Public defence: Elian E. Jentoft
Elian E. Jentoft will defend their thesis for the PhD in Social Science, specialization Sosial Work and Social Policy with "Loneliness as a Problem for Policy in Two Modern Welfare States".
Elian E. Jentoft will defend their thesis for the PhD in Social Science, specialization Sosial Work and Social Policy with "Loneliness as a Problem for Policy in Two Modern Welfare States".
The trial lecture lasts from 10:00-10:45. Title: Present and discuss how central power relations like age and gender could be theoretically and analytically activated in relation to loneliness as an empirical field.
The candidate will defend their thesis at 12:00.
Join the webinar (oslomet.zoom.us).
Webinar ID: 659 4729 1894
Passcode: 140524
Vice-dean for research and innovation Agnete Vabø, Faculty of Social Sciences, Oslo Metropolitan University
The dissertation presents a discourse analysis of policy documents and political speech on loneliness from Norway and the United Kingdom. The research merges post-structuralist analytical lenses including a novel combination of LeGreco and Tracy’s discourse tracing with Carol Bacchi’s What is the Problem Represented to Be (WPR) approach.
The candidate demonstrates how technology in loneliness policy is seen as a causal and remedial force. The analysis reveals how loneliness is additionally enacted as a public health issue in both countries. The overall findings reveal how loneliness becomes a vehicle for airing concerns about the nature of modernity and the sustainability of the welfare state.
The author explores how neoliberal themes underlying the discourses can omit certain possibilities in terms of approaching the issue. Although many of the discourses within loneliness policy are similar across contexts, they nevertheless reflect very different imaginaries of the welfare state.