This thesis is dedicated to analysing the relationship between Islam and democracy and the role played by Civil Society in a process towards democracy. This theme is further elaborated through a comprehensive study of three modern Muslim intellectuals: Abdolkarim Soroush (Iran), Hasan Hanafi (Egypt), and Tariq Ramadan (Switzerland), and their thoughts about and views on Islam and democracy. Islam has often been portrayed in a stereotype manner where all forms of change are seen as impossible. The aim of this study is to go beyond this vision and instead focus one the role of Islam in processes of development and new forms of interpretation concerning democracy.The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the relationship between Islam and democracy.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to increase the knowledge about how public libraries can contribute to fulfil political programmes aimed towards integration. To achieve this we have conducted an evaluative case study about a public library in Sweden and the activities they carried out within the framework of the metropolitan policy programme Storstadssatsningen?. The questions raised consider which the political aims for integration within this programme were, which activities the library did accomplish, what the result in comparison with the politically decided aims was, and what conclusions can possibly be drawn from this? The theoretical framework consists of theories regarding evaluation, political programmes, integration and segregation, and public library-activities.

A variety of studies have been conducted on the use of the balanced scorecard in the public sector. Fewer studies, however, is made at a lower, more local level within municipal departments. The aim is to describe the scorecard application by two different departments, while scorecard adjustment over time and actors and their rules are addressed in this context. This has led us to the following problem: How can scorecard application be described in two different departments in a municipal context? In the theoretical framework we presented fundamental theories of balanced scorecard in different contexts, a scorecards translation process and the rules that guide and limit the actors in the organization.

The history of Banu Umayya has since the collapse of the caliphate occupied a major part in Islamic historiography. The present thesis analyses the presentation of the Umayyads in Ibn Khaldun?s al-Muqaddima and its relation to previous historical traditions. The thesis examines the social and intellectual context in which Ibn Khaldun stood and how it is represented in his historiography, while also providing an overview of the various socio-political, intellectual and historiographical developments in Islam. The theoretical perspectives are based on the concept of agency, examining the intellectual room for manoeuvre that the historian disposed of while composing the works.

The purpose with this essay is to investigate Swedish political parties who have had or has a restrictive immigration policy containing opinions, that can be classified as xenophobic, and their history and development as a party. The focus in this essay is centred on the politicization that the parties Ny demokrati and Sverigedemokraterna have gone through and the mobilization they have reached. The material that will be handled in this matter are mainly the parties? political programs that have been published in various forms, but these will be supplemented with secondary sources in the form of previous research, reviews by journalists and other literature. The result have shown that the development from 1970 ? 1980´s to today considering these type of organizations is that they have changed in their appearance, in the matter of how they convey their message, and the actual appearance of the party members more than the message itself.

The similarity between the Russian and the Indian, in a Cold War context, may be ambiguous considering the ethnic-social variables and the period in time from where the Indians relate. However, by analyzing these, as well as other, characters in the exhibition of movies, we could learn something about the ideology of the time from which the movies derive.This study examines ideology and movies in the Cold War era and concludes that the Indian, for example, may be representing the values of the common public enemy, originating from the Cold War ideology. The movies examined, regardless of influence of distinct Cold War themes or lack of such themes, carry attributes that give evidence of typical Cold War ideology. The fear of communism and common enemies connected to a Cold War context, the thought of America as the land of the free ? with the horizon in the ending of the movies as metaphoric to freedom ? and the moral rhetoric that connects to the American thought of a duty as a global savior, are all signs of the Cold War ideology.Even though the messages are somewhat clearer and more distinct in the movies with Cold War motifs, the fact that ideology is projected through other movies as well should be considered essential for the continuing study of movies as cultural artefacts..

Ändamålet med denna uppsats är att ta reda på vilka värden som svensk säkerhetspolitik grundar sig på samt att se om det existerar en konflikt mellan försvarsberedningen och Försvarsmakten. Detta allt utifrån en idéanalys av försvarsberedningen och Försvarsmaktens offentliga tryck. Bakgrunden till detta är den diskussion som uppstått i medierna kring Försvarsmakten. I medierna har vi kunnat ta del av information som berättar om ett försvar som döms ut i interna rapporter och där det talas om en identitetskris. Men också om hur Försvarsmakten idag är långt ifrån regeringens satta beslut.

This comparative case study, which is based on a most similar system design,investigates why the Chávez government has attained a lower degree of democracy than the Kirchner and the Lula governments. In order to develop asupplementary theory about why governments in general achieve various degrees of democracy I compare these governments and examine what policies that differ them and why. My results show that these governments? policies differ concerning the rule of law, militarization, and negotiations with economic groups and anti-regime parts of civil society. I have found numerous answers to why some of these governments (and governments in general) have democratic policies within these four areas and why some do not.

