Sverige har under det senaste seklet genomgått stora samhällsprocesser som sekularisering och modernisering. Vi har i denna studie utgått från framför allt Becks teorier om reflexiv modernisering kontra Webers teser om linjär rationalitet för att besvara frågeställningen; Hur har graden av andlighet respektive religiositet ökat respektive minskat under tidsperioden 1870 - 2008 i Västmanland och kan samhällsprocesser som en reflexiv modernisering ha haft betydelse för dessa eventuella förändringar? Urvalet bestod av 600 dödsannonser insamlade från Västmanlands läns tidning och dessa analyserades för att finna uttryck för religiositet och andlighet. Undersökningens resultat visar minskad grad av religiösa referenser i dödsannonser men en ökning av Svagt andliga sådana. Denna studies slutsats ger stöd åt teorier om sekularisering och ger indikationer på en begynnande religiös pluralism.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, global capitalism has introduced an unprecedented phenomenon: the reorientation of temporality and spatiality. Capitalist temporality and global space allowed Asian intellectuals to imagine, for the first time, a synchronized globe, where Asia became consciously worldly. Asian intellectuals began to reinterpret the indigenous categories such as the tributary system in order to make sense of the regionalization of Asia in the capitalist world system. The unity of Asian countries formed an alliance which resisted the homogeneity and universality claimed by European hegemony. Along with the revival of the Asian ideal, the tributary system was reimagined as the incarnation of Asian heterogeneity, a source that could be utilized in the common struggle of resisting European hegemony. What the tributary system represented in the discourse of Asianism at the turn of the twentieth century, then, is a new possibility of relation between nation-states.

At roughly the same historical conjuncture when it began to be articulated as a concept marking a return of the repressed within the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank, the doppelganger motif became the subject of a veritable explosion of literary attention in 1920s Japan. Several authors – including Akutagawa Ryûnosuke, Edogawa Rampo, Tanizaki Jun’ichirô, and others – repeatedly deployed the doppelganger motif in their fictions against the backdrop of rapid urbanization, imperial expansion, and the restructuring of all aspects of everyday life by a burgeoning commodity culture. Interestingly, as if enacting the very compulsion to repeat embodied by the doppelganger on a historical register as well, a repetition of this proliferation of doppelganger images is apparent in the contemporary conjuncture, in the works of authors like Abe Kôbô, Murakami Haruki, or Shimada Masahiko, as well as in the films of Tsukamoto Shinya or Kurosawa Kiyoshi. To date, much of the previous scholarship on the figure of the doppelganger tends to be preoccupied with the attempt to locate its origins, whether in mythic or psychical terms. In contrast to this concern with fixing the figure to an imagined essence, in my dissertation, I instead place emphasis on the doppelganger’s enactment of repetition itself through an examination at the figure through the prism of the problem of genre, in terms of how it has come to be discursively constituted as a genre itself, as well as its embodiment of the very logic of genre in its play on the positions of identity and difference. By historicizing its formation as a genre, it becomes possible to productively situate not only the proliferation of images of the doppelganger in 1920s Japan but also its repetitions, resignifications, and critical articulations in the present within the the shifting constellation of relations among various discourses and practices that organize colonial and global modernity – language and visuality, the space of empire and the construction of ethno-racial identities, libidinal and material economies – that structure (yet are nevertheless exceeded by) its constitution as a concept.

This thesis examines public school music in the making of a modern middle class in late-Victorian Toronto. Its aim is to show how this subject both shaped and was shaped by the culture of modernity which increasingly pervaded large urban centres such as Toronto during the course of the nineteenth century. In so doing, this study also examines various aspects of the acoustic soundtrack during the period under study—particularly that which witnessed the advent of industrialization—to bring additional context and perspective to the discussion. Using an approach which goes beyond pedagogic and bureaucratic justification, the overall intent is to present the evolution of school music and its public performance within a much broader acoustic framework, that is, to weave it into the increasingly-urban soundtrack of Toronto, to gain some appreciation of how it would have been heard and understood at the time. In addition to its primary historical discourse, the study also draws meaning and context from a variety of other academic disciplines (musicology, sociology and education, to name but a few). Because of this, it necessarily moves from the general to the specific in terms of its overall focus, not only to provide background, but also to help make sense of the ways in which each of these areas informed and influenced the development of Toronto’s public school system and the inclusion of music in its classrooms. It then proceeds more or less chronologically through the nineteenth century, placing particular emphasis upon the careers of prominent educators such as Egerton Ryerson and James L. Hughes, to mark significant shifts in context and philosophy. Within each, a thematic approach has been employed to highlight relevant developments that likewise informed the way in which school music was conceived and comprehended. In this way, it is hoped that a fresh perspective will emerge on the history of public school music in Toronto, and prompt further research that employs aural history as a more prominent tool of historical research.

