The special relationship between Israel and the US has been subject to questioning, and good many theories have tried to explain why it is so strong. The most common explanation is rooted in the school of realism, where strategy and national interest decide who one's ally is. This essay aspires to examine another possible reason for allianceformation; identity. Several books, which make for the theoretical backbone of this study, have been written on the subject of sharing beliefs, identifying with others and the consequences of this. The question being asked is whether Israel and the US actually share beliefs and, if so, which ones.

This study is concerned with the region of Öresund and the aspects of work commuting in particular. The purpose is to investigate attitudes and opinions towards the region among work commuters and then apply them to various theories relevant for the questioning, such as globalization, regionalization, ethnicity, nationalism, culture and identity. To investigate the attitudes towards the region we have done a number of interviews with commuters, using qualitative and semi-structured questions. The analysis is divided into three different parts; In Body and in Mind, Us and Them, the Future; and consists of a discussion of our informants? answers related to the theoretical aspects of the earlier mentioned theories.

The ambition of this essay is to examine if groups on Facebook are examples of ?slacktivism? and discuss which qualifications these groups have in order to provide a democratic conversation. The results will be discussed relative to democratic participant, information overload, interactivity and previous research. By nethnographically observing three groups and analyzing selected posts and comments with the critical discourse analysis one can see that slacktivism spreads easily by people liking and sharing posts from the groups to their friends. The particular groups that has been analyzed in this essay are committed to save Swedish traditions that they believe is threatened.

This paper is about skiing and Swedish nationalism during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The aim is to investigate why skiing was considered so eminently suited for the incorporation of certain ideals in the national fellowship.The paper accounts an analyse of texts and documents about Swedish skiing from 1897-1924. Skiing was a nationalistic concern from the very beginning of this period. It was connected to heartfelt feelings towards the Swedish nature, the patriotic upbringing of the youth, as well as the health of the nation. Over the years skiing also became an increased object of sportification.

On the 12:th of April 2011, the Swedish tabloid magazine Expressen publishes a story, claiming that Ola Lindholm, presenter of critically acclaimed TV-show ?Wild Kids? has been suspected and apprehended on cocaine allegations. The serious allegation called for Ola Lindholm to defend himself against the allegations. His only public response was a blog-post where he claimed his innocence, albeit with some reservations.  The purpose of this paper is to analyze Lindholm?s rhetorical defense.

The debate surrounding the opinion polls of the political party Sverigedemokraterna, and later their results in the Swedish election has been evident. The purpose of the study is to investigate how norms of equal treatment in social work practice might be influenced by Sverigedemokraterna's understanding of culture, ethnicity, nationality and religion. The thesis is outlined through the works of Teun van Dijk and Ruth Wodak (2000) regarding racist discourse in politics, Giorel Curran (2004) explaining lesser established parties influence on the broader discourses and Anders Hellström and Tom Nilsson (2010) attempting to ideologically position Sverigedemokraterna. With the method for analyzing policy documents designed by Carol Bacchi (2009) the latest motions from Sverigedemokraterna has been analyzed. Bacchi?s theoretical framework, together with theory concerning the expression of modern racism of John Hodge (1999), Paul Gilroy (1999) and Bennedict Anderson (1996) amongst others has been used to create an understanding of the material.

This thesis examines the National Heritage Board in Sweden and the way they look upon themselves, the surrounding world and their mission. Methodologically it?s a discourse analysis based on poststructuralist and social constructionist thoughts. This means, simplified, that nothing is taken for granted and that power relations and ideology always matters. There is no true or distinct heritage.

Denna uppsats i etnologi handlar om hur Zlatan Ibrahimovic framställs och beskrivs utifrån en speciell konflikt under hösten 2006 och våren 2007 i Aftonbladet och Expressen. Denna konflikt började med att tre fotbollsspelare i det svenska A-landslaget i herrfotboll gick på krogen en kväll och fortsatte sedan med att Zlatan sa nej till detta landslag under en period. Jag menar att tidningarna producerar bilder av hur man bör och inte bör vara för att räknas som ?svensk?Media gör Zlatan Ibrahimovic till en motsats av ?svenskhet? och svensk nationalism. Jag upplever det som att Zlatan får stå som symbol för mycket mer än bara fotboll i dagens Sverige, han får representera bilden av ?invandraren?, av utanförskap, av individualism, han kan också ses som ett bevis på att alla kan lyckas bli en stjärna.Media både bekräftar rådande svenskhet och skapar svenskhet genom att beskriva Zlatan.

