Categories are semantic objects that create order in markets. By categorization, market actors and products become comparable and understandable to various audiences. This thesis examines the construction of the product category of public relations (PR) consultancy in Sweden; a market that has arisen, become economically successful and gained  recognition over the past thirty years, but which still lacks the legitimacy and clarity normally thought of as basic criteria of market categories. Using a semiotic framework and a mixed-method approach, I explore category construction 1) over time, and 2) in practice. In generalized terms, my findings suggest that market categorization processes cannot be understood without taking into account the characteristics of the product being categorized. Whereas ambiguity around labels, denotations and connotations is normally regarded as incompatible with categorization, such fuzziness should be expected to be intrinsic in markets for professional service products like PR consultancy, where the product itself is often thriving on, as well as continuously creating, ambiguity. For instance, the lack of clarity and lack of legitimacy in the Swedish PR consultancy market are found to be both logical outcomes, and enablers, of visibilization and amalgamation, referring to PR consultants’ conscientious management of visibility, and tendency to span boundaries in constructing their services, respectively. Categorization in the traditional sense is further hampered by the dominant label of “PR consultancy” being stigmatized, i.e. suffering from “sticky” negative connotations. In the cultural context of Sweden, the emergence of a PR consultancy market has al-so meant commodification, i.e. the introduction of something hitherto not sold into a sphere of exchangeable things. In this process, PR consultancy seems to have gotten “stuck” between the sphere of salable and unsalable things, as the product is widely sold but continues to be contested across various audiences. Again, my analysis puts this difficulty of PR consultancy finding legitimacy in relation to the product category’s actual content, i.e. rendering legitimacy to others. Finally, I argue that the emergence of PR consultancy, by providing a market place for corporate legitimacy, might be under-stood as a case of a cognitive-cultural market logic on the rise, characterized by struggles for organizational visibility and semiotic sophistication.

The purpose of our study is to describe and understand whether, and if so, how social workers in school and in social services construct computer gaming adolescents as a social problem. We chose social workers who encounter adolescents with different problems. We have conducted qualitative interviews with vignettes to capture the social workers' reasoning about computer gaming adolescents and how they handle this in their work. The study shows that all social workers we interviewed had encountered adolescents with troubling computer gaming habits. In the study, all agree that computer gaming becomes a problem when it leads to deviant behaviour such as not going to school, staying up all night and so on. Social workers have adapted their work with computer gaming adolescents after their workplace policies, resources and make efforts to make it manageable to work with. One example of how they make it manageable is that they look at the problem in a context and focus on other factors than the excessive computer gaming such as poor family relationships. In the process of being established as a social problem computer gaming addiction is weak.

This thesis examines the genesis of the derogative emo kid representation and considers the latent functions it initially served in being applied to visible categories of adolescent subculturalists on the behalf of participants within the wider punk subculture. Pulling from the work of Stanley Cohen in arguing that the emo kid representation be conceptualized as a subcultural folk-devil, this thesis argues for the applicability of a Bourdieuian theoretical framework in understanding the means in which subcultural authenticity is not only distributed throughout fields of subcultural participation, but within those spheres of communicative entertainment media in which subcultural knowledge is created, legitimized and disseminated. In offering a Foucaultian genealogy of the niche-mediated emo pseudo-genre, and highlighting its correlation with concurrent movements perceived as facilitating the mainstream colonization of the punk subculture, this thesis argues that the emo kid folk-devil was constructed and reified by virtue of an array of discursive measures based largely in online, micro-mediated forums - through which punk subculturalists vied to marginalize those emo kids so perceived as threatening the exclusivity of the punk subculture and the long-established symbolic economies contained therein. Finally, this thesis demonstrates the process through which this subcultural folk-devil was annexed into a wider socio-discourse concerning dangerous youth populations and, thus, came to be utilized in collusion with mass-mediated campaigns meant to perpetuate the political disempowerment of adolescent populations through the endorsement of representational politics.

