The aim of this master's thesis is to describe the role of language and culture as ethnical identification factors and illustrate how these have been used as political weapons by the Serb regime in Kosovo during the last decade. The thesis discusses the concept of ethnicity, the relations between the politics of identity, nationalism, ethnic mobilization and the importance of language and culture. Kosovo has historically been characterized by severe ethnic antagonism between Serbs and Albanians. Different languages, cultures and religions beside political processes led to ethnic cleavages that paved the way for ethnocentrism, ethnonationalism, chauvinism, ethnic cleansing and civil war. Since 1989, the Serbian authorities have intervened in all important spheres of life, in an attempt to Serbianize Kosovo.

The aim of this study is to analyze the change of Basque nationalism during the last ten years and discuss how the main nationalist party (PNV) tries to impose "we"- feelings and support for its cause. Theories of nationalism and national identity are used in the analysis.A textual analysis of PNV:s unofficial documents is discussed and compared with a discourse analysis of its official documents. Although the unofficial documents deal with similar view of basic political/territorial ambitions, language and identification, there are some differences in the latest documents regarding the view of who is defined as Basque and also to the detoriated relation to Spain. Although references are made to the regard that the Basque Country is for everyone, the persistence of emphasizing the uniqueness and myths of the Basque culture signals a different matter. The discourse analysis of the official documents supports this claim and although they contain an ambiguous relation to Spain it is clear that Basque nationalism has been radicalized.

Åland har ett av världens mest omfattande nationalitetsskydd, men med snart hundra år på nacken är det inte alltid det går ihop med nyare konventioner om mänskliga rättigheter. Denna uppsats undersöker hur det åländska nationalitetsskyddet har kommenterats av Europarådets rådgivande kommitté i deras arbete med att övervaka implementeringen av ramkonventionen om skydd för nationella minoriteter. Dessa kommentarer och den åländska utvecklingen granskas i förhållande till Will Kymlickas teori om minoritetsnationalism, vilken framför att nationella minoriteter, liksom majoritetsbefolkningar, kan frångå en främlingsfientlig och exkluderande nationalism baserad på etnicitet och anta en inkluderande medborgerlig nationalism som är öppen och välkomnande gentemot invandring. För att detta ska ske menar Kymlicka att minoriteten behöver ett visst inflytande över immigrationsflöden och integrationsbestämmelser, där framför allt de senare utgör en viktig del av det åländska nationalitetsskyddet. Med hjälp av idéanalys har den åländska nationalismen analyserats, och resultaten visar att den har gått från att ha etniska inslag till att anta tydligt medborgerliga drag.

The aim of this study is to examine Turkish nationalism in order to find what factors that play a part in Turkey's inability to confess and discuss such events as the Armenian Genocide, which took place between the years of 1915.-1923, by the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The factors found and examined closely are collective memory and the use of history. The paper is a case study of Turkey with a theoretical approach, trying to apply theories of nationalism, collective memory and history-writing on Turkish nationalism, in order to find an answer to how these factors stands in the way of reconciliation.Conclusions are that Turkey as a nation is stuck in a romanticization and glorification of the time of their founding leader, Atatürk, and the thought of the pure, homogenous Turkishness. This makes the nation incapable of discussing and accepting what others in this case acknowledges as historical facts. The taboo-making of these matters makes reconciliation today not possible..

AbstractThe aim of this thesis is to analyse a proposition that was made by the Swedish liberal party in the election campaign in 2002. The proposition was part of an integration program and the main point was that to become a Swedish citizen you should do a test to prove your ability in Swedish. In this paper, I?ve been investigating the way that this proposition was presented and the reactions that it met among the Swedish people. In my work I have noticed that there are some specific arguments that were very powerful and which were the ones that attracted most people.

This thesis is about how nationalism is constructed from two competing groups, Kosovo Albanian and Serbs. Kosovo for Serbs is a deep symbolic value that continues to be a Serbian identification. This is one of the main reasons why no Serbian politician has the courage to give it up. On the other side of the coin we have the Kosovo Albanians that only settles for independence. To recognize the independence for Kosovo could jeopardize the security for the Serbian minority living in Kosovo.

In the 10th of April 2010 the Polish Presidential plane crashed outside of Smolensk in today?s Russia. 88 passengers and 6 crewmen died a tragic death, among them the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczy?ski. A national week of sorrow was proclaimed and citizens all over Poland went out on streets and markets to honor the newly deceased President.

