This research addresses the issues of identity and culture in Latvia in the context of the upcoming European Union enlargement in 2004. Political self- determination of Latvia was historically indebted to culture. The phenomenon of cultural identity, so important 12 years ago when Latvian independence was regained, is largely ignored by politicians in the upcoming enlargement process. This is especially worth attention since the 8-th parliamentary elections took place in October 2002. The obvious lack of interest in cultural issues on the part of politicians is compensated by the apprehensions in the society (reflected in mass media) to loose Latvian specific culture and identity when joining the big European family.

Den allvarsamma leken (1912) by Hjalmar Söderberg has been regarded as one of the greatest love novels of Swedish literature. The story about Arvid Stjärnblom and Lydia Stille and their extramarital love is marked by timeless universality.In this essay, I will examine this notion of love as a prediscursive value, by means pro¬vided by foremost poststructuralist theory. With Derrida?s conception of Deconstruction, the analysis will reveal the constructedness of the true love in Söderbergs novel. Examinating typi¬cal logocentric binarisms the essay will show that the notion of true love is constituting a term in an oppositional relation with, in this specific case, the marriage sanctioned by society.

This study examines the love and desire between Angela von Pahlen and Stanny Landborg in Agnes von Krusenstjerna?s Fröknarna von Pahlen series. I have studied the characters in Krusenstjerna?s texts using Judith Butler?s theory of the heterosexual matrix. My main focus has been the desire in Fröknarna von Pahlen.

J.O. Mallander?s Extended Play (1968) is a sound recording, a readymade, of the counting of votes in two presidential elections in Finland, during 1962 and 1968. A voice repeats monotonously: ?Kekkonen, Kekkonen, Kekkonen, Kekkonen, Kekkonen?? Although the Finnish president Urho Kekkonen represents, almost personifies, the politics of the post World War II period in Finland, Extended Play does not explicitly address the political. Rather, as this essay argues, it engages in the discourses of power and politics by providing a temporalization of its fixedness, or what Jacques Derrida terms the proper.Extended Play is, in parallel with Derrida?s critique of western metaphysics, a Deconstruction in sound that challenges the state ideologies conveyed in the process of the counting of votes, where the presuppositions of the presence of the voice characterizes the ambiguities of power that Kekkonen?s politics of neutrality represent.Mallander?s readymade emerges as a double of the game theory strategies of the Cold War, a mimetic surplus of the administrative control mechanisms of sound recording.

TitleSystems, Stability and Power. The Discourse of Information in Organizing Knowledge.AbstractThe aim of this Master's thesis is to inquire into the consequences of an unequal distribution of power between information discourses in the field of knowledge organisation. A Deconstruction of Jennifer Rowley's and John Farrows introductory textbook Organizing Knowledge from 2000 is related to the major discourses of information in LIS. Questions posed in this study are: What meaning is ascribed to information in the material studied? Which information discourses are given a dominant position? Which are excluded? and: How does this affect the construction of the library and information science student's identity, in relation to practices of knowledge organisation? The theoretical framework is provided by Ernesto Laclau's and Chantal Mouffe's theory of discourse and combined with techniques for text analysis originating from the work of Norman Fairclough.The analysis reveals a strong domination of a cognitive discourse of information that underlines the importance of information systems for the organisation of knowledge.

I Malmö finns en stor park som anlades på 1980-talet och som heter Bulltoftaparken. Samtidigt i Paris anlades Parc de la Villette efter att man haft en tävling om parkens utseende och chefsarkitekt. Här någonstans började mina tankar att cirkulera runt det faktum att parkerna ser olika ut, men båda är anlagda från 1982 ungefär och framåt. Finns det några andra gemensamma nämnare från början? Hur såg deras tillkomst ut? Vad bidrog till utformningen av Parc de la Villette och vad bidrog till utformningen av Bulltoftaparken? Genom att titta på historik, tillkomst, arkitekt och landskapsarkitekter, idéförslag och struktur, jämför jag parkerna och ser vad som skiljer dem åt och vad de har gemensamt.

In the year of 2012, a police project called ?REVA? was established in Sweden. The goal was to increase efficiency in deporting undocumented migrants from Sweden. Two articles relating to the project were published in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. One was an open letter to Attorney General Beatrice Ask, written by the famous author Jonas Hassen Khemiri.

In this essay I examine the auto fictive self in Jeanette Wintersons Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. I do this through a close reading of the novel using Mieke Bals narratological terms;narrator, story, fabula, time and order. These narratological terms have been merged together with central themes of the book. I look at the readers understanding of the novel, the relation between fairytale and realism, symbols, intertextuality, the mother-daughter relationship and silences and I analyze these themes in their relation to autofiction and the auto fictive self.  Gemma Lopez Seductions and Narratives has been a key reference, mainly her theories on self-creation in narratives, and the construction of the self, trough language. The narrative is the place where the self can transgress and reshape, which gives the narrative a subversive power. I analyze this presumed power, and look at how the story shapes an opportunity for the subject to see itself.

