This thesis is concerned with three language debates that reached their most crucial peaks in Sweden at the beginning of the twenty-first century: (i) the debate on the promotion of the Swedish language, (ii) the debate on language testing for citizenship, and (iii) the debate on mother tongue instruction. The main scope of the thesis is to take a theoretically multi-pronged approach to these debates trying to shed light on the following aspects: Why did such debates emerge when they did? Which discourses were available in those specific historical moments? Who are the social actors that intervened in these debates? What is at stake for them? What do they claim? What systems of values, ideas and beliefs – i.e. ideologies – underlie such claims? What are the effects in terms of identities, objects of political intervention, commonsensical knowledge and authority that these discourses and ideologies produce? Taking Sweden as a case in point, the thesis adds to the existing literature another example of how language debates are the manifestation of conflicts between different language ideologies that struggle for hegemony, thus attempting to impose one specific way of envisaging the management of a nation-state in a time of globalisation. In their outer and most patent facets, these struggles deal with the relationships between languages in today’s Sweden, and how the state, through legislation, should – or should not – regulate such relationships in order to (re)produce some kind of linguistic order. However, the thesis also illustrates that when social actors appeal to a linguistic order, they not only draw boundaries between different languages in a given society, but they also bring into existence a social world in which the speakers of those languages come to occupy specific social positions. These linguistic and social hierarchies, in turn, are imbricated in an often implicit moral regime of what counts as good or bad, acceptable or taboo in that society.

Purpose/Aim: The aim of this thesis was to study the construction of gender and to compare Media’s portrayal of male and female athletes. Material/Method: 140 articles covering seven famous Swedish male and female athletes were selected from two Swedish newspapers (Aftonbladet and Expressen). The articles has been analysed within the frames of Norman Faircloughs Critical Discourse Analysis. Main results: Male athletes are often described in powerful ways and are framed as being strong and successful. Skills and strengths of women athletes are often devalued in comparison to standards of hegemonic masculinity and self-control. They are often framed as women and girlfriends in advantage of the fact that they are athletes.

The starting point of this study is that the news media in general strongly influence which topics determine the public agenda by their choice of what is considered newsworthy. The study is based on articles from two major Swedish daily newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter.  The aim of our thesis is to establish how the environmental public debate as portrayed in the newspaper corresponds to the environmental discussion within the scientific (subject matter expert) field, that is taught by the academic institutions, or if the two materially differ. The environmental communication discourse at the academic institutions advocates ‘episodic’ formation as the driving force behind transformation of attitudes and behavioral preconceptions. This episodic formation is aimed at incentivizing change by creating intimacy to the incident by linking cause and consequence to the individual citizen instead of to society as a whole. The analysis consists of approximately 50 articles, all published in year 2010, and is based on CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis) where we sought to map out the discourses that frame the representation of environmental topics in these two daily newspapers.  The result shows that the newspapers account of environmental topics only weakly corresponds to the scientific account. The media representation mainly adopts a ‘thematic’ formation in which environmental topics are frequently approached by means of distancing itself or taking a broader and detached stance instead of a specific and attached link to the individual. The result thus shows that the newspapers discourse practice does not positively drive changes to attitudes and behaviors but rather reinforces the prevailing discourse and social posture in society. At the same time the analysis shows that the two newspapers form a forum where many different views and values are being voiced and where many different groups in society are represented in democratic spirit. Both supporting and inhibiting views are presented in this context. If the newspapers overall discourse practice promotes or inhibits transformation of the public’s environmental attitudes and behavior tends towards that ‘status quo’ is upheld at the expense of change. This despite, environmental topics are considered important by the Swedish public in general.

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This study examined the impact of Child Development Associate (CDA) training on the beliefs and self-reported practices of early childhood teachers (N = 126) using a pre-post mixed-methods research design. Preschool teachers who were enrolled in CDA classes (n=76) and a comparison group of teachers (n = 50) completed two surveys of beliefs and self-reported practices: the Teacher Beliefs and Practices Survey: 3- to 5-Year-Olds (TBPS) (Burts, Buchanan, & Benedict, 2001) and the Early Childhood Survey of Beliefs and Practices (ECSBP) (Marcon, 1988, 1999). Repeated measures Multiple Analyses of Variance indicated teachers who had completed CDA training became significantly more developmentally appropriate on measures of beliefs and self-reported practices than a comparison group who did not attend CDA training. The CDA teachers held significantly fewer inappropriate beliefs and reported fewer inappropriate practices after training than the comparison group. Results suggest that the TBPS was a more sensitive measure than the ECSBP of beliefs and self-reported practices for these early childhood teachers, most of whom had no formal education. The decrease in developmentally inappropriate beliefs and self-reported practices on the TBPS subscales illustrates the importance of measuring not only increases in appropriate beliefs and self-reported practices but also decreases in inappropriate beliefs and self-reported practices. The Constant Comparative Method was used to organize and analyze the observation and interview data of the four case study participants. Three themes emerged which describe the effect of CDA training on the beliefs and self-reported practices of these teachers: Reflection on current practices describes the teacher who seemed to be actively considering how the material presented in the CDA training fit with her implicitly held beliefs and current practices. Confirmation of developmentally appropriate practices describes the teacher whose existing developmentally appropriate beliefs were reinforced by the training. Superficial changes describes two teachers who gained ideas for activities in the training but revealed no change in beliefs. This study suggests that CDA training decreases the developmentally inappropriateness of beliefs and self-reported practices of early childhood teachers. A change that past research suggests will ultimately impact classroom quality. Influences such as concurrent training, program requirements, and implicitly held beliefs may moderate the extent to which new concepts are accepted and existing practices are changed.

