In the last decade, anthropogenic climate change has caused strong impacts on natural and human systems worldwide. It is of particular importance to include youths in the international decision-making process centred on climate change as they represent the closest living relatives to future generations. Therefore they need to have a say in the decisions affecting their future. Different schools of thought defined characteristics for ideal communication in these political decision-making arenas. The most contradicting theories are on one hand deliberative democrats who favour dialogic and consensus-based proceedings and on the other hand proponents of agonistic pluralism who prefer the conflictual elements of force and disruption in communication processes. The aim of this study is to explore synergies and intersections between both in theory contradicting paths. The study follows a case study design of the international climate change negotiations COP22 in Marrakech 2016. The data collection process involved empirical observations and semi-structured interviews with 30 international youth participants as to their experiences of participating in proceedings, petitioning politicians, and protesting outside venues. The results of this study show that young people concurrently navigate between formal deliberative proceedings and informal agonistic approaches, taking advantage of their underacknowledged positive cumulative and complementing effects. The interplay between both paths stimulates meaningful involvement for youths at the conference and within the climate change social movement. Youths navigating simultaneously between both paths are shown to have both insider knowledge about the vulnerabilities of the system and outsider knowledge providing enough distance to criticise the proceedings. Thus, these youths have the best merits to meaningfully involve in the decision making and successfully introduce change. The process of enculturation to the norms and procedural rules of the conference contributes to the level of meaningful youth involvement and determines the participation path chosen. Moreover, the results outline that the influence of each path in the decision-making process and the definition of meaningful involvement varies with the arena in which it is executed. Whereas meaningful involvement for deliberative inclined youths can be best described through a shared power youth-adult participation, youths following the agonistic path seek meaningful involvement through emotion work and empowerment expressed in direct actions and protest.

This thesis discusses the Indignados movement, which arose in Spain in 2011, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. It makes the observation that the Indignados, and many other movements similar to it (like Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, or the Global Justice Movement), gather large amounts of people, but are still struggling to be recognised as political subjects, as influential forces in the political environment. Many times, they are criticised for being too dispersed or too emotional, and lacking the cohesiveness to formulate concrete political aims. The Indignados can therefore be seen as challenging democracy and how political subjectivity is accorded, both in theory and practice. This leads this thesis to inquire into some of the theoretical underpinnings of democracy, and in particular political subjectivity. Its main research question is therefore: Can the Indignados spur a new reading of democracy?To further understand how we can conceive of the political subjectivity of an emotional and dispersed protest movement, this thesis turns to two approaches, social movement theory as well as deliberative democratic theory. After having examined extant literature on the matter, the thesis concludes that both of these approaches employ a distinct separation between emotion and reason, where political subjectivity is almost always hinged upon the latter. In addition, affect is seen as disjointed from signification, and therefore from political articulation. In order to circumvent this theoretical stalemate, this thesis turns to theories of radical democracy, and more specifically to the works of Ernesto Laclau. It argues that Laclau’s juxtaposition of Lacanian psychoanalysis and Derridian deconstruction opens up possibilities for a form of political subjectivity based on affect instead of reason alone. As such, Laclau’s theory of hegemony can shed light on those instances where affect and emotions play a central part in the creation of political subjectivity. In analysing Laclau’s theory, I respond to different analytical challenges that question the viability of explaining movements such as the Indignados through a theory of hegemony. Current observations point to that contemporary movements are not hegemonic (which place too much emphasis on verticality), but rather horizontal and networked. In order to address this critique, this thesis constructs a framework of the hegemonic project. This framework emphasises two commonly overlooked features of Laclau’s theory: the affective and transient nature of hegemony, which stresses the connection between affect and signification. Through two sets of empirical data – ethnographic fieldwork material and social media analysis – the thesis shows how the Indignados exhibit clear instances of verticality, albeit of an affective nature. This hegemonic, affective verticality speaks of two ways in which the movement can construct political subjectivity: viscerally (through unity in affective practices) and virtually (through social media).

