| 1. |
- Edenborg, Emil
(författare)
-
Nothing more to see : Contestations of belonging and visibility in Russian media
- 2016
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the role of visibility in the production and contestation of belonging to political communities. On the basis of an empirical enquiry of Russian media during the 2010s, a theoretical conceptualization of the relation between visibility and belonging is suggested, starting in the idea that what becomes visible to publics and how, and what is rendered invisible, are the objects of constant political regulation and contestation. The suggested theory seeks to move beyond both an exclusively speech-oriented approach to belonging, and a binary view on visibility as either emancipatory or repressive. In three case studies, the thesis explores aspects of the problem of belonging and visibility. In all cases – each of which focuses on a specific project of belonging as enacted in contemporary Russian media – gendered, sexualized and ethnicized conceptions of community are at the center of the contestations. First, by analyzing narratives in Russian media about the 2013 ban on “homosexual propaganda”, the thesis shows that as projects of belonging produce specific gendered and sexualized conceptions of community, they seek to regulate the visibility of undesired, non-normative subjectivities. However, those regulatory efforts contain tensions that may serve as starting points for contestation. Second, by studying media narratives about the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the thesis shows that spectacular media events may serve to depoliticize particular notions of community by making them hypervisible and producing them as natural and inevitable, but such events may also serve as sites of repoliticization. Third, by analyzing how the Russian state-promoted narrative on the war in Ukraine 2014-15 was challenged, by Russian internet satire and by the media exposure of how Russian soldiers who had died in Ukraine were secretly buried, the thesis shows that contestations of dominant projects of belonging draw on invisibility, and often have an ambivalent, inside/outside relation to dominant narratives. The central claim of the thesis is that projects of belonging, aimed at (re)constituting political communities and their boundaries, seek to produce particular arrangements of visibility regulating what can be seen and how it can be seen in the public sphere, and what cannot be seen. Moreover, as visibility cannot be fixed entirely, precisely those arrangements become the target of political contestation. On a more analytically useful level, it is suggested that politics of belonging involves efforts to contain, amplify and contest visibility.
|
|
| 2. |
- Nordén, Birgitta
(författare)
-
Learning and teaching sustainable development in global-local contexts
- 2016
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to develop knowledge of teachingand learning sustainable development in global–local contexts. Theresearch field is global learning for sustainable development (GLSD).Phenomenographic approach and contextual analysis were used asmethods of analysis, and data was collected by Semi-structuredinterviews at secondary and upper secondary schools in Sweden.In Study I, a strategic and systematic literature review was conductedof recent trends and critique to the dominating rhetoric on policy levelconcerning global education and global learning on sustainabilityissues. The complexity represented in GLSD is of global interest toface current challenges. The global–local context and the process forglobal learning were characterised by the learner’s perspective andself-efficacy. The variation of ways in which contextual features wererevealed, affected how participants experienced their own learningglobal learning space. In Study II, empirical investigations were conducted of students’,teachers’, and head teachers’ conceptions of implementation of GLSD.Results indicate that critical knowledge capabilities were needed toact towards sustainability globally. Critical knowledge capabilitiesdeveloped in the processes were to take command and collaborateas a team. Capabilities that were identified as necessary but whichhad not been sufficiently developed were to be prepared, act in atransdisciplinary manner and lead for holistic understanding in thelearning process. Critical knowledge capabilities to handle complexknowledge were characterised by volition, self-directed learning, andknowledge formation. In Study III, a re-analysis was conducted of the data from StudyII. The results shed light on pertinent transition skills in GLSD:(I) transdisciplinary action via knowledge formation in actualpractices, (II) democratic collaborative action via processes ofunderstanding, respectively (III) self-directed learning and independentinitiative. These transition skills, enabling young people to beprepared for unpredictable changes, were perceived as key featuresin developing young people’s capability in an uncertain world. Theydeveloped worldview understanding, and advanced transformationcompetencies including critical reflections upon questions of currentnormativity. In Study IV, collaborative and transdisciplinary teaching with aglobal–local perspective was investigated in a study with teacherscommitted to global learning and sustainable development at anupper secondary school. Two main transdisciplinary teachingapproaches of GLSD were distinguished: Contributing: Assist andTake Part respectively Ownership: Possess and Reconceptualise.The contributing approach was divided into the sub-categories: (I)Disheartened, (II) Supportive, and (III) Complementing teachingapproaches; while the ownership approach comprised (IV) Decisive,and (V) Multi-dimensional teaching approaches. Various dimensions of the results appeared to be relevant forsustainability teaching and learning in global–local contexts, whenconnections between the studies were analysed in relation to the contextand the overarching aims of the thesis. Through transdisciplinaryteaching deep approaches to learning can be developed and Globalteaching for sustainable development (GTSD) could be advanced.Individual and collaborative learning characterised by selfdetermination,responsibility, and social readiness leading to actionemerged as key aspects At a global–local level, there is a growing need to develop competenciesand capabilities for transitions towards sustainability. Conflicts andclimate change are drastically increasing the number of displacedpeople who need transnational education on proactive preventivestrategies, as well as develop to critical knowledge capabilities that can be useful across numerous contexts and in the face of changingcircumstances. Increasingly, also young people need to manage theirown learning processes in self-directed learning, regardless of wherethey are physically or may move in their lifetimes. As established socialstructures struggle to address global challenges, people across theplanet need to be able to organise themselves and to take initiatives.
|
|