The name of the study means ?The short arm - a study in diversity and arm?s length in the cultural collaboration model?. Right now there is a reform in the Swedish cultural administration where the responsibility for handing out state funds and grants to cultural organizations is changing from the state government to the local regional governments. The purpose of this study is to map the organisational changes caused by the reform and investigate how this affects the regional policies concerning cultural diversity and the arm?s length principle.

This paper examines the concept of heritage and which factors that determines how we evaluate and select what should be considered cultural heritage. This has been examined using a qualitative study involving interviews with seven people working within different parts of the cultural heritage sector. The purpose was to get a picture of what the public sector?s cultural heritage consists of and why so. The research question was: What gives the status of cultural heritage? This was examined by looking at further questions: What defines the concept of cultural heritage? Who decides what should be considered cultural heritage? What is significant when discussing cultural heritage? One conclusion is that the concept itself is experienced as diffuse but that the meaning can be summarized as the traces we leave behind to be preserved by future generations.

The focus of this study is the ways in which the discourses of the three largest right-wing populist parties in Scandinavia ? Danish Dansk Folkeparti, Norwegian Fremskrittspartiet and Swedish Sverigedemokraterna ? are articulated and on defining which individuals they include and exclude. The discourses of the three parties are compared and analyzed to determine whether they constitute specific nationalist and culturally racist discourses. The problem is addressed by applying a social constructivist theory of nationalism and cultural racism, and specifically the binary opposition ?we? and ?them?, on a material consisting of the respective parties? member magazines from 2007.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine the use of the concept cultural heritage in Swedish governmental cultural policy. Ten official reports, reaching over a time period of seven years (1997-2004) are examined in the following way: What is cultural heritage? What functions/ values does the cultural heritage have? Whose heritage is a cultural heritage? With some simplification you can say that there are two different views on cultural heritage in the documents. The most common way to refer to cultural heritage is a category of chosen historical objects whose preservation is motivated by their function as sources of information and knowledge about the history and development of the Swedish society.

Uppsatsens syfte är att söka förklara politiska våldet i Indien utrifrån tre perspektiv; territoriell odelbarhet, nationalism och fundamentalism. Avgränsningen är de etniska minoriteterna; assameser, bodo, kashmirer, muslimer, naga, sikher, tripura och ursprungsstammar. Åren som uppsatsen har fokus på är 1985-2000. Uppsatsen är en fallstudie av Indien där åtta olika etniska minoriteter är studieobjekt. Maryland Universitys MAR-databas, Uppsala universitets UCDP-databas samt South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP-databasen) fungerar som huvudsakliga källor.Resultatet visar att den territoriella odelbarheten har stark förklaringskraft i de flesta av fallen (sju av åtta) i Indien.

The purpose of this thesis is library work in exile, more specifically The Kurdish library in Stockholm (?Kurdiska biblioteket?). The Kurds have a long history of exile, forming a part of their national and cultural identity. I have therefore chosen in the analysis three concepts: nationalism, ethnicity and culture. The Kurdish library is unique and is different from a traditional library in many ways.

Uppsatsens syfte är att studera porträtteringen av nationell identitet i Don DeLillos Falling Man och Amy Waldmans The Submission i förhållande till efterverkningarna av 9/11. Studien utgörs av undersökande och jämförande analyser av romanerna utifrån ett litteratursociologiskt samt postkolonialt perspektiv med fokus på nationalism, religion och commemoration.  Studien har presenterat hur amerikansk identitet har ifrågasatts och problematiserats i romanerna Falling Man och The Submission, och visat hur religion, commemoration och nationalism hänger samman med den amerikanska identiteten. En identitet som visat sig föränderlig och problematisk i efterverkningarna av 9/11. Studien har också kunnat visa att böckerna inte ämnar att lyfta fram en gestaltning av identitet som något allenarådande eller fast, utan att de istället visar hur identitet ständigt förändras och skiljer sig från karaktär till karaktär, genom problematiserandet kring tillhörighet, trygghet och trauma..

AbstractLarge states are not as interdependent as small countries are. Due to the extent of the home market, producers in large countries can sell the greater part of their products at home. Accordingly large countries become less dependent of other states. Large states are consequently in a better position to promote their self- interests internationally than smaller states are. Applying this reasoning on a large state such as France I come to conclude that she probably exerts this policy of self- interest in an area like free trade.