More and more Swedish municipalities are adopting approaches that target ‘vulnerable EU citizens’ and the ‘passive collection of money’. This thesis analyses begging permits, bans, and other approaches, motivated by the positions supported in Eskilstuna, Katrineholm and Norrköping. The approaches analysed are irrespective of the municipalitiesthat implemented them. This thesis follows a ‘problem’ questioning approach, taking into consideration the context and the system under which the ‘problems’ are constructed and aims to find the implicit and explicit aims of the various approaches.

This thesis examines the representation of temporary migrants in the OCVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. The aim of the study is to understand how the pandemic effected this early decision making by the New Zealand Parliament in correlation with migration, more specific, the temporary migrants who are stuck within New Zealands borders. These issues can be linked with shock mobility, more specific, with immobility within shock. The material is analysed with the WPR method. The study concludes that there is a changing discourse and a changing representation of the temporary migrants. Where at first the New Zealand citizens have to be protected, later on in the discourse the migrants need to be helped and it is followed by financial gain that the temporary migrants bring with their labour and spending. The findings create a contribution in the field of shock mobility, with a focus on the immobility within shock mobility.

Studien är en diskursanalys med syfte att analysera hur svensk narkotikapolitik framställs diskursivt och hur problemrepresentationen ser ut i svensk dagspress. Tidningsartiklarna är hämtade från både rikstäckande media och lokal dagspress. I analysen har två framträdande diskurser kunnat urskönjas. Den ena är ”Dödligheten som problemet” vilken framställer narkotika- och läkemedelsrelaterad död dels som problemet och dels i abstrakta termer. Centralt i diskursen är att individen osynliggörs. Den andra diskursen är ”Narkotikapolitiken och regeringen som problemet” i vilken regeringen och den aktuella narkotikapolitiken utmålas vara anledningen till den narkotikarelaterade dödligheten i Sverige. Analysen visar att den aktuella problemframställan speglar förgivettagna föreställningar om problemet såsom att politiker och experter är de som har makten att lösa problemet, vilket bidrar till att missbrukaren utestängs från sin egen problematik.

This study sets out to examine the Swedish government´s altered discourse on NATO in the years 2004 and 2015. Given the drastic change in security situation in Europe over the last 20 years, it is logical to assume it has influenced the relation between Sweden and NATO. The study aims to highlight how the Swedish government governs through discourse and its understanding of NATO in different circumstances. When compared, the analyzed defense propositions both describe NATO as important, even crucial, but in vastly different ways. In 2004, NATO acts as an entry point for diplomatic and political influence in international politics as well as a way for Sweden to express its identity as an altruistic country. In contrast, NATO in 2015 is vital to the development of Sweden´s military capability and the ability to provide and receive the help necessary for its solidarity policy.

The thesis examines the governmental construction of national identity through its citizenship education policy in England, the country with heightened tensions in diversity and identity re-construction aligning with its mandatory citizenship classes since 2002. Theoretically framing the study on the Foucauldian post-structuralism, the thesis utilises Foucauldian-influenced ‘What is the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) method by Bacchi that presents the government as a problem-producer. Conducting qualitative research methods, the study analyses the current National Curriculum in England with the explanatory and foundational state documents of Crick and Ajegbo Reports. The thesis identifies that the government primarily aims to re-construct the inclusive and integrative national identity based on the acknowledgement of multiple identities and a plurality of nations in the citizenship education curriculum in England. The study, however, also reveals that the English citizenship education policy implicitly presents a few assimilationist elements in the national identity discourse through exclusion andunrepresentativeness of the ethnic and racial identities, hierarchical establishment between native English and minorities, and the division of ‘whites’ and ‘non-whites’. Comparatively examining the documents, the thesis, therefore, concludes that the government has a powerful position in socially and politically re- constructing the discourses, concepts, and meanings over time.

