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In Finland, thousands of miles away from Buenos Aires, people crowd the dance floors of restaurants and dance halls nightly to dance to tango music, while the tango has also caught the heart of the people on the other side of the world in Japan. The popularity of the tango in both Finland and Japan, however, is not very well known to the outside world.

Though some scholars have stated that the tango reflects the personality, mentality and identity of the Finnish and Japanese people, this may only be partially true. Moreover, it is difficult to generalize what the Finnish or Japanese personality is. I argue that the tango's success in these two countries also has significant connections to historical and social factors. As being a dancer myself, I also believe that the 'liminality' (originally a term borrowed from Arnold van Gennep's formulation of rites de passage) of tango dancing plays an important role in these two nations that went through difficult struggles to recover from the damage caused by the war. “The liminal phase is considered sacred, anomalous, abnormal and dangerous, while the  pre- and post-liminal phases are normal and a profane state of being (Selänniemi 1996) and “the regular occurrence of sacred-profane alternations mark important periods of social life or even provide the measure of the passage of time itself”(Leach 1961).

In this paper, I will discuss motives and paths of how a culture travels, settles and shapes into a new form, using the tango as an example.

Teaching communicative competence is extremely important in language instruction. One can avoid embarrassing situations and conflicts caused by misunderstandings if she/he understands the differences in intercultural pragmatics. Politeness discourse varies in complexity according to social distance, relative power between the speakers, and situations. The data I have collected during the past 6 years indicates that Swedish learners of Japanese often do not see the necessity of learning the polite/honorific discourse and often view these negatively as Swedish society is one of the most egalitarian in the world. As a consequence, Swedish students often fail to utilize appropriate politeness strategies when speaking in Japanese. However, it is important to point out to foreign language learners that cultural and social norms are not interchangeable and that one must adapt to the language one is using and the culture one is in. Thus Swedish Learners of Japanese should consider politeness discourse as a part of the rules of the language rather than something that can be modified based on one’s opinion.

The current study investigates the differences in politeness strategies between Swedish and Japanese discourse. Student surveys and analysis of students’ errors have revealed clear differences in the use of politeness strategies in Swedish and in Japanese context. While the politeness, respect, and formality are closely intertwined in Japanese; the Swedes perceive respect and politeness as separate matters. It is also found that while the Japanese are inclined to using verbal politeness strategies, the Swedes express their respect more through non-verbal actions or behaviors. Various Japanese and Swedish utterances have also been examined to determine the Discourse Politeness Default suggested by Usami (2006) in order to systematize the politeness strategies in ways similar to grammatical rules.

While many universities offer foreign culture courses as part of their language programs, some of the materials and contents may promote stereotypes and essentialism. Although the definition of “culture” varies depending on field and context, students and teachers in foreign language classrooms commonly perceive culture unconsciously as national culture. Moreover, emphasizing cultural differences, a common practice in such courses, can also result in the formation of stereotypes. 

Many of my students taking courses on Japanese culture are initially fascinated by the surface culture and especially pop culture, including anime, manga, video games, and music as well as food, literature, and language. It is not uncommon for such students to have already formed specific stereotypes or images of Japan from the media they consume. 

This presentation will first introduce various ways of understanding culture. Thereafter, various challenges and initiatives involved in discussing foreign culture(s) with students will be shared using the course related to Japanese culture I teach at a Swedish university as an example. 

Based on previous studies of teaching culture as part of foreign language instruction, my own practice as well as course evaluations by students, I will propose an optimal design for a culture course that does not promote essentialism from the following perspectives: (1) selection of teaching materials presenting various perspectives and encouraging critical thinking; (2) appropriate ordering of topics from deep- to surface-level culture; and (3) learners’ identities. Instead of defining what culture is, teachers can provide opportunities for questioning and discussing how culture is used and what people do with it while deepening students’ understanding not only of Japanese culture but also of the diverse culture that surrounds each student's daily life promoting pluriculturalism.  

There have been a number of studies dealing with the concepts of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in primary, secondary and university education, especially in the European context, as plurilingual and intercultural education have long been promoted by the Council of Europe. However, little discussion of these two concepts has taken place in the context of adult education targeting employees in multinational workplaces. 

