The civil society and civic engagement is a prerequisite for democracy (Putnam, 1994), and in the form of the popular movements it has in many ways defined the Swedish democracy. This thesis focuses on the locality Holmsund located in the municipality of Umeå, Holmsund has a history that are in ways defined by activeness from civil society in similarity with many other places in Sweden (Ambjörnsson, 2001). Through interviews with people active connected to voluntary associations in Holmsund, and the use of narrative analysis this thesis tries to understand how what roles civil society has in Holmsund today; with specific interest in the rural context. Central to this is the understanding of space as relational and in many ways defined by power relations, and in particular relationship between centre-periphery. The combination of the centre-periphery relationship and the neo-liberal restructuring of the Swedish economy from being characterized by wealth distribution to wealth contributing in order to prosper has among other things lead to a decrease in services and increase inequality, both in urban peripheral places or as in this case, rural places. A part of how voluntary associations perceive their role in a rural and local context, is a role of counteracting the effects of inequality but mainly voluntary association are occupied with creating a good living environment within their local community. A part of the increasing inequality is that it enhances the identification with the local context which creates a common social reality among the inhabitants which serves as ground for organization. Through place attachment there seem to be an identification in between a significant presence and importance of civil society and the place Holmsund, this contributes to Holmsund being constructed as a civic community.

Sustainable development is major post of global and national political agendas, and notions of sustainability permeate whole societies. Sweden is heavily influenced by sustainable development which can be exemplified by the ambitious goal of fossil-free energy and the current phase of rapid wind-power developments. In the name of sustainability many of these wind-power turbines and parks are now placed in the northern regions of the country, but whether it is sustainable is questionable. The northern region is a colonised territory, and the colonial relations between the indigenous Sámi people and the non-indigenous population remains an unresolved area. It is a cause of grievance and continuous conflict over land-use in the north – by of which wind-power developments are a part of. Therefore, this thesis examine the discursive construct of sustainability, in terms of content and underlying power relations, when applied to wind-power in four north Swedish newspapers between 2009 and 2016. The thesis use discourse and media-sociological theories in order to understand the role of media texts in the social construction of knowledge and how knowledge is shaped by social realities and shaping the social interpretation of reality. To study discourses a qualitative method based on critical discourse analysis is employed with the aim of investigating contextual meaning derived from the relationship between the text and the surrounding society. The empirical material is subject to an inductive analysis that has much in common with a grounded theory approach, but which involves some deductive analytical elements derived from theory and previous research. The findings of this thesis is that there is no singular discursive construct of sustainability, but rather a multiplicity of perspectives that together form a general representation of how sustainability is perceived when applied to wind-power. However, the discourses were dominated by non-indigenous actors with a national perspective - such as political parties, government actors and the wind-power industry. They portrayed sustainability and wind-power as environmentally benign economic growth leading to societal development, but in doing so experiences of marginalisation, and sustainability perspectives of peripheral groups, were made invisible. The study did find indications of change in the discourses from 2012 in the sense that the perspective of dominant actors was increasingly challenged by Sámi reindeer herders and rural populations, but the discursive and practical impact of this change remains uncertain.

This is a study of how the wolf is constructed as a controversial issue in Swedish newspapers. The wolf is the most debated and controversial animal in Sweden and splits the country into two camps. On one side are the people who believe that the animal is a natural part of the Swedish fauna and should be protected. On the other side are those who view the wolf as a threat and want the animal to be made extinct. The first group tends to live in urban areas, while the second one has its stronghold in rural areas. To investigate how the wolf is constructed as an issue in Swedish newspapers, debate articles from one urban and one rural newspaper are studied. These articles are then analysed with the method of Critical Discourse Analysis, the centre-periphery theory and the concepts of political alienation.   The study finds that there are significant differences in how the wolf is constructed as a controversial issue by newspapers published in urban and rural areas. The articles from the urban newspaper argue in favour of the wolf and claim that keeping the animals captivated is what makes them dangerous, rather than their nature. They tend to focus on the ethical aspect of zoos rather than the wolves themselves. In the rural newspaper the wolves are instead portrayed as a threat to both humans and animals, and the rural way of living. Rural newspapers are also very critical of both the national government and the EU.

