We live in a society that has changed rapidly in recent years. The Swedish welfare state identity consisted of structures that had been formed from an emancipatory project. Today, these structures seem to have been erased and replaced by a different form of society. When a society is changing it affects the political, social and economic levels.In this social change Social Democracy seems to have lost its hegemonic position in society and describes itself as standing in a crisis. An effort to modernize the party has therefore begun.

This essay examines Finnish artist Iiu Susiraja?s self-portraits in relation to Western traditions and tropes of the genre from the 20th century until today. I use an iconological/iconographic model to describe and to further interpret the images. The purpose is to find out which norms and conventions, within the art sphere and society as a whole, that Susiraja?s images reproduce or revolt against.

The essay explores nationalism in the curriculum of the swedish school from 1878 to 1994. The text has been undertaken an analysis in three levels of discourse based on Norman Faircloughs critical language analysis. The first level is the text, the second is types of discourses and the third is order of discourse.The nationalism in the curriculum has been related to three nationalistic types of discourses, derived from earlier studies on Swedish nationalism. They are conservative nationalism, ?folkhemsnationalism? and contemporary nationalism.

Sexual harassments have since long been an issue all over the world and schools have not been an exception. Reports from Swedish secondary schools show how 47% of the female pupils state that they have, sometime during their time in school, been the victim of sexual harassment. Other studies claim that pupils exposed to sexual harassments will develop low self-esteem and a decreased sense of self. The Swedish curriculum state that all children shall have the right to a harassment free school environment, but still many pupils claim to be exposed to sexual harassment in school. Several studies have theorized about why sexual harassment is so prevalent in schools but what do the pupils think? This study aims to reveal and analyze pupil opinions about sexual harassment; what do they think it is and why do they think it occurs? This will be done from a post-structural feminist point of view with focus on the shaping of identity among the respondents.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the discourse on political exclusion in the official report Demokratiutredningen. It has been my ambition to relate the analysis of the report to a critical academic discourse on political exclusion and thereby make visible hidden norms and structures which functions to exclude certain individuals and groups from political participation.My paper point out that the report establishes a strong link between democracy and participation and that it, therefore, makes a strong case for a process of democratic inclusion. Though, in my study I suggest that that there is an unawareness of the importance of norms, hegemonic conceptions and structures and that inclusion, therefore, is unlikely to take place. Furthermore, I criticize the focus on deliberative democracy in the report. With insights offered by Mouffe in her argumentation on the necessity to acknowledge the dimension of antagonism present in all societies I underline that the focus on this democratic model is problematic.My conclusion is that the analysis presented in the report is insufficient if we want to create a democratic system characterized by equality..

The aim with this essay is to look into what literature has been published in 2006 and 2007 for boys between the ages of twelve and sixteen in order to analyse six of the titles. Our two main questions are as follows:?How is the teenage boy depicted in six of these books? - To what extent is the teenage boy depicted in a gender stereotypical way?.We chose the titles for analysis based on our mapping of the published literature and took into account the authors? gender and age as well as the main themes of the books. As theoretical base for our analysis we used Marias Nikolajeva?s table of gender stereotypes in literature.

The aim of this research is to do a comparison between students? view of equality in secondary school and in gymnasium. The research begins with four focus groups, two on each grade to conduct material. The focus groups with girls and boys were separated from each other. With help from the researcher, acting as a moderator in the focus groups, the students have discussed advertisement and what message it convey.

Sweden has an active and growing culture of feminist comic book artists that use comedy as a mean of disseminating political ideas and critic. In this essay I do a reparative reading of Sara Granér?s comic book All I Want for Christmas is planekonomi in order to find out if it advocates alternative orders and/or ways of expression. By exploring what the comic book does to me as a reader and how, using the term ?skev? ? a hybrid of queer that examines normativity not strictly tied to sexuality ? and gulesque theory ? a mix of feminism, cuteness, the grotesque and riot grrrl ?, I show that the comic book, through the use of comedy, works as a trojan My Little Pony, reclaiming the girly franchise, while challenging several so-called dichotomies, such as: femininity/masculinity; youth/adult; high art/kitsch.

AbstractA beautiful death ? Manliness in four Japanese samurai moviesThis thesis deals with the samurai and his portrayal in Japanese historic movies and what kind of messages he conveys in form of masculinity to theater audiences. Four movies were chosen, two from the 1960s and two from the 2010s. The reasoning behind this was to look at two eras of samurai movies and if possible try to see differences between them. The history of the samurai, being a man and woman in modern Japan, R.W Connell and famous Japanese authors from different time eras acted as tools to try to answer the questions in hand.

The aim of this essay is to answer the question of how, and in what ways Martina Bigert?s and Maria Thulin?s picture Allt om min buske (literally, All about my bush) is queer. Inspired by Judith Butler?s idea of the heterosexual matrix, and Michel Foucault?s discourse I attempt to investigate how sex and sexuality are described in relation to heteronormativity, and if Allt om min buske is either norm-breaking or norm-creating in a wider perspective. This study concludes that antinormativity and queerness are evident within the framework of the picture.

The aim for this study was to find out what strategies women use to not react against inequality and sexist prejudice. In the study I used a critical realistic approach through, primary, the social ontology presented by Margaret S. Archer. The study focus on both the women?s construction of femininity and their construction of masculinity and what directions it constitutes for the women?s social orientation.

The aim of this thesis is to examine representations of masculinity in the activities of a local professional wrestling promotion. After briefly outlining what professional wrestling is, the study draws on a body on feminist and intersectional theory which critiques the notion of gender as a binary and essential category. The material comprises 10 recorded shows and oth- er material published on Sthlm Wrestling?s website between 2010 and 2013, and is analyzed using a qualitative methodology derived from cultural studies. The thesis argues that there are many different types of masculinities in the narrative, which are constructed in relation to different power hierarchies such as ethnicity, class, sex and sexuality.

In this thesis I analyse civilizations in South America. I construct civilizationalnarratives through the method of emplotment, to build a historic continuity, whichI subsequently connect to the theoretical framework. The theory emphasise that,when confronted with globalization and free market capitalism, civilizationsembark on different strategies to challenge the power of transnational marketforces. I find that South America is a polarised continent, and is divergingconcerning the relationship towards the USA and free trade agreements. On thesame time the issues that concern the social movements are not being reproducedin a significant matter at state level.

In today's society social movement are dependent on media as a channel to com-municate their political message and their discourse. Media is an arena for dis-courses but at the same time, along with Attac, one of the actors who struggle to be part of the dominant discourse of the society. This struggle is uneven due to media and the relationship is to some content hegemonic.Attac Sweden was constituted in January 2001 and got an enormous amount of attention in media. But after the riots during the Göteborg European Council in June 2001, that Attac was partly blamed for, the attention in media has faded out. This paper shows that the images of Attac in media hasn?t been favouring the movement, especially during and after the meeting in Gothenburg.

The aim with this essay is to look into what literature has been published in 2006 and 2007 for boys between the ages of twelve and sixteen in order to analyse six of the titles. Our two main questions are as follows:?How is the teenage boy depicted in six of these books? - To what extent is the teenage boy depicted in a gender stereotypical way?.We chose the titles for analysis based on our mapping of the published literature and took into account the authors? gender and age as well as the main themes of the books. As theoretical base for our analysis we used Marias Nikolajeva?s table of gender stereotypes in literature.