The aim of this thesis is to seek understanding to how a national identity is constructed. Five women and five men at the age of 21-37 years old have been interviewed during November 2005 and January 2006. All of them lived Oslo at the time. The informants have been divided into two groups, `Swedish immigrants` and `Norwegian immigrants`, none of the people interviewed is ethnic `Swedish` or `Norwegian`. The empirical material has been analysed with the help of Billig´s theory about banal nationalism and Laclau and Mouffe´s discourse analysis.

The aim of this paper is to illuminate and discuss the political and ideological aspects of Early Medieval Nordic music. Due to shortage of sources, this issue has been overlooked until now. Did Early Medieval Nordic music meet the requirements for political and ideological use? In what ways could music potentially be used politically and ideologically? Was music used as a political and ideological tool? This is examined by a contextual analysis combining music history and historical archaeology. The survey consists of a background account, focusing on the potential of music and some requests for political use, and three case studies, where musical reflections of societal tensions is investigated in folk music lyrics, Icelandic sagas and church art.

During last autumn I have been studying the conflict between Israel and Palestine, both through books and at place in the area. The purpose has been to evaluate and reflect over EAPPI`s achievement (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel) and how it`s related to the goals of the organization. EAPPI is an interesting organization, mainly because it stands as a third part in the conflict. I have used a qualitative method for interviews and observations. The accompaniers, whom I have interviewed, represent three of seven placements in Israel/Palestine.

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.

The aim of this thesis is to explain what actions Sweden and the international communities have been taking in terms of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in order to realize the Programme of Action from the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo 1994. In a theoretical perspective, donor countries and multilateral organizations are seen as interacting actors involved in global development cooperation. Through applying a human rights approach I will show shortages in terms of supplies to contraception, international agreement on the issue of safe abortions and a new era that comes with new rules for aid and development cooperation. In addition, for human rights to be realized there is the feature of accountability. Without accountability, SRHR cannot be fully respected, guaranteed and protected.

Trots att den svenska policyn, för skydd av nationella minoriteter, infördes med hopp om att lösa vissa problem hävdas i denna uppsats att annan problematik kan ha uppstått i dess kölvatten. Både vad gäller motiv och innebörd kan delar av policyn ses som problematiska, vilket i huvudsak grundar sig i att det har skapats en skillnad mellan olika etniska minoriteter. Policyn innebär att särskilda åtgärder vidtas för att skydda vissa kulturer. Vi sluter oss till åsikten att kulturer är centrala i människors liv, och just därför anser vi det motiverat att diskutera kring vilka etniska minoriteter som inte får tillgång till detta skydd. Vi menar att denna diskussion saknas i svensk policy.

Denna uppsats behandlar den orangea revolutionen ur ett transitionsperspektiv och försöker teoriprövande utröna om denna revolution kan anses som en demokratisk transition i enlighet med transitionsterin.Uppsatsen är teoriprövande till sin karaktär och kontrasterar den politiska processen i Ukraina mellan den första omgången i presidentvalet den 31 oktober 2004 och den tredje omgången den 26 december 2004 med transitionsteorin.Uppsatsen baseras på en fältstudie genomförd under december 2005 i Kiev, Ukraina. Fältstudien består dels av en intervjuserie genomförd med ukrainska politiker, akademiker, tidningsmän, nationella organisationer samt internationella organisationer men också av primärkällor i form av tidningsartiklar från i Ukraina.Denna studie når i sin analys fram till att den orangea revolutionen kan förklaras enligt transitionsteorin men framlägger också de avvikelser som denna uppvisar i förhållande till transitionsteorin.Nyckelord: Ukraina. Den orangea revolutionen. Transition. Förhandlingar.

Studien behandlar försöksverksamheten Region Skåne och deras kommunikation och information via texter om verksamheten till beslutsfattare och medborgare. Texterna ligger till grund för beslutet om fortsatt försöksverksamhet och påverkar även allmänheten. Genom en narrativanalys har vi urskiljt fyra teman; ?Permanenta självstyrelsen!?, ?Region Skåne är positivt och en nydanande föregångare?, ?Införandet av regioner är en naturlig och logisk utveckling?, och ?Region Skåne är konkurrenskraftigt och bidrar till tillväxt?. I dessa narrativa teman använder regionen övertalningsdiskurs och myter, men även grepp som dramatisering och iscensättande.

