Regionalization has become a catchphrase in European countries during the last twenty years with the establishment of the European Union. An ideational development has occurred during time towards emphasing more politicially powerful regions with the idea of new regionalism. Sweden represents a deviant case study, where regions historically have been politically weak and where Sweden has been characterized as a strong unitary state. The aim of this paper is to analyze the political debate in the Swedish parliament concerning the implementation of a stronger regional level (storregioner) during 2007-2010 and to determine if the debate can be characterized as a case of depoliticalization. The theory of depoliticalization have been introduced by Richard Katz and Peter Mair to explain why political parties through external pressure from europeanisation and globalization tend to become more consensual with similar political agendas, leading to a diminished the lef-right scale.

Regionalization has become a catchphrase in European countries during the last twenty years with the establishment of the European Union. An ideational development has occurred during time towards emphasing more politicially powerful regions with the idea of new regionalism. Sweden represents a deviant case study, where regions historically have been politically weak and where Sweden has been characterized as a strong unitary state. The aim of this paper is to analyze the political debate in the Swedish parliament concerning the implementation of a stronger regional level (storregioner) during 2007-2010 and to determine if the debate can be characterized as a case of depoliticalization. The theory of depoliticalization have been introduced by Richard Katz and Peter Mair to explain why political parties through external pressure from europeanisation and globalization tend to become more consensual with similar political agendas, leading to a diminished the lef-right scale.

I have studied the curriculum for the compulsory Swedish school, from the curriculum from year 1962 when the Swedish grundskolan became a reality, to the curriculum from year 1994, the one in practice today. My primary interest has been what the curriculum says about bringing up the Swedish youth. My theory has been the British analyst Norman Fairclough?s Critical Language Studies. His thoughts about actual discourse, type of discourse and order of discourse has led me through out this essay.

This essay compares the public debate in Sweden 1992 caused by the reforms introduced by the then government giving parents a free choice of schools for their children with the current debate in France about proposals for a similar law there. The study concentrates on the positions taken by the teachers trade unions, in Sweden Lärarförbundet and Lärarnas Riksförbund (LR) and in France SGEN-CFDT. To do so it is necessary also to study the arguments given for and against the proposals by the political parties.Some of the differences between the debates can be attributed to different circumstances. The Swedish reform was related to the opening up of possibilities to run private schools, which previously had been rare in Sweden. The French debate has no such connections.

The purpose with this final thesis has been to study the aesthetics and design of roundabouts and to ascertain important factors that influence the experience of them. The investigation was carried out through literature-, field studies and interviews with persons that in different ways have participated in the formation of roundabouts. Furthermore, six roundabouts have been explored in more depth so that the survey would get a more practical link. These six roundabouts all occur in the rim of a city and do thereby have an important role as a gateway. The environments in such contexts are often complex which adds additional difficulty in achieving a visually appealing design, especially when taking into account the usually high traffic intensity.

Library architecture today is a complicated history. Public libraries are no longer merely a place for book storage, but also a virtual library a social meeting place and a place for study. All these diverse tasks and roles emerge in the democratic designing process of a new library and also transform into the architecture. The underlying process is the evaluation and negotiation of the libraries overall tasks and ideas, ideals and values. Multiple ideologies are incorporated in library architecture.

Metaforen har genom historien fängslat filosofer, och redan på Aristoteles tid fördes en diskussion kring metaforens plats i språket och vad metaforer kan tänkas betyda. Innan man börjar undersöka detta bör man nog först och främst stanna till och fråga sig vad en metafor egentligen är. Det finns ett otal metaforer och variationerna är oändliga, men i regel består en metafor av ett eller flera objekt i ljuset av attribut hos ett annat objekt. Metaforarbete sätter således två entiteter i en relation till varandra, en relation som oftast anses baserad på någon typ av likhet. Ett klassiskt exempel är Shakespares berömda scenmetafor ur As you like it ? ?All the world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players / They have their exits and their entrances?.

This essay takes the three models from Allison and Zelikow book Essence of decision and applies them on the Swedish defense system. After the cold war the Swedish defense system had to undergo changes to be a more modern defense and be able to defend Sweden against threats. To also be able to cooperate with other countries in peacekeeping operations the Swedish defense had to be reorganized. The solution was to change direction from a defense system that was organized for invasion to instead be a movable defense ready for any challenge in Sweden or abroad. This reorganization will be analyzed according to the three different models..

