This paper puts into question ideas of politics limited to the theories of social movements and contentious politics. In using the concept of black counterpublic, understood as a web of relations and spaces, I show how black politics of folklore expands the sites and forms of politics in Colombia of 1960. In doing so, I describe two aspects of the black counterpublic from the point of view of black political intellectuals into the racialized field of Colombian folklore: a. the way black political intellectuals understood race and racism in Colombia and, b. their forms of politics. That is, their form of organization and mobilization. For this, I propose a new understanding of folklore beyond ideas of entertainments, apolitical culturalism and essentialism which, in turn, make black politics look trivialized and less political under the integrationist racial project of the mestizo State. Also, I shed some light on the idea of race and racism from below, from the point of view of black political intellectuals; and I pluralize and decentralize black politics from social movement understanding of politics.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) disappearing from protection of the asylum system is a phenomenon that occurs around the world. Sweden is not immune to UASC disappearances, despite Swedish asylum laws and practices being based on the “Best Interests of the Child” (BIC). This study investigates the phenomenon from the perspective of stakeholders within the municipality of Malmö, Sweden, utilizing a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) approach. The aim of this study is to identify key paradoxical situations within the asylum system that may trigger disappearances, and to construct the theories surrounding this phenomenon from the data collected. The theories of governmentality, intersectionality and the post-Colonial theory of “othering” including “self-othering” were identified as valid concepts in regards to this phenomenon. This study also calls for further research into the field of unaccompanied migrant children including better documentation of these children who are both in and out of the asylum system.

<p>In Senegal, local communities have faced a wide range of economic and political challenges. In their attempt to address these issues, local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have engaged in a wide variety of improvement projects, and have often partnered together in these efforts. This dissertation examines the linkages formed between Senegalese and international NGOs in their efforts to achieve their aspirations of improvement for the country in a context of global interconnection. By engaging with relevant literature and ethnographic data collected through anthropological research efforts, I seek to provide a more in-depth understanding of the perspectives and experiences of NGO practitioners in Senegal while considering the interrelated issues of global connection, civil society and social hope. My research aims to contribute to the anthropological discourse on NGOs by examining how practitioners engaged in a variety of NGOs in Senegal understand and approach their work and how they engage in the complex power relationships entailed by these international NGO partnerships. In addition, this study explores the issue of social hope among NGO practitioners, examining how they approach and experience the concept of hope through their NGO efforts at improvement. With a focus on implementing programs targeted at certain groups over a short period of time, the hope of NGO staff involves a desire for long-term change despite the challenges faced. This study also considers the aspirations of NGO staff with respect to their political engagement with the state and their perception of Senegal’s place in the world. This involves exploring their belief that civil society and NGOs are the basis for hope in Senegal rather than the state. In this context, NGOs seek improvement by working within the political and economic system, constrained and limited by the dictates of their external donors and their approach to social change.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In this dissertation I argue that art projects are sites of interconnected social spaces where the work of transnational practices, neoliberal politics and identity construction take place. At the same time, art projects are "nodal points" that provide entry and linkages between communities across the Atlantic. In this study, based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Canada and Iceland, I explore this argument by examining ethnic networking between Icelandic-Canadians and the Icelandic state, which adopted neoliberal economic policies between 1991 and 2008. The neoliberal restructuring in Iceland was manifested in the implementation of programs of privatization and deregulation. The tidal wave of free trade, market rationality and expansions across national borders required re-imagined, nationalized accounts of Icelandic identity and society and reconfigurations of the margins of the Icelandic state. Through programs and a range of technologies, discourses, and practices, the Icelandic state worked to create enterprising, empowered, and creative subjects appropriate to the neoliberal project. At the same time these processes and practices served as tools for reawakening and revitalizing ethnic networking on a transnational scale. As enactments of programs initiated by the Icelandic state, the art projects studied here are approached in relation to neoliberal governmentality in a transnational context in order to explore how the operations of states and the new global economy are translated into local cultural practices, such as visual displays. This is a study of cultural circuits and transnational networking where art projects are the formative "nodes"-local sites of cultural production, neoliberal politics, multiple threads of truth claims in battles of cultural politics, identity formation, and conflicted notions of the value of art and the idea of creativity. / Anthropology

