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This study examines what happens when contentious lay citizens harness the technical-ecological repertoire of experts as means of challenging nature conservation policy. The causes, manifestations, and implications of this phenomenon are elucidated through a critical discourse analysis. The case study is based on the wolf reintroduction project in Europe, with particular focus on Sweden, using illegal hunting discussions as a point of entry within the hunting community. It reveals the deployment of three topoi, which are defined as stock arguments situated within a discourse. Analysis shows how while some topoi often incur short-term gains in the debate because of their scientific guise, they are fundamentally relegated as folk science (or barstool biology) by government experts and, in some cases, contribute to the further marginalization of other knowledges. Acquiescence to this discourse is shown to greatly impede the debate. Finally, the study shows how lack of trust in the public dialog, which hunters openly recognize to be colonized by ecological expertise, results in increasingly noncommunicative forms of resistance toward policy.

Based on a poststructural discourse-theoretical perspective, the aim of this thesis is to critically examine the construction of the Swedish compulsory school's democratic education and its consequences for the teacher subject, in educational policy texts. Set against the backdrop of what is commonly referred to as a crisis of democracy, the study takes its point of departure in changes in educational politics in recent decades and the new national curriculum for the compulsory school in 2011. The thesis uses the poststructural discourse-theory of the political philosophers Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe as its theoretical and methodological framework. Their main objective has been to revive socialist politics by suggesting a radical, plural democracy as an alternative for a new left. A number of national policy texts were chosen for the analysis. The selection covers official reports and government bills on the Education Act and on the Teacher Education Reform Act, the Education Act, the National Curriculum and a selection of documents from the Swedish National Agency for Education, ranging from 2008 to 2018. The main results show that democratic education rests on a notion of the democratic society which creates relations between a democratic universalism based on individual rights and an unspoken national homogeneity. Democratic education is constructed as a broad and complex task aiming at the fostering of democratic competence, assuring equivalent education and counteracting abusive behaviour. The impact of neoliberal policy and new public management philosophy is evident in the empirical material analysed. The study concludes that democratic education is constructed as part of a management perspective where democracy becomes the means of achieving a goal – the governed subject – which relates to pupils and teachers alike. In addition, the focus on consensus and rational thinking as well as the tendency to locate conflict resolution in the legal sphere contribute to the notion of a school free from abuse. ; I många demokratiska samhällen har skolan ett ansvar att förbereda unga människor för sin roll som demokratiska medborgare. En vanlig utgångspunkt tas i att utbildning om, genom och för demokrati är avgörande för demokratins fortlevnad. I en tid där högerpopulistisk retorik, desinformation och hot mot folkvalda hör till vardagen förefaller det viktigare än någonsin att utbilda för demokrati. Avhandlingens syfte är att kritiskt granska konstruktionen av grundskolans demokratiuppdrag och vilka konsekvenser den får för lärarsubjektet. Baserat på de politiska filosoferna Ernesto Laclaus och Chantal Mouffes poststrukturella teorier om diskurs, hegemoni och radikal demokrati konstrueras ett ramverk för att analysera ett urval av nationella utbildningspolitiska texter mellan 2009 – 2018. Tidigare forskning visar att debatten om det demokrati- och medborgarfostrande uppdraget närmar sig en marknadsliberal position och flera diskurs- eller textanalytiska studier indikerar diskurser och språkbruk som influerats av nyliberal ideologi. Resultatet från studien visar hur uppdraget tar form i relation till mål- och resultatstyrning, dokumentation och kvalitetssäkring där demokratiuppdraget tar form som en del av ett managementperspektiv. En särskild form av styrning i skärningspunkten mellan en juridisk reglering av mellanmänsklig samvaro, deliberativa samtalskvaliteter och betoningen av konsensus resulterar i att demokratiuppdraget konstrueras som den kränkningsfria skolan. Avhandlingens bidrag består i att ställa nya frågor om skolans demokratiuppdrag och belysa hur uppdraget tillskrivs mening och vilka konsekvenserna av detta blir.

