Aiming to contribute to the discourse on the sustainability of consociational democracy in plural societies, this case study provides an examination of Lebanon’s power sharing model. The study begins with an evaluation of the Taif Agreement. After acknowledging its effect on Lebanon’s consociational system the function and operation of Lijphart’s four consociational elements are analyzed. From these evaluations one can argue that power-sharing principles have helped Lebanon to maintain a relative calm after its civil war, but also that they have failed in generating national cohesion and a strong state. A re-emerging proposition in this study is hence that consociationalism has been both a solution and an impediment to the development of Lebanon.

Sverige är ett av de länder i Europa som anses vara mest öppet för invandrare, dock är skillnaden i sysselsättning mellan inrikes- och utrikes födda på arbetsmarknaden stor. Tidigare forskning visar att utrikes födda oftare tenderar att vara utan sysselsättning och därmed oftare hamna i utanförskap än inrikes födda. I studien undersöks invandrares egen syn på integration och vilka svårigheter de intervjuade invandrarna i studien upplevt på den svenska arbetsmarknaden. Genom att fokusera på individers historia kommer följande undersökning försöka gå bortom det föregivet tagna och peka på sprickorna i den ofta förenklade bilden av invandrare och integrationen på arbetsmarknaden. En kvalitativ fallstudie har utförts, där resultatet är baserat på semistrukturerade intervjuer. I studien deltog tio respondenter, fem kvinnor och fem män med utländsk bakgrund. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av tidigare forskning och teorier som behandlat just ämnet integration. Genom detta tillvägagångssätt framkom både samband och olikheter sett till resultatet från studien och tidigare forskning. Resultatet av studien visar att majoriteten av respondenterna anser att det finns brister och problem inom integrationen på arbetsmarknaden. Resultatet visar även att invandrares framgång på arbetsmarknaden kan kopplas till tiden de spenderat i Sverige men framför allt viljan att delta i det nya samhället.

Miljörättvisa kommer från USA och har sina rötter i den amerikanska medborgarrättsrörelsen. Idag återfinns miljörättvisan som retorik både hos forskare och politiker samt gräsrotsrörelser. Detta är dock inget som återfinns i någon större utsträckning i Sverige. Denna studie fokuserar på debatten kring en gruvetablering i Kallak, Sverige, och vilken retorik olika aktörer använt sig av. Innehållsanalysen av tidningsartiklar visar på att det både finns likheter och skillnader i denna debatt jämfört med den globala retoriken kring miljörättvisa. / Environmental justice has its origin in the US and comes from the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Today the environmental justice rhetoric can be found among researchers and politicians as well as grassroots movements. However, it does not exist in Sweden to a great extent. This study focuses on the debate around the establishment of a mine in Kallak, Sweden, and what kind of rhetoric different actors uses. The content analysis of newspaper articles show that there are both similarities and differences in this debate compared with the global rhetoric of environmental justice.

There exists a scholarly debate on the cultural impact of globalization and how and to what extent it is affecting indigenous people in particular. Three theoretical standpoints can be discerned from the debate; the homogenization-perspective which holds that globalization is making world cultures more similar, the hybridization-perspective which emphasizes that it is fragmenting cultural boundaries and the differentiation-perspective which implies that globalization is augmenting differences and making humanity as a whole more diverse. As regards the cultural impact of globalization on indigenous peoples, many question marks can be raised. The objective of this research is to contribute to the debate by bringing to light the perspective of the indigenous movement in Ecuador, CONAIE. An analysis is made on how they perceive globalization affecting the maintenance of indigenous identities and culture among today’s youth. That information is then used as a foundation to analyze CONAIE’s level of success regarding their main objective; to preserve Ecuador’s indigenous nationalities and peoples. The study, which has a qualitative ethnographic approach and is based on semi-structured interviews, was carried out during an eight weeks long field study in Quito and in San Pedro de Escaleras, Cuenca, Ecuador. The research has an abductive approach and the theoretical debate on globalization’s cultural impact on indigenous peoples sets the analytical frame of the study. The three theoretical standpoints; globalization as homogenization, globalization as differentiation and globalization as hybridization play central roles in the analysis of the empirical material. The findings show that there are many elements that obstruct the maintenance of indigenous culture and identity among youth in contemporary Ecuador. There is a connection between youth being exposed to cultural globalization and that they lose cultural characteristics for the indigenous identity. Hybridization of identities due to globalization is presented as a possible factor to play a role in this. Indigenous youth tend to drop characteristics for the indigenous identity as they adopt features from the mestizo culture, in case they see no benefit in maintaining the former. This indicates that what ultimately might be at stake is cultural homogenization. Light is also shed on that CONAIE lacks strategies and possibilities to reinforce the indigenous identity among the youth that is in a process of identity change. The findings thus point at that despite efforts for cultural revival by the indigenous movement in Ecuador, the maintenance of rigid frontiers between the ethnically diverse nationalities in the country is threatened. Seen to a larger picture, this implies that globalization’s impact on indigenous culture among youth is very difficult to counteract. It appears as if the move towards more cultural similarity in Ecuador cannot be hindered.