The aim of this study was to determine to what degree the framing of the political party the Sweden Democrats had changed in swedish media, from 2010 in contrast to 2012. Particular interest was directed towards the framing of the party as a problem.This was done by studying the news articles during 12 weeks in 2010, and 12 weeks in 2012, in the newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen. These particular newspapers were especially interesting to study since they have been outspokenly critical of the party. Both of the newspapers can be said to be among the most clearly critical towards the Sweden Democrats.I studied 256 published articles retrieved through the news database Newsline. Quantitative content analysis was used to determine patterns and tendencies.

This thesis deals with urban planning in connection with social and spatial integration.It´s a study of a new planning project in Malmö in southern Sweden. It´s an interesting case because this new, fashionable area will be located next to areas facing socio-economical challanges and stagnation. By using two theoretical models I analyse how the visions for planning a city are formulated and applied when policy is going to be operated. My models are ?the balanced community? and ?the dual community? .The conclusion is that the focus for Malmö and Hyllie is going towards emphasing the creation of attractive but segregated districs in a city.

Art in the city can be invisible until we talk about it. Letting children see public art in the context of play and narrative is a way to enhance creative thinking and knowledge as well as making the art visible. By creating a prototype for an art walk for children this study was able to create a scenery of children using different kinds of mediated narrative combined with a physical environment and movement. The theoretical framework of the project was picture books (Rhedin, 1991) transmedia (Jenkins 2006, Ryan 2004) and public art (Kwon 2002). The project?s aim was to create an empirical context for primary school children to explore public artwork.

The purpose of this paper is to see how politicians use Internet communication in their daily work and how they use it to interact with citizens of Vasteras city. To reach my conclusions I used both theoretical methods such as literature studies and qualitative interviews with the towns 11 trustees. Accoarding to this study the politicians saw not only a lot of potentials and advantages in Internet communication but also many difficulties and obstacles. In this case the cons far exceeded the pros. One of the main reason is the bad experiences which caused by rasist attacks/threats made to politicians and also the difficulties in handling of sensitiv documents which was seen as a stress factor.

This thesis studies the indirect effects of Europeanization on national political parties. I argue that Europeanization has affected the way national parties operate, and communicate with the voters, by restricting the national policy space through increased economic and political integration. Furthermore, I argue that the impact of Europeanization is likely to be reflected in electoral manifestos and changed patterns of party competition. Accordingly, Europeanization is hypothesized to change party rhetoric in a cartel-like manner by diminishing voters? expectations, and also by avoiding EU-affairs in electoral manifestos. The hypothesis suggests, moreover, that Europeanization is reflected in convergence among parties regarding the rhetoric concerning EU-affairs. The purpose of the thesis is to examine to what extent the rhetoric concerning EU-affairs has changed in electoral manifestos sinceSwedenjoined the European Union in 1995.

Through the collection and analysis of negotiations surrounding the gay magazine Destroyer, the intention of this paper is to identify norms of sexuality within a contemporary sex-radical discourse. These negotiations are collected from interviews with individuals whom, at the time of the inter-view, consider themselves or their politics sex-radical. In order to allow for a more general under-standing of the context in which these negotiations have come about, material about Swedish law is also included in this text, together with the interview material, and serves as a base for analysis through the application of Gayle Rubin?s theory on the hierarchical value system of sexuality.Following, are the main themes throughout the paper: The meaning of the context; Sexualized children; The possibility to (not) participate: differences of power; The decision whether or not to sell the publication and The position of the pedophile and crossgenerational love/sexuality within the LGBTQ community.Key words: sex radicalism, pornography, boy-love, kiddy porn, pedophilia, Destroyer, Gayle Rubin..

Due to the political system in Vietnam, all organizations in Vietnam need a permit to operate in the country and consequently, have to balance their mission, their main purpose of being in the country, with the fact that they are dependant on the government to give them the permit they need to stay in the country.With this as our basis, the main focus of this essay has been to identify different types of relations that exist between the Vietnamese state and International Non Governmental Organisations (INGOs) in Vietnam. Since we have interviewed people representing INGOs, our result is based on their experience of this relationship. By using Najam's Four-C's Model, we established that the more traditional INGOs which principally provide services, predominantly have a cooperative relationship with the state, whereas radical INGOs which are committed to policy change, mostly have a relationship which is characterised by conflict..