I denna studie undersöks diskursiva mönster i kommunala risk- och sårbarhetsanalyser. Syftet med studien var att problematisera risk- och sårbarhetsanalysens självklara roll inom svensk risk- och krishantering samt bidra med kunskap om hur risker framställs och vilka maktstrukturer som existerar i policydokument. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av What’s the problem represented to be? – ansatsen, vilket är ett diskursanalytiskt ramverk för att studera policydokument. Analysen har genomförts på 21 kommunala risk- och sårbarhetsanalyser från år 2019. I resultatet uppmärksammas och problematiseras följande diskurser; (1) den kalkylerbara och objektiva synen på risk, (2) hur avsaknaden av fantasiplanering begränsar analysen, (3) hur klimatrelaterade risker transformeras till nationella osäkerheter, (4) hur det skyddsvärda subjektet framställs, (5) hur vissa risker omgärdas av politiska ställningstaganden och därmed hur policydokumentet skapar och reproducerar makt och kunskap. Genom att kartlägga diskursiva mönster bidrar studien till ökad kunskap om risk- och sårbarhetsanalyser. Studiens slutsats påvisar att risk- och sårbarhetsanalysens självklara och objektiva ställning bör ifrågasättas och problematiseras ytterligare i framtida forskning. / <p>2022-06-13</p>

This thesis compares political constructions of migrants across different welfare regime types, based on Esping-Andersen’s (1999) Three worlds of welfare capitalism. Previous comparative research into welfare regimes has not included the Social Democratic regime, leaving a gap to further explore and clarify. This paper does so by examining the relationship between welfare regime type, national identity and constructions of migrants in a Social democratic regime and a Liberal one. The central question is: how do different welfare regime types construct migrants in policy debate? To answer this, this study applied a modified version of Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ analytical framework to parliamentary debate in a Social Democratic regime (Sweden) and a Liberal one (the UK) and then compared the results. This approach focused on implicit representations of problems. Results showed that threat construction around migration in both cases conforms to Esping-Andersen’s (1999) regime models, fitting well with institutional theory and welfare chauvinism.

In January of 2022 the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency was established with the overarching aim of countering the spread of misinformation as well as strengthening Sweden’s psychological defence. Despite making several media appearances and launching a public awareness campaign ahead of the 2022 general election, the agency has remained relatively unknown amongst the public. Because of its recent beginnings, scientific inquiry into the agency’s operations is at the time of writing also scarce. This study aims to contribute to fill this knowledge gap by exploring the ways of thinking that underlie the agency’s work. Specifically, the study is interested in the agency’s reasoning regarding the problems that it aims to solve. By applying Carol Bacchi’s poststructural ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ (WPR) approach on four of the agency’s publications the study analyses implicit problem representations as well as underlying presuppositions and patterns of logic within the agency’s discourse. The analysis finds four recurring problem representations throughout the publications: a lack of knowledge, lack of effective cooperation, insufficient governmental oversight, and an inadequate will to defend the country. Furthermore, one of the study’s main conclusions is that there is a strong logic of security underlying the agency’s reasoning, in which the spread of misinformation is primarily regarded as a threat to state security. It is through this logic that the agency’s commitments and proposed solutions appear as reasonable and legitimate. The study also highlights several silences within the problem representations and discusses alternative ways of thinking about the issue.

