<p>This essay is based on Edward Saids magnum opus, Orientalism. Orientalism is the notion on the division between the Occident (west) and the Orient (east) stemming primarily from the colonial age. Said states that the great colonial powers of the 19^th and 18^th century, through various science projects, created a view of the east as its own opposite, I.e. as everything opposite to modernization and so called enlightenment, two components affiliated with the west. According to Said these moral and intellectual standards, to this day, penetrate all aspects of western society and are observed in all kinds of institutions, for example the academic world and the media. The essay observes several rapports in two of Sweden leading papers, Expressen and Aftonbladet, concerning the terrorist attacks in London 2005 and analyzes them through a discourse analysis. The purpose of the essay is to find out whether the rapports show any signs of what Said defines as orientalism. The main focus is on the power structures which make up the language used in the rapports and analyzing them through the lens of Orientalism. The analysis show that the rapports in Expressen clearly express a view which verifies Saids theory. The division between”we” I.e. the west and ”them”, the east, is sharp in this case. However the rapports in Aftonbladet show no clear signs of Orientalism and are quite different from the ones presented in Expressen.</p>

This essay is based on Edward Saids magnum opus, Orientalism. Orientalism is the notion on the division between the Occident (west) and the Orient (east) stemming primarily from the colonial age. Said states that the great colonial powers of the 19th and 18th century, through various science projects, created a view of the east as its own opposite, I.e. as everything opposite to modernization and so called enlightenment, two components affiliated with the west. According to Said these moral and intellectual standards, to this day, penetrate all aspects of western society and are observed in all kinds of institutions, for example the academic world and the media. The essay observes several rapports in two of Sweden leading papers, Expressen and Aftonbladet, concerning the terrorist attacks in London 2005 and analyzes them through a discourse analysis. The purpose of the essay is to find out whether the rapports show any signs of what Said defines as orientalism. The main focus is on the power structures which make up the language used in the rapports and analyzing them through the lens of Orientalism. The analysis show that the rapports in Expressen clearly express a view which verifies Saids theory. The division between”we” I.e. the west and ”them”, the east, is sharp in this case. However the rapports in Aftonbladet show no clear signs of Orientalism and are quite different from the ones presented in Expressen.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att med diskursanalys undersöka hur det dalgliga talet om invandrare ser ut på diskussionsforumet Passagen.se underkategorin svenska samhället. Dessutom vill vi ta reda på hur invandrare konstrueras som problem och hur det är legitimt att tala om invandrare på forumet.Tidigare forskning inom ämnet har gjorts med diskursanalys på talet om invandrare i media, intervjuer och dagligt tal, men främst i andra länder och inte på internet. Vid diskursanalys går teori och metod hand i hand, vilket innebär att de begrepp som vi presenterar i teorin använder vi till stor del i analysmetoden. I analysen fann vi en mängd diskurser i talet om invandrare, vilket resulterade i en dominerande kritisk inställning och en underrepresenterad liberal inställning till invandrare. Invandrare konstrueras som problem genom att ’de’ begår brott, luras, hotar vår kultur, konspirerar mot oss, är kostsamma och på det hela taget är alltför många. På Passagen.se underkategorin svenska samhället är det legitimt att tala kritisk om invandrare. I det kritiska talet om invandrare fann vi ett undvikande av att använda begreppet ’invandrare’ där det istället byts ut mot ”utisar”, ”kulturberikare” och ”MENA-folk”(eufemism för människor från Mellanöstern och Nordafrika). / The purpose of this essay is to use discourse analysis to investigate the everyday speech concerning 'immigrants' on the forum Passagen.se, subcategory Swedish society. In addition, we intend to discover in what way 'immigrants' is depicted as a problem and how legitimate talk about 'immigrants' is devised. Earlier scientific studies on the subject with discourse analysis as a tool has been performed by analysing various media, interviews and everyday speech, but mostly in other countries than Sweden and not on the internet. In discourse analysis, therory and method is intimately connected, which means that the concepts we present in the Theory section will be used in our Method of analysis. The result of our discourse analysis showed a great number of discourses, concerning immigrants, most of them sceptic, but also a few liberal ones. 'Immigrants' is depicted as a problem in the way that 'they' are said to commit crime, deceive, threaten 'our' culture, conspire against 'us', are way too costly and on the whole simply are way too many. On Passagen.se, subcategory Swedish society it is ligitimate to talk about 'immigrants' critically, as long as one does not actually use the word 'immigrants,' but different kinds of euphemisms.

