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 is a study that aims to discern whether there are any differences between upper secondary level school textbooks published both before The Living History Forum (a government agency that works with issues on tolerance, democracy and human rights) was founded and after with regards to their depiction of Judaism in general and anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in particular. Underscoring the relevancy of this topic, in 1997 CEIFO (The Centre for Research in International Migration and Ethnic Relations) and Brå (Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention) conducted a survey among school children which revealed a lack of knowledge regarding the Holocaust (including whether it had even occurred). With this educational deficiency in mind, this study attempts to determine if there is an active development in text-book authoring regarding this subject.Using Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis (CDA) eight textbooks (four old and four new) are examined and compared in order to see if there have been changes in discourse regarding this topic over time. Fairclough's critical discourse analysis is a method used to analyse the relationship between discourse and changes in social and cultural development, and is thus employed in this case to determine if any significant changes have been made in textbooks regarding this topic.As a future teacher in religion it is important for me (and others) to be aware of this type of issue in order to be able to combat it when encountered in schools. It is also important, and part of one?s responsibility as a teacher, to actively and critically work with and review textbooks.This study has not found any major changes in the depiction of Judaism and anti-Semitism in any of the textbooks reviewed.

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 purpose of this study was to discuss young immigrant's experiences of the meeting between their original culture and swedish culture. In this discussion certain emphasis is laid on the formation of identity. In a more specific manner the aim was to find out which underlying circumstances contributed to the individuals choice in considering him- or herself as swedish or not and what these circumstances depended on.The empirical material of this study consists of five lifestories based on the methodological study of narrative. I have analyzed the material with help from Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration with starting point in the conception of ontological safety. I identified four different themes that frequently recured in each lifestory: identity in migration- and integrationsprocesses, the open doors of globalization, "swedish" identity and belonging in two cultures.

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.

Studiens syfte är att ta reda på hur och varför människors förhållningssätt till musik kan förändras vid det jag valt att kalla ?kontextbyten?. Kontextbyte avser när en person flyttar från den kulturella och sociala plats personen är uppvuxen på till Sverige. Empirin bygger på fyra kvalitativa intervjuer med personer som är uppväxta i Sovjetunionen/Ukraina, Mandinka/Senegal, Japan och Jamaica och nu bosatta i Sverige. De är alla på något sätt musicerande.

The purpose of this thesis has been to explore in what ways Franz Kafka?s ?The Metamorphosis? can be read as a story of gender. By bringing together Judith Butler?s theory of materialization and Lennard J. Davis?s crip theory I have spoken of Dismodernity as the domain of abject bodies that have been repudiated by (post)modern societies as untintelligible and dysfunctional.

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.