This thesis explores how jazz musicians in Sweden experience jazz culture in terms of hierarchies and structures of power through a feminist phenomenological perspective. Through qualitative interviews with four jazz musicians with experience of attending different music colleges in Sweden, I explore their experiences of jazz culture in general, as well as specific contexts which are common within the culture. Using my theoretical approach, mainly consosting of the theories of Sara Ahmed and Iris Young, I review my informants´ possibilities to orientate themselves toward and within Swedish jazz culture. The informants all have different views of who holds the authority within the jazz culture. The study shows that male representation, masculine patterns of movement and structures of class differences has an impact on the informants possibilities to orientate themselves within the culture.

This thesis shows how democratic politics requires a commitment to pluralism as engagement and encounter of the other in their otherness. I contend that it is necessary to commit to such an idea of pluralism because of the problem of incomplete understanding. I establish this premise by drawing on Hans-Georg Gadamer’s account of human finitude. Based on this premise, I argue that the instantiation of Gadamer’s principle of openness leads democratic politics to pluralism as engagement and encounter of the other. Further, I develop accounts of asymmetric reciprocity, reflexivity, and agonism as modes of democratic politics that instantiate the principle of openness. In chapter 1, I establish discourse as a necessary element for democratic politics by drawing from the way Jurgen Habermas uses ‘discourse ethics’ to address the problems of understanding in plural societies. In chapter 2, I demonstrate how incomplete understanding poses a problem for discourse and gives rise to interpretive conflicts by drawing from Gadamer’s account of human finitude. Here I also develop an account of openness as a suitable principle for beings with incomplete understanding based on Gadamer’s idea of hermeneutical experience. In chapters 3-5, I develop accounts of asymmetric reciprocity, reflexivity, and agonism as modes of democratic politics that instantiate the principle of openness. I do so by drawing from Iris Young’s, John Dryzek’s, and Chantal Mouffe’s approaches to the problems that plurality poses to discourse ethics and democratic politics.

Baskettränarna i klubben upplever att de kan påverka verksamheten och att deras engagemang gör skillnad för de basketspelande barnen och ungdomarna, för klubben och för sin egen personliga utveckling. Tränarna erfar att det är lättare att påverka och ha inflytande i den interna tränarrollen än i den externa tränarrollen. Omgivningens individer gör skillnad på tränarna och bemötandet tränarna får upplevs vara beroende av vilket kön, vilken ålder och vilken etnicitet tränarna har. Inom basketklubben upplever tränarna att det finns en lyhördhet och öppenhet för varandras olikheter, dels på grund av att alla känner alla i klubben och för att det finns ett socialt klimat och en tydlighet i organisationens beslutsprocesser som gör att tränarna upplever att de kan påverka verksamheten och att deras engagemang är viktigt och meningsfullt. Syftet med uppsatsen är att genom kvalitativa intervjuer med unga baskettränare och öppna observationer i en stockholmsbaserad basketklubb problematisera och se närmare på hur de unga idrottsledarna anser sig ha möjlighet att kunna påverka mer än själva idrottsutövandet inom ramen för sitt engagemang. Vidare är syftet att besvara frågeställningens två delfrågor: Vad upplever och erfar de unga idrottsledarna att de kan påverka och ha inflytande över inom ramen för sitt idrottsengagemang? Hur påverkas de unga idrottsledarna av sitt engagemang i idrottsföreningen? Med hjälp av den teoretiska referensramen belyses hur de sociala relationerna och den demokratiska organisationens uppbyggnad kan skapa ett medborgerligt engagemang, en kommunikativ demokrati och en Känsla av sammanhang för de intervjuade tränarna. / Coaches experience that there is an opportunity to make a difference in somebody’s life as well as within an organisation. The basketball coaches make a difference in young peoples everyday life, in the basketball club but also in their own personal development by being involved in the organisation of the basketball club as coaches. It is easier to make a change in the intern leadership than in the extern leadership. The coaches in this study experience a difference in how they are treated by individuals in the surrounding depending on their age, sex and ethnicity. The coaches experience that there is a sense of openness and understanding within the club as well as a feeling of being listened to. They feel that they have the opportunity to be involved in the decisionmaking processes and that involvement is meaningful and important. The aim of this thesis is to answer the two following questions: How and what do the coaches experience that they are able to influence within their sports leadership? How are the young coaches influenced by their sports involvement? Qualitative interviews and open observations will be used as methods to find answers to the questions. The theoretical frame of references is based on the concepts of social capital, communicative democracy and senses of coherence.