Anonymous job applications as a method to further diversity on the labour market is widely discussed. The method aims to promote an equal selection procedure, where the employer can only judge on merits and experience. We are with this study on the other hand interested in seeing how this specific method of employment has been implemented. We have chosen to perform a small qualitative case study, of a limited attempt of this method in the government administration of Kortedala, a district in Gothenburg.Our intrests are to see whether we can, while studying a specific implementation procedure, show that any implementation problems have occurred. Furthermore explaining it by applying our implementation theory, that consists of Lennart Lundquists three criterias for explaining implementation problems experienced from the appliers' standpoint.

In his recent article Professor of International Affairs Charles Kupchan claims that Party Politics has become increasingly important for American Foreign Policy since the end of the Cold War. This assertion makes it valuable to assess how the substance of the Foreign Policy differs between the two American parties in various cases and if this difference is characterized by consistency or by change. In this thesis I examine these Party positions in relation to the European Security Policy.In order to examine this I compare the positions of the Democratic and Republican Parties? policy concerning both the European Defence Community (EDC) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The purpose of this thesis is to examine the hypothesis that the Democratic Party to a higher extent than the Republican Party is more concerned to maintain good relations to Europe respectively EU.The results show that there are small indications that my hypothesis concerning the two parties is valid.

The first purpose of this thesis is to investigate if, how, and why the perceived collective identity in the town of Karlskrona has changed. Collective identities can due to their socially constructed nature change rapidly in light of new collective experiences. The reason for suspecting such a change in Karlskrona is the immense impact that the change in the global economy, according to Saskia Sassen, has on cities. By interviewing politicians and media representatives from Karlskrona the perceived identity is drawn. The second purpose of this thesis will then be to test if the identity as it is perceived by Karlskronas habitants differ from the one that town officials present through city marketing.

The overall purpose with this thesis has been to study the strategic development of the Swedish Green Party, Miljöpartiet de Gröna. From its first appearance in the Swedish parliament 1988 to its decision to cooperate with the Social Democrats and the Left Party in 1998, the Greens has gone from a radical antiparty to a pragmatic support party. The analysis has concentrated towards identifying the causal factors behind this strategic move made by the Greens, and to determine how this party change has affected the party's strategic goals. In order to do so, a qualitative case study has been conducted where an integrated theoretical approach has been used. By studying official statements and internal debates the thesis concludes that the strategic change made by the Greens was due to the evolvement of a new dominant coalition of within the party.

The purpose of this article is to describe the discourse in which public-private partnership (PPP) resides, within the Swedish parliament, in the field of infrastructure. I have chosen to look at the latest three years deliberation where PPP appears in parliament bills.This case study is based upon discourse as a qualitative method. Five indicator signs which is history, comparison, geographic location, vision of growth potential and solution controls the context of PPPThe result of the analysis was that a clear discourse was unravelled. A first rather surprising conclusion shows that it is possible to disconnect the discourse from PPP. PPP is not important by itself, the result shows that it only play the part of possible solution to the problems related to the discourse and does not have any value in its own.This result lead the conclusion that PPP is no more than a tool for politicians to get as much out of their infrastructural aims as possible, as rational vote-maximizing actors.

This essay aims to examine how science fiction literature is supported and made available for readers at four public libraries. Each library has its own opinion of what a public library?s role in society is, and that affects how literature acquisition and media exposure is done at that particular library. To explore this, the author uses a modified version of Elzinga and Andersson?s theory of traditionalism, pragmatism and emancipationism.

AbstractIn this essay I discuss narrative in the reconstruction of national identity. I discuss exclusion as a side effect in thick identities. That means that thick national identities always exclude another part. From this I´ve discussed the Swedish identity and its effects in the European co-operation. Identity is a discourse that reconstructs linguistically.