‘Pedagogical leadership’ is a taken for granted part of Swedish schools and has become a substantial managerial structure within which pupils and teachers are meant to develop and learn. This thesis focuses on how pedagogical leadership is described in management literature and how its discourse and proposed truths shape practices that are put into play as techniques of governing. The literature is analyzed with a theoretical Foucauldian framework of governmentality, discourse, subject and genealogy that enables an analysis of how pedagogical leadership as a phenomenon fabricates a desired teacher subject. The empirical material subjected to analysis consists of two prominent books within the literature on pedagogical leadership. The analysis in turn is conducted through the asking of the following questions: What conceptions of leadership emerge as a solution to the perceived problems in Swedish schools? What is described as a problem within the discourse? Which practices have been put into play to implement the pedagogical leadership, and how are they characterized? Which teacher subject is thereby requested and postulated? The results of the analysis show that pedagogical leadership has been constructed to remedy the problems created within its own discourse, and that an ideal leadership creates the conditions of possibility for practices that enable participation in which the subject is fabricated trough self-governing.

Lorsqu’il a été introduit pour la première fois sur le marché mondial au milieu du XXe siècle, le plastique était considéré comme un matériel utopique, prometteur d’un avenir meilleur. Des décennies plus tard, la vérité sur les programmes de recyclage, la menace « invisible » des microplastiques présents dans les aliments que nous consommons et les images de plages couvertes de déchets de plastique font de plus en plus partie de notre discussion collective du matériel. Ce projet pose la question suivante : Comment, le cas échéant, les représentations visuelles des déchets de plastiques contribuent-elles à façonner le sujet environnemental? // When first introduced on the global market at the mid 20th century, plastic was understood as a utopian material, promising better futures. Decades later, the truth about failed recycled programs, the threats of microplastics found in the food that we consume, and images of previously pristine beaches covered in plastic waste are increasingly part of our collective discussion about plastics. This project fundamentally asks: How, if at all, do visual representations of plastic waste contribute to shaping the environmental subject? It takes as an object of study an iconic series of photographs (Midway: Message from the Gyre) and film (Albatross) by American artist and environmental activist Chris Jordan. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theory of governmentality, a qualitative content analysis of online commentary of the imagery is conducted. The framing of imagery and the messages conveyed by the artist run the risk of “greening” action. Broader systemic critique that addresses the plastic crisis as one rooted in production is necessary to break from a suggested pattern of response of blame, preaching and despair.

The object of this study is a program of government that has, as its immediate objective, the modification and regulation of consumer conduct deemed pertinent to climate change. Drawing from the analytical grid and conceptual tools of governmentality, this study has organized and analyzed an archive of documents related to the One-Tonne Challenge, a ‘public education’ program implemented by the Government of Canada from 2003 to 2006. There are numerous forms of conduct targeted by this program, involving many of the mundane and routine practices of everyday life. Despite their heterogeneity, the targeted forms of conduct can all be measured and evaluated according to the greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, an ecological technology of government that has had its application extended to the ‘personal’ level. As consumers increasingly engage in practices that are energy efficient, a ‘low intensity GHG emission lifestyle’ will emerge as a new societal norm, which is declared to be the ‘ultimate strategic objective’ of the program. The analysis indentifies and describes two rationalities of government articulated within the archive of the program. Liberal principles and assumptions regarding the market economy are ascendant in practice; they delimit the range of governmental techniques that can be put into operation by the state. Nevertheless, the objectives and technologies of this program belong to an ecological rationality of government. It problematizes the liberal emphasis on ‘voluntary action’ and advances state planning of the market economy through price formation as a necessary governmental technique with which to manipulate the demand for energy and ensure that consumers become energy-efficient. The conclusion interprets and diagnoses the main dangers that could arise from the radical transformation of the market economy that would be brought about by an ecological political reason.

