This essay studies the practice of both the political and the administrative leadership at the municipal level from the point of view of the politicians and the chief officers leadership role, and the relationship between politicians and administrators. I discuss and analyse how politicians and senior officials practice leadership, differences or similarities and if their practice of leadership raises any challenges in a democratic framework at the municipal level. I conducted interviews with the municipal political leader and the head of administration at the municipal level in Karlshamn and Sölvesborg. In the analysis I discuss communication as a leadership process which highlights ?enabling elements? and potentials of the leadership process.

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.

This is a study about the relation between the Swedish school and the political system of Sweden. I wanted to see if the relation had changed since the election of 2010 as it was in that election the Sweden Democrats got over five percent of the votes and took seat in the Swedish parliament. The thing that is unique about this election is that it was really the first time a right-wing party had been elected into the Swedish parliament. Many experts argue that this is the first xenophobic party that has been elected into the Swedish parliament. This led to a problem for schools and their principals and a difficult question to answer because xenophobia is contrary to the school?s core values and the school?s democratic mission.Should the school still be open for political parties? How do schools manage to distinguish between political information and political propaganda? If parties still are welcome into the schools, which parties should be allowed? The equality ombudsman has said in a report that the schools have to comply with the principle of objectivity, which stipulates that the public sector has to be unbiased.I have chosen to make use of a qualitative method because I think the study then gets a deeper understanding of the topic.

In the 1920s the law against vagrancy had been unaltered since it?s introduction in 1885. During that period, Sweden had undergone great social and political transformation in the wake of industrialisation, urbanisation and democratisation. The political landscape had changed and the social sciences were organising knowledge in new ways. The public opinion realised the need for a review of the vagrant law that better corresponded to the modern times.

Mina slutsatser i mitt arbete är att rollen som finns inom Ithna Ashery inte är homogeniserad när man jämför olika individers subjektiva upplevelse av fenomenet. Däremot om man tittar på en metanivå så kan deras roll se tämligen lika ut. Men på individnivå, som detta arbete försökt behandla, så är den subjektiva upplevelsen av rollerna olika. Det som till stor grad påverkar den subjektiva upplevelse av rollen är sådana saker som den omgivande kontexten i samhället. Men även de mål den enskilda individen har med sin roll när det gäller framtiden för individen.

Detta arbete syftar till att bidra till större insikt i sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen i två muslimska länder, Iran och Turkiet, och på så sätt ge förståelse för hur religion och kultur kan påverka sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen. Egna erfarenheter säger oss att sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen på mångkulturella skolor i Sverige bäddar för konflikter då invandrarföräldrars värderingar inte stämmer överens med den svenska skolans. Vi har utfört ett fältarbete i de båda länderna och intervjuat lärare och rektorer, med koppling till sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen, för att få svar på våra frågeställningar. Resultaten synliggjorde att pubertet och hygien är i fokus i sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen i de respektive länderna. Därtill uppenbarades ?tabuområden? inom ämnesinnehållet.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att belysa lärares åsikter om religiösa konflikter/kulturkrockar i gymnasieskolan. Fokus ligger på konflikter i Sverige mellan kristendom och Islam, på grund av att det enligt migrationsverkets statistik nu anländer flest invandrare från det muslimska landet Irak. Elva stycken gymnasielärare deltog i en enkätundersökning angående deras attityder kring frågor som slöjans vara eller icke vara i skolan och hur man som lärare ska kunna följa Lpf 94 och samtidigt vara verksam i en skola för alla. Jag intervjuade även en lärare och samordnare på IVIK; Individuella programmets introduktionskurser för invandrare och bad om hennes tankar och åsikter, då detta är områden hon arbetar med dagligen. Sveriges integrations- och jämställdhetsminister Nyamko Sabuni har även hon svarat på frågor om slöjförbud i den svenska skolan.

The means to political participation at the local level in Sweden are changing and this change is analyzed through a case study. The first aim is to explore the forms of public political participation in Swedish municipal Älvkarleby, namely public question time in local government, citizen motions and open meetings. A part of this is also to analyze he every day contact between citizens and representatives. The second aim concerns the reasons why politicians decide to support these means to participationThe empirical material consists mainly of semi structured interviews with local politicians, civil servants, participating citizens and local press. Official documents such as public minutes are also used in the process of creating an image of local participation.Local political participation is found to be limited but yet having the potential to strengthen democracy, provided that public decision-makers are open to a dialogue with the participants.Using Kjell Arne Røvik's theories of organisational change, the changes in local democracy can be explained as being partly rational, partly symbolic and partly identity shaping political decisions..

