This master?s thesis looks at discourses that use the pronoun ?hen?. The media debate in Sweden over this pronoun in 2012 started in connection with the publishing of a children?s picture book: Kivi och monsterhund, by Jesper Lundqvist and Bettina Jansson. The essay investigates how eight librarians, who take an interest in and work with gender issues, talk about the pronoun hen and about this picture book and other books that have characters which are not named as a sex/gender.The essay takes a discursive perspective on reality and on the construction of knowledge and carries out a discourse analysis of the librarians? talk in the qualitative interviews that were made for this study.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the political ambitions regarding culture inVärmland, and the situation for artists living on the countryside in Värmland. This meansthat the conditions surronding the artists situation will be looked upon. I have chosen thepolitical document Kulturplanen, created by Region Värmland, as my guideline to whatkind of political view there is on art and cultures role in the region. Furthermore, I havechosen Pierre Bourdieu`s theory about art as a field controlled by and under the influenceof different rules within the filed itself and what or whom has the power to act and be apart of the filed. I also use interviews as my method for this study.

The function of traditional leaders in the modern states of Africa has been under debate for decades. The dominant research discourse suggests that these institutions should be integrated into the state in order to minimize the amount of parallel political spheres, since the latters are considered to affect state legitimacy negatively. But are the states in a situation where they need to compete with the traditional institutions in order to gain more legitimacy? If so, is the struggle for legitimacy a zero-sum game where there can only be one winner? Or is it possible for these institutions to co-exist or even benefit from each other? The aim of this bachelor?s thesis is to research if, and to what extent, African citizens? confidence in traditional institutions has an effect on state legitimacy. This has been done by statistically analyzing the data from the latest completed round of the Afrobarometer survey, a study that has been conducted in 20 different countries across West- and Northeast Africa.

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 study explores the notion of class and social inequality as expressed in the Swedish election campaign of 2006 and in the reception of the Swedish conservative party as a "worker's party". Inspired by Fairclough's critical discourse analysis I have carried through an investigation of the debate. My sources consists in a collection of articles, mainly leader columns and contributions to the debate, from a selected number of Swedish newspapers.I found that an explicit discussion about class, or use of the concept as such, was largely absent. In cases where the concept occurred it was often used in a purely descriptive sense or dismissed as outdated. Furthermore, I have drawn the conclusion that the traditional understanding of class is being challenged by a discourse which aims at establishing a new understanding of social inequality as lack of paid work.I take my point of departure in the belief that class continues to be one of the most important bases of social inequality.

Background: The intention of this study was to clarify the patients perspective of what it means to suffer fiom documented restenosis after one or more Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI). Aim: The aim of this qualitative study was to ascertain the patients experience of restenosis. Method: Nine patients were interviewed. They had undergone at least one PC1 and two had also undergone Coronary Arterio Bypass Grafting (CABG). Data collection and analysis were done simultaneously according to Grounded Theory methodology and were continued until new interviews provided no additional information, i.e saturation was met.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an umbrella term for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. These are characterized by a chronic inflammation of the intestinal mucosa. Living with chronic illness meant that life changed significantly. Quality of life was affected for these individuals and was stressful in their lives. Aim: The aim was to describe the experiences of living with inflammatory bowel disease. Method: A qualitative literature review was chosen to analyze articles that were related to the aim of this study. Results: Based on the chosen articles five themes were created; Commuting between hope and fear, symptoms of the disease and medication become everyday focus, struggling with  the new identity, desire to control the disease- do I control my illness or does it control me and social relationships are affected. Conclusion: Inflammatory bowel disease is a distressing disease and can cause limitations in social life due to lack of knowledge by others about the disease. The affected felt a loss of control in their life due to the difficulty in managing the symptoms.

Printed newspapers are on the decline, while digital versions are in rapid growth. Consequently the industry must draw up new business models around the digital format - models that can produce revenue streams equivalent to those that the print format used to produce. However, after a decade of 'free' online news, consumers now hesitate to pay. In their struggle for survival, strategic pricing is a central issue for newspapers. This study aims at describing how Swedish newspapers price their digital content, by analyzing their pricing processes and five factors that may influence the choice of paywall and price levels.

