Single session therapy (SST) is a form of psychotherapy that has been researched and practiced internationally since the 1980s. More recently it has been widely employed from the therapeutic modality of narrative therapy - more commonly known as brief narrative single session therapy. Narrative therapy - an internationally practiced psychotherapy in its own right - operates from a blending of social constructionist and Foucauldian/poststructural theory where therapists support clients to co-construct preferred identities amidst powerful discourses which constrain this process. While the co-construction of client-preferred identity is multilayered, studies within this field have historically leaned on social constructionist explanations of how this process occurs at the expense of the Foucauldian/poststructural perspective. This study blends these two perspectives, both conceptually and methodologically, to understand how client-preferred identity co-construction occurs in brief narrative single session therapy. From the social constructionist perspective, the preferred identity that narrative therapy seeks to foreground is viewed as something that is constructed within the session between the client and therapist rather than something that is fully formed prior to the session’s start. Yet, from the Foucauldian/poststructural perspective this process also occurs within the culturally available discourses that are afforded to us. To highlight both perspectives I conducted a hybrid discourse analysis that included a macro-focused Foucauldian discourse analysis and a micro-focused element of discursive psychology, on five appointment-based sessions of brief narrative single session therapy. Immediately following the recording of each session clients and therapists filled out separate post-session questionnaires to share their impressions and experiences of these single sessions. The results of this study present rich examples of how working practitioners trained in brief narrative single session therapy support clients in the co-construction of preferred identities in the context of constraining cultural discourses. In addition, alternative discourses that supported the work of client-preferred identity co-construction based within these sessions, and found within the fields of narrative therapy and the brief therapy movement, were identified. Comments from participant post-session questionnaires offer supplementary perspectives that add greater context to the findings from my analysis of sessions. Implications for the training, practice, and study of brief narrative single session therapy are discussed.

The European union has during the past decade actively tried to change strategy and formulate new regulations on the digital arena where the focus on fundamental rights has been a central strategy. The notion of universal rights has however received critic for being too western oriented and one can question what these rights actually mean, where do they originate from and what effects on society does this discourse of rights have? By analyzing the language use and policy of the “Digital services act and fundamental rights issues posed” from a poststructuralist perspective the study aims to increase the understanding of the discourse behind EU:s digital strategy and compare the results to earlier research where discourses on digital rights has been identified. By doing so the study concludes EU has a different approach to digital rights compared to the one presented in earlier research. There’s also a prominent security discourse imbedded within the digital strategy of the EU.

Where post-GDP, a socio-ecological substitute of GDP, has become increasingly salient within international relations, its practice at an institutional economic level remains largely marginalised. At a discursive level, however, both GDP and post-GDP appear to be both supplementary and antithetical to one another. This thesis investigates this relationship between GDP and post-GDP discourse, as well as the dependency of economic institutions to exercise such a discourse. Constructivist institutionalism initially frames these economic ideas as both constitutive and antagonistic towards institutional stability. This thesis, however, draws primarily upon institutional poststructuralism, articulating GDP/post-GDP discourse, not the agent, as a mechanism that produces economic knowledge and, by association, the institutions that are shaped by it. A two-part analysis takes place, consisting of an historical genealogy of GDP/post-GDP and a discourse logics analysis between the IMF development committee and the economic departments of India and surrounding countries. The findings show that the formative discourse of GDP and post-GDP had become divorced during the 20th century and that while GDP logics often struggle to reconcile requisite development outcomes, economic institutions exercise the two as a unitary discourse; albeit one that maintains a GDP centre.

This thesis investigates how the United Nations’ (UN) framing of “climate refugees” impacts global humanitarian migration and refugee governance in the context of anthropogenic climate change in which border zones become spaces of biopolitical decision making which impacts both governance strategies and International Relations as an academic field. It argues from a poststructuralist perspective that the UN’s discourse centred around climate change related human movement, the issue of “climate refugees” is downplayed, and “climate refugees” become bare life while their claims to legal protection are delegitimised. Thus, despite the concept of “climate refugees” becoming increasingly important in the Anthropocene, the UN’s discourse has remained vastly unchanged since McNamara’s analysis of it in 2007. The UN’s governance related discourse and reasoning concerning “climate refugees” and (humanitarian) global governance is explored through a Critical Discourse Analysis that examines a set of official UN documents which are relevant to the issue of forced human movement in the context of anthropogenic climate change.

