The aim of the dissertation is to describe and analyze the practice and meaning of Middle Eastern dance through the study of a number of performers in Stockholm. In particular, this study emphasises the ways in which the performers seek, create and defend values such as femininity, authenticity, empowerment and respectability in and through their dancing. Data for this study consists of field notes from participant observation in dance classes, festivals and gatherings; in-depth interviews and written material, such as leaflets and Internet material. Field notes from a trip to Lebanon with a group of Swedish dancers are also included. The performance of Middle Eastern dance in Stockholm may be seen as a way for Swedish women to find new femininities. They strive to combine a glamorous hyper-femininity with strength and respectability. This is a difficult task. The dancers constantly have to maintain a balance. While enjoying the hyper-femininity of oriental dance they must avoid being too sexy and thereby running the risk of being reduced to the position of sexual objects. To avoid losing control of the situation performing in public the dancers use different tactics. Many try to make the performance a clearly bounded event and make distinctions between themselves as individuals and the personas they embody on stage. This gives the performers a chance to playfully embody hyper-femininity. Other dancers have changed the dance itself, removing all movements and costumes that could be perceived as sexually inviting or aiming to please.

This thesis concerns Malung and the annual music and dance festival Dansbandsveckan. The aim is to study collective identity and memory processes connected to this event among the local residents, and to find how aspects of Dansbandsveckan relates to the local history in Malung. The study is based on interviews and observations and the central theoretical concepts used are memory, identity and community. These concepts highlight process, the evolving structures in negotiating different aspects of Dansbandsveckan among the locals. The result shows that Dansbandsveckan is indeed a central economical and social component for the local residents, although they do not take part in the main feature of the event – the dance. Instead other arenas are claimed by the locals and used to strengthen aspects of the social memory and collective identity of Malung. The way the event is organized and structured connects it to the local history through values and ideals such as entrepreneurship and volunteerism. The fading of the old collective identity, the leather industry, is an ongoing trauma for the community since the symbolically important tannery burned down in 2014. Dansbandsveckan claims a stronger presence in the social memory every year and is slowly becoming a new cornerstone in Malungs collective identity as the leather will either slide further into the forgotten or become institutionalized in the cultural memory.

Research shows that non-european academics are discriminated in the labor market. The purpose of this study is to examine non- European academics narratives about their Job search process. By applying an intersectional approach, this study aims to demonstrate how the interplay of different aspects such as gender, class and etnicity shape the interviewees experience in swedish labour market. A postcolonial perspective is applied in order to contribute to deeper understanding of the discriminating structures that the interviewees deal with.The analysis shows that colonial conceptions are embedded in the validation system and institutions such as employment service. This mechanism affects the interviewees negatively in their Job search process. The result shows that they had their degrees degraded and advisers and employers had doubted their competence. This has placed the interviewees in a working-class experience with strenuous jobs resulting in poor health. The informants use strategies to challenge power but feel that they who are in power positions do not listen to them.

Detta är en C-uppsats i ämnet medier: Dataspelsutveckling som ska leda till min filosofie kandidatexamen. Då de etiska frågeställningarna, speciellt rasism, vid utvecklande av spel har väckt mitt intresse valde jag att skriva en C-uppsats med fokus på detta ämne. Uppsatsen behandlar frågeställningarna om hur en speldesigner kan undvika stark kritik när hon gör ett spel som utspelas i miljöer och kontexter där det förekommer rasism eller etniska motsättningar samt hur en speldesigner balanserar realism och abstraktion i ett spel som utspelas i verklighetsbaserade miljöer. Teorier och texter som använts för att komma fram till ett svar på frågeställningen är bland annat Rollings och Adams (2003) teori om den etiska dimensionen och diskuterande texter från Chan (2005) och Everett och Watkins (2008) samt Williams m.fl. (2009) som behandlar rasism och rasbaserade stereotyper i spel. De spel som har analyserats närmare är Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) och Resident Evil 5 (2009) som båda har fått utstå kritik i media för att vara rasistiska eller för att förespråka negative stereotyper. Mitt syfte är att föra en diskussion om skildringar av ras och etniska grupper i spel och hur dessa skulle kunna presenteras av en speldesigner på ett fördelaktigt sätt. Genom detta arbete kom jag fram till bland hur en speldesigner skulle kunna ändra på vissa variabler för att få ett bredare accepterat spel. Från Andrew och Rollings (2004) teori kunde jag dra slutsatsen att hur kritiskt bemött ett spel blir står i direkt relation till två variabler: kontroversiellt innehåll och visuell realism.

