Tiina Pitkäjärvi: More than just being pink: Breast cancer thematizing campaigns in Sweden (2015–2016) as a social practice

Abstract

The thesis presents a study of how social engagement in breast cancer campaigns is realized in a media context in Sweden. The data collected in this qualitative study are from the years 2015–2016. The study has been led by the following research questions: How is the purpose of the analyzed practices constructed, interpreted and negotiated? How are the campaign practices legitimized? How is participation in them offered? 

The concept social practice, as formulated by van Leeuwen (2008) forms the basis for the study's theoretical and methodological framework. Aside from this social practice approach, the questions have been analyzed using van Leeuwen's (2008) legitimation strategies, which have been expanded with a performative perspective and by applying the concept affective practices (Wetherell 2012).

The results of an initial analysis displayed heterogeneity in the purposes constructed and led the study further to three main themes, identified as Commodification of social participation and consumption, The individual's health and risk management and Norm criticism and image acts as emancipatory actions. The study shows that social engagement is often realized through the consumption of pink products, i.e., commodified. The fact that the researched practice is situated in a neoliberal market economy also provides an explanatory model for how the articulations of engagement in social issues regarding health are realized in the researched material. However, the possibility of being socially engaged is also enabled by the performative potential that participation evokes with the help of affective aspects. Representations of emotions are also a central component in how participation in the social practice is solicited. This suggests that the boundaries of representations of engagement and acts of engagement can often not be separated. The analyses of two private initiatives and at the same time medialized images show how actions with performative claims, aimed at de-dramatization and contributing to attempts to change norms, can be done visually.

One overall result is that intertextuality appears to be central to how participation is facilitated in the campaign practices, e.g., by exploiting the connoted potential of certain social actors (companies) and their products. The analyses also show that there are material conditions for the socially engaging campaign practices and how they are made accessible.