Jämställdhet har varit på tapeten sedan 70-talet inom politiken och än idag kämpar kvinnor med att spela på samma arena som män, inte minst i arbetslivet. Statliga myndigheter i Sverige är skyldiga att implementera jämställdhet inom verksamheterna som ska bidra till ett mer jämställt samhälle. Detta ska ske genom handlingsplanen för jämställdhetsintegrering. Men hur framställs egentligen jämställdhet? Studien syftar till att studera problemrepresentationerna av jämställdhet i Umeå universitets handlingsplan för jämställdhetsintegrering. Genom Carol Bacchi’s WPR-analysverktyg som är avsett för att kritiskt granska policydokument har följande frågeställningar varit grundläggande för analysen: Vad är problemet? Vad ligger till grund för den sagda problemrepresentationen? Vad lämnas osagt? Samt vad blir effekten av problemrepresentationen? Inom diskursanalys betraktas inte språk som något objektivt och neutralt, istället anses språk vara en aktiv kraft som formar och konstruerar vår verklighet. Tidigare forskning pekar på att jämställdhet inte är ett statiskt tillstånd utan något som görs inom organisationer. Genom att betrakta jämställdhet som ett görande går det även att undersöka jämställdhet från flera synsätt. Resultatet indikerar att jämställdhet presenteras som ett samhällsproblem och ett kunskapsproblem. Implicita antaganden om kön grundas i traditionella könsroller och stereotyper samt variationen i hur kunskap förstås beroende på fakultet, kan leda till reproduktion av skadliga könsnormer och upprätthållandet av könsskillnader. Den nuvarande dominerande diskursen påverkar även ambitionen hos beslutsfattare när det gäller integrering av jämställdhet, vilket i sin tur påverkar universitetets organisation samt organisering. Att integrera jämställdhet i beslutsprocesser kan således vara avgörande för att uppnå verklig förändring inom akademin.

This study has analysed Sweden's security policy strategy and decision to send military supportto Ukraine in light of the Russian invasion of 2022. By applying a combination of discourseanalysis (WPR) and neorealism, the study has explored the political motivations behind thesedecisions, under both the Andersson and Kristersson administrations. The results show aconsistent line in Sweden's security policy since 2014, where support for Ukraine is seen as animportant contribution to maintaining international law and supporting democracy. The studycritically examines the balance between moral obligations and strategic interests that guideSweden's support for Ukraine, and discusses the implications of this support for Sweden'snational defence capability and long-term financial sustainability. Furthermore, it assesses thebroader impacts of these decisions on the rule-based international order and Sweden's positionwithin it. The findings suggest that Sweden's actions represent a significant reorientation in itssecurity policy, aiming to strengthen both national and European security through solidarityand international cooperation. This reflects a pragmatic approach to the anarchic internationalsystem, where supporting Ukraine not only aligns with Sweden's moral values but also servesstrategic security interests.

The domestic and geopolitical disaster of the Vietnam War, and the process that took the United States into such a large-scale and protracted conflict, led Congress to reinforce its checks on executive war powers. The resulting War Powers Resolution (WPR) sought to inject Congress back into the decision-making process, yet no President has ever acknowledged its constitutionality. The initial debates around the WPR revealed four major lines of argument on the balance of war powers; three of those continued to be made over the next 40 years, as Presidents from both political parties deployed U.S. forces abroad, often without Congressional authorization. This study analyzed the prevalence and distribution of those lines of argument in the U.S. Senate over the Republican Administration of President George W. Bush and the Democratic Administration of President Barack Obama. Both administrations were involved in multiple deployments of U.S. forces abroad, and experienced opposition from both parties. The study found that Democrats displayed consistency across both administrations, indicating a preference for institutional loyalty in supporting compliance with the WPR, whereas Republicans tended to support the status quo. In addition, the study found that Senators from both parties acknowledged the rapidly changing nature of warfare as new technologies mostly remove U.S. armed forces from harm's way even as they conduct lethal strikes. What effect this has on Congress's ability and willingness to further check executive war powers remains to be seen, but it is clear that the debate is far from over. / Master of Arts

This study applies a poststructural discourse analysis developed by Carol Bacchi, called the WPR-approach, on Japanese ageing society-related policy. It utilises Foucauldian ideas about how policy creates rather than discovers ‘problems’ through representation, and what effects this can have. The purpose of the study is to analyse how the problems around women and immigration are represented in Japanese policy, if this representation has been affected by the ageing society, and what effects it may have on the people and politics of the country. The results show that both women and immigrants are mainly represented as resources for economic growth. Policy proposals show signs of having been affected by the ageing society, but the representation in the policies indicate that underlying social ideas about gender and immigration are not addressed. A conclusion is drawn that this focus may result in a lack of politics which tackle harmful traditional gender norms and xenophobia.