I Malmö stads översiktsplan fastslås en ambition om att i högre grad involvera medborgare i planeringen för att göra staden mer jämlik och socialt hållbar, samtidigt som planeringen kan bli mer effektiv när planer kan förankras genom att involvera medborgare i ett tidigt skede. Men för att involvera medborgare i planeringen, i ett tidigt stadie, krävs det att det görs ansatser som går utöver de lagliga krav som Plan- och Bygglagen ställer på planförfarandet om medborgerligt demokratiskt inflytande. Denna ansats benämner Malmö stad som fördjupad delaktighet. Men vad som ingår i de ansatser som går utöver lagens krav och möjligheterna för hur medborgare kan påverka planeringen, kan variera från en planprocess till en annan. Hur Malmö stad arbetar med att involvera medborgare med metoder som går utöver lagens krav ämnar denna studie studera. Detta har undersökts med en fallstudie som har studerat ett aktivt planeringsprojekt i Bunkeflostrand i Malmö. Fallstudien har kompletterats med en dokumentstudie samt en intervju som har genomförs med en nyckelaktör i planeringsprojektet, med ansvar för medborgardialog. Denna inhämtade information har sedan analyserats med hjälp av teorier som har sin grund i deliberativ demokratiteori, medborgarmakt, demokratiska innovationer och kommunikativ planeringsteori. Genom denna analys har vi identifierat att medborgare ges en större möjlighet att delta i planprocessen, men att detta inte översätts till att medborgare ges en medbestämmanderätt. Hur medborgares åsikter överförs till planarbetet försvåras av planutformningens teknokratiska natur, vilket innebär att det medborgerliga inflytandet kräver stöd från andra aktörer för att kunna förverkligas. / Malmö municipality’s general plan states an ambition to involve citizens, to a higher degree, in city planning to make the city more equitable and socially sustainable. By involving citizens in planning, it can become more effective when plans are thoroughly anchored with citizens at an early stage. But in order to involve citizens at an early stage in planning, it is necessary for city planning to make efforts that go beyond the legal requirements that Plan- och Bygglagen imposes on the planning procedure for civic democratic influence. This effort is defined in Malmö Municipality’s’ general plan as deepened participation. But what is included in the efforts that go beyond the requirements of the law and the possibilities for how citizens can influence planning can vary from one planning process to another. The purpose of this study is to understand how Malmö Municipality works to involve citizens with methods that go beyond the requirements of the law. This has been investigated with a case study that has examined an active planning project in Bunkeflostrand in Malmö Municipality. The case study has been supplemented by a document study as well as an interview conducted with a key employee in the planning project, responsible for citizen dialogue. This information has then been analyzed with the help of theories based on deliberative democracy theory, citizen power, democratic innovations, and communicative planning theory. Through this analysis, we have identified that citizens are given a greater opportunity to participate in the planning process, but that this is not translated into giving citizens a right of co-decision. How citizens' opinions are transferred to planning work is complicated by the technocratic nature of plan making, which means that civic influence requires support from other stakeholders to be realized.

The rapidly changing political environment in our Western liberal democracies poses a big challenge not only to elected representatives but also to scholars. In this dissertation thesis I describe and clarify the main principles and ideas of the three currently most dominant, debated and promising democratic theories, namely participatory democracy, deliberative democracy and Mouffe's agonistic pluralism. Their criticisms and the most important polemics are included as well. The first theory introduced in dissertation's theoretical part is participatory democracy, which is heavily neglected in the Slovak academia. It is presented especially through the prism of Carole Pateman's, C.B. Macpherson's and Benjamin Barber's writings. Their ideas on civic engagement in public life appear to be noteworthy again, especially in the light of the changing conditions of democratic citizenship - particularly in regards to the EU-wide decline in voter turnout, increasing income inequality, downgrade of social solidarity and cooperation, growing intolerance or dissatisfaction with representative democracy and its institutions. This theory has been verified on the example of the European Citizens' Initiatives (ECI), which are deemed to be one of most promising political tools adjusting EU's democratic deficit....