This research examines urban renewal in Clichy-sous-Bois, a suburb of 30,000 inhabitants located in the northeast of Paris. It studies the modalities of spatial racialization, nation building, and subject formation among Afro-French young men living in the city. It also builds on a world-historical perspective to explore the diasporic webs in which the lives of Afro-French are embedded. Taking spatial racialization as a point of entry, the study attempts to understand how governmental strategies and urban policies regulate lives and residential patterns in the city. Three lines of investigation are pursued: 1) an examination of Afro-French racialization and genealogies; 2) an analysis of narratives and struggles of these communities and their impact on neoliberal spaces; 3) an exploration of the various ways spatial governmentality constrains and/or produces Afro-Frenchness. The primary purpose of this ethnographic research is to comprehend the French colonial history and its impact on the racialization of diasporic Afro-French living in metropolitan France. For this end, the study proposes the notion of "Afro-French," an analytical concept that designates a constellation of groups from Sub-Saharan, North African, and Caribbean origins. The term provides a heuristic to comprehend the urban and cultural experiences of diasporic sub-groups who have different but overlapping genealogies. Second, the project helps understand why Afro-French living in Clichy-sous-Bois embody and at the same time transgress official narratives of the nation. It argues that France's nationalism, like other forms of European nationalisms, is facing a contradictory moment in the neoliberal conjuncture. On the one hand, discourses about liberalization of the economy involve the deployment of narratives that celebrate mobility and flexibility. This new dependence on a global neoliberal economy destabilizes national economies and erodes the state's structures. On the other hand, state actors diffuse identitarian and xenophobic discourses that blame ethnic and religious minorities for the socio-economic crisis. Third, the study argues that spatial governmentality and urban strategies enable certain aspects of Afro-Frenchness but constrain others: there is no homogenous or unified logic to regulate lives and spaces in Clichy.

This study aims to understand the organization of Emergency Department (ED) nurses in Ontario after years of restructuring and cuts made to the healthcare system. The news is currently filled with ED closures across the country due to a shortage of nurses and high hospital occupancy. The recruitment and retention of nurses in the ED has proven extremely difficult due in part to the Ontario government's Bill 124 capping nurses' wage increases at 1%. This wage freeze is inscribed in a larger rationale present internationally advocating for efficiency and marketization of all spheres of life, healthcare included. Most of the literature published on the work of ED nurses refers to ideas of performance of flow. Using Institutional Ethnography (IE) as an approach and governmentality, more specifically neoliberalism, as a perspective, this study maps the ruling relations influencing the work of nurses in the ED. It also uncovers how the neoliberal discourse was not only internalized but applied by nurses in their work environment. The methodological approach and perspective used in this study highlight how a new rationale was implemented in the management and funding of healthcare, which then led to transforming the rationale of providing care in the ED. The ED now delivers care following a supply chain rationale employing technologies of governmentality such as Electronic Medical Records (EMR) to entice a specific conduct from nurses in order to meet the demands of the market. This new rationale, coupled with the implementation and sustaining of the technologies of governmentality, has come to completely transform what an ED nurse is nowadays. This new ED subject is responsible for most aspects of care, flow, and even her own training and security. The findings suggest that the use of algorithms based on best practices (such as medical directives) came to further erode the decisional power of nurses, resulting in "checkbox" practice.