Les conceptions traditionnelles de l’État sont amenées à se transformer sous les pressions du processus d’intégration européenne. Cette thèse propose de le vérifier par une analyse herméneutique comparée des manuels scolaires d’Histoire et de Géographie édités au cours des cinquante dernières années et destinés aux élèves de l’enseignement général secondaire supérieur en France, en Angleterre, au Bade-Wurtemberg, en Catalogne, en Communauté française de Belgique et en Finlande. Ces disciplines jouent un rôle particulier dans la mesure où les savoirs mobilisés participent à la construction et au maintien des mécanismes d’identifications collectives. Les manuels concernés contribuent à définir et circonscrire un « nous » et organisent les connaissances autour de cet axe. De nos jours, ce « nous » correspond encore largement aux communautés nationales ou qui ont vocation à le devenir. Cette étude se focalise essentiellement sur le concept de l’État, curseur privilégié de la compréhension de la vie politique. Comment celui-ci est-il appréhendé dans ces ouvrages et dans quelle mesure le processus d’intégration européenne provoque-t-il une inflexion des conceptions initiales? L’État apparaît comme un concept important dans les manuels scolaires et constitue le cadre à partir duquel s’interprète l’histoire. Mais s’il est abondamment mentionné, il est peu rigoureusement défini et son interprétation passe nécessairement par la compréhension des rapports centre/périphérie qui structurent chaque pays. À ce stade, l’introduction de l’Union européenne se montre partout très timide et son approche se lit largement à travers le prisme des spécificités nationales persistantes. / Traditional concepts of the state are changing under the pressure of Europeanization. This dissertation seeks to verify this thesis through a comparative hermeneutic analysis of history and geography textbooks used over the past fifty years in the upper secondary schools of France, England, Baden-Württemberg, Catalonia, Finland, and the French Community of Belgium. These disciplines play a key role, since the knowledge they convey contributes to building and maintaining a sense of collective identity. Textbooks help define who “we” are, and organize knowledge around this axis. In our time, this “we” still corresponds largely to existing or potential national communities.This study focuses largely on the concept of the state as the central indicator for the understanding of political life. How has this concept been understood and presented in textbooks, and to what extent has the process of European Integration led to a change in emphasis? The state remains an important concept in textbooks, and remains the framework within history is interpreted. While it is frequently mentioned, however, it is not rigorously defined, and the interpretation of the state is influenced by centre-periphery relations, as these are found in each country. At this stage, the introduction of the European Union is generally very limited and is approached largely through the lens of persistent national specificity.

This research is situated within the practice-led method, enabling me as a playwright to gain stimulus for creating trauma informed plays. The framework for creating such plays in this research is the centre-periphery concept (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, 2013, 43) situated with the imagined nation as backdrops for understanding postcolonial trauma. In order to gain stimulus for playwriting in this research, I explored Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman to understanding postcolonial trauma in my part of Africa, being Nigeria. I also explored other sources for the purpose of gaining stimulus from embedded trauma motifs, useful for writing The Longest Snake, The Endless Walk and the Alternative plays. The Alternative plays draw meanings from the initial plays and are interventive and socio-dramatic; revealing how trauma may be understood from other perspectives. The originality of this research and contribution to knowledge may be perceived in the new plays which incorporate trauma notions; the role of the 'circle' in conceptualisation and the use of the 'centre-periphery' concepts as template for playwriting and analysis. The originality may also be inferred from the interventive relevance of the created plays, touching on how postcolonial trauma may be understood from the lens of the imagined nation, and events in the centre-periphery context. It is also important to mention how the collectives are traumatically affected by the negative effects of colonisation as mirrored in the textual sources explored. Equally relevant are my personal experiences and the African folklore and folktale milieu, which are relevant for understanding postcolonial trauma through praxis; reiterating Gray and Marlins' (2016: 2) thoughts that 'We learn most effectively by doing - by active experience, and reflection on that experience,' which may be seen in the context of the practice-led approach I adopted in this research.

Participation in the European Parliament Election has steadily declined since the start in 1979. In 2004 less than half (47.8%) of the voting-age population of the European Union used their right to vote. This has actualized questions asking if the European Parliament is a good representation of the European citizens. The paradigm when it comes to explaining the electoral turnout in the European Parliament Election is the second-order theory. Though the theory explains the low voter participation, it does not explain why the European Parliament Election has become a second-order election. Thus, in this thesis will search for the underlying variable explaining why the European Parliament Election is a second-order election. Through our research we find that distances are important in the European Union, and they create centres and peripheries within the European Union. By looking at Rokkan and Urwin‟s horizontal and vertical types of peripheries, where the vertical type consists of Rokkan and Urwin‟s three domain of social life, our research concludes that centre-periphery structures within the European Union are the underlying variable, explaining why the European Parliament Election is a second-order election.

