Local politicians are key actors in the democratic system and their ideas concerning democracy plays a central role in local democratic politics. The study's point of departure is the notion that local politicians are dependent of coherence between practice and theory concerning democracy and in the study of their ideas we acquire knowledge about the democratic practice.This study examines the local politicians? view of Swedish democracy and explores the logic of the discourse that makes statements concerning democracy possible. Twenty local politicians have been interviewed and from the material a discourse have been established through the use of formulation of problems and cause, nodal points and chains of analogy which is compared with democratic ideals.The study comes to the conclusion that a hegemonic discourse exists, in which central nodal points are representative and listening. The idea of the representative system is hegemonic and is based in the liberal democratic ideal although the view of the citizens rather can be traced to the radical, communitarian and deliberative ideal.

Den här kvalitativa textanalysstudien syftar till att undersöka vad det finns för ideal i samhället och vilka normer som motiverar dessa. Ur debatter på internet blottlägger jag samhällsideal om makt och politik och de normativa gränser som finns mellan privatliv, arbetsliv och svensk partipolitik. På så vis lyfter jag upp vad det är som upprör människor i Maxgate. Genom att visa vad som skapar den kollektiva upprördheten kommer det som tidigare var osynliga samhällsideal och normer i öppen dager. Studien syftar också till att visa på spänningar inom samhällsidealen och hur normer tolkas olika, men ändock beskrivs på samma sätt.

This essay presents an example of the musical life of a female composer active in Sweden during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through a case study on composer Sara Wennerberg-Reuter (1875-1959), the essay contributes information to her biography, which had been lacking specific details.Wennerberg-Reuter's biography has been discussed regarding traditional roles of women in music, her relationship to her own artistry and other active women composers, and finally the contemporary reception of Wennerberg-Reuter as a legitimate composer. Aesthetical theories prevalent during Wennerberg-Reuter?s life has been applied in these discussions, such as those presented by Citron, Öhrström and Hanson, combined with Citron's additional theories considering masculine/feminine elements in the musical approach.The main conclusions reached regarding the specific conditions enabling a professional status as a composer and woman in Sweden during the given time are;a) the liberal permission by the family to pursue higher education in composing, since this was in opposition to the traditions of the time.b) the access to a network of musically active women, from which a sense of being part of a female community can be created.c) the acceptance from musical institutions such as higher educations, composer's societies and media critics..

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 thesis is a study of Parties as an outflow of societal changes where the aim has been to find out how parties are affected by societal changes and how they justify to new party formation. This is done by using a theory called Parties as an outflow of societal changes which is a theory developed by Swedish researchers in Political Science. To confirm the theory it is necessary to do an argumentation analysis of one external developed party?s electoral program. In this case the party selected is Feminist Initiative which brings a different view on how the society of Sweden should look like.Selected parts of the argumentative analysis will be examined with the purpose to give a perspective on how Feminist Initiative values the changes in society and how they describe their role as a new party.The main question of this study is; Are new parties an outflow of societal changes? The basic arguments includes that along with societal changes in Western Europe also changes the view of a representative democracy in which political parties play a central role.

The purpose of this master thesis is to describe and analyse Gerda Meyerson's educational project for young working-class women in Stockholm between 1898 and 1923. In 1898 Meyerson founded a home for young working-class women where her project could be implemented. It is the educational practises at this home and Meyerson's own words about working womens way of life thats in focus of this investigation. From a class and gender perspective the thesis examines the problems, the solutions and finally the goals of Meyerson's intentions for the young women. The problems were mainly the womens lack of self-esteem and bad moral reputation in society.

The purpose with this essay is to examine and create an understanding for what meaning graffiti and street art has for those who practice it. Furthermore, the practice of graffiti and street art is seen in relation to how urban space is produced. Five semi-structured interviews and one group interview has been made to answer the questions "What meaning does graffiti and street art has for those who practice it? Can it be seen as a way to construct identity?" "How do the artists relate to existing ideals about public space?" and "Does the artists see graffiti and street art as a resistance against the normative representation of the city, in that case, how?" The theoretical framework consists of Mitchell's ideas about public space, Tonkiss' definition of social order, Lefebvre's spatial triad, de Certeau's concept of strategy and tactics, the concept of appropriation and Castell's theory about collective identity. The results showed that the practice of graffiti and street art can be understood as a more complex practice than earlier research has shown.

