Vilken betydelse har en arbetssökandes etnicitet och beslutsunderlagets diagnosticitet (informationskvalitet) för en granskarens benägenhet att rekommendera anställning? 172 studenter fick läsa en utskrift från en anställningsintervju och skatta hur pass anställbar den arbetssökande (svensk eller utländsk) var utifrån den information som erhölls (diagnostisk eller ickediagnostisk). Hypotesen om att sämre information om den sökandes personlighetsegenskaper medför lägre skattad anställningslämplighet för sökande med invandrarbakgrund (p.g.a. av negativa stereotyper) men inte för svenskar kunde inte bekräftas. Tvärtom skattades den utländske sökanden som mer anställbar än den svenske när informationen var ickediagnostisk (p = .03).

This thesis describes how social work language practice circulates around the implementation process of an evidence based structured assessment tool – Savry. The purpose is to examine and understand the social workers language practice in a working group that uses this structured assessment tool in their work with youth. The purpose is also to look for dimensions of identity in terms of discourse. The ontological viewpoint is post-structuralism where language is in focus. The theoretical framework is discourse theory based upon the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe.

The aim of this study was to explore the students? use of and attitudes towards cannabis at Linnaeus University. Social psychology and gender perspective was used as theories to explain the use and attitudes among the students? and how the use and attitudes could change through social influence. The study operates from a quantitative approach and is based on an online survey which includes answers from 126 respondents.

Based upon theories founded on social constructionism, and criticism raised against these theories, this study aims to present a more complex perspective on non-heterosexuality from what has earlier been presented in Swedish lesbian, gay, bisexuality and transsexuality research. Fourteen semi-structured interviews with non-heterosexual women were analyzed using a discourse analytic approach. Four discourses about sexuality were described: "definition, preferably as either-or (heterosexual or homo-sexual)", "normality", "sexuality as constant and unchangeable", "sexuality as homogenous". Different ways of relating to and challenging the positions offered through these discourses were discussed. In conclusion, the study discussed which implications these findings have for psychologists working with non-heterosexual women, and how discursive positioning can be understood from within a psychological framework..

The aim of this study is to investigate the discourses of widening recruitment to higher education in some political documents from the 21st century. The scientific method applied is critical discourse analysis as developed by Norman Fairclough. This implies the analyses of the actual texts, the social practice as well as the discursive practice, i.e. the conditions under which the texts are produced, distributed and consumed.The major results include four discourses: a post-modern discourse, a neoliberal economic discourse, a political discourse of multi-culturalism and a modern discourse with its roots in the 20th century?s discussions about social imbalance in recruitment to higher education.

My thesis is a study of how the perception of booktalk aimed at kids and youngsters in the Swedish educational system has changed between 1932 and 2007. A discursive reading of articles in the magazine Biblioteksbladet provides the basis for my investigation. The thesis argues that an older "authoritaritan" and "traditional" discourse has given way for a more modern, "anti-authoritaritan" and "lust"-directed discourse. The older discourse was designed to make sure that young people were provided with a certain well-defined quantity of "approved" literature. The new discourse stresses the importance of fostering kids and youngsters with a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards reading in general.

Although being recognized as holding great cultural-historical significance by local officials, numerous parts of the functionalistic development along Friggagatan became demolished in 2008.This bachelor thesis have surveyed how the planning process proceeded through various municipal committees, and moreover, how different interest groups gathered around certain discursive attitudes. As a consequence of various paradigm shifts in society, e.g. that local government gradually are depending on private economic initiatives, there are to some extent a fear among politicians that cultural-historical demands can risk economic growth.Nevertheless, a building or a development are in fact bearing different value-perspectives, such as economic, functional and cultural-historical. Due to the fact that the heritage-sector has limited resources, in combination with sometimes vaguely and obsolete conservation documents, the sector have difficulties of responding common economic arguments, which leads that the real estate-owner gets total interpretative prerogative.However, despite a sometimes suspicious political attitude towards an improved conservation document, e.g. with continuously updates concerning a building?s technical and economic status, there are some political initiatives working towards it..

In this thesis, it is investigated if it is possible to create a common factor of the work tasks done by an air traffic controller, which then can measure workload. This will lead to the development of a tool to measure workload at small airports. In the research project a questionnaire is created to measure the different tasks an air traffic controller has. The same questionnaire will also measure the number of environmental factors that exists around the air traffic controller. To measure the validity of the questionnaire, the authors are using NASA-TLX.

