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 & 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.

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.

This thesis examines how the government presents and addresses the challenges it identifies regarding integration in the labor market in its policy documents. By applying Carol Bacchi’s What’s The Problem Represented To Be? as theory and method, we analyze how the government identifies and represents challenges. We also examine if any aspects brought up by previous research have been identified as challenges, but are left unproblematized and uncommented in the policy documents. The goal of the essay is to investigate and increase understanding and contribute with in depth knowledge of how and in what way challenges, in Sweden’s integration policy with a focus on the labor market, are discursively presented by the government, but also which challenges are raised by previous research but not presented by the government. The result shows that the government makes several recurring representations of problems in the policy documents, including that immigrants need an increased incentive to establish themselves on the labor market and in community life. What is left unproblematized by the government but highlighted by previous research is the structural discrimination on the labor market. Throughout the analyses, a number of concepts have been identified that have been left undefined, for example social establishment/integration.

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.