Today, nine out of ten municipalities are active on social media and it has become increasingly popular among municipalities that make use of placemarketing to promote their particular region. A problem that is raised in this study is that the population of the municipalities in northern Sweden often is in decline. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a democratic-controlled organization such as Luleå Municipality uses the social media Facebook in its placemarketing, to highlight a place of scale and to attract new residents and stakeholders to move to or visit the city. In order to answer the purpose I have with the help of a critical discourse analysis examined how Luleå Municipality using social media Facebook in their marketing of Luleå as a place. The results were then analyzed using theories of placemarketing, Norrland and the market-oriented municipality. The analysis showed that it is clear that Luleå Municipality use placemarketing on the Facebook page of Luleå. This is large parts of the posts was about highlighting the site's advantages in terms of events and activities and great nature and environment images. / I dag är nio av tio kommuner aktiva på sociala medier och det har blivit allt mer populärt bland kommuner att använda sig av platsmarknadsföring för att marknadsföra just sin region. En problematik som lyfts i denna studie är att befolkningsmängden i kommuner i Norrland ofta är på nedgående. Denna studies syfte är att undersöka hur en demokratisk styrd organisation som Luleå kommun använder sig av det sociala mediet Facebook i sin platsmarknadsföring för att lyfta fram en plats fördelar och för att locka nya invånare och aktörer att flytta till staden eller för att besöka platsen. För att kunna besvara syftet har jag med hjälp av en kritisk diskursanalys undersökt hur Luleå kommun använder sociala mediet Facebook i sin marknadsföring av platsen Luleå. Resultatet har sedan analyserats med hjälp av teorier om platsmarknadsföring, Norrland och den marknadsorienterade kommunen. Analysen visade att det är tydligt att Luleå kommun använder sig av platsmarknadsföring i sin uppdatering på Facebook-sidan Luleå. Detta genom att stora delar av inläggen handlade om att lyfta fram platsens fördelar i form av händelser och aktiviteter samt fina natur och miljöbilder.

This dissertation analyzes instructional leadership and evaluation protocols from a large, diverse district in the Southeastern United States in order to investigate layers of accountability and tensions created when principals are asked to fill the dual roles of both instructional leader and supervisor in a newly implemented teacher evaluation system reform. For this dissertation I investigate the role of the principal as a colleague and mentor and compare this with the role of the principal as supervisor and evaluator in hierarchical systems. I include the role of the peer evaluator, a new position, in my analysis. Critical discourse analysis is utilized, primarily informed by Fairclough's Three Dimensional Framework for investigating discourses of instructional leadership and attendant Foucauldian notions of governability. The analysis shows that district administrators, principals, peer evaluators, and teachers employ nuanced definitions of instructional leadership. These definitions are impacted by deeply entrenched norms of what it means to be a principal and a teacher within the hierarchy of the school district of interest. Principals in this study were able to navigate the dual roles of instructional leadership and supervision largely due to how they and teachers defined the role of instructional leadership. The teacher evaluation reform has brought with it a new perspective on the hierarchy coinciding with new power dynamics. The results of this study have implications for our understanding of the role of the principal and how that role is constructed by principals and teachers as well as district administrators and peer evaluators.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau (2012), the United States is the world's fifth most populous Spanish-speaking country, with over 35 million Spanish-speakers. In addition, Spanish is the most widely taught foreign language in the United States, with more students enrolled in Spanish at the higher-education level than in all other modern languages combined, as detailed in a 2010 report from the Modern Language Association (MLA). How are these two realities connected? Is the United States' status as a top Spanish-speaking country reflected in Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) and Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) curricula at the university level? This case study of a large, Southwestern university, which is home to SFL and SHL programs among the largest in the country, explores that question using a two-tiered approach. First, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is employed to examine the ideological underpinnings of how spoken varieties of Spanish, with particular emphasis on U.S. Spanish, are presented in first-year and second-year university-level SFL and SHL textbooks used at the university. Second, focus groups of SFL and SHL instructors are conducted to gain insight into their beliefs and practices regarding language variety in the classroom. The study finds a systematic reinforcement of the ideology of a monolithic 'standard' Spanish in the SFL and SHL textbooks and curricula, with only cursory attention paid to regional varieties of Spanish and an oftentimes explicit de-legitimization of U.S. Spanish in particular.

