This study examines the framing of the Ukrainian and Syrian refugees by the Sweden Democrats Party. Using the analytical framework based on theories of European identity and welfare chauvinism, the research investigates how party representatives frame the Ukrainian refugees compared to the Syrian refugees. The study employs qualitative content analysis to explore the discursive strategies used by the Sweden Democrats through the application of Bacchi's "What's the Problem Represented to be?" approach. Through a comparative design, the research identifies patterns in the party's framing of Ukrainian and Syrian refugees, providing an in-depth assessment of the issue. The findings reveal distinct differences in the party's approach towards refugees from two different regions. The Sweden Democrats emphasize a European identity and shared cultural background when discussing Ukrainian refugees, portraying them as deserving of assistance due to their proximity and commonality. The party's stance on refugee policy reflects welfare chauvinism, prioritizing the welfare of native-born Swedes over that of refugees and migrants from both regions: it is noteworthy that the Sweden Democrats' anti-immigration framing remains consistent regardless of the refugee group. The research highlights similarities between the framing of both refugee groups, such as concerns about resource shortages and declining public services. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted nature of refugee challenges and the socio-political context in which they are situated

The author analyses the reasons behind the electoral success of European right-wing populist parties. Using the Austrian Freedom Party under Jörg Haider as a case study and with a richness of primary material, he argues that their success is only partly caused by "racism". It is also, and more prominently, the result of populism – i.e. a critique of the "elite". These parties and their voters should not, then, be labelled as arrogant insiders attacking downtrodden outsiders like immigrants, workers, and minorities. Instead, the right-wingers are more justly portrayed as outsiders and underdogs, raising their anger and frustration against the insiders: the "media elite" and the "leftists and the artists".

In this piece, Goran Adamson argues that the anti-racist rhetoric is naive and dangerously counter-productive. In theory, they refer to populist parties fueling on the anti-racist elite’s outcries. In practise, however, the anti-racists have forgotten all about it, and seem to believe that right-wing populism will vanish if only it is told off. Shocked, anti-racists say populist parties gain voters despite having certain views. But nobody votes on a party despite its view. True to leftist sensationalism, anti-racists always talk about fascism within right-wing populist parties, thereby overlooking a wide array of other causes for voter appeal. Prone to instant aggression, anti-racists react with fury to any populist provocation, thereby contributing to the meteoric rise of contemporary populism in the West. Instead of conducting a proper analysis, anti-racists say how can people vote on these parties and so on - much like an anti-racist bourgeoisie. Anti-racists, Goran Adamson claims, seem to think knowledge of right-wing populism is compromising, as if you would be tainted by it. In fact, it is the other way around. Criticism requires knowledge - and an ignorant anti-racist might, in the long run, have no power to resist the allure of right-wing populism. People vote on right-wing populist parties, anti-racists maintain, because these people fail to understand. But they claim they do, even though they have reached other conclusions. The responsibility of the financial and political classes for provoking popular reactions is minimized, while the distress among ordinary people is belittled or moralized. The political class ignores a central leftist principle: social behavior has often political/economic explanations. As a direct result of multiculturalism, the pet theory among anti-racists, society’s underprivileged groups - domestic workers and migrants - are in constant conflict instead of uniting against globalization and neoliberal deregulation. This is called divide and rule. In their quest for ideological purity, any anti-EU sentiment, anti-racists claim, is right-wing extreme, hence driving scores of voters into the arms of right-wing populism. These parties are further boosted by the fact that anti-racists sneer at family values and cultural traditionalism. Vocal victims of EU’s austerity measures are dismissed as right-wingers, further fueling political polarization. Popular and populist, anti-racists maintain, is basically the same thing. As a result, democracy becomes politically tainted, and the anti-racist elites are the only safe-guard against unaccountable elites. Right-wing populists never cease to talk about our roots, while multiculturalists never stop talking about roots overseas. Save for that geographic detail, they are two branches of the politicalromantic tree. Right-wing populist parties prosper, but not despite anti-racist efforts, Goran Adamson argues, but as a result of them.

