The main purpose of the culture is to serve people and represent the people's social will and freedom. Culture does not exist in a vacuum but shaped and framed by political and artistic structures that are not neutral, and this is why the artwork itself cannot be an independent business. The public function of art can be understood as a defense of the ideals of democracy. But today, when political power is often replaced by hegemony, the role of art and functions are changing. How these changes reflect to the identity, reality and truth of society? What political functions are fulfilled when art becomes ?public?? The issue of democracy is linked question of people?s power in a democratic society where power is legitimized in social space.

The aim of this essay is to illustrate a fundamental question; what is a democracy allowed to do to protect itself from enemies? I´ve chosen to analyze the conflict between the two values; individual integrity and state´s security. The individual integrity refers to every person's right to have a protected sphere, and the stat´s security refers to its right to protect itself, and these two positions are often time incompatible. This conflict of value is shown in a normative analysis, where depending on which perspective or normative logic is seen as primate, it gives different conclusions to what a democracy should do to defend itself.To demonstrate how severe the threats are against the society, I choose to examine a specific part of the organized crime, the outlaw motorcycle gangs. They have a special position in affecting the legal system because they have an explicit aim to influence the judicial system with scaremongering and threats.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the conceptualisation of the social relations of class and gender within the Social Democratic Women?s Association during the period 1972 ? 1993, on the basis of their programmes for action. The analysis of the concepts is based on an ideology critical study focusing on the manifest ideology.The study is based upon the theoretical concepts of class and gender,  The class analysis is based upon the broadened concepts of class by Erik Olin Wright and Ira Katznelson. The gender analysis is mainly based upon a Marxist understanding and a critical point of view of Marxism and feminism in the context of patriarchy and capitalism.The period of the study is where the social democracy is challenged, both by radical socialism and feminist ideology and the economic crisis during the 1980?s, as well as the possible threat of an organised women?s party in Sweden.

I have studied how network in a broad sense can affect decision-making. The primary purpose is to see if the political initiative somewhere disappears when it comes to understand the relations between power, actors and politics. The study discuss in a theoretical area that concerns the reliability in neoinstitutionalism to use as an analytical instrument. Some criticism is given to the theoretical standpoint in the sense that there is no power perspective included in the theory. I include a discussion about a concept of power, which I include to the theory.

The purpose of our study is to examine how parents experienced their participation and their involvement in a solution-focused parenting group. The parenting groups are a part of the social welfare system in a town in south of Sweden. The study is conducted as a qualitative study with focus groups. 11 parents have participated. The study´s theoretical framework considers solution focused theory, social constructionism and process within groups.In the study we found that participants generally perceived their participation as positive and that they received confirmation by meeting other parents in the same situation.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how the position of power / exercise of power are perceived in today's schools from the teacher's perspective. I have examined how students' freedom and democracy education interpreted in real life, and how this affects both teacher and student learning approaches. I would also highlight the need to set standards for children's psychological development related to the consequences will be. I have chosen to perform a qualitative research through individual interviews with five participating teachers from different experiences in different type of school. I have used the hermeneutic method of analysis to analyze the material.

This thesis uses the ?What's the problem?-approach developed by Carol LeeBacchi. This approach studies how the problem that a certain policy is supposedto take care of is represented. Each representation will rest upon certainassumptions and will accordingly support certain solutions while other solutionswill be considered less suitable to the problem as it is represented.The thesis therefore evaluates the competing problem representations forgender mainstreaming in Sweden. The theory chapter explores two developmentpossibilities for gender mainstreaming, based on diversity and deliberativedemocracy.

Bolivia genomförde neoliberalt inspirerade reformer under 1990-talet. En av lagarna som kom till då, Law of Popular Participation, decentraliserade vissa besluts- och planeringsprocesser till lokal nivå. Ett centralt inslag i lagen var det ökade deltagande och inflytande som den ämnade ge kvinnor och förfördelad landsortsbefolkning. Som spunnen ur en neoliberal tradition, syftar vår litteraturstudie till att undersöka effekten av lagen om definitionen av civilsamhälle breddas utom dessa ramar. I studien undersöks effekten av lagen; dels på kvinnornas situation, dels på klyftorna mellan stad och landsbygd utifrån vårt civilsamhälleliga ramverk.

