In the domain of social design, this thesis introduces a design project that explores a place-centric view on interaction design to address issues of participation, representation, and place. The project aims to envision possible futures of city-scaled digital twins as places that enable collective engagement within communities and between citizens and cities. It explores this aim with a methodology grounded in co-design- and ethnographic values, focusing on the place of Ringön in Gothenburg. The final design outcome of the study is an augmented reality-based application connected to the city-scaled digital twin of Gothenburg. The application introduces a concept that enables citizens to express location-based social and cultural values and engage in common concerns. It enables the City of Gothenburg to communicate with citizens and develop an enriched understanding of the identity and character of places in Gothenburg. The study hopes to contribute with knowledge to the body of work within social design that explores how sustainable smart cities can develop from a bottom-up perspective, in a more participatory and socially sustainable way.

A civil-military divide exists within the United States and is perpetuated by a distinct lack of communication between the civilian and military sectors within the population. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine whether attitudes and behaviors of combat veterans affect their positive reintegration into civilian communities. Binder’s social ecology theory provided the framework for the study. Data were collected from 255 combat veterans who responded to a survey. Results were analyzed using a hierarchical multiple linear regression model to determine the influence of military job satisfaction, post-deployment stressors, post-deployment support, and civic engagement on community reintegration efforts, while controlling for age, branch of military service, place of residence, political party affiliation, education, rank, reason for ending military service, and sex. There were statistically significant results that indicate prediction for successful community reintegration may be dependent upon the identification of key associations, including post-deployment support, education, rank, and the reason an individual transitioned out of military service. Findings may also provide policymakers with information about the community reintegration process, which may be used to improve reintegration efforts of combat veterans transitioning back to civilian life for positive social change.

Aim: With particular regard to the traditional media and political participation in Sweden, Iintend to map how and in what way Greta Thunberg protests and the political engagement she expresses. Questions: • How is Greta Thunberg’s protesting framed and how can it be understood based on theprotest paradigm? • How can you understand Greta Thunberg´s political participation on the basis of ideasabout Civic Engagement? Method and material: This report is a qualitative study based on a textual analysis. For collectingthe empirical material, I have chosen to use texts from Swedish news articles. I used 27articles from 2 newspapers which is Aftonbladet and Expressen. Main results: The study shows that media puts greater focus on Greta Thunberg as a personinstead of the factual content and political agenda she stands for. This contributes to GretaThunberg being marginalized and delegitimized, since she is considered a symbol thatchallenges the political power structure. Greta Thunberg feels responsible for the climateissue and it is her duty to be able to contribute to a democratic society by getting involved.Greta Thunberg considers her participation in the media that she feels a moral obligation toengage with the climate.

A subject of this diploma thesis is civic enegaement in a period of dissent, specifically in the period of 70's - 90's of twentieth century. The emhasis is on the female role in dissent and subseqent cross-over in next generation. Subjects of research are offsprings of dissidents and fighters with regime. The goal of this work is to find out an influance of subject's growth in activist family and to specify their attitude to civic engagement. In theoretical part, different view on civic engagement, the period of dissent and the role of women in dissent are presented. I also familiarise theoretical concept of values and attitudes and how they are transferred from genetarion to generation. The empirical part presents the results of the research and the findings, which were obtained by an interwies with respondents as a one of qualitative research methods. In resume of the thess the results are summarized achieved goals.

This thesis aims to illustrate how civil society organizations reflect on and communicate for societal change. The aim is also to broaden the understanding of how norms and logics on social media platforms characterize communication and the discourse about social engagement. With a basis in discourse theory, the particular focus of the study is on identifying discursive themes, and conflicts that exist within these themes. The analysis draws upon critical theories about the power position and technical affordance of social media platforms, as well as perspectives on the political subject - individually and collectively. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with representatives from six environmental organizations, two of which are newer network-based movements. The results show discursive nodal points such as autonomous, individual-based and political.  These partly gain their meaning through social media and technical affordances, which enable lower engagement thresholds, which in turn challenge the organizations’ ideas about long-term engagement. Political engagement is largely associated with online engagement, via social media, at the same time an opposite relationship shows that screen time takes focus from deepened or physical engagement. The results also show that organizations are aware of the power of social media platforms, where hidden algorithms and commercial logic contrast with the organizations’ visions, while at the same time the platforms play an important role for the organizations’ communication.

