What role should science play in democracy? Political scientists often assume that it is possible to demarcate between ?instrumental? and ?moral? knowledge, and argue that citizens and/or politicians should use their moral knowledge to agree upon political goals and then apply the instrumental knowledge of scientists to achieve them. This straightforward view is challenged by writers in science studies, who identify three major problems in the use of science in democracy: uncertainty, risk and hidden values. They suggest that these problems could be solved through citizen participation.In this essay I perform an analysis of the internal logic of their suggestion. Is it likely that citizen participation enhances the democratic decision making process so as to reduce the problems? The internal analysis shows that it is rational to advocate citizen participation by reasons of legitimacy.

The purpose of this study was to examine how SOS Children's Villages as an organization in Swaziland is affected by, and takes into account, the cultural, organizational and societal context in which it acts. Material was gathered through a field study during one month in one of the three SOS Children's Villages in Swaziland. The study has a qualitative approach and is based on the result from 12 semi-structured interviews with village mothers and other representatives from the organization. The other representatives were: social worker, program director, child and youth development coordinator, board member and educational manager. Since this study is both characterized by a specific historical, cultural and organizational context, we decided to connect the postcolonial perspective with an organization theory with focus on the concepts of culture, power and a children?s right perspective.

Purpose/Aim: Exhibitions in cultural-historical museums have traditionally been object-centered and associated with one-way communication. The aim of this thesis is to gain knowledge about how exhibition producers ? and educationalists at swedish cultural-historical museums today relate to communication in exhibitions from a communication scientific perspective.Material/Method: The method of the thesis is interviews exhibition producers ? and educationalists at five swedish cultural-historical museums about how they work with communication issues in exhibitions. The empiricism gained from the interviews have been analyzed from a communication scientific angle, using two communication theories as idealtypes for communication processes; Shannon and Weaver´s model and Stuart Hall´s encoding/decoding-theory.Main results: Communication in exhibitions have developed, much due to the use of more channels for communicating with the visitors and the acknowledgement of the visitor as an active subject in interpreting the exhibitions and their message.Despite this development, communication in exhibitions still have features of a one-way communication. The main feature is the lack of possibilities for visitors to communicate their interpretations and point of views of the exhibition back to the exhibition producers.

The appointing of Swedish governmental officials has gone through a dramatic change the last nine years. The tradition of officials appointed due to their political experience has been traded against the appointing of experts. In this study I ask questions about this new way of appointing representatives effects how these officials interpret their role. An official that who has never been in the party before appointed, obviously cannot consider the principal of party. With the theoretical approach of normative representation theory (representational style) I perform case studies that shows some change.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union was a vast experience, not solely for the former members and inhabitants of the Soviet Union, but also for the rest of the world. This thesis examines Estonia and Uzbekistan's different experience with transition. By examining three different aspects of transition I seek to explain Estonia and Uzbekistan's different outcome of transition. Estonia has since their independence been fully aware of the process that started with their independence. They have reformed both the political and economic system, the industry is privatized, institutions democratic and Estonia is today a member of the European Union.

Currently, the whole globe is faced with serious problems which negatively affect people around the world: increased pollution, excessive waste, and weather pattern changes. ?Left? and ?right? wing political parties alike have embraced ?green? politics and for many of these parties, environmental issues have become a top priority that is very much reflected in their manifestos. This study examines the environmental goals of two of Sweden?s largest political parties and how these ambitions are reflected at a local level.

This essay deals with the paradox of why the immigrants in Sweden, despite their considerable size of 12 % of the population and common interest and living opportunities, haven?t mobilized politically in any significant way. The aim with this essay is to reach a theoretical understanding of why this paradox exist. By the use of a critical case and a theoretical model, based on theories of collective action, the conclusion of this essay is that, despite the fact that the immigrants have a common interest and an organizational structure, the immigrants in Sweden has not mobilized politically in any significant way. The main reason for this is that they have a weak common identity and they don?t have the structural opportunities to act..

