Written by researchers from a wide variety of disciplines, this report explores the two most influential theoretical discourse traditions, namely Discourse Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis. Based on numerous Swedish and Scandinavian case studies, this account reveals the usefulness of the study of discourse and exemplifies how the two discourse analytical perspectives can be combined to offer diverse and problem-oriented strategies in the study of politics, identity, and social change.

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• CHAPTER 1 - Introduction
  • Purpose
  • Focus and motives
  • The author’s position
  • Critical discourse analysis
  • Discourse theory
  • Similarities and differences
  • Concluding remarks
  • Overall structure of the book
  • Notes
  • References
• CHAPTER 2 - Critique Disarmed, Ideas Unharmed
  • Critical syntaxes
  • The semantics of critique: the idea of emancipation
  • Laclau and the tempering of the ‘arms of critique’
  • ‘Emancipatory critique’ as ‘ideology critique’
  • Beyond critique: the elements of a theory of emancipatory ideas
  • Concluding reflections
  • Notes
  • References
• CHAPTER 3 - Reforming Education
  • Aim and outline
  • A discourse theoretical approach
  • Methodological discussions
  • The Swedish education system
  • Employability and production of workers
  • Too academic
  • Too vague
  • Too fragmented
  • Too inefficient
  • Employability as the empty signifier
  • Gendered constructions of future workers
  • Concluding discussion
  • Notes
  • References
• CHAPTER 4 - Re-Evaluating the Meaning of School Difficulties
  • Aim and outline
  • A discourse analytical approach to education policy
  • Contextualising the 2008 proposal A sustainable teacher education
  • Constituting aspect change in teacher education
  • The individual perspective revisited
  • Recommended support measures –differentiated or inclusive solutions?
  • Sustainability as a hegemonic intervention
  • Concluding discussion
  • Notes
  • References
• CHAPTER 5 - Cameroonian Students in Higher Swedish Education
  • Background of the study
  • The perspective of CDA
  • Analysing the experiences of Cameroonian students in Sweden
  • Migrant encounters with dominant institutions
  • Migrant interaction with ‘native’ Swedes
  • Immigrant access to material resources
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
• CHAPTER 6 - The Construction of Paternity Leave in Swedish Television
  • Aim and material
  • Journalism as a discursive practice
  • Power and practices
  • Systems of exclusion
  • Discursive inclusion and exclusion
  • Parental leave as a norm and no ‘luxury’
  • Statistics as ‘truths’
  • Not just a fun dad
  • Paternity leave is natural
  • Visual distinctions
  • The responsible, equal father and his opposite
  • Exclusions in the paternity leave discourse
  • Notes
  • References
• CHAPTER 7 - Constituting ‘Real’ Cutters
  • A discourse theoretical outlook
  • Real or fake: the proliferation of cutter identities
  • Attention seekers as floating signifiers
  • Psychiatrisation as hegemonic process
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
• CHAPTER 8 - A Mediated Discourse Analysis of Pseudonymous Blogging
  • Identity and blogging
  • The blogging diarist
  • The blogging journalist
  • The Kaycee case
  • The Belle de Jour case
  • Analytical concepts
  • Materials and methodology
  • Analysis
  • Concluding discussion
  • Notes
  • References
• CHAPTER 9 - The Discursive Construction of a Responsible Corporate Self
  • Critical discourse analysis
  • The management of discursive identity
  • Referential choices in discourse
  • Self-reference in practice
  • Institutional and affiliative voices
  • The corporate rhetor as subject
  • Possessive uses
  • Referential shift
  • Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
• CHAPTER 10 - Exploring Ideological Fantasies on the Move
  • The status of places
  • Relocation politics
  • Fantasmatic logics and emotions
  • Ideological fantasies of ‘the good life’
  • The fantasy of the successful woman
  • The fantasy of the gender-equal man
  • Being the Other
  • The fantasy of the ‘natural’ life
  • Towards ethical dimensions
  • Questioning ideology
  • A rational mode
  • Notions of ‘the good life’
  • Emotions as gripping forces?
  • Notes
  • References
• CHAPTER 11 - Ageing in the Norrlandic Inland
  • Growing older in a sparsely populated area of Sweden
  • Discourse on the depopulation of the Norrlandic inland
  • Discourse on population ageing
  • Discourse on the dismantling of the people’s home of Sweden
  • Discourse on the baby-boomers
  • Discourse on individual responsibility
  • Making discourse intelligible–a logics approach
  • The logic of centre and periphery
  • The logic of past and present
  • Ideological fantasies
  • Elusive emotions
  • Notes
  • References
• Contributors