<p>My study focuses on how heterosexuality became, and still is, the norm for sexuality in Namibia. My aim is to through interviewing young academics from University of Namibia and by using discourse analysis, queer- and postcolonial theory, try to find out how these young academics perceive sexuality. My findings are that my respondents perceive heterosexuality to be natural, normal and given by god, and that they perceive homosexuality to be ”a big no-no”. There are certain institutions in the Namibian society that regulates how the Namibian people thinks about sexuality, and my findings are that these are Christianity, culture, family, government, and the traditional picture of a good man and a good woman. The heteronormativity is present in many spheres of the Namibian society, and this study shows how.</p>

<p>Syftet med denna studie är att i sex amerikanska filmer som tar upp kriget i Vietnam undersöka hur den västerländska och den orientaliska kulturen skildras i relation till varandra utifrån ett postkolonialt perspektiv. Både framställningen av såväl amerikanerna, fienden och sydvietnameserna har studerats ur detta perspektiv. Detta undersöks genom att koppla till teorier och begrepp såsom semiotik och ideologi och metoder såsom diskurs och diskursanalys, mise-en-scéne och filmanalys. Studien undersöker om det skett någon förändring av det postkoloniala perspektivet i filmernas framställning. Undersökningen inkluderar: Gröna Baskrarna, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now Redux, Plutonen, Full Metal Jacket och We Were Soldiers. Resultatet är tydligt och visar att ett gemensamt tema i alla filmer är att vi i princip känner och sympatiserar med de amerikanska soldaterna hela tiden. I tre av filmerna är amerikanerna alltigenom goda, men i de andra tre är bilden något tvetydig då amerikanerna är både goda och onda samt rationella och irrationella. När det gäller fienden är de i alla filmerna oftast ansiktslösa, primitiva och brutala, och de får heller aldrig komma till tals, förutom i We Were Soldiers där de tidvis framställs som människor med känslor. Även sydvietnameserna skildras i filmerna som ansiktslösa och primitiva och när de syns framställs de nästan alltid som offer. Det är påtagligt att den postkoloniala spegeln existerar i alla de analyserade filmernas diskurs och att det ideologiska budskapet, med väst som dominerande och mer civiliserad, reproduceras genom filmerna. Vidare används både konnotationer och mise-en-scéne för att framföra och förstärka det postkoloniala budskapet. Den förändring som skett i filmerna är framförallt hos amerikanerna som först associerades som goda för att sedan bli mindre goda, en förändring är också att vi får inblickar i hur fienden tänker och känner.</p> / <p>The aim of this study is to investigate six American Vietnam war films, and to study how western and oriental cultures are depicted from a postcolonial perspective. The descriptions of the Americans, the enemy and the South Vietnamese have been studied from this perspective. This is examined by drawing connections to theories and concepts such as semiotics and ideology as well as using methods such as discourse analysis, mise-en-scéne and film analysis. The study also investigates if there has been a change in the descriptions of the films when it comes to the postcolonial perspective. The research includes: The Green Berets, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now Redux, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and We Were Soldiers.</p><p>The comprehensive research question is: How are those involved in the war and their cultures depicted in relation to each other in the analysed films?</p><p>The results clearly point out the common theme; west and east are each others opposites and the audience sympathises with the American soldiers at most times. In three of the movies the Americans are thoroughly good people, but in the other three films the picture is somewhat ambiguous since here the Americans are good and evil as well as rational and irrational. Concerning the enemy, they are frequently described as faceless, primitive and brutal in all films, except in We Were Soldiers where they occasionally are depicted as human beings with feelings. The South Vietnamese people are portrayed as faceless and primitive in the films as well, and when they are visible, they usually are portrayed as victims. It is obvious that the postcolonial mirror exists in the discourse of all the analysed films, and that the ideological message with the western world as dominant and more civilised is reproduced. Furthermore, both connotations and mise-en-scéne are used to convey and strengthen the postcolonial message. The changes in the films occur above all within the Americans. To begin with, they are associated as good and next they become less good. Another example of change is that we get glimpses of how the enemy thinks and feels.</p>

