During a major part of modernity the concept of identity was something that in many ways was predetermined for the individual. People in general remained in the same social spheres as the generations before, shared common religions and beliefs and where more or less bound to a geographic area. Identity and lifestyle was something that was adapted quite unreflected from habit and tradition. Though, during the cultural modernisation process that took place in the twentieth century, previous shared patterns of interpretation vanished and became individual.  Finding references, constructing an identity and establishing a self became individual.

The first aim of this study is to discuss and try to understand the relationship between the holy andethics, and more specifically how it can be understood, which is the critical question that I haveformulated, in Giorgio Agamben?s and Emmanuel Levinas? philosophies. The second, moreconstructive aim is to discuss whether the holy can be understood as something good or problematicin relation to the society.Rooted in philosophy of religion and ethics, I have first tried to discuss how the holy has beenunderstood in the philosophy of phenomenology and in the texts of Rudolf Otto, Mircea Eliade andEspen Dahl. The holy has in the history been understood as something central in religions, and hasalso not been connected to the idea of ethics. Recently it has also been critized ? by Dahl ? for notbeing so pure as first thought of.In Levinas texts the holy has been understood as something differentiated through his distiction,in the Talmudic reading ?Desacralization and Disenchantment?, between the holy, which can beseen as something pure, and the sacred which can been seen as something impure and a form ofdegenerated holiness.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how Irish people on a rural location practice their faith in everyday life. The intention is also to find out what strategies my interviewees use to negotiate the abuse scandal and what their thoughts on the Catholic Church are. The material mainly consists of interviews with seven people part of a rural parish in Ireland. My research also entails smaller observations and conversations in the homes of the participants.The results indicate that they all consider themselves religious, however not all Catholic. All of the participants integrate their religion in everyday life.

In the context of world globalization, Sweden has today become a multicultural society, where many different cultures, religions, values and approaches are trying to co-exist. When the Swedish government's integration policy was put into effect, one sought to open the way for a more peaceful coexistence between majority and minority people. The intention was that everyone, through mutual interaction, would learn to come together and learn to respect each other's differences. It was suggested that an intercultural approach should permeate all education, including preschool activity. There are particular guidelines for a culture and tradition promotion work within the preschool in the new revised curriculum (Lpfö 98, rev.

Denna studie handlar om debatten om den statliga myndigheten Försvarets radioanstalt och den lag, kallad FRA-lagen som denna myndighet måste följa vid övervakning. Studien har gjorts utifrån ett kvalitativt arbetssätt.Syftet med studien är att undersöka om de teorier om makt och övervakning som Michel Foucault presenterade under 18- och 1900-talet är aktuella än idag. För att vi ska kunna göra detta har vi använt oss av nyhets- och debattartiklar från dagstidningarna Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet samt två videoklipp från Sveriges Television, innehållande intervjuer med FRA:s generaldirektör Dag Hartelius och brittiske frilansjournalisten Duncan Campbell. De frågeställningar vi använder oss av i studien riktar sig mot att hjälpa oss att undersöka om Foucaults och Benthams teorier kan användas idag och dessa är följande: Hur tar sig Foucaults teorier om övervakning och makt uttryck i dagens samhälle?På vilket sätt visar sig dessa teorier i debatten om FRA och FRA-lagen?Vår teoretiska utgångspunkt grundar sig i Michel Foucaults teori om makt.Resultatet som vi kommit fram till grundar sig i de teman som vi har utarbetat i de artiklar som vi använder oss av i studien som är: Skydd, personlig integritet, lagstiftning och samarbete och Foucaults begrepp som han använder i sin maktteori som är följande: Disciplinär makt, foglighet, och institutioner.

The aim of this study is to examine the media coverage of gender-neutral marriage from an intersectional perspective ? with particular regard to gender, sexual orientation and religion. By focusing on the spokespeople who appears in the articles we have made an attempt to answer questions regarding who was heard in the debate on gender-neutral marriage and how the homosexual couples are portrayed in relation to the above criteria.The collected material consists of 89 articles, published in 2009, in Swedish newspapers which have been analysed by using quantitative content analysis. Ten articles have also been selected for a critical discourse analysis based on Norman Fairclough?s approach.

The aim of this study is to analyse how female neopagan practitioners form their identitiesindividually as well as collectively. Using Ernesto Laclau?s and Chantal Mouffe?s discourse theory and Anthony Giddens? descriptions of late modernity and self-identity, I intend toinvestigate my informants? construction and upholding of a meaningful identity and sense ofself. I will also look at how the neopagan movement can be viewed as a phenomenon closely interwoven with the overriding tendencies in our contemporary society. Neopaganism is an umbrella term that is used to describe a number of modern nature religions that take their inspiration from pre-Christian traditions.

The object of this thesis is the foundation of ethics. The question is whether there exists a universal core to ethics consisting of a fundamental ethical principle across cultures. This principle could for example be the so-called Golden Rule, which goes as follows: ?You should do to others what you want them to do to you?. The Golden Rule is to be found in many of the world?s religions and is also reflected in secular society.