The background to this study lies in a problem that was discovered during the research internship on which this compilation thesis is based on. Namely, a knowledge gap between the politicians and the civil servants in a municipality, this study has chosen to call it a knowledge discrepancy. Research and theory on the relationship between politicians and civil servants has shown that various problems and dilemmas arise between politicians and civil servants in both municipalities and other politically steered organisations. Therefore, it is important to point out that this knowledge discrepancy should not be seen as unique to a specific municipality, but rather to politically steered organisations in general.The purpose of this study is to investigate knowledge perspectives on municipal developmentin relation to an evidence-based policy perspective. To concretize the formulation of the problem, the study examines how civil servants view the municipality's political vision for sustainable local development. By interviewing civil servants who work with sustainable local development, the study analyses what the civil servants consider relevant and possible, in relation to the municipality's political vision. As a theoretical framework and perspective, the study uses an evidence-based policy perspective as a starting point to highlight different perspectives in relation to the political goals. Based on an evidence-based policy perspective, the results of the study can be divided into a discussion around three different categories, namely those of whether a goal is based on facts, knowledge and research, that there is a relevant need, and whether the goal is feasible. These three categories may also represent conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between politics and civil servants. This conflict can also be described as a discrepancy between politics and civil servants. What this study has concluded is that, in general, the goals have in most cases according to the civil servants been well supported by facts, knowledge and research. And there has been a relevant need for most of the goals, and they should be given high priority by the municipality. However, where discussion or a discrepancy often arose is about the feasibility of the goals. In this, there is a discrepancy between the political goal and the civil servant’s knowledge of feasibility, this could be considered a knowledge discrepancy regarding feasibility between civil servants and the political goals. 

The thesis aims to explore the media framing of Nigeria’s 2023 election in relation to votebuying: How did the Nigerian print media portray the legitimacy of the 2023 election in relation to vote-buying? In addressing the research question, Entman’s (1993) framing theory is used. For identifying the themes and patterns around the framing of the election Entman’s four questions, defining the problems, diagnosing causes, making moral judgments, and treatment recommendations, in connection with the existing literature on vote buying are employed. The thesis is a single-case study adopting a qualitative content analysis for analyzing 26 articles from Daily Post, Nigerian Tribune, Premium Times, PUNCH, The Cable, The Guardian, This Day, and Vanguard. The results indicated that the media, with the exception of two media outlets, overwhelmingly framed vote-buying as an illegitimate fraudulent electoral practicecaused by poverty and hunger. It is framed as detrimental to democratic governance and the media suggested predominantly enforcement measures such as election monitoring and criminal prosecution as possible remedies

All over the western world, media are giving Muslims the role as scapegoats for everything that is wrong with society. Through grave generalizations as well as alleged connections between Islam and terrorism, social categorizations are established in which Muslims become the ‘others’. Research has been made on a various amount of western nations, with the exception of a few, and this thesis explores how Argentinean media portray Islam and Muslims. With the use of quantitative and qualitative text analyses, the result will show the levels of priming and framing in relation to earlier research. By assuming social constructivism, a high frequency of these two ‘faces of power’ would affect societal relations, possibly creating a gap between an ‘us’ and ‘them’. Our findings suggest, however, this is not the case in Argentina; on the contrary, Argentinean media lack the frames which make Muslims ‘others’. This important discovery implies that the relationship between Islam and the West of today does not necessarily have to be one of two combatants, incapable of coexisting.

This thesis aims to examine how teachers in municipal and independent upper secondary schools experience their horizontal and vertical autonomy to see if there are any similarities or differences between them. Describing their autonomy is done by applying a perception of teachers as street-level bureaucrats to gain a deeper understanding of the concept. In connection to the autonomy discussions, the theoretical understanding is provided in terms of horizontal and vertical influence that might affect autonomy. Those factors are reduced to three specific areas labelled as grading, teaching content and layout of teaching to examine our main research question: How do teachers in municipal and independent schools experience their vertical and horizontal autonomy? In order to answer our main research question, the following questions are specified, (1) how do teachers experience vertical and horizontal autonomy in the fields of grading, teaching content and layout of teaching? (2) what similarities or differences, if any, in respect to vertical and horizontal autonomy exist between teachers in municipal and independent schools? An interpretivist view forms the basis for this study and a qualitative approach is used to conduct a small-n comparison in order to answer those questions through semi-structured interviews. The result show that there is a relatively consistent view of vertical influence, where both the municipal and independent schools receive a high level of vertical autonomy. What is significant, however, is that due to loosely composed governing documents, there is rather a desire to reduce the vertical autonomy. In the horizontal respect, teachers in independent schools are more vulnerable, where guardians and students try to break into the vertical control and thus break the chain of command. 

This thesis explores the perceptions and understandings of Somali women in Sweden toward colorism and internalized racism in the context of Sweden’s Eurocentric beauty ideals. Using social constructivism, intersectionality theory, colorism, and internalized racism as the theoretical frameworks. The study employs a qualitative method with focus group interviews to explore the beauty habits and ideals of Somali women and how they attempt to conform to Eurocentric norms. This thesis finds that Somali women's beauty ideals are heavily influenced by Eurocentric beauty ideals as they dominate the media and beauty industries. The study also finds that it is difficult for Somali women to belong to Swedish beauty norms as whiteness is the dominating norm. Concluding, the study reveals that intra-racial colorism is prevalent and perpetuated within the Somali community, and that Somali women internalize racism as the unattainable Eurocentric beauty ideal of light skin leads to skin lightening practices and attempts at concealing one’s racial identity. 

