Språk och känsla : En etnologisk studie om vardagen med andraspråk

Languages are a central aspect of communication, and also strongly related to ideas about belonging and identity. Language is a necessary knowledge to speak, act and make connections with other people, and also seen as an essential aspect of integration. However, as languages are connected to resilient norms in society, there are ideas of “good” and “bad” language use. This study examines migrated academic individuals and their use of acquired Swedish, to see how their language use is experienced as a communication tool and as a marker of inclusion. To live with a second language is different from learning it. A phenomenological perspective is applied to explore the lifeworlds of the individuals, to see how language use and its consequences are embodied and resulting in emotions and strategies. This is done by interviews and observations combined with language portraits and language diaries. The study shows that language is done by languaging (språkande), understood as an action of making language. The making of language includes a range of communicative elements and also the experiences, strategies and emotions that the language experiences result in. With the concept of languaging, the focal point is how language is made meaningful, as a tool that you communicate with, as well as live with.

Professionsmaktens framställning av fenomenet ADHD - en diskursanalys

In the body of knowledge surrounding ADHD there is a power struggle regarding which interpretations and perspectives should prevail. Representatives from various scientific disciplines and professions write and publish articles about the diagnosis based on their respective points of view. These articles are the focus of this thesis. Among other things it can be seen in these examined articles that, the prevalence of ADHD is higher amongst established bodies of social care, and that there is a lack of knowledge regarding the diagnosis in social systems such as schools and social services. Our aim with this study is to highlight how professionals within the Swedish contemporary field of knowledge surrounding ADHD create significance and meaning of the phenomenon. Based on Jonathan Potters discourse analysis, we focus on how ADHD is described by professionals in contemporary Swedish articles about ADHD and also on how these descriptions become valid and credible in these texts. The approach used in our case has been article analysis, based on Potter's rhetorical toolbox that includes both theory and method in one. ADHD is widely presented in the articles with descriptions ranging from a cultural disease constructed by prevailing social climate to being a genetic abnormality. Using various rhetorical strategies it is possible to establish totally different groups of interpretative repertoires as all true. In this thesis, we also discuss the possible consequences of these various explanations and constructions within social work and society at large.