This thesis is a critique of Critical Social Theory from a post-structural perspective. It considers its contribution to the vision of Skinner, Pocock, Foucault and Derrida and argues against the juxtaposition of modern language and concepts with postmodern themes, as a proximity, which suggests an authentic postmodemity and so critical social theorists as 'better knowers'. It argues that critical social theory is a hermeneutic approach, which tears texts of the past apart to reveal what they were 'really saying'. This, it argues implies an objectivism which sustains that access. An objective theory which, permits, it argues, an indictment of a bad or wrong Realist approach in international relations in favour of a "more authentic" poststructural understanding of the discipline. The thesis then concludes that the problem is the 'instrumental' use of poststructural concepts to liberate the oppressed from a tradition, which constrains poststructuralism, but from which critical social theory must consequently 'step away'. So that critical social theory violates the tenets ofpoststructuralism. Finally, it observes how this approach appears little changed from its intellectual heritage in critical theory as the political determination of the approach, and how this common heritage has led to a common approach within the discipline.

Balancing the rights of the individual to lead a self-determined life while accommodating traditional identity groups is a central goal of liberal society. The modernity argument suggests that processes within modernity are capable of liberalizing societies. The emergence of modern information technology has drastically increased the speed of the liberalizing influence of modernity to the point that this goal is threatened. However, using tools found within discourse theory, traditional identity groups may be able to mitigate these incoming influences to such a degree as to rebalance these liberal goals.

Secular nationalism, India?s official ideology and the basis for its secular Constitution, is being challenged by the rising religious nationalist discourses. This has resulted in an ongoing struggle between the secular and religious nationalist discourses. Since women are regarded as symbols of religious tradition and purity, the religious nationalist discourses subject them to increasing rules and regulations aimed at controlling their behavior to conform to the ideal of religious purity. In this study I examine the subject positions that the Hindu and Muslim nationalist discourses in India are constructing for "their women" and its implication for women's citizenship rights. I focus my research on two topics, where religious nationalist discourses intersect with the women's question in obvious ways. These are "the Muslim personal law" and "marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men". The Muslim personal law has emerged as the most important symbol of Muslim identity over the years, and holds an important position within the Hindu and the Muslim nationalist discourses as well as the secular discourse. The debates around the Muslim personal law are centered on questions of religious freedom and equal citizenship rights for Muslim women. The issue of marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men is located in the Hindu nationalist discourse?s larger theme pertaining to the threat that the Muslim "other" poses to the Hindu community/nation. I juxtapose the religious nationalist discourses with the secular nationalist discourse to understand how the latter is contesting and negotiating with the former two to counter the restrictive subject positions that the religious nationalist discourses are constructing for Hindu and Muslim women. The study is based on the content of debates taken from three mainstream English newspapers in India. Further, interviews with people associated with projects related to women rights and/or countering religious nationalism are used to supplement the analysis. The analysis is carried out using concepts from Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory. The analysis suggests that the subject positions being constructed by the religious nationalist discourses for Hindu and Muslim women, although different from each other, freeze them as subjects of religious communities, marginalizing or rejecting their identities as subjects of State with equal citizenship rights. The women rights and secular discourse counters this by offering a subject position with more agency and rights compared to the former two. However, it is increasingly getting trapped within the boundaries being set by the religious nationalist discourses. I argue that there is a need for women rights and secular discourse to break the boundaries being set by the religious nationalist discourses. In order to prevent the sedimentation of the meaning "women as subjects of community", the secular discourse needs to employ the vocabulary of liberal citizenship as rearticulated in feminist, pluralist terms.