The aim of this study has been to analyze how society is constructed in the workbook Möte med människor från andra kulturer, a popular material within the ?cultural competency? industry. The analysis has largely been carried out from the perspective of a pedagogy against oppression as it has been outlined by Kevin Kumashiro. I have found that the material combines discursive movements, which in complex and hybrid ways deconstruct, decenter, recenter and reproduce stereotypes and norms, through its normative language and pedagogy. A language constructing culture as cleanly demarcated, static and homogenous.

This paper aims to describe and elaborate on a recent discursive change within the new-age movement. Since the seventies and the publishing of speculative popular science books like The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra and The self-aware universe by Amit Goswami, the idea that quantum physics resonates with spirituality has become the topic of hundreds of books and movies.The quantum-spiritual discourse has three distinct ways to approach quantum physics in its discussion on spirituality: The parallelistic approach which emphasizes the similarities between eastern philosophies and modern physics, the monistic-idealistic approach which tells us that mind is the foundation of matter and the scientific spiritual approach which tries to explain spiritual claims scientifically. In the quantum-spiritual discourse, quantum physical phenomena (e.g. non-locality and entanglement) are being called upon to validate metaphysical statements. The primary assumption of the discourse is that the shift of paradigm due to the establishment of modern physics also is a shift of paradigm of spirituality.With the object to examine the common claims made in the discourse, cross-references between spiritual arguments and facts of quantum physics are being made.

C-essay in political science by Anna Höjenberg and Maria Stenberg, spring of 2006?The Grey Zone ? An essay on the characteristics of a hybrid regime and a case study of Russia?. Supervisors: Joakim Ekman and Jonas LindeThis essay deals with the concept of hybrid regimes. The purpose is to describe the structure and the content of such a regime-type and try to create a model which can help us to analyse different countries. The essay is divided into two sections.

In 1974 the three municipalities of Åsele, Dorotea and Fredrika were amalgamated despite of hunger strikes, mass protests and a serious threat of violence. But after six years the marriage shattered as Dorotea left the other two after years of continued struggle. In 2005 the idea of an amalgamation of Åsele, Dorotea and Vilhelmina municipalities was brought to life by an older and ever declining population.By creating a democratic ideal type consisting of the three variables ? legitimacy, participation and identity ? this study assesses what impact an amalgamation of the three municipalities might have on local democracy.Combining a qualitative and a quantitative approach this study concludes that amalgamating the municipalities today could create a democratic unit lacking legitimacy, having a weak identity and impeding participation. But the study also brings forth that the impact of an amalgamation upon the variables of the ideal type as defined is not written in stone.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine subject positions of masculinity in the fantasy novels by Michael Moorcock, spanning from the sixties to the present. Questions are: Which positions of masculinity dominate in four fantasy works by Michael Moorcock? How do these positions differ from each other or are there similarities? Do they strengthen or undermine the hegemonic masculinity? How do these positions of masculinity relate to historic configurations of masculinity? In order to find feasible answers to these questions I have used a theoretical and methodological approach rooted in the sociology of literature, mens studies and discourse analysis. Different masculinities are defined as subject positions. The hegemonic masculinity is defined as the image of masculinity that dominate and that every man has to relate to, in one way or another.

The thesis examines the nineteenth century German philosopher and philologist Friedrich Nietzsche?s early notion of how a word is generated in the process of perception. It does so by looking at the ?metaphorical transitions? Nietzsche talks about in the essay ?Über Wahrheit und Lu?ge im außermoralischen Sinne? (?On Truth and Lie in an Extra-MoralSense?). According to the relevant passage in ?On Truth and Lie?? an image is first created as a metaphor for a stimulus and a word is then created as a metaphor for the image.

A mapping process is ongoing in Sweden concerning a phenomenon known as ?honour related violence?. The explanations of ?honour related violence? often focus on culture and ethnicity, thus establishing differences between the majority society and offenders and victims. Given that some scholars critique mapping for focusing on predetermined objects, my aim is to study discursive conditions for abused girls, who are constructed as being from within ethnic minorities, in relation to their contact with the Swedish welfare system.