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Οι σύγχρονες τάσεις στο χώρο των υπηρεσιών Υγείας απαιτούν αναβάθμιση των προσφερόμενων υπηρεσιών με ταυτόχρονο εξορθολογισμό του κόστους των. Τη λύση αυτή είναι σε θέση να δώσουν συστήματα μηχανοργάνωσης των Μονάδων παροχής υπηρεσιών υγείας. Ένα ολοκληρωμένο πληροφοριακό σύστημα υγείας (ΟΠΣΥ) είναι το πληροφοριακό σύστημα εκείνο που συμβάλει στην ενοποίηση, συστηματική παρακολούθηση, διαχείριση και έλεγχο των δεδομένων (οικονομικά, επιχειρησιακά, οργανωτικά καθώς και ιατρικά δεδομένα) ενός νοσοκομείου ή, γενικά μιας μονάδας υγείας, με σκοπό την αναβάθμιση της ποιότητας των υπηρεσιών την αναδιοργάνωση των εσωτερικών διεργασιών και την εξυπηρέτηση του πολίτη. Είναι δε σημαντικός ο ρόλος του όσον αφορά τη διάχυση και αξιοποίηση της ιατρικής πληροφορίας για ερευνητικούς και στατιστικούς σκοπούς αλλά και όσον αφορά με τη χρήση νέων τεχνολογιών πληροφορικής κι επικοινωνιών από τους ιατρούς, νοσηλευτές και διοικητικό και λοιπό προσωπικό ενός νοσοκομείου. Στόχος της μεταπτυχιακής διπλωματικής αυτής εργασίας είναι η παρουσίαση των θεμάτων διαλειτουργικότητας και ανταλλαγής δεδομένων μεταξύ Πληροφοριακών Συστημάτων στο χώρο της Υγείας, ένα αντικείμενο που αποτελεί σημαντικό παράγοντα επιτυχίας και αξιοποίησης των Πληροφοριακών Υποδομών αυτών από τους επαγγελματίες Υγείας. Στις εισαγωγικές ενότητες αναλύεται η σημερινή κατάσταση στο χώρο της πληροφορικής υγείας και παρουσιάζονται τα χαρακτηριστικά των σύγχρονων ΟΠΣΥ, χρησιμοποιώντας μάλιστα ως παράδειγμα ένα εμπορικό προϊόν (το λογισμικό medico//s). Στη συνέχεια παρουσιάζονται οι κωδικοποιήσεις που χρησιμοποιούνται στα συστήματα αυτά, με ιδιαίτερη μνεία στην ελληνική μετάφραση της κωδικοποίησης ICD-10 απο το Υπουργείο Υγείας. Επίσης γίνεται ειδική αναφορά και αναλυτική παρουσίαση με παραδείγματα στο διεθνές πρωτόκολλο επικοινωνίας HL7. Στα επόμενα κεφάλαια παρουσιάζεται το πρότυπο XDS-MS, ένα πρότυπο ιατρικών εγγράφων που υπηρετεί τους σκοπούς της διαλειτουργικότητας. Αναλύονται τα περιεχόμενα του εγγράφου αλλά και η δομή της όλης υλοποίησης ώστε το έγγραφο να μπορεί να διαμοιράζεται μεταξύ των επαγγελματιών υγείας. Για τις ανάγκες της εργασίας αυτής παρουσιάζεται το πρότυπο για τις συνόψεις νοσηλείας σύμφωνα με την αρχιτεκτονική ιατρικών εγγράφων (CDA) του HL7, τόσο όπως έχει τυποποιηθεί για την υποστήριξης Αγγλόφωνων νοσοκομείων/κειμένων αλλά και όπως είναι δυνατόν να προσαρμοστεί στις ανάγκες των Ελληνικών μονάδων Υγείας και της Ελληνικής γλώσσας. Στο πλαίσιο της παρούσας εργασίας, συγκεντρώθηκαν και παρατίθενται επίσης πρότυπα ιατρικών εγγράφων απο ελληνικά νοσοκομεία που χρησιμοποιούν ΟΠΣΥ. Επίσης, προτείνονται μελλοντικές επεκτάσεις και βελτιώσεις στο ερευνητικό αντικείμενο αυτό όπως αυτές προκύπτουν από την διεθνή βιβλιογραφία. Τέλος στο Παράρτημα της εργασίας παρουσιάζονται αναλυτικά οι κώδικες των εγγράφων CDA. / With advances in technology, the health care system requires an amelioration of services offered, as well as cost control. The solution is given by Integrated Health Information Systems (IHIS), a discipline at the intersection of information science, computer science, and health care that deals with the resources, devices, and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine. Health informatics tools include not only computers but also clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies, and information and communication systems. It is applied to the areas of nursing, clinical care, pharmacy, etc. The Cross-Enterprise Sharing of Medical Summary (XDS-MS) Integration Profile, a profile based on the HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) standard, defines the appropriate standards for document transmission and a minimum set of "record entries" that should be forwarded or made available to subsequent care provider(s) during specific transfer of care scenarios. In addition, this integration profile needs to define the utilization requirements/options for the receiving entity in order to ensure that the "care context" of the sending entity is appropriately maintained following the information transfer. So in this thesis there is an analysis of IHIS, with the paradigm of the medico//s software, as well as a presentation of coding systems in Heath Care Informatics. There are mentioned several systems, among which is found the HL7 one, analyzed by specific examples, and also the ICH-10. As for the latter there is a presentation of its greek translation as by the greek Ministry of Health. In the following chapters there is the description of the XDS-MS profile, both in its (english) version and the greek “translation”. In addition, there is a collection of medical documents by greek hospitals that use IHIS.

