<p>The present compiled dissertation explores culture jamming as a social movement in late capitalist information society. Culture jamming embraces groups and individuals practicing symbolic protest against the expansion and domination of large corporations and the logic of the market into public and private life. The central aim is to understand the meaning of culture jamming; its “model” of collective identification, and its protest and mobilizing strategies. International social movement research mostly focuses upon well established movements that are traditionally organized and directed against conventional political institutions. Studying culture jamming as a social movement therefore entails implications for social movement theory and research. For instance, concepts must be adjusted to cover emerging “individualized” forms of collective action and the effects of cyberspace on collective identification. Furthermore, attention is directed to emotions in culture jamming. It is thereby also argued that social movement research generally may have a lot to gain from incorporating emotion theory.</p><p>Data consists of texts and visuals from the organization Adbusters Media Foundation, and seven interviews with culture jammers. The groups represented in the interviews are Institute for Applied Autonomy, Reverend Billy’s Church of Stop Shopping, New York Surveillance Camera Players, Bureau of Inverse Technology, Rtmark, and the French Casseurs de Pub. The method of analysis is “abductive” qualitative text analysis inspired by hermeneutic qualitative analysis and the epistemological and ontological foundations of discourse theory and post-structuralism.</p><p>Analysis is carried out in five separate studies presented in text I-IV (previously published) and in chapter eight. Text I maps the Adbusters Media Foundation (AMF) along the lines of narrative, organization, ends, means, and strategy. Text II offers an analysis of the various nodal points in the AMF discourse and discusses the tensions inherent to the AMF effort to “hegemonize” the meaning of culture jamming. Text III offers an analysis of culture jamming as political activism from the thematic perspective of culture, place and identity, based on four of the interviews. In text IV the AMF visuals are analyzed from the perspective of emotions and social movement mobilization. Chapter eight brings together the seven interviews and the AMF material into an analysis of emotions in culture jamming.</p>

The present compiled dissertation explores culture jamming as a social movement in late capitalist information society. Culture jamming embraces groups and individuals practicing symbolic protest against the expansion and domination of large corporations and the logic of the market into public and private life. The central aim is to understand the meaning of culture jamming; its “model” of collective identification, and its protest and mobilizing strategies. International social movement research mostly focuses upon well established movements that are traditionally organized and directed against conventional political institutions. Studying culture jamming as a social movement therefore entails implications for social movement theory and research. For instance, concepts must be adjusted to cover emerging “individualized” forms of collective action and the effects of cyberspace on collective identification. Furthermore, attention is directed to emotions in culture jamming. It is thereby also argued that social movement research generally may have a lot to gain from incorporating emotion theory. Data consists of texts and visuals from the organization Adbusters Media Foundation, and seven interviews with culture jammers. The groups represented in the interviews are Institute for Applied Autonomy, Reverend Billy’s Church of Stop Shopping, New York Surveillance Camera Players, Bureau of Inverse Technology, Rtmark, and the French Casseurs de Pub. The method of analysis is “abductive” qualitative text analysis inspired by hermeneutic qualitative analysis and the epistemological and ontological foundations of discourse theory and post-structuralism. Analysis is carried out in five separate studies presented in text I-IV (previously published) and in chapter eight. Text I maps the Adbusters Media Foundation (AMF) along the lines of narrative, organization, ends, means, and strategy. Text II offers an analysis of the various nodal points in the AMF discourse and discusses the tensions inherent to the AMF effort to “hegemonize” the meaning of culture jamming. Text III offers an analysis of culture jamming as political activism from the thematic perspective of culture, place and identity, based on four of the interviews. In text IV the AMF visuals are analyzed from the perspective of emotions and social movement mobilization. Chapter eight brings together the seven interviews and the AMF material into an analysis of emotions in culture jamming.