The aim of this paper is to examine how the press describes the public and private role of the Swedish monarch in texts that report about the biography Carl XVI Gustaf – den motvillige monarken (Sjöberg et al. 2010) when it is published in November 2010. The examined period ranges between the days just before the release and a fortnight after. The analysis is limited to standard Swedish papers: a daily, Svenska Dagbladet, and an evening paper, Expressen. Questions asked in the study are: In what ways do the analysed texts raise a discussion about the monarchy’s importance or function in the society of today, that is a public debate on the monarchy? To what extension are status symbols used in the constructing of royalty, that is what Jürgen Habermas (2003) describes as representative publicity? What similarities and differences are found when comparing the news articles in the daily and in the evening paper? The method used to answer the aim and questions is the critical discourse analysis, as Norman Fairclough (1995) describes it, and the theoretical perspective of the essay is Jürgen Habermas’ (2003) theory about the bourgeois public sphere. The result shows that the news articles in the daily unsurprisingly construct only a public who wants to debate on the monarchy. The evening paper instead addresses its readers both as cultural consumers, which the study sees as representative publicity, and as civilians who want to discuss the monarchy’s importance or function of today’s society. Important to notice is that when the evening paper is challenging the monarchy it’s always made in an implicit manner. The public role of the monarch is in both the daily and the evening paper said to be powerful and his public role is said to influence his private role in different ways. It is also obvious that the focus in Expressen is upon the most intimate sphere of the privacy of the monarch. The description of the private room is important here, in addition the spatial portraying uses status symbols when constructing royalty. Finally, the analysis shows that the monarch simultaneously portrays both as an ordinary human being and as a very special person in exclusive surroundings. Earlier research has proved that Swedish media wants to describe royalty like this.

Genom en kritisk diskursanalys söker jag svaret på vilka diskurser som finns i mitt urval av dokument. Med sociokulturellt perspektiv som teoretisk grund väljer jag att titta på kunskap och lärande. Utgångspunkt för analysen är Europarådets rekommendationer inom programmet Utbildning 2010, där ett underlag gavs i form av åtta nyckelkompetenser för livslångt lärande (EU 2006a). Jag tittar på digital kompetens, som är en av nyckelkompetenserna som varje europeisk medborgare ska utveckla. Jag analyserar också dokument som finns med i processen för den reformerade svenska gymnasieskolan Gy 2011. Jag undersöker här vilka diskurser som kan läsas i skrivningen i dessa texter. Hur diskurserna är konstituerade kommer att få en påverkan på IKT-utbildningen inom reformen GY 2011. Efter att ha genomfört en kritisk diskursanalys kan jag se att reformen för GY 2011 bygger på dokument där framträdande diskurser konstitueras. En kvalitetsdiskurs och en specialiseringsdiskurs är utgångspunkten i ämnesplaner och utbildningsdokument som definierar Gy 2011. Det är möjligt att se den självständighet som Skolverket och Regeringen visar, då de europeiska dokumenten, med nyckelkompetenser för livslångt lärande inte påverkar nationella texterna i en större utsträckning. Den säkerhetsdiskurs som jag identifierar i dokumentet för digital kompetens är inte lika framträdande i nationella skrivningar. Samtidigt visar den kritiska diskursanalysen, relationellt, att Skolverket besitter en självständighet gentemot Regeringen och en europeisk utbildningspolitik. Skolverket tolkar syftet med nyckelkompetensernas innehåll, som ”varje medborgares möjlighet till ett gott liv med möjligheter till självförsörjning”. I reformen för GY 2011 visar Skolverket att man i sina dokument använder skrivningar som ligger längre från diskurserna i nyckelkompetensen digital kompetens. / By a critical discourse analysis, I seek the answer to the discourses that are in my selection of documents. With the socio-cultural perspective as a theoretical basis I choose to look at knowledge and learning. Starting point for the analysis is the Council of Europe recommendations in Education and Training 2010, stated in the form of eight key competences for lifelong learning (EU 2006a). I look at digital literacy, which is one of key competences that every European citizen must develop. I also analyze papers contained in the process of the reformed Swedish upper secondary school Gy 2011th I examine here the discourses that can be read into the wording of these texts. how discourses are constituted will have an impact on the ICT education in reform GY 2011th After carrying out a critical discourse analysis, I can see that the reform of GY 2011 is based documents in which the dominant discourses constituted. A quality of discourse and a specialized discourse is the starting point in the subject plans and training documents defines Gy 2011th It is possible to ensure the independence of the National Agency and The government shows, when the European documents, with the key competences for lifelong learning does not affect national texts in a larger extent. The security discourse which I identify in the document for digital literacy is not as prominent in national projections. At the same time the critical discourse analysis, relational, that The Agency possesses an independence from government and a European education policy. The Agency interprets the purpose of the key skills to their content, which "Every citizen the opportunity to live a good life with opportunities for self-sufficiency." IN reform for GY 2011 shows the National Agency that in their documents using wordings located further from the discourses of key digital literacy skills.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyze how Bolaget, a paper published by the Swedish alcohol monopoly retailer Systembolaget, constructs issues of alcohol in 18 preventive articles published between 2009 and 2012. More specifically the essay focuses on the consequences of alcohol, as well as its consumers and functions. Systembolaget is a distributor of alcohol and at the same time has an assignment by the state to reduce alcohol-related harm. This double role makes the alcohol prevention of Systembolaget, and their perspective on consequences, consumers and functions of alcohol, an interesting object of study. The theoretical and methodological basis is Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. The results show that a medical expertise is given the power to define the problems of alcohol. This has implications for the field of social work since it suggests that alcohol problems are mainly of physiological concern. Regarding drinking behavior, sobriety and moderation are two competing discourses; both are portrayed as desirable. Men’s and women’s drinking is problematized differently. A hegemonic discourse on gender, in which men and women are constructed as essentially different and men constitute the norm, is reproduced.