Due to the increasing number of companies purchased by or merged with a Japanese company in Sweden, the commissioned education course on “Communicating and Doing Business with the Japanese” I teach at our university has gained in popularity over the past several years. These multinational companies encourage managerial personnel to take such a course in the hope that they will learn the “Japanese way” of communication and conducting business. Despite their extensive experience living and working in other countries, with many of them capable of communicating in several languages at various proficiency levels, these learners often join the course with the expectation of molding themselves into something they are not. However, the course is designed to aid these learners in rethinking their identities as plurilingual- and pluricultural selves along with their roles in the multinational, multilingual company rather than learning to behave like Japanese business executives. This is implemented by first identifying their own plurilingualism and pluriculturalism of which they are initially unaware, followed by a critical analysis of the portrayal of how things are done the “Japanese way,” which is accomplished by exposing the learners to a variety of perspectives. A discussion of “culture” is also necessary as many of them consciously or unconsciously associate “culture” with “national culture.”

In this practical report, I will introduce the initiatives used in this commissioned education course to induce pluricultural thinking before results of the thematic analysis of follow-up interview data from former course participants are presented to show how they further developed plurilingual and pluricultural competence in their workplace over several years after the course ended. These testimonies make it evident that plurilingual and pluricultural awareness should be encouraged in adult education. 

湯気の中へ、非日常の世界へ：

通過儀礼としてのフィンランドのサウナと日本の風呂

遠く離れた北欧フィンランドと極東日本。気候もそこに暮らす人々も一見全く異なるこのふたつの国に共通する熱い湯気の文化がある。フィンランド人が長い歴史の中で大切にしてきた「サウナ」、そして多くの日本人にとって欠かせない「風呂」。どちらも身体を清潔にする場所というだけではなく、宗教的・文化的意味合いや、癒し、儀礼とも深く関係していると考えられている。1998年にはフィンランドのユヴァスキュラで風呂とサウナに関するエキシビションも催されている。

本発表では、フィンランドと日本での過去20年間のフィールドワークの結果をもとに、サウナと風呂が、それぞれどのようにそこに暮らす人々の人生や日々の生活の節目に行われる通過儀礼（van Gennep 1909）として機能しているのかを明らかにし、サウナと風呂文化に共通して見られるリミナリティー (Turner 1974)を「マクロモデルとマイクロモデル」(Niendorf 2000)を用いて文化人類学的観点から検証する。

Denna undersökning söker ett svar på hur den relativt vana lyssnarens bedömning av ljudkvalitet påverkas av ett så kallat öppet test, där det som bedöms är känd för lyssnaren, jämfört med ett blindtest, där detta objekt är okänt. Frågan appliceras på kvalitetsbedömningen av digitala kodningstekniker, d.v.s. hur lyssnaren påverkas av att valet av kodningsteknik som avlyssnas är känd eller inte. För att ta reda på detta genomfördes ett lyssningstest med nio deltagare. Deltagarna fick betygssätta perceptuellt kodade ljudfiler mot en känd referens, både som ett blindtest samt i ett öppet test. Resultatet är mångtydigt och inga generella slutsatser för hur lyssnaren påverkas av ett öppet test jämfört med ett blindtest går att uppfatta. Resultatet visar dock att påverkan ett öppet test har på lyssnarens bedömning är högst individuell. Lyssningstest i form av blindtest bör därför användas för att uppnå pålitligast resultat. 

