Diskussionen kring hedersproblematiken kom inte igång förrän den fanns mitt bland oss, och tre hedersmord har kommit att utmärka starten för det sociala arbetet i Sverige med hederskulturer. Det är ett internationellt fenomen, men även nationellt definieras det så pass olika att det finns svårigheter i utformandet av konkreta handlingsstrategier. Det innebär också svårigheter med att mäta dess omfattning. Alla dessa faktorer skapar en osäkerhet i det sociala arbetet vilket enligt undersökningar medför en rädsla för felhantering. Hederskulturen är ett komplext fenomen och media är en stark informationsplattform. Det är utifrån dessa parametrar som studiens syfte utformats, nämligen att studera och problematisera fenomenet hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck utifrån två utvalda filmer: den verklighetsbaserade långfilmen ”Vad ska folk säga” och den fiktiva kortfilmen ”10 min av frihet”. Vi anses idag leva i en medierad verklighet, vilket innebär att vi får vår kunskap framförallt från media. Forskning visar att film kan användas som en maktteknologi som kan spegla verkligheten samtidigt som dess syfte kan vara att skapa opinion. Därför är det ett intressant material att använda i forskningssyfte. Med hjälp av filmanalys och Bacchis ”What’s the problem represented to be-approach” (WPR) har utvalda scener problematiserats och analyserats. I resultatet besvaras den första frågeställningen om hur hedersproblematiken framställs. Den andra frågeställningen besvaras i den avslutande diskussionen kring vilka bakomliggande förutsättningar som ligger till grund för problemframställningen. Studiens slutsatser pekar på en utsatthet men också hur olika fenomenet uppfattas utifrån olika ståndpunkter. Det finns många omständigheter kring hederskulturen men genomgående syns en inskränkning av de mänskliga rättigheterna. Samhällets normer och språkets konstruktion är bidragande faktorer till att hederskulturen upprätthålls men också att det konstrueras som ett problem. Denna studie visar enbart en tolkning av filmerna och problematiken, men kan på så sätt ge upphov till nya frågor och ytterligare forskning.

This thesis is a poststructural policy analysis, following the ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be’ (WPR) approach developed by Carol Bacchi (2016), of the Afghanistan Study Group final report: A Pathway for Peace in Afghanistan. Following the theoretical basis proposed by this method, the report is examined for discourses and power relations that construct the problem representation. The discourses identified of liberalism and ‘just war’ theory are shown to saturate the Afghanistan Study Group’s (ASG) report and can be traced through time, displayed by a genealogy of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (SCFR) hearings that took place between September, 11th, 2001 up until the ASG report was commissioned in 2019. It is argued that the peace recommendations and the analysis they are based upon are produced by the politicians and experts under a Western lens that perpetuates an Orientalist problem representation. The proposed lens, inspired by postcolonial theory, is argued to not only permeate the ASG report but also the mainstream peacebuilding discourse, among other fields which pertain to, and ultimately get in the way of, finding a pathway to peace.

Syftet med studien är att bidra med ökad och fördjupad förståelse för hur valda myndighetsdokument behandlar det brottsförebyggande arbetet relaterat till gängkriminalitet. Vi undersöker hur problemet representeras och hur bakgrund, orsaker och möjliga lösningar presenteras. Studien är baserad på kvalitativ metod och utgörs av en kritisk textanalys. Analysverktyget What’s the problem represented to behar bistått oss med analysfrågor, och analysen har sedan kopplats samman med några utvalda sociologiska teorier. Resultatet och slutsatserna i undersökningen är att det bristfälliga brottsförebyggande arbetet, som det beskrivs i svenska myndighetsrapporter, härleds till bristande samverkan, samarbete och icke kunskapsbaserat arbete. Dessa organisatoriska svårigheter har en effekt på bland annat utbredningen av kriminella nätverk, då de brottsförebyggande insatser och åtgärder som genomförs ej utvärderats tillräckligt. Framställningen av problemet riskerar orsaka stigmatisering och stämpling av människor i utsatta områden, och detta leder till svaga sociala band i samhället

This thesis aims to investigate how ‘social rights’ is filled with meaning by the European Commission within the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). It also aims to study how the effects of this construction of ‘social rights’ can be understood through Isabell Loreys theory of precarisation as a form of governmentality. In order to do so, Carol Bacchis methodology for critical policy analysis ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) is used to study the problem representations within the European Commission’s proposal for a social pillar and its instruments to fulfil principles of the EPSR. This study shows that ‘social rights’ is filled with meaning by the European Commission as a matter of in different ways make it possible for the European citizens to provide for themselves, which reproducers an idea that citizens first and foremost should be responsible for their security. The way the European Commission fill ‘social rights’ with meaning also put the citizens living the most precarious lives in a subordinated stigmatized position in comparison to the citizens that can provide for themselves. The truth and knowledge that the European Commission produce and reproduce with its construction of ‘social rights’ may also have serious impact on the citizens living under precarious conditions.

Carol Bacchi (2009) emphasizes the importance of critically examining ideas about social and political problems that are taken for granted, as well as the power relations these conceptions maintain. In this essay, the aim is to contribute to the critical, interdisciplinary discussion about the relationship between children, democracy and public art by studying the project Children's Sculpture Park in Rosengård, Sweden. With the project as an analytical hub, and inspired by Carol Bacchi’s critical approach WPR, I examine how the underlying values are articulated. The various assumptions regarding children, art and democracy, are underlying the presented problem representations. In the empirical research, three problem representations can be distinguished: (1) People perceive Herrgården, Rosengård as an insecure neighborhood; (2) The voices of children and young people have not been heard in public spaces, and (3) public art is not meant for everyone.

