In classic academic social studies of East Europe, terms as Communism and Post-Communism are commonly used to describe the main characteristics of this geographically imagined area. This paper makes a not so frequently seen attempt to apply Post Colonial Theory for the same field. With start point in Post Colonial theoretical writers, the author wants to find a East European Post Colonial version for the internal Europe which will supply tools for a discourse analysis of the European mind map divided into West and East. The material consists of interviews with three Swedish and three Czech officials, all working with European politics in their country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The analysis is carried out with inspiration of Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes Discourse theory.

I denna uppsats undersöker författarna orsaker till och konsekvenser av beställar- utförarmodellernas införande genom att undersöka tre landsting och deras styrmodeller. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten hämtas från diskursanalysen, med bas i Laclau, Mouffes och Faircloughs diskursteori, samt principal- agentteorin. Med dessa verktyg utkristalliseras de element som kringgärdar beställar- utförarmodellen och intervjuresultat används för att se hur stort genomslag dessa har fått i undersökta landsting. Resultatet blir en identifikation av demokrati och effektivitet som centrala mål för modellens införande. Alltfler landsting har på senare tid modifierat beställar- utförarmodellen mot en kongruens mellan demokrati och effektivitet.

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 aim of this thesis is to seek understanding to how a national identity is constructed. Five women and five men at the age of 21-37 years old have been interviewed during November 2005 and January 2006. All of them lived Oslo at the time. The informants have been divided into two groups, `Swedish immigrants` and `Norwegian immigrants`, none of the people interviewed is ethnic `Swedish` or `Norwegian`. The empirical material has been analysed with the help of Billig´s theory about banal nationalism and Laclau and Mouffe´s discourse analysis.

Youth unemployement in Sweden is at an all-time high, a fifth of all university and college students live in poverty and the number of young on welfare is increasing. This study attempts to answer the question of how youth deprivation has been made possible as a consequence of political action, focusing on youth unemployment. I critically examine the role of the Swedish government, the Swedish Labour Organisation (LO), and the various government departments through text analysis, in order to answer the question of how the current discourse on youth position in the labor market. Because youth unemployment is not an isolated phenomena the analysis covers several policy areas, such as education policy, labor market regulation and housing policy. I use discourse theories drawn from Laclau and Mouffe to expose how language is used as an instrument of political power. I conclude that the current situation is a result of policy choices where the young have fallen behind due to lack of political organization. Their situation is not problematized to the required degree and is often explained on an individual level rather than on a structural level. .

Med utgångspunkt i orientalism har denna studie granskat framställningen om Mellanöstern ihistorieläroböcker för gymnasieskolan för att undersöka förekomsten av orientalism inomlärobokstexterna. Med hjälp av en diskursanalys utifrån Laclau och Mouffes diskursteori, harläroböcker för gymnasieskolan undersökts från tre olika tidsperioder; 1980-tal, 1990-tal och 2010-tal. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur historieläroböcker i gymnasieskolan upprätthåller ellermotverkar orientalism samt se hur dessa har förändrats över tid.Den analys som genomförts visar på två huvudteman i de läroböcker som ingått iundersökningen. Dels en dikotomi mellan mellanöstern som ?de andra? eller ?det annorlunda? iförhållande till ?vi?, det vill säga, Europa och västvärlden och dels en framställning av islam somfår utgöra en viktig del i skapandet av en över- och underordnad ställning mellan dessa två parter.Detta ger eleverna som läser dessa böcker en bild av världen och dess historia där det modernaoch beaktansvärda i världen är skapat av ? och viss mån tillhör ? Europa och västvärlden medandet omoderna och destruktiva kopplas samman med mellanöstern..

This thesis analyzes the media debates generated by the election of Omar Mustafa to the board of the social democratic party, and the appointment of the conservative Minister of Labour, Elisabeth Svantesson. More specifically, the aim is to analyze newspaper material through a discourse analyze, to see if and how religious affiliation effects the possibilities to act as a political representative. Theories of othering and intersectionality serve as theoretical points of departure. Further, chains of equivalence from Laclau and Mouffe?s discourse theory are used to study how categories as ?us? and ?the other? are constructed in the material, and how these processes of categorization relate to the intersection of religion, gender and ethnicity.

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.

Det övergripande syftet med studien är att studera vilka diskurser som framträder hos lärare i talet om hur stöd till elever i svårigheter bäst ska organiseras samtidigt som ett förändringsar-bete mot en skola för alla startas. Vidare syftar studien till att undersöka om det finns någon konflikt inom eller mellan diskurserna och om några diskurser dominerar över andra. Studien har sin teoretiska och metodologiska utgångspunkt i det diskursanalytiska angrepps-sättet som vilar på en socialkonstruktionistisk grund. Inom den socialkonstruktionistiska ve-tenskapssynen finns ingen absolut kunskap om olika fenomen utan man talar istället om ett sätt att presentera världen bland flera möjliga. När världen förklaras utifrån ett socialkon-struktionistiskt perspektiv används ofta diskursanalys.

