AbstractThe development of our society has in many ways changed the relationships between the political parties and the citizens. Fewer citizens are active in political parties, which has contributed to the fact that we see a form of catch-all effect and a development of parties that organizes more in forms of professional organisations. This paper has made a research of modells of democratic ideals and values between leaders and party-members in political parties in the local area. The purpose has been to show how these ideals and values can reflect back on the political development. The result shows that the development has created a form of catch-all effect and a professionalism in the parties.

The purpose of this study is to use a qualitative method to investigate the Swedish curriculums of 1919, 1962 and 2011 in search of attitudes and different usages of the popular culture of the time. To reach these conclusions Antonio Gramsci?s theories about cultural hegemony have been applied to prove how the superior classes, in this study these classes are represented by the Swedish school as an institution, use popular culture to maintain sovereignty of the lower classes. Ergo the problem highlighted in this study is whether the cultural class society exists in a fixed state since the 1919?s with the school as the institution to implement the tradition of cultural hegemony.

In January 2007 the Öresund committy changed its statutes to become a more politically oriented lobby organization. This change can be interpreted as one part of a continuously evolving process where the Öresund region is emancipating itself from the national states in a multi-level European environment. By focusing on this latest development the thesis puts forward the importance of political institutions, as well as politicians and civil servants as actors in them, as crucial factors in the process where the region is gaining political power. The thesis shows how the political cross-border cooperation in the Öresund region is being institutionalized which affects its power relations to other levels in the multi-level system, predominantly the national states. In other words, there is a connection between power and institutionalization.The Öresund committee has by gaining better access to policymaking agendas on the national levels proven that the organizational change has already started to bear fruit.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan?s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy.

Bolivia is a multiethnic country where the indigenous people constitute the majority of the population. Despite two decades of attempts to take the democracy further is its foundation more volatile than ever. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to examine if exclusion is taken place in Bolivia from year 1982 until today and if so in which way political exclusion constitute problems of democracy in Bolivia. The answer depends on the understanding of democracy used in the analysis. In this thesis I use theories of process-, participation- and deliberative democracy.

Soundclash is a phenomenon where groups within the culture of reggae music ?battle? against each other, through strategies including both music and rhetoric. The social interaction in the clash exemplifies the scene hierarchy, in which the participants aim to position themselves as number one. This study includes empirical material from a competition within the Swedish scene, also distributed digitally via Internet sites. The analysis is based on discursive psychology, focusing on rhetoric and the construction of meaning.

Problem statement and purpose:The purpose of this study was to analyze in what way first-time voters chose to take part of political information. The questions we aimed to answer was how first-time voters use media and other information channels for political purposes, what importance and trust the first-time voters give the different information channels and finally which indicators there is for that structural or individual factors affect the media consumption and political interest.Method and material:We did interviews with twelve 18 years old first-time voters from six different high school programs in Sundsvall, Sweden.Results:The study showed that the premier source of political information were traditional news media, in particular the debates on TV. It?s also in the debates the first-time voter?s trust the most. Even though the social medias are constantly present in their everyday life and even though the first-time voters believe the social medias have potential for engaging young people politically, the possibilities are only taken in advantage by people who are already politically interested.

Drawing from the theoretical foundations of the ?critical theory? of the Frankfurt School and the media ethnographic ?cultural studies? approach of the british Birmingham School, this study attempts to sketch out a media theoretical overview of the contemporary state of media culture. Using the term convergence culture as the foundation, this study offers a theoretical background to the two contemporary streams that are the significant and distinct tendencies of convergence culture: intermedial convergence, its contemporary state and historical tendencies that can be traced back using the past media theoretical approach of the Frankfurt School, and cultural convergence, its contemporary state and historical tendencies, which lineage in a media theoretical context can be traced back to the british ethographic ?cultural studies? field. Using contemporary drama serials to identify and pinpoint these two stream, this study shows how intermedial convergence expresses itself today through media conglomeration in terms of branding, product placement and marketing as the result of the ?completed? convergence between screen culture and popular music as the current defining state of commodity culture.

