The question regarding male circumcision in Sweden became a relevant topic within the public debates during the last three years. Due to the Swedish political party, Centerpartiet’s decision to strive for a ban on male circumcision, this debate surfaced after the 28th of September. Participation in the public debate came from different directions and perspectives on male circumcision. In this thesis I focus on different actors and their public opinions in debate articles published between the years of 2018-2019. The aim of this thesis is to examine how critical arguments are constructed from perceptions of a decreasing significance of religion within late modern societies. This results in a motivation to ban the performance of male circumcision without medical indication. By using the qualitative text analysis of systematic text condensation this thesis closer categorizes the arguments into the three themes of “children’s bodily integrity”, “the delimitation of medicalization” and “the religious other”. In addition to this, the thesis also looks into the argument from the analytical framework on argumentation analysis in order to distinguish “normative” and “factual” arguments in the debate. To look closer at the constructions of the critical arguments within the debate this thesis uses the theoretical framework of Sara Ahmed (2011). From a phenomenological inspired perspective this thesis further looks into the argument’s correlation and construction of a collective body. This in particular is the construction of the secular- in relation to the religious body. Constructions of the religious body allows for secular ideas to circulate around national symbols and principles, which results in an exclusion of religious motives and perspectives. The thesis further sheds light on the cultural imbedded “medical gaze”, from the theoretical perspective on medicalization of Karin Johannisson (2013). This thesis aims to examine the reproduction of the medical superiority within debates on questions regarding the human body, like the one on male circumcision. The thesis illustrates the complexity of religious visibility within the Swedish context. Although the critical arguments reject the religious motives of male circumcision, the debate increases the religious visibility in the public debates.

This essay is about the discussion concerning graduation celebrations in The Swedish Church. Since this discussion is recurrent in the media when it is getting close to the end of the term in the Swedish schools, it is interesting to see how people choose to discuss this issue. This essay will look at how this issue is discussed within the Swedish school and the Swedish church. My research questions that I will use are: How is the issue of the church as a venue for the end of school year discussed in the Swedish Church's newspaper and in the Teachers' Union's trade magazine, Läraren.  This will be done through a content analysis of articles taken from these two newspapers where they discuss the church as a venue for the graduation. I will use a secularization theory developed by the sociologist of religion Thomas Luckmann in which he assumes that one can look at religion from two perspectives, church-oriented religion, and individual-centered religion. The survey in this paper shows that most people are in favor of using the church as a venue for the graduation’s celebrations and that they see it more as a tradition to be there such as something religious.

The world is filled with symbols which possess great meaning to people all around the world. Some of these symbols may be considered religious, thus bearing an occult and mystic meaning to those close to them. In Malta the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is a key part to the islands history and is these days also utilized as a symbol for the tourism industry.What happens when these symbols meet with the world hand in hand with media and other commercial instances? The purpose of this paper is to take a closer look at what consequences a commodification of the knights of Malta might breed and to compare the situation on the island with two other similar situations in India and in former Yugosla-via. With a hermeneutic approach I look at tourism material in form of websites and mer-chandise to make an analysis with the help of two theories, one being the theory of Banal Religion by Stig Hjarvard; the other being Colleen McDannell’s theory on Material Christianity.Results indicate that a de-contextualization from the institutionalized religion can be wit-nessed on Malta. However, with Hjarvards theory applied - this is not necessarily a nega-tive change. It should instead be seen as a product of a secular society without any com-pulsory changes on views on the religion from the average catholic person on the island. McDannell’s theory strengthens this thesis by suggesting that symbols are a part of the belief and not a simplification of the religion. The comparing studies from India and for-mer Yugoslavia with their own consequences should not be viewed as an imminent con-cern for Malta but could be used as instruments to compare certain aspects.