This thesis takes a closer look at the USA Patriot Act and the literary debate that has followed the passing of that Act. The aim of the thesis is to define what freedom is for the two opposing sides using McCallum's freedom model.The literary analysis shows that the most common argument from authors who are pro Act is that in desperate times like these one must relinquish a part of the individual's freedom to ensure the safety of the collective. Amongst those authors who are against the Act concerns are raised for the possibilities of abuse as a result of increased government power such as the ability to detain immigrants for long periods of time, surveillance and increased exchange of information between federal agencies..

With self-hypnosis as a method, I work with levels of consciousness in relation to practice. Focus lies in the relation between a language of materials and an inner experience. How do material expressions function as mediums of a spiritual matter between a beholder and me? The trance functions as a space for a spiritual contact/communication. Abstract images of crystalline glaze on ceramic tiles are direct results of these acts.

THE PAINTING CHILD. A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF AESTHETIC PROCESSES OF LEARNING IN RELATION TO DEWEY´S ART AS EXPERIENCE.The aim of this study is to present a discourse analysis made on five-year-old children during art activities in a preschool in Sweden. The questions asked are: how does interaction take place between the children, or the child and the teacher, during art activities? And what does this tell us about the relationship to art in preschool? In Art as Experience John Dewey claims that art is separated from other experiences of life, but that it ought to be close to ordinary life-experiences. Today visual culture is important in society but not in school.

"The Value of Knowledge - Towards a Virtue Epistemological Position" The classical question, first posed in Plato's Meno, concerning the value of knowledge constitutes the starting point of this essay. Value analysis has long been neglected in epistemologist's accounts until its re-emergence with the tradition called ?virtue epistemology?, in particular with scholars following Ernest Sosa. Like virtue ethics virtue epistemological accounts changes the focus from the object to the agent, i.e. from knowledge to intellectual virtue.

By studying literature concerning design, didactics and reflection, and complementing those explorations with interviews with experienced design educators, this thesis challenges the idea of aesthetic media education being purely aesthetic in its characteristics. Drawing from their own experiences as a media aesthetics educator and an industrial designer, the two authors argue that the work flow used within most fields of design, commonly known as the design process, might provide a suitable didactic alternative to a field of education lacking relevant methodology. The literature study offers a better understanding of the design process and how it may be defined and viewed within an educational context. The interviews provide a more practical insight into the world of design education. The result shows that the design process as a didactical method theoretically offers both elements of critical thinking as well as direction and frames for students lacking aesthetic and artistic experience.

The Swedish working-class author Ivar Lo-Johansson (1901-1990) wrote a collection of one hundred short stories between the years 1968-1972. His other productions, generally speaking, have partially different social reform purposes, but, according to himself, these short stories were written with the intention to be totally free of tendencies (even though he himself doubted that he succeeded with this).During the same period that these short stories were published, the Swedish social democrats were under the challenge of radical movements that, mainly on the radical left?s ideological foundation, had a relatively strong influence in Sweden, among other countries, from the mid 1960?s to the late 1970?s. Since Lo-Johansson mainly seemed to have supported the politics of the social democrats, the purpose of the investigation in this thesis has been to see if he ? in the three short stories: Vikingakärlek (1970), Rikslögnaren (1971) and Ansgars resa till Sverige (1972) ? is conveying an ideological use of history and basic political values that were used by the social democratic party during this time period.

The thesis explores how the category religion is used discursively in Swedish public debates and in what way the discourses can be related to debate-positions. The thesis also exploresquestions of power and how social identities are negotiated: which identities are madepossible ? and encouraged ? by the discourse, and which are being excluded?The specific cases chosen are: (i) the election of Omar Mustafa as a substitute member of the governing board of the Social Democratic party in April 2013, (ii) the appointment of Elisabeth Svantesson as Minister of employment in September 2013, (iii) the debate concerning male circumcision (2011-2013), and, (iv) the debate about Jewish home education(2012-2013).The theoretical and methodological perspectives used in the thesis are discourse analysis and Pierre Bourdieu?s theory of social fields, usually interwoven together. Discourse analysis is mainly used to explore how the category of religion is attached to central binaries in the debates such as faith/politics, private/public, secularism/fundamentalism, etc., and also how chains of equivalences are established. Bourdieu?s theory of social fields is used tocontextualize the discourses in the specific debates and relate them to orthodox and heterodox debate-positions.