The purpose of this study was to analyze two local tourism related organizations in Umeå and how they used the marketing method Storytelling. The aim of this study was to examine what kind of stories the tourism related organizations were using, what these stories said in a direct, or in-direct way and how the reception was of the stories and the destinations. A qualitative study in the form of a discourse analysis based on Laclau and Mouffe's view on discourse analysis was conducted. The results of this study shows that storytelling is more effective when it is incorporated in the whole destination/organization when it comes to tourism related organizations and destinations. It also shows that storytelling in itself isn't only an innocent and positive tool and can cause negative feelings if used wrongly for an organization/destination.

Computer and videogames has increased rapidly over the past few decades and today a majority of the Swedish population enjoys them on a daily basis. When there are many users, it becomes important how the media chooses to portray the medium because it can affect how the society judges and looks at computer- and videogames.The purpose of this essay is to look at how the portrayal of computer- and videogames has changed in Swedish Newspapers during the period 1994-2014. How the player is being portrayed is also relevant. The method was the discourse analysis founded by Laclau andMouffe and the material was chosen from the two biggest newspapers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet. Theories that were used in the analysis were mainly framing, cultural studies, moral panics and theories based on gender.The result shows that there has been different kinds of portrayals of computer- and videogames from the beginning, though it was mostly negative in 1994 and 2004.

Detta examensarbete utgörs av en diskursteoretisk textanalys av förskolans läroplan i syfte att undersöka förskolans konstituerande makt att bestämma vad ett barn är. Genom att analysera hur ett antal nodalpunkter kopplas och misslyckas med att kopplas samman i ekvivalenskedjor som fyller begreppet ? mästersignifikanten ? Barnet med innehåll har jag velat kartlägga hur Barnet konstrueras. Analysen visar hur de diskursiva konstruktionerna ?det ofärdiga barnet?, ?det kompetenta barnet?, ?det situerade barnet?, ?barnet som natur? samt ?det individuella barnet? skrivs fram i läroplanen, hur de förhåller sig till varandra och hur det priviligierade tecknet lärande fungerar som meningsskapare åt Barnet inom de olika diskursiva konstruktionerna.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the ways in which the constructions of heterosexuality and gender in three Disney movies about princesses affect the power relations between men and women in the movies, and how discourses on gender and heterosexuality have changed over time. Research questions were:How do characters in the movies talk about gender and heterosexuality?How does the interplay between gender and heterosexuality affect the power relations between men and women in the movies?What are the likenesses and differences between movies from different time periods?Discourses were mapped out using a model based on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe?s political theories. These discourses were then analyzed with a theoretical framework consisting of Yvonne Hirdman?s concept of gender system and gender contracts, Judith Butler?s view on the heterosexual matrix and an understanding of power relations based on Michel Foucault.

The aim of this study was to investigate how the position of the preschool teacher could come across in interviews with six teachers about their assignment to document and evaluate the preschool activity. The research done so far in this area shows that it can be a complex and difficult part of the preschool teachers work. A dilemma often described is how the teachers can be able to analyze and document the children´s learning with the aim to evaluate and develop the preschool activity without judging and mapping the children. A special focus of the study was to see how the methods and dsicourses described by the teachers possibly could affect the teachers´s position in the area of documentation and evaluation. To analyze the empirical data Ernesto Laclau (1935-2014) & Chantal Mouffe´s discourse theory was used, a prespective witch also figured to be the theoretical foundation of the master thesis.

A general topic underlying this master thesis is how the public library is being transformed through the subversion and re-articualtion of meaning according to different discourses. The aim of the study can be divided in to levels of analysis. At the first level, the aim is to investigate how categories such as users, needs and vision are articulated in a specific case ?the visionary project Garaget in Malmö, a project which in part include a public library inspired by Idea Store. The next level of analysis sets out to explore how the case of Garaget is related to a totalizing discursive struggle over meaning within the element the public library.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the contemporary educational tasks of the Swedish public library as they manifest in Swedish library journals. Our main question at issue is: Which educational discourses are there? And in relation to our main question: how do the concepts of information literacy, lifelong learning and adult education relate to each other? Is there an antagonism between the public library's duty to supply fiction as opposed to non-fiction? and: What are the consequences of these discourses in the service provided by the library?Our theoretical starting-point is the discourse theory as proposed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. We analyse 39 texts from four Swedish library journals: Ikoner, bis, DIK-forum and Biblioteksbladet. The analysis is done in two phases.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the ways in which the constructions of heterosexuality and gender in three Disney movies about princesses affect the power relations between men and women in the movies, and how discourses on gender and heterosexuality have changed over time. Research questions were:How do characters in the movies talk about gender and heterosexuality?How does the interplay between gender and heterosexuality affect the power relations between men and women in the movies?What are the likenesses and differences between movies from different time periods?Discourses were mapped out using a model based on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe?s political theories. These discourses were then analyzed with a theoretical framework consisting of Yvonne Hirdman?s concept of gender system and gender contracts, Judith Butler?s view on the heterosexual matrix and an understanding of power relations based on Michel Foucault.

