A large number of Swedish public authorities produce 'platform of values' texts that present core values. This article presents a study of how such texts and practices, including the core values they revolve around, are legitimized. Using Van Leeuwen's legitimation framework, three different data sets are analysed: 47 'platform of values' texts, a focus group discussion with seven senior HR officers, and a quantitative questionnaire study answered by civil servants at three public authorities. The analysis shows how the existence of 'platform of values' texts and practices is legitimized through rationalizations, above all by describing the texts as concrete means for reaching specific ends and, with regard to the choice of core values, through a custom-conformity type of authority. Thus, this article addresses discursive transformations of contemporary organizations with a particular focus on available discursive space for critical thinking in the wake of New Public Management and related developments.

A defining feature of contemporary public authorities in Sweden is the production of texts labelled platform of values or core values. Previous research points to three main factors contributing to this development: an increased interest in ethics in the public sector, new forms of management and control, and the importance of the external promotion of public authorities. This paper focuses on the perspective of civil servants when addressing the research question: What are the most important functions of ‘platform of values’ texts? The paper draws on two types of data – a focus group of senior HR officers and a quanti- tative survey for civil servants. Critical Genre Analysis is presented as a methodological framework for understanding ‘value texts’ as social actions. The results show that ‘plat- form of values’ practices are connected to the creation of the “ethically aware” civil servant; that neither their connection to control over civil servants nor to the external promotion of the authority are directly recognised, whereas their connection to goal achievement is; and that the role of the ‘value texts’ as such has been somewhat overrated in previous research – it is the dialogue about the values that matters.

This article presents a relatively new and evolving genre at public authorities, the platform of values (värdegrund). The platform of values is presented as part of a changing discourse, where presenting the public authority in question in a positive manner is getting increasingly more important. In this respect, the platforms of values resemble marketing texts, but they are also regarded as tools for governing. Since the texts articulate an expected manner of behaviour, for example that the authority is efficient and committed, they offer a subtle way of imposing a code of conduct on employees. The main focus in the article is on the relation between plain language norms and the genre of platform of values. Textual analysis of three platforms of values reveals that there are not many problems of comprehensibility, but that the level of lexical abstraction might pose a problem for readers. There are also other problems related to the platforms of values. They increase the amount of texts and genres within the public authorities, which increases costs in time and money. They also tend to be unclear communicatively, and might gloss over problems of behaviour, since they are written in a declarative mode. From a language policy perspective, they offer an opportunity to discuss the boundaries of plain language, and possible sharpen the concept of plain language practice.

This case study on COVID-19 warning designs in a Swedish context illustrates how a unified affordance approach may contribute to an understanding of the meaning-making in reminders, instructions, cues and prompts that communicate the message "keep your distance." The analysis combines semiotic and ecological affordance categories, taking both Gibson's original theorizing on affordances and more recent affordance-informed research efforts into consideration. In so doing, the study aims to bridge a knowledge gap in the study of visual instructions and warning designs as well as in a more comprehensive way delineate the multimodal design strategies associated with COVID-19 warning designs. The analysis shows that Swedish COVID-19 warning designs of the keep-your-distance-kind belong to a nonstandardized and emerging genre that is marked by great variation and ad-hoc design solutions, several of which combine physical blocking functions with verbally based messages. The analysis also highlights the tension between verbal and visual recourses, on one hand, and the signage placement and choice of materials, on the other hand. It is concluded that communication resources do not always appear to convey the same basic message, but in incongruent ways weaken what might be considered the intended main message.

Alla sakprosatexter är multimodala, och denna artikel diskuterar relationen mellan sakprosaforskning och multimodalitetsforskning. Artikeln adresserar två frågor: Hur kan forskning om multimodalitet och sakprosa stimulera varandra? och Hur förhåller sig nordisk sakprosaforskning till en vidare multimodal forskningstradition? För att besvara dessa frågor tecknar artikeln multimodalitetstraditionens utveckling samt härleder sakprosabegreppets ursprung. I ljuset av såväl äldre som nutida sakprosaforskning argumenterar artikeln för att sakprosabegreppets multimodala potential huvudsakligen ligger i förledet sak eftersom det riktar ljuset mot textens roll som ett yttrande om verkligheten inom en institution. Således argumenterar artikeln att samspelet mellan verbalspråket och andra semiotiska resurser bör stå i centrum vid studiet av sakprosa, oberoende av om det handlar om ett samspel mellan verbalspråk och t.ex. visuella, rumsliga eller auditiva resurser. Detta pekar slutligen på nödvändigheten i att uppmärksamma hur olika affordanser-dvs. möjligheter och begränsningar-i olika semiotiska material används i olika kontexter. Därmed blir också efterledet prosa relevant, eftersom de riktar uppmärksamheten mot kvaliteter i uttrycket.