The aim of this thesis has been to discuss whether remainders of colonial influences exist within the UN's definition of torture or not. The discussion has been presented from a postcolonial point of view, in dialogue with contemporary power critical theorists. In order to raise awareness of a potential colonial influence, the following questions were intended to be answered: –                                        Are there any reasons, if so – which ones, to regard the UN's definition of torture as a colonial project? And; –                                        To what extent is the term “inhumane” limiting for the prohibition against torture from a postcolonial perspective? One of the most central arguments of the chosen theories is that the term “inhumane” evokes prejudices that a racializing apparatus within the social norms of the UN automatically produces. These prejudices are, according to the theorists, influenced by images of people in non-western and non-secular (especially muslim) societies as more prone to exercise “violence” and “cruelty” towards their own citizens as well as towards the population of the world in general. Thereby, these people's state of being leave them with no access to the human rights – they are not acting in a humane way and are therefore not allowed to be treated humanely. Even though the reasoning of the theorists are understandable at a theoretical and emotional level, the language of the convention against torture leaves no substantial evidence for this assumed cultural bias and colonial tendency.   Where the theories point out some human suffering as excluded from the definition, the solutions on how to include more aspects of suffering might be too intangible to be sustainable within the context of international law. One of the theorists however, Talal Asad, makes an appealing effort by introducing a paragraph of consent within the definition of torture. A paragraph of consent makes it, according to him, easier to account for emotional experiences of suffering. At the same time it makes it possible to exercise self-selected suffering (such as religious rituals and certain sexual preferences) between two or more consenting adults, without them being stigmatized within the discourse of suffering. By introducing the paragraph of consent and the elimination of the word “cruel” (because of its tendency of being linked to racializing factors) from the definition, Asad's  argumentation points out a way to possibly improve the prohibition to include more aspects of suffering.

The aim of this study is, from a norm-critical approach, to find, investigate and analyse human representation in the visual culture of one preschool in order to understand if the children enrolled are represented or not. The research questions are: In what ways is there imagery of human representations in images and materials designed for play? What skin-colors and origins are dominant in the data collected? We carried out a qualitative study in the form of visual ethnography. This method allowed us to use a combination of different data collection tools such as photography and ethnographic field notes to collect our data. The photographs we took of images and material used for play, was then analysed through semiotic picture analysis. The focus was to see which skin-color and origin that was dominant in the photographs of human representations. The result of the study, show that human representation is found in many variations such as, books, board games, puzzles and materials for educational use. The study also show that the vast majority of representations, displayed people of white skin and Swedish origin. In discussing these results we argued that the selected preschool is imbued by the norm of whiteness that is also dominant in the Swedish society. From a postcolonial perspective, we find that this norm and its underlying assumption of racial differences forms part of a historically rooted structural system of values that has evolved in Sweden during hundreds of years. The impact these results have in a preschool context is that children don’t have the same opportunity to identification through the visual culture at the preschool. We conclude that this can, in the long run, create problems since representation or lack of representation is linked to marginalization of whole social groups due to not having the same requisites to take on for example positions of power. We have a strong believe that if the topic of human representation can be enlightened in preschools and schools, teachers can work towards offering all children the same potential for positive identification in preschool.

