This dissertation deals with the sort of culture that forms the organization of education and its contents of two multicultural nine-year compulsory schools. The analysis is based on ethnographic work on the municipal school Tallskolan and the free independent Muslim school Jibrilskolan. To illustrate the sorts of social integration offered by Tallskolan and Jibrilskolan and explain whence they came, I have used Alexander’s (2006) conception of incorporation and civilsphere. In relation to the concepts, landscapes of meaning and systems of meaning (Reed, 2011) I ask what they can tell us about the expectations which members of society direct towards themselves, and in particular pupils with an immigrant background and the multicultural schools which they expect to help them into society.The result shows that the prioritizing of Tallskolan's school heads and the municipality changes at the same rate as that of the social geography of the residential district. School politics have tried in different ways to desegregatethe pupils through closing down the intermediate school stage and offeringschool attendance at other schools, but have failed due to parental protest.Overall changes that have been realised during the latter period is a drive to give further educational training to teachers of Swedish as a second language. When looked at through the theoretic concepts of the dissertation these priorities mirror an adaptation to society's main cultural practice. The result for Jibrilskolan shows that the school prioritizes the development of the pupils' Muslim identity and their self-confidence. The school consists of teachers with both Swedish and Muslim backgrounds. The actual teaching activates different opinions as to the degree that religion influences the teaching. Divergent opinions are overruled, however, as teachers with a Swedish background see that Islam can also be used as a resource. The Muslim teachers help the teachers with a Swedish background to explain and convince the Muslim parents to let their children participate in activities which they otherwise would probably not have done. Based on the theoretic concepts of the dissertation the prioritizing mirrors a great variety of different perspectives on knowledge, values and norms.

Post-socialist states are often linked to low political participation and weak civil society. Simultaneously, there is a visible rise in the phenomenon of urban movements. They serve not only as a platform for mobilization of citizens but also as a platform that builds a bridge between politics and society. Therefore, there is a need to study this phenomenon as an intriguing opportunity for research into the relationship between the civil and political sphere on a local level. The goal of this thesis is to show how city activists look at the civil and political spheres in comparison to the definition offered by theoretical conceptualizations. Research has demonstrated a transition in spheres, where activities are indicated as nonpolitical by activists. These findings are not supported by the presented theory which considers them political, and therefore, this study suggests that the boundaries of the spheres are shifted. Moreover, activists constantly engage in both spheres and therefore enter local politics through their activity. They prefer conventional methods to political actions, which they are not estranged to, but they do not frame them as political.