The purpose of this study is to critically reflect on what is represented to be the problem in harm reduction interventions directed towards drug users. The study is based on five qualitative, semi-structured interviews with professionals in the social services administration of Stockholm. With assistance from Carol Bacchi's theoretical approach "What's the problem represented to be", we critically assess how the problem is constituted in harm reduction interventions. Four themes are addressed. First, our data indicate that the problem is assumed to be that some drug users fail or neglect to comply with the social services' demand for drugabstinence, despite multiple attempts, and are considered to be untreatable. Second, we show that there is an assumption that drug users who receive harm reduction interventions must change and become stabilized, although they are categorized as untreatable. Third, we show how professionals in our study fail to problematize the conditions and checkups people who are subject to harm reduction interventions must follow. Fourth, we illustrate the effects of the problem and show examples of drug users who dare say that they do not aim for abstinence, in an institutional context where abstinence is still the default.

This paper examines how crime is being problematized by politics and its consequences, as well as in what direction the political parties have evolved during the last 20 years. This study highlights the changing dynamics of crime discourse and the findings show that both the Social Democrats and the Moderate party frame crime as a security issue. The Social Democrats focus on addressing the underlying causes of crime through preventive measures and social interventions, emphasizing social justice and reducing inequalities. The Moderates prioritize law and order, emphasizing personal responsibility and the deterrent effect of punishment. However both parties have elements of both a tough and soft approach to crime. Additionally, the impact of stigmatization on certain groups, such as immigrants, in criminal policy discourse should be considered. This study can be useful for the public, politicians and decision-makers to understand different perspectives and strategies that can help shape a more effective and fair criminal policy. It can further contribute to providing an understanding of how theoretical perspectives can influence law enforcement strategies and policy formulation. Moreover, it can stimulate further research in the field to examine the effectiveness of different crime-fighting strategies and how they can be adapted to better meet the needs of society.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Swedish drug policy is problematized. In order to accomplish that this study investigates the directives to what is said to be the most comprehensive investigation in the field of drugs in several decades. Narcotics, like other policy areas, are based on a problematization of identified problems in society. According to the policy, drugs generate a breeding ground for inequalities in the health of the population and consumption therefore needs to be prevented and treated. Furthermore, it is specifically the problematization that establishes and legitimizes the policy's action and decision-making. This study draws upon Bacchi (2017, 3) who questions the use of the concept of problems as objective in alcohol and drug studies and theory, one should rather focus on problematizations. Further, Bacchi (2017, 5) believes that the traditional understanding of politics as a reaction can be replaced by an understanding that politics establishes and constitutes problems with inherent causes and effects. This Bacchi-approach is used in previous studies to, among other things, question deep-rooted assumptions and display how people-categorizations enables subtle disciplinary mechanisms that govern the categorized. The focus of the analysis is on the 10 central points of the directive, and I conclude that politicians emphasizes that narcotics in themselves are the considered factor in the categorization of people. According to the Committee Directive, it can thus be stated that narcotics is still the most central of the problems. An unproblematized phenomenon I identify is this conceptual use of the umbrella concept of narcotics. That is, the umbrella concept generates a binary categorical aggregation and irresponsible representation that controls the subjects through their categorization. Through the dogmatic moral understanding of narcotics as something self-evidently bad, specific types of handling are both limited and forced. It is not necessarily the substances that are the problem, it could also be people's meaningless existence that leads to abuse and overconsumption. Further the users become excluded from the group “normal” and gets retitled in terms of “addicts”, “criminals” and the “sick”. Specifically, the constitution of narcotics as self-evidently bad produces lived effects for the user such as stigma, exclusion, marginalization among other things. In the study I identify two perspectives, one that frames drug use as a health problem and one that frames it as a criminal act. Further I notice that Swedish drug policy is on a balance scale of these perspectives with its feet on each side in the hope of not tipping over. One side generates a policy of high death rates and the other an irreversible moral shift in a more neutral form.

This thesis, titled A for Effort, examines how three organizations that are granted state funding by the Swedish Gender Equality Agency understand the concept of intersectionality. The understandings are put in relation to previous understandings of the concept, for example the feminist debate of its advantages and disadvantages. In addition, the analysis is conducted through discourse theory and Carol Bacchi's WPR-approach that together are applied as a critical eye to how intersectionality is represented in the texts of the organizations. The study finds that while intersectionality is understood as a way to inclusion, the understandings are also constructing divisions.

This paper will examine how the Swedish green party, Miljöpartiet, has problematized the use of nuclear energy during the party’s first term of office 1988-1991 and compare that with how the party problematizes nuclear power during its current term of office, 2018-2022. I do this to examine the possible differences or similarities in the party’s critique of nuclear power between the different time periods. In order to do this, the method “what’s the problem represented to be” by Carol Lee Bacchi will be applied on parliamentary motions and debates from the different terms of office. With the WPR approach the problems and its associated assumptions are laid bare to be further analyzed in contrast to each other. The study shows some key differences in party discourse. The industry has gone from foe to an ally, nuclear power is spoken of as outdated instead of wicked, the use of electricity has gone from being described as reckless to unnecessary and the study also shows how Miljöpartiet has switched from talking about nuclear and ecological disasters to sustainable solutions. Lastly, this study finds that nuclear power still is correlated to questionable morale.