This study examines perceptions of threats and the actors in the Swedish Nato-debate. The particular sequence of debate which is investigated took place in Swedish media during the summer of 2015. The objects examined in this study are the actors involved in the debate and the perceptions of threats formed by these actors. Lack of knowledge regarding how debates are formed by actors, through their perceptions of threats, makes us unable to fully comprehend how and why these perceptions are formed. This lack of knowledge makes us unable to evaluate the debate beyond the claims of the participating actors. This study seeks to explain how perceptions of threats in the chosen debate-sequence were formed through filtration. Theory considering filtration of perceived threats states that the actors forming perceived threats does this through psychological-, bureaucratic-, political- and medial processes. Actors and their perceived threats can also exercise power. Whether the actors and their discourses have exercised power in the Swedish Nato-debate is examined through a relational- and productive power perspective. Results show that the participating actors examined, scientists, journalists and politicians, have all formed perceived threats through different forms of filtration, and all actors have in some way exercised relational or productive power in the debate.

The debate concerning if Sweden should move closer to NATO or even apply for membership is not entirely new. Due to Russia´s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine in the spring of 2014, and due to Russians violations of national territory, Swedish political actors have discussed the NATO membership energetically. The purpose of this essay is to map out the Swedish debate about NATO membership. By applying a Pro-Contra analysis this essay will also examine arguments from the swedish parties, members of parliament, debaters, researchers and former Secretary of State. Furthermore, the arguments will also be analyzed through theories of realism and liberalism. The debate for a NATO membership shows that arguments are based on a combination of both realism and liberalism, although there are more arguments influenced by liberalism. The arguments against a NATO membership are mainly characterized by realism rather than liberalism.

The study aims to explore different aspects of urban public space. It does so through the case study of the medial debate concerning the planned redevelopment of Heden, an open central publicly owned area in Gothenburg, Sweden. The case study revealed the highly contested meanings of Heden, as well as different understandings of public space. The study also points to the dilemma of making urban public space readable and convivial, while maintaining it inclusive and open for everyone. The medial debate circles around the newly publicized redevelopment plan for Heden. In the plan the local government proposes the addition of more activities and functions to Heden. Thereby, they wish to attract new target groups to Heden. This proposal has met with some approval in the medial debate, but also with harsh critique. Some critics voice the concern of to whom public space is redeveloped. Other critics want to see more extensive redevelopment of Heden, to cover it with “inner city”. Others yet wish a future Heden to have a more explicit focus on sports. The study examines these differing opinions and their possible consequences for the “publicness” of urban public space.

This study has centered on the proposal for decreasing the entrance rate in order to create more jobs and integrate the increasing asylum seekers in the Swedish society. Based on a discourse analysis on the parliamentary debates “The road to the labor market” and “Integration”, this thesis examines the discourses around ‘justice’. By applying Nancy Frasers theoretical framework of justice, the arguments were analyzed in order to understand if the constructed problems were built on the dimension of recognition or redistribution and to investigate if the solutions were based on an affirmative or transformative strategy. The analysis shows that the primary justice discourse in the debate of labor and integration is the distribution dimension. The injustices that are presented in these debates are concerned with maldistribution. Affirmative strategies are mostly suggested for solutions which indicates that the politicians in the Swedish parliament have an urge to solve problems in the present instead of focusing on the future and solving the underlying structure.

<p>Our aim with this paper is to study the debate concerning the refusal of entry of the two Egyptians and the involvement of USA, to see if the Swedish sovereignty has been compromised. We have chosen two theories, realism and radicalism, to read if opinions can be identified of supporting one of them. The empiricism we selected are from debate articles in the big news papers Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and Expressen. We also studied the debate in the Riksdag . The method we used was qualitative and is called analysis of content.</p><p>The result we could conclude was that most of the debaters are disappointed with how the government handled the whole situation, but still believes that it made the decision on itself. This opinion reflects the theory realism. Further more, we found that the debate in the Riksdag was more diverse in terms of reflecting both of the theories, than the news papers. We also conclude that the debaters preferably would talk about torture and the violation of human rights and not the reason to why the government made that decision.</p>

Over the last two decades public service broadcasting (PSB) around the world has faced increasing pressures from accelerating commercialisation and the fragmentation of the broadcasting landscape. This has led a number of media commentators in the system's traditional heartlands to ask whether the idea has now outlived its usefulness. Against the grain of this international trend, Taiwan has moved in the opposite direction, democratising its state-owned television system and introducing a form of public broadcasting for the first time. Against the grain of growing enthusiasm for a privatised solution supporters presented PSB as a necessary counter to the perceived deficiencies of the existing system, in serving a society moving from authoritarian to competitive party rule. This study sets out to explore how the expansion of PSB in Taiwan has been socially defined and constructed, and by whom. The various constructions in play were mapped through in-depth interviews with a range of claim-makers involved in the process. A systematic content analysis of the mainstream Taiwanese press was then conducted to explore the ways contending positions and issues were presented in the public domain and to identify the key voices given a public platform. This analysis demonstrated that the opinions and concerns of the general public were largely missing from a debate dominated by political and academic elites. Against the grain of their own claims to be representing the public key actors constructed public debate as a series of monologues, advancing their own sectional and paternalistic interpretations of the public interest. These findings point to the supremely ironic conclusion that a process ostensibly dedicated to reconstructing broadcasting as key element in a new, democratic, public sphere, excluded the public from active participation and relegated them to the role of spectators.