I denna uppsats undersöks ljudberättande inom radiodraman och fokuserar särskilt på radioproduktion till barn. Undersökningens syfte är att fördjupa kunskapen om radiodramats ljudberättande och mediets beståndsdelar inom radiodraman riktade till barn, genom att undersöka hur radiodraman anpassade till olika åldersgrupper påverkas av ljuddesign, dialog, musik, manus och regi. Empiriskt material har samlats in en enkätundersökning och kvalitativa intervjuer med ljuddesigners, kompositörer, manusförfattare, regissörer, producenter och dramaturger som alla har gedigen erfarenhet av arbete med radiodrama. Undersökningsdeltagarna har delat med sig av sina yrkeserfarenheter och ger i undersökningen sina synvinklar på vilka beståndsdelar som är viktiga för ljudberättandet. Dessa beståndsdelar är huvudsakligen: dialog, musik, atmosfärsljud, tramp- och ljudeffekter. Vilka funktioner sådana beståndsdelar har för att bidra till radiodramats helhet har analyserats och sammantaget visar analysen att alla dessa beståndsdelar lyfter fram berättelsen, som är radiodramats viktigaste komponent. Utan en berättelse finns det inget radiodrama att framföra. Men även ljuddesign, ljudeffekter och musik behövs för att framföra berättelsen och kan även påverka lyssnarnas upplevelser eller leda deras känslor i en tilltänkt riktning. Analysen visar att radiodraman bör anpassas till sin tilltänka publiks ålder men också att barn både förstår och kan ta del av djupare ämnen i radiodraman än vad vuxna nog ofta tror. Därför är en viktig slutsats att vi bör lyssna och lita på barnpubliken vid framtida produktion av radiodaraman. 

The outcome of an audience study supports theories stating that stories are a primary means by which we make sense of our experiences over time. Empirical examples of narrative impact are presented in which specific fiction film scenes condense spectators' lives, identities and beliefs. One conclusion is that spectators test the emotional realism of the narative for greater significance, connecting diegetic fiction experiences with their extra-diegetic world in their quest for meaning, self and identity. The 'banal' notion of the mediatization of religion theory is questioned as unsatisfactory in the theoretical context of individualized meaning-making processes. As a semantically negatively charged concept, it is problematic when analyzing empirical examples of spectators' use of fictional narratives, especially when trying to characterize the idiosyncratic and complex interplay between spectators' fiction emotions and their testing of mediated narratives in an exercise to find moral significance in extra-filmic life. Instead vernacular meaning-making is proposed.

This thesis examines the Nation Building process in South Africa after the demise of Apartheid era. It has primarily analysed, assessed and evaluated the performances of ANC Governments under Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma from the perspective of Nation Building process in the country. The study throws light on the different factors that have been affecting the Nation Building process in South Africa. This study explores a brief historical analysis by uncovering the conditions faced by the South African society during Apartheid era, ethnicity and race relations, how did apartheid programme the collective psyche of the people of the land, its implications in the Post-Apartheid phase of the country and the outcomes affecting the integration process of the segregated society. This work has highlighted the dream of the founding fathers in the Nation Building of South Africa, making of the constitution and its provisions supporting a consociational democratic culture favourable for the Nation Building process. At the same time the study also presents how ethnic struggle for domination in party politics affected the idea of Nation Building, Xhosa Zulu tussle, corruption, nepotism, injustice, inequalities, political repression, human rights abuses, police brutality, extra constitutional measures taken by law enforcing agencies and political institutes, disgruntled and dissatisfied masses all contributed in the creation of a chaotic environment not conducive for the Nation Building process.

South Africa is one of the most affected country by the HIV/AIDS epidemic worldwide. Literary responses gave voice to the impact and perception of HIV/AIDS epidemic. The present thesis is focused on the creative response to HIV/AIDS by a sample of three selected South African novels

Welcome to Our Hillbrow, Beauty’s Gift, and The Reactive. By using an interdisciplinary approach, the representation and the experience of HIV/AIDS, and the meanings associated to the disease as described in the novels are analysed. Welcome to Our Hillbrow presents the prejudice and myths around HIV/AIDS, Beauty’s Gift is focused on female empowerment against risky masculinity, and The Reactive is a coming-of-age novel offering an introspective insight into HIV-positive status. Written in different times between 2001 and 2014, and by black authors of different generations, the novels are inscribed in the socio-cultural context of South Africa. With this sample of selected fiction, it is possible to observe a complex scenario on HIV/AIDS and a shift in the focus on HIV/AIDS perception: from stigma and mortality, to activism and prevention, to the individual co-existence with a manageable chronic condition. The novels showed the nuances of the meanings associated to HIV/AIDS, and their specific relation to the socio-cultural determinants of the disease (stigma, misinformation, rural-urban relation, gender power structure, accessibility to treatment). The present work intends to contribute to the understanding of HIV/AIDS by the perspective of creative voices which have the ability to disclose meaning and signification to the experience of suffering due to the disease.

