In this study we wanted to have a closer look at how a specific working team of pedagogues in the senior part of elementary school works with student influence through a pedagogical concept created by themselves. We have used qualitative interviews as a method to achieve relevant information from the pedagogues, and from students teached by the same.The purpose of the study was to investigate how the working team, through the concept, pursue real student influence within different school subjects and how the individual student is favored in his/her learning process. Another intention was to find out to what extent the students experience this influence. We also wanted to elucidate the advantages as well as the disadvantages of this concept, and to shed some light on how the informants view the future development of the concept.The result shows that consensus prevails to a large extent among teachers and students regarding the signification of real student influence in the everyday learning situation. It also appears that the students? abilities to exercise influence vary between different school subjects.

Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1995 and the power of the organisation to make decisions has increased over the years in a rate which hasn?t been followed by an equally increase in democratization. This is partly due to the lack of participation in the decision making process and at the national level the citizens don?t possess enough channels to compensate the loss of influence. To solve this democratic dilemma, more and more countries are turning to the referendum.

Postmodernism and neo-liberalism is often thought of as two opposite conceptions of the reality and the world. This thesis takes on a critical view of this assertion and the main purpose was to perform a correlation between postmodernism and neo-liberalism. With different theoretical assumptions about constructions of thoughts, agency and structure and the welfare-state a theoretical framework was created. According to this framework the two isms were correlated to each other and the welfare-state to see if there where similarities or dissimilarities between the isms. The assumptions of this thesis are that there are correlations between postmodernism and neo-liberalism in the constructions of thoughts, namely similar view on epistemology.

Den här studien undersöker skillnaderna i de sätt på vilka Junilistan respektive Socialdemokraterna officiellt talar om demokrati, samt tillskriver begreppet värde. Med en kombination av diskurs- och ideologianalys, med tyngdpunkten på diskursanalys, granskas det sätt på vilket de båda organisationerna, i idéprogram samt debattartiklar, använder demokratibegreppet vid diskussioner om EU som institution, samt vid resonemang om hur det svenska partiväsendet representerar de svenska väljarnas åsikter i unionen. Tanken bakom studiens fokus är att demokratibegreppet, med sin legitimitet och positiva värdeladdning, blir oerhört viktigt att knyta till sin verksamhet för att kunna visa på grundläggande demokratisk förankring i sina resonemang och därigenom vinna väljarnas bifall. En av studiens centralaste slutsatser är att de båda organisationerna i stor utsträckning talar om varandra. Det vill säga att när Junilistan talar i negativa formuleringar så talar Socialdemokraterna i positiva, utan att argumentationen på allvar möts i detaljfrågor..

Offentligt rum och vardagens politik handlar om hur 1990- talets sociala förändring, med en rörelse från ett samhälle integrerat av arbetsetiken mot ett samhälle organiserat utifrån konsumtionsestetiken, förändrar demokratins villkor i och för det offentliga rummet. Det mer preciserade syftet är att undersöka vilka konsekvenser den sociala förändringen får för utövandet av vardagens politik i det offentliga rummet. Den övergripande frågeställningen är vad ett fritt ord innebär, vad är det fritt från och för vem är det fritt? Centrala begrepp i studien är: Medborgaren, dvs. individens kollektiva identitet som politisk varelse.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitude of teachers regarding including democratic behaviour when grading students in social science. The purpose is also to investigate whether the teachers consider there to be a conflict between the right of freedom of speech and the democratic values that the school is supposed to make sure the students have when they graduate. The study also investigates the problems political decisions encounters when going from theory to reality.The theory of Ulf Petäjä on why the freedom of speechs is important, Robert Dahls theory about the democratic process and Anders Sannerstedts theory about converting political decisions to reality is what this study is based on.The study was carried out at three different schools; Teleborg Centrum, Växjö, Dackeskolan, Tingsryd and Centralskolan, Virserum ranging from the spring of 2006 and the spring of 2007. The method used except from litterature studies was interviews with active teachers.This study shows that teachers don?t think it?s acceptable to grade students based on their political ideology.

The Swedish state and educational system are secular, so to say they do not depend on the former protestant state church anymore. Many people in Sweden are also secular. Even so, in school teachers meet students with a religious faith. The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers without a religious belonging experience the encounter with religious students. The method used was semistructured interviews with five teachers in a upper secondary school in a multicultural suburb of Stockholm.