We live in a world where the resources are not equally divided and that is why charity work is needed. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, is a global organization that works for children’s human rights around the world. But perhaps even charity work, which´s often glorified in the society, need to be looked at from different directions. Research about intercultural education, globalization and charity shows that even good deeds can end up reproducing the problem that was supposed to be solved in the first place. There is no research about UNICEF´s work from this perspective and since UNICEF is a global organization that focuses on children and education and has an important role in society, they are an interesting object for research. That is why this study has examined “UNICEF Annual Report 2013” based on the problem to draw attention to minorities exposure and discrimination, without reproducing the majorities global hegemony. The questions that drove this study were which knowledge that was spread about the children and UNICEF in UNICEF´s report, what agency this knowledge enabled and which voices that were heard in the report. “UNICEF Annual Report 2013” was examined based on Faircloughs (1992) critical discourse analysis and three-dimensional method and the text, discursive practice and social practice of the report were analyzed. As a theoretical framework postcolonial theory and especially Gayatri Spivak where used due to their focus on global inequalities and the idea that there is still an ongoing colonialism of human thoughts and intellects around the world, where the European epistemology has been spread as a universal truth (Andreotti, 2011; Spivak, 2004). In “UNICEF Annual Report 2013” three different discourses where located: “Childrendiscourse”, “Educationdiscourse” and “Charitydiscourse”. The result of the critical discourse analysis showed that children are portrayed as innocent victims that only get an ability to change their life through the education that charity organizations like UNICEF provide. The knowledge about the child that gets an agency and voice through education can be criticized from a postcolonial perspective. The picture of the educated child indicates that UNICEF are able to see the children that can´t be seen and hear the voices that can´t be heard, which may lead to a contra productive dream about a local hero created by a European epistemology. Research about the ability to draw attention to minorities exposure and discrimination, without reproducing the majorities global hegemonies indicates that there is no easy solution to this dilemma. As postcolonial theory and intercultural education promotes, everyone needs to approach this problem and question the position that they speak from, otherwise they may end up reproducing the majorities global hegemony and the dilemma that they wanted to solve in the first place.

The essay is about how Swedish media have chosen to report on tourism from Haiti and the Dominican Republic in 1993-2018. There may be many different aspects to look into within this but the aspects that have been studied are the degree to which nature and culture are seen in this reporting. The analysis of the articles of the newspaper Dagens Nyheter has been made based on a postcolonial discourse analysis where certain postcolonial concepts have been applied to the selected articles. It is in what ways the different writers have chosen to describe the nature and culture of the two countries that have been analyzed and an analysis will be made of whether reporting differs between the countries. The result shows that the writers are clearly governed by a Eurocentric world order where We, Europe, have a clear overarching relationship in relation to Them, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, who have a clear subordination. This clear boundary is clearly visible in the words chosen by the writers by normalizing concepts that are under the category We and nonnormalizing concepts that belong to Them. The conclusion is that Haiti is described in a lesser way than the Dominican Republic, which may be because Haitians are more strange to us than Dominicans depending on the countries different histories where the Haitians are seen as a Creole language speaking African society and the Dominicans are seen as a Spanish speaking European society. / Uppsatsen handlar om på vilket sätt som svenska medier har valt att rapportera om turism utifrån länderna Haiti och Dominikanska Republiken under åren 1993-2017. Det kan finnas många olika aspekter att kolla på inom detta men de aspekter som det har studerats om är i vilken grad som natur och kultur syns i denna rapportering. Analyseringen av Dagens Nyheters tidningsartiklar har gjorts utifrån en postkolonial diskursanalys där vissa postkoloniala begrepp har applicerats på de valda artiklarna. Det är på vilka sätt som de olika skribenterna har valt att beskriva naturen och kulturen i de båda länderna som har analyserats och det kommer att göras en analys på om rapporteringen skiljer mellan länderna. Resultatet visar att skribenterna är tydligt styrda i en eurocentrisk världsordning där Vi, Europa, har en tydlig överordning jämfört med De, Haiti och Dominikanska Republiken, har en tydlig underordning. Denna tydliga gränsdragning syns tydligt i de ordval som skribenterna gör genom att normalisera begrepp som är under kategorin Vi och icke-normalisera begrepp som tillhör De. Slutsatsen är att Haiti beskrivs på ett undermåligare sätt än Dominikanska Republiken som kan bero på att haitier är mer främmande för oss än vad dominikaner är beroende på att de sistnämnda passar in mer under kategorin Vi.