This thesis examines how preparatory, policy and review documents of the Participatory Rangeland Management (PRM) in East Africa, problematize and represent the ‘problems’ which resulted in the design of the development program. The focus is on how these problematizations can hinder or facilitate participation, influence and empowerment of women and marginalized groups in decision-making processes. The findings are based on a gender-based policy analysis undertaken of five documents written by the NGOs involved in the planning and implementation of PRM in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. A conceptual framework measuring the level of participation, empowerment and influence was constructed to assess the policies and their possible outcomes. The document analysis showed that the implicit ‘problem’ themes identified appeared to be that communities were unmodern, undeveloped, and had under-representation of women and pastoralists in rangeland management. These problematizations seem to originate from a development discourse characterized by solutions focussing on ‘modernization’ and ‘technical fixes’. These pre-conceived ideas of the ’problems’ call for more communication and inclusion of community groups in problem formulation and program design. The analysis further revealed that expert-assisted and gender-mainstreaming initiatives such as the PRM could have a positive impact on the level of participation, influence, and empowerment of women. When training was carried out for both women and men by the PRM to raise awareness of women’s rights, it resulted in an increased number of women participating in activities. However, gender-mainstreaming should not stop with participation, it should be further developed towards influence and empowerment. The PRM could consider promoting a change of power relations by combining efforts to demonstrate the benefits of meaningful consultations to decision-makers and efforts to enhance the knowledge and skills of marginalized groups so that they can better engage with these decision-makers. Furthermore, there is a need to expand the discussion on how to design gender-mainstreaming policies and practices, without labelling women as one.

Children’s rights and childhood are concepts that are a part of everyday discussions for many people around the world, but the understanding of the concepts shifts through time and space. The Convention on the Right of the Child, CRC, is supposed to protect children’s rights and relies upon the idea of childhood that describes children both as active agents and in need of protection. UNICEF, an organization within the UN, has the CRC as a guiding principle to achieve its mission to improve the lives of every child globally. However, previous research has criticized the CRC and UNICEF for ignoring particular children’s needs and having a western bias. Thus, even if an international social work program aims to protect children’s rights, it can end up excluding the needs of particular groups of children. This study aims to provide an understanding of how the problem of children’s rights discriminations is represented to be in UNICEF’s campaign #ENDviolence. The study fulfills the aim by using Carol Bacchi’s approach “What’s the problem represented to be?” WPR, and its six guiding questions. The empirical data is UNICEF’s campaign report, because the present study aims to investigate children’s rights discrimination, and the organization works with children and uses the CRC as a guiding principle. The study uses the WPR approach because it stresses that problems are created and given meanings through policies and programs. This study also uses the social constructionist theory and the two concepts, intersectionality and intertextuality, to provide a broader understanding. The results show that the campaign does only have a limited intersectional perspective, by not including children’s different identities, relating to such as race, nationality, alternative gender identification and sexuality, and abilities/disabilities, and it also does not acknowledge children’s multiple identities. Instead, the problem representation solely relies upon the concepts of sex (boy/girl) or age. Hence, the campaign leaves particular children and their needs unrecognized. An explanation for this approach is the campaign’s stable intertextual connection to the UN, and the writings, CRC and SDGs, Sustainable development goals. The campaign also tends to have a western bias, through silencing western countries, the data it uses and how it presents the data. The campaign ignores particular children and how institutional structures may affect them differently because of their identities. Thus, discrimination and violence against specific children can continue and suggested solutions would not necessarily help them.

