Vart tog matchningen på arbetsmarknaden vägen?
En kritisk diskursanalys av Arbetsförmedlingens debattartiklar i svenska dagstidningar under perioden 2009?2014
Critical discourse analysisEmployment officeSFL analysisPolemical articlesMetafunctionsPowerKritisk diskursanalysArbetsförmedlingenSFL-analysDebattartiklarMetafunktionerMakt
The present study examines power relations, textual genre and attitudes to the matching process in the labor market in the employment office?s opinion articles in the period 2009?2014. The power relations that emerge in the debate articles between employers, job seekers and private employment constitute the study's main question.The theoretical starting points are taken from Fairclough?s critical discourse analysis (1992, 2001, and 2010), where the discursive practice consists of the employment office?s production of opinion articles during a recession. The social practice consists of the laws and regulations that make its actions to reduce unemployment in the society. The method is derived from Halliday?s (1994, 2002) systemic functional linguistics. The analysis is based on the theory of his three metafunctions, with the analysis performed on interpersonal, ideational and textual levels. The result shows that the employment office has a clear agenda that it wants to convey to the receivers of the polemical articles. The employment office seeks legitimacy for its work by explaining reasons for the lack of results. The employment officealso makes replicas of critical debate by leading politicians and commentators, where they defend their current practices. The polemical articles also describe how unemployment can be reduced in the community if employers and job seekers follow their instructions. The employment office operates their own agenda to the causes of unemployment that they want to convey through its debate articles.