Policies are often seen as a response to existing issues, wheras in this study polices are understood as a productive process, that not only addresses a pre-existing problem, but that construct the problem through how it is represented in the policy (Bacchi, Eveline, 2010: 18). Based on this, the study examines how gender inequality is represented in a number of policies and reports from the UN Development Programme, UNDP, published between 2018 and 2021.UNDP is one of the largest entities within the international development world, and its policies has the potential to impact millions of people around the world. By asking what is the problem represented to be? (WPR) it is possible to uncover underlying assumptions on which the understanding that produces the problem of gender inequality, rests. The effects of these assumptions, implicit understandings of a problem, come to determine what is being done about it. Many policies addressing gender inequality attempt to identify how actions can be taken with less negative effect on the targeted group, mainly women, instead of asking how the policies themselves are connected to reproducing the problem (Bacchi et al. 2010: 120).   This study finds that the underlying premises of how gender inequality is represented by UNDP results in proposed actions that risk conflating women and gender, while promoting activities that at large aim to include women into existing structures, rather than being a driver for examining underlying causes of gender inequality.

Integration and immigration policies as a raised as an ‘hot topic’ in many western democracies,mostly due to an increased immigration. This has led to a debate on integration issues and howto integrate new citizens in the western societies.The Swedish government presented an inquiry on the subject of citizenship test in language andcivic skills in 2021 with an uttered aim to ‘increase the status of the citizenship and to promotean inclusive society’. This paper analyses, based on the WPR- approach, this inquiry report inregard to the purpose of the citizenship test and which problem representations that underpinthe inquiry.The inquiry report expresses a problem representation that ‘immigrants have a lack in theSwedish language and in civic skills’ which is seen as a result of ‘lack of effort’ and that it istoo easy to receive a Swedish citizenship. The ‘solution’ to this ‘problem’ is to introduce acitizenship test which tis thought to create incentives to become more ‘included’. The problemrepresentations (re)produce a ‘immigrant’s people category which need to be govern andreenforces a dichotomy of included and excluded in relation to ‘immigrants. At the same timethe scientific support in regard to create motivation for inclusion and integration by a mandatorylanguage and civic tests are contested.

Violence against women - a changing problem. A discourseanalysis how violence againstwomen is problematized and changed during three parliamentary debates.This paper will examine how domestic violence is elaborated as a problem in three differentparliament debates in Sweden. Debates from different decades, 1979, 1998 and 2021 havebeen chosen as objects of study in order to examine if there is any difference during thetimeperiods and how the problematization has developed between the chosen debates.Sweden is one of the most equal countries in the world, despite this, the country has giantproblems with domestic violence. It is therefore valuable to examine how representatives inthe parliament address the problem since they have the power to develop policies and make achange. With guidance from the WPR approach to find what the problem is represented to be,together with the theory gendercontract that will be used as a tool to examine how theproblem can be produced with stereotypical gender roles and what effects this can have. Thestudy shows that the discourse from the debates changes from being represented as a problemregarding women or a familyproblem that should be handled within the family to theauthorities responsibility to prevent and report the problem. It also shows that stereotypicalgender roles can be a part of the elaboration of the problem to develop to be a part of what isbeing problematized.

This study aims to examine how the EU constructs sex trafficking in its public policy, as well as the potential consequences of how sex trafficking is problematized. The following two policy documents presented by the Union, Directive 2011/36/EU and The EU Strategy on Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings 2021- 2025, were analyzed in order to meet the aim of this study. The method used for the analysis of the material is Carol Bacchis ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’, which will be studied within the framework of a case study. The results of the study showed that human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is framed as a problem of insufficient legal action, a violation of human rights, and a benefiting of gender inequality, as well as a lack of effective crime prevention measures within the European Union and its member states. Victims of human trafficking are frequently depicted as coerced participants, a notion that may not always correlate to reality. The EU's problem representation reinforces gender stereotypes while ignoring and marginalizing opposing viewpoints.