The aim of this essay is to reveal different motives that Castel had which finally led him to killing María and also the central thematic of the story. The analysis is also covering different aspects of the book El Túnel, such as language, writer, structure and different ideas. However, the analysis is focused on the central thematic of the story in order to be able to understand the story better and also different motives that led to the murder of the woman. By reading and analyzing the book we are trying to discover these motives and the central thamtic.

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A reoccurring argument in previous research is that autocracies implement policy changes for women’s rights in order to gain international legitimacy. The idea is that by showing the international community that they are on-board with the global movement to empower women; focus is diverted they from their shortcomings in other democratic aspects. What is left out of the discussion though, is how such legitimization take shape. With help of qualitative content analysis, this thesis aims to investigate whether Nicaragua, an increasingly autocratic state which has implemented policy changes to improve women’s rights and gender equality, has gained international legitimacy in the reports of two different watch dog organizations, Amnesty International and Freedom House, and simultaneously received less criticism for their flaws as a state. The results of the analysis are not straightforward but provides two key findings that suggests that the theory cannot be completely dismissed. The first one is that, by comparing the reports by Freedom House, less criticism is detected simultaneously as the two policy changes are referred to more often in year 2012 compared to year 2011 which supports the theory. The second finding is that the amendments of Comprehensive Violence against Women Law in 2013 is referred to rather differently between Amnesty International and Freedom House, which brings more complexity to this issue. Thus, future research on the subject with similar methodology should analyze data from more than two organizations in order to understand if any view is more common than the other.

During the last decades, international organisations have worked hard to implement a gender awareness in their peace- and development programs. Many organizations, however, fail to include an awareness of masculinity construction, and gender has become synonymous with women. This is despite the fact that throughout history, key actors in armed conflicts have been men. Understanding how masculinity is constructed in relation to armed-conflicts can therefore be beneficial to achieve a lasting peace. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to examine how masculinity norms are expressed among Namibians after the Namibian war of independence, and how these norms have developed during the post-war era. By conducting a mixed-method of content and discourse analysis, this study investigates how the hegemonic masculinity is constructed by the citizens of Namibia through the “letters to the editor”-section in the national newspaper The Namibian. All letters published during 1991, 1992, 2002 and 2003 were analysed to achieve an understanding of how the masculinity norms had developed. The study found that the hegemonic masculinity in the earlier years consisted of a strong and honourable man, with a high education and the possibility to independently take care of his family. The hegemonic masculinity had in the later years developed into a more caring and compassionate man, who supported his working wife.  The study also found that some aspects of the hegemonic masculinity had remained the same, such as heterosexuality and monogamy. The study encourages further research on the development of masculinity norms in a post-conflict setting, and how these norms may hinder or encourage a lasting peace.

The impact of international aid is debated in the scholarly literature. One of the theoretical frameworks used to study aid is developed in the Gift [1925] by Marcel Mauss. However, overall there is a lack of knowledge concerning the understanding of Mauss, and how it can be connected to the distribution of aid. Thus, this thesis takes its theoretical departure fromMauss’s gift exchange, and the obligation to give, receive and reciprocate to study how articles examine post-tsunami aid through the theory developed in “The Gift” by Mauss. The study is a qualitative reanalysis of three articles, which is structured by a series of analytical questions based on a broader reading of Mauss, previous research and the gift of disaster aid.The qualitative reanalysis finds that Mauss’ obligations to give, receive and reciprocate and the social bonds that these forms were discussed differently, and to a greater or lesser extent. This study brings “The Gift” by Mauss into light to the discussion of disaster aid, and thus highlighting new potential research for future studies.

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