This thesis is using the idea that climate change is a product of discourses. It puts focus on the knowledge creation of particular climate change governance. This thesis aims to identify the discursive articulations of carbon trading in the Czech EU ETS. Environmental discourses, informed by M. Foucaults governmentality concept, have an impact on how climate change is rendered governable. Discourse analysis of the Czech EU ETS uses governmentality lens to detect fields of visibility, technical aspects, forms of knowledge and formations of identities of the particular environmental discourse to uncover, how the EU ETS is translated into the national level and how does it hold together.

Despite a general consensus regarding anthropogenic global climate change across the international scientific community, many of the major greenhouse gas producers in the world, especially the United States, are hesitant to implement strict emissions regulations. According to some prominent atmospheric scientists, such as James Hansen and Michael Mann, if industrialized countries continue to produce carbon emissions at current rates, an irreversible planetary tipping point of raising temperatures 2°C above pre-industrial levels could be reached in less than 40 years. Societies have a wealth of information from the natural sciences to understand the climate problem and currently possess the technological means to address it. But substantial regulatory policies have not been implemented, clean energy technologies have not been established as the primary energy source, and widespread behavioral changes needed to create sustainable societies have not been fostered. This dissertation seeks to understand why the preponderance of scientific evidence surrounding climate change has not produced a sea change of public perceptions of the climate change problem consistent with the dire projections of climate science. It is grounded in four interrelated questions: (1) What are the prevalent discourses of climate change and to which institutions can these be attached? (2) How do suburban residents understand climate change? (3) Since electricity is a major link between suburban lifestyles and climate change, how does knowledge of climate change compare with knowledge of electricity production and consumption? (4) In what ways do institutional discourses of climate change connect to the viewpoints of suburban consumers? These questions were explored through a case study carried out in a neighborhood in the city of Tampa, Florida. Forty-six semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted to understand perceptions related to climate change, suburban consumption, and environmental conservation. The interviews compiled information pertaining to personal knowledge and representations of socio-ecological relationships. The findings indicate that most relationships or connections to the natural world in general, and climate change in particular, are produced by the arrangements and processes of capital accumulation as experienced in everyday practices. Suburban residents seemed disconnected from or ignorant about how their everyday consumption is related to climate change. Based on ideological formations, as manifest in institutional discourses and material practices, suburban residents accept the social processes and spatial forms that they inhabit as being the only possible options for suburban living.

This thesis will argue that one of the main challenges for deliberative democracy is the lack of attention paid to the different modes of deliberative practices. The theories of deliberative democracy often treat deliberation as a decision-making process. Yet, I would argue that this approach fails to appreciate the full benefits of deliberation because it ignores the fundamental role that the social learning phase of deliberation plays in reconciling differences. Hence I argue for a deliberative framework in which social learning and decision-making moments of deliberation are analytically differentiated so that the resources of social learning are freed from the pressures of decision-making procedures and are therefore no longer subordinated to the terms of decision-making.¶ This is particularly important for countries such as Turkey where divisions cut deep across society. A case study examines the discourses of the Turkish public sphere regarding Islam, democracy and secularism to identify the kinds of discourses present in relation to the topic in question. By analysing the types of discourses through Q methodology the study reveals points of convergence and divergence between discourses, hence provides significant insight into how deliberation oriented to social learning can play a substantive role in reconciling differences between sharply divided groups.

Brokering Changes refers to the ways in which teachers broker their compliance with a new literacy knowledge base for adults. This thesis reports a study of twenty-three members of a cohort of adult literacy teachers working in regional, rural and remote communities throughout Central Queensland from 1996 to 2001. It details the performance and recognition work that these teachers did as they negotiated their way through a large curriculum reform as literacy was redefined from something that was negotiated as useful for the learner to something that is named and mandated by the state. The theoretical framework engages with interrelated notions of power, discourse and identity with supporting conceptualisations of ideology, work and pedagogy in the production and exercise of disciplinary power as understood through the thinking of Michel Foucault (1984). The methodological approach deploys James Gee’s (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996a, 1996b, 1997, 1999) particular socio-cultural theory of D/discourse. Spoken, written and observed data are analysed using Gee’s (1993, 1999) interrelated linguistic system’s analysis method. The major finding is that these teachers actively broker the effects of these changes through their professional practices. This study is an important contribution to the literature concerning the professional lives of teachers of adults in an era of fast capital and performance-based government. Significantly, the research provides important insights into the problems faced by teachers who are confronted with the implementation of major curriculum reforms while living far removed from the networks and activities of the system in which they worked.

<p>Between 1990 and 1992/1993 there was a dramatic change in the Swedish labor market, resulting in an increased number of unemployed and social assistance recipients. As a response to this situation, many municipalities developed local activation programs. One of these programs, the “Uppsala model” – practiced in the City of Uppsala and characterized by a “paternalistic discourse” with sharp means tests, control and sanctions – was quite controversial. The general purpose of this dissertation is to study<b> </b>the effects of this activation method on the claimants and to study these effects with regard to the intentions underlying the method. The central questions are whether this method contributed to a greater number of claimants leaving the system for work or education, after a shorter period of time and on a more permanent basis compared to an alternative and more “traditional” method characterized by a “redistributive discourse”. Another central question is whether the method was effective under different economic conditions. The data used in the analyses were taken from two social welfare offices and included 509 able-bodied individuals who applied for allowances in either 1990 or 1992, reporting unemployment as the main reason. The main results indicated no systematic differences between the two methods with respect to outcome variables such as length of time on social assistance, probability of obtaining a regular job or an education. There were some indications (non-significant) of an increased probability of returning with claims for social assistance and after a shorter period of time, associated with the paternalist Uppsala model. The great importance of the labor market to recipients` possibilities to leave the social assistance system for work, irrespective of working method, was also shown in the study.</p>