Boken innehåller artiklar med anknytning till flerspråkighet och språkmöten på nordiskt område, företrädesvis i samband med stärkandet av minoritetsspråkens ställning vid revitalisering och språklig emancipation. Flertalet av bokens författare tillhör de främsta forskarna i Norden på sina områden med lång och gedigen erfarenhet av språk och minoritetsfrågor, språkkontakt, flerspråkighet, migration och angränsande ämnen. Artiklarna speglar därmed den språkliga mångfalden i Norden ur skilda perspektiv och med största möjliga spännvidd. Samtliga författare är kolleger och vänner till Leena Huss, som har verkat som få andra på minoritetsspråkens och flerspråkighetens område under många år. Boken framställdes som en hyllning till henne på bemärkelsedagen i september 2008.

I denna uppsats har jag genomfört en autoetnografisk studie av min egna kreativa process vid låtskapande med syftet att fördjupa kunskapen om hur den kan påverkas av olika former av tidspress. Undersökningen gick ut på att skriva tre stycken låtar under tre olika former av tidsbegränsningar. Låt ett skrevs på en timme, låt två på ett dygn och låt tre på en vecka. Baserat på utvalda musikaliska huvudelement såsom arrangemang och form samt melodi och text har jag därefter genomfört analyser av låtarna genom användandet av en loggbok baserat på deras kreativa processer och på vilka sätt man kan märka skillnader, dels på resultaten men även kring hur dessa begränsningar upplevdes kreativt. Processerna utvärderas även baserat på vilken som gav bäst upplevelse av flow, detta begrepp beskrivs av Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi som ett sinnestillstånd man kan uppnå när man är helt uppslukad i ett projekt och får en bra balans mellan utmaning och erfarenhet. Slutsatsen visar på skillnader mellan de olika processerna. Dels på väntade vis, låtarna blev mer avancerade form och arrangemangsmässigt desto mer tid processen gav, den med mest tid har en mer avancerad struktur med gott om variation medans den med minst tid innehåller mer upprepning. Resultatet visar även att en väldigt begränsad process kan ge ett oväntat resultat, främst kring melodi och ackord, som skiljer sig mycket från det övriga materialet då reflektionstiden blir betydligt kortare. Processen kring Låt 2 gav bäst upplevelse när det kommer till flow. Det var ett bra möte mellan utmaning och erfarenhet där begränsningen bidrog till att nå ett snabbare resultat genom att ge en ökad känsla av målmedvetenhet och fokus.

This study is an initial attempt to analyze the media debate about the intention to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced last October 2016 by the South African government.

The purpose is to examine media arguments raised and possible bias on three South African major news sites. Articles selected are analyzed through a web content analysis that allows to understand how the debate about the government’s intention was presented, examining the issue of unconstitutionality and the question of human rights emerged. In order to verify possible media bias, instead, several previous studies on the matter were considered, with particular attention to the one of Eberl, Boomgaarden and Wagner, used to apply a systematic analytical approach. Theories on media accountability and media ethics in South Africa constitute the theoretical framework of the research. The study is conducted by following an extensive review of secondary sources and a typical descriptive case study approach. What the Thesis means to show is that, in most cases, South African web sites have presented and discussed the government’s intention with a negative tone demonstrating media bias especially in the tonality used, often against, more or less openly, the country’s withdrawal.

This chapter explores the role of tour guides as human experience brokers of naturalness in forest areas. After outlining conceptual discussions around the role and tasks of the guide as experience broker, empirical findings from Fulufjället National Park (Sweden) are presented, showing the guide as a pivotal forest experience co-creator. Implications are discussed, with particular emphasis on how the guide's personal valuations of the forest, background and personal aims are reflected in the guide's pathfinding, storytelling and staging strategies, and on how tourists are positively impacted by unexpected and different ways of valuing, mapping and interpreting the forest landscape.