This paper is about the conflict between the Middle East and the Western world after the Danish newspapers’ cartoon publications of the prophet Muhammed in October 2005. The conflict resulted in massive reactions in the Middle East and the Danish-Swedish dairy company Arla Foods, was boycotted during six months in 2006. The aim of this study is to describe how the biggest Swedish daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter and three Saudiarabic newspapers Al-Hayat, Al-Watan and Shark Al-Awsat described "the Other" during the crisis in the year of 2006. Another aim is to describe how Arla Foods managed the consumer boycott. The ideas about "the Other" that were expressed in the media are seen as a discourse with the aim of maintaining and/or creating a "Us and Them viewpoint". Earlier theoretical studies are being presented, not at least Foucault, Schutz and Baumans and Mays contribution to the "Us and Them viewpoint" and their sociological approach. The main questions in the paper are; what ideas were expressed in the Saudiarabic newspapers against the Western world and the other way around; what ideas were expressed in the Swedish newspaper against the Middle East? The third question is; how Arla Foods handled the reactions in Saudi arabia due to the cartoon publications and how the company management reacted in order to reduce the damage of the consumer boycott ? The result of this study shows that an "Us-and Them viewpoint" exists in both the Saudiarabic and Swedish newspapers. Three themes can be outlined. First of all, the Swedish focus on freedom of speech and its lack of understanding on why the cartoons caused such massive reactions in the Middle East. Second, the massive criticism against the Western world for publishing the "islamphobic" cartoons and causing all the hatred. Third, the ideas of more calm and ressentment between the people, respecting Islam as a religion and freedom of speech at the same time. Arla Foods reacted to the crisis by applying risk management and also by dissociating itself from the publications by an information campaign that was published in 25 different Arabic newspapers. Finally, the company made a reset of the communication stra   strategy adopting a more global mindset although being a Scandinavian company.

Research shows that Muslims are often reproduced within the context that reinforces stereotyping of Muslims, see for example Otterbeck and Schielke. They are often regarded as a collective group with no distinct individuals and thereby the Islamic religiosity is portrayed as different and deviant from the more secular and private practiced Protestantism that is a common belief in Sweden. The purpose of this work is to study the already existing representation of Muslim women in a Western context, i.e. Muslim women in Sweden. This is done through an analysis of two ethnographic interviews and observational studies, written by researchers in Sweden (Karlsson Minganti and Sultan Sjöqvist) to investigate the existence of an "us and them" mindset. The two ethnographic studies which are analyzed in this work, deal with different types of Muslims: women who have been Muslims since birth and converted Muslim women. Furthermore, each researcher's results are put in relation to postcolonial theories to interpret and understand the conclusions of the researchers. My conclusion is that there are clear tendencies of an "us and them" mindset, where researchers place their research object as "them". The women are portrayed as different, with different values in relation to the "Swedish society" or the "Western world". Many of the women show awareness of being assigned the position of "the others" by the society. The women, both the converted and the ones who have been Muslim since birth, think that they do not fall into the norm of whiteness, they do not identify themselves as the "normal western woman" and they position themselves as a minority, forming the notion that they are "them" and confirming the exclusion of themselves. Other clear trends are the researchers ways to interpret and understand women's lives on the basis of the white 'middle-class women's experiences and thereby excluding the Muslim women’s own perception of their conditions of life.

My paper, “Us and Them – an analysis of the creation of “the Other” in The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”, aims to examine Mohsin Hamid´s and John Boyne´s novels from the years 2007 and 2008. The paper tries to answer the following questions: How is “the Other”and“Us and Them”created in the novels? And: What consequences does the thinking in terms of “the Other”and“Us and Them”lead to in the novels? The examination is done through the method of close reading and by applying the theory of Orientalism and Edward W. Said’s analysis of the theory to the reading. It is, I believe, of utmost importance for teachers to create unity among their pupils, and peaceful and democratic classrooms where co-work is promoted. This is especially important in multi-cultural classrooms where different ethnicities, cultures, religions, nationalities, and so on, are present and represented. Unity, peace, democracy, and co-work prevent negative ways of thinking in terms of “the Other”or/and“Us and Them”among pupils, and they are also terms that the curriculum refer to. Literature can be a tool and a method to do this by, used properly. This is why I, a becoming teacher, have decided to close examine two novels that many Swedish schools have in class settings and find out whether they are creating unity, peace, and democracy between people or if they on the contrary are creating disruption between people and maybe support negative ways of thinking in terms of “the Other”and“Us and Them”. The examination of the novels revealed that they both do create “the Other”and“Us and Them ”and that it leads to negative consequences in the novels. But this only makes the novels perfect material for teaching, if, the teacher offering this material to pupils does not just expect pupils to read the novels, but helps them reflect upon them and problematize the themes, the events, and the characters in them.

A refugee reception has been placed in Kungshall, one of Nybros residential areas. The area has a bad reputation and there are arguably prejudices about the area from the local population. I therefore want to investigate if an ethnic residential segregation exists in Kungshall, from a postcolonial perspective. The following research questions have been formulated: How do residents who doesn’t live in the refugee reception, look at ethnic residential segregation in Nybro? How has Kungshall changed since the refugee reception? Does a cultural racism exist in Kungshall?   The study is a qualitative study using semi structured interviews of four people living in the residential area, a person who has moved out of the area and a person working on the housing corporation “Nybro bostads AB”, who is one of the housing corporation responsible for the residential area Kungshall. The study is based on post-colonial theory. According to all the interviewees, there is an uneven balance between Swedes and immigrants in the neighborhood. And according to all the interviewees living in the area, too many refugees have been placed in Kungshall, and the residential area has changed for the worse in recent history. One of the interviewees has already moved, and the others living in the area either know someone who has moved out of the area or is planning to themselves. And the main reason to ethnic residential segregation is often explained in terms of cultural differences between “us-and- them”: between the refugees and the others. It is clear from the interviews that there is a cultural racism among people and the main reason for people moving out of the area could arguably be related to cultural racism.

