This thesis is focused on analysis of development limits in an european interdisciplinary student association called Erasmus Student Network (ESN). The main aim of the theoretical part is to clear up issues linked with non-governmental organizations, volunteering and specifics in motivation of volunteers. Practical part then directly focuses on ESN and research within their members. The research is connected with motivation, satisfaction and identification with the international association. Within the thesis there are used information from actual literature and trustworthy internet sources as well as information gained from ESN representatives and my own experience.

Politiska ungdomsförbund är viktiga arenor där unga människor diskuterar och formulerar frågor som kan bli en del av den politiska dagordningen. Sättet som en politisk fråga diskuteras skapar också gränserna för hur det är möjligt att förstå och tala om den. I denna studie undersöks det socialdemokratiska ungdomsförbundets (SSU) könspolitik under perioden 1970- 2000. Mer specifikt analyseras hur frågan om kvinnors politiska representation framställts inom förbundet och vilka lösningar som varit möjliga att föra fram på förbundskongresserna. Avhandlingens utgångspunkter är feministisk teori och teori om problem konstruktion. Studien baseras på källmaterial som kongressprotokoll, handlings- och principprogram, stadgar, motioner från individuella kongressledamöter och från distrikt, förbundsstyrelsens utlåtande över motioner, förbundsskrifter samt tidskrifterna Tvärdrag och P- Information. Avhandlingen visar att SSU, trots sin radikala självbild, haft liten egen drivkraft att driva frågan om att öka kvinnors representation i förbundets beslutsfattande organ. Problem med låg representation av kvinnor inom förbundet erkänns, men fram till 1990-talet är det någon annan, någon annanstans, som ska lösa underrepresentationen. Avhandlingen visar också att problemkonstruktionerna ofta innehåller motsägelsefulla förståelser av frågan om kvinnors representation. Sammantaget bidrar en rad antaganden som, normer om frivillighet, samarbete mellan män och kvinnor, könskomplementaritet, samt även passiva och symboliska hinder och utlyftande praktiker, till att forma gränserna för hur kvinnors politiska representation kan diskuteras inom SSU. / Political youth associations are important political arenas where young people discuss and formulate issues that can become part of the political agenda. The way a political issue is discussed and problematized also creates the borders for how it is possible to talk about it and to understand a particular issue. In this thesis, the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League’s (SSU) gender politics are explored. More specifically, the question of how women’s representation is constructed and what solutions are seen as possible is analysed. The analytical points of departure are feminist theory and theory of problem construction. The source material consists of congress material from 1970 until 2001: congress protocols, motions from individuals and district committees, League committee reports on the motions and debates in the congresses. Other source materials are debate publications, booklets, written documents, internal material about women’s representation, programs of action and ideas and the periodicals Tvärdrag and P-Information. The study shows that the Social Democratic Youth League, despite of its radical self image, has few ambitions of its own to politicise the question of women’s representation. Problems with women’s low representation within the league are admitted, but until the 1990’s, these problems are always associated with someone else, somewhere else, who is going to solve the under representation. The study also shows that the problem constructions often contain contradictory understandings of the question of women’s representation. A number of assumptions such as norms for volunteering, cooperation between men and women, gender complementary, barriers as passive and symbolic barriers, and ‘externalizing practices’, contribute to shaping the borders of how the question of women’s representation can be discussed within the League.

Political actors and parties have, during the parliamentary elections 2018, marketed themselves in a different way than before. Many influential people on social media who have a younger audience have been involved in the electoral movement and tried to make the "most important" issues easier to understand. While changes in politics take place, young people do not have confidence in party politics. Interest in politics has increased, but the reduced confidence in established political actors has decreased. We wanted to investigate whether the young voters themselves noticed the political change. The purpose of this study was to investigate how first-time voters, who are members of youth unions, talk about political confidence and Influencer marketing in politics. The research questions that have been phrased based on the purpose are: How do political active first-time voters perceive collaborations between influencers and political parties? And how does politically active first-time voters talk about their confidence in Swedish politics? In addition to previous research, we have used qualitative interview method to be able to get opinions and perceptions from the intended selection of informants. The study is based on theories of trust, advocacy, influencers, E-Word of Mouth (e-WOM) and the Two-step hypothesis. The result of the study shows that first-time voters who are politically active in youth unions have shared views on influencer marketing. First-time voters also have high confidence in Swedish politics, but have the understanding that people who are not familiar with politics do not have the same confidence. Especially given the ongoing government crisis. The result also distinguishes some important points that the respondents believe are of great importance. This is, among other things, that the cooperation must be with all parties and that the cooperation must be in accordance with the party's ideologies. The final conclusions we can draw from this study is that the respondents believe that it is good that the politics is addressed in rooms where it is given the opportunity to spread. But the respondents also believe that politicians should adhere to politics and that the significant role of the political issues falls into the background of the party leader's personal conformation on social media. / Politiska aktörer och partier har under riksdagsvalet 2018 marknadsfört sig på ett annorlunda sätt än tidigare. Många inflytelserika människor på sociala medier som har en yngre målgrupp har engagerat sig i valrörelsen och försökt göra valfrågorna mer lättbegripliga. Samtidigt som förändringar i politiken sker saknar unga förtroende till partipolitiken. Intresset för politiken har ökat men den minskade tilltron till etablerade politiska aktörer har minskat. Vi ville därför undersöka ifall unga väljare själva märkt av den politiska förändringen. Syftet med denna studie blev att undersöka hur förstagångsväljare, som är medlemmar i ungdomsförbund, pratar om politiskt förtroende och Influencer marketing inom politiken. De frågeställningar som utformats utifrån syftet är: Hur uppfattar politiskt aktiva förstagångsväljare samarbeten mellan influencers och politiska partier? Och hur pratar politiskt aktiva förstagångsväljare om sitt förtroende för svensk politik? Förutom tidigare forskning har vi använt oss av kvalitativ intervjumetod för att kunna analysera åsikter och uppfattningar från det tilltänkta urvalet. Studien bygger på teorier om förtroende, opinionsbildning, influencers, E-Word of Mouth (e-WOM) och Tvåstegshypotesen. Resultatet av studien visar på att förstagångsväljare som är politiskt aktiva i ungdomsförbund har delade åsikter angående influencer marketing. Förstagångsväljarna har dessutom högt förtroende för svensk politik, men har förståelse för att människor som inte är insatta i politiken inte har lika högt förtroende. Speciellt med tanke på den pågående riksdagskrisen. Resultatet urskiljer också några viktiga punkter som respondenterna menar är av stor vikt. Detta är bland annat att samarbetet måste ske med samtliga politiska partier och att samarbetet måste vara i enlighet med partiets ideologier. De slutslatser vi kan dra av denna studie är att respondenterna anser att det är bra att politiken tas upp i rum där den får möjlighet att spridas. Men att respondenter menar att politiker ska hålla sig till politik och att sakfrågornas betydande roll hamnar i bakgrunden för partiledarens personliga gestaltning på sociala medier.