Tillgängligheten av sociala media har påverkat musikbranschen drastiskt. Sociala medier är en extremt effektiv kanal för dagens artister att nå ut till sina fans och skapa en gemenskap. Den övergripande forskningsfrågan handlar om hur artister går till väga för att skapa en gemenskap med sina fans via sociala medier. Utifrån metoden kvalitativa intervjuer, intervjuas artister, bandmedlemmar och managers från skivbolag, för att besvara studiens frågeställning. Studiens resultat visar att artister bäst skapar en gemenskap via sociala medier med sina fans genom två faktorer, genuinitet och engagemang. Dock på grund av att relationen utspelar sig genom sociala medier skapas en parasocial relation mellan artisten och fansen. För att artisten själv måste välja vad de vill visa och respektive inte. Denna dynamik måste artisten förhålla sig till när de vill presentera sig som genuin och engagerad mot sina fans.

Authenticity is considered a very important means to attract tourists. Different enterprises and destinations compete for visitors and authenticity is an important factor for visitors’ travel decisions. Within the context of indigenous and cultural tourism, several studies have criticized the way in which indigenous and local populations are portrayed in order to attract tourists, since they often involve colonial images and descriptions that are no longer corresponding to the contemporary situation. This study presents an alternative perspective on the discussion on tourism marketing in relation to authenticity. Through critical discourse analysis and retroduction, this study has analysed the websites of Sámi tourism companies from Sweden. The discussion put forward in this study is not a generalizing picture of how the Sámi peoples choose to market themselves, but it problematizes how these particular enterprises relate to issues of authenticity in the representation of cultural heritage. This paper also presents a new approach to authenticity seen as a compromise. The results of this study present one side of a multifaceted discussion on the struggle between different discourses on representations and authenticity that are often the main channel to reach and attract potential visitors.

Mozambique has the sixth highest prevalence of HIV in the world and ranks fourth in new infections. The government-owned print press Notícias has played an important role in the social construction of HIV and AIDS in the country as it was entrusted with the role of disseminating HIV and AIDS information to the public since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country in 1986. Using Notícias' articles and frame analysis perspective, the article analyses the way Notícias has framed HIV and AIDS in the country since the late 1980s. The choice of media results from the fact that the way a phenomenon is constructed influences the way it is understood, as well as the way people may behave before it. The study found that Notícias' frames on HIV and AIDS have suffered from a threefold tension: the need to maintain the Frelimo government's former centralised and grassroots-orientated socialist ideology of health services in the context of the liberal market; the need to balance the influence of the global multilateral and bilateral actors and the Frelimo government's political interest of translating HIV and AIDS response to the Mozambican context; and the need to portray a nationalist and positive image of the government's performance in HIV and AIDS response before Mozambique's non-fully plausible societal practices for an effective HIV and AIDS response. In a top-down approach, Notícias' frames reflect not only the African post-independence ancillary and nationalist role of government-owned print press but also the power of global actors. Less is done from the societal bottom-up perspective.

Projection mapping är en teknik som används vid projektionsinstallationer. Denna uppsats undersöker teknikens påverkan på upplevelsen av en installation på en tredimensionell arkitektur. Uppsatsen använder sig av blandade metoder där både konstnärens perspektiv av valet att använda projection mapping och betraktarens upplevelse av installationer som är projection mapped respektive inte, redogörs för. Research through design har använts för att undersöka konstnärens val och enkätundersökning för betraktarens upplevelse. Studien bygger på Kandinskys teorier om hur färg påverkar arkitektur. Uppsatsen har lett till djupare förståelse av konstnärens val att använda tekniken projection mapping och betraktares upplevelser och åsikter om projektionsmappade installationer.

Denna undersökning jämför en grupp personers perception av identiska bilder tagna med fyra olika filmkameror i olika prisklasser. En Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K(BMPCC4K), Sony PXW-FS7, RED ONE och Arri Alexa Mini. Testet jämför främst kamerornas möjlighet att reproducera hudtoner, färg, rörelse och dynamiskt omfång. Undersökningen använder sig av en kvalitativ intervjumetod där informanter reagerar på testbilder. Informanterna har ingen professionell erfarenhet av bildproduktion och representerar en konsument. Intervjuerna resulterade i att för det mesta var FS7 och Alexa favoriserade av informanterna i alla bilder förutom dynamiskt omfångtestet, där FS7presterade lite sämre än Alexa när det kom till att behålla detalj i både högdagrarna och lågdagrarna. Som slutsats kom undersökningen fram till att alla fyra kameror är bra verktyg för att spela in på men att FS7- och Alexa-kamerornas bilder ser bäst direkt ut ur kameran enligt informanterna.