AbstractIn this bachelor thesis I discuss and analyse the current situation of the Venezuelan democracy. By using a theoretical framework based on the theory of horizontal accountability, I focus on the interaction between different institutions and branches within the state of Venezuela. The analysis focuses on the strenghts and flaws of the newly accepted constitution, and to what extent the institutions of checks and balances remain true to the laws and the constitution of 1999. My conclusions are that in terms of vertical accountability, the Chávez-regime acknowledges a wide popular support for their governmental actions. In contrast, the incumbent administration shows almost no respect for horizontal accountability.

Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på om den kommunala demokratiska processen har berörts av projektet Medborgarpaneler. Vi fick uppdraget av Gnosjö kommun att genomföra en halvtidsutvärdering av projektet. Projektet startade i november 2007 och kommer att pågå under tre år. Vi har använt oss av både kvantitativa datainsamlingsmetoder och kvalitativa djupintervjuer, som vi senare har sammanställt och analyserat, för att få fram material till vår undersökning.De resultat som vi fått fram visar på att det är ett lyckat projekt från kommunen och att det finns ett intresse att utveckla det efter projekttidens slut, detta enligt de politiker vi intervjuat.Valet av intervjupersoner gjordes på följande vis, vi mailade politiker i Gnosjö kommun och de tre första som svarade intervjuade vi. Vi skickade också ut enkäter till deltagarna i Medborgarpaneler via de befintliga mail-listorna som fanns.

This paper examines in what way the heterosexual matrix is challenged by Stephenie Meyer in Breaking dawn (Så länge vi båda andas). By doing a thematic study on the various family constellations appearing in the novel, I search for the queer elements in it. I discuss incest, family building and motherhood, and find that there are numerous queer elements associated with the themes I have chosen. I conclude that the Cullen family challenges the heterosexual matrix, despite not being typical queer vampire characters. I also find that building a successful family is not based on gender or constellation otherwise, but is instead dependant on democracy and equality.

Today sportsclubs are important actors in the work with promoting public health in Sweden. Sports have unique opportunities to reach out with messages to many people with diffrent backgrounds. In many respects sport- and clublife could be looked upon as health promotiv activiteis. It is not just the health of the individual that is affected by sportslife but also the community take advantage of active people in clubs. Partly through a healthier population and partly because clubs educational role in teaching democracy and solidarity to its members.

The intention of this thesis is to examine "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and its position and functions in the public sphere. Particularly interesting aspects are like the linking of private and public issues, the show's potential as a forum for debate and dissemination of knowledge, and what types of criticism the show has been subjected to. The methods used dealt with the textual aspects of the show. Semiotic analysis and conversation analysis were applied to five episodes and a search of literature was made. The thesis rests on theories concerning television studies and talk shows, in addition to theories on modernity and identity.

In this thesis I have criticized traditional nationalism theories formulated by Eric Hobsbawm, Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson and Anthony D. Smith. The critique has been based on my belief that nationalism theories do not explain nations whose foundation is built on forward-looking, dynamic aspects such as economy, human and civil rights, and democracy. Traditional nationalism theories have been focused on historicizing perspectives whereas I want to draw attention to non-historicizing perspectives within the field of research. So far nationalism theories has had a shared past or a shared ethnicity as its focal point.

This study deals with the Swedish public library in our changeable time. New technology, an altered media situation with a growing digitalization, globalization and a society focusing on the individual and the market have put the public library in a new, indistinct position. It is described as facing an identity crisis. The aim of this thesis is to, by interviewing a group of young people ages 15-16, find out what the public library is for this user group and what it ought to be according to them. How do they value the services provided by the public library? Are there services they miss? The thesis also aims at relating the opinions of the young people to earlier research.

Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka Sverigedemokraternas kriskommunikativa försvar efter kritiken som uppkom mot partiet i samband med högerextremisten Anders Behring Breiviks massmord på Utöya 2011. I detta har jag ur ett narrativt perspektiv undersökt partiledaren Jimmie Åkessons förklaring till krisen och hur denna samspelar med partiets interna berättelse. Den första delen av resultaten visar att Åkesson strukturerar ett narrativ där uppkomsten av krisen för Sverigedemokraterna förklaras genom att det bedrivs en häxjakt på partiet. Den andra delen av resultaten visar att Åkesson genom dikotomisering använder den uppkomna krisen för att förstärka Sverigedemokraternas roll som antietablissemangsparti. I hans krisberättelse tillskrivs kritikerna och Breivik liknande egenskaper, vilket betyder att de står som en gemensam bov i narrativet.