The research presented in this PhD dissertation provides a socio-educational perspective on the participatory representation of identity in Greek Laographic Museums. Museums are seen as an extension of formal educational spaces through their educational activities and school partnerships or outreach programmes (Hooper-Greenhill, 2007). However, they are also mainly engaging in the process of interpreting the cultures and communities represented in their collection, thus, assigning them an identity, which they then present to the public (McLean, 2005, 2008). The public, in turn, interprets it through the lens of their own identities. A result of this process is the creation and sharing of new knowledge about identity through exhibition design (Jones, Sandweiss, Mouliou, & Orloff, 2012; McLean, 2006; Newman & McLean, 2006; O’Neill, 2006). This study adopts the stance that exhibition design is the primary way museums are fulfilling their educational role. It puts forward the idea that the involvement of community members in the founding of a museum about their local identity can result in a rich, polyphonous narrative and positively affect the bond and sense of ownership the community develops in relation to the museum and their locale. This is in line with literature predicting that in the context of multicultural societies and increased mobility, bringing people together through shared cultural elements of the location they have in common, can aid social cohesion and inclusion (Graham & Howard, 2008; Hague & Jenkins, 2005; Howard, 2003). As a theoretical starting point, this research was guided by the views of Hall (1997a,1992) on changing identities and the links between identity, culture, interpretation and narrative for being potentially more reflective of current museological practice that is starting to operate within a participatory paradigm. Designed as a case study around the founding of a new museum on a small Greek island, Astypalaia, it used participatory methods in a variety of ways to engage local residents in the process of collaboratively designing the exhibition narrative of this new space that would share the story of life on the island. To frame the main case study, this research also mapped the practices of laographic museums across Greece, in order to point out what a typical museum of that type looks like in this context and assess in what ways Astypalaia is in line or deviates from this. The results of this process were compared to the findings of the case study and linked to literature on participation, education, and identity construction in museums and communities. The following discussion argues that, while collaborative projects require structure, effort and skills in their facilitation, they have the potential to make a museum narrative more representative and inclusive and benefit their participants in multiple ways. By having access to the project from its conception until its final stages, this work aims to provide a holistic view of the challenges and possibilities of implementing a participatory approach in the founding of a new museum and to discuss the knowledge such a process generates.

Many learning organizations are using communities of practice as a strategy for knowledge sharing among members. Ensuring those members' participation in the activities of the community remains a problem for instructional designers, particularly in the case of communities that use an electronic environment as a means of communication. Wenger (1998) suggests that developing an "identity of participation" is the basis for an individual's motivation to participate in the practices of a community. In order to better understand the interplay of identity and motivation, this study supplemented Wenger's work with self-determination theory, which focuses on how motivation is produced by an individual's personality developing and functioning in a social setting. This framework was used in a mixed-methods study of a distributed community of practice for instructors from many different universities, in order to better understand the interplay between identity, motivation, and participation in such a community. The study found that age was an identity factor that made a statistically significant difference in motivation in this community, with participants over 60 years of age indicating that their basic needs for motivation were not being met as well as other age groups. It was also found that those who identified themselves as experts within the community did not feel motivated to share their knowledge, but instead saw their role as a passive receiver of information. Contrary to expected outcomes, community members did not report having technical concerns that hampered their motivation to participate, nor did they indicate having issues with the overseeing organization for this community. However, members did feel that the universities that employed them exerted undue control over their participation within this community, particularly in regards to demands on their time. / text

Sweden is home to five recognized national minorities, namely the Jews, the Roma, the Torne Valley Descendants (Tornedalians), the Swedish Finns, and the Sami population which also are an indigenous group. The Government`s Minority Policy aims at protecting and supporting the national minorities and the historical minority languages (Yiddish, Romani chib, Sami, Finnish, Meänkieli). The policy also promotes the right of youth, belonging to national minority groups in order to develop and streng then their cultural identity. This paper seeks to address the lack of involvement of Swedish Finnish youth in the so called Finnish Administrative Areas (Finskt förvaltningsområde, FFO), and how the Norrköping and Haninge municipalities tackle the issue.   In this paper, a reconstruction of the intervention theory is presented with inspiration sought from the ideas of Evert Vedung, in order to see if the intentions of the legislation are implemented. In accordance to the research on how the policy is designed, the democratic theory, the theory of participation, as well as the theory of identity will be linked together to the opinions of officials. This will be done in accordance to the reconstructed intervention theory, which will be used as a tool in order to show how the selected mechanisms relate in order to describe how the policy will receive an expected result. The intervention theory is a method which is meant to be in use during the evaluation of measures done by the public organization. I have conducted audits on how each FFO approaches the problem at hand using municipality documents relating to the Swedish Finnish youth. In addition, I have interviewed municipal officials in the FFO:s of Norrköping and Haninge with the aim to get an impartial over view on how they are perceived by the Swedish Finnish youth within FFO.   The result of my research indicates that local government activities in many cases can be linked to democracy theory, identity theory as well as participation theory. The mechanisms which were chosen used the recently named theories, are used to measure the municipalities offer of activities are language, interventions, activities and also the media. These theories have been used to select the mechanisms considered to be the most important deemed by the Law on the Protection of National Minorities (SFS 2009: 724[1]). [1] Lag (2009:724) om nationella minoriteter och minoritetsspråk