Syftet med denna studie är att kritiskt granska hur problemet med de statliga insatserna som syftar till att underlätta för nyanländas etablering representeras i en utav Riksrevisionens granskningar inom området etablering och integration, samt vilka subjektspositioner representationerna producerar. Genom att granska materialet vill jag tydliggöra vilka problemrepresentationer som föreligger i det praktiska arbete statliga aktörer utför. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten har varit att det har betydelse hur problem representeras i den offentliga politiken. Först när politiken ifrågasätts kan vi därför förstå hur styrning opererar med vilka effekter för de som är föremål för den. Den metodologiska vägen framåt har i denna studie varit Carol Bacchis metod för policyanalys "What's the problem represented to be?", vilken är en typ av diskursanalys som i detta fall möjliggör ett ifrågasättande av de problematiseringar som styr nyanländas arbetsmarknadsetablering. De problematiseringar som görs i materialet handlar dels om hur vissa kommuners ovilja till ansvarstagande för flyktingmottagandet, till följd av bostadsbrist, ekonomiska förutsättningar eller andra oproblematiserade förklaringar, leder till sämre etableringsresultat. Något annat som problematiseras är statliga aktörers agerande, vilket efter kritisk granskning visar sig präglas av en bristande långsiktighet. Regeringens och myndigheternas brist på långsiktighet i den ekonomiska resursanvändningen belyses och flera myndigheters uppdrag och interna arbete tycks generellt vara ineffektivt för att uppnå goda etableringsresultat långsiktigt. Kortsiktigt agerande visar sig således förhindra etableringen av nyanlända i flera avseenden. Styrningen skapar subjektspositioner och ställer specifika grupper av nyanlända ansvariga för sina egna misslyckanden till etablering - särskilt tydligt är detta i problematiseringar kring etableringen av nyanlända med låga utbildningsnivåer, som helst enkelt betraktas som "icke matchningsbara", samt nyanlända kvinnor. / The purpose of this study is to critically analyse how problems related to the work of the Swedish state, when it comes to enabling newly arrived immigrants to integrate to the labour market, is represented in one of The Swedish National Audit Office's audits regarding integration, and also to analyse how representations constitute subject positions. By critically analysing the material I want to shed light on existing problem representations in the practical work of the public agencies.  The theoretical starting-point is that how problems are represented in public politics matters. It is not until politics is questioned that we can fully understand how governing operates and with what effects for those governed. The methodological way forward in this study is a method for analysing policy called "What's the problem represented to be?", developed by Carol Bacchi, which is a type of discourse analysis that enables questioning of problematisations regarding the labour market integration of newly arrived immigrants. Problematisations in the research material are partly done regarding how the unwillingness of some municipalities to take responsibility for receiving immigrants, whether the reason is lack of housing, economic preconditions or other explanations that are left unproblematic, leads to worse integration results. Another problematisation is done regarding the acting of public actors, which after critical analysis is shown to lack long-term vision. The lack of long-term vision in the use of resources in the government and the public agencies is shed light and several missions of the  public agencies and their internal work is shown to be ineffective for the purpose of reaching good integration results in the long-term. Short-term acting is therefore shown to hinder the labour market integration of newly arrived immigrants.    This governing creates subject positions and puts specific groups of immigrants themselves as responsible for their own failures to integrate - especially regarding immigrants with low levels of education, who are considered simply as "un matchable" and immigrant women.