Den här uppsatsen är en diskursteoretisk analys av debattören Johan Norbergs författarskap, med ett i stora drag enbart deskriptivt syfte som ämnar på ett strukturerat vis presentera det bakomliggande meningarna i Norbergs författarskap som ett uttryck för en politisk diskurs och beskriva dem i enighet med de teorier för diskursers formerande av Laclau och Mouffe som presenteras i uppsatsens teori och metodkapitel. Uppsatsens frågeställningar handlar om att identifiera de nodalpunkter och ekvivalenskedjor som utför centrala delar av Norbergs diskurs, vilket också görs i resultatdelen. I den mån uppsatsen går utöver en deskriptiv ansats så handlar det om att utifrån en ytlig analys av tidigare forskning kring John Lockes tyckande, jämföra Norberg med detta för att se i vilken mån Norbergs påstående om sig själv som en klassisk liberal överensstämmer med resultaten av analysen. De nodalpunkter som identifieras under analysen är frihet, kapitalism, globalisering och välstånd tillsammans med förklarande ekvivalenser. Resultaten tyder också på att Norbergs beskrivning av sig själv som en klassisk liberal är riktig även om det framkommer en del ganska stora avvikelser från Lockes synsätt..

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.

Youth unemployement in Sweden is at an all-time high, a fifth of all university and college students live in poverty and the number of young on welfare is increasing. This study attempts to answer the question of how youth deprivation has been made possible as a consequence of political action, focusing on youth unemployment.I critically examine the role of the Swedish government, the Swedish Labour Organisation (LO), and the various government departments through text analysis, in order to answer the question of how the current discourse on youth position in the labor market. Because youth unemployment is not an isolated phenomena the analysis covers several policy areas, such as education policy, labor market regulation and housing policy. I use discourse theories drawn from Laclau and Mouffe to expose how language is used as an instrument of political power.I conclude that the current situation is a result of policy choices where the young have fallen behind due to lack of political organization. Their situation is not problematized to the required degree and is often explained on an individual level rather than on a structural level..

Den här uppsatsen undersöker de diskurser som kan formuleras kring hur tatuerade personer talar om sig själva och om tatueringskonsten, utifrån en diskursanalytisk studie av intervjuer i Scandinavian Tattoo Magazine. Uppsatsens teoretiska och metodologiska ramverk är byggt kring Marianne Winther Jørgensens och Louise Phillips diskursteoretiska begreppsbygge, som i sig framförallt grundas i Ernesto Laclaus och Chantal Mouffes diskursanalytiska begrepp. De formulerade diskurserna; sexualitetsdiskursen, ironiseringsdiskursen, möjligheternas diskurs, individualitetsdiskursen och maskulinitetsdiskursen, har diskuterats utifrån begrepp tagna från Mary Douglas (renhet och fara), Slavoj ?i?ek (cynism) samt Peter L. Berger och Thomas Luckmann (typifieringschema och face-to-face-situationen).Uppsatsens analys visade att kvinnor inte bara föredras som representanter för tatuering i tidskriftens intervjuer, utan också att de, till skillnad från männen, sexualiseras kraftigt.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to identify and describe thedifferent roles that are expressed in a public library by researchingthem in the four policy documents concerning Västerås public libraryin 2010 and by interviews with three specially chosen key persons.Further studied are the discourses that can be perceived in thematerial and whether or not the roles could come in conflict witheach other. Laclau and Mouffes discursive theory constitutes themethodical frame for this thesis and by using terms from discursivetheory the analysis was made in four steps.Seven roles were identified from the policy documents concerningVästerås public library and the interviews with the key persons. Thefirst role of the public library was the intermediary of knowledge andinformation, the second was viewed as a democratic role, the third asa marketing role, the fourth as a role that handled the collaboration,the fifth role was to improve literacy, and the sixth and seventh roleswere as a culture centre and a meeting place. With the help fromkeywords five major discourses were found within the material.

The environmental situation is becoming increasingly critical. The energy sector and other industries have a big impact on our climate and the public is raising their voice for companies to admit their responsibility towards the environment and society. Companies engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and happily disclose their responsible performance in annual reports. But what messages are they conveying in their CSR-reporting, and what attitudes towards CSR can be found underneath the explicit content? The aim of this study is to discover which discourses exist in CSR-reports from Swedish energy companies, and how these discourses operate.