At roughly the same historical conjuncture when it began to be articulated as a concept marking a return of the repressed within the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank, the doppelganger motif became the subject of a veritable explosion of literary attention in 1920s Japan. Several authors – including Akutagawa Ryûnosuke, Edogawa Rampo, Tanizaki Jun’ichirô, and others – repeatedly deployed the doppelganger motif in their fictions against the backdrop of rapid urbanization, imperial expansion, and the restructuring of all aspects of everyday life by a burgeoning commodity culture. Interestingly, as if enacting the very compulsion to repeat embodied by the doppelganger on a historical register as well, a repetition of this proliferation of doppelganger images is apparent in the contemporary conjuncture, in the works of authors like Abe Kôbô, Murakami Haruki, or Shimada Masahiko, as well as in the films of Tsukamoto Shinya or Kurosawa Kiyoshi. To date, much of the previous scholarship on the figure of the doppelganger tends to be preoccupied with the attempt to locate its origins, whether in mythic or psychical terms. In contrast to this concern with fixing the figure to an imagined essence, in my dissertation, I instead place emphasis on the doppelganger’s enactment of repetition itself through an examination at the figure through the prism of the problem of genre, in terms of how it has come to be discursively constituted as a genre itself, as well as its embodiment of the very logic of genre in its play on the positions of identity and difference. By historicizing its formation as a genre, it becomes possible to productively situate not only the proliferation of images of the doppelganger in 1920s Japan but also its repetitions, resignifications, and critical articulations in the present within the the shifting constellation of relations among various discourses and practices that organize colonial and global modernity – language and visuality, the space of empire and the construction of ethno-racial identities, libidinal and material economies – that structure (yet are nevertheless exceeded by) its constitution as a concept.

The combination of poorly managed mass tourism, rapidly increasing international migration, and a declining economy facilitated a permanent exodus of natives out of the Venetian lagoon. This thesis examines how the community activism group and social network Venessia.com attempts to reclaim a place-­based and place-­manifested Venetian identity (venezianità) through theatrical public protests. While members are sensitive to an ethic of intercultural awareness, the discourse accompanying their concerns reveals nostalgia for the power and grandeur of Venice’s past that is threatened by a perceived invasion by suspicious outsiders. The theoretical framework I employ to illuminate Venessia.com's efforts includes the socio-­cultural and economic implications of mass tourism, theory of space and place, and critiques of modernity and postmodernity.

Some sociologists think that contemporary society calls for new ways of analyzing it, and Ulrich Beck is arguably one of them. Suggesting that some classic sociological variables such as class are losing their relevancy, Beck advances a theory based on the concept of “reflexive” modernity – modern society cutting the ground from under itself and ending up as something new – advanced modernity. This paper is investigating the theoretical background to this claim, and also reviews some of the critique leveled at Beck. Unsurprisingly Beck's suggestion that class is dissolving has been criticized, but a lot of critique has also been aimed at the way in which Beck is suggested to understand risk perception, and the recording of this. Using a study investigating the attitudes toward organic food in the UK as an empirical example, Beck's theory is put to the test in order to see how it interprets the results. Part of the study can be explained with reference to the Risk Society thesis, but some of the critique is not challenged.

The aim of this study is to point out different aspects of modernity in the cookbook Husmoderns Köksalmanack. It is a publication that has been published annually since 1933. The books have been studied in the light of Anthony Giddens´ theoretical perspective on modernity. The study is based on three different themes that all can be linked to modernity. These themes are; Time and space, Locally, regionally and globally, and Advice. I also want to demonstrate that these books can be seen as part of a larger structural context. The results show that Husmoderns Köksalmanack can be viewed as an arena for several aspects of modernity, and it can also help to create and maintain social norms in this area.

Studies of Mexican American integration have come to a methodological and theoretical impasse. Conventional investigations have provided limited insight as they are outsider-based perspectives examining native-born minorities within the context of the immigrant experience and race-cycle paradigms. Grounded in cultural ideologies and nationalist narratives, dominant descriptions of minorities have created a conceptual straight that circumscribes the discourse to assimilationists’ models of integration. Moreover, studies of marginal groups produce negative consequences by highlighting cultural differences that tautologically reinforce the grounds for exclusions. Little grounded work has been conducted specifically looking at racialized native-born minorities and the dynamics of their generational process of integration. Through embedded ethnography and the narratives of subject participants, this research provides direct insight into processes of contemporary integration and the social structural accommodation of native-born Mexican Americans. As a means of sidestepping conceptual barriers, this discussion theoretically frames the integration of Mexican American professionals within the context of modernity and liberal human development. By responding to the above critiques, this paper presents an alternative approach to the analysis and explanation of the roots of race-cycle paradigms in the first section. The second section establishes the context for the research and explains the basis for the papers structure and conceptual arguments. As a means of moving the discourse away from established models, the third section provides a critical overview of the classical and contemporary literature on minority integration through a process of textual deconstruction. In addition, the section also constructs a theoretical dynamic between structural determinations and individual adaptations to modernity that promotes integration. The fourth section describes the non-traditional method of data collection that provides direct insight into the processes of native-born minority cultural and structural incorporation. Through participant voices, the fifth section describes how individual interactions and institutional forces are shaping the social place that Mexican American professionals have created on the borderlands of American culture and society. What the interpretive findings suggest in the last section is that they are constructing and re-defining their own social and cultural place out of the elements that modern society provides and not as race-cycle theory predicts.

This thesis focuses on the historical process of combining socialism and nationalism through scientific discourses in North Korea, in relation to the task of establishing an independent modern nation-state. A striking example framing this process is vinalon, which is a synthetic fiber developed by North Korea. The success story of vinalon's industrial production, propagated by Kim Il Sung's political allies, led socialism and nationalism to be fused into nationalist socialism, known as Juche (self-reliance) Socialism. In this thesis, I examine the historical background of the so-called Juche fiber vinalon in terms of North Korea's desire to establish itself as an independent polity distinct from the socialist bloc, domestic political struggles for power, as well as the affinity seen by the progressive doctrine and the commitment to science in socialism and nationalism. In so doing, I attempt to interpret the product, a figuration between science and society, as an "attractive thread," played a pivotal role in weaving the socialization of the Juche discourse into North Korean society. / text