This bachelor's thesis is a descriptive study of the refugee media discourse and refugee media representations during 2016 in the 5 biggest Swedish newspapers (Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen, Göteborgs-Posten, and Svenska Dagbladet). This thesis focuses on the news articles and explores the representations of refugees in these articles prior to the implementation of new Swedish migration policies, from Jan 1, 2016 until July 20, 2016 and after their implementation, i.e. from July 20, 2016 to Dec 31, 2016. The analysis of the data by using discourse theory and the representations theory in of the us vs them field and the economic and security threat field reveals that a change and shift in the refugee media discourse and the representations of refugees occurred between the two time periods.

This thesis explores the intersection of State-Business Relationships (SBR) and the green transition, particularly focusing on the perspectives of MedTech companies in the Västra Götaland region, Sweden. It leans on the universal recognition of sustainability goals outlined in the UN Agenda 2030 and the social democratic perspective that emphasizes the importance of collaboration between the State and businesses to achieve these objectives. The transition to greener, more sustainable practices poses both challenges and opportunities for businesses, necessitating collaboration with governmental entities. The study identifies a gap in existing literature, highlighting a need to examine SBR from the perspective of businesses, especially concerning sustainability initiatives. To explore this gap, we construct an analytical framework consisting of three components: business perceptions of political leadership, coordination mechanisms, and transparency in SBR regarding the green transition. Methodologically, the study employs a case study approach and triangulates data from a focus group and semi-structured interviews with MedTech companies in the Västra Götaland Region. The findings suggest varying perceptions among companies regarding the effectiveness of political leadership, the extent of dialogue and coordination mechanisms, and the transparency of regulatory processes. Surprisingly, companies perceive a lack of political leadership from the State concerning green transition. Overall, the study underscores the importance of understanding businesses' perspectives in SBR to foster effective collaboration and drive sustainable development initiatives.

Bakgrund: Denna studie har, utifrån argumentationsanalys, undersökt sex ledare med temat extremism från tre morgontidningar, utifrån en tidsaktuell kontext. Temat valdes framförallt på grund av att det planerades en nazistisk demonstration utanför Svenska Mässan under bokmässan i Göteborg. Avsikten med valet av tema är för att knyta ämnet till en aktuell samhällsdebatt som tydligt presenterades i tidningarnas ledare, vilket gav både relevans och hållbarhet till det valda temat. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att göra en argumentationsanalys på sex ledarsidor från tre morgontidningars hemsidor. Det är ledarnas normativitet och faktualitet tillsammans med argumentationens beviskraft som kommer vara målet för analysen. Det som är intressant är att få fram hur beviskraften kan påverkas av hur normativ respektive faktuell ledaren är, och också hur olika ledares argumentationer kan få olika beviskrafter. Samt se hur många argument som inte bara är faktuella utan också vilar på en vetenskaplig grund. Metod: Argumentanalysen används för att undersöka varje arguments hållbarhet och relevans, samt den slutliga beviskraften för hela ledaren. Analysen kollar på grunden som sätts för ett argument och hur detta påverkar argumentets hållbarhet, samt hur det presenteras i ledaren. Medan relevansen undersöks genom att både kolla på hur argumentet passar ihop med både hela ledarens slutsats och i samband med de andra argumenten i samma ledare. Resultat: Resultatet visar på att de flesta ledarna är normativa. Mellan ledarna återfinns både likheter och skillnader, dessa tar sig i olika former beroende på vilket huvudfokus ledarna har, samt vad för grunder de har till sina argument.

The aim of this thesis is to assess whether agency advocacy in newspapers debate articles has increased since the 1970’s and what forms agency advocacy take. This is done by investigating if the number or share of debate articles written by agencies increased from the 1970’s to the 2000’s, what types of communication approaches and subjects that are used over the years. The theoretical approach is based on research about new public management (NPM) and mediatisation through a normative institutionalist perspective. It is mainly a quantitative study where we collect debate articles from four different decades and code the content according to three ideal types: information, agency advocacy by promoting issue and agency advocacy by legitimating agency.  The thesis finds that the share and to some extent the number of debate articles has increased over the years, which supports the NPM theory and in part mediatisation theory. All ideal types are present; agency advocacy exists in all analysed debate articles while information is highly absent.  There is little change over the years which make it difficult to assess which theory that is supported.  