(1) Background: The equality of life chances in Germany is often assessed along the lines of a west/east and urban/rural differentiation in which the latter usually perform worse. One currently popular proposal for addressing these inequalities is to strengthen cultural and arts education. The question arises to what extent regional characteristics genuinely influence participation opportunities and to what extent individual resources still play a decisive role. (2) Methods: Using descriptive analyses and multilevel logistic regression modelling, we investigate the distribution of and participation in non-formal cultural education amongst German youth. (3) Results: We find that differences are more complex than a simple west/east or urban/rural divides. Rather, cultural activities must be considered in terms of their character in order to assess the mechanisms at play. There seem to be differences in the dependency on district funding between very peripheral and very central districts that frame the cultural infrastructure. (4) Conclusions: Regional discrepancies are not uniformly distributed across different fields of education or infrastructure. Simplifying statements that classify peripheral regions the general losers can be refuted here. Simultaneously, more comprehensive data could yield significantly more results than we are currently able to produce.

The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of political party organizations' digital communication by investigating what and how Swedish political youth associations communicate on TikTok. The purpose is realized through a case study of two youth associations, Moderata Ungdomsförbundet (MUF) and Sveriges Socialdemokratiska ungdomsförbund (SSU). The material is collected from a three-month period (November 1, 2023 - January 31, 2024) and the method of the thesis is a combination of quantitative multimodal content analysis and thematic analysis. The theoretical framework provides an understanding of the youth associations' conditions and expectations as an organization, as well as the media logics and norms that they need to adhere to in their communication. In the result it became clear that what the youth associations communicate differs. The most frequently communicated content from SSU consisted of entertainment content, closely followed by political content. MUF mostly focused on political content, but entertainment was also seen. Like previous research, only a small part of the material consisted of personal content. In terms of how the youth associations communicate, there was a similarity in that both associations used a comic style frequently, something that is typical for the platform and thus becomes a way for the youth associations to adopt the current style on TikTok. Similar to previous research, however, there was a lack of interactive tendencies on the part of MUF, which the platform invites. SSU appeared to use the interactive style in about half of the material. Similar to previous studies, we found that both SSU and MUF were diligent users of affordances such as music, audio, text, hashtag and location features. Tendencies we could see in how the youth associations communicated were also that they use platform trends and vernaculars frequently, which differs from previous research. We could thus state that both youth associations showed an adaptation to the platform dynamics.

Förvånansvärt lite forskning har ägnats åt ungdomars deltagande i partipolitiska ungdomsförbund trots en långvarig nedåtgående trend i medlemsantal. Studier visar att ungdomsförbunden har svårt att rekrytera samt behålla sina medlemmar vilket är oroande då vi behöver ungdomars röster i partipolitiken för vår representativa demokrati och för att ungdomförbunden är den främsta rektryteringskällan till våra moderpartier. Denna studie syftar till att få en djupare förståelse kring varför ett urval av ungdomar väljer att gå med i partipolitiska ungdomsförbund samt vad de har för motiv till att stanna kvar. Studien består av semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta ungdomar som är eller har varit aktiva inom ungdomsförbunden Ung Vänster och Moderateras ungdomsförbund MUF. För att undersöka detta har studien fokuserat på individuella resurser och faktorer och moraliska, sociala och materiella motiv till partipolitiskt deltagande. Resultatet visade på att individuella resurser och faktorer som politiskt intresse, motivation och sociala nätverk var viktiga kopplat till varför ungdomarna väljer att gå med i ett partipolitiskt ungdomsförbund. Sociala och moraliska motiv var högst förekommande bland ungdomarna för både varför de väljer att gå med men också vad som gör att de stannar kvar inom förbundet. / Surprisingly little research has been devoted to young peoples participation in party-affiliated youth organizations, despite a prolonged downward trend in membership numbers. Studies indicate that these youth organizations struggle to recruit and retain their members, which is concerning since young peoples voices in party politics are crucial for our reprecentative democracie and because these organizations serve as the primary recruitment source for their motherparties. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of why a selection of young individuals choose to join party-affiliated youth organizations and what motivates them to remain. The study consists of semi-structured interviews with eight youths who are or have been active within the youth organizations Ung Vänster and Moderaternas ungdomsförbund MUF. To investigate this, the study focuses on individual resources and factors and also moral, social, and material motives for political participation. The results indicate that individual resources and factors such as political interest, motivation, and social networks are significant in why young people choose to join a party-affiliated youth organization. Social and moral motives are most common motives among the youth for why they choose to join and what keeps them engaged within the organization.