The juridical reforms proposed by the Polish government have brought the attention of European institutions. The conflict concerns the matter of sovereignty, as the reforms conducts changes on domestic level. The paper discusses how national identity of states can shape the understanding of sovereignty. The paper aims to understand how sovereignty can be used as a political tool in relation between Poland and the European Union. The research question asks, “How Polish national identity constitutes the EU as a threat to sovereignty?”. To answer this question, the thesis applies poststructuralist’s concepts to the narrative analysis on speeches of the Polish President Andrzej Duda. The results of the thesis indicate that sovereignty can be understood subjectively, thus can be used as a political tool that can legitimise and justify policies as well as construct relations with others.

Dans la foulée des évènements de Mai-Juin 1968, de la grève générale et de la révolte étudiante, le gouvernement gaulliste accepte de céder aux revendications des étudiants contestataires en créant une université sur le modèle qu’ils réclament. Interdisciplinaire, ouverte aux travailleurs et complètement autogérée cette université sera le Centre Universitaire Expérimental de Vincennes (C.U.E.V.) qui sera le foyer de l’intelligentsia française, accueillant notamment Deleuze, Guattari, Lyotard et plusieurs autres philosophes de renom au sein de son département de philosophie qui fut fondée et dirigée par nul autre que Michel Foucault de 1968 à 1970. Ce sont ces conditions qui sont à l’origine de la philosophie postmoderne, conditions desquelles émergeront une nouvelle théorie et une nouvelle pratique de la philosophie : La philosophie de Vincennes. L’objectif de ce mémoire est de savoir quelle est l’essence de la philosophie de Vincennes. Et en quoi se trouve-t-elle à l’origine du postmodernisme ? Le présent projet de mémoire se divise en trois parties selon trois approches : historique, pédagogique et philosophique. I) La partie historique retrace l’Histoire de Vincennes en cherchant le développement chronologique de cette nouvelle philosophie ainsi que les évènements historiques qui ont contribué à la forger. On retracera l’histoire de l’université de sa création en 1968 jusqu’à sa destruction par le maire de Paris Jacques Chirac en 1980. II) Une partie pédagogique qui discute des innovations pédagogiques de Vincennes et des impacts qu’elles ont eu sur les philosophes qui y ont enseignés. Ces innovations sont : 1) la création des Unités de Valeur (UV) ; 2) la pluridisciplinarité ; 3) le regroupement d’une faculté d’enseignement et d’un centre de recherche ; 4) l’autogestion et 5) l’ouverture aux travailleurs. III) La partie philosophique, la plus longue, traitera trois aspects communs à ces auteurs (Foucault, Deleuze, Lyotard). À savoir, la critique de la conception moderne de l’homme comme 1) libre et 2) rationnel, et la critique de la notion moderne de progrès. 1) La liberté n’est plus constitutive de l’homme qui est désormais vu comme déterminé par ses pulsions (héritage Freudien et Lacanien) et des superstructures (héritage Marxiste et Althussérien). 2) La rationalité n’est plus l’essence de l’homme, on critique ceux qui s’en servent comme norme pour punir ceux qui s’en éloignent, notamment dans l’Anti-Œdipe de Deleuze, ou l’Histoire de la Folie de Foucault. 3) La notion de progrès, typique de la philosophie moderne, est critiquée, notamment à travers la critique des grands récits métahistoriques, comme chez Lyotard. Ces trois approches ont pour but de nous permettre de mettre à jour l’essence de la philosophie de Vincennes et du postmodernisme, c'est à dire de la philosophie contemporaine. / In the midst of the events of May-June 1968, of the general strike and the student revolts, the Gaullist government accedes to the students’ demand by creating a new university on the very model they demand. Interdisciplinary, open to the workers and completely self-governed, this university will be called the Centre Universitaire Expérimental de Vincennes (C.U.E.V.) which will become the home of the French intelligentsia, welcoming, among others, Deleuze, Guattari, Lyotard, and many more within the philosophy department which was founded and directed by none other than Michel Foucault from 1968 to 1970. It is those very conditions which were at the origin of postmodern philosophy, conditions from which a new theory and a new practice of philosophy will emerge: Vincennes philosophy. The goal of this thesis is to describe and determine this philosophy. How it is that it stands the origin of postmodernism? In order to respond to this question, this thesis is divided into three parts following three distinct of approaches: historical, pedagogic and philosophical. I) The historical part will follow the history of Vincennes while looking for the chronological development of the new philosophy as well as the historical events which contributed to its birth. We will follow the story of the University from its creation in 1968 to its destruction by the Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, in 1980. II) The pedagogic part will focus on the teaching innovations of Vincennes and on the impact they had on the various philosophers who taught there. Those innovations include: 1) the creation of the Value Units (VU) ; 2) interdisciplinarity ; 3) the combination of research and teaching ; 4) self-government and 5) workers’ admission. III) the philosophical part, the longest, will discuss aspects common to the aforementioned three philosophers (Foucault, Deleuze, Lyotard). That is to say, the critique of the modern conception of man as 1) free and 2) rational, and the critique of the modern notion of progress. 1) Freedom will no longer be considered a dimension of man who is henceforth seen as determined by his bodily drives and impulses (a heritage of Freud and Lacan) and by superstructures (the heritage of Marx and Althusser). 2) Rationality no longer typifies the essence of man either; the philosophers examined critique those who use rationality as a norm to punish those who deviate from it, especially in Deleuze’s Anti-Œdipus, or in Foucault’s Madness and civilization. 3) The notion of progress, a common idea in modern philosophy, will also be criticized, especially through the critical analysis of metahistorical narratives, as found in Lyotard, for example. The goal of these three approaches is to uncover the essence of Vincennes philosophy and with it, postmodernism, which is to say, that of contemporary philosophy.

