Det här är en uppsats som behandlar demokratisynen hos deltagare vid European Social Forum 2008 i Malmö. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om det finns samband mellan erfarenheter av politiska handlingar, identifiering med den globala rättviserörelsen och synen på hur demokratiska beslut i allmänhet bör fattas. Individer inom den globala rättviserörelsen kan ses som handlande subjekt inom utvecklingen av demokratiska system, då rörelsen formulerar en kritik mot globalisering och odemokratiska beslutsformer och strävar efter att möjliggöra en annan form av globalisering och en annan form av demokrati. Teoretiskt tar undersökningen avstamp i tre idealtypiska demokratiformer: deltagardemokrati, deliberativ demokrati och representativ demokrati, som har tre skilda utgångspunkter när det gäller former för beslutsprocesser. Även politiskt handlande går att skilja åt teoretiskt, i form av kollektivt och individuellt politiskt handlande.

This thesis aims to analyze the similarities and differences in how identity is constructed by the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament regarding the Polish membership and the potential Turkish membership of the European Union. The construction of identity is analyzed through a social constructivist perspective where identity is constructed by distinguishing ?us? from ?them?. The research metod used is a qualitative text analysis. The arguments of identity are taken from the Commission?s and the Council?s documents, as well as from the debates of the European Parliament.

Since the introduction of the European citizenship in the Maastricht treaty, social rights havetaken a back seat to the economic and political elements. Nevertheless, over the past yearssocial issues have been increasingly included on the agenda following the universalrecognition of challenges resulting from further economic integration and demographicchange. The extensive research on European social policy so far tend to focus on initiativesput forward by the European Commission, and offers little to explain the multitude of lines ofreasoning on how far EU social policy should be taken or why it still remains one of the leastdeveloped policy areas. By examining plenary debates in the European Parliament concerningfamily policy, this Bachelor thesis aims to describe the complex of problems connected to afurther development of the social dimension of the European citizenship.The analysis finds that the most imminent problems impeding an expansion of the EU familypolicy lie not only in the many clashes of opinions between advocates of the various existingwelfare models, but also in the conflicts of interests and the different levels of ambitionbetween EU institutions - most notably the Commission and the European Parliament..

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine how the European Union through the Directorate- General (DG) of Education and Culture, are calling forth a constructed sense of European identity amongst the citizens of the Union.It is a discourse analysis, which can be described in twofold. Firstly, it is a mapping of the European discourse; i.e. how the European Union defines the identity it seeks to mobilise. Secondly, it examines whether or not there are similarities in the European discourse of identity and the traditional nation-building discourse of national identity.According to this thesis a European identity is articulated in cultural terms, whereby its members are said to share the same values and a common cultural heritage.To bring the people of Europe closer together and to deepen awareness of their "common" history, the European Union encourages all manner of meetings and exchange schemes between Europeans. Although its goal is to develop a feeling of belonging to a shared culture, the EU is also keen to preserve the specific aspects of Europe's many cultures.

AbstractPurpose/Aim: The aim of this essay is to examine the democratic potential of Forum Games.The main focus of the essay is if working with forum games can help the participators to better communicate their thoughts and ideas and through this take better part in a democratic society.Material/Method: The material to the study has been gathered through three interviews with persons using forum games in their work and one enquiry with 21 students in Teacher education at Uppsala University, who had recently tried the method for the first time.Main results: The conclusion of the study is that forum game has a democratic potential. Ability to communicate is important for a democratic society and participating in forum games can improve the participators communication abilities. Furthermore forum games seem to have other positive effects on a democratic society, apart from helping the participators to improve their communication skills.Keywords: Forum Games, Forum Theatre, Communication, Democracy, Drama.

This paper examines whether membership in the European Union has contributed to democratic stability and integration in an ethnic diverse society. By studying the Latvian multicultural society, before and after membership in the EU, the author is looking for evidence of enhanced ethnic stability in the country brought through European integration. The author will analyze what the consequences have been, by adopting European regional policy, for a country that yet has to create a unified national identity. By analyzing different areas of the Latvian society, the author has concluded that the EU has played a small but yet not insignificant role for the Latvian domestic integration process..