AbstractTitle: From old rightwing-ghost to the new labour party ? The new conservatives political communication during the Swedish election 2006Authors: Pontus CarestenAim: The aim of the essay is to study how the conservative party communicated during the election campaign in 2006. I wish to find out how political parties work in todays society and how the communication has changed over time. To get relevant results I will also see how the theories and empirics interact. The purpose is further to illustrate the new conservatives? campaign work from a senders point of view.Method/Material: I have chosen a qualitative method which consists of three interviews with relevant key persons.

There are lots of theories about participatory democracy, but rather few examples of how to create it in practice. In the 1930´s, scientists at the Chicago School, implemented some projects within the Chicago Area Project, with the aim to decrease the youth delinquency in the socio disadvantaged areas surrounding Chicago. In this thesis, I assess wether these projects, and in particular the one at the Russell Square Area, have some common features with the thoughts of two of the most famous participatory democrats, Carole Pateman and Benjamin Barber. My question is if the Chicago Area Project could be seen as an experiment in participatory democracy. I find that participatory democrats could benefit from the experiences of the Chicago Area Project.

In Jan Jagers and Stefaan Walgrave theory about populism as a political communication-style they claim that one can find this in the rhetoric of political parties. In their study of Belgian politics they found that the extreme-right party Vlaams Block has embraced this populism to a larger extent than other parties. Based on this theory this thesis aims at finding populism as a communication-style in three different Swedish political parties with the purpose to see if the extreme-right party ?The Sweden Democrats? will show populism to a larger extent than other parties, as was the case in the Belgian study.Based on Jagers and Walgraves operational definition of populism as a political communication-style this thesis applies it to the rhetoric of three different parties being ?The Social Democratic Party?, ?The Moderate Party? and ?The Sweden Democrats?. This is done in order to be able to clarify on the one hand if their theory is applicable to the Swedish case and on the other hand to what extent populism as a communication-style exists in Swedish political rhetoric.The method for this thesis has been a qualitative text analysis since and leads to the result that Jagers and Walgraves theory of populism as a communication-style is applicable to the Swedish case and that ?The Sweden Democrats? to a larger extent uses this political communication style, than the two other parties..

Kunskapens makt är stor, men när den används fel blir den förödande. Rådande diskurser producerar kunskap om muslimer där muslimska män framställs som våldsbenägna och där muslimska kvinnor ofta blir en symbol för förtryck. Dessa stereotypa bilder bidrar sedan till att muslimer blir utsatta för intolerans, kränkningar och diskriminering i Sverige. Denna studie fokuserar på unga muslimska kvinnors religiösa identitet för att nyansera de stigmatiserade bilderna som finns om muslimska kvinnor. Genom en kvalitativ undersökning med intervju som teknik, lyfter studien fram religion från ett individperspektiv samt hur religiösa individer upplever sin religiositet i förhållande till ett samhälle där sekularisering är en stark norm.

When it comes to investigating the motives behind activism, the members of political study have a lot to say. I aimed to critiqually rewiev this in my thesis. I asked the question ?What do the actor themselves claim lay behin their decision to become motivated?? To highlight this complex dilemma, I sought to discuss new social movement theory by comparing it to reality. This includes a literate examination on contemporary political science approaches, and a study of two organisations in the south of Sweden, choosen not to despise any excisting theory, but to give it a sense of reality.

The goal of this essay is to analyse how women belonging to a right wing political discourse talk about feminism and equality. This analysis will be used to determine if right wing feminism exists. The analysis is based on Laclau and Mouffe´s  discourse theory as the primary base. The focus is articulation, antagonism and hegmony; the central terms of Laclau and Moffe´s theroy. The material consists of five interviews with representatives of women wings of liberal political in Sweaden; Liberala kvinnor, Centerkvinnor and Moderatkvinnor.The study shows that there are different opinions regarding feminism in the liberal political discouse, and that those opinions have an antagonistic relationship.

Denna uppsats handlar muslimskt konvertering bland unga vuxna i Sverige. Syftet är att undersöka vilka påverkansfaktorer som ligger bakom förekomsten av denna typ av konvertering. Genom att intervjua fyra konvertiter undersöks olika upplevelser, tankar och händelser i deras liv som kan ha bidragit till deras konvertering. Dessutom undersöks tillgången till information som en av de främsta förutsättningarna till att tidigare sekulära personer som rört sig i icke-religiösa miljöer genomgår en sådan omfattande livsstilsförändring som konvertering innebär. Denna information kan i många fall härledas till islamistiska organisationer och rörelser som medvetet riktar sig till yngre personer som lever i icke-muslimska länder.