This policy analysis study focuses on the leadership and employeeship policy documents that are in use within The Swedish National Board for Institutional Care agency. In order to conduct this policy analysis, the What's the problem represented to be approach (referred to as the WPR approach) based on a poststructuralist perspective is applied. This policy analysis sets out to examine how collaboration is represented in the leadership and employeeship policy documents, to analyse the presuppositions that arise from the analysis and to explore the measures that can be implemented in order to address collaboration. It results in illustrating how collaboration is represented as a problem in the policy documents. It brings to the fore presuppositions that arise from this representation and also generates new ideas on alternative ways to present and implement collaboration. This concurs with this study's preset that collaboration is in need of elaboration and improvement within the agency's departments.

I takt med att det säkerhetspolitiska omvärldsläget förändrats har frågor kring statens förmåga att möta kriser och rena krigshandlingar accentuerats. En statlig utredning har därför föreslagit att på sikt skapa ett samlat sjöförsvar genom att integrera Kustbevakningen och Marinen i en gemensam myndighet. Riktningen på de politiska besluten har dock gått åt en fördjupad samverkan i stället trots att samverkan mellan Försvarsmakten och Kustbevakningen varit behäftad med svårigheter. Denna studie syftar till att analysera varför man i Sverige valt att utöka samverkan mellan Försvarsmakten och Kustbevakningen. Studien är en kvalitativ fallstudie där WPR-metoden används för att analysera SOU 2012:48 kompletterad med en samtalsintervju av en informant vid Försvarsdepartementet. Teoretisk utgångspunkt utgörs av Sundelius m.fl. forskning kring svensk nationell krishantering. Sammanfattningsvis kan konstateras att det inte finns någon politisk vilja till en sammanslagning. Detta grundar sig på en generell ovilja att blanda civila och militära uppgifter samt att man fram tills nyligen inte låtit statens förmåga att hantera kriser och ytterst ett väpnat angrepp vara dimensionerande. Vår slutsats är för att uppnå bästa möjliga operativa förmåga för staten att kunna hantera framtida kriser, och ytterst ett väpnat angrepp, så är en integrering av Kustbevakningen och Marinen i en och samma myndighet den bästa lösningen. / Along the changes in the security situation in the world, questions about the government's ability to face crisis and acts of war have risen. An official report of the Swedish Government has suggested that an integration of the Coast Guard and the Navy into a consolidated maritime defence force is needed in the future. The aim of governmental policy has despite this been on focusing on cooperation despite difficulties regarding the relationship between the Navy and the Coast Guard in cooperating. This study aims to analyze why Sweden has chosen to increase cooperation between the two authorities. The study is a qualitative case study in which WPR-approach is used to analyze the official government report supplemented by an interview with a ministry of defence official. The theoretical basis is the research of Sundelius et al consisting of theories regarding Swedish national crisis management. In summary - no political will exists regarding consolidation. It stems from a general unwillingness in mixing civilian and military tasks and that up until recently the government's ability to handle crisis, and ultimately war, was not the dimensioning aim. The conclusion is that in order to achieve the optimal ability for the government in handling future crisis and full war, an integration of the Coast Guard and Navy into one authority is the best solution.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction reports that drug-related deaths have almost tripled in Sweden between year 2006 and 2015. The aim of this study is to elucidate in which ways drug-related mortality is produced and conceptualized as a problem within policy discourse by critically analyzing The National Board of Health and Welfare’s policy proposal “Nationellt utvecklingsarbete för att motverka narkotikarelaterad dödlighet” (2017). Using Bacchi’s poststructural approach to policy analysis “What’s the problem represented to be?”, two problem representations are identified, namely that drug-related mortality is conceptualized as a problem with drugs and drug use in general as well as a problem due to lack of knowledge and information. This is based on underlying assumptions that all illegal drug use is hazardous and that the solution to the drug problem can be obtained by objective knowledge production thus leaving both the practice of gaining knowledge as well as current Swedish drug laws unproblematized. The effects are, to name a few, that proposed policies mainly targets “all people who use drugs” with a focus on providing “more of the same” which in extension overrides the group of high-risk drug users along with a structural understanding of drug-related mortality.