Swedes and Swedish Culture are controversial political subjects in Sweden. The definitions for Swedish culture are very vague and what is the answer to the question: Who can be called Swedes? It has been debated in Sweden more since Swedish Democrats crossed the four percent threshold necessary for representation in the Swedish parliament. Swedes or Swedish culture on a large internet forum with 2 million visitors per week called Flashback forum is material for this thesis.Flashback forum has currently more than 50 million posts published and has more than 970 000 users. Flashback forum is more and more often mentioned in Swedish media.

European identity is a topic constantly debated around Europe. There are many takes on whether there is a European identity and what the European identity consists of. In the European Union the Commission has worked towards developing a common European identity since the middle of the 1970?s. The development of a European identity is an important part in the commission?s quest to tie the union and its people closer together.

Author Cocitation Analysis (ACA), multidimensional scaling (MDS) and Social Network Analysis (SNA), has been used to analyze and visualize the invisible college of the journal European Union Politics. The concept invisible college was first introduced in the fifteenth century, through the creation of the ?the Royal Society of London?, and it was reintroduced in the 1960:ies and the 1970:ies by scholars such as Price and Crane. It is said to have been interpreted in as many ways as there are authors who have used it. Here it has been used synonymously with the term citation network.

I denna uppsats behandlas den statliga myndigheten Forum för levande historia. Grunden i dennastudie utgörs av en kartläggning av myndighetens verksamhet, så som den går att studera i form avmaterial publicerat på Forum för levande historias hemsida. Utifrån exemplet ?det historiskafolkmordet? används en rad historiedidaktiska teorier för att svara på frågor som berör Forum förlevande historias historieanvändning. Med hjälp av en historiedidaktisk granskning av hurmyndigheten behandlar det historiska folkmordet diskuteras förhållandet mellan denhistorieskrivning som bedrivs och Forum för levande historias uppdrag och verksamhet i nutid.Studien slår fast att Forum för levande historia ofrånkomligen bedriver en historieförmedling somfärgats av det sammanhang som den bedrivs i.

Swedish trade unions are engaged in several activities at the European level. One of these isthe sectoral social dialogue, an institutionalized part of the European Union. This bachelorthesis examines the motives for Swedish trade unions in three different sectors to engage themselves in the European social dialogue. The three sectors are chosen because of their differences according to their exposure to competition caused by ongoing globalization and europeanization processes. By interviewing central informants in trade unions which are active in the three dialogues this thesis seeks to learn more about the motives stated by the trade unions.

With this study we aim to learn more about the process in creating an identity onFlashback Forum. We have observed four members of the forum to find what themesdefine thier way of making an identitity. Besides to our empirical material we foundearlier research that could support our study. The methods we used was qualitativesince we wanted to get a deep understandning for their behaviour. We found thattheese three themes were central: Language, Content and the feeling of beingAnonymous.

AbstractThe aim of this thesis is to examine Interreg as an instrument for regional policy in the European Union. Interreg is an initiative designed to strengthen economic and social cohesion throughout the European Union by fostering balanced development through cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation. But how does it work in practise? Three main questions are asked to answer this:How well does the implementation in the programmes work?How does the programme management look and how well does it work?What degree of efficiency does Interreg show in financial and physical effectiveness?With evaluation and implementation as theories the questions are answered together with a qualitative method. The conclusions that can be drawn is that Interreg strengthen European unions economic and social cohesion in form of integration and regional development that in many ways make it easier to travel and trade over the borders.

The European Union is originally an economic organization that has developed into including more social and cultural questions. These questions are especially important when the Union expands with so many different cultures and traditions to take into concideration.I have from an identity perspective studied the relation between the European Union and the candidate country of Turkey. Using theories including the Other I have discussed the relationship between us (Europe) and the Other (Turkey) and Turkey's possibilites to become a member of the Union. My conclusion will include a discussion on the basis of three dimensions; History, Economy/Politics and Religion. I believe there are hindrances for Turkey to become a member of the European Union.

In this thesis we have examined Västra Götalandsregionens ways to lobby and network in the European Union. Our aim was to examine which kind of methods the region uses to lobby in a successful way in Brussels. We found that the region uses both formal and informal methods of lobbying to gain advantages in Brussels. We also wanted to locate various networks which the region is involved in to more easily have their interests satisfied. We found that they had a lot of different alliances and that it is necessary to be involved in different networks to have a chance to lobby the EU institutions.