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This study applies a post-structural discourse analysis developed by Carol Bacchi, called the WPR-approach, on both Estonia's and the Czech Republic's cyber security policy with the purpose of comparing it to the Swedish cyber security policy. It utilizes Foucauldian ideas about how policy creates rather than discovers “problems'' through representation, and what effects this can have. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the government's work to strengthen Swedish society's cyber security policies, which includes both the public and private sectors, through analysis and comparison of two previously vulnerable countries' policy documents. By previously exposed countries is meant here exposed to socially disruptive cyber-attacks. The results show that many of the identified fundamental problems in the two equivalent policies are not taken into care by the Swedish policy. A conclusion is drawn that the Swedish cybersecurity strategy seems to fail to sufficiently address in what way knowledge-raising measures are needed, especially at the strategic levels. This is important for enabling an overall positive cyber security climate which probably affects how well cyber security will be integrated in ordinary business processes. Lack of sufficient incentive structures seem equally important to acknowledge as well as to investigate further, and perhaps there is also a need for a more ambitious approach as well as a less vague view on responsibility. Finally, as other researchers suggest, there is an urgent need to conduct significantly more research in the interdisciplinary field of cyber security. / <p>2022-05-25</p>

How do shifting geopolitical landscapes influence foreign policy discourses and identities of international actors? This thesis analyses the discursive identities constructed in the European Union’s official foreign policy discourse on China since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The EU-China relationship is complex, and recent literature has identified that the EU’s discourse toward China has become more assertive and securitized. The analysis is undertaken to gain insight into how identities are constructed against the backdrop of deteriorated and ambiguous EU-China relations and China’s influential role in the war. It takes a poststructuralist approach to discourse analysis, building on the work of Lene Hansen (2006), arguing that identities are relational and constructed through discourses. The analysis examines how Presidents of the EU’s supranational institutions constitute the EU’s identity vis-à-vis China in speeches. The analysis finds that China’s identity often is constructed as a threat to the identity of the EU and the rules-based world order, while simultaneously recognizing China as an invaluable partner that the EU cannot break away from. The thesis provides a deeper understanding of the main structural point of this relationship and the ambiguous nature and dynamics of identities in foreign policy discourses in a new, high-stake empirical context.

This study focused on the agency of battered women who kill in Turkey by conducting face- to-face interviews and using news articles covering the stories of three battered women who killed their abusers. Using a feminist poststructuralist theory and intersectionality analysis, the study analysed the patterns surrounding the agency of battered women who kill. Male violence in Turkey continues to be an unresolved problem, which continues to only grow. In the mainstream media and discourse, female victims of male violence tend to be portrayed within the victimhood concept. Thus, it creates an image of a weak, passive woman who does not have an agency. However, battered women who kill tend to conflict with the image of a passive victim. The act of killing does not fit the traditional understanding of femininity. The interview findings showed that battered women who killed their abusers were commonly understood as desperate, weak, and ignorant women. While the act of killing was justified, it was through a justification of an act conducted by someone who lacked agency. The news portrayals supported the findings of the interviews and showed that battered women who kill were justified when the woman was portrayed as a victim who killed specifically while she was being battered and was a mother who killed...