This thesis aims to see how asylum seeking refugees, between the ages of 18-25 years old, perceive their integration and to further investigate if the perception of integration differs within this group. More specifically this thesis asks two questions: (1) How do young asylum seeking men and women perceive the concept of integration in terms of mutuality and onesidedness? (2) Are there any similarities or differences within this group when it comes to their perceptions of integration? This thesis is designed as a qualitative case study with comparative elements and semi-structured interview questions. It consists of a combination of a theory of integration as a process within the economic, social and political spheres, and a theory of integration as a process based on mutual adjustment or one-sided adjustment relationships. From the analysis, it resulted that there are more differences than similarities among the asylum seeking refugees. Especially among men and women when it comes to the perception of integration, and more specifically within the economic and social sphere. Within the economic sphere, women strongly associate this with a one-sided relationship, while men tend to perceive that relationship within the social sphere. However, both women and men expressed the need for a mutual relationship within the political sphere due to the asylum process which lies in the hands of the society and not something that these women and men can decide on their own.

This autoethnographic case study explores the experience of the digital regime on learning and knowledge production brought about by merging university study and research practice within a single digital regime in Work Integrated Political Studies (WIPS) during 2019-2021. The study provides a detailed account of the nature of learning and producing knowledge through this common digital regime, and its political implications. To explain the possibility and impacts of the digital regime, the study employed the concept of digital pharmakon by French philosopher Bernard Stiegler. In the analysis, I have operationalized the concept to the empirical materials I generated in the form of autoethnographic notes taken during the internship in the political science unit of University West, Trollhättan. Based on the analysis of these notes, the study postulates three features of the digital regime in learning knowledge production, which is: 1) to supplement human memory without memorization, 2) the provision of tools with various powerful technics, and 3) as a medium for communication and individuation. Additionally, the regime brought forthsome consequences for learning and practice, for instance, the dangers of forgetting, accelerating dependence on the computational memory and process, weakening thinking for oneself, and short-circuiting the process of individuation. The political implications would be eliminating diverse, negentropic, improbable, and incalculable parts of knowledge, so the knowledge left to be produced is based on computational reasoning, universal, data-driven, negotium, entropic nature of knowledge, lacking the local specialties, and subjective experiences

Denna uppsats behandlar frågan kring fördomar, muslimer och interaktion. Undersökningen sker genom en intervjuundersökning där respondenterna får svara på frågor som berör deras syn på muslimer utifrån deras interaktionsnivå. Tidigare forskning säger att den socialt konstruerade bilden av muslimer är negativ, och att den upprätthålls av samhället, däribland filmindustrin. Som ramverk för att undersöka detta används socialkonstruktivismen och kontaktteorin. Kontaktteorin, som introduceras av Gordon Allport, säger att interaktion mellan grupper minskar fördomar genom att grupperna interagerar som jämbördiga och med gemensamma mål. Dessa grupper beskrivs som ingroup och outgroup. Uppsatsen behandlar således om interaktionen hos respondenterna påverkar perceptionen de har av muslimer i Sverige. Slutsatsen är att interaktionen hos respondenterna påverkar uppfattningen de har av muslimer. De respondenter som hade regelbunden kontakt med muslimer, uppfattade inte gruppen i negativa termer.

This thesis aims to explore a WIL-master student’s identities and negotiated roles during WIL internship. The study complicates researcher´s positionality during WIL internship and rejects the over simplified insider/outsider dichotomy. I use autoethnography as a method to describe and analyse my personal experience of being a participant observer during a 6 month period (09/2021-03/2022) in a migrant led organisation where I have been involved in four different applications and co-creation of a proposal for a new communicational strategy for the organisation. I also conducted semi structured interview to analyse how a researcher´s identity was understood within the organisation. The framework used is based on Bucholtz and Halls´s sociocultural linguistic identity theory. While I started with grounded theory during my WIL internship, I progressively moved towards to intersectional analysis. I focus on WIL masterstudent’s identities and how they may potentially influence AIL practice's as a whole. My ambition is to try, by emphasizing the different negotiation situations of both my macrolevels and more dynamic identities that arose during my WIL internship, making the importance of both researcher´s identity and how researchers position themselves more visible.During the analysis I found that during the WIL-internship I positioned myself but was understood by others in another way. With that knowledge I could rethink my own identity and try to learn how to emphasize the “right” identities in different situations. 

This study is conducted as an exploratory case study with the aim to provide an understanding of how Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is experienced by female students. Specifically, it seeks to explore whether, and if so how, gender and ethnicity have influenced the WIL experience of female students within and across the university and the internship contexts.The empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews with female participant of the Work Integrate Political Studies (WIPS) program. By focusing on exclusion/differential inclusion of students in two different social settings this thesis aims to provide an insight into how WIL plays out in reality. The intersectional gender analysis is conducted on the empirical material by applying an analytical framework based on Joan Ackers theoretical assumption of “inequality regimes.”

The results indicate that the WIL experience at campus are affected by “men in groups” and that the experience of WIL at campus reproduce rather than challenge patterns of gender inequality. In terms of the WIL internship experience the result indicates that the internship offices reproduce rather than challenge patterns of inequality in relation to both gender and ethnicity. Furthermore, these patterns are best identified through the eyes of students who do not display attributes that are demanded by the office such as a different language, a different nationality, or a different skin tone.