Despite the fact that the introduction of reserved parental leave has resulted in a success for gender equality in general, there are parties in the Swedish Parliament that oppose this reform, the Christian Democrats being one of them. The purpose of the study was therefore to study the effects of the Christian Democrats' problem presentation regarding reserved parental leave. The essay's three research questions came from Carol Bacchi's WPR-approach, which aimed to find the party's problem presentation regarding reserved parental leave, what presuppositions these where based on, and what discursive and subjectification effects this gives. The study shows that the problem where parents' freedom of choice and high sickness rates. Based on feminist poststructuralism, we could see that the presuppositions turned out to be about a constructed categorization where sexual characteristics are set against each other. Finally, the study shows that this had several discursive- and subjectification effects where alternative problem presentations were excluded, and that individuals are limited based on the framework that the discourse sets up, which subjectifies people based on gender.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the problem with individuals in a criminal lifestyle is represented in municipal policy documents regarding the work with this group. The work with delinquents on a municipal level takes place in so-called ’defector services’. To examine what problems and assumptions lie behind these policies, we apply Carol Bacchis social constructionist WPR approach and her set of questions that target such aspects in the policies. Our analysis shows that the problem is represented to lie with the individuals, parental deficiencies, children’s schooling and preventive work. These problems are based on assumptions about dichotomies between unlawful/law-abiding citizens, passive/activesubjects, and the bad/good society. We link this to research regarding risk factors showing that juveniles lack judging capacity, leading to risktaking and criminal behaviour. This type of research appears to strongly impact the policies under study, which tend to prioritise juvenile delinquents, while deprioritizing adult delinquents. Bacchi suggests that all problem representations have material effects. We suggest that prioritising adult delinquents would have positive effects on both an individual and structural level and that moving the defector service for adult delinquents to the local level would allow for easier access.

Covid-19, also known as the coronavirus, took the world by storm after the outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019. A rapid spread of infection started and it is still ongoing. Many parts of the society are affected, and the flow of information to society has not been as important for long. That information is interpreted and transmitted correctly is of great importance. How are recommendations from responsible authorities interpreted at national level, at regional level, and at local level?    This policy study analyzes regulations and documents from national, regional and local levels of society on the basis of the theories Risk and Crisis communication, Distributed Cognition and quality theory. Finally, it contributes to an increased understanding of how public Risk and Crisis communication is interpreted from national to regional and local levels of society during an ongoing pandemic.   By analyzing the result with a WPR approach to analysis, the study finds a lack in communication, which leads to the information representation from regional and local society levels not being optimal during a crisis situation like COVID-19. The study finds patterns in the communication that can be improved and one conclusion is that DC can be used as an explanatory model to how information is being spread through different levels of society. Proposals for further research is to examine how DC can be applied in the development of communication for information transfer and how the quality theory can be applied to better the information transfer. / COVID-19, även känt som coronaviruset, tog världen med storm efter utbrottet i Wuhan december 2019. En snabb smittspridning startade och pågår fortfarande. Flödet av information till samhället har inte varit så viktig som i detta skede på länge i och med att många delar av samhället påverkas. Att information tolkas och överförs på rätt sätt är av stor betydelse. Hur tolkas information och föreskrifter angående COVID-19 från ansvariga myndigheter på nationell nivå till den regionala och lokala informationsrepresentationen?    I denna policystudie analyseras föreskrifter och skrifter från nationella, regionala och lokala aktörer genom att teorierna Risk- och Kriskommunikation, Distributed Cognition (DC) och kvalitetsteori används. Resultatet kan leda till ökad förståelse om hur offentlig risk- och krisinformation tolkas från nationell till regional och lokal nivå under en pågående pandemi.    Genom att analysera resultatet med en ’What´s the problem represented to be?’-analys (WPR-analys) finner studien brist i kommunikationen, vilket leder till att informationsrepresentationen från regional och lokal nivå inte är optimal vid en krissituation likt COVID-19. Studien finner mönster i kommunikationen som kan förbättras och en slutsats är att DC kan användas som förklaringsmodell till hur information sprids mellan olika samhällsnivåer. Förslag till vidare forskning är att undersöka hur DC kan tillämpas vid utveckling av kommunikation för informationsöverföring och hur kvalitetsteorin kan tillämpas för att förbättra informationsöverföringen.

Since the 2018 elections Swedish political parties have been eager to enforce civic and language tests as prerequisite for citizenship. This turn in citizenship ideology is studied through problem representations which intend to solve the social segregation, alienation and the supposed poor language skills of immigrants residing in Sweden. By using Carol Bacchi’s approach to policy analysis, What’s the problem represented to be?, this thesis uncovers how the problem representations contain invisible for the naked eye instruments which appear to address the immigrants’ problems but in fact directly benefit the citizenship-holders.