This thesis describes how social work language practice circulates around the implementation process of an evidence based structured assessment tool – Savry. The purpose is to examine and understand the social workers language practice in a working group that uses this structured assessment tool in their work with youth. The purpose is also to look for dimensions of identity in terms of discourse. The ontological viewpoint is post-structuralism where language is in focus. The theoretical framework is discourse theory based upon the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. This theory is used as a basis of the creation of an analytical toolkit which emphasises the concept chains of equivalence and nodal points. The study is based upon qualitative interviews with social workers in a group in the social services for children and youth, who uses the evidenced based structured assessment tool - Savry. The study concerns the structuring around two identities. Theese identities circulate around the nodal point “knowledge” and defines it in two different ways through chains of equivalence. One of the identities equivalates scientific research to the nodal point knowledge, the other equivalates the unique experience to the same nodal point. Theese identities seames to be the result of a hegemonic strategy articulated by one of the two. The purpose of the strategy seams to be the incorporation of as many discursive elements as possible into one dominating discourse. This is also done through the principal exclusion of certain discursive elements, witch is the characterisation of power in discursive theory. The character of the struggle for dominance is not equal. It is instead characterised by the expansion of the chains of equivalence by the scientific knowledge based identity to incorporate discursive elements form other discourses. This is identified as a hegemonic strategy with the purpose of organising consent around the definition of the concept of knowledge and its consequences for social work practice.

<p>This thesis focuses on politically active women within The Swedish Social Democratic Women’s Association, also known as S-women. By applying discourse analysis to interviews with active s-women and to meeting conversations between the association’s members, the study approaches ideas of feminism, feminist politics and political commitment. “Solidarity” – the central concept of the labour movement – serves as the point of departure for a feminist discussion about class, gender, ethnicity and age/generation. Political inclusion and exclusion are other keywords when the power relations within feminism in general and this women’s association in particular are examined. The theoretical framework of the thesis covers post-structuralist feminism, intersectionality and discourse psychology.</p>

Le nationalisme est souvent présenté comme étant civique ou ethnique. En réalité, toute nation se définit avant tout par sa culture. Les États, le plus souvent composés de deux ou plusieurs nations, sont le théâtre permanent d'une guerre culturelle. Inspiré par le cadre théorique défini par le post-structuralisme et le post-colonialisme, l’objectif de la recherche est de montrer que le sport en tant qu’agent culturel actif a historiquement été instrumentalisé pour alimenter la guerre culturelle au sein des États. L'analyse critique des différents écrits académiques touchant au Canadien de Montréal montre comment la guerre culturelle s’est déployée sur le territoire du Québec à travers les pratiques discursives qui ont sculpté les représentations symboliques de cette équipe de hockey. / The theory of nationalism is often delineated by its civic or ethnic counterparts. In fact, every nation is defined by its culture. Therefore, the state is permanently under siege in a culture war of the nations. The aim of this research is to show in a historical perspective how sport as a cultural agent can be instrumentalised in the conduct of the culture war. Critical analysis of the discursive practices surrounding the hockey club Montreal Canadiens show how the culture war took place on the territory of Québec. Post- structuralism and post-colonialism are used as a theoretical framework.

This research project explores the creative and critical functions of editing in art, film and writing. The written component analyses the histories and discourses of 'cutting and splicing' to examine their various roles in processes of signification. The artistic practice uses more speculative and open-ended methods to explore the social 'languages' that inform our inter-subjective experiences. This project argues that editing is a creative methodology for making meaning, because it allows existing symbolic systems to be appropriated, revised and rewritten. By emphasising the operations of spacing, questioning and play, it also identifies editing as an essential tool for critically engaging with the potentials of art and theory.