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The overarching question that this thesis sheds some light on is whether making PES more equitable increases the likelihood that they will be successful. The findings of the three empirical chapters suggest that policy-makers would do well to keep equity consideration in mind when designing PES. The first of these chapters is based on the results of a survey of dozens of PES in Latin America. The second and third chapters use a deliberative choice experiments approach to measure participant preferences towards different equity design characteristics of PES in an indigenous community in Colombia, where one of these programs is likely to be implemented in the near future.

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In a world characterized by constant changes and increasing diversity, controversialevents unfold in society on a daily basis. Given the School's role in educating democraticcitizens, it is imperative for educational institutions to adapt and incorporate current andcontroversial topics into their curriculum. This thesis explores the perspectives of socialstudies teachers on controversial issues in the classroom. Employing a phenomenologicalapproach and conducting in-depth interviews with social studies teachers, the studyanalyzes their subjective experiences, definitions of the subject, and approaches toteaching controversial topics. Therefore, our purpose and research questions are groundedin three themes, which are also pervasive throughout the work: Teacher management,teacher experience, and teacher definition of controversial issues in education.In summary, the results from our interview study reveal that teachers acknowledge theemotional impact associated with these issues, a finding supported by prior research. Thechallenge lies in the complexity of these topics and the ability to strike a balance betweenintellectual challenge and emotional understanding. The study highlights the difficultyteachers face in maintaining objectivity while navigating through their own values, andthe intricate interplay between subject content, emotions, and the teacher's ownperspective. It is evident that a conscious effort is required to create a classroomatmosphere that fosters open dialogues and respectful confrontations to promotedemocratic values, where diverse perspectives can be included.

Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och problematisera hur so- lärare i årskurs 4-6 förhåller sig till såväl som adresserar att undervisa elever om demokrati, genom demokrati för att sedan kunna verka för demokrati. Metoden som används för att få svar på forskningsfrågorna är kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med ostrukturerade inslag där sex yrkesverksamma lärare från fem olika kommuner blivit intervjuade. Denna studie har eftersträvat att synliggöra hur so-lärare använder sitt demokratiuppdrag i klassrumsundervisning för att tillföra eleverna redskap i form av inflytande, delaktighet och ansvarstagande. Fyra teman med underordnade aspekter som utgjorde intervjuerna föreföll i resultatet. Resultatet påvisar att upplevelsebaserad undervisning genererar mer handgriplighet och lärande. Det kan ske genom att exempelvis utföra olika studiebesök, skriva insändare till en tidning med innehåll som har inverkan på eleverna, samt diverse rollspel. Resultatet visar även att när kommer till att bringa kunskap i ett klassrum med elever som har olika erfarenheter och bakgrund, behövs fostran för att förstå att olikheter är en fördel. Det är fördelaktigt att elever urskiljer fenomen på varierande sätt och uppdraget för lärare är att ge elever verktyg till att uppfatta det som något berikade, att alla behövs. / The purpose of this study is to describe and problematize how the teaching assignment is addressed as well as how social studies teachers in grades 4-6, who teach students about democracy through democracy in order to then work for democracy, treat it. The method used to answer the research questions are qualitative semi-structured interviews with unstructured elements, where six participants from five different municipalities have been interviewed. This study has sought to make visible how social studies teachers use their democratic mission in classroom teaching by providing students with tools in the form of influence, participation and responsibility. Four themes with subordinate Aspect that made up the interviews appeared in the results. The result shows that experiential teaching generates more tangibility and learning, by carrying out various study visits, writing submissions to a newspaper, content that has an impact on the students, as well as various role-plays. The result also shows that bringing knowledge into a classroom with students with different experiences and backgrounds requires education to understand that differences are an advantage. It is beneficial for students to distinguish phenomena in varying ways, and the task for teachers is to give students the tools to perceive it, as something enriching, that everyone is needed.

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