Aim: Nation Branding has become an important phenomenon during the last couple of years. The concept talks about how to promote a product by using the features of a nation to gain profit. Among the years many countries has established a strong Nation Brand abroad. In the long run many companies have chosen to use these benefits in an efficient way by promoting their own country brand, especially in their internationalization process. The aim of this study is to see what factors that influence companies in the Swedish food industry while using the fact that they are Swedish when they enter foreign markets.   Method: Data was collected through interviews with export managers and sales managers at 6 Swedish companies exporting products within the food industry. The study was also based on secondary data with the purpose to give a complete image how Sweden is represented abroad. The chosen literature is based on a couple of the biggest researchers among the fields of Nation Branding and cultural dimensions.   Result & Conclusions: One result that was obtained after our study was that brands or products with characteristics consistent with the image that the consumers had about the country before, can gain its value by highlighting its origin. Further, it was being proved that a company’s use of Nation Branding in some way could be affected by the countries cultural distance, or in what stage of the internationalization process the company is.   Contribution of the thesis: The contribution of this thesis is to give more knowledge about which qualities a country like Sweden can generate with its products. A country being perceived with its values like reliability, trustworthiness, uniqueness and quality can create an image and a successful strategy to establish on new markets and to gain profit from that.

The aim of this essay was to look at and compare the imagery in three editions of the Läsebok för folkskolans second department from the years 1868, 1899 and 1922 with a special focus on images of animals, nature scenery and the man / woman in the landscape image to see if and in that case how the images communicate a special kind of citizen image / patriot image in collaboration with the texts. It also aims to investigate whether there was any educational reason for using images in the Läsebok för folkskolan. In order to answer the essays aim a theoretical point of departure has been Benedict Anderson's theory about imagined community, but also Eric Kaufmann & Oliver Zimmer's theory of nationalization of nature versus naturalization of the nation. The method used is an image analysis attempting to understand what the image expresses by looking at the different meaning levels of the image along with the text to which the images belongs. The results show that you can see a shift in the images themes, from tradition 1868 to a romanticization of the same themes 1899 until it in 1922 became more important for the authors and the image setters to give the students a picture of a modern Sweden. Furthermore the results show that you can categorize the images in different kinds of Swedishness. This has been illustrated as a circle with a center, outer edge and periphery which contains different kinds of Swedishness. Together these images gives a picture of an imagined community of what Swedishness means. It has also been possible to see a clear nationalization of nature in the images of animals and nature scenery that occur in the second department. Finally it is hard to say how big the role the image had as an educational tool but it is still possible to say that the pictures must have had a certain influence on how the image of Sweden was produced to the students.

Skolverket presenterar att skolan ska främja att elever tar del av de för samhället gemensamma värderingarna, men vilka är de gemensamma värderingarna? Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att konkretisera vad de gemensamma värderingarna innebär samt att sätta dem i relation till teorin om civilreligion. Med hjälp av den tidigare forskningen har åtta teman identifierats vilka författaren anser vara typiska för det svenska samhället, nämligen: Neutralitet, Välstånd, Nationell solidaritet, Jämställdhet, Individualism, Demokrati, Sekularisering, Globalisering. Med hjälp av den kritiska diskursanalysen, lanserad av Norman Fairclough, kodas värdegrunden efter de identifierade temana. Resultatet av analysen undersöks vidare med hjälp av teorin om civilreligion, det visar sig att skolans värdegrund hjälper till att förmedla av en svensk civilreligion. Den svenska civilreligionen visar sig även förespråka en specifik människosyn samt ett specifikt samhällssystem vilket läraren aktivt ska fostra eleverna till att bli en del av. Den svenska civilreligionen kan i vissa fall begränsa skolans arbete för en kulturell mångfald.

