’entrée dans le marché religieux avec le développement de la contreculture New Age française issue de la contreculture américaine, elle-même issue des pensées religieuses alternatives occidentales (liées à l’ésotérisme, au médiumnisme) et des religions orientales (l’hindouisme et le bouddhisme). Ainsi, le modèle juridico-économique spécifique des radios associatives a permis de faire vivre puis persister l’idéologie « radiolibriste » et New Age au sein de RIM. Mais ajoutons que ce modèle n’aurait pas été possible s’il n’avait pas été porté par des animateurs bénévoles, des invités militants et des auditeurs actifs dont nous analysons ici le profil sociologique. L’intérêt scientifique de ce sujet provient du fait qu’il s’agit principalement d’étudier RIM qui est une ancienne « radio libre ». Elle a été l’une des radios les plus importantes au sein du mouvement. C’est la plus ancienne des radios locales privées parisiennes. C’est aujourd’hui une radio associative de catégorie A. Cette catégorie correspond à un grand nombre de radios (environ 600), mais celles-ci sont peu étudiées. Enfin, c’est une radio New Age et l’un des seuls médias audiovisuels français New Age. Croisant histoire et sociologie du religieux, des médias, de la communication, de la politique, des sciences, cette thèse repose sur une écoute assidue, sur de nombreux entretiens et discussions informelles, sur l’étude de différents fonds d’archives (papier, audio, numérique) et sur de nombreuses observations de type ethnographique. Nous donnons dans une première partie les outils scientifiques pour pouvoir analyser ce phénomène. Nous verrons ensuite dans quel contexte historique, radiophonique, économique, social, juridique et politique RIM fait son apparition et continue d’exister aujourd’hui. Enfin, nous nous focalisons sur le modèle radiophonique proposé, et sur les acteurs de cette radio. / In this thesis, we wonder how countercultural movement found new places of expression through the increased accessibility of audiovisual, thanks to "free radio" fight. Specifically, we want to know why and how society and the French media have enabled the establishment of an alternative media like Radio Ici et Maintenant (RIM) and how this radio has found a viable business model to spread its ideology. We shall see that the existence and persistence of RIM is due to the combination of two factors: firstly the reduction in the cost of entry into the radio broadcasting through the development and struggle of "free radio" that gave birth to associative radios (with their specific legal and economic model) and also the decrease in the cost of entering the religious market with the development of the French New Age counterculture issue of the American counterculture, itself the result of religious thoughts Western alternatives (related to the esoteric, the mediumship) and Eastern religions (Hinduism and Buddhism). Thus, the specific legal and economic model of associative radios allowed to live and persist "radiolibriste" and New Age ideology within RIM. But add that this model would not have been possible if it had not been worn by volunteer facilitators, invited activists and active listeners which we analyze the sociological profile. The scientific interest of this subject is the fact that it is mainly to study RIM which is an old "free radio". She was one of the most important radio stations in the movement. It is the oldest Parisian private local radio station. Today, it is a community radio (category A). This category corresponds to a large number of radio stations (about 600), but these are little studied. Finally, this is a New Age radio and one of the only French audiovisual media New Age. Crossing history and sociology of religion, media, communication, politics, science, this thesis is based on a constant listening, on numerous interviews and informal discussions on the study of different archives (paper, audio, digital) and numerous ethnographic observations. We give in the first part scientific tools to analyze this phenomenon. We will then see in which historical, radio, economic, social, legal and political context RIM appeared and continues to exist today. Finally, we focus on the proposed radio model and the actors of this radio.