This thesis focuses primarily on the question "why is freedom of speech valuable in a democratic context?" I argue that it is problematic that free-dom of speech takes for granted and that the main question therefore is absent in current political science research, in legal texts, and in public discourse. I also argue that in democratic states the focus, regarding freedom of speech, is often on its boundaries and limits rather than on its justification. But it is highly problematic to find and establish its limits without dis-cussion why freedom of speech is desirable in the first place. The thesis poses two questions. The first concerns how freedom of speech is justified by the five strongest available arguments. I analyze the arguments and conclude that they justify freedom of speech differently but that they are similar in one aspect. Freedom of speech is not primarily justified as an individual right. It is rather justified in terms of the public good. The second question asks if we can reach a better understanding of the central arguments. I argue that the arguments have something in common; all of them justify freedom of speech with reference to a common value. I argue that this common value is what I call, a "reliable communication process". All five arguments claim that freedom of speech is valuable because it promotes a reliable communication process. This process is reliable in terms of its capacity to create a pluralistic public discourse that exposes citizens to ideas and perspectives that they would not have chosen in advance. This study results in the following findings. First, that freedom of speech is valuable in a democratic context because the reliable communication process supports the central democratic value of the enlightened understanding of the democratic citizen. Secondly, that I can give a principled reason for the boundaries of freedom of speech. This means that, according to the arguments, there are reasons to abolish or limit freedom of speech if the reliable communication process is damaged or absent, for example in case of war, anarchy, or violent circumstances. Third, that there are strong reasons in support of a public service media, and greater state intervention in media politics. One strong reason for that conclusion is that a public service media can ensure a pluralistic communication in society and counteract information conformity and intolerance among the members of society.

This article presents a typology of discursive discrimination, discrimination earned out through the use of language. It is argued that there is a need for a typology that focuses more clearly on an understanding of what discrimination is than what is the case in existing research & that such a typology should fulfil certain criteria in order to he useful for empirical research. The typology proposed consists of four main concepts: exclusion from discourse, negative other presentation, objectification, & proposals pointing towards unfavorable non-linguistic treatment. The related concept of othering -- the creation of a psychological distance to people understood to belong to groups others than "us" -- is also presented. The manner in which the different forms of discursive discrimination & othering can be operationalised is demonstrated with the help of examples from empirical studies of discourses of people categorized as mentally deficient, as deaf, & as immigrants in Swedish public debate during the last 75 years. The importance of categorization of people is also discussed. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

In recent years, ideas of conscience and the liberty of conscience have become ever more salient in public discourse. Historically, these concepts have been used to mark out a certain scope of freedom and protection in moral, political and legal conflicts. In our time, individual conscience is frequently used to legitimate objections to, for instance, military service and medical interventions like abortion and vaccination. So too in Sweden – a country widely described as one of the most modern and secularized societies in the world. In this volume, a group of researchers in history, human rights, law, ethics and sociology of religion address some of the most central issues around conscience and the liberty of conscience in Sweden from the middle ages to the present. By situating conscience and liberty in wider intellectual, social and political settings, the essays provide alternative ways of thinking about the most intractable problems surrounding these concepts – the relationship between law and morality, the tension between individual and collective freedom, as well as the role of religion in public affairs. This volume will create new avenues of research for scholars and students interested in challenges related to conscience and liberty: both those in ethics, politics and law seeking a historical perspective, and those in history who want to tie their studies to the present.

At the centre of this study lies one of the critical questions faced by (late-)modern society, namely that of taking care of the long-lived radioactive waste from nuclear power production. The problems of nuclear waste management are pictured as embracing a complex web of essential issues for society today, in terms of both its capacities and its shortcomings – so called core issues. The principal aim of the thesis is to examine the nuclear waste discourse in Malå, Västerbotten, from a critical discourse analytical perspective, through applying the approach developed by Michel Foucault in The Order of Discourse. During the 1990s, the municipality of Malå played a prominent role as a candidate site for the geological disposal of Sweden's spent nuclear fuel. A five-year process culminated in a local referendum on whether detailed site investigations should be permitted within the community. Following the result no further investigations have been undertaken. The discourse analysis is carried out through a study of opinion formation in the municipality during the period October 1992 to October 1997. Two main types of empirical material have been collected: interviews with opinion leaders (politicians, activists, journalists, information professionals, etc.) and contemporaneous mass media content (the local newspaper and regional television news). In the empirical analysis, a review is made of the workings of the external and internal control mechanisms within the discourse; that is to say, how they serve to set limits on the content and form of the sense-making process concerning nuclear waste management. Important themes in the opinion forming process in Malå include information and expertise, opposition and legitimacy, the centre/periphery relationship and the themes of mistrust, partitioning and rejection. Among other themes identified as being marginalised or absent, one example is the Samish citizens' views on the nuclear question. Four actors play a prominent role as authors of the discourse, namely the nuclear industry, the experts, Greenpeace and the mass media. The voices of resistance groups are also significant. Representatives from authorities and civil servants were most likely to take the commentary role in the discourse, along with journalists. In the concluding analysis of the nuclear waste discourse in Malå, two main types of desire for truth, which form the discourse's main order, are identified. The stronger concerns the will to know, which places the expert with a scientific background as the principal truth-teller. The other is 'ordinary' people's desire, which influences the content and form of the opinion formation. It is also concluded that the mass media institutions play a significant role in this context, not least as mediators. Reflections on contemporary 'core issues' to which the analysis bears witness, such as the crisis of democracy, are also included. In addition, the implications of applying the Foucaultian research programme to a study of the nuclear question have been considered.