De senaste 30 åren har det grova och dödliga våldet mellan grupper ökat kraftigt i Sverige. De åtgärder som vidtagits har inte lyckats stävja våldet. Under 2018 startades därför pilotprojektet Sluta skjut upp i Malmö för att testa den amerikanska modellen Group Violence Intervention (GVI). Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera på vilka sätt som processutvärderingen av Sluta skjut, vilken producerades vid pilotprojektets slutperiod 2020, förstår och förklarar våldsdrivande grupper. Genom detta ämnar vi bidra med en insikt i vägledande dokuments eventuella påverkan på det sociala arbetet. Studien utgår från ett kritiskt poststrukturellt perspektiv vilket utmanar upplysningens förgivettagande om vetenskap och förnuft, samt hur detta tankesätt kan leda till social ojämlikhet. Mer specifikt använder sig studien av metoden ”What’s the problem represented to be?” (WPR) utvecklad av Carol Bacchi (2009; Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016). Studiens resultat visar på tre problemframställningar: våldet är orsakat av (1) våldsbejakande grupprocesser vilka leder till att våldet (re)produceras inom grupperna, att (2) våldet inte beror på enstaka individers handlingar utan hela gruppers agerande, men samtidigt att (3) individerna själva ses som rationella och måldrivna, och är ansvariga för att söka hjälp och stöd själva. Dessa problemframställningar bygger på antaganden om grupprocesser vars mekanismer kan användas till att sprida önskvärda normer och värderingar, kallat informell social kontroll. Genom samverkan mellan myndigheter, samt mellan myndigheter och civilsamhälle, bygger aktörerna legitimitet för sitt handlande. Insatser mot eller frihetsberövande av enskilda individer som begår brott ses som ineffektivt. Detta lämnar vissa delar oproblematiserade. I samverkan framkommer en diskrepans mellan aktörerna samt en dominerande polisdiskurs vilket ibland leder till att de sociala insatserna hamnar i skymundan. Våldet betraktas som det illegitima, fysiska våldet från grupperna vilket gör att andra våldstyper inte hörs. Slutligen analyseras det individfokus som präglar de sociala insatserna i strategin, och bortfallet av andra faktorer problematiseras.

Title: “Medial presentation of comorbidity - A discourse analytical study of the depiction of psychiatric comorbidity in nationwide newspapers. Tutor: Olov Aronson Examiner: Magnus Jegermalm   Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate how psychiatric comorbidity (comorbidity of addiction and mental illness) is portrayed in the Swedish media, and what effects the medial presentation may issue in. Method: Based on a qualitative social constructionist research design, Carol Bacchi's (2009) analysis method what´s the problem represented to be has been applied to analyze 15 newspaper articles from Swedish magazines: Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen and Svenska Dagbladet. Results: The result presents two problem representations identified in the analyzed material: too complex for healthcare and criminal but marginalized.  Discussion: In the study's discussion, emphasis is placed on the multifaceted connection that exists between the identified problem representations. The problem representations are derived from discourses about what is considered to be normal in society and what is deviant and needs to be adjusted to become normal. The effects of the problem representations are also discussed relative to earlier scientific studies. / Titel: ”Medial framställning av samsjuklighet – En diskursanalytisk studie om hur psykiatrisk samsjukighet framställs i rickstäckande tidningartiklar.  Handledare: Olov Aronson Examinator: Magnus Jegermalm   Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur psykiatrisk samsjuklighet (samsjuklighet i from av missbruk och psykisk ohälsa) porträtteras i svensk media, samt vilka effekter den mediala framställningen kan antas få.  Metod: Utifrån en kvalitativ socialkonstruktionistisk forskningsdesign har Carol Bacchis (2009) analysmetod What´s the problem represented to be använts för att analysera 15 tidningsartiklar från tidskrifterna Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen och Svenska Dagbladet. Resultat: I resultatet presenteras två problemrepresentationer som identifieras i det analyserade materialet: ”för komplext för vården” och ”kriminella men marginaliserade”. Diskussion: I studiens diskussion betonas det flerdelade samband som finns emellan de identifierade problemrepresentationerna. Problemrepresentationerna härleds till diskurser kring vad som anses vara det normala i samhället samt vad som är avvikande och behöver vårdas för att bli normalt. Även vilka effekter problemrepresentationerna bär med sig undersöks i förhållande till tidigare forskning.

This study is a qualitative text analysis of the state's public inquiry (SOU 2018:57) according to Carol Bacchi's (2009) Foucault-influenced analysis tool: "What's the Problem Represented to be?" (WPR) which is based in poststructuralist theory. The policy's incentives are the international measurements of fourth-grade and 15-year-olds' reading comprehension, PIRLS and PISA respectively. Quantitative measurements in large population groups are generally stated as motives for initiating policies in contemporary welfare states. The starting point in this study is class as class aspects tend to be toned down in today's society despite the fact that parents' level of education has an approximately as strong connection with basic reading skills and in the long run school results as with the variables gender and Swedish/foreign background together. Based on class the purpose of the study is to investigate how the state's public inquiry, which addresses all children's and young people's reading, assumes that the spread of reading comprehension has increased for decades between socioeconomic groups of children and young people in Sweden alongside with school segregation. The conclusion is that the policy's represented "problem" is a decreasing reading interest in all student groups including the middle class which can affect personal finances and Sweden's position in competition between OECD-countries. The "problem" is furthermore that not all parents have similar resources or attitudes to their children's reading comprehension and reading habits, basically culture and education, as the ideal middle class parent. According to the WPR method "problem" representations within policies result in effects for people, and thus a large share of the population: the group of children, young people and their parents who are highlighted in the study tend, from the position from which the policy is produced, "the bourgeois gaze", to disappear and at the same time to be singled out through the neoliberal and neo-philantrophic discourses that underpins it.