There are lots of theories about participatory democracy, but rather few examples of how to create it in practice. In the 1930´s, scientists at the Chicago School, implemented some projects within the Chicago Area Project, with the aim to decrease the youth delinquency in the socio disadvantaged areas surrounding Chicago. In this thesis, I assess wether these projects, and in particular the one at the Russell Square Area, have some common features with the thoughts of two of the most famous participatory democrats, Carole Pateman and Benjamin Barber. My question is if the Chicago Area Project could be seen as an experiment in participatory democracy. I find that participatory democrats could benefit from the experiences of the Chicago Area Project.

Denna studie berör områdena participatory design, speldesign samt idégenerering och syftar till att undersöka hur spelföretag interagerar med sina slutanvändare vid speldesign samt om participatory design kan användas i speldesign för att främja känslor av delaktighet och ägandeskap. Studien har genomförts med intervjuer och undersökningar i form av en analys av fyra svenska spelföretags hemsidor och sociala medier för att se på deras interaktion med sina slutanvändare vid speldesign, samt en participatory designworkshop. Resultaten från litteraturstudien och workshopen visar på att participatory design kan användas för att främja känslor av delaktighet och ägandeskap hos deltagarna. Vidare visar undersökningen av de svenska spelföretagen att interaktionen med sina slutanvändare över lag är låg. De slutsatser som studien visar på är att genom att erbjuda sina användare möjligheten att bli delaktiga och att interagera med spelföretaget så får man en aktiv och stimulerande miljö vilken gynnar både spelföretaget och deras slutanvändare. Vad gäller participatory design så visar studien att det är ett förhållningssätt som går att använda inom speldesign. Vidare så visar det också sig att, om behovet för att välja ut mellan flera olika metoder och tekniker inom participatory design uppstår, så är ett ramverk ett mycket användbart och hjälpsamt verktyg..

The craft of planners are planning for a better future. Knowledge about climate change, environment, health and availability effects the trend towards less car dependent societies in favour of public transport and active transport like walking and biking. This study takes place in Västerbotten, one of Sweden?s most north provinces with a population of 260 000 inhabitants. It is a sparsely populated area with two dominant cities, the other municipalities are largely unpopulated.

The Swedish public inquiries and most of the political science advocate reforms in the spirit of participatory democracy to strengthen the democracy. Although it is striking how limited and narrow the scientific documentation is in analysing the effects of participatory democratic reforms. Still, many of the local governments in Sweden are reshaping their organisations according to the participatory democracy model. Is it a trend and a symbolic action or a veritable action of good-will of the politicians?The paper argues that the idea of participatory democracy has become popular and widely spread.

On the 17th of January 2002 the Swedish government presented a bill to theSwedish parliament, proposing ways of strengthening the Swedish democracythrough reforms for increased elements of participatory democracy. A publicreport on the state of the Swedish democracy had been released two years earlierwith similar enthusiasm for participatory democracy. However, the participatoryideals of these two documents were strongly criticised by a group of scholars.The aim of this thesis is to analyze and compare the arguments articulatedbetween the years 2000 and 2002 by the actors mentioned above, and to examinetheir relation to arguments concerning political participation, articulated bythinkers from previous times. By classifying the arguments into different groupsdepending on their content I find that both parties in the Swedish argumentationfocus on the effects of participatory democracy on political equality, on theefficiency of the political decision-making and the quality of the decisions beingmade, and finally on the personal character of the citizens. Among the argumentsarticulated by thinkers from previous times, similarities with the Swedishargumentation can be seen as well as important differences.

Participation, public art and participatory public art as phenomenons and subjects have been studied and discussed. With interviews and observations as a base, we have studied projects and discussed participation, effect and quality in relation to these. Furthermore we have looked at how the participatory art processes work in Sweden and England. This essay seeks to discuss the process of participatory public art and to emphasize the elements contributing to the quality of this process. It is up to us as planners to recognize the possibilities for a qualitative place. To mediate between different interests, for example between politicians and stakeholders, between economics and quality, between the place and its users, between individuals and the community, and in our case between artists, users and the municipality. Public art has gone from being about the product, an art piece, to becoming more of a process, from non interactive to interactive. Participation ranges from receiving information to play an active part in the process. Four cases have been studied, taken both from Sweden and England, showing the diversity of processes connected to Participatory Public Art. From interviews conducted in Sweden and England information and thoughts have been received and they show a higher degree of use of participatory public art in England, and also a higher consciousness.

The aim and research questions of this study are concerned about how, and what kind of, problems and subjects that citizens raise during verbal interaction with politicians and officials in the field of participatory democracy. The theoretical framework of the study dominates by theories with a positive approach towards participatory democracy, but there is also a broader discussion on the phenomenon?s strengths and weaknesses.The case in focus of the study is a specific phenomenon of participatory democracy created by the municipality of Växjö. The empirical material that is analysed is consisted of written text based on the verbal interaction from these meetings between citizens and politicians/officials.The outcome of the study shows that most of the verbal interaction was held between citizens and politicians/officials in a vertical direction and that a major part of the responsibility concerning the raised subjects is estimated to be in the hands of the latter part. In the light of under what circumstances the meetings are practised, the democratic and collective minded performance of the citizens is argued to be in good condition, despite the dominating vertical interaction and estimation of trust..