Using a feminist, autoethnographic methodology and in depth interviews with twenty-three participants, I sought to better understand the meaning of family memory keeping for women and their families through this research, paying particular attention to the ways that dominant gender ideologies shape family memory and the act of preserving family memory. This research also endeavoured to explore those instances wherein families lose that memory keeper due to memory loss, absence, or death. Interviews revealed that, despite its absence from the literature, women’s family memory keeping is a valuable form of gendered labour – and leisure – that makes significant individual, familial, and social contributions, while simultaneously reproducing dominant gender ideologies and gendered constructions of fatherhood, motherhood, and the family. Through an exploration of the loss of a mother’s memory due to illness, death, or absence, this study also demonstrated the loss of a mother’s memory is both deeply felt, and deeply gendered. However, this study illustrated participants challenging these dominant gender ideologies, as well, and using family memory keeping as a way to resist, critique, and cope. As such, this study speaks to the absence of women’s family memory keeping from the gendered work, leisure studies, social construction, and loss literature, contributing a better understanding of both the activity itself and the gendered ideologies that shape the activity, as well. Not only does this study speak to gaps in existing literature, but findings make fresh theoretical contributions to this literature through three new concepts: the notion of the good mother as the “remembering mother”, the concept of “compliance leisure”, and the re-envisioning of women’s unpaid labour as contributing to “the homing of the home”. And with these contributions to the literature, this research also provides valuable insight for professionals working to improve policy and services surrounding postpartum care, individual and family therapy, caregiving, extended care, and palliative care.

This thesis examines the genesis of the derogative emo kid representation and considers the latent functions it initially served in being applied to visible categories of adolescent subculturalists on the behalf of participants within the wider punk subculture. Pulling from the work of Stanley Cohen in arguing that the emo kid representation be conceptualized as a subcultural folk-devil, this thesis argues for the applicability of a Bourdieuian theoretical framework in understanding the means in which subcultural authenticity is not only distributed throughout fields of subcultural participation, but within those spheres of communicative entertainment media in which subcultural knowledge is created, legitimized and disseminated. In offering a Foucaultian genealogy of the niche-mediated emo pseudo-genre, and highlighting its correlation with concurrent movements perceived as facilitating the mainstream colonization of the punk subculture, this thesis argues that the emo kid folk-devil was constructed and reified by virtue of an array of discursive measures based largely in online, micro-mediated forums - through which punk subculturalists vied to marginalize those emo kids so perceived as threatening the exclusivity of the punk subculture and the long-established symbolic economies contained therein. Finally, this thesis demonstrates the process through which this subcultural folk-devil was annexed into a wider socio-discourse concerning dangerous youth populations and, thus, came to be utilized in collusion with mass-mediated campaigns meant to perpetuate the political disempowerment of adolescent populations through the endorsement of representational politics.

Both as leader and employee you need a perception of the organisational identity. The purpose of this thesis is to identify leaders’ perception of using communication to develop and implement the organisational identity with the employees and also to identify how the internal work with the organisational identity can contribute in making the employees good ambassadors for the organisation. Data has been gathered through qualitative interviews with four leaders at a future large organisation. By connecting and analysing the empirical findings with relevant theories we came to the conclusion that the leaders’ percept the communication as vital and that they consider creating the foundation of the organisational identity as their responsibility. They value co-creation and an open communication with the employees. We make the conclusion that ongoing communication is essential for including employees in the development of the organisational identity and in making these good ambassadors.

A qualitative interview study how the normative gender images affects on women, their roles and positions in a drug abuse. The purpose of this study aims to shed a light at the consequences that the normative gender scenario inflicts on women with drug abuse and how these prejudices affects these women. Based on interviews with four different women who all lived with a drug abuse we have problematized how the gender system and the normative gender images affected them. We have used gender perspectives and social constructivism theories while analyzing the empirical basis. More specifically we use the theories of Butler about how gender constructs through performative actions and Hirdmans theories of the gender system. The paper ends with a discussion of the result and a description of how the women through the socialization process is shaped to meet the normative image of women. In the subculture they adopt a more masculine appearance in order to achieve respect and status. When the women decides to leave the drug abuse and the subculture they are expected to once again adapt to the normative image of their gender, which on a micro level becomes a rollercoaster of gender strategies for the individual woman.

