Gender equality is a political issue that has gained a lot of support in the last decades. Researchers have however pointed out that gender equality has a wide variety of understandings.SKL (Sveriges kommuner och landsting) is an organization that looks after the interests of local authorities and county councils in Sweden. SKL has by the government been granted 145 million Swedish crowns to support gender mainstreaming at a local level. During a period of three years, 2008-2010, funding has been given to 89 projects for this purpose.The aim of this study is to examine what meanings are given to the term ?gender equality? in these projects.

This study examines whether the policy breadth and the alternatives in European politics affect variations in voter turnout between member states in elections to the European Union Parliament.The theoretical approach assumes that; a larger political polarization, an increase in EU-skeptical parties and a greater voting mobilization among groups with less means results in higher voter turnout figures. The study also consider four other variables; whether the election is held on weekends or weekdays, whether elections coincide with other national elections, whether a country has held the presidential of the EU during or the immediate term prior to the election and finally the turnout figures from national elections.The research design is based upon a quantitative analysis using data from EP elections, national elections and databases from the European Elections Studies (EES). Study unit is twelve member-state countries and their four latest EP elections (1994, 1999, 2004 and 2009). The selected member-states origin from the EU-15 excluding Belgium, Greece and Luxembourg due to their compulsory voting laws.The study found relationships between higher turnout figures in EP-elections and increase in EU-skeptical parties, greater mobilization among groups with less means, elections held on weekends, elections coinciding with other, national elections and an increase in voter figures in national elections..

The research of this Masters thesis examines if during a specific period of time, Environmental scanning connected to Swedish public libraries is discussed in journals that are directly connected to the field of Swedish libraries. The method employed was content analysis of articles, news items and ads with the intention of finding out the extent of Environmental scanning and who carries it out and how and what is scanned. The research covers the period from 2004-01-01 to 2004-08-31. During the research period 1387 articles, news items and ads were analyzed. The study focuses on 81 selected published units that directly include references or discussion about Environmental scanning.

This paper is a discourse analytic policy study with the intention to investigate the swedish government's policy action plan against prostitution and trafficking for sexual purposes. The document is called Handlingsplan mot prostitution och människohandel för sexuella ändamål. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether there is a feminist gender understanding taking place in the action plan. This is made by both see how the problem of prostitution is produced partly by examining whether there is a gender-based power analysis in action. The research questions of this study are:What is considered being the problem with prostitution and trafficking fosexual purposes?Is there a feminist gender understandning in the government's prostitution politics?To answer these questions I use Carol Bacchis method Whats the problem represented to be? And the material being used is the government's actionplan.

After the fall of communism in Yugoslavia the ethnic resentment grew stronger and escalated in to interethnic civil conflict in 1992. After international intervention the General Framework Agreement for Peace (GFAP) installed peace in 1995. The treaty's aim was not only to establish peace but also to institute democracy in Bosnia. The OSCE were given the task to implement democracy within political institutions and civil society. This in a country with a lack of democratic experience and where great problems with ethnic antagonism still exists.By using democratization and transition theory this single case-study examines how democracy is implemented in Bosnia by the OSCE and clarifies difficulties that this democratization process is facing.

The question of direct citizen participation in politics and administration is a contestable one. Its proponents claim that it has positive consequences even for the more "traditional", representative democracy, since participation leads to an increased political knowledge and increased political interest, and thus creates a revitalised democracy. Critical voices have however been raised to the validity of this claim. Critics have also pointed out direct participation as problematic, because it leads to problems of political inequality: a difference of political influence between ? on the one hand, the citizens participating directly and those that restrict their political participation to voting, and ? on the one the other hand ? between the institutions, for example schools, that employ, and don?t employ this method of direct citizen influence.In this essay, these two points of criticisms are tested in the context of user-boards in elementary and secondary schools.

?The myth of Palme- a textual analysis of the documentary Palme and its description of the social memory of Olof Palme as a norm or anomaly? by Emma Svanström aims to analyze how the directors of the documentary Palme choose to present Olof Palme to the future generations. Also the goal is to find out if their version presents Palme as a person who followed the norms or was divergent.To this purpose the thesis use textual analysis combined with a quantitative method in search of which persons the directors give the right to form the myth of Palme and which keywords they use to do describe him. To view the film as a social memory in the transformation to a myth the thesis use Jan Assmans theory of social memory and to find out if the documentary describes Palme as following the norms or divergent it uses Mary Douglas theory of anomaly.The results show that it is mainly the narrator and Olof Palme that gets to form the myth of him but also his family, friends, fellow employees and other persons that met him or was affected by his actions. Palme is discribed as special, intelligent, interested in social politics and able to act as he saw fit even if it was against the norms.