On assiste en Géorgie, entre 1989 et 1994, à deux conflits civils couplés d’une violence politique majeure. L’Ossétie du Sud et l’Abkhazie, soit deux des trois régions dotées d’un statut autonome à l’intérieur de la Géorgie pendant la période soviétique, sont le théâtre de ces conflits. Les affrontements violents sont par ailleurs évités dans le cas de l’Adjarie, cette troisième région dotée d’un statut autonome. Les raisons de cette relative paix adjar ne sont pas évidentes à saisir à prime abord, surtout lorsqu’on observe la situation chaotique dans laquelle se trouve la Géorgie au moment de la chute de l’URSS. Il apparaît ainsi adéquat de se pencher plus spécifiquement sur l’Adjarie, en tant que région de la Géorgie, qui a certes entretenu de fortes tensions avec l’État géorgien nouvellement indépendant, mais sans pour autant que ces tensions politiques ne basculent en un conflit ouvert. Étant donné la similarité qui caractérise les territoires de l’Abkhazie et de l’Adjarie, les arguments géopolitiques ou encore les arguments concernant les structures institutionnelles n’apportent qu’une explication partielle. C’est plutôt un argument identitaire mettant de l’avant la relation entre les groupes qui apparaît déterminant pour expliquer l’absence de conflit en Adjarie. / Between 1989 and 1994, two civil conflicts occurred in Georgia together with major political violence. South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two of the three regions with autonomous status within Soviet Georgia, are the scene of these conflicts. Clashes are otherwise avoided in the case of Adjaria, the third region with an autonomous status. The reasons of this relative adjar peace are not obvious at first glance, especially when considering the chaotic situation in which Georgia is at the time of the USSR collapse. It seems appropriate then to further address the Georgian region of Adjaria, a region that certainly has experienced strong tensions with the newly independent Georgian state, although without turning into an open conflict. Because of the similarity between Abkhazia and Adjaria, the geopolitical arguments, or those concerning institutional structures, can only provide a partial explanation. It is rather an argument based on identity and putting forward relations between groups that appears to be determinant to explain the absence of conflict in Adjaria.

On assiste en Géorgie, entre 1989 et 1994, à deux conflits civils couplés d’une violence politique majeure. L’Ossétie du Sud et l’Abkhazie, soit deux des trois régions dotées d’un statut autonome à l’intérieur de la Géorgie pendant la période soviétique, sont le théâtre de ces conflits. Les affrontements violents sont par ailleurs évités dans le cas de l’Adjarie, cette troisième région dotée d’un statut autonome. Les raisons de cette relative paix adjar ne sont pas évidentes à saisir à prime abord, surtout lorsqu’on observe la situation chaotique dans laquelle se trouve la Géorgie au moment de la chute de l’URSS. Il apparaît ainsi adéquat de se pencher plus spécifiquement sur l’Adjarie, en tant que région de la Géorgie, qui a certes entretenu de fortes tensions avec l’État géorgien nouvellement indépendant, mais sans pour autant que ces tensions politiques ne basculent en un conflit ouvert. Étant donné la similarité qui caractérise les territoires de l’Abkhazie et de l’Adjarie, les arguments géopolitiques ou encore les arguments concernant les structures institutionnelles n’apportent qu’une explication partielle. C’est plutôt un argument identitaire mettant de l’avant la relation entre les groupes qui apparaît déterminant pour expliquer l’absence de conflit en Adjarie. / Between 1989 and 1994, two civil conflicts occurred in Georgia together with major political violence. South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two of the three regions with autonomous status within Soviet Georgia, are the scene of these conflicts. Clashes are otherwise avoided in the case of Adjaria, the third region with an autonomous status. The reasons of this relative adjar peace are not obvious at first glance, especially when considering the chaotic situation in which Georgia is at the time of the USSR collapse. It seems appropriate then to further address the Georgian region of Adjaria, a region that certainly has experienced strong tensions with the newly independent Georgian state, although without turning into an open conflict. Because of the similarity between Abkhazia and Adjaria, the geopolitical arguments, or those concerning institutional structures, can only provide a partial explanation. It is rather an argument based on identity and putting forward relations between groups that appears to be determinant to explain the absence of conflict in Adjaria.

