What every theory of democracy has in common is a reference to ?a people? who are, in one way or another, collectively self-governing. Given that, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the so called boundary problem of democratic theory, or, in other words, the question of who should be included in the democratic community. Lately, the historically given boundaries have been questioned in favour of a cosmopolitan democracy. Still, little has been said about the boundary problem in general, especially from a theoretical point of view.

Aim: The aim of this study is to understand why people have changed their preferred community over time. What are the main factors when changing to a new one?Method/material: The method has consisted of personal interviews with six different people in the ages between 20-22 and of different gender. The main material that has been used in this essay is the theory of Uses and Gratifications as explained by Denis McQuail, the theory of Convergence culture by Henry Jenkins and the theory about Communites of Practice by Etienne Wenger.Main results: This study shows a heavy affection that the use of communities often centers round the people around the community, rather than the functions that the communities themselves provides. Having people that you know on the community you choose is a vital part for people or at least having the support of other people and changing to another community at the same time.

This study is based on interviews with six students from Stockholm that have shared their feelings/opinions about how they experience their identity as a student. The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine how the identity of students is constructed but also how the post modern society affects the life that the students are living. With a higher demand on education and responsibility of making the right decisions, the student?s main concern is not only her studies, but also the goal to succeed in her life.

The purpose of this study is to first investigate how a group of Syriac women participating in the Syriac/Aramaic Academics Association (SAAF ? Syrianska/Arameiska Akademikerförbundet) at a Swedish university perceive their ethnic identity, and maintain it in the mainstream Swedish society. Furthermore, it considers whether SAAF as an ethnic institution provides an arena for the reproduction of social capital in interaction with the women's families. This study is based on previous research and theories of ethnic identity and its role in the building of social capital within so-called ethnic groups. The method used for this study involves qualitative interviews, to achieve its aims.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the view of Finnish dialects and identity of first, second and third generation of Sweden Finns students in 7th, 8th and 9th graders, in two Sweden Finn schools. The questions at issue for the essay were: How do Swedes of Finnish extraction think of the Finnish dialects? Is there a correlation between identifying as Finnish and knowledge and usage of the Finnish dialects, as opposed to Finns living in Finland? To which extent do the Finnish students have knowledge regarding the Finnish dialects? To answer the questions a quantitative method was used and a questionnaire was answered by over 100 students. The results of the study showed that the Finnish dialects did not exert any influence on the students? life nor their sense of identity.

Sense of coherence, SOC, is a way to study health and wellbeing in a salutogen perspective. SOC is a theory that Aaron Antonovsky came up with and it involves three elements; comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. These three elements is a objective way to look at our existence. The aim of this study was to examine how high the pupils sense of coherence was in the grades 1, 3 and 6 in a school in Karlstad. And with the result as starting point have a discussion around the pedagogical consequences and which educational work procedures we can use to work with SOC in school.

AbstractTitle: Who are you? Who am I? ? Charades in the mediated world of today. A study of the construction of identity at Facebook.(Vem är du? Vem är jag? ? Charader i dagens medierade värld. En studie av identitetskonstruktionen på Facebook.)Number of pages: 58 (66 including enclosures.)Author: Mathilda WahlundTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The aim is to study how people construct their own identities today.

Our findings show that depending on the contextual setting and what sort of merger an organization goes through, the identity strategies will differ. We see that symbols and values are two objects of relevance in our case companies? identity strategies, but that there are differences in how they are being used. There is consensus around the fact that values are important to have, however their meaning to each organization differs and it has also proven to be dependent on what position you possess in the company. We have developed a four-fielder in order to further illustrate our findings.

Alevism as such is both contested and difficult to define, despite the fact that nearly a quarter of the Turkish population can be said to identify with it (See egMarkussen, 2005; Sirin, 2013). Discussions regarding whether alevism should bedefined as a religious minority or not is going on both in the research communityas among the Alevis themselves. Also the meaning of Alevi religiosity as such isdebated and can be simply described as a discussion of whether alevism should beregarded as a part of Islam. The purpose of this discourse study is therefore to examine the construction of Alevi religious identity in two English-language Turkish newspaper, namely the Hürriyet Daily News and Today `s Zaman. With the overarching aim to achieve adeep understanding of the conditions that are given the Alevi group to form their own identity.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine if POC manage to keep cohort interplay between their identity and image.Theoretical framework: This paper is led from theories in area about communicating identity and image. The theories that are relevant to this paper to see the interplay between identity and image is communication theory and brand theories based on associations. From these theories we have composed a model that shows the communication led from identity throughout image in company?s with many distribution channels. It shows what associations that build identity and image and also the complication and threat that the interplay is being exposed to.Methodology: We have chosen to do this examination as a case study.

My interest in examining what happens when you as a teenager are exposed to five or six times the amount of time as ordinary classes to music education derrives from my own experience as a music teacher at a school which has those kind of special music classes. During my career as a music teacher in grades 4 ? 9 in Swedish compulsory school I have taught music classes as well as ordinary classes for 18 years. During this time I have often wondered what this exposure means in retrospect. Is it the conquering and mastering of music skills that students remember when they?ve grown up to young adults, or is it something else?The aim of this study is to find out what it means for teenagers to have music as a school subject every day of their years in Swedish high school.

The Swedish regions are new phenomena, from the start from the new regionalism which started in the 1980´s. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze Region Skåne and Västra Götalandsregionen to come to a conclusion which model of region they are and want to be by using theories of regional identity and identity of politics and see similarities and differences. My research question is: Which of cultural, administrative and functional region are Region Skåne and Västra Götaland striving to construct?   The methods I have used are qualitative text- and content analysis to analyze the regions, by using theories about regional identity and identity of politics. Furthermore, I am using some statistic from SOM-institutet to analyze the regional identity in the regions.   The result show that Region Skåne is constructing a cultural region, because of their strong regional identity and that the politicians are using identity of politics to combine the citizens.

Purpose/Aim: To describe likenesses and differences between the personal identity of the common Kalmar nation member and the collective identity of the organization Kalmar nation as described by said members.Material/Method: Collecting data through a quantitative survey, where the members answer questions about themselves and Kalmar nation, and subsequent analysis of said data by means of theories about personal, collective, and brand identity.Main results: After analyzing the data from the survey I conclude that there exists both likenesses and differences between the organization and its members. Some likenesses are more pronounced than others, and the same can be said for the differences. However, within the three areas of study (specific identity traits, politics and music) politics and music showed more similarity between the members and the nation than the specific identity traits did. The most interesting aspect of the analysis show that the members have quite a common view of the organization despite their own widely different descriptions of themselves..

This essay discusses immigrants? prospects of constructing an identity in a multicultural society like Sweden. The discussion is primarily theoretical but offers a few empirical examples to demonstrate its relevance. Furthermore, the ontological standpoint of this essay draws on an understanding of the world and our knowledge as constructed which implies that identities are also constructed. The process of identity making is further understood as a relational process in which others recognition is central to the individuals own understanding of his or hers identity.

This qualitative study examines if an interest in soccer can give the same meaningfulexperiences in a person's life as a religion would. Five soccer fans were interviewedregarding the meanings and impact of soccer in their lives. Two theories in the fields ofsport and religion were used to analyze the data: Antonovsky's sense of coherence (SOC)with its components meaningfulness, manageability and comprehensibility and Heelasand Woodheads "life-as" and "the subjective-life? derived from the concept "thesubjective turn". It was concluded that the interest in soccer affected the respondents?views of life.The respondents? personal identities were strongly associated with groupmembership, meaning that their interest in common with others was perceived to makeeveryday life meaningful and manageable.