The purpose of the study was to analyse legislative changes in the Social Services Act and thereby understand what institutional logic governs the change in social policy regarding the activation of unemployed recipients during the period 2012-2016. In order to meet the purpose of the study, two of the Social Services Act's legislative changes and their preliminary work has been analysed. The text analysis has been conducted with inspiration from Carol Bacchi's (2009) method "What is the problem represented to be?". The empirical material has been analysed with neo-institutional theoretical concepts, focusing on Friedland &amp; Alfords (1991) theory regarding institutional logic and the knowledge claims that exists within them. The results of the study indicated that the institutional logics which governs the change in social policy regarding the activation of unemployed recipients is an institutional logic of activation policy. The institutional logic of activation policy implies clear government control in terms of the social services mission towards unemployed recipients; that only the unemployed recipients who are active in the labour market and take active responsibility for their situation are entitled to social security benefits. This can be further elucidated by a description of how the goal of activation policy is to create the ideal citizen of society which is an autonomous citizen who is active and independent towards the welfare state. In this way, the activation policy logic has entailed a change in social policy, partly in regard to the social services mission with unemployed recipients and partly regarding those who receive economic social security benefits due to unemployment.

Background: Since Sweden was the first country to adopt a legislation on prostitution criminalizing the buyer but not the seller, the Swedish prostitution politics has been internationally disseminated. The legislation has been motivated by a gender equality discourse with the goal to protect women from gender-based abuse by sex buying men. In 2015 some of the well-known civil rights organizations started to question the legislation and promoted a decriminalization. Through the different discursive interpretations of prostitution my purpose is to investigate how prostitution is presented and understood in the work between politics and practice. This thesis investigates the County Administrative Boards' work by looking into the following questions: How is prostitution understood as a political problem? Which approaches are excluded by the presented understanding? How do the employees position their work in relation to this understanding? Have there been discursive changes that can be deduced from the employees' experiences and perceptions? By using the method semi-structured focus groups interviews with seven employees working with prostitution and human trafficking, I have analyzed the interviews through the What’s-the-problem-approach, basing on theories concerning intersectionality, the charmed circle and discourse theory and came to the conclusions that the employees mainly understand prostitution as based on unequal gender relations and a part of gender-based violence. Although the employees argues that the professional way of working on the matter differs, they all more or less commit to what is constructed as the hegemonic discourse and relates to the more liberal discourse as part of the periphery. They also recognize several difficulties concerning their position as an authority, between the government and the civil society. The study shows that the prevailing political discourse and governmental work excludes criticism from other possible positions, but also results in stigmatization of women in prostitution in general.

Abstract From a Foucault-inspired, poststructuralistic approach this study reviews the problem of teacher shortage. Its purpose is to leave a contribution of alternative perspectives on teacher shortage, and relate them to the professionalization of the teacher occupation. The study examines how schools’ competency supply in Sweden can be seen from alternative perspectives than those put forward in thirteen debate articles published in 2019, and the summary of the final report from the state investigation on better schools through more attractive school professions. Applied method is Carol Bacchi’s What’s the problem represented to be? The results describe a volatile current situation that entails that other stakeholders’ agendas in addressing the teacher shortage strongly limits the possibilities of professionalizing the teacher occupation. A fear is highlighted that unilateral focus on solving the students’ situation in relation to the teacher shortage may shroud aspects of the teachers’ perspectives, which could result in the implementation of counter-productive measures. / Sammanfattning Studien granskar utifrån en Foucault-inspirerad, poststrukturalistisk ansats problemet med lärarbrist. Dess syfte är att bidra med alternativa perspektiv till diskursen kring lösningar på lärarbristen, och att sätta dem i relation till yrkets professionalisering. Studien undersöker hur skolans kompetensförsörjning i Sverige kan ses ur alternativa perspektiv till de som skrivs fram i tretton debattartiklar som berör lärarbristen publicerade under 2019, samt sammanfattningen av slutbetänkandet för den statliga utredningen om en bättre skola genom mer attraktiva skolprofessioner. Som metod används Carol Bacchis What’s the problem represented to be? Resultatet beskriver ett föränderligt nuläge som innebär att läraryrkets möjligheter till professionalisering starkt begränsas av andra aktörers agendor i arbetet med att åtgärda lärarbristen. En farhåga lyfts om att ett ensidigt fokus på att lösa elevernas situation i lärarbristen riskerar att dölja aspekter av lärarnas perspektiv, vilket kan medföra att det genomförs kontraproduktiva åtgärder.