Syftet med den här produktorienterade studien är att undersöka vilka översättningsnormer som är aktuella för indirekt översättning av hebreisk skönlitteratur till svenska. I studien genomförs en kontrastiv undersökning av kulturspecifika element (ECR) med utgångspunkt i Tourys (1995/2012) coupled pairs kompletterad med Pedersens (2011) typologi. Materialet består av 3 x 136 coupled pairs excerperade från en novellsamling skriven av den israeliska högprestigeförfattaren Amos Oz och översatt till svenska genom engelska. Båda översättningarna utfördes av högprestigeöversättare. Resultatet antyder att indirekt översättning av skönlitteratur ansluter sig till adekvansnormen i enlighet med hypotesen om högprestigeöversättare (Lindqvist 2002). Hypotesen om acceptansinriktning beträffande indirekt översättning falsifierades i studien. / The following product–oriented study deals with translational norms operating in indirect translation of Hebrew literature into Swedish. The research was conducted as a contrastive study of Extra–linguistic Cultural References (ECR) based on Toury’s (1995/2012) coupled pairs and supplemented with Pedersen’s typology (2011). The material consisted of 3 x 136 coupled pairs excerpted from a collection of short stories written by an Israeli high–prestige writer Amos Oz and translated into Swedish through English. Both translations were carried out by high–prestige translators. The results suggest that indirect literary translation follows the adequacy norm in accordance with the hypothesis on high–prestige translation (Lindqvist 2002). The hypothesis on acceptancy norms operating in indirect translation is rejected.

Esta investigación analiza los efectos económicos y sociales de las masivas inversiones multinacionales mineras en la década de los noventa, sobre una región del Norte de Chile llamada Antofagasta. Se propone una visión de desarrollo económico durable a partir un modelo de enclave, adaptado de la escuela latinoamericana del desarrollo (centro periferia). Con este modelo se cuestiona si el enclave tradicional se transforma garantizando su desarrollo económico durable, como resultado del aparente dinamismo económico de la zona receptora. Se comienza presentando una discusión teórica confrontando los enclaves tradicionales y modernos con visiones opuestas, distritos industriales, neoclásica y de clusters industriales. En la primera parte de los resultados se recupera la historia económica social de la región de Antofagasta y las políticas mineras. En la segunda parte se estudian el actual modelo económico neoliberal chileno y las políticas regionales que han favorecido las inversiones extranjeras. En la tercera parte se miden los impactos sobre la Región de Antofagasta, a nivel de desarrollo productivo, social, equidad territorial, medio ambiente, así como la exportación del excedente regional debido a la débil tributación minera y por la lógica de repartición de ingresos y gastos fiscales entre las regiones. Se dedica un capítulo especial a analizar las relaciones de dominación entre las EMN y los proveedores locales, así como las condiciones de vida de los trabajadores, con una gran masa de subcontratados. La tercera parte finaliza investigando de qué manera responden los actores sociales al modelo de desarrollo, al discurso de las EMN y a los mecanismos de control socio-políticos nacional y regional. / Cette recherche analyse les effets économiques, sociaux et environmentales, des investissements massifs de la part des entreprises minières multinationales dans la décennie des années 90, sur une région du nord du Chili appelée Antofagasta. Nous proposons une approche de développement à partir d'un modèle d'enclave, sur base d'une adaptation de l'école latino-américaine du développement. De cette façon, nous demandons si l'enclave traditionnelle se transforme en une enclave moderne qui garantisse son développement économique durable, comme résultat de son dynamisme économique apparent. Nous commençons par une discussion théorique sur le modèle d'enclave, et celui-ci est confronté avec les approches opposées, néo-classique, et de clusters industriels. Dans la première partie des résultats, on récupère l'histoire économique et sociale de la région et les politiques minières de l'État. Ensuite nous étudions le contexte politique institutionnel et les politiques régionales qui ont favorisé les investissements étrangers. Dans la troisième partie, nous mesurons les impacts au niveau productif, fiscal et social, ainsi que l'exportation de l'excédent régional. Dans cette partie nous consacrons une partie à l'analyse des rapports entre les entreprises multinationales et les fournisseurs locaux, ainsi que des conditions de vie des travailleurs, parmi lesquels se trouvent un grand nombre de sous-traitants. Finalement, la troisième partie de la recherche se pose la question : de quelle façon répondent les acteurs sociaux au modèle du développement et au discours des entreprises multinationales.