AbstractEssay in political science, C-level, by Julia Leonsson, spring semester 2007Tutor: Susan MartonFreedom ? The political philosophy of our time?An analysis of the ideas of the international debate aboutChávez socialistic politicSince more than 2000 years there has been an ongoing discussion about whether state interference is a good thing or not. Most international organisations on the international political arena are today founded on Neoliberal values, and it has developed in to the hegemonic ideology of the world. The socialistic politics of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez is thereby a somewhat unusual strategy. The purpose of this essay is to examine to what extent the international debate about Chávez socialistic politic can be understood through a Neoliberal perspective.

AbstractWriters: Karl-Johan Arnér, studentMentor: Karl LoxboInstitution: Social studies 91-120p at the institution of human and social studies at the university of Kalmar.Title: Taxpayers Association ? An analyse during 1975-2007Background: The organisation was founded 1921 and has today over 100 000 members. They are critical to a large welferestate and work intensive to decrease the taxes in Sweden. They have a paper for the members and the study explores the message in this paper. The purpose is to se if the message is an express for the Neoliberal ideology.Question formulation:? In which ways have the Taxpayers association expressed Neoliberal ideas during 1975-2007?? Does the organisation have the same opinions 1975-2007?Results: The organisation writes mostly about taxes.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine the ideological currents that have influenced the swedish school system since the 1990's. The background of my interest is the lively debate in schools and media about the new School reform 2011. My hypothesis is that education in 2011 largely will be influenced by Neoliberal and neoconservative values. The method I`ve used is discourse and ideology critique, which examines the relationship between rhetoric and power. These concepts are useful to explain the ideological change in different policy documents and in curricula, for example Lpf 94 and School 2001. The theoretical framework is based primarily on the Neoliberal and the neoconservative agenda, which are two distinct political rationalities in the contemporary postmodern world.

This thesis examines the ideological implications of an emerging shift in human rights-issues regarding information. As Intellectual Property becomes increasingly important to the economy of developed nations previously commonly owned or unprotected information runs a real risk of becoming privatized. The World Trade Organization and its binding agreements GATS and TRIPS are subjected to a critical ideology-analysis, with special efforts to elucidate possible effects on the public service realm and its commitment as provider of free information as a human right. The result suggests that not only does a threat to information as such a right exist, but that its ideological basis however seemingly rooted in a liberal/Neoliberal context actually in its express views on information deviates from liberal/Neoliberal theory in many ways, and that there are theoretical inconsistencies in that same ideology..

Lifelong learning (LLL), a concept dating back to the 1920s, is much used both by the OECD, UNESCO and the EU. But while intergovernmental think-tanks and supranational organisations often use the term in a positive sense, many (not least scholars) are critical of the term. The critique either deals with the lack of a universal definition, that the implicit responsibility for LLL has shifted onto the individual, or that the meaning of the term has shifted from a humanistic one linked to the personal development and a better society to a Neoliberal one that involves growth, competition, globalisation and human capital theory. This study is based on interviews with nine trade union representatives on their understandings of lifelong learning. The results showed that while LLL was positively viewed by most, there was virtually no communication vis-à-vis members on the topic, most trade unions have no policy regarding LLL, and responses from representatives were sometimes self-conflicting..

The purpose of this study is to investigate the content and work processes regarding the values written in the curriculum for Swedish high schools and compare it with theories regarding the individualized society and political moralism. After the clarification of the content in the values of Swedish high schools and the work processes that are supposed to give students fundamental understanding about them, I analyze and compere it to the theories that are presented in the study. The main questions of the study are the following: What kinds of values are found in the curriculum for Swedish high schools? In general, how do Swedish high schools work with the written values when focus have gone from education and learning to instrumental knowledge, results, abilities and flexibility?The result showed that the content and work processes regarding the values in Swedish high schools are purely instrumental and moralistic. Due to the fact, that the individualized society and the Neoliberal ideology do not require reflection and real understanding regarding the values.

Arktis är en region som har en mångfacetterad historia. Idag, när isen sakteliga smälter undan, och tidigare gömda naturresurser blir åtkomliga, blir tidigare obetydliga gränsdragningsdispyter nu konflikter, som kan komma att handla om mångmiljardbelopp. Detta sker samtidigt som multilaterala samarbeten blir allt vanligare och ämnesområdena de berör, allt fler. Vi visar att de båda teorierna Neoliberal institutionalism och neorealism ger två olika förklaringar till situationen i Arktis, och att man beroende på vilket teoribildning man tillhör, har skilda synsätt gällande hur man ser på regimer i regionen. I studien har vi främst analyserat FN: s havsrättskonvention och Arktiska Rådet, vilka båda kan sägas ha haft stor inverkan på Arktis, men på helt olika sätt..