The Swedish labour market is one of the most gender segregated in Europe, and despite the extensive legislation on gender equality and discrimination, the health gap between working women and working men are continually increasing. This thesis has two purposes. First, to analyse how the work-related health gap between women dominated workplaces and maledominated workplaces are challenged, problematized and/or consolidated through workenvironment policy discourses. Second, to analyse health experiences from preschool professionals and eventual effects on this group created by the policy representations. The analytical tools have mainly been provided through a WPR-approach and the material has been policy documents and interviews with preschool professionals. The results show that there is an inconsistency with how the problem is formulated and who is thought to be responsible for the problem in between the policy levels. Also, the problem representations had effects on the preschool professionals who were caught in between rationalities. Finally, the results confirm policy as a product of social, political and historical context as well as its ability to shape identities and expand or restrict the room for manoeuvre of groups and individuals.

This study aims to explore the discourses during the COP28 climate conference in Dubai in 2023 and their impact on the work to fight climate change. COP28 was approached as a case study where twelve speeches performed by world leaders from different countries were selected to be analyzed. By intercepting and processing the content of the speeches, data was collected to be analyzed based on a discourse analysis. The focus of the analysis was to identify the discourses that appeared in the speeches. In the analysis, patterns of discourse were found both within individual speeches and between different speeches. Furthermore, exercises of power were consistently evident in the speeches. The theoretical framework that was used in this study to understand, conceptualize and analyze the content of the speeches consisted of a discourse theory by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, and Michel Foucault's theory of power and Governmentality. After the intercepting and processing of the content of the speeches, two themes were identified that the content was mainly discussed; Financing of climate action, and Responsibility over the climate crisis and implementation of climate action. Through the analysis of the content of the speeches were two distinguished discourses identified. The first discourse was characterized by dissatisfaction and criticism from developing countries towards developed countries for their lack of accountability for their participation in the development of the climate crisis. The criticism was also directed towards the design of the Loss and Damage Fund, and the analysis identified the great need for the fund in regards to the developing countries. The second discourse was characterized by greenwashing and a consistent exercise of power by the developed countries.  The conclusions of the study consist of revealing the Loss and Damage Fund's influence on the developing countries´ action against climate change. The fund's influence can be considered as a form of indirect power. Although the fund is an important and needed incentive, the study questions its superiority in relation to the problematic state of climate action.

This paper aims to investigate some of the diverse perceptions of local populations in Sweden regarding wind energy, focusing on the Ockelbo area. Through a critical discourse analytical perspective, the analysis explores the community's attitudes toward their role in wind energy development and analyzes the presence of discursive elements. The study uses mostly interviews and shows that the local community generally supports wind energy. In contrast to many other areas, the Ockelbo area does not seem to have the individual gap of the Nimby attitude, whereby individuals have a positive attitude toward wind energy in general and a negative attitude toward wind energy in their nearby area. Instead, my informants are generally positive toward wind energy both in general and in Ockelbo. Furthermore, I have related my findings to the theory of environmentality, in which the responsibility for the environment is placed on the population rather than the state through knowledge production about the climate. I argue that elements of environmentality are present in the Ockelbo area through a climate IDF (discursive-ideological formation). This climate IDF frames fossil-free energy as a necessary measure against climate change, that the local population should feel responsible for accepting. This perceived responsibility can be attributed to government rationalities of the state. However, my material shows that the local community does not completely accept responsibility for allowing wind energy. Instead, most of my informants seem to discuss how different aspects of wind energy, such as economic compensation for it, conditions their acceptance for wind energy. Therefore, I do not think that the informants – and perhaps the Ockelbo community in general – are fully internalizing the state’s prioritization of wind energy in areas such as that of Ockelbo.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) is a global carbon trading program intent on mitigating or reversing carbon emissions from forestry in the global south. REDD+ was negotiated at the 2005 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and is coordinated by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), administered by the World Bank Group. In this project, I explore REDD+ activity in Costa Rica, drawing on Michel Foucault's concept of governmentality. Costa Rica became a participant in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility in July of 2008. Since then, indigenous peoples throughout the country have contested the program. This project is a single-case study of the Bribri contestation of REDD+ schemes, one of the larger indigenous communities in Costa Rica. Bribri argue that REDD+ disrespects their worldview and further endangers their local rights to land and forestry. This project argues that REDD+ and Bribri have different perceptions of nature, enabling disagreement on REDD+ goals. Whereas REDD+ perceives nature as commodifiable for the purposes of neoliberal climate policies, Bribri express a spiritual, harmonious relationship with nature. I conclude by noting that REDD+ can pose negative implications for indigenous life and culture. This is not only because REDD+ draws external and domestic actors to land and forestry for incentive-based purposes. But also because REDD+ defines 'rightful behavior' among forestry resources, challenging indigenous conceptions of environmental management. However, the Bribri are resisting REDD+ imposition and, particularly, the program's external governing of indigenous behavior amongst forests. / Master of Arts / Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) is a global initiative intent on reducing carbon emissions from forestry. After it was negotiated at the 2005 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), REDD+ soon gained the participation of many countries throughout the global south. In this project, I explore REDD+ activity in Costa Rica. Ever since Costa Rica became a participant in July of 2008, indigenous peoples throughout the country have contested the program. This project is a single-case study of the Bribri opposition towards REDD+. The Bribri express that REDD+ disrespects their worldview and, particularly, their traditional knowledge of environmental management. This project argues that REDD+ and the Bribri harbor different views of nature, leading to disagreements on REDD+ goals. While REDD+’s perception of nature is market-oriented, the Bribri envision a spiritual, harmonious relationship with nature. Though REDD+ intends to promote better management of forestry resources, it can threaten traditional indigenous practices on reserves. This project concludes that REDD+ can pose significant risks to Bribri life and culture, especially to their local rights to land and forestry.