Hållbar utveckling som begrepp används frekvent i dagens samhälle och är också det övergripande målet för svensk nationell strategi. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka i vilken utsträckning hållbar utveckling och/eller ekologisk modernisering beskriver miljöpolicyn hos de två största politiska partierna i Sverige. Dessa två partier, Socialdemokraterna och Moderaterna, tillhör varsitt partipolitiskt block med olika ideologier.Resultaten i uppsatsen visar att det finns väsentliga skillnader mellan de båda partiernas miljöpolicys som är grundade i olika politiska ideologier. Socialdemokraterna har sina rötter i frågor som demokrati, social rättvisa och välfärdsfrågor, och deras miljöpolicy överensstämmer till stor del med hållbar utveckling. Moderaterna utgår från liberalkonservativa idéer med utgångspunkt i individualism och marknadsbaserade ekonomier och deras miljöpolicy harmoniserar överlag med ekologisk modernisering.

The purpose of this study is to examine the medial depiction of Muslims in the case of Pastor Terry Jones' intention to burn the Quran. Our study is based on theoretical framework regarding an alleged clash of civilizations, how that leads to global conflicts and controls the world politics. It?s also based on the western way of characterize Muslims as violent, irrational human beings, and how mass media have a tendency to depict Muslims as ?the others?. The questions we aim to seek answers to are: How were Muslims portrayed in CNN's and Al-Jazeera's reporting regarding Terry Jones plan to burn the Quran? Which discourses exist about Muslims in each news channel and what are the main differences between them? The qualitative method used is a critical discourse analysis on empirical data consistently of twelve articles.

During the years of development in the 60s and 70s the need for new housing in Sweden arose. Sweden was going to be the most modern country in the world. This period has later been called ?the time of the big programmes?. One of the parts in this building of a welfare society was a large policy of building politics with few counterparts in history.

1994 drabbades Rwanda av ett folkmord vars omfattning betecknas som ett av de mest brutala i vår moderna tid. Drygt tio år senare innehar rwandiska kvinnor den högsta parlamentariska representationen i världen och har därmed gått om Sverige. I denna studie är det just kvinnors politiska deltagande som undersöks. Det analysverktyg som används i studien består av: Post-konfliktteori, Transversal politics, Critical Mass, Essentialism, Gender Mainstreaming och kvinnors empowerment. Med hjälp av dessa förklaras relevansen av, och bakgrunden till, fyra faktorer som har möjliggjort och bidragit till kvinnors politiska deltagande i Rwandas freds- och återuppbyggnad efter kriget.

The purpose with this essay is to look at how categories of "us" and "them" are created, reproduced and categorised. The areas of politics and media are in focus, though they are powerful and influential actors in generating discourses.The method is qualitative analyses of current research and analyses of discourses, contexts and resources from an intersectional perspective. Intersectionality presents a theoretical tool for complex understandings of power as it takes its point of departure in an understanding of power as multidimensional and one where gender, ethnicity and class are constitutive and bearing principals. Intersectional analyses aim to understand how these dimensions are created and changed in relation to each other and how they interact with specific gender orders in specific contexts.The analyse shows that "immigrants" are in a subordinate position compared to "Swedish" when it comes to resources, contexts and discourses. The analyse indicates the relation of power between "us" and "them", where "us" have the power and with that preferential right of interpretation in discourses, contexts and resources.

Followers of three world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are waiting for the Messiah. Muslims are even waiting for aspiritual leader al-Mahdi. Two different persons claimed the title of al-Mahdi, at the end of the nineteenth century. Theyappeared almost at the same time, at the totally different places of the earth, with a completely different message and underthe rule of the British colonial power. The aim of the study is to compare the both religious figures, Mirza Ghulam Ahmadfrom India and Muhammad Ahmad from Sudan regarding their different messages, to illustrate the social, political andreligious factors that lead to the entirely different profile and image of these two men and how their organizations havedeveloped after their death up till today.

The Catholic Church launched several crusades during the medieval ages in order to regainthe holy lands and spread the word of God. Their main enemy, the Muslims had grownstronger and needed to be suppressed. This common enemy united Europe under the banner ofthe Catholic Church. In order to fund these crusades the church turned to the wealthyEuropean kings and lords and asked for funding. In return the kings received an indulgenceletter, and also greater respect from their subjects because of their new appreciation from thepope.

Followers of three world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are waiting for the Messiah. Muslims are even waiting for aspiritual leader al-Mahdi. Two different persons claimed the title of al-Mahdi, at the end of the nineteenth century. Theyappeared almost at the same time, at the totally different places of the earth, with a completely different message and underthe rule of the British colonial power. The aim of the study is to compare the both religious figures, Mirza Ghulam Ahmadfrom India and Muhammad Ahmad from Sudan regarding their different messages, to illustrate the social, political andreligious factors that lead to the entirely different profile and image of these two men and how their organizations havedeveloped after their death up till today.