Abstract Rationale, aims and objectives  In this article, ideal conceptions about teamwork are tested. The research question posed is: How are teams in psychiatry formed? Three theoretical concepts that distinguish groups from teams are presented: sequentiality, parallelism and synchronicity. The presumption is that groups cooperate sequentially and teams synchronously, while the parallel work mode is a transitional form between group and team. Methods  Three psychiatric outpatient teams at a university hospital specialist clinic were studied. Data were collected through 25 personal interviews and 82 hours of observations. The data collection was carried out over 18 months (2008–2009). Results  Results show: (1) that the three theoretical distinctions between group and team need to be supplemented with two intermediate forms, semiparallel and semisynchronous teamwork; and (2) that teamwork is not characterized by striving towards a synchronous ideal but instead is marked by an adaptive interaction between sequential, parallel and synchronous working modes. Conclusions  The article points to a new intermediate stage between group and team. This intermediate stage is called semiparallel teamwork. The study shows that practical teamwork is not characterized by a synchronous ideal, but rather is about how to adaptively find acceptable solutions to a series of practical problems. The study emphasizes the importance of the team varying between different working modes, so-called semisystematics.

Sectarianism involves governance and two factions fighting over politics, religion, and culture. Depending on the political atmosphere and which of her groups is more dominant, prejudice, discrimination, or hostility might occur. This is a severe issue to be tackled, particularly in Lebanon which raises the need for its exploration under a selected factor which is the human security level. Accordingly, this research aims to explore the tendency toward sectarianism among Lebanese people in two geographical areas taking into consideration the human security level in each region: North Lebanon, which has a generally lower level of human security, and the Emirate, which has higher security levels. Moreover, the study uses voting behavior to measure sectarianism relating this to the mentioned human security levels as a factor that affects people's propensity for sectarianism.The study employs a quantitative approach of a sample of 160 individuals, evenly split across regions was analyzed using frequency analysis. The study found that sectarian inclinations might be linked to the absence of human security in Lebanon and the necessity for Lebanese residents to find alternative sources for their fundamental needs, answering the research question. Future studies should concentrate on increasing human security in Lebanon to reduce sectarianism.

This thesis takes the form of an auto-ethnographic case study and aims to investigate the potential role of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in enhancing the five key behavioral attributes of emotional intelligence among higher-education students. Given that work is an indispensable and integral component of our lives, through which we fulfill our financial, emotional, social, and psychological needs, I considered it beneficial to conduct further investigations in this research area, as gaps have been identified.

In recent years, globalization, technological development, and increasing stress levels have begun to affect our daily routines and productivity, impacting our cognitive processes and expected outcomes at work. It is for this reason that an increasing number of employers have begun to look for other essential skills that go beyond technical competencies, smartness, or job experience, turning their attention toward the employee himself and his capacity to understand himself and manage his emotions in a changing society so that it beneficially carries on his responsibilities for the workplace itself.

Incorporating evidence from transcripts used in a real-life WIL project called Global Classroom for Democratic Innovation, and personal logbook entries as an intern by doing a thematic analysis, this thesis seeks to find out if WIL can enhance behavioral attributes such as self-awareness, self-management, motivation, empathy, and the development of needed social skills that come with emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence predicts positive results in social environments and workplaces as it is a set of interrelated skills that help people process emotionally relevant information efficiently and accurately.

This thesis has studied two things, the first thing is to see if contact between different ethnic minorities but were the ethnic majority is absent has the same alleged positive effect on generalized trust as contact between ethnic minorities and the ethnic majority. The second issue is to see if people that have contact with people with other ethnic origin than themselves changed their perception of their ethnic identity and if that effects generalized trust. This was done by using theories of social constructivism and social capital were I had an inductive theoretical approach. The research design was comparative research design, comparing heterogeneous environments were there were different ethnic minorities but were the ethnic majority was absent to ethnic heterogeneous environments were there were different ethnic minorities but were the ethnic majority was present using semis structured interviews. What I found out is that contact did in deed effect how people perceived their ethnic identity but not always in the way that the theories suggested that they should. Age seemed to have an bigger effect on generalized trust then ethnic heterogeneity. Also ethnic identity did not directly effect generalized trust but that contact and ethnic identity did in some indirect way effect generalized trust because contact led people to believe that all people are the same no matter their ethnic identity.

Around the world, vulnerable groups (black women, women, women of colour, non-white women, immigrants, refugees, foreign nationals, and intersections of these) are faced with challenges that negatively affect their everyday life. One of these challenges is typically a lack of safety due to racism, marginalisation, exclusion, stereotypes, labelling, out-casting and being more susceptible to incidences of danger and/or harm. This study is a comparative study that explores the experiences of vulnerable group researchers in academic spaces across Sweden and South Africa.

