By implementing Albert O. Hirschman’s theory about reactions, the purpose of this thesis is to analyse the arguments against carbon offsetting presented in Swedish media. More specifically, I will structure and analyse the counter-arguments I find in the articles about carbon offsetting presented by the Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter between October 2019 and January 2020. Hirschman’s theory of the reactionary rhetoric is based on the notion that every social action is followed by a reaction. To illustrate this, Hirschman introduces three types of theses –arguments -deployed by those who oppose a new idea or reform. The three principal arguments Hirschman identifies is the futility thesis, the perversity thesis and the jeopardy thesis. The futility thesis suggests that an action aiming to improve the society in any way won’t have any effect, the perversity thesis claims that the action will result in the opposite outcome of what was intended and the jeopardy thesis implies that the action will result in intolerable consequences in other areas. Hirschman suggests that a debate where any of these theses are present both is a danger for democracy and is likely to result in suffering in other ways as well. In that way, his theory provides a tool for identifying dangerous arguments in order to take a step towards a more democracy friendly discussion. By analysing 85 arguments against carbon offsetting I find that 51 of them easily can be categorized as either one of the theses, while 22 can’t be categorized at all. The remaining 12 arguments can either partly or in full be placed in the model. The majority of the 51 arguments fitting in Hirschman’s model are futility theses, which implies that the Swedish debate in this area largely consists of arguments claiming that carbon offsetting doesn’t make any difference. My conclusion based on Hirschman’s theory and the analysis of the arguments is that the Swedish debate about carbon offsetting unarguably contains signs of the polarized discussion Hirschman claims to be a democratic danger and that both the debate itself and the climate overall probably would benefit from a more nuanced and balanced debate.

Submitted by Aelson Maciera (aelsoncm@terra.com.br) on 2017-09-15T20:16:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDHSP.pdf: 7140053 bytes, checksum: 86ac67128bb192f67916f9ef4bfc3680 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (bco.producao.intelectual@gmail.com) on 2018-01-31T18:42:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDHSP.pdf: 7140053 bytes, checksum: 86ac67128bb192f67916f9ef4bfc3680 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (bco.producao.intelectual@gmail.com) on 2018-01-31T18:42:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDHSP.pdf: 7140053 bytes, checksum: 86ac67128bb192f67916f9ef4bfc3680 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-31T18:50:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDHSP.pdf: 7140053 bytes, checksum: 86ac67128bb192f67916f9ef4bfc3680 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-28 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Hardly ever can one glimpse professional or personal progress in a domestic work, which is known for being underrated, due to its so-called "lower valued" functions, also counting on less labor rights. Under the structures of power relations, the discourses related to domestic work in Brazil mostly include the discussion of justice in relation to a multiplicity of statements that give rise to conflicts between classes and, consequently, incite actions in search of a more dignified treatment. In this field full of asymmetries and inequalities, especially with regard to labor rights, the media discourse occupies a privileged place in the construction and propagation of "truths”. Hence, the interest in analyzing the media discourses about the labor laws regarding domestic work in Brazil. Once the social aspirations of the category gained weight from the Consolidation of Labor Laws, occurred in 1943, this historic event is chosen as a starting point to investigate the impact of media discourse about the legislation over the subject and, as arrival point, it is elected the recent Constitutional Amendment n. 72, 2013. Thus, in order to describe the materiality of media statements and its insertion into discursive formations, the corpus to be analyzed consists of news published in the last 80 years in the media vehicles with strong expression as formers of Brazilian opinion. The analysis of the media’s role in the production and circulation of meanings and transformation of discursive practices is achieved from the theoretical perspective of the French Discourse Analysis, plus the Michel Foucault’s contributions to the study of discourse, and also from Albert Hirschman and Marc Angenot with regard to them formulations about the reactionary rhetoric. / Dificilmente se vislumbra progresso profissional e pessoal no Trabalho Doméstico, profissão marcada pelo desprestígio, em razão do exercício de funções tidas como inferiores e que menos dispõe de garantias trabalhistas. Sob as estruturas das relações de poder, os discursos relacionados ao trabalho doméstico no Brasil contemplam uma multiplicidade de enunciados que dão ensejo a conflitos entre classes e, por consequência, incitam ações em busca de um tratamento mais digno. Nesse campo repleto de assimetrias e desigualdades, especialmente em relação aos direitos sociais, a Mídia ocupa um lugar privilegiado na construção e propagação de “verdades”. Daí o interesse em se analisar os discursos midiáticos sobre as leis do trabalho doméstico no Brasil. Uma vez que as aspirações sociais da categoria ganharam peso a partir da Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho (CLT), ocorrida em 1943, elege-se esse marco como ponto de partida para a investigação e, como ponto de chegada, elege-se a recente Emenda Constitucional n. 72, de 2013. Assim, a fim de se descrever a materialidade dos enunciados midiáticos e sua inserção em diferentes posições discursivas, o corpus de análise é composto por notícias veiculadas nos últimos 80 anos em veículos de forte expressão como formadores de opinião brasileira. A análise do papel da Mídia tradicional na produção e circulação de sentidos e na transformação das práticas discursivas é realizada sob a perspectiva teórica da Análise do Discurso francesa, somada às contribuições de Michel Foucault para o estudo do discurso, e também de Albert Hirschman e Marc Angenot no que diz respeito às suas formulações acerca da retórica reacionária. / FAPESP: 2014/09556-4