This thesis discusses argumentative strategies for legitimation and delegitimation in political pamphlets published in 1769 and in 1809–1810, each period representing the onset of democracy and freedom of the press. The aim of the study is twofold. The empirical aim is to examine the political language in the early political debate in pamphlets, with a focus on how the discursive strategies of legitimation and delegitimation are realised linguistically in the emerging public sphere. The theoretical and methodological aim is to discuss the kind of understanding modern methods of text analysis, specifically such used in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), can provide in the analysis of texts as old as 250 years. The thesis uses a framework for analysing legitimation as put forward by van Leeuwen and Wodak and proposes a framework for the analysis of delegitimation strategies. Specific attention is given to irony as a delegitimation strategy. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are performed on the material (consisting of 232 pamphlets) and an extensive description of the context is given in order to provide a deeper understanding of the discursive practice of debate in pamphlets – which is necessary for the analysis of discursive strategies. The pamphlets in the two periods share many characteristics, but also exhibit many differences that can partly be explained by differences in context. The different contexts yield texts with seemingly different functions: while proposals and attacks seem to be prototypical text functions for political debate, the second period also has many texts that function as appeals for unity and mythopoetic narratives. Other differences between the periods concern the choice of authorisation strategies, the extent of moral evaluation and the use of mythopoesis. The most striking difference is that delegitmising strategies are much less frequent in the debate in the second period, 1809–1810, when the political situation was dramatic and delicate. The theoretical discussion in this thesis circles around the concept of rationalisation and proposes a concept of irrationalisation. Irony is then seen as the prototypical irrationalisation strategy.

This thesis investigates the role of ideas in policy processes. It does so using three theories as a starting point, selected for being alike yet unique in their description of how ideas may "get stuck" in the organization's production and reproduction of policy. The theories are Discourse Coalition Framework, Advocacy Coalition Framework, and Punctuated Equilibrium Theory. These theories have very different emphases but share constructivist traits and an interest in how social processes of meaning making take form in a rather "traditional" organizational setting, thus paying attention to, if not reducing the study to, the institutions of representative democracy. Two theoretical problems are identified within these theories. They concern 1) the mechanism and 2) the object of analysis. The theoretical question addressed in part I is: How are we to understand the proposition that ideas may cause stability in policy processes? What is the underlying mechanism? It is argued that the cognitive mechanism which the theories use should be substituted with a social psychological one. The assumption that stability is created when political actors conform to the ideas of others when they are confronted with apparent unanimity among policy makers, rather than that they internalize these ideas, makes both greater stability and instability in policy processes more plausible. Part II poses the question; if we are to investigate policy stability and instability using the discussed theoretical perspective, what unit of analysis should we use? In other words, what is a policy? It is argued that if ideological stability is seen as an effect of how policy formulation is organized (as is argued in part I), then close attention must be paid to processual factors when it is decided what unit of policy, on what level, might be explained. It is furthermore argued that although we may theoretically form an idea about substantially coherent patterns of policy recognizable as a policy, which should result from stable organizational patterns of communication in the policy process, it remains an empirical question if and where these patterns can actually be found. An analysis of Swedish environmental policy is performed to allow for observations of the degree to which empirical evidence is consistent with the policy patterns predicted by the theoretical assumptions outlined in part one.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse how space heating for single-family houses, and energy system conversion has been constructed and discussed at national, municipal and household levels. Political documents have been studied, and interviews have been carried out with politicians, civil servants and householders in the municipality of Falun. In order to study and analyse similarities and differences between these three political levels, the following main questions were asked: In which sense is the use of electrical heating formulated as problematic? How are the causes of these problems presented, and which solutions are suggested? What are the effects of how problems, causes and solutions are constructed? At the national level, the use of electricity produced by nuclear power was considered a problem. Initially the municipality's policy documents present the same problem, but there is a change of focus to the problem of imported electricity produced by fossil fuel, and the resulting emissions. At household level, the problem was often an old and badly functioning space-heating system. But some households did not formulate a problem before they converted. Instead they were influenced by their neighbours and thereby convinced. At all three political levels, there is consensus on the households' responsibility concerning energy transition. While industry tends to be considered incapable of cutting down its energy consumption, households are expected to take the responsibility seriously. Furthermore, within the household, the heating system tends to be constructed as a predominantly male concern. At all three levels, households are perceived as dependant on economical subsidies when taking the decision to convert from electrical heating. Although it is interesting that the interviewed householders only apply this view to others than themselves. They are convinced that other households need subsidies to act in an environmentally correct way. The discourse concerning the Swedish energy transition illustrates a shift away from a definition of ecological modernisation where environmental considerations influence economic development. The thesis clearly shows how economic arguments repeatedly influence environmental concerns. However, the tension between the two is played down and concealed through the lack of problematisation of the responsibility of industry, and through the focus on the need for education and future opportunities. Political dialogues concerning the use of electrical heating and the conversion of energy systems towards more renewable energies are dominated by economic arguments at the three levels. One effect of this is an assumption that energy policy instruments such as information and economic subsidies are essential for the energy transition. However, if householders rather are influenced by their neighbours should the government use economic subsidy as the main energy policy instrument?