More specifically, the study compares vulnerable groups from Högskolan Väst (henceforthHV) in Sweden in the global north and from the University of the Western Cape (henceforth UWC) from South Africa in the global south. This comparison is framed through literature on safety, Work Integrated Learning (henceforth WIL), and vulnerable groups. With the aid of Critical Race Theory (henceforth CRT), a framework for analysis is developed around the concepts of overt racism, counter-storytelling, colour-blindness and micro-aggressions.

The research conducted in this project has found data that vulnerable group researchers are more susceptible to incidences of racial or xenophobic harm despite being in and around proposed safe institutions. The findings from the research speak to incidences of harm experienced in the classroom, in the university, with student researchers and with fellow students in both Sweden and South Africa.

The intentions that the findings have for WIL entail the need to make conscious considerations for the vulnerable group students it takes on and making their white counterparts aware of the safe environment that is needed. The findings show that if this is not done then vulnerable group students will be in a constant negative cycle of harm limiting them in their processes of learning and inclusion in the classroom, the university space, and the relations they have with their fellow students – this is inclusive of their respective internship hosts. This will in return allow vulnerable groups students to raise relative harmful issues that they experience and more.

The aim of this thesis is to compare the different Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon film reviews from Chinese and American reviewers respectively, and to see how they evaluate and understand the film in the different ways. We use reception theory as our theoretical tool, and divide the film into four themes so that we can compare the different reviews in a more relative way. Meanwhile, we also present some brief ideas to explain the reason why the film gets the different response from both sides. Since our main purpose is to compare the different film reviews, so we choose the comparative design as our research design. The main findings of this thesis show that Chinese and American reviewers do have some distinct evaluations, understandings and views about the film.Besides, culture and aesthetic become the two major factors to influence the response from both sides.

This chapter explores the paradoxical logics embedded in the Swedish policymaking elites’ rationale for exporting advanced conventional weapons to the so-called developing world. Using the South Africa JAS-39 Gripen fighter jet deal as a case study, the chapter demonstrates how the policymaking elite consciously pursues a dual strategy regarding the production and circulation of weapons – one that is driven both by the Swedish internationalist tradition of “doing good” and “being good” in the world, but also for instrumental purposes. Overall, the investigation illustrates how such processes have become embedded societal symbols of Swedish identity in the post-Cold War era – a phenomenon that serves to conflate the operations of a militarized state with the perceived ideals of Swedish mediation, honest brokership, and overall as a significant contributor to frameworks of promoting ethical and peaceful methods on a global stage. These paradoxes, it is argued, raise important questions about so-called “Swedish exceptionalism.”

The study on which this article is based, aimed to map out and analyse the ways in which Sweden's Gripen exports have been shaped and sustained since the end of the Cold War. It did so by examining three interrelated factors that have had an effect on Sweden's defence industry. By illustrating how societal preferences, defence and security policy shifts, and the role of national identity have influenced weapons manufacturing and exports, this article provides a balanced overview of the most salient push and pull factors of Sweden's Gripen exports. The central contention of the study was that Swedish weapons manufacturing and exports often involve a close interaction between interests and ideals. Moreover, due to the multitude of richly correlated, interconnected and mutually reinforcing elements related to such practices, there cannot be a neat and parsimonious distinction between agents and structures and domestic and international settings. Instead, the study was especially reflective of real-world practices and the strategic relational approach between those forces that shape and sustain Sweden's Gripen exports.

The thesis will explore press conferences and press releases from the Swedish government during the first and second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Sweden against the background of the Swedish Model of governance. Throughout this research, we will analyse these discourses of high officials in the country in relation to the lived reality of healthcare workers during the pandemic. What role does this discourse play in this context, and what does it say about the meaning of the Swedish Model of governance? Our theoretical approach is based on corporatism, as theorised by Philippe Schmitter, and a critique by Cohen and Pavoncello. Three main concepts were adapted from this theory, ‘cooperation’, ‘exchange’ and ‘control’ and used in our analysis. Our thesis is a descriptive, explorative study of the Covid-19 pandemic, looking at the government discourse and the healthcare sector. The studyis qualitative and used closed coding based on our theoretical framework. The main findings of this thesis are that labour organizations were largely erased from state discourse on managing the pandemic, and that there was a shift between the first and second wave, where corporatist themes overall became less pronounced, and the corporatist structure served as a tool for the central state to diffuse responsibility and assign blame to other actors. 