To categorise people is by society viewed as a basic cognitive process. The process is described to occur frequently. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers experience and views concerning the categorization "we and them", and its relationship to the education of religion. The study aims to explore how the categorisation is expressed and valued. The study also aims to investigate the relationship between the teaching and the student groups heterogeneity/homogeneity, but also the relationship between the categorisation and the teaching. The data was conducted true semi-structured interviews with experienced teachers. The results of the study showed that "we and them" exist in the education of religion. The results of the study did not show an unambiguous perception of how the categorisation is expressed and viewed. The result also showed that the heterogeneity, alternatively homogeneity, of the student groups affects the education. The result also showed that the categorisation is affected by the heterogeneity or homogeneity, of the student groups. / Att kategorisera människor betraktas i den samtida kontexten som en av människans grundläggande kognitiva processer. Kategoriseringen och därmed indelning av människor är en ständigt pågående process. Syftet med denna studie är där av att undersöka i vilken utsträckning kategoriseringen av ett "vi" tillika ett "dom" är påtaglig i dagens religionsundervisning. Studien ämnar att undersöka religionslärares erfarenheter och åsikter kring en eventuell kategorisering av "vi och dom " i religionsundervisningen. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur en eventuell kategorisering av "vi och dom" yttrar sig och hur kategoriseringen värderas. Tillika syftar studien till att undersöka hur religionsundervisningen påverkas om elevgruppen är heterogen alternativt homogen, samt vilken betydelse heterogena-/homogena elevgrupper spelar för den eventuella kategoriseringen. Empirin erhölls genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med erfarna religionslärare. Studiens resultat visade att kategoriseringen "vi och dom" existerar i religionsundervisningen. Resultatet visade inte på någon entydig uppfattning rörande hur kategoriseringen yttrar sig tillika värderas. Vidare visade resultatet att religionsundervisningen påverkas utifrån elevgruppens heterogenitet alternativt homogenitet. Resultatet visade tillika att kategoriseringen "vi och dom" yttrar sig på olika vis, beroende på om religionsundervisningen bedrivs i en heterogen- eller en homogen elevgrupp.

This study is concerned with how mothers, who have been referred to a children's centre for support with parenting, interpret their interactions with professionals including midwives, health visitors, social workers and family support workers. Previous studies have concentrated on unhelpful, "them and us" othering practices, this project aimed to consider mothers' interpretations of interactions, exploring verbal and non-verbal interactions as well as identifying what interactions with professionals that were helpful or not and why? To explore mothers' stories, I designed an arts based performance ethnographic methodology. Through the use of theme boards and stream of consciousness writing in a drama group context, text was collected over an eighteen month period from 16 mothers. Initial review, editing and distilling of text was carried out with participants, generating 18 scenes for a play performed together in front of a live audience. Text not used in the play was further analysed using narrative analysis and produced an overarching metaphor of a 'dance of compliance'. The dance explores images of mothers navigating steps of vulnerability, risk and compliance. Inhabiting the dance were many overlapping victimizing narratives exposing stories of parenting support presented as life enhancing in a context of scarcity. I found that the women kept dancing not because they were empowered but because the dance is obligatory, driven by the systematic production of unhelpful signs that come to constitute their reality. Theoretical perspective/s used in analysis highlight how children's centres could become a space for symbolic exchanges of support bringing into the light steps of fortitude and humanity. Recommendations for practice centre on the need for professionals to engage in empathic interactions whist always looking for opportunities for mothers to participate in the day to day activities of parenting support.

In this thesis, I am interested in transnational feminist scholarship and dialogue. Through close readings of Helena Maria Viramontes's texts, I place her writing in conversation with several transnational feminist scholars and themes. I begin with home, a frequently discussed topic within transnational feminism, as the experiences of diasporic and migrant populations challenge the notion of home. I locate the multiple homes presented in Viramontes's texts, arguing that these homes are unreliable spaces for their residents. I then consider male characters and masculinity in Viramontes's stories, as these men significantly influence the homes of women. In Viramontes's later texts, some of these characters support the women in their lives, as well as embrace the multiplicity of masculinity. I also explore invisibility and hypervisibility, two themes which figure prominently within transnational feminism and Viramontes's texts. Viramontes makes visible women, workers, and youth, challenging their invisibility and hypervisibility. In my analysis, I include Viramontes's two novels, Under the Feet of Jesus (1995) and Their Dogs Came With Them (2007), as well as two short stories, "Growing" (1983) and "The Jumping Bean" (1992). By analyzing these works, which were published over a period of twenty four years, we can more intricately see Viramontes's exploration of transnational feminist themes.