Denna studie behandlar området om inlärning av musikproduktion avgränsat till inlärning via högskola eller via självinlärning. Syftet med denna undersökning är att klargöra vilka fördelar och nackdelar det finns med att lära sig via utbildning gentemot att lära sig på egen hand utifrån dessa tre huvudområden, lärosätt, kunskap och jobbmöjligheter. Undersökningens mål är att bidra med information till blivande musikproducenter för att hjälpa de att välja vägen som är rätt för deras mål som producent. Det har samlats in kvalitativa data under månaderna oktober och november med tre semistrukturerade online intervjuer med fem informanter, informanterna i undersökningen är alla musikproducenter av olika slag där två har lärt sig ämnet på egen hand och resterande tre har lärt sig via en högre musikproduktionsutbildning. Dessa informanter tillfrågades om de övergripande för och nackdelarna med deras valda lärosätt av musikproduktion enligt huvudområdena. Resultatet visade många olika fördelar och nackdelar med både att studera musikproduktion på högskola och på egen hand som i slutändan visade att högskola har fler tydliga fördelar än vad självinlärning visade. Undersökningen kom i slutändan fram högskoleutbildning inom musikproduktion hade fler fördelar än att lära sig på egen hand men även att producentens val av att lära sig via högskola eller att lära sig själv inte är lika viktigt som individens personliga insats i ämnet, informanterna uppger att högskola ger verktyg som är hjälpsamma men det är inte en garanti för framgång. Undersökningen tillför en ökad kunskap för vad en blivande musikproducent kan förvänta sig med sitt valda lärosätt genom att punktera fördelar och nackdelar med både skola och självinlärning för att i slutändan att ta del av det positiva och undvika det negativa.

Datorn kan användas till nästan allt idag, och filmmusik är inget undantag. Men hur kan ett MIDI-orkestrerat stycke mätas mot ett orkestralt? Studiens syfte är att, med fokus på filmmusik, bidra med kunskap gällande hörbara skillnader och preferenser mellan akustisk orkester och MIDI-orkester. Metoden som används är ett lyssningstest med enkät och utfördes online. Testpersonerna lyssnade på en akustisk och en MIDI version av två låtar delade i Testdel 1 och 2 och skrev ner sina svar i den tillhängande enkäten. Målet var att ta reda på vad de hörde skillnad på, vilken de föredrog och om de kunde peka ut den akustiska orkestern. Studien kommer fram till att det finns hörbara skillnader mellan versionerna och även vilka aspekter som främst påverkar lyssnarens preferenser. Resultaten har kunnat analyserats och diskuterats och använts för att komma fram till slutsatser.

This article describes the production of a regional theatre play during the pandemic spring and summer of 2020. The aim of the study is to exemplify and shed light on the complex ways that the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions has affected creative practices and institutions, and specifically their processes of change. The research question is: Which consequences did the pandemic have for the production processes of Dalateatern’s play Andra sidan? The pandemic can be said to have simultaneously worked as a defender and challenger of status quo. While it was used to legitimize and uphold stable structures and working methods, it also made possible tactical deviations from work related norms and routines. It can be described as a constant tactical mode, which for some workers seem to have been overly negative and stressful, but for others has been a positive and joyful experience, an artistic and creative horizon of possibility. 

Although the phenomenon of transculturality has existed as long as human culture, the increased speed of movement and communication worldwide has made it impossible to ignore in any aspect of cultural studies. In a society where changes were slow and foreign influences were few, an illusion of culture as homogeneous and static may have been easy to uphold, but in today’s ever-increasing flux of cultural change, the perspective of transculturality is more satisfactory in understanding human identity constructions. Compared with concepts such as interculturality, multiculturality, or hybridity, which all may have some relevance for describing cultural encounters, but which often presuppose the notion of cultural essentialism, the concept of transculturality has the advantage of recognising change and diversity, rather than focusing on boundaries or differences.