The dissertation analyzes labour market projects co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) targeting unemployed migrants and ethnicized groups. The analysis is qualitative, discourse-oriented and based on Foucault’s concept of governmentality. More specifically, it is highlighted how the target groups are ethnicized through discourses of employability and learning. The thesis consists of four articles. In the first three articles, focus is mainly on how the projects present themselves through their project descriptions in the ESF project bank and the fourth article is mainly based on ethnographic material. Overall, this dissertation highlights different aspects of inclusion work directed towards migrants and ethnicized target groups that can be seen as problematic and sometimes contradictory. Tendencies to individualize unemployment and thus positioning the unemployed project participants as responsible for their situation is interrogated in the thesis. Further, it is analyzed how culture and ethnicity is used in ways that are likely to strengthen the target groups ‘Otherness’ in relation to a ‘Swedishness’ that often become synonymous with what is perceived as normal and thus widening the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’ when the stated goal is the opposite. This dissertation can serve as a starting point to reflect on how inclusion efforts and labour market projects seeking to produce social inclusion and employability may be at risk to categorize people in different ways, which can sometimes be problematic in relation to what the efforts seek to achieve. / I avhandlingen studeras arbetsmarknadspolitiska åtgärder, i form av projekt finansierade av Europeiska socialfonden (ESF), riktade mot arbetslösa migranter och etnifierade grupper. Analysen är kvalitativ, diskursorienterad och utgår från Foucaults begrepp governmentality. Mer specifikt belyses hur projektens målgrupper etnifieras genom diskurser om anställningsbarhet och lärande. Avhandlingen består av fyra artiklar. I de tre första artiklarna fokuseras främst hur projekten framställer sig själva genom projektbeskrivningar i ESFs projektbank och den fjärde artikeln utgår främst från etnografiskt material. Sammantaget belyser avhandlingen olika aspekter - som kan ses som problematiska och ibland motsägelsefulla - av inkluderingsarbete riktat mot migranter och etnifierade målgrupper. Det handlar om tendenser att individualisera arbetslösheten och därmed i hög grad ansvariggöra de arbetslösa projektdeltagarna för sin situation. Det handlar också om att använda kultur och etnicitet på ett sätt som riskerar att förstärka målgruppernas ’annorlundahet’ i relation till den ’svenskhet’ som inte sällan blir synonymt med vad som uppfattas som normalt och på så sätt vidga gapet mellan ’vi’ och ’dem’ när den uttalade målsättningen är det motsatta. Avhandlingen kan fungera som en utgångspunkt för att reflektera kring hur inkluderingsinsatser och arbetsmarknadsprojekt riskerar att sortera och kategorisera människor på olika sätt, som kan vara problematiska i relation till vad insatserna vill uppnå.

<p>The purpose with this master´s thesis is to examine how helth and unhelthy in the Swedish magazines Topphälsa, Fitnez Magazine, hälsa and I Form. The study is made from a discourse analytical approach and text and pictures are analysed together. The governmentality-perspective is also used as a theoretical frame. Power and govern are two inportant conceptions for this paper. Some of the main characteristics of the material are the double messages, the division in the categories "we" and "them" and the personal address to the reader. Health is strongly associated with the appearance, helthy food and exercise. Health is common represented as a fit young thin body. Unhealthy is almost always the opposite. The identity is described as the same as the appearance. The difference between the magazines is in the representation, not in the actual messages. The messages are possible to trace of our days consumption society. Health is an important value today.</p>

The purpose with this master´s thesis is to examine how helth and unhelthy in the Swedish magazines Topphälsa, Fitnez Magazine, hälsa and I Form. The study is made from a discourse analytical approach and text and pictures are analysed together. The governmentality-perspective is also used as a theoretical frame. Power and govern are two inportant conceptions for this paper. Some of the main characteristics of the material are the double messages, the division in the categories "we" and "them" and the personal address to the reader. Health is strongly associated with the appearance, helthy food and exercise. Health is common represented as a fit young thin body. Unhealthy is almost always the opposite. The identity is described as the same as the appearance. The difference between the magazines is in the representation, not in the actual messages. The messages are possible to trace of our days consumption society. Health is an important value today.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka vilket synsätt som råder bland lärare i de lägre årskurserna gällande begreppet bedömning. Studiens metodologiska - och teoretiska utgångspunkter grundar sig i Foucaultiansk teoribildning. Empirin har samlats in genom två stycken fokusgruppintervjuer och materialet har analyserats med utgångspunkt i begrepp som governmentality och disciplinär makt. Resultatet visar att lärarna använder sig av flera styrtekniker som inryms av en dold maktutövning, vars primära mål är att forma och styra subjektet. / The purpose of this study is to describe and discuss the function of assessment in primary school. The methodological and the theoretical foundation take its point of departure in theories formulated by Michel Foucault. The empirical data is collected through two focus group interviews and the material is analyzed through the concepts of governmentality and power formations. The results show that teachers use multiple control techniques which are governed by a hidden exercise of power, with the primary aim to shape and control the subject.