The society of consumption exposes us to a lot of information, where advertisement constitutes an extensive part. Due to its expanding, advertisement receives a natural and obvious space in our everyday life. This study aims to investigate how social and cultural values can be mediated in advertisement. The focus has been put to ideas related to health and fitness in the advertisement of power drinks. The thesis takes social constructionism as a starting point, and combines image- and critical discourse analysis in purpose to analyze the pictures.Sociology of consumption, construction of identity, lifestyle and everyday life all constitute an essential part of my analysis.

Shelters and Nuclear weaponsA discourse analysis of the Swedish defense and civil defense debate during the Cold warSweden during the Cold War set into motion one of the world?slargest civil defense policies at the time, second only to neutral Switzerland. The governments expenditure was far greater per capita than both that of USA and Soviet Union and included massive evacuation plans for Stockholm and other large cities in Sweden, with the hopeful expectation to bring down the amount of people in each of them to 15000 in case of a foreign hostile nuclear attack. The policies included construction of shelters with room for 2,5 million of about 7 million citizens in total at the time along with gasmasks for the whole population. Not only this, Sweden was considered one of the biggest military powers of that time in relation to its size and population.

This case-study examines the correlation between young men and democratic instability in group discussions with two analyzing methods in one. One part of the method used is deliberative democracy which aims to explain how democracy works within the frames of discussion in ordinary citizens groups. In this study the citizens is upper level secondary school students. The other part of the method used is the theory pulled by many scholars lately, the demographic impact on democracy. With these two combined in one this study compare the theory of young men as more active in political violence and as a destabilising factor of democracy on country-level with the results of the study in deliberative democracy in small group discussions.

Manlighet och känslor är, historiskt sett, två sällan sammankopplade fenomen. Mannen har i stor utsträckning setts som den rationella och känslokalla av de två könen. Manlighetsidealet håller dock på att förändras och både forskning och mina informanter menar att mannen idag tillåts visa känslor i mycket större utsträckning än vad som var tillåtet i det manlighetsideal som fanns förr. I Sverige verkar det som att vi numera har androgynatet som dominerande patriarkatfas, vilket innebär mer jämlikhet och individualism. Detta verkar innebära mer frihet för mannen att välja vilka delar av manlighetsidealet han ska internalisera i sitt liv.

Manlighet och känslor är, historiskt sett, två sällan sammankopplade fenomen. Mannen har i stor utsträckning setts som den rationella och känslokalla av de två könen. Manlighetsidealet håller dock på att förändras och både forskning och mina informanter menar att mannen idag tillåts visa känslor i mycket större utsträckning än vad som var tillåtet i det manlighetsideal som fanns förr. I Sverige verkar det som att vi numera har androgynatet som dominerande patriarkatfas, vilket innebär mer jämlikhet och individualism. Detta verkar innebära mer frihet för mannen att välja vilka delar av manlighetsidealet han ska internalisera i sitt liv.

Social control in different forms has existed in all known societies. This control has taken different shapes and expressions. In older smaller communities there was a collective control among the citizens. In modern societies the state is trying to control the lives of the citizens. These control mechanisms can be seen as both freedom-reducing and freedom inducing depending on which concept of freedom one upholds.

The question of the provision of electronic books in Swedish public libraries has lately evolved into a lively debate in Swedish media, where the public library?s identity and itsexpected role as a democratic institution is an underlying topic. The aim of this bachelorthesis is to examine the idea of the public library?s identity as expressed in newspaperand journal articles by writers connected to the library sector. The aim is achieved byexamining the language-use and identifying discourses in the debate.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyze how Bolaget, a paper published by the Swedish alcohol monopoly retailer Systembolaget, constructs issues of alcohol in 18 preventive articles published between 2009 and 2012. More specifically the essay focuses on the consequences of alcohol, as well as its consumers and functions. Systembolaget is a distributor of alcohol and at the same time has an assignment by the state to reduce alcohol-related harm. This double role makes the alcohol prevention of Systembolaget, and their perspective on consequences, consumers and functions of alcohol, an interesting object of study. The theoretical and methodological basis is Fairclough?s critical discourse analysis.