This volume takes a broad outlook on the concept of transculturality. Contributions from 19 authors and specialists, of almost as many diverse origins, grapple with this concept, each in their own way. How can transculturality be described? How can it help us understand our world? Many of the chapters deal with literary texts, others with the stories told in movies, drama, and visual art. There are texts about the complexity of the European Burqa-Ban debate, the negative aspects of Portuguese multiculturalism, or the border-crossing experiences of Filipino immigrants in Ireland. Several chapters examine stereotypes, the idea of movement, the dissolution of cultural borders, or the nature of bilingual writing. It is a unique contribution to the field, on a virtually global scale.

Kan man höra skillnad på Wave och MP3 filer och spelar det någon roll? Detta är en pågående debatt i musikbranschen där många menar att de högre filformaten är bättre då de inte komprimerar ljudfiler lika mycket, medan andra resonerar att det inte spelar någon roll då man ändå inte kan höra någon skillnad. Syftet för denna studie var att ta reda på ifall ljudtekniker, producenter och musiker kan höra någon större skillnad mellan två stycken ljudformat. I denna mixed method studie utfördes 18 stycken ABX-test på testpersoner där de skulle försöka höra skillnad på en Wave och MP3 fil av samma stimuli. Studiens resultat visar på att testpersonerna inte kunde höra någon större skillnad men av de testpersoner som faktiskt hörde skillnad var det endast små detaljer som urskiljde.

Essä i serie för kulturdebatt "Det bästa med Sverige" 

Denna studie fördjupar sig inom visuella aspekter under konsert. Vad anser publiken vara den viktigaste aspekten? Vad anser artisten vara den viktigaste aspekten? Hur och vad skiljer deras åsikter åt? Sju stycken kategorier har samlats som jag anser vara de mest uppenbara. Dessa är ljus- och färgsättning, scenkläder, dans och kroppspråk, rekvisita och föremål, image och attityd, FX samt scennärvaro och kommunikation. För att ta reda på detta har enkäter och intervjuer genomförts. Enkäter för att höra publikens upplevelser och intervjuer för att höra artistens upplevelser. Resultatet har visat att det finns tre tydliga aspekter som respondenterna anser är viktigast, samt två stycken de anser är minst viktiga. Resultaten visar på en gemensam förståelse mellan artist och publik kring deras upplevelser. Resultatet kan användas som bas till framtida forskning samt till artister som undrar vad för visuella medel de bör använda. 

The connection between novel-to-film studies and identity politics has been addressed since at least 1915, Kamilla Elliot observes, and Laurence Raw has recently drawn relevant attention to the analogy between Jerome Bruner’s theories about identity formation and personal adaptation through reorienting narration and media adaptations. Inspired by Raw, in this paper, I discuss the perils, truths, and morals of adaptation that the characters in Patrick McCabe’s novels lay bare.

McCabe, mostly known for “Butcher Boy” (adapted for the screen by Neil Jordan), consistently dramatizes how people try, and often fail, to adapt to new social conventions and realities with the guidance of cultural archetypes and ideal fictional characters. In Winterwood (2006) and The Holy City (2009) the protagonists, and the novels, conjure adaptions and appropriations of James Bond, mediations of the Irish Paddy, the New Man, Stephen Dedalus and others, in their attempts to mould out new identities in a world of flux. They do so mostly through narrative reconstruction of the truth about themselves, their environment, and of the fictional references they make use of. As McCabe’s protagonists navigate through the mazes of truth and identity, they demonstrate that, as long as fluctuations of ontologies keep epistemological issues at ransom, identities of characters and stories demand re-imaginations at risk of absolute loss of identity, for the sake of adaptation, and vice versa. For characters and stories, it is a matter of life and death both way around. 

