Because of their outstanding universal significance, World Heritage sites are worthy of special protection by the international and local communities. They obtain this status after being listed under the UNESCO 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. In previously colonised regions such as Africa, the conservation and management of World Heritage is based on international laws and modern management systems introduced after conquest. However, the process protects mostly the universal values on which the inscription of the site was based. This often marginalises local values and local management systems which are important to local communities. It also alienates local communities from their heritage which they have protected for many years. This research explores the relationship between modern and traditional management systems in the Okavango Delta Natural World Heritage site. It will focus on understanding the local values of the site, the current management system and traditional practices of the local communities. The expected outcome is to develop a syncretic management system influenced by the traditional and the modern. It is hoped that such a system will not privilege one type of value over others.

The overall objective of this thesis is to examine in what way ethical theory and ethical analysis can contribute to further understanding of the ethical challenges of the multicultural classroom. Based on the fact that the world is going through a process of globalization and migration, the education-system and daily praxis of teaching is put in front of new ethical challenges. The teacher in the multicultural classroom is on a daily base confronted with various dilemmas regarding for example conflicting duties, universal and conflicting values and citizenship. Martha Nussbaum´s theory of world citizenship is used as an analytical framework for the thesis and student interviews from upper secondary school is used as a complementary perspective to Nussbaum´s theory. The research questions of the thesis are: Can the theory of World Citizenship Education, when structured and analyzed, give guidance for teaching citizenship in a multicultural classroom? Is it a plausible theory confronted with the ethical challenges of the multicultural classroom? In what way can a student perspective from a multicultural classroom try the relevance and present a complementary perspective to the theory of World citizenship education? The theory and the interviews are analyzed and structured out of the research questions and by the three ethical challenges of universal values, conflicting values and sense of belonging. The conclusion of the thesis states that, even though Nussbaum´s theory does have some constraints, it is to a large degree applicable and possible to relate to the ethical challenges of the multicultural classroom and as a guide for teachers. The theory is plausible in some aspects because it presents reasonable arguments on the necessity of educational reform in an interconnected world and because it makes educational proposals of instrumental worth of the teacher. The theory is however not plausible in other aspects because; the universal values presented are to vague and not specified which makes the theory difficult to use in practise, it does not pay enough attention to the conflicting perspective of the ethical challenges in classroom nor the pedagogical importance of social inclusion when discussing conflicting values and finally the theory demonstrates a contradiction regarding how to act as a teacher about sense of belonging and recognising identity of the students. The interviews demonstrate similar but also different responses to the ethical challenges in comparison with the theory. The students recognize the existence of universal values across cultural borders in a similar way as Nussbaum, even though the values put forward are of another character than Nussbaum´s. They do however present a sceptical view towards the idea of a world citizenship and stresses the importance of bringing up discussions about nationhood, migration and belonging without being afraid of breaking any taboos. At the end the thesis presents some practical guidelines for the teacher in the multicultural classroom that follows logical out of the conclusion. The final discussion highlight the fact that the challenges of the multicultural classroom in Sweden will likely continue, and emphasizes the potential of using ethics as an analytical tool for further developing a professional teaching approach.

This thesis addresses the objective of formulating a moral-philosophically credible media ethics by encompassing two main dimensions: the examination of existing media-ethical models and the integration of sustainable arguments through utilizing eco-religious epistemology to overcome identified challenges. By incorporating eco-critical perspectives within the Media ecology tradition, which studies media as environments, the thesis proposes a creative intersection between established media theories and a theological tradition that tackles profound questions about humanity's place in the world. The initial section of the thesis analyzes moral-philosophical concepts within the media ethics frameworks proposed by three ethicists; Susanne Wigorts Yngvesson; Clifford G. Christians and Sandra L. Borden. While all three endorse universal values, they offer distinct frameworks for both understanding the ontology of universals and how these are contextualized in the journalistic community. Christians' moral epistemological theories,particularly regarding the ethics of being and Proto-norms have generated significant controversy and scholarly debate on the necessity and intellectual credibility of defending universal values in media ethics. Critical perspectives from this discourse are presented and evaluated as a complement to the analysis of Christians' media-ethical model. In exploring sustainable moral-philosophical arguments, the thesis suggests that moral claims can exhibit both universal and contextual characteristics. It suggests that a media-ethical model should integrate universal values with a communitarian perspective on journalists'moral responsibility. However, understanding the interplay between the contextual and universal dimensions of ethical values requires engaging in critical moral-philosophical theory. In addition, critical perspectives on technology and ideas of space and time need to be addressed in new ways. Thus, eco-religious epistemology, as advocated by ethicist and theologian Whitney Bauman, is proposed as a creative means to understand moral-philosophical questions regarding space/time, contextualism/universalism, and technology within media ethics.