AbstractTitle: The game of playing: A media ethnographic study of children playing videogames on a Swedish after school recreation centre. Spelet om spelandet: En medieetnografisk studie av barns dataspelande på en fritidsklubb.Number of pages: 46Author: Peter BrandbergTutor: Amelie HössjerPeriod: Spring term 2008Course: Media and Communication studies DUniversity: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim with this study is to describe how children play video games in an everyday context. In this study this context consists of a Swedish after school recreation centre. By combining three different aspects on the activity this study tries to understand how both the video game and the social and cultural context in which the activity takes place in influences it. This by taking one analyse of the specific game that the children played at the time of the study and how the overall environment is structured into account.

The purpose of this study is to explore the Swedish site Funbeat which is a space dedicated to people who share an interest in exercising in general, and running in particular. By applying a netnographic analysis, I will investigate if Funbeat matches the criteria of a participatory culture and how the members manage to establish a collective intelligence within the community. In order to achieve this, I will analyze the interactivity between the participants which occurs in discussion threads concerning injuries related to running, in the sites discussion forum. The results will then be discussed in relation to previous research within the field for participatory culture, collective intelligence and interactivity.The outcome of the study revealed that Funbeat can be regarded as very good example of a participatory culture. By each member sharing their individual knowledge in matters regarding injuries, a collective intelligence was established.

This thesis is using the theory of participatory democracy to show how one can work to increase the participation in the society, between elections as well as during elections. For a couple of years now many traditional democratic countries have been struggling with low voting rates. Hence this, I find it interesting to study what has been done to cope with this problem. The government in Sweden had a project working on how to make more people involved in the democratic process, especially people that to a lesser extent participate in this process. In this thesis two projects will be studied, Möllevångsgruppen and Unga väljer Miljö i Malmö.

How can I make art that face people in their everyday lives, which is integrated into their lives, becoming a part of the discussions both in the mundane and in the room of society? Can I do this by working with performative interpretations that are participatory driven? I have explored how artists and participants can create spaces that are both open and confiden- ce-building, and how they at the same time enable us to question established norms. How to engage in dialogues concerning social, political and existential issues like; What is freedom for me - What is freedom to you? What is it that is important? Which topics are never upraised for discussion?The project is about putting thoughts, experiences and bodies (my own, the participants and the viewer?s) in relation to each other and to the location and context they are in. It ?s about creating a broader perspective where everyone?s voice is important and can take place.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the democratic situation and developement in Malung and Nyköping, through a perspective of participatory and deliberative democratic theories. The questions I?ve examined are On what priorities the actions of developing democracy are built? Which positive effects have been reached and what problems have arisen? What are the solutions they have found to the problems? How does one experience the results of the experiments and actions taken? What are the similarities and differences between the two cases? and What is their relationship to the theories mentioned above?The questions are answered through interviews with four central actors in each case and examined in relation to participatory and deliberative democratic theories and in comparison of the two cases.The results have been that even if none of the cases respond to one theoretical ideal, they have touches of both theories as well as representative theory. It shows, however, that in Malung the representative democracy theory is the strongest represented in actions and politics, while in Nyköping the participatory democratic theory is stronger. In short, the most positive and negative effects respond well to the theories..

A brush of paint on a grey compound wall can mean so much more than simply an addition of colour. It can meanan appropriation of public space, a shared public space enclosed by a wall now ?owned? by someone. It can meanan arisen conflict leading to debate about the right to use public space.The Wall Project is a Mumbai based beautification project that uses paint and outdoor walls to brighten uptheir city. The Urban Typhoon workshop is an activity set up in self-evolving neighbourhoods where municipalinterference is scarce.

This thesis aims at analysing conflicts between different ideals of democracy, using the example of a newly implemented citizen´s initiative reform. This reform gives citizens the right to make policy proposals to Swedish municipal councils. The proposals are to be handled in the same way as proposals from the municipal council members. An ideology analysis of various government documents as well as of an official state study (SOU) is carried out to identify and discuss the ideals of democracy that underpin the reform. The analysis is based on participatory democracy and electoral democracy theory and Arnstein's Eight Rungs on the Ladder of Citizen Participation is used to discuss different types of participation by the citizens.

Detta examensarbete handlar om orten Tärnaby som i dagsläget står stilla i utvecklingen. Detta har bidragit till en negativ trend som snabbt sprider sig. Syftet med detta arbete är att jobba med Tärnaby med hjälp av en metod som heter Participatory Design - ett gemensamt skapande där jag och min klasskompis Hanna Weinmar har jobbat tillsammans med ortsborna för att hitta en lösning som passar och är relevant för dem och för Tärnaby. Detta arbete har resulterat i en hemsida som heter Mitt Tärnaby som har syftet att sprida Tärnabornas idéer och hjälpa dem att hitta samarbeten som kan förverkliga dessa tankar och idéer. Ett forum där de kan kommunicera med varandra, för att bygga upp Tärnaby och det som finns där idag med hjälp av varandra..