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the arrival of class society is expressed in the social dance of high society during the second half of the eighteenth century. The study is based on the idea that culture and society develope in interaction; that changes in the economic, political and social life determine the cultural expressions as well. What I wish to examine is whether cultural themes from the developing bourgeois culture ? individualism, to be precise ? is expressed in the social dance during the second half of the eigthteenth century. // The study shows that public balls definitely gave people a chance to show off on the dance floor in spite of social rank.

According to the Swedish curriculum, teachers have an assignment to educate children to become democratic citizens. Students will develop values given in the curriculum's section, dealing with aspirational values. Teachers also have an assignment to transmit a cultural heritage. The curriculum states that education, in a deeper sense, is about to transmit a cultural heritage. This claims that the two assignments would be one and the same.

AbstractIn the heart of Paris, you will find Sweden?s only cultural center abroad. Since the early 70?s a wealth of cultural activities has been offered, and every year the center receives more than 100,000 visitors. The center is a branch of the Swedish Institute (Si), a public authority which promotes mutual relationships between Sweden and other countries through culture, education, science and business.

In recent years the liberal representative democracy has been subject of a substantial critique because of its inability to accommodate difference and createa genuinely democratic political process. One such critique comes from the theory of deliberative democracy. Supporters of deliberative democracy try to promote a model of democracy that take its vantage point in free and equal deliberationbetween all relevant actors in a political community. This model has with some success opposed the aggregative model of democracy, and in important ways turned the attention to the potential of deliberative processes.However, the deliberative model is still somewhat underdeveloped when it comes to issues of diversity and difference. This essay deals with such deficiencies by analysing deliberative democracy in the light of the critiquelaunched by difference- and radical democrats.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate and analyze how three different actors linked to the urban transformation in the city of Kiruna, in this case LKAB, the Municipality of Kiruna and the County Administrative Board of Norrbotten, believe that the identity of a historical monument that is marked cultural heritage is affected by future relocation. The second part of the study is to investigate the impact the building might have on the city in the future. This study is based on the relocation of Hjalmar Lundbohmsgården.The study is based on a qualitative approach in which five informants from the three actors were interviewed. The interviews have been analyzed through thematic analysis, where a combination of theoretical thematic analysis and empirical thematic analysis was used. The result shows that the new location of Hjalmar Lundbohmsgården is preferred to be in a suitable context close to other cultural buildings. All informants agree that accessibility is a fundamental element in, which a synergistic effect is an increase in visitor numbers.

This studie explores how a promotive youth movement that aims to activate adolescents in economically and socially exposed areas, can affect the youth?s participation in society and oppose their experience of stigmatization. The youth movement, whom is being studied, uses urban art expressions as a mean to engage and motivate the adolescents. The empirism has mostly been collected by a limited participatory observation, and through qualitative interviews with staff and adolescents in the movement. The result has been analyzed through Pierre Bourdieus field theory.

This paper concerns the question of how one can frame a political message. I investigate how a political frame is bound both to the line of argumentation connected with a certain discourse and to the audience closely related to that discourse.I have chosen to study a single case where the policy process was characterized by a framing contest. The case shows how negotiating the new Services Directive is affected by framing efforts made by the parties negotiating.My conclusions are that the question of a Services Directive lent itself to a definition in terms of "either/or"-arguments. Thus the Directive could be considered either a threat or a possibility. It was the very nature of the matter - the development of the internal market on services - that made possible a debate along the lines of a "left/right"-struggle and where a frame that drew from the European Social Model offered the better explanation thereby succeding in defining the new Directive as a threat.

In contemporary Sweden political participation among foreign-born Swedes is viewed as low and it is well known that foreign-born individuals do not use their voting rights to the same extent as the general population. At the same time there are numerous ethnic associations around the country who work with various activities involving political, democratic and integration issues. This study aims to study how four members of a Somali association regard, relate to and work with politics, democracy and integration. The study is based on these four people, but also on their relationship with authorities and other agencies in the community. The conclusion of this study shows in brief that the desire to participate politically is great, but that democracy and politics is accessible to all, depending on the level of language skills and what political knowledge the individual has.