Political participation is promoted as a central component in a democracy. But what specifically is it that makes participation valuable and how do different forms of participation differ in regard to outcomes? A central aim of this study is to understand why different forms of participation produce different kinds of effects. The argument developed is that participation can be understood as having two fundamental dimensions ? a conflictual and an institutional. These dimensions are used as tools for creating a typology of participation consisting of conflictual and non-conflictual, and by the institutional dimension, integral, semi-integral and non-integral types. Analysing and comparing participation forms from the perspective of these types and through the lens of political equality helps us to understand the effects of participation on both a structural and individual level. Political equality is a central normative value that forms of political participation must be related to. However, if we are to take political participation at the local level seriously the idea of political equality should be related to the character of the political issue and focus should be on equality within political processes. The analysis shows that the differences in outcomes are substantial and varied. The character of the different types and their usefulness for different political issues means that they should be regarded as complementary and overlapping rather than mutually exclusive.The study's empirical analysis shows that even though a lot of effort has been put into including citizens in local Swedish politics, the results have been somewhat disappointing. In understanding why this is the case it is important to consider the over-arching democratic context. This is also found to be important is explaining the rather uneasy cooperation between citizens and public decision-makers such as local politicians and civil servants. This suggests that the limited impact of new forms of participation can be understood in relation to their relative strength (or lack of it) in the discourse of mainstream politics. This suggests an evolution towards one of two possible futures. The first is a position where the reforms successively gain legitimacy and evolve into participatory institutions where participants hold substantial power and are able to determine the outcome of decisions. Alternatively a position may emerge where the lack of genuine interest in wider participation leads to scepticism and disillusion about the possibility to democratise local politics. At present there are signs of both of these developments.

Theoretically, gender research deals with two discourses, sameness/difference and power. I argue against male critics who flatly deny that there can be a power relation between the sexes or critizise it as a holistic concept without much connection with reality. Within gender research, I criticize the postmodernistist thought that all apparent realities are social constructs. In queer theory the identities of individuals as men and women are purely social constructs to be dissolved. In that way one can avoid the power question altogether: no political groups exist, only individuals. A political theory dealing with the relationship between the sexes has yet to be developed. Formal equality is a first step, the difficult question is how to deal with power, the preferential interpretation of the dominant group of what is important and valuable in society. The division in a public and a private sphere is inadequately dealing with family as an institution. Are women in countries where the state is minimal, where they marry very young and have thirteen children, "free"? Adapted from the source document.

