The aim of this dissertation is to compare German and Swedish textbooks in socialscience focused on how democracy takes form in the text. What kind ofrepresentations appears through texts and illustrations? What is said and how is itsaid? What is emphasized? What is excluded? How does the text present differentconcepts and relate them to democracy? The study also focuses on how knowledgeand learning is described and to whom the text is addressed.This dissertation has a semiotic-didactic perspective based on the dialogicalprinciple that emanates from Bakhtin’s theoretical perspective and Bakhtin’sthoughts of how to analyze texts.The empirical material consists of textbooks in social science, published since 1950.The study is restricted to books written for upper secondary school and books havebeen selected to achieve variation in the descriptions of democracy.The analysis has focused on themes and concepts appearing in the textbooks.Different themes appearing in the text are the basis for the creation of a time-line.Four different periods have been found in each country, but the division of time isslightly different.The dominant themes in German textbooks are “the good and the evil”, “thegood and bad democracy”, “action groups – to be or not to be” and “unity oreminance”. There is more than one theme in Swedish textbooks, but the mostdominant themes are “governing and obedience”, “governing and autonomy”, “theautonomous citizen”, and “governing or empowerment”.There are many representations of democracy in the textbooks and most of therepresentations are vague and full of contradictions. Some of the images evencontradict the official image of democracy. Citizens in German textbooks aredescribed as active, autonomous and responsible, but the only way to influencepoliticians is through participation in elections. Citizens described in Swedishtextbooks are portrayed as passive, ignorant and irresponsible, except when voting.The dominant view of knowledge and learning is reproductive. Knowledge isportrayed as monological and the students are expected to learn some basics facts,without being able to reflect and deliberate on issues. However, texts can be openand create opportunities for students to reflect and take a stance on their own. Anopen and dialogical text is more common in German textbooks than in Swedishtextbooks.

This study aims at analyzing the content of high school textbooks in social sciences, more specifically the field of law and order, and comparing this with the current research situation in the field. Another purpose is to investigate whether the new type of serious gang crime, which in particular has grown in various immigrant suburbs, adjacent to our largest cities, as reported in the media in recent years, has also looked into the textbooks. The essay uses a constructivist theory formation. The constructivist theory considers that different actors, based on their ideological positions, create different descriptions of current social phenomena, descriptions aimed at influencing the recipient to incorporate specific perceptions of reality and values. In this context, the teaching materials become a political product that is not so much about describing a social phenomenon as complex and objective as possible a complex, but, above all, it will be understood as the attempt of the various parties to convey their specific interpretations and interests of the phenomenon. The survey shows that all analyzing textbooks directly or indirectly highlight the men and adolescents group, and to some extent also people in an exposed psychosocial position that overrepresented in a criminal context. In cases where textbooks address statements about people committing crimes, socio-economic and psychosocial vulnerabilities are mentioned, as well as explanations of the social plane in terms of control and casualty structures. In this regard, textbooks fail to report a broad and current research on the mechanisms of crime. None of the textbooks deal with the new crime that has emerged in different socially vulnerable areas to our metropolitan areas, believing that this has gained a lot of space in the media and that the syllabuses in social sciences emphasize that the subject will highlight current social phenomena. All books consistently choose to not treat people it with a foreign background's overrepresentation in a criminal context. Nor should it be noted that some people have a biological vulnerability in committing crimes, for example, that individuals with ADHD diagnosis are heavily overrepresented in crime statistics. / <p>Godkännane datum: 2018-05-31</p>