This essay use Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffes view on dicourse theory analyses speeches from the Swedish democrats to see how the partie define the swedishness and how the contribute to antagonism during the process. The essay uses chain of equivalences to see how they construct the identity and also uses antagonism to create an understanding for the overtaking in discourse, which is often used by the Swedish democrats to define the identity their way. The theoretical and methodological framework helps the study to clarify what is included and excluded in swedishness. The result in the study is that the Swedish democrats find it crucial to sustain independence, be brave, have Swedish norm, culture and values, and also to create a trustworthy nation where everyone can feel safe. The study also show that the Swedish democrats subjects safety, immigrant and independence for antagonism.

Sports media can, by framing a national team's character, stereotype the identity of a whole population. Since the early 20th century, football has been an uncontested arena for nationalistic expressions. However, nationalistic feelings get real consequences, and in relation to football there has been several examples of wars started or prevented because of the game.  The present study used a number of questions and answered them in order to fulfil its purpose: to highlight mediated expressions of Swedish nationalism and national stereotypes in Swedish sports media by scrutinizing its framing of Sweden and ‘Swedishness’ related to opposition countries during the Football World Cup in 2018. The questions used were specifically how Sweden and ‘Swedishness’ were framed, how the characters of Sweden’s respective opposition countries were framed and finally how the media expressed Swedish nationalism. A combination of framing theory and Stuart Hall’s representation theory was chosen as theoretical ground to summarize the media’s framing of the respective nationalities. Additionally, Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities and Michael Billig’s banal nationalism let the analysis of the frames regarding Sweden be deepened. The framing analysis was carried out on twelve chronicles published by Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen during the tournament. The analysis showed that Swedish identity and ’Swedishness’ were framed as showing good morale, specifically when it came to collectivism, unselfish and hard work and anti-racism. Ultimately, Sweden was stereotypically framed as a morally likeable and collective realm in an individualistic world. Swedish nationalistic expressions in sports media can be researched more. The result of this study offers awareness in thinking of our own attitude towards nationalism, and stereotypes of other nations, in relation to sports.

Denna uppsats ämnar belysa hur multikulturella ungdomar hanterar skapandet av sin kulturella identitet i förhållande till svenskheten och dess uteslutande natur för att inspirera till framtida forskning om svenskhet, och förhoppningsvis hjälpa till att luckra upp denna dikotomi kring svenskhet mot invandrare. Sju multikulturella ungdomar uppvuxna i Stockholm-Uppsalaområdet intervjuades för att ge sin syn på det svenska samhället samt berätta om de skapat sin kulturella identitet. Ungdomarna är mellan 18 och 25 år, och befinner sig i olika stadier i livet. För att analysera materialet används symbolisk interaktionism i form av Goffmans stigmateori, Cooleys spegeljag och Berger & Luckmanns generaliserade andre samt Beckers stämplingsteori och teorier kring identitetsskapande. Uppsatsen kommer fram till en rad slutsatser; språket fungerar som en uteslutningsfaktor, där förortsslang fungerar som en stigmasymbol. Multikulturella ungdomar blir stämplade på grund av sin identitet och tillskrivs en oförmåga att prestera i skolan och på arbetsplatsen. Svenskheten visas vara en svårkombinerad identitet, att vara svensk måste vara ett aktivt val som kommer genomsyra identiteten för att vara trovärdigt. Detta är en uppoffring som dessa ungdomar inte vill göra, vilket leder till ett sökande av andra strategier för att skapa sin identitet. Dessa ungdomar väljer i de flesta fall att istället betona den andra kulturen i sin identitet, i vissa väljer att helt ta avstånd från en kulturell identitet.