Suicid är idag ett stort folkhälso- och samhällsproblem (Suicide Zero, u.å) och cirka 1 200 personer väljer varje år att avsluta sina egna liv (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2022). Män är enligt statistiken avsevärt överrepresenterade och står för nästan 70% av dödsfallen (Socialstyrelsen, 2010). För att få ner statistiken för suicid införde regeringen år 2008 en nollvision med hopp om att minska fallen väsentligt (Vimefall et al., 2022). Det finns ett flertal exempel på forskning som belyser hur olika maskulinitetsnormer kan bidra till mäns utsatthet i samhället och på så sätt hämma jämställdhetsarbetet. Utredningen Män och jämställdhet (SOU 2014:6) visar att ett jämställdhetsarbete inte enbart förbättrar situationen för kvinnor utan även för män (SOU 2014:6, s. 53; 56). Sammantaget väcker detta frågor kring varför statistiken av dödsfall på grund av suicid inte har minskat sedan regeringen tog beslutet om målet för en nollvision 2008. Studien syftar till att beskriva och identifiera vilka kopplingar som görs till män och maskulinitet i regeringens policyutformning av suicidprevention samt hur implementeringen av policyn sett ut på nationell nivå.Frågeställningarna som kommer att undersökas är: (1) Var ligger policyns fokusområde? (2) Hur har följande aktörer, Folkhälsomyndigheten, Socialstyrelsen och Sveriges kommuner och regioner, implementerat policyn i sitt arbete? Det empiriska materialet består av regeringens proposition “En förnyad folkhälsopolitik” (Prop. 2007/08:110) tillsammans med dokument från Folkhälsomyndigheten, Socialstyrelsen och Sveriges kommuner och regioner. Studien utgår från en kvalitativ textanalys och för att tolka materialet har vi till analysen valt att utgå från Bacchis (2009) analysmetod “What’s the problem represented to be?”. Resultatet visade på att åtgärder har gjorts men att statistiken ändå är densamma för suicid. Slutsatsen är att suicidpreventionen missar vissa grundläggande faktorer som skapar en missvisande problembild vid implementering av policy och att det även ligger ett missriktat fokus hos övriga aktörer.

Sexual harassment in workplace policies and legal procedures, which are strongly affected by the patriarchy that exists in the legal system, mistreat millions of victims annually. Through the implementation of the WPR Analysis on the Code of Conduct in Public Services on preventing […] sexual harassment in the workplace of the Republic of Cyprus and on C. v. Romania ECtHR case (application no. 47358/20), this thesis aims to present the problems representations, the taken-for-granted knowledge, the stereotypes and the origins of the patriarchal-biased labour policies and legal procedures concerning sexual harassment in the workplace. Along with the use of the legal feminist theory, this thesis presents that in these procedures the problems are represented to be the lack of training among employees and the victims’ behaviors. This results in the marginalization and mistreatment of the victims (women, trans, non-binary, homosexuals, even men) by these patriarchal affected procedures while it is illustrated how gender and sexual orientation are determinative to these male-biased procedures.

I denna uppsats undersöks communityreglerna för Facebook för att se hur väl plattformen kan säkert utgöra den digitala offentliga sfären. Detta görs genom en anpassad WPR-analys, där materialet är communityreglerna för Facebook. Teorin som används är Iris Marion Youngs deliberativa demokratiteori, där Young redovisar ett antal kriterier som är förutsättningarna för en hälsosam offentlig sfär. Resultatet för undersökningen är att företaget som äger Facebook (Meta), både tydligt strävar efter att uppnå en hälsosam digital offentlig sfär och förstår vad problemen är som hindrar användarna från att uppnå en hälsosam digital offentlig sfär utan några regler. Resultatet visar att det Meta gör mycket väl är att de har flera effektiva åtgärder för att skapa ärliga och resonabla diskussioner på plattformen, med bra mångfald och pluralism. Där målet är att alla deltagare ska kunna uttrycka sig utan att riskera hot eller hat från andra användare. Där det fanns flest brister var i hanteringen av falsk information. Där Meta förlitar sig mycket på enbart faktagranskare som själva inte är tillräckligt för att hantera sanning och information. Dessutom ser Meta det offentliga och officiella narrativet som sanning och användare som avviker sig från det narrativet kan få sina inlägg borttagna eller att spridningen av deras uttalanden minskas. De användare som bryter mot reglerna exkluderas också från den offentliga sfären där Meta inte gör någonting för att inkludera deltagare med problematiska värderingar, vilket är negativt för en deliberativ demokrati.