Papers by Kristina Alstam
Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 2019
In this article, promotion is an institutionally mediated effort to bolster or redirect a person’... more In this article, promotion is an institutionally mediated effort to bolster or redirect a person’s health, strength, and other assets to build resilience. We analyse a Swedish version of the Life in Action promotion programme used in secondary schools in three municipalities. Focusing on types of alienation as framed in the programme, we argue that Life in Action’s treatment of the psyche as an object in need of conscious monitoring, nurturing, and enhancement of qualities such as positive attitude and self-discipline signals the teenage participants’ required alienation. Concluding the article, we discuss how this type of alienation may already be present in participating students, and also how it may be necessary for young people about to enter work-life in the era of late capitalism.
This study explores a sequence of rhetorically aggressive behavior on a Swedish parental forum as... more This study explores a sequence of rhetorically aggressive behavior on a Swedish parental forum as a way of attributing categories of petty value upon the opponent; while at the same time perform face saving textual activities. The analysis suggests that it is not attributing a metaphor of low social value that manages to unstable the self presentation of the antagonist but rather an advanced know-how of conceptual metaphors to the extent were the aggressor is able to pervert the meaning of a word. The study suggests the need for a forum account to exhibit normative responsibility only applies for some of the nicks writing, while other and more experienced ones are able to act more freely, thereby indicating a divide of rhetorical accountability and of possible identity displays needing further examination.
Power and Education, 2013
The interaction that takes place in Internet forum environments is performed through a compressed... more The interaction that takes place in Internet forum environments is performed through a compressed and dense form of writing and is highly dependent on the user's rhetorical and narrative skills. This article, which uses data from a Swedish parents' website, demonstrates the structure of aggression and defence in a conflict around appropriate mothering and seeks to demonstrate how the written subjectivity of a user relies also on particular alignments with ideologies on responsibility. The author argues that the hurting narrative, apart from using stacked-up information previously provided by other users, confiscates the dominant discursive position, thereby claiming a powerful evaluative role in relation to the counterpart. The article further argues that when accepting ideologies on responsibility, the defence of the counterpart becomes incapacitated and the protest itself is understood as a sign of discursive approval.
… nr.: Institutionen för socialt arbete. C …, Jan 1, 2006
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Papers by Kristina Alstam