This study aims to analyse how sex and sexuality are presented in the Buddhism and Hinduism chapters of religious studies textbooks for upper secondary school. The chosen textbooks are all linked to the new curriculum Lgr 11 which was implemented in the Swedish school system in the spring of 2012. The textbooks were analysed by using two methods; content analysis and discourse analysis. Content analysis was used to examine with which frequency sexes and sexualities appear in the textbooks, while discourse analysis was used to find what discourses surround the two concepts. The discourse analysis used two theories in order to contextualize the several discourses about sex and sexuality.

The thesis explores how the category religion is used discursively in Swedish public debates and in what way the discourses can be related to debate-positions. The thesis also exploresquestions of power and how social identities are negotiated: which identities are madepossible ? and encouraged ? by the discourse, and which are being excluded?The specific cases chosen are: (i) the election of Omar Mustafa as a substitute member of the governing board of the Social Democratic party in April 2013, (ii) the appointment of Elisabeth Svantesson as Minister of employment in September 2013, (iii) the debate concerning male circumcision (2011-2013), and, (iv) the debate about Jewish home education(2012-2013).The theoretical and methodological perspectives used in the thesis are discourse analysis and Pierre Bourdieu?s theory of social fields, usually interwoven together. Discourse analysis is mainly used to explore how the category of religion is attached to central binaries in the debates such as faith/politics, private/public, secularism/fundamentalism, etc., and also how chains of equivalences are established. Bourdieu?s theory of social fields is used tocontextualize the discourses in the specific debates and relate them to orthodox and heterodox debate-positions.

Denna kandidatuppsats analyserar hur den svenskkyrkliga självförståelsen ser ut inom Guds hus-projektet i Nacka församling utifrån ett religionsteologiskt perspektiv. Användandet av en empirisk teoretisk modell nämligen ?4 voices of theology? framtagen av Action Research ? Church & Society (ARCS) i Storbritannien har gjort det möjligt att beskriva hur den svenskkyrkliga självförståelsen ser ut inom Guds hus-projektet och hur denna självförståelse påverkar den religionsteologi som förmedlas ur ett svenskkyrkligt perspektiv. Genom att använda den empirisk teoretiska modellen bestående av fyra olika aspekter av teologi; adopterad, normativ, formell och operativ teologi har bilden av den svenskkyrkliga självförståelsen blivit tydligare. Den empiriska teorin har sedan ställts mot ett material från gruppintervjuer där företrädare för Nacka församling involverade i Guds hus-projektet; både anställda och förtroendevalda har blivit intervjuade utifrån frågeställningar som berör den svenskkyrkliga självförståelsen av Guds hus-projektet och religionsteologi. Efter att ha analyserat materialet är slutsatsen att Guds hus-projektet religionsteologi i synnerhet är en kontextuell och erfarenhetsgrundad religionsteologi. Guds hus-projektet har lett fram mot Diapraxis, vilket innebär att religionsteologin har omvandlats och blivit praktik. Församlingens företrädare uttrycker själva att vad man gör inom Guds hus-projektet är att vilja ta ett steg bortom religionsteologin till vad man själva beskriver som en ?uppenbarelseteologi? eller ?kärleksbudets teologi?. Begränsningarna i analysen är att den enbart baseras på företrädare från Svenska kyrkan, Nacka församling, vilket är ett av de tre samfund som Guds hus-projektet utgör.

The project of this thesis is to illuminate the teacher perspective on study visits by examining how six religion teachers relate to the study visit method in high school religious education. The research object of the thesis is to investigate whether teachers believe there are viable didactic possibilities and challenges associated with the study visit concept in education, and to define them if present. The results show that the main didactic advantage, as perceived by the teachers participating in this study, lies in the meeting the study visit enables. A meeting may lead to increased insight and understanding of other people?s way of thinking, conceiving and believing.

This thesis examines the everyday resistance, and its interaction with cultural hybridity, of the Saami population in the administrative unit of Torne lappmark during the period 1639?1732. To do this, the thesis uses theoretical concept of everday resistance as it has been described by JamesC. Scott and the theories of cultural hybridity as they have been described by Peter Burke. Primary source material used in this thesis consists of the court records from Torne lappmark, specifically from the courts at Jukkasjärvi and Enontekis.The results of this thesis present a picture of the everyday resistance in early modern Torne lappmark.

The aim of this essay is to analyze the political interests of the United States Government in Turkey, from 1997 to spring 2007, using a qualitative method. I will also analyze any strategic changes during this period, by using theories of realism, particularly Structure Realism and Rational Choice. Using the Rational Actor Model (RAM), I will analyze how nation states such as the United States act in the political arena in Turkey. How can the US Government legitimize the support to Turkey and at the same time criticize there democratic deficit and their view on human rights. Turkey has been an American Military Ally, via NATO since 1952 and its demographic situation has changed since the Cold War.

This thesis examines the everyday resistance, and its interaction with cultural hybridity, of the Saami population in the administrative unit of Torne lappmark during the period 1639?1732. To do this, the thesis uses theoretical concept of everday resistance as it has been described by JamesC. Scott and the theories of cultural hybridity as they have been described by Peter Burke. Primary source material used in this thesis consists of the court records from Torne lappmark, specifically from the courts at Jukkasjärvi and Enontekis.The results of this thesis present a picture of the everyday resistance in early modern Torne lappmark.