Like Derrida’s postulation “il n'y a pas de hors-text”, McCabe’s narratives ask the field of adaptation studies and creative teams of adaptations the simple questions: What is the true text and what is a true identity within that frame? What strategies should be employed to ascertain a valid truth of the text and valid true identities, in that context? The answer given is that any adaptation entails the human conflict between the yearning for truth and identity, and the fear of loss of the same. Adaptations, McCabe teaches us, is a perilous game of strange masks of identities, regardless of whether media, political, or social adaptations are considered.

Early on, the works produced by Joss Whedon and writers associated with him were recognised as feminist. This pertains not only to the prominence of female characters, but to the emphasis on co-operation and power-sharing that appear in many of the works. However, there were, also early, concerns about the portrayal of people of colour. I will here consider the entirety of Whedon’s oeuvre, whether he has been writer, producer, or director.

Whedon’s works do not feature many characters of colour; characters played by actors of colour might also be presented as white, thus further limiting the number of openly presented characters of colour. The portrayals of those characters of colour that do appear in his work are also not unproblematic. One particularly problematic instance of this, which I will focus on here, is the depiction of people of colour (especially but not exclusively women) as expected to exhibit strong loyalty to a white person (especially but not exclusively men).

Characters of colour, regardless of prominence, often appear as subordinate to a white character, whether this is due to a formal chain of command or an informal hierarchy. Examples of this appear in Agents of Shield, Firefly, Dollhouse, and Angel, to mention a few. Obviously, the hierarchy is more or less formalised in these texts, but it is generally clear to the viewers even when informal. The moral quality of the characters of colour is repeatedly judged by how loyal they remain to the white person above them in the hierarchy; this judgement may be openly referred to in the text or consist of how the audience is expected to perceive them and their fortunes, or lack thereof, in the arc of the plot.

As viewers, we tend to accept the hierarchies inherent in the plot, whether formal or informal; we are presented with a leader and a group of followers, who might also have an internal hierarchy. We are invited to judge the performance of the leader, including on how well the followers follow them, and to expect, if we approve of the leader, to see loyalty from the followers. Nevertheless, the demands of loyalty from the characters of colour tend to go beyond the normal expectation that they carry out orders and offer input, if necessary, and often includes emotional and psychologial support. This support is generally not extended in the other direction, making it a power imbalance rather than mutual care, with the less privileged characters taking on the labour of making white characters feel better. This paper will discuss some instances of this, and how simply including more characters of colour does not in and of itself solve the long-noted issues of race in Whedon’s work.

While most Swedish asatru groups are explicit in their support of diversity, there is a significant fringe movement which embraces at least some white supremacist views. Ethnicity cannot be disconnected from gender, and these groups also promote a quasi-feminism which focuses solely on the protection of white womanhood from men of colour. This paper focuses on the intersection of racism, sexism, and religious faith in this fringe of asatru, and on the construction of white gender identity in opposition to a perceived threat from other ethnic groups.

This paper is based on a specific occurrence at a Viking reenactment market in Sweden in the summer of 2016. The incident in question involved a group which has decided to recreate Viking slave trade. They visit Viking markets where they will capture female visitors and ’sell’ them; in this case, this resulted in a police report for assault and kidnapping. What interests me is the reactions among other reenactors, and what those reactions indicate about ambivalent views of gender among Viking reenactors.

Many Viking reenactors assert that Viking society was one of gender equality. They are often keen to pick up new research which seems to support this idea, such as the possibility of female warriors among Vikings. Thus, the Viking age is seen as closer to contemporary ideals about equality than, for example, the Middle Ages, and also as a time of strong independent women. Still, there is a certain amount of ambivalence about this equality: Viking society is also seen as heteronormative, and gender roles are often presented as complementary and interdependent rather than affording equal opportunities for both genders. In this paper, I will explore the recreation of Viking gender roles and how this draws on and legitimises heteronormativity and both equal and unequal contemporary gender roles.

In re-enactment groups, fealty is often sworn and received, in imitation of a feudal world. The procedure is invested with various meanings, often with a clear desire to mark it both as significant and as different from life-long fealty. In the oaths, these boundaries are often explicitly set. I will investigate, through interviews, a number of issues surrounding the modern re-enactor's fealty, such as how the re-enactor understands medieval fealty; how this understanding colours their own experience of fealty, and how significant fealty is to their understanding of the Middle Ages.