After the Meiji Restoration of 1862, Western philosophy was imported and infused into Japanese culture and its intellectual climate. By the early 20th Century, Kyoto School philosophers and romantic authors sought to reaffirm Japanese culture, believed jeopardised by the hastened development of Western capitalist modernity. This movement became politically charged, and is not without fascist allegations. After the Second World War modernism again became a primary intellectual concern, as modernists and Asianists alike attempted to struggle with the idea of fascism in Japan. Works of Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945) and Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960), and the prewar contexts within which they were written, will be compared to the postwar thinkers Maruyama Masao (1914-1996) and Takeuchi Yoshimi (1910-1977). The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Japanese thinkers before and after the Second World War understood and responded to the global process of modernity, and how it relates to such political movements as liberalism and fascism.

This doctoral research, The Articulatory Practices of Islamism: A Focus on Space and Subjectivity, inquires into the role played by tradition, modernity and transmodernity qua symbolic reservoirs of Islamist discourses. By tackling Islamism from the theoretical and methodological perspective of discourse theory, my thesis will make a case for including within contemporary analyses of Islamism both a semiotic differentiation of Islamist articulatory practices (discourses) and a speculative assessment of their spatial representations and subjectivity formations. While the general framework of this study will be laid out in the Introduction (Chapter I), Part I of the thesis offers an examination of tradition, modernity and transmodernity in order to provide the reader with a conceptualisation of these key research categories. In addition to offering a reading of tradition and modernity crucial to a discourse-centred critique of Islamism, Chapter II will examine in detail the discourses of nationalism and pan-Islamism. Here the objective will be to uncover their deployment of two speculative paradigms in the construction of space and subjectivity; that is, dualism and universalism. Chapter III will then examine the emergence of key transmodern discourses such as globalism , universalism and virtualism tackling their relationship with globalisation. In Part II, I outline the main argument forwarded by my research. I will do so by examining the way three case studies engage with tradition, modernity and transmodernity. The discourse of three leading Islamist figures will be presented accompanied by textual examination and speculative analysis, the objective being to distinguish different discursive trajectories. I will strive to differentiate between a territorial trajectory of Islamism (Hasan al-Banna) in chapter IV; a transitional trajectory (Sayyid Qutb) in chapter V; and a transterritorial trajectory (Osama bin Laden) in chapter VI. Such an endeavour will help me to develop my main line of argument through an assessment of the role of symbolic reservoirs in the differentiation of Islamist discourses and in their construction of space and subjectivity. My conviction is that, while enlarging the space of academic debate on Islamism, such a theoretical approach could bring a new perspective to analytic inquiries into other discursive formations (liberalism, communism, anarchism etc), so helping analysts to differentiate between distinct trajectories within their respective discursive universe.

The purpose of the thesis was to explore what students within vocational education are expected to learn and the practices that constitute vocational education in Swedish upper secondary school. The empirical basis for the thesis is two studies, both of which have been reported separately. In the first study, twelve vocational teachers were interviewed sequentially. Classroom observations were made of the tasks their students worked with and these supplemented the interviews. The second study consists of case studies of five teachers in academic subjects within vocational education. Here sequential interviews of the teachers and classroom observations of the tasks their students worked with were supplemented with group interviews of their students and, in two cases, of collaborating vocational teachers. A social perspective on knowing and learning was used for analysing data. The results from the interviews with the vocational teachers show that what they wanted their students to learn in vocational education (their object) is related to vocational knowing but is not the same thing. Knowing in school can be regarded as preparation for work within the respective vocational area, as preparation for further learning and as preparation for citizenship. The first category relates to vocational knowing, whereas the latter two relate to a broader commission of education in late modernity – the risk and uncertainty of the future work situation that the students are likely to encounter. The tasks were analysed regarding their content, form, and the tools used for completing the tasks. Three categories of tasks were construed: school tasks, simulated tasks and vocational tasks. School tasks are characterised by that they employ the practice of school, whereas the vocational tasks employ the practice of the respective vocation. Simulated tasks are specific in that they allow a testing and correction of the result before the job is done. Through school tasks the students were introduced into a new content. Vocational tasks were used in bridging school and work. Besides the obvious tools of the respective vocation, texts were also used as tools in the work with the tasks. Most texts were vocational texts, i.e. texts that were used in similar ways in school as within the vocation. The second study, case studies of five teachers in academic subjects within vocational education, focused the infused tasks their students worked with. These results showed that the teachers used three different steering documents for planning their work: the national curriculum for upper secondary school, the objectives of the respective programme, and the syllabuses for their subject. By using all three documents, they were able to construct infused tasks. These tasks made it possible for the students to see other aspects of their respective vocational area than within the vocational subjects, e.g. the environmental work, historical aspects etc. The texts the academic teachers used were not the same as those used by vocational teachers. These texts were texts ‘imposed by others’ (e.g. local authorities) but also used for work within the vocation. The ‘theorisation’ of vocational education, that has been claimed to be a consequence of the academic subjects, can be seen rather as a change within the vocations from an oral to a literate culture. In completing many of the tasks observed, theoretical knowledge from different domains, as well as skills were needed. Vocational education as a purely ‘practical’ education is therefore a myth. A variety of texts were used within vocational education for the work, mostly as tools. The literate practices of vocational education are similar to the literate practices of the vocations rather than to those of school. New tools seem to change working life and vocational education as well. This implies that a different kind of vocational knowing is needed. When employers control or simulate production processes instead of doing the manual work, vocational knowing becomes something else. This new kind of work is dependent on a different kind of experience. Thus the theorisation of the vocational education is a theorisation – or rather an abstraction – on many levels. Some of them have been developed within the vocations, others are imposed from the outside. Three social practices, vocational education, working life and academic education, formally have a joint responsibility for the vocational education. Depending on if and to what extent they collaborate, the learning practices offered to the students will differ. With collaboration, as in these two studies, the students encounter learning practices where the content from each of the three contexts can be experienced as reembedded into new contexts. / <p>Därtill 4 uppsatser</p>