<p>This study focuses on the politics around ecological sustainable development in Sweden today, with emphasis on urban development, building and living. The starting-point for this study is the environmental adapted city district of Stockholm, Hammarby Sjöstad. The primary focus of the study is to investigate what means of control the environmental investment in Hammarby Sjöstad is expressing, and to elucidate their ideological, political and social implications. The empirical material is primarily based up on the local Hammarby Sjöstad environmental program along with qualitative in-depth interviews with citizens of this district. The study is based on critical discourse analysis </p><p>The result of this study is that the ecological investment in Hammarby Sjöstad partly constitutes a hidden exercise of power, taking shape as built-in physical measures in the dwellings and the neighbouring surroundings. Hidden means of control transform political and ideological environmental targets in to practical factual matters. Hidden means of control makes ideological and political environmental issues non-political and reduces them in to technical issues.</p>

This dissertation analyses the formation of Swedish cultural policy in the twentieth century and the emergence of a modern concept of cultural policy. The aim is to historicise this concept by opening up the process through which it was established. The dissertation explores different aspects of this process: the use of the word cultural policy (kulturpolitik), the ambitions in the 1960s to establish a form of knowledge production relevant in cultural policy making and the attempts made by various official authorities in the 1960s and early 1970s to identify and manage the field of concerns defined as belonging to cultural policy, thus demarcating culture as a formal area of policy making. I view these as examples of practices where the category of cultural policy was elaborated and established in a form widely recognized today. Accompanying my attempts to historicise the modern concept of cultural policy is an interest in how the history of cultural policy has generally been conceived. In previous research devoted to the history of cultural policy an analytical sense of cultural policy has tended to overrule the understanding(s) of cultural policy found in the historical sources. As a consequence, the histories of cultural policy have left out what historically was identified as cultural policy, thus leaving the historical grounds for the modern concept of cultural policy partly hidden. In the first empirical chapter I examine the uses of the word cultural policy when it was introduced in the Swedish language in the late nineteenth century until the 1950s. From a multitude of usages, I suggest that it was in the mid-twentieth century that a more consistent vocabulary developed, with “cultural policy” referring to political endeavors aiming at a nation’s domestic cultural life. In the second empirical chapter I investigate how scientific conceptualisations and operationalisations rendered culture available for scientific, political and administrative undertakings, and in the third chapter I study how culture was demarcated as a formal area of policy making. The chapters reveal different aspects of the historical process through which the category of cultural policy was established in its present shape.