This thesis analyses the process of institutionalisation of the concept of genetically modified organism (GMO) in the UK between 1986-1993. The existing accounts of the GM debate have focussed on either the 1970s or the 1990s. Very little, however, has been said about the 1980s, long before that of GMOs became a popular issue. Through a detailed examination of the PROSAMO initiative – a series of experiments aimed at determining the environmental impact of GMOs with a regulatory purpose in mind – this thesis have been able to explore the important but rather neglected role of the UK dominant institutions in the historical development of the debate over the release of GMOs into the environment. In analysing the way ‘GMO’ institutionalised between the late 1980s and early 1990s, this thesis shows that the concepts of risk and uncertainty – which have dominated the GM debate – need to be conceived as collective constructs that are used strategically in order to pursue various objectives related to the context in which people using them operate. It is also argued that the legitimate use of these concepts is bound to the credibility and the authority of science. These considerations have stimulated some reflections on the nature and role of regulation in the GM debate. In particular, it is argued that the move from a voluntary system of controls to a statutory one represents a move from an epistemic community approach to policy-making to a logic of bureaucratic politics, in which the literal interpretation of rules became a solution to political disagreement. As rule following became a political requirement, GMOs became a bureaucratic issue and scientists turned into bureaucrats. Within these changes, the role of scientific expertise in the definition of GMOs decreased. From this point of view, the way ‘genetic modification’ and GMO institutionalised gave rise to new practices and behaviours that turned around GMO as a controversial but nevertheless stable category.

Elevperspektivet på klassdebatter/rollspel som pedagogisk metod i skolan är ett område som är relativt outforskat. Syftet med den här studien är att utveckla kunskaper om elevers upplevelser av klassdebatter/rollspel. Studien genomförs ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv, där samspel och kommunikation ses som en förutsättning för lärande. Empirin samlades in genom videodokumentation av elever då de genomförde debatter/rollspel. Därefter intervjuades enskilda elever i form av stimulated reflection, viket är en metod som ger intervjupersonen möjlighet att reflektera över det som sker i den videoinspelade debatten/rollspelet. Resultatet av studien, vilket tolkas genom en innehållsanalys, visar tydligt att eleverna är positiva till debatt/rollspel som pedagogiskt verktyg. Här ser de fördelar med att samlära och interagera för att utveckla lärandet och nå djupare kunskap. Att inta ett annat perspektiv i form av en roll upplevs som ett positivt redskap i bearbetningen av frågor och problem. Samtidigt visar resultatet att eleverna upplever olika begränsningar vilket hämmar både deras lärarande och möjligheten att visa sina kunskaper. Begränsningar som nämns är; en ojämn fördelning av talutrymmet, för stora grupper och gruppsammansättningen samt olika förutsättningar beroende på rollens karaktär. Slutsatsen blir att pedagogiska debatter/rollspel är ett bra verktyg för lärande men att det behöver utvecklas för att undanröja de begränsningar som finns, för att därigenom skapar ännu bättre förutsättningar för lärande och bedömning. / Summary: Student perspective on the class debates/role-playing as a teaching method in schools is an area that is relatively unexplored. The purpose of this study is to develop the knowledge of students' experiences of the class debates/role-playing. The study was conducted from a socio-cultural perspective, where interaction and communication are seen as a prerequisite for learning. The empirical data were collected through video documentation of students when they conducted debates/role-playing. Afterwards the students were interviewed individually in the form of stimulated reflection, which is a method that gives the interviewee the opportunity to reflect on what is happening in the videotaped debate/role-playing. The results of the study, which are interpreted through content analysis, clearly shows that students are positive for debate/role-playing as educational tools. Here they see the advantages to combine cooperative learning and interaction to develop their learning and achieve deeper knowledge. Taking a different perspective in the form of a role is perceived as a positive tool in the processing of issues and problems. At the same time, the results show that students experience different constraints which hamper both their learning and the opportunity to show their skills. Limitations that are mentioned; an uneven distribution of linguistic space for large groups and group composition and different conditions depending on the nature of the role. The conclusion is that educational debates/role-playing games are a great learning tool, but it needs to be developed to overcome the limitations that exist, thereby creating better conditions for learning and assessment.