This thesis studies the intertwinement of economy and emotions within the context of modernity. By investigating how work and romantic love interact in fiction films from the period 1930 to 1955, I seek to shed light on how two cultural practices that might normally be assumed to belong to separate dimensions of life – the economic and the emotional – are actually closely connected to each other. The examination of these interactions allows a better understanding of the process of modernisation, as well as the ways in which cultural differences matter in two national contexts: Sweden and Mexico. The thesis is structured into three overarching dimensions of analysis: space, gender and class. I seek to explain the relationship between work and romantic love within these dimensions using the concepts of emotional capital, respectability and worthiness. The results highlight the differences between the national cases. For example, films depicting the Swedish countryside represent both modern and non-modern domestic spaces when judged in terms of their configuration and appearance; however, certain traits of rural characters such as solidarity, closeness to nature and equality transcend into modern society and guide work and romantic love practices. In Mexico, the countryside is depicted at the core of national identity; however, this space is characterised by its non-modern nature. The countryside, according to films, must be reformed by notions of science and rationality. Film narratives show that through romantic love, the man modernises the non-modern woman. The gender analysis revealed that Swedish films endorse the Housewife Contract in Swedish society during this period. In Mexican films, a similar contract is found in the discourse of the modern nation but films endorse a broader interpretation. Mexican films show that whilst the patriarchal organisation of society is expected to loosen its grip in a modern society, a stable gender structure is desirable. The class analysis reveals that upward mobility is a desirable outcome in Swedish film stories. Women attain it through love while men do so through work. However, upward mobility is unacceptable in Mexican films; they instead endorse class permanence.

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Literature by authors from the GDR has often been read with a focus on its sociopolitical context ‒ before and after the fall of the Wall. This rather one-dimensional approach has resulted in a lack of engagement with the more complex issues raised in many of those texts. Frequently, they address broader theoretical questions and delve into universal themes, which tend to be overlooked or sidelined. This PhD thesis concentrates on a selection of post-Wende texts by Monika Maron and Jenny Erpenbeck, two authors from the former East Germany. Starting from the premise that both authors' oeuvres serve on one level as critical investigations of the GDR and the significant aftermath of its collapse, I aim to demonstrate that these narratives have more to offer. My analysis brings to light the complexity of the examined works by addressing what it regards as their central themes: the exploration of questions around the topics of Heimat and memory. This research project draws attention to the texts' representation of underlying issues such as dislocation and fragmentation, and in doing so it examines how both authors depict concerns that go beyond the GDR and its demise. A key task is the analysis of the ways in which Monika Maron and Jenny Erpenbeck portray the symptoms of a wider ‘modern conditionʼ, a state characterized by instability and uncertainty. Based on the concept of ambivalence, introduced to the debates about modernity by Zygmunt Bauman in the early 1990s, this original comparative approach explores the failure and the ultimate collapse of the socialist utopia as a paradigm for the breakdown of the ‘grand narrativesʼ in modern, Western pluralist societies. Thus, this PhD thesis illuminates how both authors position themselves in relation to competing discourses about the GDR, and it simultaneously alerts the reader to the texts' inherent complexity by revealing their strong ties to topical issues regarding the much-debated term of modernity. Ultimately, I claim that Maron and Erpenbeck set out to investigate the impact of larger processes of fragmentation, and try to establish the possible role of and a ‘placeʼ for the individual that is exposed to historical forces and the rapid changes of spatio-temporal parameters within modernity, of which the GDR experience forms one part.

