This thesis deals with the concept of soft balancing, traditionally defined as the diplomatic means of restraining a dominant state's ability to exercise its military power. As the dominant power in today's unipolar system, the United States, and other states? behaviour towards it, is the focus of analysis. The aim of this thesis is to explore the possibilities of developing the concept of soft balancing so as to include strategies to restrain also the political and economic capabilities of a dominant power. The thesis also considers the possibilities of soft balancing that small states ? to a large extent overlooked in existing theories on the subject - can possess.As a state with policies that aim to reduce the U.S.

The aim of this paper is to examine if the two latest Peace Plans in the Palestine-Israeli con-flict observes the sources of the conflict and presents measures in the purpose of solving them. The point of departure is William Azar?s theory of protracted social conflict (PSC). According to Azar, the internal sources of a PSC lies in three clusters of variables: the com-munal content of a society, the deprivation of human needs as an underlying source of PSC, and the role of the state in the deprivation or satisfaction of human needs. The study is de-signed as a multiple-case study where the units of analysis are the Roadmap to Peace and the Geneva Initiative.

This report presents the preliminary study and work for the development of a site structure for the upcoming reengineering of inter-tool Infopunkt. The report describes how I have conducted a study regarding the current inter-tool information center and its development potential. Thereafter compiling the information to develop a comprehensive design approach to create a sitemap. The sitemap illustrates a new updated page structure for Infopunkt and was the primary goal of the thesis. The sitemap I have developed will form the basis for the agency that will later on develop the new updated version of Infopunkt..

Abstract Ideon Science Park was built on the edge of Lund city in mid-80ies. The Science Park was surrounded by open farm land and Lunds Faculty of engineering(LTH). The architecture, the facades of the buildings, were placed to face the faculty. The Science Park has since then grown, and the actual front of the building is no longer faced towards LTH. The people working at Ideon are met by the backside, the meeting with Ideon is primarerly a meeting with fields of parkinglots. The initiative to this thesis was taken by Ikano Fastigheter AB, one of two real estate owners of Ideon Science park. Their aim is to make the area easier to orientate, they want it to be more internally connected and with a stronger identity. The thesis is mainly dealing with two questions conserning Ideon Science center.

La Busta/Konvolutten/The envelope was written in 2006 by the Italian playwright, director and actor Spiro Scimone. It is a contemporary political farce with clear roots and inspiration from Commedia dell´arte. As the main structure for this essay, comparisons have been made between a modern Danish production of Konvolutten by the director Simon K. Boberg and the form and structure of Commedia dell´arte. The importance and use of the political context in both Commedia dell´arte and Konvolutten are explored.The sociopolitical conditions under which Husets Teater (The House´s Theatre) works is analyzed.

Thirty years of gender equality politicsFrom women?s work to gender mainstreamingThis Bachelor thesis examines how the Swedish state has practiced gender equality as a political project during 1972 until 1999 through the budget bills, using a ?What?s the problem represented to be?? approach aiming to uncover which discourses policies are based on. The method also studies what assumptions underlie policy problems, what is left as unproblematic within the policies and what effects are produced by specific problem representations. A central question for the thesis is what has remained and changed within Swedish gender equality politics. The history of the Swedish welfare state is presented as a background on how gender equality policy has affected the everyday life of women and men.

The purpose of this essay is to critically review Pierre Bourdieus contribution to agency ? structure debate. I will do this with help from the thinking of George Herbert Mead. My aim is to show that Mead can provide valuable knowledge to Bourdieus theory.Pierre Bourdieus notion of habitus is his solution to the dilemma between agency and structure. It is in the habitus that the objective structures meet the inner, subjective structures and this results in various actions.

Robert Mertons anomiteori har historiskt fått skarp kritik på grund av sitt svaga empiriska stöd och sina teoretiska antaganden. Vissa har dock menat att det svaga empiriska stödet beror på felaktiga operationaliseringar av Mertons teori. Den här studien syftar således till att studera operationaliseringar i tidigare forskning av Robert Mertons ursprungliga anomiteori som den presenterades år 1938 i Social Structure and Anomie. Först genomförs en noggrann genomgång och analys av artikeln Social Structure and Anomie och den teori som där presenteras. Genom en systematisk litteraturöversikt har sedan 13 artiklar som operationaliserat Mertons teori valts ut och sedan analyserats utifrån de centrala delarna av Robert Mertons paradigm.