abstract: While Huntington’s (1996) theory of “The Clash of Civilizations” illuminated the concept of the gap between the Western and non-Western cultures, the framework of an opposite approach, which intensively emphasizes and strives for mutual understanding, cooperation and solidarity towards peace, has created a new and vital discursive perspective and practice through the establishment of The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). As the domain of UNAOC has not received linguistic attention yet, the goal of the current dissertation is to investigate and reveal the notions and messages conveyed in the related context of Turkey’s accession to the EU by the Turkish Prime Minister (2003-2014) and the co- founder of the Alliance of Civilizations, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It seeks answers to the following questions: How does Mr. Erdogan conceptualize Turkey, which has geopolitically bridged the Western and non-Western cultures throughout the centuries, and which borders the boiling pot of the Middle East? How does the Prime Minister construct identities in the context of the Western and non-Western countries especially in his discussion of Turkey’s accession to the EU? How does the Prime Minister further reconceptualize the urgent need for global peace and stability in the world, contributing to the UNAOC directly and indirectly? This dissertation employs a cognitive framework approach which entails speech act theory and analogical reasoning, in addition to Reisigl and Wodak’s (2001) Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to analyze Prime Minister Erdogan’s speeches in the international context. In conclusion, the discourse of UNAOC gives rise to new discursive practices for global peace, “countering the forces that fuel polarization and extremism” (http://www.unaoc.org/about/). The discursive construction of global phenomena, events and actions as defined in Erdogan’s speeches are reconceptualized on the basis of non-Western but secular pro-Western intertextuality and perspectivization. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2016

By linguistically examining 162 articles published during the summer of 2015 in two UK broadsheets: The Guardian (TG) and The Daily Telegraph (TDT), this essay aims to analyse the discursive representation of the ‘migrant crisis’. To do so, the representation of the social actors migrating (SAM) during the ‘crisis’ was focused on. A combined Corpus Linguistic (CL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach was implemented to investigate the most frequently used terms to refer to the SAM. Once the terms were found, their usage across the corpora was examined by looking at frequency distributions. Next, collocates of the terms referring to SAM were analysed by way of Van Leeuwen’s (2008) Social Actor Network. Collocate and concordance analyses helped to show how the SAM were represented in the articles and how the representation varied across the two newspapers. The results of the analyses indicated that the most frequent terms used to refer to the SAM were migrant, people and refugee. It also indicated differences in connotations of those three words, with refugee ‘sympathetically’ connoted, migrant negatively connoted and people connoted both negatively and positively. The overall conclusion was that the SAM’s representation was more ‘sympathetic’ in TG than in TDT.