The main aim of the thesis is, first, to present a theoretical and methodological perspective for the study of postmodern theory in historiography; second, to discuss and evaluate earlier research on the subject; and third, to show that historians must be more self-reflexive about their explicit as well as implicit theoretical and philosphical premises. My theoretical and methodological inspiration comes mainly from three directions: first, the discourse analytic theory propagated by the political theorists Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe; second, concepts from Lacanian psychoanalysis as propagated by the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek; and, finally, the later Ludwig Wittgensteins theory of language.Using this perspective a minor case study is made based on five dissertations in history at Lund University from 1999 to 2006 as source material. This in order to indicate a strong influence of postmodern theory in Swedish historiography. It is further argued that it is legitimate to speak of one postmodernism, not in spite, but because of the fact that postmodernism is a semantically highly paradoxical, contradictory and unstable phenomenon. The main results of the analysis can be summarized as follows: (i) earlier research on the subject is simplified and unreflected and must be abandoned, because (ii) postmodernism seen as a discursive whole, i.e.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how today?s consumer society can be understood from ananalysis of the phenomenon Every Day Carry (EDC). The aim is thus to problematize the daily useof the artifacts that surrounds us and investigate how these can be understood as networks of humanand non-human actors, aswell as identity- and meaning-making practices in today?s consumersociety.The theoretical and methodical framework is built upon an eclectic variety of consumptiontheories,Michel Callon?s, John Law?s and Bruno Latour?s work on Actor-Network-Theory,Discourse analysis inspired by Michel Foucault, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and anethnographic methodology specifically adapted for online research. The empirical material consistsof photographs and commentaries from two EDC blogs aswell as commentaries regarding EDCfrom a commentary field on Youtube.com.

TitleSystems, Stability and Power. The Discourse of Information in Organizing Knowledge.AbstractThe aim of this Master's thesis is to inquire into the consequences of an unequal distribution of power between information discourses in the field of knowledge organisation. A deconstruction of Jennifer Rowley's and John Farrows introductory textbook Organizing Knowledge from 2000 is related to the major discourses of information in LIS. Questions posed in this study are: What meaning is ascribed to information in the material studied? Which information discourses are given a dominant position? Which are excluded? and: How does this affect the construction of the library and information science student's identity, in relation to practices of knowledge organisation? The theoretical framework is provided by Ernesto Laclau's and Chantal Mouffe's theory of discourse and combined with techniques for text analysis originating from the work of Norman Fairclough.The analysis reveals a strong domination of a cognitive discourse of information that underlines the importance of information systems for the organisation of knowledge.

Mia och Klara- karaktären Tabita Karlsson är den ideala White trash-stereotypen. Hon är en deltidisarbetslös ensamstående mamma med tre barn med tre olika män. Hon är sexuellt promiskuös, röker och dricker alkohol i tid och otid, pratar dialekt och bor på landet. Ovårdad och odisciplinerad, sedeslös, vulgär och agerar helt utan tanke på vad som anses passande av den rådande medelklassnormen. Med Tabita Karlsson som material presenteras de diskurser vilka utgör White trash-stereotypen med hjälp av diskursanalys enligt Laclau och Mouffe.

The aim of this study is to analyse how female neopagan practitioners form their identitiesindividually as well as collectively. Using Ernesto Laclau?s and Chantal Mouffe?s discourse theory and Anthony Giddens? descriptions of late modernity and self-identity, I intend toinvestigate my informants? construction and upholding of a meaningful identity and sense ofself. I will also look at how the neopagan movement can be viewed as a phenomenon closely interwoven with the overriding tendencies in our contemporary society. Neopaganism is an umbrella term that is used to describe a number of modern nature religions that take their inspiration from pre-Christian traditions.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how the identity of the public librarianwith regard to reading is manifested in the library field. The approaches thatare taken to reading and readers are examined as well as the consequencesdifferent approaches might have. The empirical material is based on 93articles published in Swedish library journals. The theoretical andmethodological starting point is discourse analysis. The application ofdiscourse analysis according to Michel Foucault?s hypotheses reveals threediscursive formations regarding the professional identity of public librarianswithin the framework of reading promotion: The public librarian asguarantor of democracy is related to the public library's original mission offostering, cultivating and educating citizens.

Syftet för denna studie är att undersöka vilka vithetsdiskurser som artikuleras visuellt och verbalt i högstadieskolans bildundervisning i konsthistoria, samt att undersöka hur elever förhåller sig till dessa diskurser i det bildarbete som genomförs i anslutning till momentet. Dessutom syftar studien till att diskutera bildlärarens uppdrag att lyfta frågor om etniska maktrelationer och samtidigt överföra ett nationellt kulturarv, enligt aktuella styrdokument. Studiens övergripande frågeställningar är: Vilka vithetsdiskurser artikuleras och reproduceras, visuellt och verbalt, i det material som introducerar momentet konsthistoria i högstadieskolans bildundervisning? Hur förhåller sig elever till dessa diskurser i det bildarbete som genomförs i anslutning till momentet? De teoretiska utgångspunkterna är diskursteori, socialsemiotik, och intersektionell vithetsteori. Materialet består av ett introduktionsmaterial som en bildlärare använt när denna introducerat momentet konsthistoria för en klass i årskurs 9, intervjuer med åtta elever från denna klass och åtta bilder som dessa elever arbetat med i anslutning till momentet.