Hans Küngs arbete Weltethos presenterar en global etisk grund med målet att gemensamt lösa olika globala utmaningar. Syftet med denna uppsats är att, med Küngs teoribildning som utgångspunkt, utforska och analysera hur denna kan appliceras på en samtida global utmaning: miljökrisen. Genom en kombination av kvalitativa analytiska metoder undersöks hur Küngs fem universella värden kan bidra till den etiska diskussionen om lösningar på det globala miljöproblemet. Dessutom utvärderas fördelar och utmaningar med att tillämpa teorin på globala miljöproblem. Resultatet visar att Küngs universella värden kan hjälpa till att förstå och resonera kring den globala miljöetiska utmaningen, men att teorin även kräver komplettering med andra teoretiska perspektiv för att konkret adressera olika lösningar. Slutsatsen är att en gemensam etisk grund är viktig i dessa frågor, men att det också behövs mer konkreta förslag och riktlinjer för att nå fram till hållbara lösningar på global nivå. / Hans Küng’s work Weltethos presents a global ethical framework aimed at collectively addressing various global challenges. The purpose of this thesis is to expose and analyze how Küng’s theoretical framework can be applied to contemporary global challenge: the environmental crisis. Through a combination of qualitative analytical methods, the study examines how Küng’s five universal values can contribute to the ethical discussion on solutions to the global environmental problem. Additionally, the advantages and challenges of applying the theory to global environmental issue are evaluated. The results show that Küng’s universal values can help understand and discuss the global environmental ethical challenge, but the theory also requires supplementation with other theoretical perspectives to concretely address different solutions. The conclusion is that a common ethical foundation is important in these matters, but that more concrete proposals and guidelines are needed to achieve sustainable solutions on a global level.

This thesis uses a philosophical discussion to explore the tensions that result in the meeting between universal claims and particular contexts regarding human rights and how these tensions can be mediated by exploring the right to religious freedom. In order to do this, two approaches will be studied, one liberal and one postcolonial, represented by Martha Nussbaum and Saba Mahmood respectively. In comparing the approaches of Nussbaum and Mahmood, their arguments and positions become clearer, but also the nuances of the debate between universalism and contextualism. The right to religious freedom, with its many tensions between theory and practice, has been useful in exploring what values are at stake when we talk about human rights in general and how we can think about the apparent tension between universalism and contextual sensitivity. The thesis thus shows that there are more similarities between these two approaches than it may first seem and that they are not incompatible. This is argued to provide insight into possible ways of mediating human rights between theory and practice. / Denna uppsats utgår från en filosofisk diskussion kring spänningen mellan universella anspråk och specifika sammanhang när det kommer till mänskliga rättigheter och hur dessa spänningar kan medlas utifrån en undersökning av religionsfriheten. För att åstadkomma studeras två inriktningar, den ena liberal och den andra postkolonial. Dessa inriktningar representeras av Martha Nussbaum respektive Saba Mahmood. I och med en jämförande analys mellan dessa två inriktningar är förhoppningen att deras likheter och skillnader blir tydligare, samt att nyanserna inom debatten mellan universalism och kontextualism blir tydligare. Det finns många spänningar mellan teori och praktik när det kommer till rätten till religionsfrihet och just denna rättighet är på så sätt användbar för att utforska spänningen mellan universalism och kontextualism när det kommer till mänskliga rättigheter. Denna uppsats visar därmed att det finns flera likheter mellan dessa inriktningar och att de därför inte kan anses vara oförenliga med varandra. Detta för med sig en insikt i möjligheter till att medla mänskliga rättigheter mellan teori och praktik.