Faculty of Humanities School of Education 8900024a watsonp@clm.wits.ac.za / An understanding of how and what students learn is crucial to improving teaching and learning practices in universities. In the South African context, the need to achieve equity in outcome (success) gives this imperative a sharper urgency. This study investigates the development in student understandings of the concept ‘law’ during a semester of tertiary-level introductory legal study. The study begins from the understanding that ontogenetic development, in the Vygotskian sense, arises from interaction in the social domain, prior to becoming internalized as individual mental structure. The study is thus based on an understanding that the social domain plays a critical role in ontogenesis. In order to make the role of this domain evident, the study combines a Vygotskian frame, and a Vygotskian understanding of the role played by semiotic mediation in development, with a Discourse account of language. The work of Gee is used for this purpose. It is suggested that the two sets of theory are complementary, each providing a dimension that is comparatively lacking in the other. Additional literature is drawn on to further clarify the individual / social relation and it is suggested that the social domain influences individual development in at least two ways: first through the action of context, and how this acts to position text and individuals acting within it; and secondly through historical positioning: through the cultural model understandings brought to the task by the participants. From this theory is drawn a framework for analysis of the empirical data studied. This data included two essays written by students on the topic ‘What is Law’, the first at the beginning, and the second after six months, of introductory legal study. Additional data studied included the course-pack materials of the course, and transcripts of the lecture series. The primary question addressed in the research is: how can an account of first-year undergraduate students’ development of the concept ‘law’ in an introductory course on law be provided, such that the analysis enables an understanding of the role of the social domain in ontogenesis? Specific questions addressed in analysis included whether cultural model understandings, which differed between the different groups studied, were evident in initial student writings, and if so, whether these understandings might help or hinder concept development; what power relations were evident in the context, and how these could be expected to position students; and finally, what Discourse appropriate changes (development) could be read in student texts, and how this could be related both to contextual positioning and prior knowledge held. The findings of this study are specific to the study and cannot be extrapolated to different circumstances. However, at the empirical level the study suggests that factors likely to be associated with success in this context include Discourse familiarity, content foregrounding in prior knowledge structures, the development of authority in writing, and identity shifts towards an ‘insider’ position. Factors found to be associated with lack of success include conflicts of new knowledge with prior knowledge structures, a lack of recognition of the task constraints, a strong identification with a different community, and confusion resulting from contradictions in the mediation provided. These factors may help to understand differential performance in the context by students from different cultural backgrounds. At a broader level, the study suggests that the addition of a Discourse account to a Vygotskian understanding of development provides tools for analysis which are generative in contributing to understandings of how the social impacts on the individual in development. These tools make explicit the intractable nature of the content, form and values combination which functions in language to reproduce context, and through this positions individual development-in-context. This positioning does not act deterministically: through trajectory and choice, identity and individual positioning are a crucial construct in learning. Finally, the study provides evidence of the complexity of the interaction of this content, form, values combination in development: an analysis which focused on content alone would not have captured the richness of development which this method made evident

In the #metoo movement some men were named in accusations of sexual harassment or sexual abuse. Some people compared the naming to a mob society and that was the inspiration behind this essay. The aim of this essay is to compare the namings linked to #metoo with shame punishment when it was used as a punishment method by the Swedish judicial system. The theoretical perspectives used in this study are Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau’s discourse theory and Michel Foucault’s theories about punishment and discipline. The methods used to collect the empirical material are netnography, where some discussion threads have been studied, archive studies and a survey. The intention was that there should have been more material from archives used, but since it turned out to be difficult within this time frame, the information was instead mostly found in previous studies and other literature. The material showed that there are some similarities between the naming and shame punishment, but there are also aspects that make them differ. The similarities are that they both can be seen as punishment, the shame punishment was also much about sexual offenses, shame is an aim and they have both received critic by those who think it is a cruel thing to do to someone. The differences are that the body is not a part of the namings, the shame punishments were practiced by the juridical system and that it was easier to get out of a shame punishment if a person was rich. In addition men who broke the law against any sexual intercourse outside of marriage had it easier to avoid getting caught since they were not the ones getting pregnant. In #metoo money or gender was/is not a guarantee to escape being named and/or identified as a sex-offender.

<p>The values of the Swedish school system is said to be rooted in the ethics of Christianity and western humanism. Critics say that this expression can be seen as a sign of an obscured eurocentrism when world-wide accepted values is said to be cared for by Christianity and the west. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the politicians argue on this issue, why the values of the Swedish school system should be said to be cared for by the ethics of Christianity and the western humanism. I also want to examine if these arguments in fact corresponds with the worldview of eurocentrism. The examination consists of a discourse analysis review of, for example, journals of the Swedish parliament, which is later compared with the theories of eurocentrism.</p><p>I believe the argumentation can be categorized in three main categories: first a conservative ideological perspective where they are driven by the notion that the Swedish culture could be defined by establishing and defending its foundations; a philosophical/religious perspective where they want to justify the indisputable values they believe should be maintained in the schools; a eurocentric/psychological perspective where they tend to express the Swedish identity by defining what is typically characteristic of “us” and typically characteristic of “the others”. More than that, they seem to be making allowances for the fact that the political situation demands it. The debates are more or less imprinted by a eurocentric discourse, and there are significant differences between the different parties as well as between the political blocks.</p>

