The purpose of the essay is to analyze the welfare state from a gender perspective. Further, the paper analyzes and critically examines three different normative solutions provided by Irish Marion Young, Nancy Fraser and Jürgen Habermas for the realization of a welfare state that includes women.Habermas argues that the welfare state has created a situation of dependency and state paternalism which reduces both individual and collective self-determination. Young follows Habermas? argument. She argues for a political climate where justice is reduced to the distribution of material goods rather than the elimination of underlying relations of domination and gender specific patterns.

The purpose of the essay is to analyze the welfare state from a gender perspective. Further, the paper analyzes and critically examines three different normative solutions provided by Irish Marion Young, Nancy Fraser and Jürgen Habermas for the realization of a welfare state that includes women.Habermas argues that the welfare state has created a situation of dependency and state paternalism which reduces both individual and collective self-determination. Young follows Habermas? argument. She argues for a political climate where justice is reduced to the distribution of material goods rather than the elimination of underlying relations of domination and gender specific patterns.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine attitudes and standpoints amongst librarians at the Swedish public library towards literary awards and awarded literature. The questions posed in the study are: What attitudes are expressed amongst these librarians towards the Nobel Prize in literature, the August Prize and literary awards and awarded literature in general? What significance do the Nobel Prize in literature, the August Prize and other literary awards have concerning purchase and display at these public libraries? How is awarded literature perceived and how do they talk about it concerning quality and are questions of quality significant? Qualitative interviews with seven librarians at four different public libraries have been done. Theories regarding J?rgen Habermas the bourgeois public sphere and Pierre Bourdieu?s terms habitus, field and capital have been used as to explain the library as a public sphere.

UN is a non-governmental organization which should promote gender equality within the organization. It is an organization which is based on human rights and claims that in order to solve the problem of poverty, famine and development we need to promote women?s status. In Sweden there is a strong tradition of gender balanced representation at the governmental level and this perspective raise the question if there is a spill-over effect to the civil society as in the case of a non-governmental organization. This makes it interesting to look at if a non-governmental organization which is not under state control work for gender equality within their own organization.

This paper analyses the existence and nature of the sacred landscape Olands härad during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Olands härad is located in Northern Uppland, onthe way to Östhammar, about 30 km northeast of Uppsala. The interpretations are done with help of place names studies as well as archaeological finds. The results indicate that different types of cult locations can be found in the area..

This essay focuses on Finnish immigrants living in Sweden and their experiences of educationof literature in Swedish upper secondary school. It concerns the fact of how education ofliterature can be used to strengthen students? formation of cultural identity. The essay tries toidentify obstacles as well as possibilities in the teaching of literature with a view to deepenand enrich this process. The method consists of a phenomenological approach includinginterviews with a group of Finnish immigrants living in Sweden.

Engelsk titel: Greater opportunities than interests : Civic culture and deliberative discourse on Swedish NGO websitesThis is a critical and normative study, which examines a selection of Swedish NGO websites as potential forums for civic culture and deliberative discourse in the public sphere. Sociocultural, political and sociological and media and communication theories are combined.The work is made within a Habermasian tradition, but the importance of a hermeneutic methodology is stressed, along with the sociocultural perspective to reach an understanding of why citizens engage in politics. In contrast to much of the earlier research concerning deliberative discourses on the Internet, a more informal understanding of how people discuss politics is stressed.The questions are: What kind of civic role do the websites discursive dimensions address? What kind of civic identity do the users address in the websites resource dimensions?The empirical results are both discouraging and encouraging for advocates who put their trust in the Internet as a potential civic tool, in these times when neoliberal models of citiziens are prioritizing citizens as consumers, thus neglecting citizens as political actors. The study reveals that the websites show good results in general, regarding the civic roles and identities of the websites as both discourse and resource for the users.

AbstractThis study is a critical analysis of three different views on human dignity and its function in the discourse of human rights: that of Christopher McCrudden, Jürgen Habermas and Elena Namli. The three positions are interpreted, analyzed and compared in order to see which is most reasonable.The conclusion is that Habermas?s and McCrudden?s view of human rights as legal reduces human dignity to a legal concept. Namli?s perspective of human dignity as a moral principle generates a wider understanding of human dignity and its function.