The thesis examines how sex/gender and sexuality are represented through text and images within the Internet community Sylvia whose primary target group is girls. Through an examination of the aesthetics, the member rules and the choices that constitute the framework for the site, the study observes Sylvia as a cultural context. In relation to this setting, the ten most visited member profiles at the time for the study are more closely examined. These profiles are studied from a constructivist view of sex/gender and are analysed from the perspective of feminist and quee r theory as well as in the light of feministic debates concerning sexuality and erotica. The thesis shows how Internet as a forum and the non-heterosexual context Sylvia open up for a constructivist understanding of sex/gender and also leads to a questioning of "masculinity" and "femininity".

Abstract - A business to change the world- An analysis of norms Textbooks for International Economics, in Upper-secondary Schools, Sweden 1994-2008 In this paper textbooks, for International Economics in Upper Secondary Schools in Sweden1994-2008, are analyzed with regard to norms related to taking moral responsibility for environment and society. A method for making discourse analysis, previously illustrated by Östman (2008), is used to deconstruct the knowledge content regarding norms about taking responsibility in relation to different social roles. The first question is: what different norms about taking responsibility can be found, in relation to different social roles? Different social roles that can be found in the studied material are: business-people, consumers, politicians/civil servants and citizens. Norms of taking responsibility in relation to the environment and society are studied in this paper in relation to these different roles. The second question is whether a discursive change in the material can be found. One case of discursive change can be found which is related to the role of a business.

Dampness in the indoor environment have been a major issue of discussion the last decades since more and more people complain about their indoor environment. In the present situation there are difficulties to find what causes people?s discomfort in a damp environment even though there is a strong connection between dampness and human health.The aim of the thesis was to contribute to the work done today to achieve a better indoor environment in damp buildings. The purpose of the work was to evaluate whether the measures issued for dampness in the indoor environment contributes to the improvement of health and environment for those who are living or working in that space. Through a literature review, interview and survey the following three questions were answered to achieve the aim and purpose:How are people affected by the indoor environment in damp buildings?Which are the measures issued to prevent dampness in the indoor environment?Do these interventions contribute to a better indoor environment?How people are affected by the indoor environment in damp buildings and how these problems are prevented were the foundation for the continued work with the survey.

My own experiences as an upper secondary school teacher and the increase in research on masculinity in educational settings that occurred during the late 1990 emphasizing on the gender gap in achievement and grades is the point of departure for this thesis. The aim is to investigate how boys in upper secondary school are constituted and constitute themselves as motivated and achieving learning subjects. Another aim is to see what possibilities there are to form different teaching practices to create other possible positions for me and the pupils. The research questions are 1) How does boys´ construction of masculinity constitute how they see their own ability to be motivated and achieve in school 2) What significance do my shifting approaches and expectations on the pupils as well as teaching have on the boys constitution as learning subjects? To answer these questions I use a theoretical framework of feminist poststructuralist.

Trough the analyses of three young contemporary Swedish and Norwegian poets, who all in one way or another work with the language as material, I will circulate around the term language materialism. Each poet has his or her specific distinctive feature wich makes them three completely different poets. But they are all challenging the borders of literature and even the grammatical laws of language. Apart from the analyses I sketch an historical line between the predecessors of the experiments with the poetic language in the past, starting with Mallarmé, and the experiments of today. My essay will in conclusion discuss the language poetry in a wider philosophical point of view, connected to Derrida and Wittgenstein.The first analysis introduces the author and artist Johannes Heldén through his debute poetry collection Burner.

AbstraktDenna studie handlar om förhållanden mellan femininitet/maskulinitet och lesbisk identitet med bakgrund av den heteronormativa genusordningen, vilken grundar sig i ett dualistiskt tänkande där kvinnor som feminina respektive män som maskulina attraherar och kompletterar varandra. Studien bygger på berättelseanalys av personliga berättelser skrivna av lesbiska kvinnor ur antologierna Tjejerna mot strömmen och Såna som oss, vilka tolkas utifrån en konstruktivistisk ansats och ett queerteoretiskt perspektiv. På detta sätt synliggör och problematiserar jag konstruktioner av lesbiska självrepresentationer och identitetsskapanden samt de möjligheter och begränsningar som dessa identiteter omringas av med bakgrund av den heteronormativa genusordningen. Utifrån detta kommer jag fram till hur de lesbiska subjektpositionerna öppnar upp för alternativa identiteskonstruktioner och begärskonstruktioner i relation till aspekter av femininitet och maskulinitet. Vidare resulterar analysen i ett framhållande av den osynliggörande tolkningen av lesbisk femininitet i termer av heterosexualitet samt den osynliggörande förståelsen av lesbisk maskulinitet som ett kopierande av manlighet och manlig maskulinitet.