Syftet med uppsatsen var är analysera historieskrivningen i Läsebokför folkskolan och problematisera dess innehåll med utgångspunkt från dess medborgarbildande ambitioner och nationalistiska idéinnehåll under tidsperioden 1876-1935. Genom att använda en kvalitativ text analys så har jag besvaratfrågeställningarna i studien och intensivt analyserat mitt material för att ta fram de centrala budskapen i texterna. Med textanalys analyserar man hur texter är uppbyggda och granskar hur de är uppbyggda och vilka budskap de har. Jag har använt mig av en ideologikritisk vinkling för att uppmärksamma vilka budskap som förmedlas via texterna. Mitt studieobjekt är Läsebok för folkskolan, som var den första statligt utgivna läroboken i Sverige.

Nationalism during the early 20th century, was often shaped around efforts to create feelings of fellowship within the frontiers. Fellow feelings was considered as a necessity to convince the people that their efforts served mutual goals.Beginning in the 19th century, the European nations experienced a great many projects for this purpose. In the early 20th century the efforts grew. The danger of war and the competition for economic power, contributed the increase of nationalist movements. At the same time, many influential intellectuals also expressed apprehensions about the urbanized way of life; measures were necessary to secure the future success of the nation.The national movements in Sweden, played a prominent role in the creation of a greater patriotic feeling.

Gränsers betydelse har både suddats ut och aktualiseras i och med en ökad grad av globalisering och mobilitet. Den svensk-norska gränsen har i stora drag legat fast i nästan 350 år och under tiden har kulturella och nationella identiteter skapats. Genom sitt läge vid riksgränsen påverkas Strömstad av nationella händelser på ett helt annat sätt än Sverige i stort samtidigt som det även finns ett starkt inflytande från en annan stats nationella politik.Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka den norska närvarons påverkan på Strömstad ur ett socialt och kulturellt perspektiv. Det första man ser är effekter av ekonomisk art då Strömstad toppar listor för både turism och handel, men i förlängningen ser vi även en påverkan i hur strömstadsborna ser på sig själva och sin kommun..

Gränsers betydelse har både suddats ut och aktualiseras i och med en ökad grad av globalisering och mobilitet. Den svensk-norska gränsen har i stora drag legat fast i nästan 350 år och under tiden har kulturella och nationella identiteter skapats. Genom sitt läge vid riksgränsen påverkas Strömstad av nationella händelser på ett helt annat sätt än Sverige i stort samtidigt som det även finns ett starkt inflytande från en annan stats nationella politik.Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka den norska närvarons påverkan på Strömstad ur ett socialt och kulturellt perspektiv. Det första man ser är effekter av ekonomisk art då Strömstad toppar listor för både turism och handel, men i förlängningen ser vi även en påverkan i hur strömstadsborna ser på sig själva och sin kommun..

In this thesis, we have analyzed the Swedish debate about whether to impose a national canon, and make it compulsory in school curricula. Cecilia Wikström, a Liberal MP in Sweden, made the suggestion in July 2006, and the focus of our analysis is the subsequent debate during July and August 2006. Our materials are polemical articles from three Swedish newspapers, which we have examined to find the main ideas and arguments behind the various standpoints. Three issues have been our main focus; first, we have analyzed which concepts of culture the various debaters have used, where we have seen a difference between an anthropological and an aesthetical concept, but, surprisingly, found that there isn?t a very strong correlation between an aesthetical concept of culture and being pro-canon, or between an anthropological concept of culture and being anti-canon.

Denna studie är genomförd i Argentina, ?fotbollens land?. Den handlar om en grupp människor som möts en till två gånger per år i vad man kallar Maradonakyrkan för att helga Diego Armando Maradona. Studien genomfördes i form av fältstudier på plats i Argentina med metoder som intervjuer och deltagande observationer. Maradonakyrkan är ett så pass nytt fenomen att inga akademiska texter funnits att tillgå.

When the Soviet union collapsed at the beginning of the 1990s, a democratization began to develop. During the Jeltsin years, democracy in Russia was developing steadily, but since Putin became president at the turn of the century it has started to move back towards authoritarian rule. The purpose of this study is to explore the reasons for why the democracy in Russia never became consolidated and to understand why the country again has moved towards an authoritarian rule, like the one during the Soviet union.In order to fulfill the aim of this study, two theories were used. These were Linz and Stepan's consolidation theory, about the five arenas that have to be developed, and Samuel P. Huntington's theory about authoritarian nostalgia.