The following Bachelor’s thesis is analyzing contemporary advocacy for more women in diplomacy by the United Nations (UN), with the help of framing theory. More specifically, it examines, (1) how is the absence of female diplomats represented as a problem? (2) What is represented as the causes of that problem? And finally, (3) what is represented as the solutions to that problem? The thesis examines one UN body: UNITAR, which is the only body that focus on the promotion of women explicitly in diplomacy. This is a single case study with a qualitative approach, and makes use of framing theory, based on social constructivism. Through gathering of outward-focused documents from UNITARs webpage, it has been observed that UNITAR frames the absence of women in diplomacy as an inefficiency problem. The argument is that by promoting more women in foreign policy, there will be greater productivity, enhanced economical growth and less poverty. The main causes of the problem are represented as a mix of societal, individual and organizational barriers. The solution to the problem is represented to be mainly training of individual women to improve skills needed to successfully carry out diplomacy, but also, to a lesser extent, training of organizations to inforce a gender mainstreaming approach.

Key Words:  Women in diplomacy, framing, United Nations, women in foreign policy, international campaigns.

The objective of this essay is to look at two cases where the debate rages regarding whether or not to restitute stolen art back to the states from which it was originally stolen. By looking at the debate in each country the essay focuses on gaining understanding in how one state might decide upon returning the cultural treasures and the other refuses to. In assisting the analysis of the debate, theories from social constructivism, norms and ideas of different national identities are assessed. More closely, this essay tries to examine the different ideas of national identity (Imperial Cosmopolitanism and Egalitarian Cosmopolitanism) and analyze the domestic interpretations of the international norm on restitution of plundered treasures that follow from these identities. In doing so, states of interest, Sweden and Great Britain, are chosen and the theoretical model for analysis developed by Bacchi (2010) will be used in order to present ―the problem‖, the causes to the problem and the solutions provided to solve the problem. Thereby, the essay aims to show how the actions, behavior and arguments of these states, in the question of restitution, are greatly dependant on the differences in the ideas of national identity that each state might possess or have inherited from past.

The general aim of this thesis is to describe the approaches of the Social Democratic Party and the Moderate Party to political integration for the newly-arrived immigrant groups in the post-2014 period. This is a descriptive study is with textual qualitative content analysis as a methodology to explore the statements made by the two parties. The sources and data used in the analysis chapter are from the two parties' official websites, government website and the parliamentary website. When the data is analysed by using three models, i.e. the multicultural, assimilationist, and exclusionary models, of integration, this study concludes that while both parties had adopted a multicultural model of integration before 2014, in the post-2014 period there are some elements of change in Moderate Party's integration approaches, such as the addition of demands like the compulsory participation in integration courses for the immigrants and an the integration test shifting the Moderate Party's position toward the exclusionary model of integration. The findings indicate that the Social Democratic Party, on the other hand, still promotes the multicultural model of integration after 2014.

Participation in the European Parliament Election has steadily declined since the start in 1979. In 2004 less than half (47.8%) of the voting-age population of the European Union used their right to vote. This has actualized questions asking if the European Parliament is a good representation of the European citizens. The paradigm when it comes to explaining the electoral turnout in the European Parliament Election is the second-order theory. Though the theory explains the low voter participation, it does not explain why the European Parliament Election has become a second-order election. Thus, in this thesis will search for the underlying variable explaining why the European Parliament Election is a second-order election. Through our research we find that distances are important in the European Union, and they create centres and peripheries within the European Union. By looking at Rokkan and Urwin‟s horizontal and vertical types of peripheries, where the vertical type consists of Rokkan and Urwin‟s three domain of social life, our research concludes that centre-periphery structures within the European Union are the underlying variable, explaining why the European Parliament Election is a second-order election.

Media framing of electoral violence can be constructed differently by different news media. News media has become a significant actor in real-life politics, which provides other constructions, meanings, and understandings. Social constructivism theory and framing theory combine ideology by answering the following questions. This research compares how the New York Times and Wall Street Journal answered these questions by using articles. The study is qualitative and aims to identify the frames used by print media. The author uses articles as data material; all articles from both media outlets are published within two weeks of the incident.

While universities and academic freedoms are under attack globally in the context of rising populism and shrinking civic and political space, universities retain some freedom to offer “protection”. Protection, in this chapter, is conceptualised along three dimensions: (1) protection as presented in human rights standards, (2) a continuum of protection derived from political science and international relations (research on gender-based violence (GBV) and neoliberal governance), and (3) understandings of the particular role of universities in protection (physical protection of people, protection of values, and protection of diverse forms of knowledge). In this chapter, we develop a multi-layered conceptualisation of universities as sites of protection that both highlight tensions and value clashes and identifies pathways that would allow universities to champion a progressive politics of protection. The chapter showcases two public universities, Makerere University in Uganda and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa, to show how protection is both envisaged and enacted by these institutions in relation to GBV. Drawing on these three frameworks and two case studies, the chapter concludes with an overarching, if provisional, theorisation of protection, as a template to analyse the role universities play in relation to protection.