The following inquiry begins with one simple question: who is the margin? In other words, what is the referent of the term margin? Is it possible for language to capture connotations of an intended and supposed reality beyond its own limits? My supposition is that margin is a valuable concept to critical studies of the hegemonic order and dominant culture in various contexts. It is therefore necessary to expose the term itself to a critical analysis by attempting to trace its position in different discourses. The intention is to illustrate that the term margin is not merely an abstraction, confined within the framework of intricate theoretical rhetoric.In a deconstructive analysis of Gender Trouble by Judith Butler and Can the Subaltern Speak? by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, based on the work of Jacques Derrida, I study the significance of the term margin and explore how the use or non-use of concrete examples affects the reception of both the term margin and ultimately the text as a whole.The study of these two texts reveals that some of the very same critique raised by Butler and Spivak is itself applicable to the authors? own theory production.

Japan is the first industrialized country that is experiencing the threat of a rapidly declining and aging population. This has shifted the focus and the limelight is now on the matter that for a long time has been ignored. That is, the Japanese women?s situation in the society. This thesis seeks to point out the relevance of gender in the construction of leadership in order to get a deeper understanding of the Japanese women?s situation today.

The essay deals with hierarchies that occurs between inmates in prison. It deals with a theory that these hierarchies, when seen through a gender perspective, can be understood as a hierarchy where you are valued based on traditional male characteristics. Empirically, the paper consists of interviews with five inmates, or former inmates, who during a period in his life, has served a prison sentence at a closed institution. Based on the informants' statements, conclusions are drawn about which properties are valued low in the hierarchy. This becomes clear when the informants speak humiliating about sexually deviant groups, snitches, or sex offenders.

The analysis of regional development and the formation of regional policy have experienced an increasing importance in Europe and in Sweden during the last decades. There is a widespread assumption that the increasing significance of regions is due to the diminishing role of the nationstate in the era of globalization. This essay suggests that there is a hegemonic discourse, heavily relying on the assumptions of New Regionalism, when addressing regional building. Sometimes described as an ideology, New Regionalism, which is derived from research of successful regions, is based on the assumption that regional competitiveness and autonomy creates economic growth. The Committee on Public Sector Responsibilities (Ansvarskommittén) suggests that Sweden requires new regional structure, due to the increasing expenditures facing the welfare state.

This study is mainly critical-theoretic and explores the theoretic jungle of the concept of intersectionality with the use of Post-colonial and Feminist theories. The purpose of the thesis is also to investigate the concept of intersectionality further by looking upon its practical use as theoretic tool. This is performed in a discourse analysis of two programs developed by Swedish Liberal Party autumn of 2005. Another purpose is to discuss the multiculturalist dilemma as well as the phenomenon of a hegemonic western Feminism. One conclusion of this thesis is that the use of intersectionality is not unproblematic.

Föreställningar kring maskulinitet och våld är i dagens samhälle nära sammankopplade och har så varit även historiskt. Denna studie har som mål att undersöka hur dessa sammankopplingar påverkar män som tränar och tävlar MMA och hur det påverkar deras maskulinitetskonstruktioner. Genom att undersöka dessa mäns inställning till våld, maskulinitet och intimitet inom MMA, syftar studien till att tydliggöra den diskurs som vuxit fram på en kampsortsklubb i Sverige. Slutsatsen av denna undersökning är att en tillsynes motsägelsefull bild kring våld och intimitet konstruerats inom denna diskurs. Inom MMA-diskursen finns utrymme för fysisk intimitet på ett sätt som sällan accepteras mellan män i samhället utanför.

The earlier studies of how gender is visually constructed in lifestyle magazines have mainly been done on photographs. But, photographs are only one part of the entire magazine Therefor3, we saw the importance in examining one of the other big parts, typography.We have been studying if gender can be constructed in lifestyle magazines through the shape and color of typography and the color context. It is important to point out that we have not been studying the written word but only the shape and color of the typography.The study has been conducted through a qualitative content analysis with a comparative process of the selected magazines. The analysis began with a semiotic analysis of selected parts of the magazines. The result was then analyzed with a feminist theoretical approach.The result of the study shows that gender can be constructed through typography in a number of different ways.