Sweden is a country which has a diverse and multicultural population, stemming from a high immigration to the country. This diverse population is reflected in the student bodies of classrooms around the country and provide an arena for different cultures to interact. Classes are usually grounded in textbooks and therefore it becomes vital to use inclusive textbooks that further intercultural understanding. This study aims to study social science textbooks from 1960-2011 and study how they define Swedishness and handle different cultures. It also aims to answer how the books relate to their respective curricula with a focus on intercultural learning. The study is based on discourse analysis and analyses the textbooks with relation to intercultural learning, Said’s theory of orientalism and Fanon’s theory of otherness. The books chosen for the study are a grade 7-8 book from 1967, the rest are high school books from 1967, 2004 and 2011. They were chosen due to being used during different curricula and therefore give a historic perspective on social science textbooks contents. The study found that the two older books defined Swedishness in a very static way based on skin color, language, etc, whilst the two newer books had a more fluid definition of Swedishness and how it is ever changing depending on the Swedish population. The two older books only had a small portion dedicated to dealing with international problems and other cultures and gave a shallower description lacking larger context compared to the newer ones. This was further reflected in their respective curricula with the newer having a larger focus on creating understanding between groups.

Uppsatsens syfte är att, med hjälp av teorier om symboliskt kapital och om identitet, finna svaret på hur, och om, husmanskosten och begreppet husmanskost förändrats med tiden och hur det konstrueras en kvalitetsstämpel i begreppet utifrån idéer om det ”svenska” och det ”genuina”. Den har även som syfte att diskutera matens betydelse för kulturarv, identitetstillhörighet och svenskhet. Genom att leta efter förändringsprocesser och attityder i kokböcker kommer jag visa på förändringar i begreppet husmanskost och hur begreppet får en förändrad användning. Vår kokbok säger sig spegla samhället genom att vara ”i sin samtid” och därmed blir min undersökning intressant då man med det synsättet kan dra slutsatser om samhället, etnicitet och konstruerandet av vad svenskhet är. Jag kommer visa hur begreppet husmanskost går från att vara en benämning på enkel vardagsmat till att bli en kvalitetstämpel och per automatik något som ska vara svenskt. Nyckelord: Matkultur, husmanskost, identitet, kokbok, svenskhet

Syftet med denna här studie är att undersöka idéer om ”svenskhet”. Det är tydligt av mina informanters diskussion om svenskhet att det finns flera sätt att förstå och förhålla sig till svenskhet. Mina informanter ser sig själva som svenskar, men är också medvetna om att andra kan se dem som invandrare, det vill säga som icke-svenskar. De teman jag behandlar är mina informanters förståelse av svenskhet, och det de ser som de främsta hindren för att uppnå svenskhet, nämligen personnamn, förmåga att tala svenska och tankar om hemland. / The purpose of this study is to investigate what ideas about “Swedishness”. As my informants discuss the subject, it is clear that there are different responses to what is meant by Swedishness and several ways to look at it. My informants think of themselves as Swedish, but also aware that others may view of them as immigrants, that is non-Swedish. The themes I have looked closely at are my informants ideas about Swedishness, and what they think are obstacles to attain Swedishness in the eyes of others, that is personal names, ability to speak Swedish, and ideas about homeland.

This study examines social mobility in autobiographical narratives in a Swedish context. The purpose of the study is to analyze ten published narratives which centers around experiences of individual class migration. The analytic focus is oriented towards how power dimensions such as gender, sexuality and racialization might have affected the possibility to advance in social hierarchy, but also towards how the narrators are reflecting and speaking about these different power dimensions. The analysis shows the narrators differing subject positions often affect the way they understand and construct notions of class injustace and their view of social mobility. Their stories are in warying ways informed by notions of gender, sexuality and Swedishness. This, together with possibilities to embody the concept of ”skötsamhet” (to be good, disciplined, in line) seem to affect in what ways a narrator can use the working class identity to bring authenticity to their story and, by extension, bring use to the working class position as a positive source of identity in the story of themselves. My conclusion is that a viewing of the working class as an homogenic group is insufficient since it is clearly structured by other power dynamics than just class. This in turn effects how one is able to move or orient themselves in a society structured by more power dynamics than just class. I therefore argue for an intersectional understanding of class and social migration.