Huvudsyftet med uppsatsen är att analysera den politiska diskursen rörande föräldraförsäkringen utifrån de två begreppen jämställdhet kontra valfrihet. Det studien ämnar undersöka är hur de två partierna: Socialdemokraterna och Kristdemokraterna utrycker sig i frågan rörande föräldraförsäkringen. Det material som studerats är respektive partiprogram tillsammans med debattartiklar. Genom användande av diskursanalytiskmetodologi tillsammans med Carol Bacchis WPR-approach få fram vad som inte explicit uttrycks. Undersökande av det implicita i den politiska diskursen rörande föräldraförsäkringen ämnas besvara vilka förgivettagna antaganden som ligger till grund för konstruktion av ojämställdhet i samhället. De metodologiska tillvägagångssätten resulterade i ett identifierande av tre olika teman som presenteras som en del av resultatet. Dessa teman var: Jämställdhet kontra valfrihet, barnomsorgsargument samt ekonomiska aspekter. De identifierade temana presenteras utifrån de två valda partierna och analyseras utifrån valda teorier och tidigare forskning. Det resultat som framträtt är de två partiernas olika synsätt på dualism i frågan. Medan socialdemokraterna ser jämställdhet och valfrihet som två olika motpoler till varandra, anser kristdemokraterna att de två begreppen inte står i kontrast utan kan samverka. Socialdemokraterna bygger sin argumentation på det ojämnställda uttaget av föräldraförsäkringen kring statistiska data som visar på hur kvinnor tar ut större andel av föräldraförsäkringen och motiverar kvoterad föräldraförsäkring som en reform för att bryta detta mönster. Dem anser att det är strukturer och normer i samhället som ligger bakom den ojämlika fördelningen. Det resultat som visade sig kring kristdemokraternas argumentation kring föräldraförsäkringen var den individuella familjens rätt till fria val. Dem menade att genom att låta familjen själv bestämma över föräldraförsäkringen gynnar det både kvinnan, mannen och barnen i familjen då de kan välja att dela upp det på ett sätt som ekonomiskt gynnar förhållandet.

Arktis är ett område som står inför stora förändringar. Klimatförändringarna i regionen är påtagliga och förändring måste ske snarast. Dessa förändringar lägger ljus på aktörerna inom Arktiska Rådet (AR) och vikten av att de medlemsstater som ingår i AR tar sitt nationella ansvar att utforma sin klimatpolitik med Arktis i åtanke. Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är att analysera policydokument från Sverige, Finland och AR. De policydokument som analyseras är respektive lands senaste arktiska klimatstrategier. Analyseringen ska ta reda på hur aktörerna representerar problemen med klimatförändringar, hur strategierna skiljer sig emellan och om Sverige och Finland efterföljer de mål och strategier som AR tagit fram. För att genomföra analysen har Carol Bacchis ’What ́s the problem represented to be’ (WPR) använts. Med hjälp av WPR-verktygen ska problemrepresentationer i strategierna tas fram. En jämförelse mellan aktörerna påvisar många likheter och att deras klimatstrategier följer de riktlinjer som AR har satt ut för sina medlemsländer. Ytterligare analys identifierar olika teman som finns genomgående i strategierna och påvisar att det finns en gemensam syn på vad som är viktigt att jobba mot i Arktis. Studien är, med hjälp av resultatet, menat att fylla ut policyforskning kring Sverige och Finland i Arktis där det för nuvarande finns stora brister.

In 2014, Sweden created the first feminist foreign policy (FFP). Other states have since adopted FFPs as tools to further gender equality at a time of women’s rights regressions. Following a government shift in 2022, Sweden also became the first to dismantle the framework. The policy, its implementation and revokal guide the analysis, providing an understanding of the rise and fall of Swedish FFP. This thesis expands existing knowledge of the policy and sheds light on its underexplored impact and dismantlement. In conducting a critical policy analysis of the official FFP document, this work draws upon Bacchi’s WPR approach. This study shows that the policy constructed gender inequality as a structural issue and barrier to human rights as its overarching problem. In addition, the study performs a qualitative content analysis of key governmental documents, evaluations, and media sources, based upon a framework of norm entrepreneurship, soft power, and hard power. Pursuing the FFP, norm entrepreneurship and soft power aided implementation, while hard power and arms trade caused struggles. The policy revokal was framed by a harsher political and security context, where the FFP was seen as at odds with Swedish interests and values – thereby signalling a step back from normative ambitions.