The purpose of this study is to explore the Swedish site Funbeat which is a space dedicated to people who share an interest in exercising in general, and running in particular. By applying a netnographic analysis, I will investigate if Funbeat matches the criteria of a participatory culture and how the members manage to establish a collective intelligence within the community. In order to achieve this, I will analyze the interactivity between the participants which occurs in discussion threads concerning injuries related to running, in the sites discussion forum. The results will then be discussed in relation to previous research within the field for participatory culture, collective intelligence and interactivity.The outcome of the study revealed that Funbeat can be regarded as very good example of a participatory culture. By each member sharing their individual knowledge in matters regarding injuries, a collective intelligence was established.

Title: Facebook ? a false utopia?Authors: Anton Furuland & Dominic ChennayaPrincipal research question: Is the political polarization increasing on and through Facebook?Theoretical frame: Identification theory, selective exposure theory, spiral of silenceMethod/Material: Semi-structured interviews which provided our materialMain Results: Our research has shown a tendency for increased political polarization on Facebook.Number of pages: 58Course: Media and communication studies CDepartment: Department of informaticsUniversity: Uppsala UniversityPeriod: HT 2014Tutor: Amelie HössjerKeywords: Political polarization, Facebook, political debate, selective exposure, identification.

National identity, multiculturalism and invisible norms are three conceptions focused on in this essay. They are discussed and analysed with the purpose of deepening deepen the understanding of their meaning. Further on they become instruments in a study of the Liberal Party's proposal for new politics of integration. My ambition is to distinguish signs of a Swedish national identity in this proposal and to interpret the party's relation to multiculturalism.The method of this essay comprises partly a literature study and partly a qualitative analysis of text.My discussion and analysis ended in an understanding of national identity and multiculturalism as complex and interrelated conceptions. I found parts of a Swedish national identity in the value of working, in the fear of the cultural unknown and of eventual anti Swedish culture, in the idea of Sweden as the best country in the world considering gender equality and in the strong defence for the Swedish language.

It is important that organizations today focus on continuous improvements in order to face the growing competition in the world. A company needs a corporate culture that supports and encourages the employees to be creative and innovative in their work. This is necessary for the company if they are striving towards continuous learning and development within their organization.The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how the culture differences between Sweden and China affect Sandvik AB. We will also study how the company manages continuous improvements and what consequences culture differences have on their work.Our paper is a single case study at Sandvik AB in Sweden and China. We have visited Sandvik in Sandviken to conduct a series of interviews with employees of different position within the company and with dissimilar work tasks.

The Swedish Moderate party, often also called the Conservative party, was founded with conservatism as the dominant ideology. During the years, however, liberalism has gradually found its way into the party. The aim of this study is to analyze the Moderate party?s political platforms from 1984 to 2013 from an ideological perspective. Is conservatism still a foundational ideology in the Moderate party, or has the liberal ideology taken its place? The study is based on an ideal type analysis that illustrates the Moderate party?s argumentation in six political issues in the years 1984, 1993 and 2013.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze two factors contributing to child labor in Ghana, one of the world's largest producers of cocoa. These two factors are: poor countries economic and political dependency on the rich countries, political leader?s ambitions and decisions. We will also describe and analyze the UN's efforts and measures to combat child labor. The method we used was a case study of child labor in Ghana?s cocoa industry together with interviews.

AbstractTitle: Företag X? the hidden power? a study of internal communication, culture and internal branding. Företaget X has in real life a different name.Number of pages: 42 (49 with enclosures)Author: Charlotta Babington ThorszeliusCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn 2007University: Uppsala University, SwedenPurpose/Aim: To analyze the internal communication, culture and internal branding of an insurance company and how they can improve these company tools can be improved.Material/Method: qualitative method using interviews, analysis of internal communication policies and observations.Main results: The policy documents do not match how the internal communication works in every day life. There is a structure that is working and the information flows through the different levels. The vision and goals are difficult to understand as they are written in a complicated way.