This thesis consists of a close reading and meta-analysis of themes and patterns in the works that comprise the fictional world of “Middle-Earth” created by J. R. R. Tolkien, in specific relation to the culturally prevalent views of the decadence of modernity and the ideological dynamics of fascism. This thesis explores the ideological dynamics of the fictional world constructed by Tolkien’s texts, and argues that his work contains demonstrable similarities to the ideological dynamics of fascism in its response to the existential challenges of modernity. To clarify, this thesis does not argue that Tolkien’s fiction can be read as “fascist,” tout court, but rather to give a comprehensive outline of how the fictional world created within his texts relate to discourses critical of modernisation and to what extent the aesthetic and ideological dynamics of this world present what I will call a fascist utopia. Tolkien’s work will be approached using the arguments and theories from canonical texts and authors regarding discourses on modernity, including works from the fields of philosophy (Nietzsche), political economy (Marx and Engels), literary studies, sociology (Durkheim, Weber and Simmel) and psychology (Freud). Alongside this I will use relevant studies of fascism to analyse how Tolkien fits within and relates to the aforementioned discourses. I assert the findings that Tolkien creates a world which, in its attempts to renew the values of the past through the presentation of mythology, rootedness, community, agrarianism and hierarchy, demonstrates a semi-fascistic utopia. This is not to cast aspersions or make claims about Tolkien’s creative intentions or personal ideology, rather an observation as to the content and themes of his fictional world. I will argue this fictional world aligns with fascist concepts of identity, nationhood, heritage, mythology and renewal; however, at the same time finding it non-aligned with the central thrust of fascism, in its overt condemnation of industrialism and technology. This contradictory combination produces a fictional world which presents the renewal of what Roger Griffin terms the “shields against ontological terror” (75) now lost or delegitimised in the modern age.

As a road map for a structural transformation of socially and ecologically self-destructive consumer societies, the paradigm of sustainability is increasingly regarded as a spent force. Yet, its exhaustion seems to coincide with the rebirth of several ideas reminiscent of earlier, more radical currents of eco-political thought: liberation from capitalism, consumerism and the logic of growth. May the exhaustion of the sustainability paradigm finally re-open the intellectual and political space for the big push beyond the established socio-economic order? Looking from the perspective of social and eco-political theory, this article argues that the new narratives (and social practices) of postcapitalism, degrowth and post-consumerism cannot plausibly be read as signalling a new eco-political departure. It suggests that beyond the exhaustion of the sustainability paradigm, we are witnessing, more than anything, the further advancement of the politics of unsustainability - and that in this politics the new narratives of hope may themselves be playing a crucial role.

Pautando-me pelos dados colhidos em formulários enviados a um grupo de pessoas convertidas ao judaísmo, entre os anos de 2006 e 2016, pela sinagoga da Associação Religiosa Israelita do Rio de Janeiro, pretendo avaliar se aqueles que se convertem causam augum tipo de reconfiguração na identidade da A.R.I. / Guided me on data collected from forms have sent to a group of people converted to Judaism (between 2006-2016) by the synagogue of the Israelite Religious Association (IRA) of Rio de Janeiro, I intend to present the perspectives of those who was converted to cause some kind of reconfiguration of identity IRA.

[pt] O conceito de Deus é algo que se forma na mente humana. Ao longo da vida, diferentes culturas, povos, línguas e nações sempre acharam a imagem de Deus como seus costumes e experiências. De modo particular, as nossas Igrejas tenham comunicado a mensagem do Evangelho que recebeu através da Sagrada Escritura e transmitidos pela tradição ao longo dos séculos. Quando o verdadeiro espírito da lei é perdida, a conclusão é que a letra mata. Isso é o que aconteceu com o conceito de Deus quando se tornou um motivo de perseguição, exclusão e medo. O teólogo espanhol Andrés Torres Queiruga pesquisa através da reflexão sobre este assunto, envolvendo um repensar da teologia hoje, porque com o advento da modernidade o paradigma de pensamento humano mudou por conta da revolução cultural. A perspectiva de um mundo onde os eventos naturais foram atribuídos a Deus ou ao diabo, de acordo com o que era bom ou ruim, não cabe mais hoje, como a ciência considera o mundo regido por leis naturais autônomas. Nesse caso, esta visão mítica de Deus se torna para a modernidade, supérflua, como a sua explicação causal antiga, trouxe um grande dano para a fé. Queiruga procura em Jesus de Nazaré vida, o núcleo da experiência do Abba. A verdadeira resposta cristã a essa situação, apresenta o rosto terno de Deus revelada pelo Messias. Esta experiência paterna de Deus traz alegria e dá consciência de realização existencial plena para quem encontrar o prazer em sentir a filiação divina. / [en] The concept of God is something that forms in the human mind. Along life, different cultures, peoples, languages and nations have always found the image of God as their customs and experiences. In a particular way, our Churches have communicated the Gospel message they received through the Holy Scripture and handed down by tradition along the centuries. When the real spirit of the law is lost, the conclusion is that letter kills. That s what happened to the concept of God when it became a reason for exclusion, persecution and fear. The Spanish theologian Andres Torres Queiruga searches through reflection on this subject, an involving rethink of theology today, because with the advent of modernity, the human thinking paradigm has changed on account of the cultural revolution. The perspective of a world where natural events were attributed to God or the devil, according to what was good or bad, no longer fits today, as science considers the world governed by autonomous natural laws. In such case, this mythic vision of God becomes for modernity, superfluous, as their former causal explanation, has brought great harm to faith. Queiruga searches in Jesus of Nazareth’s life, the core of Abba’s experience. The truly Christian response to this situation, presents the tender face of God revealed by the Messiah. This God s paternal experience brings joy and the conscience of full existential realization for the one who find pleasure in feeling divine filiation.