Syftet för den här studien är att undersöka hur ledare och tjänstemän inom kommunal förvaltning förstår social hållbarhet ur ett arbetsmiljöperspektiv inom organisationen. Carol Bacchis metod “What’s the ‘problem’ represented to be?” (WPR) har använts för att skapa och analysera studiens empiri. Studien har använt sig av en kvalitativ ansats där empirin består av semistrukturerade intervjuer med sammanlagt nio respondenter. Respondenterna bestod av förvaltningschefer, verksamhetschefer samt HR-strateger från två olika kommuner i Västsverige. Studien fann åtta förståelser för social hållbarhet, de är; långsiktiga processer, ledare har ansvar för social hållbarhet, organisatorisk och social arbetsmiljö, balans mellan arbets- och privatliv, inte jobba för mycket, känsla av meningsfullhet, personalomsättning samt att man ska orka arbeta till pensionsålder. Social hållbarhet på arbetsplatsen prioriteras genom ledarskap samt att arbeta för att behålla och utveckla medarbetarna. Resultatet visade att respondenterna problematiserar social hållbarhet som arbetsmiljö och långsiktighet, och förstås i relation till bemanningsfrågan. Som lösning på problemrepresentationerna prioriteras det egna ledarskapet samt att utveckla och behålla medarbetarna.

This study investigates the state of the public debate in Swedish mainstream media on the right to asylum. The study combines Bacchi's WPR(What’s the problem represented to be)-analysis with Hallin’s sphere theory to compare the discourse on the right to asylum in editorials in three Swedish newspapers, with different political profiles, in the five months leading up to the elections in 2018 and 2022, respectively. The results of the study show no clear difference between the two years, but, in both years, a clear difference between the conservative moderate newspaper SvD and the liberal newspaper DN, where indications show the right to asylum in Hallin’s sphere of consensus in DN and in Hallin’s sphere of legitimate controversy in SvD. Also in Aftonbladet are indications of the right to asylum being in Hallin's sphere of consensus, though conclusions are harder to draw, due to the scarcity of the material.

Abstract   At the present time no one is oblivious of Covid-19:s widely-spread effect on our society. States and governments all over the world were forced to take drastic decisions which in turn have had impacts on our democracy, freedom, lives and livelihood. The purpose of this study is to contribute to knowledge regarding the challenges democracy faces in the midst of a pandemic where restrictive measurements are enforced. Sweden and Finland had contrasting outcomes in their enforcement of measures during the crisis – despite the striking similarities between the two countries systems, democratic standards and values. What kind of democratic challenges do both countries face in the midst of a pandemic where restrictive measurements are enforced? And how do respective countries go about balancing their democratic values with certain undemocratic measurements?  Both countries’ crisis management and measurements will be analyzed to see if their democratic challenges differ from a crisis management perspective. Furthermore, both countries’ approach regarding crisis management will be analyzed to see it there is a clear discrepancy. The material used was Finland’s memorandum regarding their state of emergency and Sweden’s memorandum regarding extension of the Covid-19-law along with the social committee report on a temporary Covid-19-law. By using Carol Bacchi’s WPR-approach both countries documents were analyzed, the study found similarities but mostly differences in which separate and similar problem’s were represented, which might explain why Sweden and Finland had contrasting outcomes on their decision-making and measures. Proposals for further studies is to research the long-term effects on the measures that were taken, expand to different levels of society for instance regions as well as municipalities, and lastly to study the potential long-term effects on the democratic standard that laws and restrictive measures might have.