Digitalization of public services has been high up on the political agenda in Sweden, with considerable efforts that accompany other initiatives to reform and modernize production of welfare services and their administration. Digital solutions are usedto build both technical and organizational innovations in public services, as well asin bureaucratic decision-making. The "Digital first principle" is guiding the European policies in the field and is also central in the Swedish digitalization strategy for public administration. This means that the contact between the citizens,the companies or other society actors, and the public sector authorities shall initially and to largest possible extent occur digitally.

A digital innovation that is currently spreading among Swedish municipalities is automatizing social assistance services mainly addressing income support for vulnerable citizens. In a context of nationally highly regulated income support schemes, the municipalities manage the digitalization of services highly differently, coping with inherent tensions in relation to their local autonomy. We have conducted a long-term case study following such an implementation case in amedium size Swedish municipality. Based on interviews, observations and workshops we can conclude that the implementation is hampered since it is not focusing on the core to coach for self-support and that it even made the system less transparent. This indicates that the principle 'digital first' has to be embedded into the core focus of the service and not address shallow interfaces.

This thesis attempts to explain the role of diaspora women in peacebuilding and examine how these women actors pursue the peace process. A qualitative case study focusing on the Somali communities and reconciliation in Somalia, with a specific emphasis on gathering data from Somali diaspora women in Sweden, can be a valuable and insightful research endeavor. This type of study allows for an in-depth exploration of complex issues related to the peace process in Somalia and the role of the Somali diaspora, particularly women, in contributing to reconciliation efforts. Randolph Bourne's transnationalism concept of diaspora and peace feminism theory are also applied. International approach is used to describe trans-nation, which refers to a country's interconnected culture, ideas, and economics with another country. The study examined these following questions: 1- How do Somali women in the diaspora approach and contribute to the reconciliation processes in Somalia? 2 -How do women overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of contributing to peacemaking? 4- How is gender issue viewed in the Somali context in peacebuilding? The study’s finding shows that the positive role of diaspora women actors in peacebuilding including reconciliation, remittance of money, mediation, and gender equality. The results of the research indicate also that the diaspora role through the bottom-up approach led to Somaliland and Puntland regions in peace with stability, while southern regions employed a top-down approach which caused less effective outcomes and marginalized middle and grassroots levels. The study recommends more inclusive peacebuilding efforts by international peacemakers, including Somali diaspora women. 

This thesis aims to examine the representation of the Swedish-Somali community in Swedish news reports during the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this research is to look into how the two major Swedish newspapers, Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter represented the Swedish-Somali community and its experiences throughout the pandemic. A selection of articles from the two news outlets published during the first and third wave was selected using a qualitative content analysis approach. Discrimination and racism against racialized individuals and groups remain major challenges in today's society, partly shaped by media discourse and the construction of "the others". The results of this research contribute to a broader understanding of the intersection between media, public health, and social identities during a global crisis. By exploring the particular case of the Swedish-Somali community, this study provides insights into the structure of media representation, emphasizing the importance of accurate and impartial reporting in promoting social cohesion and battling xenophobia

This thesis analyses the framing of Operation Rimfrost in Swedish media, using cultural criminology and framing theory, focusing specifically on the initial week of coverage following its announcement. More specifically, we examine how Aftonbladet and Expressen framed Operation Rimfrost during this time. The research question explores how these tabloids frame the narrative around Operation Rimfrost. This small-N study applies a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative analysis based on generic framing theory with qualitative involving cultural criminology. Quantitative analysis identifies and categorises five generic frames while qualitative analysis delves into cultural narratives and symbols. It explores how two major Swedish tabloids, Aftonbladet and Expressen, framed the narrative around Operation Rimfrost, a law enforcement initiative that targeted organised crime and gang violence. This thesis contributes to political science, cultural criminology, and media studies. The findings reveal that both tabloids employed all generic frames, with 'Attribution of Responsibility' being the most common. Sensationalism had a minimal impact on the coverage. This research contributes to political science, cultural criminology, and media studies by addressing a gap in the portrayal of law enforcement initiatives in Swedish media. It emphasises the significance of media literacy in evaluating crime coverage and informs evidence-based crime prevention strategies.

This thesis aims to compare how the eight (8) Swedish political parties in the parliament frame their arguments about NATO membership or NATO option. The framing has been made from the Securitization theory's concepts of “military/security,” “economic,” “political/moral” security and from the Framing Theory’s view of “problem definition”, “causal interpretation”, and “solution”. We have employed qualitative content analysis and the data that has been analyzed in this thesis has been three (3) parliamentary debates where the focus has been on the Swedish security order. On two (2) of the three (3) occasions there has been voting regarding whether Sweden should apply for a NATO membership or announce a NATO option. This thesis explores how Sweden's eight political parties have framed their arguments regarding NATO membership or NATO option from 2020 to 2022 and what the changes in their rhetoric have been in relation to the three themes.