This paper explores possible solutions to the existing gap between human rights and citizenship and asks if society should replace citizenship with a more globalised or international form of “citizenship”? It further asks how society should aim to best eliminate the gap between human rights and citizenship? The paper uses an argumentative analysis to examine the theories of internationalism, global citizenship, and the democracy of demoi while considering cosmopolitan, agonistic, and anarchist viewpoints. In doing so showing the imperialist tendencies within global citizenship due to its need for universalism, and the possible alternative presented by the democracy of demoi as a pluralistic solution that accommodates agonistic views and anarchist notions of non-domination.

In a world characterized by constant changes and increasing diversity, controversialevents unfold in society on a daily basis. Given the School's role in educating democraticcitizens, it is imperative for educational institutions to adapt and incorporate current andcontroversial topics into their curriculum. This thesis explores the perspectives of socialstudies teachers on controversial issues in the classroom. Employing a phenomenologicalapproach and conducting in-depth interviews with social studies teachers, the studyanalyzes their subjective experiences, definitions of the subject, and approaches toteaching controversial topics. Therefore, our purpose and research questions are groundedin three themes, which are also pervasive throughout the work: Teacher management,teacher experience, and teacher definition of controversial issues in education.In summary, the results from our interview study reveal that teachers acknowledge theemotional impact associated with these issues, a finding supported by prior research. Thechallenge lies in the complexity of these topics and the ability to strike a balance betweenintellectual challenge and emotional understanding. The study highlights the difficultyteachers face in maintaining objectivity while navigating through their own values, andthe intricate interplay between subject content, emotions, and the teacher's ownperspective. It is evident that a conscious effort is required to create a classroomatmosphere that fosters open dialogues and respectful confrontations to promotedemocratic values, where diverse perspectives can be included.

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In an effort to better understand primate behavioural flexibility and responses to low-biomass habitats, behavioural patterns of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) living in a xerophytic spiny forest habitat in southern Madagascar were examined. Behavioural data were collected over two months on two separate groups living in two distinctly different habitats: a sub-desert spiny forest and a riverine gallery forest. Data on the following behavioural categories integral to primate sociality were collected: time allocation, anti-predator vigilance, predator sensitive foraging, feeding competition, and affiliative behaviour. L. catta living in the spiny forest habitat differed significantly in many behavioural patterns when compared to L. catta living in the gallery forest. I suggest that the ability to successfully alter behavioural strategies to varying ecological conditions allows ring-tailed lemurs to occupy low biomass habitats which are uninhabitable to nearly all other primate species in Madagascar. Lemur catta evolution, behavioural flexibility, and conservation will be discussed.

In an effort to better understand primate behavioural flexibility and responses to low-biomass habitats, behavioural patterns of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) living in a xerophytic spiny forest habitat in southern Madagascar were examined. Behavioural data were collected over two months on two separate groups living in two distinctly different habitats: a sub-desert spiny forest and a riverine gallery forest. Data on the following behavioural categories integral to primate sociality were collected: time allocation, anti-predator vigilance, predator sensitive foraging, feeding competition, and affiliative behaviour. L. catta living in the spiny forest habitat differed significantly in many behavioural patterns when compared to L. catta living in the gallery forest. I suggest that the ability to successfully alter behavioural strategies to varying ecological conditions allows ring-tailed lemurs to occupy low biomass habitats which are uninhabitable to nearly all other primate species in Madagascar. Lemur catta evolution, behavioural flexibility, and conservation will be discussed.

This thesis investigates the counter-hegemonic formation of Danish-based transnational feminist curatorial collective Kuratorisk Aktion in a single-case study. It serves as a unique example, presenting how the collective engages to overcome the existing gap between curatorial aims and the implementation through curating. Their work and approach is shaped highly by their political mindset, aiming to resist tendencies of depoliticisation, right-wing populism or neoliberalism with the means of curating. Chantal Mouffe’s theory of radical democracy and her deliberations and notions concerning agonisms, citizenship, feminism, counter-hegemonic interventions and activism through art are used in order to contextualise and discuss the possibilities and limitations of the political work by Kuratorisk Aktion. An interview with the collective conducted by scholar Angela Dimitrakaki in 2010 as well as their realised curatorial projects enhanced the argumentation. The analysis exemplified, that over the years Kuratorisk Aktion has developed their personal and exceptional curatorial paradigm, which is able to counteract hegemonic structures. This reveals their radical democratic potential and aspiration through curating and the curatorial.

