This theoretical thesis employs critical discourse analysis to scrutinise the construction of video game addiction in Swedish press from 1991 to 2017, and examines its potential contribution to a moral panic. Our research is based on the assumption that media discourse influences societal norms, which in turn, can profoundly affect individuals and groups. Our primary results suggest that a small group of moral entrepreneurs, mainly treatment providers for gambling disorders, were given an ideological near-monopoly over the conceptualization of video game addiction in the Swedish press. They popularised diagnostic criteria and screening tools by paraphrasing those developed for substance addiction, thus implying that this new disorder was just like substance addiction and therefore warranted similarly aggressive interventions and possibly clinical treatment. Additionally, we found that the often alarmist concerns over players' health, education, social life and other presumed harms of video game addiction were not primarily rooted in the games themselves. Our sample shows that the discourse seamlessly expanded to incorporate new sources of addiction, treating video games, the Internet, computers, social media, smart phones, and, most recently, screens as functional synonyms.  Our analysis suggests that the moral panic might be a manifestation of deeper societal factors, including traditional patriarchal family values, prejudice against youth, expectations of neuro-normativity, and conservative views on digital media. Recognizing the influence of these underlying factors may help parents, teachers, social workers and gamers themselves navigate the still-ongoing media trend of using pop psychology and amateur neuroscience to justify patriarchal and capitalist morality tales.

SWEDISH DEFENCE POLICY AFTER THE COLD WAR This essay is about Sweden's shift from strong territorial defense to disarmament with the defense decisions of 1996, 2000 and 2004. During the Cold War, Sweden had pursued a policy of neutrality aimed at staying out of the conflicts between the great powers. The country's defenses were focused on facing a possible invasion and preventing occupation. The Swedish Armed Forces were built up with a strong domestic defence industry which also benefited Sweden as an industrial nation. The strategy was based on the marginal doctrine where the intended aggressor was the Soviet Union.   However, the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s dramatically changed the conditions for Sweden's security policy. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 significantly reduced the threat of a military confrontation between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, and this led to a renewed discussion within both the political and military spheres. The defence decisions around the turn of the millennium represent a turning point in Sweden's modern history when it comes to security policy and defence. The purpose of this essay is to study the process behind the decisions and specifically look at the motives of some of the decision-makers, both military and political. The essay takes its methodological basis in oral history in the form of protocols from a witness seminar. The result of the study is that the combination of the geopolitical changes in the world around us and the new stricter economic budget frameworks together seem to have led to decisions that in the end were more extensive than what possibly was intended when they were made. / SVENSK FÖRSVARSPOLITIK EFTER KALLA KRIGET Den här uppsatsen handlar om Sveriges omsvängning från starkt territoriellt försvar till nedrustning i och med försvarsbesluten 1996, 2000 och 2004.  Under det kalla kriget hade Sverige fört en neutralitetspolitik som syftade till att hålla sig utanför stormakternas konflikter. Landets försvar var inriktat på att möta en eventuell invasion och förhindra ockupation. Det svenska försvaret byggdes upp med en stark inhemsk försvarsindustri vilket också gagnade Sverige som industrination. Strategin byggde på marginaldoktrinen där den tänkta angriparen var Sovjetunionen.  Det kalla krigets slut i början av 1990-talet förändrade emellertid förutsättningarna för Sveriges säkerhetspolitik dramatiskt. Berlinmurens fall 1989 och Sovjetunionens upplösning 1991 innebar att hotet om en militär konfrontation mellan de två supermakterna, USA och Sovjetunionen, minskade väsentligt och detta ledde till en förnyad diskussion inom såväl den politiska som militära ledningen rörande vilken linje som var rätt för Sverige fortsättningsvis. Försvarsbesluten kring millennieskiftet utgör en vändpunkt i Sveriges moderna historia när det kommer till säkerhetspolitik och försvar. Uppsatsens syfte är att studera processen bakom besluten och specifikt titta på vad några av beslutsfattarna, både militära och politiska, hade för bevekelsegrunder för besluten som togs. Uppsatsen tar sin metodologiska grund i muntlig historia i form av protokoll från ett vittnesseminarium. Resultatet av studien är att samverkan av de geopolitiska förändringarna i omvärlden och de samtidiga striktare ekonomiska budgetramarna verkar ha lett till beslut som i slutändan blev mer omfattande än vad som verkar varit avsikten när de fattades.

Objet connu de la recherche juridique, sujet à la mode, la motivation n'a pourtant pas livré tous ses mystères, lien éthéré entre le processus décisionnel, avec lequel on voudrait parfois la confondre, et l'instrumentum du jugement, auquel elle ne peut se réduire. Propulsée sur le devant de la scène par les (r)évolutions de la place du juge dans notre ordre social et processuel, elle est marquée d'une ambigüité essentielle. Envisagée comme un devoir, la motivation apparaît comme un processus de légitimation interne et externe de la décision du juge judiciaire, dont l'aboutissement repose sur une triple vertu : vertu introspective d'abord, par laquelle le magistrat est amené, dans l'intimité de sa conscience de juge, à une réflexion renouvelée sur sa décision ; vertu processuelle, ensuite, par laquelle on s'assure du respect par le juge des droits processuels et substantiels ; vertu pédagogique enfin, marquant l'ambition d'une justice comprise et acceptée. Envisagée comme un pouvoir, la motivation est à la fois le révélateur et l'instrument de la participation du juge judiciaire à un véritable dialogue normatif et éthique, au-delà de son office strictement juridictionnel. C'est par-delà cette ambiguïté essentielle de la motivation, à la fois devoir et pouvoir, que se dévoile, entre confiance et espérances, le renouveau de la fonction du juge à l'aube du XXIème siècle / The legal basis for decisions, a well-known and fashionable subject of legal research, has yet to yield up all its secrets: it constitutes the insubstantial link between the decision-making process, with which it is sometimes confused, and the instrumentum of the judgment which cannot be regarded as its sole component. (R)evolutions in thinking concerning the position of the judge in both social and procedural contexts have propelled the question to the forefront, and its very essence is ambiguous. Initially regarded as a duty, the requirement to give a legal basis for a decision comes across as a process of internal and external legitimisation of the judge’s findings, and its finality is based upon a threefold virtue. Firstly the virtue of introspection whereby the judge is led, in the privacy of his conscience, to undertake a renewed reflection on his or her decision. Secondly the virtue of good procedure whereby the respect by the judge of procedural and substantive rights is assured. Finally, there is the pedagogical virtue of a system of justice which sets out to be understood and accepted. Initially regarded as a power, the legal basis for decisions both reveals and enables the participation of the judge in a truly normative and ethical dialogue which goes beyond the strictly jurisdictional context of his office. Thus it is through this ambiguity between duty and power which constitutes the essence of the legal basis for decisions that is heralded, at the dawn of the 21st century, in a climate of confidence and hope, the renewal of the judicial function.