No description available.

Partiendo de una breve descripción de las características del modelo comunitarista de integración social con el propósito de marcar distancia y aclarar algunos malentendidos en lo relativo a sus vínculos con la Sittlichkeit hegeliana, en el presente trabajo se analizan algunos de los textos claves de Hegel en los cuales se aprecia su comprensión de la unidad política. Ligado a ello, se intenta reconstruir la noción de integración que se desprende de dichos textos para, finalmente, concluir con algunas reflexiones en torno al potencial de una teoría de inspiración hegeliana para analizar determinados fenómenos vinculados, en la actualidad, con los conceptos de desintegración y exclusión social.---Freedom and Inclusion. Reflections on the Concept of Political Integration in Hegel”. Starting from a short description of the features of the communitarian model of social integration with the purpose of keeping one’s distance and of clarifying some misunderstandings concerning its bonds with the Hegelian Sittlichkeit, this paper analyzes some of Hegel’s key texts in which his understanding of the political unity is appreciated. Connected to this, there is an attempt to reconstruct the notion of integration that follows from those texts so that we can finally conclude with some reflections on the potentiality of a theory of Hegelian inspiration for analyzing certain phenomena tied at present with the concepts of social disintegration and exclusion.

Our aim is to create a greater understanding for how Växjö Municipality is working with their vision, strategy and brand, and also how it is perceived by the business sector. This understanding will help us to highlight success factors and pitfalls that exist in the creation, implementation, and maintenance of a municipality’s identity, image and profile to convince the business sector to follow. Methodology: We have been using an abductive and qualitative research-method in which semi-structured interviews have been the basis of our empirical material. We had interviews with three employees, a communication manager and the mayor at Växjö Municipality as well as four organizations and two companies with sustainable focus. We did this to get different perspectives and thereby get a greater understanding. Analysis & conclusion: We have been able to identify both success factors and pitfalls in Växjö Municipality's strategic sustainability work. They have been successful when it comes to the circulation of their brand and they have taken advantage of chances that have come up. The success factors that we have identified is the spreading of myths and storytelling, strong political leadership, united politicians, strong organizational identity, cooperation, tough decisions that are in line with the strategy, shared objectives with companies and organizations with sustainable focus and international success. The risks and gaps that we have seen are great focus on the past, ignorance locally, different priorities and values internally and there is pressure to live by what they learn. That there is a positive attitude toward Växjö Municipality’s profile and message is a must if Växjö Municipality wants to achieve its ambition to become "The greenest city in Europe". New knowledge on the subject is the key behind the driving force when it comes to engagement in sustainability issues. It is also through the knowledge that attitude changes are possible.

Sweden has a long tradition of participation in different kinds of peacekeeping missions. During the Cold War, Sweden’s troop contributions were exclusively focused on UN operations, but in the early 1990s Sweden’s official troop contribution policy changed from an “only under the UN flag” position to one of “only under UN Security Council mandate”. It is fair to say that Sweden’s foreign policy has undergone fundamental changes and the country has been contributing military forces to both EU and NATO missions for quite some time. Swedish foreign policy debate has largely been characterized by a sense of political unity or consensus. Despite this, there have been occasions when the political parties have been in disagreement. There are studies that confirm that the level of conflict in the foreign policy debate has increased over time. Political and ideological disagreements do exist and the political landscape has changed during the last 10 years. These changes should also have an impact on foreign policy decisions. The aim of this study is to investigate the political decision making process regarding Swedish military international missions. It will examine the political unity in the decisions concerning eight different cases; Kosovo (1999-2010), Congo (2003) , Liberia (2003-2006), Afghanistan (2004-2014), Chad (2007), Somalia (2009-2017), Libya (2011) and Mali (2015 à).  The focus for the study will be the political unity regarding the decision process within Parliament and, more specifically, the work of the combined Foreign affairs and Defence committee, and the debates in Parliament. The empirical analysis reveals that the rate of political controversy has increased. However, there is still a great sense of unity and broad agreement among the political parties on the main question regarding troop contributions.  In many cases any conflict and debate concern side issues such as timings, personnel and finance. The two main parties, the Social Democrats and the Moderate Party, are generally in agreement. They also conduct negotiations before a proposition becomes official, which leads to less conflict in the subsequent debate. The study also reveals a higher level of opposition from the Left party and from the Sweden Democrats. Some of their opposition can have ideological explanations. The Left party is mainly critical about participation in NATO missions.

The study insists on understanding the miscarriage of “Pan-Africanism” and the role of “African” mentality with the help of Fanon’s psychoanalysis “Black Skin, White Mask,” exemplifying the immense colonial, slavery, and apartheid psychological damages experienced by Black individuals resulting Blacks/Africans self-hate and a desire to be “white” throughout the domain of Western culture, ideology, and language. To provide accurate analysis of the “Pan-African” failure to solve increasing blacks-hate-against-blacks/xenophobia in South Africa, concepts othering, mimicry, subaltern from the critical theory (postcolonialism) were applied. Thereupon, Qualitative Content Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis relying on the theoretical concepts were conducted, which underlined how the mimicry process makes Africa's interaction an elite-driven one, oppressing African/subaltern citizens. The findings showed a need for "Black-Consciousness" and Nkrumah's “Pan-African” vision (African unification) to end colonial-mentality generating collective subordination of Subaltern/Africans. Generally, the use of Fanon’s psycho-social analysis has shown that the generational oppression, trauma, and cultural stereotypes continue to robotize and dictate African leaders and the African Union's favoritism of Western “neo-liberal” policies. It is summarized that the “Pan-African” failure is a failure of gradual unconscious “Pan-Africanists” who pledge allegiance to “Western” policies rather than rededicating themselves to durable Radical “Pan-Africanism” which is an antidote to Africa’s self-hate/xenophobia, neo-colonialism, and the robotization of unconscious Africans.

Kwame Nkrumah was the first African leader to pursue the idea of Africa’s continent-wide unity with fervour. Many thought that African unity will only be the pooling of poverty and that Nkrumah’s dream was impossible. Nkrumah was known for his philosophy "Seek ye first the political kingdom and all things shall be added unto it". He thought that political unity should precede economic unity, which would naturally follow. Even though the newly independent African states agreed on the necessity of unity, his philosophy was not welcomed when the Organisation of African Unity was established in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) in 1963. Rather, delegates opted for incremental political integration leading to economic integration –an aspiration that Africa is still struggling to bring to fruition. This study demonstrates that Nkrumah’s idea of political unity before economic integration was and still is valid for Africa’s continent-wide unity. To this end, the study will use textual sources and use diachronic and integrative approaches as analytical tools. / Political Sciences / M.A. (International Politics)