Ämnet för denna studie är skolkultur. Syftet är att analysera Läroplanen för det svenska obligatoriska skolväsendet, Lpo 94, med särskilt fokus på den ideologi som går att finna, samt hur skolans kultur - här i fråga om individsyn, kunskapssyn och pedagogiska tradition påverkar synen på elever och utformandet av undervisningen. Studien är en innehållslig idéanalys. Det empiriska materialet består av Lpo 94 och mediapresentationer där det framgår hur Lpo 94 kan tolkas och förverkligas. Mediamaterialet är hämtat under hösten 2007 i en västsvensk kommuns lokaltidning och från den aktuella kommunens hemsida. Analysen visar på att Lpo 94 fastslår en värdekonservativ undervisning med ett särskiljande. Individsynen är en autonom individ som går att definiera, vilket innebär rationalistiska synsätt. Kunskapssynen innebär att värden ses som objektiva och jämförbara med kunskap, vilket innebär objektivism. Den pedagogiska traditionen med barnet i centrum är fastslagen i det statligt bindande styrdokumentet, vilket innebär att den pedagog som sätter ämneskunskaper i centrum blir motarbetad och hamnar i ett utanförskap i en organisationskultur med gemensamt tänkande och handlande. Resultatet visar på att Lpo 94 tillvaratar rationalistiska synsätt och objektivism, vilket aktuella kulturvetenskapliga teorier radikalt tar avstånd till.

This doctoral thesis examines how modernisation affects and is affected by existing local culture and identity. It is about the relation between the social and mental barriers experienced, expressed and manifested in the social culture of local community, and modernisation’s dynamic powers over time. The thesis deals with different time periods from the 1800’s until today with regard to expressions and consequences of modernity. People during the societal transformation of Sweden in the 19th and 20th centuries are culturally depicted from a micro-perspective. An overall perspective for the analysis of modernity uses the concepts of basal and variable modernity, borrowed from the historian of ideas Sven-Eric Liedman. The perspective makes possible the separation between on the one hand the structural modernisation within the fields of economy, technology and natural sciences, and on the other hand the cultural modernity manifested in conceptions of the world, politics, existential viewpoints, aesthetic expressions and social culture. Within the first-mentioned fields, where basal modernity dominates, a uniform and cumulative developmental pattern emerges as well as an almost self-propelled continuity toward the next innovation or stage of development. Within the latter fields, however, a non-uniform pattern emerges, where modernisation is constantly the object of alternative interpretations and attitudes. This variable modernity is characterised by a cultural struggle between conflicting ideologies and strategies in relation to ongoing modernisation. Different individuals and groups position themselves between acceptance and resistance, progressiveness and the critique of civilisation, the preservation of traditions and the will to change. In this course of events new affinities and identifications, but also new dissociations and antagonisms are created in local social contexts. Modernity leads both to the obliteration of boundaries and to the emergence of new social and mental boundaries. This process can also lead to existing geographical borders being charged with a new ideological content so their importance is revitalised.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the children in the Maasai villages in Tanzania are learning the Maasai’s musictraditions and ngoma. What is the importance of the school compared with the family? Tanzania has an old tradition of ngoma of many different cultures. The Maasai’s are a nomadic people and have traditions of their own. To get answers for the purpose of this study, these questions have been formed: How do the children learn the Maasai’s musictraditions? When do the children learn the Maasai’s musictraditions and start to practise them? What role and significance do the school have when it comes to teaching the Maasai’s musictraditions? For this study I have interviewed three informants who have good knowledge about the Maasai’s and their traditions. I have also been visiting some Maasai villages to get to know more about the traditions and see them in real life. I have also visited a primary school and questioned about the music education in the school.  This study will show that for the Maasai’s the family is the most important part to get to know the musictraditions and ngoma. The school has almost no part in educating the pupils in different cultures and traditions. Music education in school is brief and the school that I visited had almost all music education theoretical and none practical.