Children’s books have been around since the early 1500s. They reflect the traditionalvalues of the times, yet they still serve as a socializing tool transmitting values from onegeneration to the next in today’s society (Gooden and Gooden 2001). Only in the latteryears of the twentieth century has the picturebook become a serious object of academicstudy (Lewis 2001). Researchers began to take notice of the (under-) representation ofwomen in children’s books and asserted commonly that reducing sexism in children’sreading materials is crucial for developing an equitable and democratic society.Although previous research has examined the representation of gender and race inchildren’s literature extensively, there is, however, a major gap, focusing on theportrayal of New Zealand’s indigenous Polynesian people – specifically, the Maoriwoman. Little is known about the visibility of Maori women in print media (Evans1994) and even less about their depiction in children’s picturebooks. In order to addressthis gap in the literature, this paper investigates the visual and verbal representation ofMaori women in contemporary New Zealand picturebooks. Following the theories ofPeter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann and George Herbert Mead I developed a modelillustrating the circular process of picturebook communication. Moreover those theoriesserve as a theoretical framework, constituting the subsequent content analysis. As Iexamined the characters of Maori women in different New Zealand picturebooks, Iidentified three typifications, constituting the identity of an indigenous New Zealandwoman in those narratives. The Teacher, the Entertainer and the Spiritual Maori womanreinvent and reproduce, yet delimit and constrain the identity of Maori women incontemporary picturebooks. Those books fail to intertwine and integrate the twodiffering cultures of Maori and Pakeha (New Zealander of European descent), in theirstoryline, and neglect current struggles or conflicts in the social reality of New Zealand.Based on one outstanding book, I drew the conclusion that it is through integrating thetwo differing symbolic universes of Pakeha and Maori into the storyline, that themultiple roles carried by Maori women can be acknowledged and an authentic portrayalof Maori women is achieved.

<!--StartFragment-->The purpose of this thesis was to study how four swedish lifestyle magazines: Veckorevyn and Cosmopolitan for women, King and Café for men, represent three groups of people and how often these people appear in the magazines. These groups are HBT, homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals, disabled and immigrants. The years we studied were 2007 and 2008. Our main questions were: How often do the three groups appear in the four magazines? How are the groups represented? In order to answer these questions we used a qualitative analysis. We used tools from semiotics, narratology and discourse. We also used a quantitative analysis in order to find out how often the groups appeared.  We based our study on theories about representation, stereotypes, social construction, identity and masculinity. We chose these theories because the magazines used this to present their stories about the groups, in a social constructed world. These theories helped us to analyze our results and gave a deeper meaning to our conclusions. Our results showed that all groups appear very little in the magazines. We found that all groups except for immigrants are stereotyped in well-known patterns. Disabled persons are often represented as heroes. We also found that HBT- persons often are stereotyped and appear in articles where sex and relationships is the main subject. Many of the immigrants are famous and they are portrayed as themselves and as “one of us”. <!--EndFragment-->

Abstract Female immigrants from China and south-east Asia who migrate to Taiwan through marriage has showed significant percentage increases in the population of Taiwan. The majority are married to those who are relatively low-educated and in financial difficulties in Taiwan, so the marriage is often thought to be an exchange of money. As the result, among the mass media, it is commonly seen that they are unfairly treated when reported by the mass media in Taiwan. Owing to a closer attention of the public on the race issues in recent years, the government is actively legislating to ensure the legal rights for the immigrants in Taiwan. Regulated by law, in some researches, the mass media are also found to present a positive image of the female immigrants in their reports. Considering the time and environment differences, this research mainly focuses on the image changing of the female immigrants in Taiwan among the mass media and the social exclusion they have caused. This research takes Content Analysis as the study method to have the complete knowledge of the related news of the female immigrants from China Times, The Liberty Times in, and Apple Daily in the last three years (2008~2011). The following are the issues discussed in this research: 1. How does print media describe female immigrants? 2. What is the image construction of female immigrants in print media? 3. What is the relation between social exclusion and image construction of female immigrants in print media? In this research, it is found that the image construction of the female immigrants in Taiwan by the newspaper is still presented negatively in most cases. The report direction, topic and image are still giving a negative message on the image construction of the female immigrants in Taiwan. In these reports, they are considered as the belongings of men and the underprivileged minority with low socioeconomic status and suffer from the racial discrimination. In addition, by the cultural exclusion, the female immigrants in Taiwan are excluded from the social system. Although the government are legislating the civil rights to reduce the exclusion, due to the unfavorable image on the media and the amendments of the policies waiting to be approved, it still can¡¦t prevent the female immigrants from being excluded culturally, legally, and even economically. Key words: female immigrants in Taiwan, social construction, social exclusion, content analysis, media image construction.