In the early 2010s, competitive market logic was introduced into healthcare systems so as to achieve rapid improvements. This took place as improvement policies began to emphasize the notion of collaboration as a method of ensuring patient safety across organizational boundaries. This thesis addresses how staff, in their practical improvement work, balance economic values, on the one hand, against meaningful solutions for the patient, on the other. The research interest focuses on the particular interpretations about improvements that emerge in negotiations about change. These interpretations are foundational to the learning that simultaneously takes place. The aim of the thesis is to analyse and explain the pedagogical conditions that take place in improvement practices in a healthcare system in the 2010s. The thesis takes its theoretical point of departure in a pedagogical theory that describes how contextual conditions influence learning processes in a specific practice where communication is foundational for learning. The thesis uses critical discourse analysis as a methodological point of departure and builds on a model of improvement work, namely, the clinical microsystem. The first study consists of a literature review of the microsystem framework. Subsequently, three case studies were conducted at Jönköping county council, Sweden. Discussions of improvements at clinical meetings and improvement coaches’ reflections over their pedagogical approaches provide the empirical data for the case studies. The findings show that market logic gives rise to a number of displacement effects with respect to learning processes. Short-term profits are shown to supersede goals of a more profound development of knowledge. The composition of an improvement practice is of critical importance to the nature of the negotiation that takes place, and thus how the practice comes to successfully challenge things that are taken for granted and the power structures that exist within the practice. Improvement coaches themselves become pedagogical prerequisites under the influence of the prevailing conditions, as they promote different learning organizations. This thesis develops the conceptual framework that is instantiated by the clinical microsystem, and it also contributes to the social constructionist field of improvement science by establishing pedagogical and discursive perspectives on improvement and change. / Bridging the Gaps

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how power structures concerning gender and sexuality emerge through the use of language in the Swedish reality show Paradise Hotel. Of particular interest is the representation of heterosexual relations in the show. Because of its interest in the relationship between power, gender and sexuality, the thesis is based on theories from gender and discourse studies. The specific theories referred to are Michel Foucault’s understanding of power, stereotypes according to Stuart Hall, Yvonne Hirdman’s gender system and contract theory, Judith Butler’s heterosexual matrix and R.W. Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity. The empirical data consists of eight episodes of Paradise Hotel from 2014, which has been transcribed and analysed through the use of Norman Furlough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA). The results showed that Paradise Hotel portrays the male and female participants as fundamentally different and therefore they are allowed to behave in different ways. Among other things, it appeared that men have a high sex drive and they expect to get this need satisfied. The women on the other hand are discredited if they have sex with many partners. As a part of the concept of Paradise Hotel is to share rooms with a partner of the opposite sex there are certain expectations of intimacy. The male participants exercise power by claiming their partners as possessions. Neither do they respect the female boundaries regarding their bodies and sexuality. The women also participate in maintaining the patriarchal order in the show. However, some of the female participants oppose to a norm saying women should be sexually passive. For competition purposes they use their bodies and cunning in order to influence the men. Notably, while some of the discourses that emerged in the analysis reflect social power structures, others are reserved to Paradise Hotel since there are rules that only apply to the show.

