During the last two decades, the elementary, - secondary-, and upper secondary schools of especially Europe and USA have gone through a change. From being formed in the post war time and, in Europe, very influenced by the ideas of social democracy, the school today has more and more come under the influences of neo liberalism, entrepreneurship and the political and economical situations during the late 1980´s. This undergraduate work brings up the changed discourses of education and knowledge in relation to the traditional free school system for adults in Sweden, the popular education, and especially in relation to folk high schools (folkhögskolor). By using, first and foremost, the idea of Norman Faircloughs critical discourse analysis (CDA) the rules and documents concerning the folk high schools are analyzed. The purpose of the paper is to identify and recognize the movement in the discourse to reach an understanding about the political situation for folk high schools in Sweden. In the end you can see that it is possible to define a similar development in discourse surrounding the popular education, as has been in the case with the elementary, - secondary-, and upper secondary schools.

Uppsatsens syfte är att belysa hur kompetensutveckling som begrepp framträder i ett företags texter och dokument. Vi avser att belysa språkets och textens makt i de sociala relationerna i en verksamhet med hjälp av en diskursanalys. Företag idag lägger stor vikt på att utforma dokument som på olika sätt ska säkerställa kvalitén på det dagliga arbetet genom att tydliggöra vad som skall göras och av vem. Dessa texter är riskabla att luta sig allt för mycket på då dessa kan vara en idealiserad verklighet av det arbete som utförs.   Vår utgångspunkt är en kvalitativ ansats med diskursanalys som metod. Denna metod utgår ifrån texter i analysarbetet och dessa behandlar alla i någon form begreppet kompetens-utveckling. Då kompetensutveckling är ett brett och komplicerat begrepp stödjer vi oss på Ellströms definition. Vi utgår från en bred bas av tidigare studier och litteratur kring ämnet för att ge bärighet till denna uppsats och det är denna bakgrund vi stödjer oss på i våra slutsatser i diskussionen.   Det vi har funnit är att i den studerade diskursen är det tre punkter av Ellströms definition som framträder och två som inte gör det. Dessa punkter som synliggörs samt som inte gör det kan vi se är uppdelade i hur lärandet sker i dessa, formellt respektive informellt. Vi har också funnit maktstrukturer i diskursen kopplat till kompetensutveckling, både riktat till deltagarna men också riktat till lärandet.   Vi strävar efter att tydliggöra kompetensutveckling som begrepp genom att koppla det till diskurs som teori i denna uppsats. / The purpose of this report is to illustrate how competence development as a term appears in a firms documents and texts. We intend to illustrate that the impact of language and written words can factor in the social relations of an activity. Firms of today put a great deal of reliance on explicit documentation to ensure the quality of daily work, as well as clarifying what should be done and by whom. Sometimes too much dependability is placed on the usage of these documents, as they could be only an idealized reality of the daily work.   Our start is a qualitative approach and as a method we use discourse analysis. This method proceeds from texts in the analysis and all of these discuss competence development as a term. When the term competence development is widely and complicated we support us upon Ellstrom´s definition. We proceed from a widely ground of former studies and literature to give trustworthiness to this report and it is this background we support us upon in our conclusions in the discussion.   What we have found is that in the studied discourse there are three sections of Ellstrom´s definition that are visible and two that are not. These sections who are visible and those who are not we can see that they are divided by in what way learning take place in them, formal respective informal. We have also found power structures in the discourse relating to competence development; both directed to the participants but also pointed to the learning.   We intend to clarify the term competence development as well as connect the discourse to the theory in this report.

This study is the first to analyze news coverage of a hegemonic struggle over a crisis that threatened to close a Southern safety net hospital. Such closure could have left indigent, African American men and women without health care access. The study utilizes critical discourse analysis to focus on news portrayals of patients and the struggle over whether the hospital would continue to be governed by a majority-Black, public board of directors or a nonprofit, private board recommended by a majority-White civic group. Results indicate that newspaper coverage privileged the elite, White view, while stereotypically representing indigent, Black patients as problematic. Coverage legitimized privatizing the hospital’s board through a neoliberal discourse that also portrayed its majority-Black board as incompetent.

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.

This thesis discusses how IKEA perceive and use concept of Sustainable Development and relates it with consumption. For that purpose, an online-survey was undertaken with the aim to see how IKEA´s customers perceive IKEA´s philanthropic activities in developing countries and how these activities influence on their consumption patterns and ideas of inter-generational justice. Besides that, a critical discourse analysis is performed with the intention to gain insight into IKEA´s communication of sustainable discourse focusing on the text and external communication from IKEA. The results from critical discourse analysis and online-survey showed that IKEA is shifting its position toward sustainability discourse and changing its business model, while at same time IKEA is penetrating into new markets and reaching new consumption under cover of corporate philanthropy. The online survey showed that IKEA´s customers stated a strong expression of necessary presence of inter-generational justice in developing countries. Intergenerational justice represents the moral obligations toward present, but also toward future generations. IKEA´s philanthropic activities in developing countries, on the other hand, were appraised as weak by survey respondents. One of the conclusions this thesis is that IKEA´s incorporation of Sustainable Development is associated with challenges. IKEA´s communication of corporate sustainable development effects on customers’ consumption pattern motivating them to buy and consume more IKEA´s products. IKEA´s philanthropic activities in developing countries are not sufficient enough. Survey respondents evaluated that donation efforts are not sufficient. Ideally, it is assumed that IKEA as a part of corporate sustainable development should promote less consumption and invest more in sustainable use and protection of natural resources with the aim to reach inter-generational justice as well as to incorporate Sustainable Development into its discourse and practice.