The values of the Swedish school system is said to be rooted in the ethics of Christianity and western humanism. Critics say that this expression can be seen as a sign of an obscured eurocentrism when world-wide accepted values is said to be cared for by Christianity and the west. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the politicians argue on this issue, why the values of the Swedish school system should be said to be cared for by the ethics of Christianity and the western humanism. I also want to examine if these arguments in fact corresponds with the worldview of eurocentrism. The examination consists of a discourse analysis review of, for example, journals of the Swedish parliament, which is later compared with the theories of eurocentrism. I believe the argumentation can be categorized in three main categories: first a conservative ideological perspective where they are driven by the notion that the Swedish culture could be defined by establishing and defending its foundations; a philosophical/religious perspective where they want to justify the indisputable values they believe should be maintained in the schools; a eurocentric/psychological perspective where they tend to express the Swedish identity by defining what is typically characteristic of “us” and typically characteristic of “the others”. More than that, they seem to be making allowances for the fact that the political situation demands it. The debates are more or less imprinted by a eurocentric discourse, and there are significant differences between the different parties as well as between the political blocks.

In this study we explore the present discourses on drugs and drug consumption in Colombia, a country known for its drugs, and foremost its cocaine production. Interviewing and analyzing the statements according to discourse theory made by the professional key actors in the country, the study asserts that three discourses are present in the Colombian context, namely the public health discourse, the deprivation discourse and the pleasure discourse. These discourses, it is demonstrated, view the consumer of psychoactive substances from different perspectives and relate consumption to different causes, consequences and solutions. While the public health discourse is closely connected to viewing the consumer as a sick person, and describes consumption mainly as addiction, the deprivation discourse rather speaks of the consumer as a marginalised person consuming to escape a harsh reality. According to the third perspective, the pleasure discourse, it is focal that the consumption is related to socialising and recreation. In the course of the exploration of this context and its discourses, attention is paid to the fact that the discourses are many times described as being in opposition to one another although the respondents commonly refer to different social classes while describing the consumer and that each discourse this way is related to certain groups in society. This study presents different Colombian perspectives on drug consumption, a so far scarcely researched area in the otherwise so scrutinized drug issue, viewed from a social work perspective.

The main purpose of this study is to show how narrative can be understood as cultural practice, how it can be said to function both internally and externally, and to ask questions about how the narrating subject, through the organizing of narrative, positions it self and mediates between the different discoursive contexts of which it is a part. This is done by an analisys of how six swedish soldiers tells the tale of how they came to choose a military carrer and why they have served or want to serve in peace-keeping missions abroad. The source material is primarily collected through unstructured interviews with theese soldiers, but also through textual analysis of a soldier blog. Theoretically the study draws on a combination of the discourse theory of Michel Foucault, narrative theory, Richard Jenkins theory of the internal-external dialectic of identifikation and intersectionality to construct a framework that allows the narratives to be deconstructed and understood as discoursive products of both the military contexts as such and the larger cultrual context that surrounds it. The conclusions of this study suggests that the organizing of soldier narratives are a complex and multifaceted process, in which the soliders must balance between the ideals, values and norms of the military context while also taking into account how society at large views and interprets the practices and forms of military life. It is also argued that the construction of swedish national identity during the second half of the twentieth century, which put a large emphasis on civilian modernity and neutrality rather than on the military, when combined with the previously implemented conscript system, creates a discourse in which it is hard to make sense of the choice to voluntarily become a part of the military context.

Around the world, females typically represent fifteen per cent or less of registered professional engineers. They also leave the profession at significantly higher rates than their male counterparts. Incidences of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination continue to be reported in interviews with female graduate engineers. Despite many years of study and initiatives to get more females into engineering, girls and women continue to avoid this profession. Research into the workplace experiences of female engineers tends to neglect organizational and institutional contexts. In particular, there is a lack of attention paid to the ways in which engineering associations, as regulatory bodies in the profession, support their female members. To that end, Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and concept of hegemony were used to open new empirical terrain by providing an account of the sexual harassment and sexual discrimination discourse of the Ontario professional engineering association. It was found that the discourse of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination is hegemonized by the discourses of regulation and the practice of engineering. Critical gender equality issues that academic research has reported for female practitioners inside engineering workplaces, such as sexual harassment and sexual discrimination, are considered outside of the practices of regulation and engineering. Gender work within the association is confined to supporting the female members of the profession and is performed by the female members of the association. This contributes to the maintenance of the status quo, the illusion of gender neutrality, and the privileging of one gender over another in this local setting of the profession. It is recommended that engineering associations examine the effects of hegemonized spaces created by their practices of regulation and professional engineering discourse, particularly in the area of the workplace conditions of its members. It is also recommended that the scope and range of gender equity change actions practiced by engineering associations go beyond mainly providing modes of support for females in the profession. / 2013-03