Voltaire's role in the luxury debate, the controversy about civilisation, capitalism, and progress which accompanied the birth of modern consumer society in the eighteenth century, is generally limited to his Mondain and its Défense, and reduced to a hedonist apology for luxury. The thesis sets out to re-examine and refute this. It analyses Voltaire's discovery of commercial societies in Holland and England, and, focussing on the latter, it finds that the apology for commerce became a centralising theme in the Lettres philosophiques, explaining its purpose and coherence. The thesis then turns to Voltaire's apology for luxury in the 1730s, analysing how du Châtelet and Voltaire, having recourse to classic Epicureanism and deist voluntarism, transformed Mandeville's Fable of the Bees into a justification of commercial societies. Close readings of the Mondain and its companion pieces provide further proof that Voltaire's position on luxury was more nuanced than previously assumed. The Siècle de Louis XIV and the Essai sur les moeurs demonstrate the importance of luxury in Voltaire's view of civilisation, which in turn serves to explain the shift in Voltaire's appreciation of Montesquieu. The thesis opposes the claim that in later life Voltaire adopted a Rousseauian view of luxury. Examining Voltaire's later poetry on luxury in light of the analyses offered in the previous chapters, it concludes that his position remained consistent and showed no Rousseauian influence. Concluding with Voltaire's last defence of luxury, his entries 'Luxe' in the Dictionnaire philosophique and the Questions sur l'Encyclopédie, the thesis explains, with the help of the Fragments sur l'Inde, why and how his attitude to luxury seemed ambiguous in the latter work. The thesis thus proves that Voltaire's contribution to the debate was not only sustained, independent, and carefully nuanced, but that the debate itself played a crucial rule in Voltaire's thought and writing.

L'éducation à la citoyenneté comme forme de socialisation juridique est un moyen parmi d'autres qui nous permet de concevoir un possible dépassement de la «raison paresseuse» dans laquelle sont engagés les modèles politiques occidentaux. Les bases d'un nouveau code moral proposant à la fois une identité individuelle et collective pour le citoyen sont nécessaires. Ainsi, les énergies consacrées à la meilleure formation possible des futurs acteurs de la société québécoise, au partage d'idées et de perceptions dans une perspective contemporaine, ne peuvent être que bénéfiques pour l'avancement et l'avènement d'une société où l'équité coexiste avec la différence. C'est en réfléchissant et en échangeant sur le sujet avec notre entourage que nous avons décidé de concentrer nos recherches dans le domaine de 1'« éducation à la citoyenneté» avec comme contenu le droit. Naturellement, l'analyse à proprement positiviste du droit est ici mise de côté. Comme nous le verrons plus loin, une étude qui aborde la vision que se font les jeunes de l'univers juridique qui les entoure commande plutôt une approche sociologique. Les conclusions tirées de notre projet de recherche contribueront au débat entourant les concepts de citoyenneté, de droits fondamentaux et de responsabilités sociales dans une dynamique d'apprentissage. En tenant compte de la dimension culturelle de la citoyenneté, nous décrirons les différences d'interprétation et de représentation des droits fondamentaux et des responsabilités sociales dans la conscience d'« initiés» et de « non initiés» à une activité de socialisation juridique organisée par le Centre de développement pour l'exercice de la citoyenneté (CDEC), Débats de citoyens. Ce n'est qu'une fois cet exercice complété que nous tenterons d'évaluer le bienfondé et la validité d'une telle approche pédagogique. Mots clés: Éducation, citoyenneté, droits, responsabilités, socialisation, culture, débat, différence. / Citizenship education as a form of legal socialization is a way to conceive a possible overtaking of the «lazy reason » that embodies western political paradigms. The basis of a new moral code proposing an individual and collective identity for each citizen is necessary. Thus, the efforts invested in the best possible development of future actors in the province of Québec, in the sharing of ideas and views in a contemporary perspective, can only benefit the promotion and the upcoming of a society where equity coexists with difference. It is through reflection and while exchanging on the subject with others that we decided to concentrate our research on citizenship education with law as its content. Naturally, a positivistic analysis of the law is absent in such work. As we will see, a study that tackles young individuals' view of the legal universe they live in, rather commands a sociological approach. The conclusions we reached will contribute to the debate on the concepts of citizenship, fundamental rights and social responsibilities in a learning environment. Taking into account the cultural dimension of citizenship, we describe the differences in the interpretation and the representation of fundamental rights and social responsibilities in the conscience of "initiated" and "non-initiated" to a legal socialization activity organized by the Centre de développement pour l'exercice de la citoyenneté (CDEC). This activity is called Débats de citoyens, which translates to Citizens' debate. Only once this work is done will we attempt to evaluate the value and worth of such a pedagogical approach.