Les normes et lignes directrices encadrant la responsabilité sociale des entreprises reçoivent application seulement au moment où les États et entreprises décident de les appliquer. Ce volontarisme est synonyme d’autorégulation. Dans un contexte de mondialisation, les gouvernements ont souhaité accorder de plus en plus de liberté au marché et en ce sens aux grandes entreprises. Afin de faciliter les échanges commerciaux internationaux, les investisseurs directs étrangers bénéficient dorénavant de protections internationales face aux réglementations des pays hôtes, quitte à évincer des considérations essentielles vis-à-vis de la société. Les impacts des multinationales sur la société sont justement encadrés par la RSE dont les organisations internationales posent les balises grâce à des normes et standards internationaux. La prise en compte sur une base volontaire des enjeux de la société sont dorénavant présents dans les accords de libre-échange dit de nouvelle génération comme l’Accord économique et commercial global entre le Canada et l’Union européenne. Les parties sont encouragées à respecter les lignes directrices et principes internationalement reconnus en matière de responsabilité sociale des entreprises. Cependant, ceux-ci souffrent de difficultés inhérentes à leur nature. En ce sens, les multinationales sont souvent à l’abri de sanction contre leurs manquements puisque leurs statuts juridiques restent encore compliqués. Ensuite, l’arbitrage d’investissements apporte aux investisseurs étrangers un pouvoir de contrebalancer leurs obligations. Les pays d’accueil sont soumis à l’attractivité et la concurrence malgré leurs devoirs de respecter des valeurs universelles de la communauté internationale. Ces valeurs universelles de la communauté internationale pourraient englober des enjeux économiques, sociaux, environnementaux afin de réunir les enjeux transversaux du XXIe siècle. / Norms and directives of corporate social responsibility become effective only once countries and corporations decide to implement them. In a context of globalization, governments decided to encourage an increasing freedom to markets and therefore to big corporations. In order to facilitate commercial exchanges, foreign investors benefits from international protection in the face of host countries legislations. Even if it means circumventing essential societal considerations. Corporations’ societal impacts are built upon social responsibility that international organizations have created through international norms and standards. This concern on a voluntarily basis of certain societal issues now appears in so called ‘new generation’ free trade agreement like the European Union-Canada Comprehension Economic Trade Agreement. Parties are encouraged to respect universally recognized guidelines and principles related to corporate social responsibility. These currently suffer from their intrinsic difficulties. Multinational corporations are often sheltered from their breaches (to social responsibility) as their legal statue remain unclear. Furthermore, investment arbitration allows foreign investors to balance their obligations by having a scrutiny right over their host country’s regulations. Those host countries are facing attractiveness and competitiveness challenges despite their obligations to respect the international community’s universally accepted values.

By comparative analysis of Swedish cultural policy (including art policy, heritage policy and Church policy) during the Riksdag periods of 1970-73, 1991-94, 1994-98 and 1998-2002 the relationship between cultural policy and the concept of the nation as a homogenous cultural community (defined by either an ethnic or a state-framed concept) is explored. Neoinstitutional analysis of cultural policy as an organisational field is combined with analysis of how the nation is conceived as an imagined community, and what values it strives to uphold to show how these values and concepts are institutionalised in its cultural policy and how this supports the legitimacy of the State as a nation-state. In the early seventies, when a general cultural policy was first established in Sweden, most of its fields were already institutionalised and bound by strong path dependencies, binding art policy to protecting universal aesthetic values within the state-framed nation and heritage policy to ethnic particularism while Church policy stood between universalism and ethnic particularism (which infected the relationship between Church and State). These contradictions were managed by strong borders between the fields. In the early seventies these were overlaid with a general cultural policy focused on universal civil values within the state-framed nation. Since then the conflict between Church and State has been defused and the norms of heritage policy have become closer to those of cultural policy at large by the claim that cultural heritage should be used to uphold civil values (e.g. democracy and tolerance). In the late nineties cultural policy has again become less integrated by new government initiatives with specific goals. Civil universal values remain dominant while concepts of the nation are increasingly multi-ethnic. / Genom jämförande analys av svensk statlig kulturpolitik (inklusive konstpolitik, kulturarvspolitik och religionspolitik) under riksdagsperioderna 1970-73, 1991-94, 1994-98 and 1998-2002 undersöks relationen mellan kulturpolitiken och föreställningen om nationen som en homogen kulturell gemenskap som i vissa fall tänks inkludera dess innevånare och i andra fall en etnisk grupp. Nyinstitutionell analys av kulturpolitik som organisatoriskt fält kombineras med analys av hur nationen konceptualiseras som en föreställd gemenskap och vilka värderingar den upprätthåller för att visa hur dessa värden och koncept institutionaliseras i statens kulturpolitik och hur denna bidrar till att upprätthålla nationalstatens legitimitet. När en enhetlig kulturpolitik etablerades i Sverige i början av 1970-talet var de flesta av de ingående fälten redan låsta i sedan länge etablerade stigberoenden som band konstpolitiken till upprätthållandet av estetiska värden inom ramarna för en med utgångspunkt i staten definierad nation samtidigt som kulturarvspolitiken bundits vid etniskt partikularistiska nationskoncept och kyrkopolitiken slets mellan universalism och etnisk partikularism (vilket komplicerade kyrka-stat-relationen). Motsättningar hanterades genom kraftiga institutionella gränser mellan fälten. Till dessa fogades en övergripande kulturpolitik baserad på universella civila värden inom ramarna för den statsdefinierade nationen. Sedan dess har konflikten mellan kyrka och stat lösts upp och kulturarvspolitiken integrerats i den generella kulturpolitiken bl.a. genom organisatoriska reformer. I slutet av 1990-talet tycks trenden mot en allt mer integrerad kulturpolitik dock ha vänt bl.a. genom direkta men begränsade regeringsinitiativ. Den domineras fortfarande av universella civila värden, men också av alltmer mångetniska föreställningar om nationen.