[pt] A presente dissertação busca oferecer uma leitura crítica sobre as performances militarizadas de (in)segurança que constituem a guerra às drogas na América Latina. Entendemos a guerra às drogas como um conjunto de normas, políticas e saberes relacionado ao controle, via proibição, de drogas ilícitas , que prioriza estratégias militarizadas nas tentativas de suprimir a produção e a comercialização dessas substâncias pela via da oferta e que opera primordialmente através da cooperação bilateral ou multilateral com agências estatais e atores políticos estadunidenses. Situamos a discussão proposta no contexto mais amplo das leituras feministas/de gênero, pós-estruturais e póscoloniais sobre Relações Internacionais e segurança internacional, com foco no processo de construção de imaginários políticos sobre o mundo social através de performances (discursivas e não discursivas) de (in)segurança. Utilizamos como principal (embora não única) estratégia de pesquisa a análise de discurso, olhando para as principais práticas discursivas da guerra às drogas que se colocam como discursos oficiais do Estado estadunidense. Argumentamos que as performances militarizadas da guerra às drogas são tornadas possíveis por uma forma de imaginar as relações internacionais que constrói o Estado nacional moderno como sujeito primordial da política internacional através da (re)produção de fronteiras de (in)segurança. Mais ainda, esse processo reflete complexas hierarquias e dinâmicas de poder que também são informadas por performances de gênero – seja a fluida dualidade entre feminilidades e masculinidades , seja a contraposição entre uma masculinidade hegemônica e masculinidades e feminilidades subalternas . Nesse sentido, a guerra às drogas é tornada possível pelo mesmo imaginário político que (re)produz: um que (re)afirma as fronteiras de possibilidade da política (inter)nacional. / [en] This dissertation aims at offering a critical reading on the militarized (in)security performances that constitute the war on drugs in Latin America. We understand the war on drugs as a cluster of norms, policies and knowledge related to the control, via prohibition, of illicit drugs that prioritizes militarized strategies in their attempts to inhibit the production and commercialization of such substances at the supply side and that operates primarily through bilateral or multilateral cooperation with state agencies and political actors from the United States. We locate our discussion within the wider context of feminist/gender, poststructural and post-colonial studies, focusing on the process of construction the social world through (discursive and non discursive) (in)security performances. Our primary research strategy (among others) consists on discourse analysis, in order to look at the main discursive practices of the war on drugs that posit themselves as the official discourses of the United States as a state. We argue that the militarized performances of the war on drugs are rendered possible by a political imaginary on international relations that constructs the modern nation state as the primordial subject of world politics through the reproduction of borders of (in)security. Moreover, this process reveals complex power hierarchies and dynamics that are also informed by gender performances - being those the fluid duality between femininities and masculinities or the contraposition between a hegemonic masculinity and subaltern masculinities and femininities . In this sense, the war on drugs becomes possible by the same political imaginary that it (re)produces: one that (re)affirms the borders of possibility of (inter)national politics.

Beginning with Plato's expulsion of the poets in the Republic, this dissertation looks at the often hostile, yet also symbiotic, relationship between poetry and philosophy. Aristotle's 'response' to Plato is regarded as a significant origin of literary theory. Nietzsche's critique of Western philosophy as being an attempt to suppress its own metaphoricity, leads to a revaluation of truth and consequently of the privileging of philosophy over poetry. Post-structuralism sometimes overemphasizes this constitutive force of metaphoricity, at the expense of conceptual modes. However, Derrida's notion of philosophy as play retains a balance between concept and metaphor: there is no attempt to transcendentally ground philosophy, but neither is it reduced to a merely metaphorical discourse. Finally, Wittgenstein's notion of meaning as determined by use can help us distinguish pragmatically between poetry and philosophy by looking at the contexts in which they function. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

This study examines the ways in which museums and memorials within South African society commemorate events of the past. Various examples of museums and memorials are chosen and identified according to the ways in which they embody postmodern or modern thought. Postmodern and modern museums are deconstructed according to various post-structural tenets so as to arrive at a broader understanding on how they are able to remain a continuously relevant and vital part of contemporary society. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Art History)

This research examines the poetry of A.M Maphumulo by utilising selected strategies from the deconstructive literary theory. The exploration involves a critical analysis and application of deconstruction to isiZulu poetry, and more specifically to a selection of Maphumulo’s poems. This research shows that deconstruction does not constitute a traditional analysis of poetry, but that the theory attempts to interplay various meanings at the same time without giving prominence to a singular meaning. Perceptions regarding deconstruction are highlighted such as that the readings merely dismantle creative works without contributing much to its value. This research sets out to prove this observation wrong by first providing a deconstructive thematic reading of two themes of Maphumulo; that of death and education. Furthermore, the deconstruction approach is outlined and applied with specific attention to the multiplicity of meaning in Maphumulo’s poetry. Intertextuality and influence are also examined as it is evident that the poet Maphumulo was influence by his culture, the Bible and nature, amongst other influences. It is shown how the poet synthesises different influences and styles of poetry into a new original mode. Although this research focuses on selected aspects of the deconstructive procedure in analysing isiZulu texts, it is finally recommended that more research should be effected on deconstruction, and especially on Maphumulo’s poetry. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)