The essay, based on interviews with eight people, deals with name changes from a foreign-sounding name to Swedish-sounding name. The aim is to investigate the reasons behind the name change and whether experiences of ethnic discrimination were among these reasons. Furthermore, I explore the consequences of the name change, and whether the name change was an effective strategy to avoid ethnic discrimination. The study employs qualitative method; I carry out eight interviews with four women and four men, and analyze the empirical material by means of post-colonial theory in which categorizing, otherness and passing are significant terms. The results show that the name change takes place primarily to reduce a sense of otherness, and the discursively locked positions a foreign-sounding name creates. The name change helps the individual to avoid being questioned as much as before, making the individual more likely to pass. The name change facilitates social interaction with others and leads to a greater sense of inclusion, creating more favorable conditions of work and career development. The subject can thus pass from a position of stranger to a more familiar or ambiguous body.

I en statlig underökning uppdagas att medier kan producera tankegångar som förstärker de etniska orättvisorna i samhället. Medier kan producera innehåll som kan spåras tillbaka till kolonialismens idéer. Vi undersöker därför om Sveriges Television producerar eller reproducerar koloniala tankegångar i sina TV-program om Afrika. Detta vore väldigt problematiskt med tanke på den folkbildningsambition som public service är menade att bedriva i Sverige. Vi har analyserat längre program, om afrikanska länder och samhällen, som Sveriges Television har producerat under tidsperioden 1960-1989. Detta var en tid då de flesta kolonierna började rämna i Afrika. Sveriges Television var också, mer eller mindre, de enda som gjorde TV i Sverige under denna tid. De hade en stark maktposition och ett stort förtroende hos det svenska folket. Vi använder oss aven kritisk diskursanalys för att försöka skönja maktrelationer mellan européer och afrikaner, samt fördjupa analysen med hjälp av postkoloniala perspektiv eftersom en central tanke med teoribildningen är att visa hur koloniala tankesätt fortfarande lever kvar trots koloniernas fall. Dessa perspektiv har vi använt i en kritisk diskursanalys då vi tittar på språkets betydelse när vi analyserar programmen för att upptäcka dolda maktrelationer. Detta görs för att vi ska kunna rikta kritik mot kolonialismens förtryckande strukturer. Våra slutsatser är att det faktiskt finns ett postkolonialt medvetande i programmen från -70 och 80-talen. Det finns en stor mängd program där europeiska stormakter kritiseras för deras koloniala handlingar på den afrikanska kontinenten. Samtidigt är 60-talet ett undantag då de enstaka programmen, om afrikanska samhällen på Sveriges Television, inte reflekterar över Europas historiska och kulturella påverkan på den afrikanska kontinenten och dess folk.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att ta reda på hur kvinnor som migrerat till Sverige upplever en förening som arbetar för ”invandrarkvinnor” samt att etablera en diskussion kring föreningens verksamhet och målgrupp. För att uppfylla syftet har material samlats genom utförda intervjuer med kvinnor som på olika sätt är engagerade i föreningen. Dessutom har observationer utförts för att kunna fördjupa förståelsen för hur verksamheten fungerar. Materialet har sedan analyserats med hjälp av teori som postkolonial feminism, kulturellt kapital och gemeinschaft. Resultat som framkommit genom detta arbetssätt är att informanterna upplever föreningen som en plats som ger dem den känsla av gemenskap som kompenserar för de olika känslor av utanförskap som de gått igenom. Ett annat resultat av studien är att känslan av gemenskap kommer från upplevelsen av att kvinnor som sökt sig till förening i hög utsträckning delar erfarenheter.

Denna uppsats undersöker musikvideon Apeshit, av The Carters, som spelades in på Louvren och hur den tar upp frågor om svart representation. Syftet med studien handlar om att bidra med kunskap om hur representation visualiseras samt dess effekter. En ytterligare ambition handlar om responsen videon fick, som bland annat resulterade i Louvrens guidade tur Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Louvre Hightlights. Studien har till syfte att analysera detta utifrån svart representation och demokratisering. Genom ett postkolonialt perspektiv med fokus på Stuart Halls kulturella hegemoni och Richard Dyers vithetsbegrepp har studien kunnat ge uttryck i dessa frågor om svart visuell representation. Som metod har uppsatsen använt sig av en formal- och kontextanalys för att uttolka musikvideons underliggande budskap. Studiens slutresultat belyser de medel som använts i musikvideon för att lyfta frågor som berör svart representation och rasism.