Abstract Title: Konstruktionen av sverigedemokraternas väljare Author: Magnus Persson & Max Lindberg Tutor: Leonor Camauër Course: Bachelor thesis, Media and communication.   The aim of this essay is to use a Critical Discourse Analytical (CDA) approach to analyse the construction of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) voters in news articles to see if and how they are separated as a group from the Swedish democratic community. This aim is broken down into two questions. How are the Sweden Democrats (SD) voters constructed in news articles in Dagens Nyheter (DN) and Aftonbladet (AB) regarding the aftermath of the national elections? What differences are there between the portrayal of the Sweden Democrats voters and the agents that are used as opposition to them? To answer these questions we have used CDA. We have taken our approach from a modified version of Teun Van Dijks CDA model for analysing news articles. Theoretically we have a CDA approach, we also use theory regarding “the other”. The methodological tools we have used are primarily analysis for Global and Local Coherens, analysis of lexicalization and Faircloughs analysis of Framing. We have also analysed the thematic and schematic structures of the news articles. The analysis is based on a schema and from that schema we have analysed nine news articles selected from a time period of seven days after the Swedish national elections in 2010. Four of the articles come from AB and five from DN. From our analyses we have identified three themes. The first one is common for both DN and AB. It is a theme where the SD voters are consistently portrayed as being dissatisfied both on a political and a social level. AB has also had a tendency to enter articles from a position that expects to find that SD is dependent on a climate of conflict between different social groups to be able to grow regionally. In DN we have found a theme where SD voters are portrayed as less politically aware and generally less knowledgeable than those who vote for the other parties of the Swedish parliament. Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, Sweden Democrats, Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, the others, political, right wing, populism.

Den här fallstudien behandlar olika individers föreställningar och uppfattningar om kön och genus i förskolan, i studien ingår både förskolepedagoger och föräldrar. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för studien är det socialkonstruktionistiska perspektivet. Studien är uppdelad i två delstudier; delstudie I består av intervjuer som analyserats med hjälp av kritisk diskursanalys och delstudie II har etnografisk ansats. Att studien består av två delstudier beror på att jag därmed kan belysa problematiken runt arbetsprocessen kring skapandet av ett gemensamt förhållningsätt vad gäller genusarbete i förskolan. Studien påvisar att begreppet genus uppfattas som något svårdefinierbart och informanternas svar tyder på en osäkerhet kring just detta begrepp. Studien uppvisar även att variationer vad gäller uppfattningar och föreställningar om genus och kön påverkar hur genusarbete i förskolan kan införas. Studiens båda delstudier belyser den problematik som arbetslaget på den valda förskolan står inför, att enas runt ett gemensamt förhållningssätt, när pedagoger och föräldrar har olika uppfattningar och föreställningar om genus. / This case study deals with conceptions and attitudes about gender in a preschool context and the study includes both preschool pedagogues and parents. The frame work of the study is made up by the Social constructive perspective and the study includes two parts. The first part includes interviews analyzed with Critical Discourse analysis and the second part includes an Ethnographical perspective. The reason to include two part studies is to draw attention to the difficulties in the working processes that surrounds the enforcement of a common ground for gender equality work in a preschool context. The study shows that the informants’ conceptions and attitudes about the word gender differ and this aspect effects the implementation of gender equality work at the examined preschool.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine high school students’ understandings and experiences of gender equality and to critically study the formulations and the basis of the project from Save the Children Sweden which are the basis for this master thesis. By using critical discourse analysis and gender theories the formulations and basis of the project and the interviews has been analyzed. The analysis of the project showed neglect for intersectional perspectives and taken for granted hidden opinions about masculinities and femininities. The interviews have been conducted with four high school students, and the students felt that they attend schools which are equal between genders. The analysis of the interviews gave another picture which showed that there are a number of factors that indicate that their schools aren’t equal between genders. The analysis deal with discourses as equality between gender and the lack of equality between gender, individuality, responsibility, resistance to change and will to change.

<p>Every year, approximately 17 500 drunk drivers are sued in Sweden. Of these, only 10 percent are women. The women are therefore considered a minority. In this study, I have taken interest in how the female drunk driver is constructed implemented by the probation service. By using critical discourse analysis I have found that the woman in these investigations is contributed the role of a deviant in two senses. She deviates because she is a woman who has committed a criminal deed and also because she often has problems with alcohol as well. I have found that the woman, because of these deviations, is depicted as a victim, both for the situation she is in and for her own actions.</p>

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which the Swedish lifestyle magazine VeckoRevyn construct the sex and love relations of bi- and homosexuals. We analyzed 22 unique texts in magazines, from 2009 to 2014, in order to get a result as current as possible. To represent the magazine overall we have selected texts from various parts of the magazine. With a critical discourse analysis and through relevant and significant theories and perspectives such as social constructionism and heteronormativity, we found that VeckoRevyn represent sex and love relations of bi- and homosexuals through four discourses. The outcome of our study shows that VeckoRevyn only represent a limited part of bi- and homosexuals sex and love relations. In the analysed texts bi- and homosexuals are forced to “come out of the closet” repeatedly and their sexual relations are rarely represented. When the sexual relations are represented, it’s frequently through fantasies or in extreme ways with an attempt to entertain. VeckoRevyn tells the readers that it’s stupid to label oneself as bi- or homosexual, nevertheless VeckoRevyn often uses labels as a big part of their construction of bi- and homosexuals identities. Bi- and homosexuals never really come out of the closet, they are forced to always be standing in the doorway.