"The Value of Knowledge - Towards a Virtue Epistemological Position" The classical question, first posed in Plato's Meno, concerning the value of knowledge constitutes the starting point of this essay. Value analysis has long been neglected in epistemologist's accounts until its re-emergence with the tradition called ?virtue epistemology?, in particular with scholars following Ernest Sosa. Like virtue ethics virtue epistemological accounts changes the focus from the object to the agent, i.e. from knowledge to intellectual virtue.

What is masculinity and what does it mean to be a man?This study involves two different areas: gender and literary reception. I wanted to find out what students think about masculinity and what possible strategies they use when they read and interpret literature. The investigation consists of three parts: an introductory survey, classroom observations and an ending text analysis based on ten different questions. The investigation has taken place in second grade at an upper secondary school as part of the course Swedish B.

I denna kandidatuppsats undersöks narrativer och argumentation i Jan Björklunds pluggskola. Bakgrunden till uppsatsen är att undersöka hur politiker använder berättelsens övertygande kraft för att vinna röster, och huruvida en argumentation baserat på narrativer är hållbar. Materialet som ligger till grund för denna uppsats är insamlade debattartiklar och uttalanden där Jan Björklund presenterar sin skolpolitik. Teorierna som denna uppsats grundar sig på är den retoriska pedagogiken utifrån Quintilianus och Giambattista Vico, samt det sociokulturella perspektivet på pedagogik. Dessutom används psykologiteorier om narrativens funktion för människans förståelse.

Denna studie omfattar och undersöker de förhållande som existerar kring psykologi och ludologi med på att förena sambanden mellan människors behov och utmaningar i spel. Resultaten representeras via en grafisk illustration där funna samband påvisas. Av det material som använts mest (som hållfast grund), inkluderas Manfred A. Max-Neef?s Human Scale Development och Ernest Adams Fundamentals of Game Design.

This thesis studies how the Swedish government articulates social exclusion within the spring budget of 2007. Through a discourse theoretical approach, inspired by Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the empirical findings are reconstructed through the nodal point of labour and two chains of equivalence, based upon the duality between employment and unemployment. By viewing social exclusion as a phenomenon concerning discourse, identity and politics, this duality forms the basis of a deconstructive and hegemonic analysis.I argue that the term social exclusion is a powerful and flexible political concept in that it obscures ideological assumptions and objectives as well as draws attention away from alternative social concepts. Throughout the thesis social exclusion is stressed as a social category constituting the relation between individual and society. Hence I argue that it is of vital importance that the values underlying its usage are made explicit and that social exclusion as a floating signifier is made an object of academic analysis..

This essay is about the Swedish Royal Foundations and especially the culture foundations. The Swedish Royal Foundations in culture are four. I?ve also made a short background about Royal engagement through foundations in history. I?ve given examples on what Royals in Sweden have done in the past and what they do today.

Västerländsk litteratur som behandlar asiatiska religioner använder ofta västerländska begrepp för att beskriva religiösa objekt och företeelser. Emellertid överensstämmer inte alltid översättningen med den inhemska innebörden av begreppet. Ett exempel på detta är det japanska konceptet kami, som felaktigt översätts med västerländska begrepp som ?gudomar? och ?andar?. Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera kamibegreppets semantiska spektrum i en specifik inhemsk religiös textsamling.

This essay is called In the head of Garibaldi ? a study about the portrayal of Garibaldi in biographies and focuses on the literary portrayal of Garibaldi in biographies published in the early 20th century and the early 21st century. The purpose of the essay is to describe the possible changes in the way of portraying Garibaldi in biographies and compare the portraying to the portrayal of Garibaldi that Garibaldi himself gives in the American translation of his memoirs, which were published in New York 1859.I have in this study used a constructivist approach with focus on the attributes, ideals and roles of Garibaldi. Research and thoughts from a wide field of science has been used, for example the works on nationalism by Elie Kedourie and Ernest Gellner. The thoughts on biographies as a scientific genre as described in the anthologies Att skriva människan (Ambjörnsson, Ringby & Åkerman red.) and Med livet som insats (Rosengren & Östling red.) has also been of the utmost importance of the study.The results of the study shows that there has been changes in the way of portraying Garibaldi in biographies, as showed in the more unbiased portrayals in the newer biographies.