Den 1 januari 2020 trädde Barnkonventionen i kraft som svensk lag. Artikel 12 innefattar att barn har rätt att uttrycka sin mening och höras i alla frågor som rör barnet. I Barnombudsmannens senaste årsrapport 2020 framkom det att få barn i skolåldern upplever att de känner sig hörda och lyssnade på. Förskolan är barns första möte med skolväsendet, därav är det ytterst viktigt att förskollärare arbetar aktivt med ett demokratiskt förhållningssätt som främjar barns delaktighet, medbestämmanderätt och att barn får kunskap sina rättigheter. Föreliggande studie utgår från barns perspektiv och synliggör barns berättelser och perspektiv på hur de får uttrycka sina rättigheter i förskolan. Studiens frågeställningar är följande: På vilka platser och i vilka sammanhang berättar barnen att de får bestämma i förskolan? samt Vad berättar barnen att de skulle vilja bestämma? Studien utgår från ett mikro-etnografiskt förhållningssätt och den teoretiska utgångspunkten grundar sig i Civic engagement och delaktighet. Metoden för studien utgjordes av gruppsamtal, teckningar och fotografier som genomfördes tillsammans med barn från två olika förskolor. Resultatet av studien visar att barnen kände en bestämmanderätt kring sin lek och vart den utövas, de hade även starka önskningar om att få göra saker som vanligtvis inte sker i förskolans verksamhet. Resultatet visade även på att förskolorna använde demokratiska omröstningar och lottningar som ett tillvägagångssätt för att ta beslut, exempelvis vad de ska göra. Studien påvisar att pedagogerna i verksamheterna har ett lyhört demokratiskt förhållningssätt gentemot barnen. Slutsatsen av studien är att barnen är medvetna om demokratiska regler och strukturer samt har kunskap om de demokratiska värden samhället grundar sig i.

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In the Czech Republic little attention has been given to the research of civil society in rural areas. One of the fundamental preconditions for the development of civil society is engagement of citizens. The aim of this work is to explore social engagement, which is an important part of civic engagement, in two villages. The research was conducted in the north of the Czech republic, in the specific area of the former Sudetenland. Promoting social engagement may be one of the factors influencing the development of the Czech countryside, which is struggling with a long- term depopulation. Through in-depth interviews and document analysis the study argues about what are the main factors for social engagement and how social engagement contributes to the development of social capital.

This masters thesis discusses Tunisian civil society’s advocacy for decentralization and local elections throughout 2018 on Facebook, while considering age and gender dynamics. Existing studies provide an overview of the decentralization reform process in Tunisia and other countries in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region. This research sheds new light on these issues by addressing decentralization from a Communication for Development (C4D) perspective. The subject of this masters thesis is situated in a threefold context: First, in the context of broader debates on the evolution of decentralization approaches in the decentralization field, second, in the Tunisian context of the decentralization reform process, and finally, in the context of youth participation in public debate and elections in Tunisia. The case study focuses on Mourakiboun (The Observers), considered among the most active Civil society organizations advocating for decentralization and local elections. This research draws on existing research related to social media as a public sphere, social media for development, as well as the concepts of advocacy and civic engagement. This paper analyses Mourakiboun’s advocacy for decentralization and local elections throughout 2018 based on quantitative content analysis of its Facebook page statistics, with a focus on five specific periods. Qualitative surveys for Facebook users, as well as in-depth interviews with Mourakiboun’s representatives, complement the first research method by understanding opinion on this advocacy from involved stakeholders. The main findings of this paper show a gap between active interaction of Facebook users on Mourakiboun’s page, especially 18-34 years old, on Facebook posts related to decentralization and local elections and their participation on May 6th, 2018 local elections. They also show a weak interest of 13-17-year-olds in posts related to decentralization and local elections, and that male users are more engaged with the page than their female counterparts. Additionally, the analysis of Facebook stats highlights the active engagement of users with posts promoting Mourakiboun’s smartphone Apps. Finally, the research findings are also detailed for each of the five periods.

Currently, nearly 25% of people living in Sweden have foreign background. With one in every four people having immigration background, the question “how does civic engagement and political trust of people differ depending on their immigration backgrounds?” becomes important. More to the point, how does civic participation and political trust differ amongst young people living in Sweden in relation to their immigration backgrounds?In order to answer these questions, this thesis uses data from the European Social Survey and looks into the political trust and civic engagement behaviors of young people living in Sweden who have different immigration backgrounds by forming three groups; native- Swedes, second-generation immigrant-origin individuals and first-generation immigrants.The analysis is done by using SPSS and performing statistical analysis. Chi-Square and Kruskal-Willis tests were used, as well as descriptive statistics and cross tables. The results show that there is a statistically significant difference for civic participation due to immigration background, but the same cannot be said for political trust.