In this study I examine the way stand-up comedian Bill Hicks challenges authority and conventional ideas by re-interpreting signs and offering other ways of explaining social phenomena. The use of comedy for purposes of education and protest is central in the analysis of how the meaning of signs is challenged. Theoretically based in a post-structuralist tradition, and drawing on Discourse Theory,

This is a discussion about justice. Two theories concerning justice, and the means by which to accomplish it, are applied to The Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement, which goal is to lower the emissions of greenhouse gases into the athmosphere. The responsibility to do this is unequally divided between states. I discuss the justice in this from two points of view. First a morally oriented

Begreppet jihad har fått en stor uppmärksamhet in massmedia den senaste tiden. Det är ett mångdimensionellt, men också ett ofta missförstått, begrepp. Den här studien syftar till att belysa detta begrepp genom att jämföra det med den västerländska teorin om det rättfärdiga kriget, en teori som upplevt något av en renässans the senaste decennierna. Min hypotes är att det finns vissa grundlägga

Participation is central to the concept of democracy. The role of the civic participation varies with different types of democracy, but a fundamental requirement is that the participation is free and equal. In spite of this, there are significant differences between possibilities to democratic participation in Sweden today. This essay seeks to understand how disability, historically and still tod

Den 29 april 1955 beslutade stadsfullmäktige i Lund om rivning av rådhuset vid Stortorget. Beslutet hade föregåtts av en debatt om rivning kontra bevarande som berörde både hög och låg bland stadens invånare. Engagemanget var stort. Jag har i den här uppsatsen försökt att skildra debatten, kulturklimatet vid tiden och orsaken till att rådhuset faktiskt fortfarande står kvar år 2006. Det handlar ti

Polismyndigheten har som organisation genomgått stora förändringar. För att möta dessa förändringar startade Polismyndigheten i Skåne 1997 ett arbetsrotationsprogram, vilket i kombination med andra kompetensutvecklings-åtgärder syftade till att skapa en lärande organisation. Tanken var att deltagarna i programmet skulle få nya kunskaper och att de skulle sprida sin kunskap och kompetens inom organ

Transitional justice inevitably means striking a balance between justice and peace. The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze how policies of truth and justice have fared over time and continue to hold momentum in the case of Chile and Argentina. I will carry out this aim through a comparative study guided essentially by two theoretical approaches of transitional justice- legalism and pr

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the extent of the civil rights political participation on a municipality level. The starting-point is the participatory democratic theory. I have chosen to make a case study of the extent of participation among KPR ? the board of the pensioners in the municipality of Skara. KPR is represented by fourteen members from the seven existing associations for pen

Global changes in weather patterns and environmental processes are bringing the climate change discourse from the abstract to the concrete. Through the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention, the global community has highlighted three key areas of urgent action. These are vulnerability, adaptation and mitigation. This thesis focuses on the area of adaptation, framing it within the cont

The study field of the thesis is regional integration in Africa. The focus is set on the African Union (AU) and its main programme for promoting democracy on the continent, the New Partnership for Africa´s Development (NEPAD). By applying two theories, one on democratization through regional organizations and the other on hidden agendas within them, the thesis makes an assessment on the work for d

In this thesis I have examined the work of the United Nations Interim Administrative Mission in Kosova by assessing the quality of democracy created under such an administration. The main goal has been to find the democratic consequences arising from UNMIKs work. The main question posed in this thesis is therefore directed towards answering if this mission has been a success or failure. In order t

This essay examines the Swedish party Miljöpartiet de Gröna and their election campaign 2006. Focus is set on the local organisations in the region of Skåne by examining how they have carried through their campaigns as well as if they have experienced any obstacles in their campaign work. The primary research aim is to give a theoretical contribution as well as an increased knowledge of the local

This essay is a normative analysis concerning the question of whether the government should be allowed to use taxes to finance the state. What kind of ethical problems arise when the government use taxation? If it is possible to justify taxation, despite potential moral issues, then what should the government do with the funds they have collected? What kinds of government functions are morally jus

Studien har till syfte att undersöka hur globaliseringsdebatten ser ut i svensk media och hur den har förändrats under de senaste 10 åren. Fokus ligger på begreppets skilda betydelse som media skapar. Metoden består av en diskursanalys som bygger på Laclou & Mouffes teorier, med fokus kring flytande signifikanter, vilket betyder att begreppet är öppen för olika betydelser och förändlig över ti

Slavery - in popular imagination, the word usually conjures up images of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in the United States. A common belief is that slavery has been abolished and in a legal sense this is correct. However, the practical reality is little changed, i.e. the practice of slavery continues. Much remains to be done in order to abolish slavery, but one problem that I see as a

Abstract Due to the success of the Populist Party Sverigedemokraterna in the Swedish election of 2006, the daily paper Sydsvenska Dagbladet published a number of columns written by well-known academics, writers and debaters. Their aim was to address the question of why this happened in the election and what it is in the Swedish society today that brought forward these trends. The first and the la

The purpose of this essay was to find an understanding of what factors which affect refugee reception in two municipalities in the southern part of Sweden, the municipality of Vellinge and the municipality of Landskrona. Three interviews were made with three local politicians and these interviews were then analysed using postcolonial theory. With the help of Matthew J. Gibney we identified sev

The purpose of this thesis is to study how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may change the role of corporations in an international political context. As a case study on this theme, part of the thesis is focused on how CSR may influence areas concerning human rights in China. The study is undertaken from a discourse theoretical approach and is hence stressing the dialectical constituting rela

In this thesis we have examined Västra Götalandsregionens ways to lobby and network in the European Union. Our aim was to examine which kind of methods the region uses to lobby in a successful way in Brussels. We found that the region uses both formal and informal methods of lobbying to gain advantages in Brussels. We also wanted to locate various networks which the region is involved in to more e

This thesis evaluates the empirical support for some of the most influential theories within the literature on democratic consolidation and applies them to the third wave of democracy. In our population, which consists of 85 countries that experienced a transition to democracy between the years 1974 and 1995, there exists a large divergence in the outcome of the consolidation process. By using