Syftet med studien är att kartlägga hur kunskap, attityd och beteende samverkar kring begreppet jämställdhet. En enkätundersökning genomfördes till ett specifikt utvald organisation. Enkäten är både kvantitativ och kvalitativ. Resultatet visar att det inom denna organisation finns en kunskapsbrist av ett jämställdhetsarbete, det går även att se en koppling mellan attityder och den befintliga kunskapen. Kopplingen mellan attityd och beteende är dock svag.

Bullying is a significant workplace problem, a fact highlighted both by companies, government and social science. The purpose of this master thesis was to examine if workplace bullying is a result of group processes. This is a theory-based master thesis. A search of literature on bullying, mobbing and harassment was done in a database called ELIN, Electronic Library Information Navigator, connected to Lund University and 414 articles were singled out. The summary of the articles were studied and according to a list of criteria, I choose to study some of the articles in more depth.

Den genomförda studien avsåg att undersöka om det förelåg likheter eller skillnader i synen på konflikter mellan medarbetare och chefer på ett företag, samt vilka diskurser som kunde utrönas. För det syftet utfördes intervjuer med personer inom båda dessa grupper, intervjuerna ställdes sedan samman, analyserades och jämfördes med varandra. Analysmetoden som användes var diskursanalys och resultaten av intervjuerna visade att det fanns både likheter och skillnader mellan medarbetare och chefer i uppfattningen av konflikter och konflikthantering. Vissa mönster påträffades även i uttalandena, där dessa passade ihop och kompletterade varandra utifrån diskursanalytisk synvinkel. Konflikter är ett både viktigt och intressant område för ett företags utveckling och välbefinnande.

This master's thesis analyses the concept of equality between men and women in parts ofRegion Västra Götaland's area of operation. With critical policy analysis I analyse how theproblem of inequality is represented in the European charter for equality of women and men inlocal life (CEMR) and the Region Västra Götaland's plan of action for the charter. Throughinterviews with people responsible for gender equality in different areas I analyse, withdiscourse theory, the ways in which the concept of gender equality is articulated in differentareas of Region Västra Götaland, and what kind of politics these articulations enables.In the analysis I show that a discursive struggle of how equality is to be defined canbetter be understood as a discursive negotiation. Equality between men and women isunderstood in several ways at the same time, as antidiscrimination and basic human rights, asbalance between the sexes, and as an approach critical of norms and stereotypes. Within thesenegotiations certain understandings of gender are made possible or impossible.

This essay focuses on how trafficking is defined and dealt with in recent European policies,and particularly how prostitution take part of these discursive developments. Treaties andagreements on trafficking in human beings and for sexual exploitation have been made bythe European Union and United Nations amongst others, which have been signed andratified by the EU countries in Action Plans. In this essay, five national Actions Plans, fromAustria, Great Britain, Poland, Spain and Sweden between 2007 and 2009, have beencompared in order to see similarities and differences in how the phenomenon of traffickingis done through language. Based on Discourse theory and focus on discursive struggles, theresult show a hegemony around trafficking as a social issue in the Action Plans studied,exploiting humans, mainly children and women, sexually, but also how trafficking is framedas a problem of the nation state and the domestic labour market. It is also illustrated howdifferent meanings of prostitution make the trafficking discourse antagonistic and contested.Finally, the essay discusses the trafficking discourse in relation to EU strivings towardsharmonisation and power imbalances of migration and economy in Europe..

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how health information is integrated into knowledge in an everyday health related context on the web. The more specific aim is, from a LIS point of view, to map knowledge related discourses with the focus on pregnancy, in discussion forums on Swedish health related web sites. The following main questions in this paper are: (1) a) What discourses on pregnancy knowledge can be found and b) how are they expressed? (2) What are the functions of the recognised discourses? and (3) what are the relations between the identified discourses? The theoretical and methodological starting-point is discourse theory with the main focus on Discursive psychology according to Wetherell?s and Potter?s theoretical and empirical work.

This essay is a discourse and a feminist theoretical analysis that focuses on the alternative discourse that we consider Feminist Initiative to be constitutive of. Our theoretical stance, with base in Laclau and Mouffes discourse theory, builds on the notion that reality is characterised by conflicts between different competing discursive formations and that the social is an endless struggle over the preferential right of interpretation of meaning. More specifically, the essay focuses on the discursive struggle over the meaning of the term politics. It is our understanding that the dominant perception of politics necessarily excludes other understandings, which can according to Eduards, be explained as a consequence of a patriarchal distribution of power that renders the subordination of certain understandings of politics accordingly. Feminist Initiative, as an alternative discourse, can therefore be perceived as a threat to the dominating discourse of politics, which in order to maintain its preferential right of interpretation seek to illegitimatise and depoliticise the politics that the alternative discourse represents.