AbstractWhy don't (some) regimes with formal democratic features undergo transition to democracy? Which are the internal dynamics of these regimes that can offer comprehension to this state of affairs? The main purpose of this thesis is to advance the above questions, and, on a lower level of abstraction, examine the case of Egypt. The Egyptian regime is characterized by, for instance, a multiparty-system, steps toward economic liberalization, and some level of persistent state opposition, and has been considered on the way to liberal democracy, but can still hardly be estimated as such.Thus, the thesis takes part in a theoretical framework on democratization, and further analyzes the case of Egypt on grounds of socioeconomic development, political culture, and class configuration. By this contextual approach, the thesis adduces that a low level of modernization, an incomplete democratic political culture, and a bourgeoisie supported by the state are impending significant factors. The thesis additionally remarks on the interconnection of the adopted theories, and discusses a potential need for new theoretical propositionsA secondary aim of the thesis also gives some insights into the concurrence of regime stability and the absence of democracy in, what often could be labelled, authoritarian regimes.

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.

My main purpose with this paper of John Steinbecks Of mice and men is to both analyze the long-lived structures and the unique individual destinies of the novel. I employ the method of the historical Annales-movement and use three divided levels in my analysis to try to capture these high structures and low moments of humanity in Structure, Konjuncture and the Individuality. The first level, Structure, is used to see how long-lived almost invisible geographic structures set the human act of condition. The second level, Konjuncture, is easier to grasp in understanding of time and embraces for example economic structures as the industrialism. The last level of Individuality is the fastest in time and easiest to understand but in the long run also the least important.

Bachelor thesis in political science by Malin Bergkvist, autumn 12.Title:Political governance for increased digital inclusion.Subtitle: Aspects of "governance" and "government".Supervisor: Joachim Åström. While digital inclusion is a hot topic in both academia and in policy circles, little research is done when it comes to governance issues. To help filling this gap, this essay asks which mode of governance is dominant in the field of digital inclusion. What aspects of governance "governance" or "government" is the dominant in the field of digital inclusion, and is it possible to see any difference in how the state governance is described by the government and perceived by other actors? To answer this overarching question, two sub queries are formulated and analyzed. First, what aspect of "governance" or "government" dominate when state governance of the area are examined based on how the government describes it? Second, what aspect of "governance" or "government? dominate when state governance are studied based on how the perceived by other actors and stakeholders active in the field.

C3LOOPS is an application for DJs and VJs based on surface interaction. A system is said to be based on surface interaction if it presents content on a two dimensional, endless surface that a user navigates through zoom, pan and incremental text filtering where processing is tightly coupled with the content without breaking the workflow. C3LOOPS is designed to encourage improvisation and collaboration. During improvisation changes occur rapidly. Allowing navigation through time as well as the two spatial dimensions of an interaction surface the possibility of unlimited undo operations opens up.

This thesis aims to examine why women are prevented from attaining high positions in organizations. By executing a case study through qualitative interviews with employees from the Human Resource Department at the agency for Swedish Armed Forces, this study presents eight general and specific explanatory factors that hinder women from making a vertical career. The general factors include that women are discriminated against, women are perceived as less competent, men have created organizations and it is easier to recruit men. The specific factors include that a hierarchical organizational structure is correlated to inequality, that both the agency for Swedish Armed Forces and leadership are associated with masculinity and that women with civil competence face double misfortune. The division between general and specific factors indicate that the explanatory factors vary between organizations, which among other things implies that equality work should be tailored for the specific organization.

The purpose of this paper is to provide clarity into the poorly understood topic of mandatory fencing in the Swedish education system. Sweden, like many other European nations, was subject to strong nationalistic winds during the 19th century, from which the idea of a citizen soldier arose. By making fencing part of the school curriculum the Swedish state hoped to invigorate its male population, with the ultimate goal of reclaiming the nation's status as a military superpower. This paper explores the topic by using qualitative research methods to observe the internal debate in the official journal for physical education teachers between the years 1874 and 1920. What status did fencing as a school subject have? How was it implemented and what was taught? What obstacles did it face? How did it vary between the bourgeoisie and the peasantry? How did it vary over time?The findings show a school subject that was heavily regulated and propped up by both the state and conservative gymnasts of the Swedish Ling tradition.