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This thesis is a theoretical and empirical inquiry into ‘deliberative peacebuilding’, seeking to explain the ‘failures’ and ‘successes’ of peacebuilding in East Timor and Somaliland. While warfare has increased globally since the end of the Cold War, the UN has made efforts to build peace (e.g. Boutros-Ghali 1992). While peacebuilding has become an internationally applied set of ideas and practices, one of the theoretical gaps is deliberation. This research thus conceptualises ‘deliberative peacebuilding’, and associates this with peacebuilding in the non-Western, post-colonial, and (post-)conflict context. This research identified East Timor and Somaliland as its case studies. Despite similarity in the ‘legitimation problem’ with vertical (state-society) and horizontal (‘modernity’-‘tradition’) inequalities/differences based upon cultural and historical backgrounds, East Timor and Somaliland undertook different approaches in a decade after the end of their civil wars. While East Timor accepted UN peace operations, Somaliland rejected them. Yet both experienced similar transitions to make political order between ‘failure’ (political de-legitimation/societal dissent) and ‘success’ (political legitimation/societal consent).Accordingly, this thesis poses two questions: 1) what caused the UN to have ‘failed’ (to prevent the ‘crisis’ from recurring in 2006) in East Timor, and 2) what caused East Timor and Somaliland to have experienced ‘equifinality’ (making similar progress along different paths) in building peace (in East Timor from 1999 to 2012 and in Somaliland from 1991 to 2005). Findings, among others, include different paths in transition: a ‘hybrid’ path with external intervention in East Timor and an ‘agonistic’ path without it in Somaliland. Asymmetry in power relations urged deliberative agencies to address the ‘legitimation problem’ differently.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are eukaryotic integral membrane proteins that perform transmembrane signal transduction. Due to their pivotal role in a wide range of essential physiological functions GPCRs represent a high proportion of all drug targets. High resolution X-ray structures of GPCRs are however underrepresented in the Protein Data Bank. This is due to their instability in detergent, low expression levels and the presence of misfolded receptors in many heterologous expression systems. The objective of this project was to engineer the angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R), a human GPCR, to make it suitable for structural studies. It was determined that detergentsolubilised AT1R was thermostable with antagonist bound with an apparent Tm of ~45°C, which was sufficiently stable for purification without further thermostabilisation by rational mutagenesis. Two expression systems were then evaluated for large-scale production of AT1R, namely baculovirus-mediated expression in insect cells and mammalian expression in HEK293 cells. Radioligand binding assays showed that only the mammalian system produced sufficient quantities of active AT1R for structural studies. Expression in the mammalian system was further optimised to approximately 6 mg/L. An AT1R-GFP fusion was created to examine membrane localisation using confocal laser scanning microscopy, to assay expression levels, to select highly expressing monoclonal cell lines using fluorescence activated flow cytometry and to develop a fluorescence size-exclusion chromatographybased assay to examine the suitability of 12 different ligands for co-crystallization. AT1R was also engineered to facilitate crystallisation, including C-terminal truncations to remove predicted disordered regions and bacteriophage T4-lysozyme being added to the third intracellular loop to provide additional points of contact for crystallisation, which increased the apparent Tm by approximately 10°C. All modified versions of AT1R were assessed for expression, stability and monodispersity. Additionally a rapid western blotting based assay was developed for the detection of unfolded membrane proteins, which will have wide applicability in the field.

Departing from the increasing threat that organized hate groups and their manipulative practices pose to contemporary society, this thesis seeks to unravel the workings of digital hate culture and to highlight the potential of civil society-led counter initiatives to combat the spread of hatred online. The research is based on a twofold qualitative content analysis. In a first step, the intended practices of two opposing groups – an organized hate group (Reconquista Germanica) and an organized counter speech group (Reconquista Internet) – are analyzed based on a set of internal strategic communication documents. In a second step, three comment threads on Facebook are examined to illustrate the actualized practices of users spreading hate and users who counter-speak. By drawing on a four-dimensional framework, the analysis thereby considers how practices, discourses, power relations, and the technological affordances of Facebook shape this interplay. With theoretical reference to Mouffe’s (2005) work on the antagonistic nature of the political and today’s post-political Zeitgeist, this thesis ultimately comes to discuss whether such confrontations between exponents of digital hate culture and counter speakers must be understood as irrefutable antagonisms or if productive agonism can be fostered through a mutual understanding of one another as legitimate adversaries.What the analysis evinces is that the discussions carried out between the two opposing camps are highly moralized, resulting in an antagonistic battle between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ that interferes with the possibility for productive agonism. It is further shown that, in this post-political discussion climate, counter speech carries a crucial responsibility to conform to moral values and maintain professional and ethical standards to set itself apart from the harmful practices of digital hate culture. Otherwise, as the analysis indicates, counter efforts are likely to spur on destructive dynamics, further hardening the fronts between opposing positions that characterize today’s increasingly polarized societies.