The Disney princess line includes nine films, in our study we have extended this line to include the latest three films from Walt Disney Pictures that follow the same pattern. These films are Tangled (2010), Brave (2012) and Frozen (2013). We have conducted our study using the same method used by England, Descartes and Collier-Meeks (2011) in their study of the first nine films, starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs produced in 1937 to Princess and the Frog from 2009. A quantitative study was executed where we focused on gender role portrayal, the main characters behavioral characteristics and performed rescues. We applied the following theories to our result; the Social Constructivism, Laura Mulvey?s theory of the Male Gaze, Michel Foucault?s theory of power and discourse, intersectionality and Claude E.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur tjejer på gymnasiet upplever könsnormativa förväntningar gällande skönhetsideal samt utbildnings- och yrkesval. Vidare vill vi undersöka om och hur dessa upplevelser är förbundna och relaterar till varandra.För att besvara vårt syfte har vi genomfört en kvalitativ intervjumetodik där vi har intervjuat sex tjejer som går tredje året på gymnasiet i ett studieförberedande program. Vi har även valt att presentera relevant forskning och litteratur inom ämnet.I studien fann vi att tjejerna inte upplevde de könsnormativa förväntningarna gällande både skönhetsideal samt utbildnings- och yrkesval som ett krav utan tjejerna valde att följa dessa förväntningar på grund av de medföljande förmånerna. Tjejerna upplevde även att de könsnormativa förväntningarna skapade en samhörighetskänsla bland tjejer. Upplevelser gällande skönhetsideal samt utbildnings- och yrkesval är förbundna genom att det finns könsnormativa förväntningar för båda som tjejerna följer.

This study analyzes the discursive content of four history textbooks in order to demonstrate how national identities are formed and how they differ from each other. This was done through discourse analysis guided by social constructivism and John M. Hobson?s dichotomy of East and West. The study shows that textbooks mainly construct national identities in three ways; first by making a clear distinction between ?The Self? and ?The Other?, second by preserving a world order based on the notions of the invariant hegemony of the nation-state, and third by utilizing stereotype based dissimilarities in order to accentuate existing differences between nationalities. Implicit ideals and values in the historical discourse play an important part in the construction of identities; however sends a contradictory and ambiguous message.

While the strategy of lending a voice to the monstrous is a well known aspect of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's works, the female monster is a notable exception to this case. In this thesis, I excavate a theory of female monstrosity through a reading of some of Lovecraft's most read stories and the agency of female characters that appears within. Comparing these female registers of monstrosity to their masculine counterpart, I develop a concept of female monstrosity manifested through categories of class, race and gender with the help of Judith Halberstams theories of monstrosity.Rather than treating these women as active characters, I argue that Lovecraft's inability to handle these monsters forces him to literally put them away ? in attics, cellars, or boxes. These are the marginalized positions from which these women elaborate a monstrous form that transcends the boundaries of sex, gender, class and race.

This essay aims to describe and problematize gender roles and master suppression techniques in Stephenie Meyer?s Twilight Saga. This is done in order to enable me, in my future profession as a teacher, to start an emancipatory discussion in class where pupils can become conscious of different ways of reading the love story. I will use the following two research questions to fulfil the purpose: 1) investigate which gender roles that appears in the book?s main characters Bella and Edward and 2) which master suppression techniques that colours their relationship.To answer the questions gender theory and ideology-critics are used.

Local history collections are fairly common among the Swedish public libraries and these collections often contain older or rare material. There are no national policies concerning the preservation of rare books at the public libraries, and the librarians of public libraries may lack that knowledge. The aim of this study is to examine librarians? attitudes toward their libraries? local history collections. We interviewed five librarians in the county of Västra Götaland and also made a small observation study of their local history collections.

Domestic weekly magazines in Sweden are characterized by an emphasis on practical editorial material such as cooking recipes and knitting patterns, and also contain a comparatively large share of reader material. This makes it possible to study the readers through texts produced by themselves. The aim of this study of columns of readers' tips on domestic work is to analyze how readers embody a specific femininity centered around the woman as responsible for the home, in the sense of everyday maintenance as well as aesthetic development. The author defines this femininity as "home maker". The theoretical framework for the analysis is the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu, and Jonathan Potter's and Margaret Wetherell's model of interpretive repertoire is also used where modality is discussed.

Lately information- and communication technology (ICT) has been seen as an important tool to vitalize democracy. What kind of democracy it generates is however debateable. The objective with this thesis is therefore to examine what democratic ideal that dominates the use of ICT in Region Skåne and Västra Götalandsregionen and what kind of citizenship it brings. The two case studies were chosen because the Swedish regional level is facing a reorganization with democratic ambitions which in relation to ICT is fairly unexplored. To fulfil the objective there are two perspectives; e-democracy and e-administration, which are defined and integrated with democratic theory including Premfors´ "Fast, Strong and Thin" democratic ideals and Marshall´s three citizenship rights.