Through a discourse theoretical apparatus, this study examines Sweden's national curriculum, which is constructed for primary schools, pre-school class and leisure time classes. The study also examines the syllabus in physical education and the supplied comment material to the syllabus, the above mentioned material all valid from 1 July 2011. Using cultural researcher Marianne Winther Jørgensen's and communication researcher Louise Phillips interpretation of the political theorists Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's discourse theory, the study identifies several discourses in the new curriculums. The analysis shows that the curriculums writers construct their expectations through a rhetoric that is perceived as instructional and descriptive. The analysis identified eight discourses, woven into three "orders of discourse", the body, health and physical education.

The bachelor thesis examines conceptions behind the Swedish public librarian?s opinions of the public library as a meeting place. The study uses the critical discourse analysis, developed by Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, to analyze a focus group interview. The discourse analysis identifies four themes in the empirical material: the imagined arena of the meeting place, the behaviour in the meeting place, the meeting place?s librarian and the polemic against the meeting place.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of nationalism in the former Yugoslavia conflicts, with focus on the most involved parts: Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conflict was characterized by extensive ethnic cleansing between all ethnic groups (Muslims, Croats and Serbs). This study looks at three different nationalism theories formulated by Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson and Thomas Hylland Eriksen through a case study of former Yugoslavia. When the president of former Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito died and the communism in Europe was brought to an end Yugoslavia went towards its disintegration. This is when nationalism and ethnic separatism begins.

In this thesis I have criticized traditional nationalism theories formulated by Eric Hobsbawm, Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson and Anthony D. Smith. The critique has been based on my belief that nationalism theories do not explain nations whose foundation is built on forward-looking, dynamic aspects such as economy, human and civil rights, and democracy. Traditional nationalism theories have been focused on historicizing perspectives whereas I want to draw attention to non-historicizing perspectives within the field of research. So far nationalism theories has had a shared past or a shared ethnicity as its focal point.

Denna uppsats undersöker hur förhållandet mellan karaktären, interagerbarheten ochpresentationen påverkar möjligheterna för hur spelaren uppfattar berättelsen i spelenHalf-Life 2(Valve Corperation, 2004), Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studio, 2008) ochFahrenheit (Quantic Dream, 2005). Metoden för analyserna är baserat på Aarseths (2007)teorier och går ut på att jag själv spelat spelen och sedan analyserat dessa utifrån minaegna spelupplevelser. Analyserna tar även upp teorier och begrepp från andra forskare, såsom Marie-Laure Ryan, Andrew Rollings och Ernest Adams, Lee Sheldon och UlfWilhelmsson.Metoden för analyserna lyckas plocka fram flera unika berättartekniker och förhållandenfrån spelen. Bland annat den dolda storyn i Half-life 2, den ytterst interagerbara välden iFallout 3 samt de flera olika huvudkaraktärerna i Fahrenheit, och hur dessa påverkarspelarens uppfattning av berättelsen. Förhållandena är dock inte generella, utan unika förvarje spel, vilket medför att resultaten också är det, och kan därför inte ses som reglerutan mer som riktlinjer för hur en berättarteknik kan se ut..

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the quality notions used by the library personnel responsible for the video game department at Malmo City Library. Furthermore, the thesis aims to assess how these notions of quality relate to properties of the actual collection of video games. The empirical results are based on interviews with the responsible library personnel. The result is then analyzed by an interpretation of Carl Gustav Johannsen?s library adapted, theory-based, model of quality definitions.

AbstractStefan Persson: Trä eller mässing? En studie av tre 1800-talstonsättares behandling av saxofon i orkestersammanhang. ? Uppsala: Musikvetenskap 1999. 60 p.Under 1800-talet skrevs, efter vad vi känner till, endast tolv orkesterverk med saxofon i instrumenteringen.