This study in contemporary history describes the transformation of the public sphere in Sweden during the period 1969-1999, and analyses the role of information technology and politics in the process. The overall aim of the study is to explain how, and why, the public sphere in Jürgen Habermas sense has deteriorated during a period of rapid technological and political change, when increasing attention has been given to information technology as a new tool for improving democracy and empowering citizens. Theoretical inspiration is drawn from two perspectives within the modern history of technology and sociology of technology; the LTS (Large Technical Systems) and STS (Science, Technology and Society) approaches, as well as from the regime theory concept within political science. This multidisciplinary framework provides the theoretical basis for the study, including terms as socio-technical systems, system builder, technification, interpretative flexibility, stabilization, closing and regime change. In addition, the analysis draws upon previous research in economic history, where focus often has been on the important role of institutions. The term path dependence is central in this tradition. The starting point for the study is the process of a mutual legitimization between citizens and political actors that traditionally has taken place within the public sphere. In return for citizens support and trust, political actors have granted format rights to the public space. Two aspects of this interdependence are addressed: Freedom of speech and citizen's access to public information, and their access to arenas where an exchange of political ideas and opinions is taking place. In the study, the former is a question of the legal system and the limits to freedom of speech in new medias such as the Internet, while the latter concerns citizen's technical means and possibilities to connect to electronic networks. Research interest is concentrated on the formal political system, focusing both actors and structural factors such as technological development, media convergence, ideological change and international integration in the transformation process. Four case studies of institutional changes during formative moments, within what is defined as the legal and the technical infrastructures, are conducted and represent the empirical base of the thesis. The case studies are centered on Swedish governmental commissions, on the government itself and on proceedings in the parliament, and concerns formation and transformation of computer law, as well as the deregulation and privatization of the technical infrastructure. In the latter process Televerket (Swedish Telecom) has been an influential promoter of competition and institutional separation between tele- and data communications, representing a major regime change in favour of market relations in the technical infrastructure. In the area of computer law, the Swedish regime dominated by SCB (Statistics Sweden) was incorporated into a joint European data protection regime, resulting in limitations of freedom of speech on the Internet. These regime changes have also transformed the role of the state, constituting a "net watchers state". Another important finding is that promotion of democracy and improvement of access to the public sphere, never was on the agenda in the political transformation processes studied, although a parallel discourse on democracy and information technology existed throughout the period studied.

Stratagems adopted by democratic leaders to try to insinuate, or anchor, a preferred course of action into the larger collective will have a variety of repercussions. Beyond the apparent success of the venture itself, the long-term integrity of the democratic fabric may be at stake if simmering rancour and discontent is left unheeded. These questions would seem particularly pertinent when studying the national side of the evolution of the European Union. The periodic shunting of competencies to European institutions is highly complex, so much so that popular legitimacy for the momentous changes is in effect something of an ephemeral commodity. The referendum, with its unique potential to determine the prevailing vox populi, has from time to time been employed to offset these problems, and lend continued credence to the relinquishment of sovereign power. The political entities that will be the powerhouses in this contest for the hearts and minds of the public are, inevitably, national political parties. They, too, are likely to pay whatever political price will be exacted as a consequence of this unusual form of battle – including the exposition and potential widening of internal rifts. Noticing a dearth of investigative tools that can help us unravel these processes, the author develops a structured framework of analysis specifically designed to "parse" strategic or tactical action, with the aim to gauge likely party-democratic fallout. She makes a first-level distinction between "convincing" strategies (basically conceptualised as compatible with deli¬berative-democratic tenets), and "persuading" strategies (closely associated with a subset of negotiation theory principles focusing on strategic action). While both strategies may lead to the desired short-term outcome – where leadership preferences are duly propagated – a convince/persuade analysis is shown to yield improved understanding of the concomitant, longer-term effects. The author studies the Swedish Social Democratic Party's internal handling of the debates leading up to two pivotal referenda – the EU membership referendum of 1994, and the EMU referendum of 2003. Reviewing a wealth of secondary sources and conducting more than 40 interviews with high-level party officials and other centrally positioned actors (representing both sides of the two issue divides), she is provided with a unique material, which is parsed through the framework (which at this point also proves to be a sound analytical instrument). The study is primarily qualitative in nature, but an entire chapter is devoted to a complementing quantitative analysis where an existing Discourse Quality Index (DQI) is used to determine the level of deliberation prevalent in four party congresses (two preceding the EU referendum; two preceding the EMU referendum). One "convince" sub-dimension, respect, proved to be the one most easily affected by external events, not to mention deadline imposed by the referendum. The qualitative analysis revealed a generally higher level of justification (another "convince" sub-dimension) in the EMU case than in the EU case, and the reverse was true for the respect dimension. In both instances, the party leadership acted to pacify [persuade] the debate, notably by prohibiting government ministers from being active in the respective no-campaigns. A preliminary hypothesis that "deliberative space" shrinks as the final deadline looms was in part corroborated, as turned out to be valid for the respect dimension.