Social movements have long been valuable components of the struggle for a world with true justice. Along with the changing and modernization of society these movements also change, both in their actions as well as in the goals they want to accomplish. Technology is taking a greater part in many aspects of social life, creating new dimensions but also new social divides. This thesis examines how new social movements make themselves visible and affect the world around them through different kinds of networks. For the purpose of this study, we have chosen to study two social movements; the Zapatistas in Mexico, who have become known worldwide for carrying out the first informational revolution, and MoveOn.org, an American grassroots organization that struggles for increased democracy in the US.

Introduction: Reducing social inequality in health is a prioritized goal for public health on the global as well as the national and the local levels. Hälsoteket operates through health promotion to reduce inequality in health in the district of Angered in Göteborg, through the improvement of living habits and the wellbeing of the population.Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate Hälsoteket in Angered through its participants? subjective experiences. Subsidiary aims were to explore participants? perceptions and opinions about Hälsoteket in Angered, how they perceive the health impact of their participation and their motivations for participating.Method: A qualitative method was used to fulfill the aim.

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about how teachers in preschool regard their participation in children's play. Through this study you will get an insight into how teachers' involvement affects children's learning. I have chosen to look at the study from a socio-cultural perspective.The study is based on qualitative interviews with four pre-school teachers.The result shows that teachers believe that it is important to attend in children's play to support, challenge and develop their play. One sees that teachers take different roles based on the needs of the children?s group, such as actively participate in the play, being a supportive teacher, serve as inspiration or to be an observer.

Bortom historien slut ? Beyond the end of historyAccording to Robert Dahl there are seven criteria that have to be fulfilled in order for a state to be democratic. Dahl also states that there are several factors that effect the development of democracy. In today?s world it is mostly developing countries that have failed to bring about democratic changes.

Officially, the EU gender policy since 2000 has been guided by the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming. This strategy aims to promote gender equality and is informed by a feminist ontology which stipulates that women are structurally subordinated.In this essay, I examine whether the European Commission has adequately adhered to this gender policy in its free trade negotiations with the ACP (African, Caribbean, and Pacific) countries as part of the Cotonou Agreement. As a result of my text analysis of documents related to the negotiations, opinion pieces by interested actors and policy papers of the EU, I find that the Commission does not act in accordance to its stated gender policy.To explain this discrepancy between policy intent and actions, I employ postliberal feminist theory and Robert Putnam's Two-Level Game Theory Model. By analyzing statistics and published research, I explore how gender issues are being represented politically on a domestic and international level.My findings show that a key cause of this discrepancy lies in the low levels of female participation in the political institutions of the EU and ACP; a lack of participation that is especially pronounced in the area of international economics. In explaining the constraints on female participation and the prospects of full implementation of the EU's gender policy in the international political economy, I emphasize the role of culturally and historically gendered institutions..

Studies have shown that politicians are significantly more likely to become victims of violent crime than other citizens in Sweden. In fact increasing political rank and engagement are directly proportionate to increased risk for violence. Threat towards politicians is not only dangerous to the individuals involved but also to the democratic system as a whole.Political scientists the world over have done a lot of research on democracy, but I have been unable to find a single method or theory that examines how violence, threat and harassment affect political leaders and democratic systems.The aim of this study is to expand the existing model made by Tommy Möller, professor in political science. In his model he presents 11 factors that affect political leaders ability to act. My aim is to develop his model by adding a 12 th factor ?violence, threat and harassment?.

AbstractThe aim of this essay is to explore how teachers and leisure educators can strengthen and increase students? self-confidence in different ways in their line of work. I chose this inquest for personal reasons and also because it will be of great aid for me since this is what I intend my future profession to be. For this inquest I have chosen to do five qualitative interviews and two unstructured observations. The inquest was also based on relevant literature connected to its purpose.The results show that self-confidence is linked to something the individuals accomplish and that self-esteem is the way they see themselves, an inner feeling.