Denna uppsats har till syfte att studera den debatt som uppstod efter den 9:e december, då en rapport om CIA:s användning av tortyr som del av kriget mot terrorismen släpptes. Detta sker igenom en kritisk diskursanalys av amerikansk media, specifikt med en metod kallad förklarande kritik, med fokus på vad politiker citeras säga och vad opinionsskribenter själva säger gör tortyr rätt eller fel att använda. Igenom analys av sådant material ges här både en inblick i de ställningstaganden som görs i debatten, där censur av rapporten bidrar till att en debatt där båda parter kan göra starka sanningsanspråk om effektivitet och politisering, samt även förklaringar av de pragmatiska och affektiva argument som används i media för att legitimera CIA:s tortyranvändning. / This essay has as its purpose to study the debate that occurred after the 9th of December, when a report about CIA’s use of torture as part of the war against terror was released. This is done through a critical discourse analysis of American media, specifically through a method called explanatory critique, focusing upon what politicians are cited to say, and what various opinion writers say make torture right or wrong to employ. Through analysis of such material, a glimpse is given into the positions that are taken in the debate, where redactions contribute to a debate where both parties can make strong claims of truth about efficacy and politisation, along with explanations of the pragmatic and emotional arguments used in media to legitimize CIA’s use of torture.

This dissertation seeks to delineate some of the fault lines of the disparate worldviews and assumptions that have polarized our national discourse, as well as the imbalances of power they support or disrupt. Building on previous case studies of ideologically oppositional political blogs, the dissertation examines thirty-nine key documents from the website torturingdemocracy.org, primarily legal memos written by Bush Administration lawyers (the “Torture Memos”), to analyze a rhetoric of torture that, as a subset of the war on terror, serves as a “ground zero” of political values and motivations. Further, it seeks to combine mixed methods of analysis from various disciplines to help reveal the underlying beliefs and values that inform current national discourse. The cross-disciplinary methods combine rhetorical, linguistic, and critical discourse analyses to examine and interrogate the language that created metaphorical and actual spaces in which torture was legalized, employed, and legitimated. Applying a grounded theory approach to Huckin’s four levels of linguisticgranularity--context, text, phrase, and word (including the use of concordancing software)--the research reveals the logical fallacies, faulty argumentation, slippery word usage, linguistic and rhetorical manipulations, and finally, authoritarian underpinnings that characterize the memos. The research further uncovers multiple strategies used to create the Other, such as Lazar and Lazar’s four micro-strategies of “outcasting” (criminalization, (e)vilification, orientalization, and enemy construction), and strategies of minimizing or maximizing the positive and negative traits of in-versus out-groups in van Dijk’s “ideological square.” The research shows how, in the language of the war on terror, words take on different, even opposite, meanings from previous significations, shifting the national debate about the legitimacy of torture as a hypothetical means of protection. Further, close examination reveals a different intent behind the memos than the purported defense of the country used repeatedly to justify torture. Findings illuminate the memos as the products of authoritarian followers who enabled what Altemeyer calls “double highs”—ideological social dominants with an authoritarian worldview--in a wide-reaching and largely successful bid for power. Lastly, the dissertation points to the need to further investigate and articulate an anti-authoritarian, social egalitarian worldview as a challenge to power structures that, enshrined in language, may constitute a serious threat to democracy. / The great divide -- Review of the literature -- Methods and methodology -- The scene, the agents, their agency and their purpose : conceptions of power and the torture debate -- Torture and the law -- Thirty-nine documents -- The "semantic tap-dance" : discursive, rhetorical and lexico-grammatical strategies in the torture memos -- Constructions of identity -- Constructing torture -- Analysis and conclusions. / Department of English