The failure of Structural Adjustment Programs and its Neoliberal policies to effectively reduce poverty have led to the creation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) by The World Bank and International Monetary Fund. PRSP, connected to both the Comprehensive Development Strategy and the HIPC initiative, are built on the notion of national ownership and stakeholder participation and thereby expand potential conditionality to include matters of governance. This thesis examines the evolution of PRSP and how the process of participation affects national governance structures. By analyzing the role of rules and norms within the World Bank and IMF from a historical point of view the thesis explains why the participation process has developed the way it has. It concludes that Neoliberal norms, still at heart within the World Bank and IMF, have an impact on the process of participation within nation states and thereby its governance structure.

This thesis analyses the rise and fall of social movements. Social movementsfunctions in the civil society, by contentious collective action they form identities,mobilize their forces and use repertoires of contentions to make new or previouslyunaccepted claims. They function in a limited timeframe, sooner or later they getinstitutionalized, marginalised or succumb into violence. The landless movementin Brazil is one of the most profound social movements in the world; their majorgoal is a land reform. Since the leftwing president Lula da Silva won the Brazilianelection in 2002 the president has been unable to live up to the expectations fromthe landless movement about implementing a land reform.

Swedish school system is today victim of facing competition. Today sees the school leadership the students like customers whom they depend to operate their school. But I have asked myself, what will be the new students see and how much this spectacle in both money and time that project will cost for the municipality and school teachers. The question is if whether the school will be better when the competition becomes school or just better marketed? I'm interested in how clearly ideologies emerge in schools brochures if we study them at critically and analytically way.

In light of the massive property bubbles that have been bursting in the USA, Spain and Ireland during the last decade, the aim of this thesis is to clarify whether ? or to what degree - the municipality of Stockholm might experience a property bubble in the near future. The municipality of Stockholm is undergoing a housing shortage and house prices have risen during the last few years. Neoliberalism and property bubbles are used as a theoretical framework in this paper. The methodology consist of semi structured interviews, analysis of documents and statistical data from Eurostat, Valueguard and the Swedish administrative authority; Statistiska centralbyrån (SCB).

The right to the city has lately become the rallying cry for many urban social movements all over the world to challenge Neoliberal planning, gentrification, the privatization of urban commons and growing spatial and social gaps in city and society. This senior essay studies urban social movements that in different ways advocate the idea of the right to the city. The term right to the city was coined in the late 1960s by French urban theorist Henri Lefebvre, who promoted the idea of the city as a common, a space belonging to everyone. The right to the city is not ?a return to traditional cities?, but ?a right to urban life? (1996:158).This study focuses on the city of Hamburg.

Neoliberalism står för så mycket mer än att bara vara en ideologi som tar steget ifrån statens kontroll. Förutom att ideologin strävar åt ekonomisk frihet finns det också andra tydliga attityder som riktar sig till samhället i helhet; den enskilda individen, den anställde och staden. Neoliberalismen har påverkat planeringen mycket. Framför allt har tron på marknadens goda effekter förstärkts, medan staten har fått ett betydligt lägre förtroende och inflytande. De inblandade aktörerna har under senare tid blivit fler och detta gäller framför allt aktörer från den privata sfären.

This paper focuses on the role freedom plays in Michel Foucault?s analyze of liberal and particularely Neoliberal governmentalities. From his perspective, Neoliberalism operates through the strategic production of entrepreneural subjectivity and distribution of self-governing. Here autonomy is central for governing, which raises questions about what freedom can mean at all in Foucault, and how resistance can be possible. Through Foucault?s thinking on liberal freedom, we can gain a better understanding of his philosophy on subjectivation and resistance..

Neoliberalism står för så mycket mer än att bara vara en ideologi som tar steget ifrån statens kontroll. Förutom att ideologin strävar åt ekonomisk frihet finns det också andra tydliga attityder som riktar sig till samhället i helhet; den enskilda individen, den anställde och staden. Neoliberalismen har påverkat planeringen mycket. Framför allt har tron på marknadens goda effekter förstärkts, medan staten har fått ett betydligt lägre förtroende och inflytande. De inblandade aktörerna har under senare tid blivit fler och detta gäller framför allt aktörer från den privata sfären. Stadspolitiken har också förändrats och har nu ett mer entreprenöriellt förhållningssätt och ett tydligare fokus på att marknadsföra staden.