By research and interpretation of official documents published by the Swedish Ministery for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), this thesis aims to understand and shine a light on the symbols that shape the Swedish public aid culture and how these symbols function in a narrative of what Swedish aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo is and is not. The theoretic framework leans on both the symbolic/interpretative anthropology of Edward Bruner, Clifford Geertz and Sherry Ortner; Omar Lizardo's more contemporary writing on the power of symbols; and Jerome Bruner's psychological perspective on symbols. The conclusion is that Swedish public aid appears to use a set of symbols and a narrative anchored in arbitrary parts of Sweden's and Congo's mutual history to conjure up the image of a dark and dangerous Congo in contrast to the knowledgable and good Sweden.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-302057 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Runold, Vendela |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för kulturantropologi och etnologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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