Sedan ett antal år tillbaks samlas varje år omkring 1000 påskkäringar i Visby på Skärtorsdagens eftermiddag. De samlas, marscherar iväg längs Visbys forna affärsgata, får ett pappägg med godis och går sedan hem under fridfullt tuggande och smackande. I bakgrunden,tryckta mot husväggarna, döljer sig tidigare generationers påskkäringar, de som en tid hotade att helt försvinna, och i fonden avtecknar sig Visby med ringmuren, kyrkorna, smala gator och låga hus. Blåkullamarschen i Visby har med allt detta att göra; påsktraditionerna, utdöendet, godisätande, föräldraskapet, Visbys förändring, relationen mellan det gamla och det nya. Blåkullamarschen är ett stillsamt, nästan anspråkslöst evenemang som inte pockar på särskild uppmärksamhet. Men det är också på sitt sätt ett märkvärdigt fenomen som inte låter sig alldeles enkelt beskrivas och förklaras. I beskrivningen av marschen skall jag låta köpmännen i Visby, påskkäringarna själva och deras föräldrar komma till tals och jag ska låta dem konfronteras med teoretiska antaganden om återupplivande av äldre traditioner och om skapande av helt nya. Jag hävdar att medan strukturella ekonomiska och demografiska förhållanden, liksom också rörelser som «grönavågen» och liknande, kan bilda en bakgrund som ökar förståelsen för fenomenet, är det bara genom att fokusera aktörernas intentioner som man kan finna hållbara förklaringar. / This article discusses the «B1åkulla» march in Visby, Gotland, Sweden. The event is arranged yearly on Maundy Thursday. Children and parents defy the winds, rain and snow of April to gather in the center of the small medieval town and march up and down the formerly busy street, hoping to get some of the coloured, candyfilled paper eggs distributed by the local merchants' association. The march is headed by a brass band, and most of the children, and some of their parents, are dressed up as påskkäringar, wearing old and outsized skirts and blouses, big scarves around their heads, their faces made up with red lipstick and black paint. The children are the heirs of the påskkäringar of the forties, fifties and sixties. Youngsters then dressed up as old women, begging for Easter eggs, bread and candies, walking around individually or in small groups. Although formerly widespread, the custom faded in the sixties and almost disappeared. The march was initiated by merchants in Visby in 1973 and became an immediate success. About one thousand children, one-fourth of all the children on the island, participated together with their parents, making the march one of the major events of the year. To find the factors that contributed to the success of the event, I turn to the perspectives of the merchants, the children and the parents. The merchants have obvious commercial interests; the children disguise themselves and get free candy; the parents remember the old days when the busy street was the natural meeting place and they walked around as påskkäringar themselves. From the researcher's perspective, I discuss the event in terms of effectivization, rationalization and institutionalization of an old custom, then turning to Hobsbawm's notion of «traditionalization». These concepts illuminate the historical and social background against which the actions of the performers may be analyzed. The last part of the paper discusses the concepts of «revitalization» and «folklorism». I maintain that these theoretical concepts must be rejected on the grounds that they are heavily biased by objectivist notions of «authenticity» and «false consciousness.» I find that, however simple and obvious the objectives of the actors may seem, only they can explain why so many children and parents in Visby find it worthwhile to walk the streets of Visby together on a Thursday afternoon in April.

No description available.

My essay explores the public view on smoking in Sweden over the last few decades. I've studied how changes in social structures through media, laws, studies and education has brought about a change in the opinions about smoking. I found that even though there have always been different opinions on smoking it seems to have become less accepted in the Swedish society, particularly in the past twenty years. I discuss the different reason as to why (and how) the view on smoking might have changed the last decades amongst the Swedish people. To be able to do this I have done interviews on which I have applied narrative analysis.