The purpose of this thesis is to present a number of examples of how the debate concerning same-sex marriages in Sweden was conducted in religious media between the year of 2005 and May 1st 2009. I intend to examine if and how these debate articles can be descibes as examples of religion taking part in the public sphere according to José Casanovas theory of deprivitization and public religion (1994) and Jürgen Habermas theory of religion in the public sphere (1964, 1989, 2006, 2008). I will apply the theories to the material by using four criteria for public religion, based on Casanovas and Habermas two theories, designed by Marta Axner. I also intend to compare the arguments used in the material to the arguments found in Marta Axners dissertation Public Religions in Swedish Media (2013). To identify these arguments a textanalysis containing seven argumentschemes, designed by Gunnar Björnsson (1994), is applied.

In this essay I investigate how the Roman colonization (around 50 BC to 400 AD) affected the Celtic religion. I inquire which operators that were behind these changes and under what circumstances they happened. I take a closer look on three places in Gaul and one place and one area in Britain. In my study of these places I see that it was the elite of the Celtic societies who together and under pressure from Rome made these changes. The religion and gods did not change; instead the ritual ceremonies changed to fit into something that Rome thought was right.

AbstractBachelor thesis in political science by Alexander Hassan, autumn 2008, ?Effects of external factors on a nations democratisation process during the transition from authoritarian to electoral democratic rule ? A categorical analysis?Supervisor: Tomas SedeliusIn recent years globalization has become a hot topic in understanding the world we live in today. Globalization has indeed had a great impact on international relations and with it a great influence on the domestic conditions that determine a nation?s possibilities. It is therefore rational to hold true that this also would apply to a nation?s democratic process.

In this essay I analyze the performative aspects relating to Marina Abramovi?'s The Artist Is Present, which took place in spring 2010 at MoMA in New York, from the context of the artist and work, institution and documentation. In this performance work, for the duration of the exhibition, Abramovi? sits completely still opposite another chair where anyone from the audience may sit. The art arises through this participation.

The aim of this paper is to examine how the press describes the public and private role of the Swedish monarch in texts that report about the biography Carl XVI Gustaf ? den motvillige monarken (Sjöberg et al. 2010) when it is published in November 2010. The examined period ranges between the days just before the release and a fortnight after. The analysis is limited to standard Swedish papers: a daily, Svenska Dagbladet, and an evening paper, Expressen.Questions asked in the study are: In what ways do the analysed texts raise a discussion about the monarchy?s importance or function in the society of today, that is a public debate on the monarchy? To what extension are status symbols used in the constructing of royalty, that is what Jürgen Habermas (2003) describes as representative publicity? What similarities and differences are found when comparing the news articles in the daily and in the evening paper?The method used to answer the aim and questions is the critical discourse analysis, as Norman Fairclough (1995) describes it, and the theoretical perspective of the essay is Jürgen Habermas? (2003) theory about the bourgeois public sphere.The result shows that the news articles in the daily unsurprisingly construct only a public who wants to debate on the monarchy.

The study is aimed at investigating the images of God, or how God is percepted, that is beingpresented in the artistic work of Ingmar Bergman, and how they differ from each other. The filmsthat are being analysed in this study is The seventh seal (1957), The Magician (1958), Through aglass darkly (1961), Winter light (1963), The Silence (1963), Persona (1965) and Cries andwhispers (1973).To examine the images of God that are being presented throughout the scope of the study Iam mainly using common cinematic theories that are presented in James Monacos How to read afilm (2000) and Louis Giannettis Understanding film(1993) which basically are structuralistapproaches to discussing film as a language and interpretation.I am studying each movie as it is presented to us, the viewers, and only speaking of the film.I am also looking into Ingmar Bergmans personal life, not to examine if he was a Christian believer,but for clues to interpret themes, characters and the event taking place in each of the films. Thestudy is investigating the series of films as a connected unity, a connected unity that explores therelationship of God and mankind as it is presented in the films.The result of the study is that the image of God presented in the films of Ingmar Bergman isa God that moves from the transcendent sphere to the immanent sphere, a God, or ?the Holy? thatover the years transforms into something materialistic. This new God, or holiness, is something thatexists in the interpersonal relations of mankind in the latter work of Ingmar Bergman..

The purpose of this essay is to inquire whether there are any resemblance or differences in the Migrationperiod textiles between the three places that I have chosen, Högom in Sweden, Evebø and Snartemo in Norway. Another purpose is to investigate if this magnificencedressmaterial indicate some kind of mental borders, social differences or hierarchy not only towards other powerful chieftains in other areas but also inside there own society and groups, a dresscode. In other words both individually locally as regionally and internationally. If there are resemblance's between the dressmaterial, gravefinds and the graves context could that be a sign of the same sphere of power, alliances, trading, intentional import, domesticproduction, culturedistribution? My aim in this essay is to try to show that the textile ought to have a higher significance place among archaeological material.