<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> <p align="left">In this study, the two most dominant sexual discourses were the male sexual drive discourse and the have/hold discourse. These discourses, together with traditional gender constructions, made condom negotiation difficult for women. Nevertheless, the discourses and constructions were also resisted and challenged. This study was limited by its focus on heterosexual women and the negotiation of condom use. Future studies which explore alternate forms of safe sex, sexual orientation and allow men&rsquo / s experiences to emerge would provide greater insight.</p> </font></font></p>

Between 1990 and 1992/1993 there was a dramatic change in the Swedish labor market, resulting in an increased number of unemployed and social assistance recipients. As a response to this situation, many municipalities developed local activation programs. One of these programs, the “Uppsala model” – practiced in the City of Uppsala and characterized by a “paternalistic discourse” with sharp means tests, control and sanctions – was quite controversial. The general purpose of this dissertation is to study<b> </b>the effects of this activation method on the claimants and to study these effects with regard to the intentions underlying the method. The central questions are whether this method contributed to a greater number of claimants leaving the system for work or education, after a shorter period of time and on a more permanent basis compared to an alternative and more “traditional” method characterized by a “redistributive discourse”. Another central question is whether the method was effective under different economic conditions. The data used in the analyses were taken from two social welfare offices and included 509 able-bodied individuals who applied for allowances in either 1990 or 1992, reporting unemployment as the main reason. The main results indicated no systematic differences between the two methods with respect to outcome variables such as length of time on social assistance, probability of obtaining a regular job or an education. There were some indications (non-significant) of an increased probability of returning with claims for social assistance and after a shorter period of time, associated with the paternalist Uppsala model. The great importance of the labor market to recipients` possibilities to leave the social assistance system for work, irrespective of working method, was also shown in the study.

This paper analyses three of the dominating discourses Anders Behring Breivik used in his compendium, the official title of which is 2083 – A European Declaration of Independence, also known as Breivik's Manifesto. It is believed Breivik posted his Manifesto on the Internet shortly before the attacks in Norway in July, 2011. The number 2083 stands for the year when the "Western European Civil War" was expected to be completed, all traitors executed, and all Muslims deported from Europe. This article will discuss dominating discourses in the Manifesto, seen from a background of a European multicultural backlash, in which the political far-right movement is increasing. Furthermore, this article will end with a discussion of education and the importance of analysis of such phenomena within different subjects.

This thesis focuses on the individual experience of being a migrant in the context of the development of local, municipal politics concerning immigrants, in Sweden during the time period between 1972 and 2002. The thesis is based on two different empiric materials. One consists of narratives from networks of Muslim women migrants in the suburban, immigrant- dense area of Fittja in the municipal of Botkyrka, located in the greater Stockholm area. The other consists of immigrant-centered policies and political decisions, found in Botkyrka municipal archives. The thesis focuses on a dynamic time period when big-city areas in Sweden have become increasingly heterogeneous and where integration policies have become a growing part of political agendas but where segregation and societal differentiation in many cases are increasing in spite of political efforts to achieve equality and multiculturalism. In this complex context, the thesis examines the relation between local political structure and individual agency. The study shows that subjective factors such as motherhood, background or future plans often are most important when defining an individual self-image in relation to the major society, which in turn impacts active, subjective strategies of inclusion or marginalization. Ethnicity, culture and gender are however, in almost all cases, the factors around which well meaning municipal immigrant-related political discourses are based in Botkyrka. The interviewed women are highly included in different areas outside of the political framework, although this activism often goes unnoticed in the hegemonic political system that reproduces unquestioned, collective categorization concerning immigrant women as passive “victims”. The findings in this thesis’ historical case study therefore indicate the development of a “non-meeting” between political structure and immigrated citizens, which leads to a critical discussion regarding the contents of inclusion and marginalisation as well as the meaning of political rhetoric like integration.

This thesis concerns the relatively recent phenomenon of part-time managers and professionals. The focus is the part-time working arrangement (PTWA) and specifically the process by which it emerges and develops, building on existing literature on working-hours preferences, the role of the organization in part-time working and alternative work organization for temporal flexibility. Two large private-sector organizations, each operating in the UK and the Netherlands, provided four different research sites for narrative interviews with 39 part-time managers and professionals. The key contribution to knowledge is to identify the process of developing a PTWA as a combination of the formal negotiation of a flexibility task i-deal and an informal process of job crafting. In a situation of high constraint – where the individual’s goals conflict with organizational norms and expectations – the tensions between ‘being part-time’ and ‘being professional’ necessitated identity work at each stage, as individuals constructed a ‘provisional self’ which in turn enclosed each stage of the development of the PTWA. The four stages were: first, evaluation of alternative options, including postponing the transition to part- time until more appropriate circumstances arise; secondly, preparation of the individual business case for part-time; thirdly, formal negotiation of a flexibility task i-deal; and finally an informal, unauthorized adaptation of the arrangement over time. Collaborative crafting of working practices (predictability, substitutability, knowledge management) provided greater opportunities for adaptation than individual activities. This study’s contribution to theory in the nascent field of part-time managers and professionals is a process model which suggests how three sets of discourses act as generative mechanisms at each stage of the emergence and development of the PTWA, creating or destroying ‘action spaces’. These discourses are: the perceived ‘nature’ of managerial and professional work, the perception of part-time as a personal lifestyle choice, and the understanding of part-timers as either ‘other’ or the ‘new normal’.