In what ways and under what circumstances can a movie be a resource for individuals and their thoughts about existential matters? This central research question has been investigated using a both quantitative and qualitative approach. First, a questionnaire was distributed amongst 179 Swedish students to provide a preliminary overview of film habits. The questionnaire was also used as a tool for selecting respondents to individual interviews. Second, thirteen interviews were conducted, with viewers choosing their favourite movie of all time. In the study socio-cognitive theory and a schema-based theoretical tool is adopted to analyze how different viewers make use of movies as cultural products in an interplay between culture and cognition in three contexts; a socio-historic process, a socio-cultural interaction with the world and inner psychological processes. Summarizing the interviews some existential matters dominated. Matters of immanent orientation were in the foreground. Transcendental questions received much less attention. Summarizing the schema-based theoretical question, assessing which cognitive schema structures the narratives were processed through, the study found an emphasis on a combination of two main cognitive structures, person schema and self schema. Detailed person schematic cognitive processes about fictitious characters on the screen and their role model behaviour were combined by the respondents with dynamic cross-references to detailed self schematic introspections about their own characteristics, related to existential matters at some very specific moments in their lives. The viewers in the study seem to be inspired by movies as a mediated cultural resource, promoting the development of a personal moral framework with references to values deeply fostered by a humanistic tradition. It is argued that these findings support theories discussing individualised meaning making, developing ‘self-expression values’ and ‘altruistic individualism’ in contemporary western society.

This paper, based on a Master's thesis in Sociology of Religion at Uppsala University, addresses issues regarding gender, sexuality and love as well as television and meaning-making. The aim of the study was to see how young women watching Sex and the City would interpret and make meaning out of values and norms regarding gender, relationships and sexuality in the television show, and also to see whether the way the show pictured relationships and love could function as meaning-making or identity-making stories for the women to use to understand and make meaning out of their own experiences of love, relationships and being a woman.

Theoretical perspectives on the use of narrative and popular culture in identity-making are combined with Giddens' theory on the transformation of intimacy to give a frame for understanding how the stories of love and relationships in popular culture could be used to interpret and give meaning to people's own experiences. Identity and meaning-making are understood as processes that are not identical, but partly overlapping, and they are both reflexive projects of constant change, influenced by outer structures as well as individual choices.

The results of the study show how the young women use different strategies to negotiate between competing ideals or values present in Sex and the City as well as in their actual lives. The ideal of the “independent woman” is strong in the series, as well as a traditional romantic ideal for relationships, and these two ideals often clash. The two ideals both have important aspects regarding construction of gender and power. Results from the study also show that the women in several ways connect the stories of the show with their own lives, and use Sex and the City to interpret and make meaning out of their own experiences of relationships, gender and sexuality. They even describe the show as a “friend”, a place to find comfort, strength and support, and in that way function in different ways in their everyday life.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how religious phenomena in the TV show Supernatu-ral, with focus on banal religion, can be viewed as a part of the mediatization of religion in society. Furthermore, to find out if the representation of religion in the show is differ-ent in its later seasons in comparison with its earlier seasons. Through a qualitative analy-sis and with Hjarvards mediatization theory, as well as his concept of banal religion, Su-pernatural and its religious content has been examined. The research questions used in this study order to reach the aim of the study are what differences in the representation of religion can be found in the later seasons, in comparison to the earlier seasons? is there an increase in loosening of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the later seasons? and can the representation of religion in the later seasons of the series, according to Hjarvard, be regarded as banal religion? In addition to a qualitative method, an abduc-tive research approach has been used as well as certain parts of Andersson and Hedlings (1999) film analysis process.In the comparison of the series later and earlier seasons, this study finds that some differ-ences exist. These differences are among other things shown by the representation and the personification of God, in the series. Further, the study shows that a slightly increased loosening of the Catechism of the Catholic Church can be seen in the later seasons. An example of this is the introduction of an entity that is God’s sister. In conclusion, this study demonstrates a number of examples of how Hjarvards mediatization theory can be applied to the representation of religion in the series. Moreover, the study can, in some ways, confirm that the representation of religion in the later seasons of the series, accord-ing to Hjarvard, can be viewed as banal religion.

Since Islam and Muslims are often portrayed in connection with terrorism, female oppression and security in Swedish news media, I decided I wanted to write my study on the subject “Islam and Swedish media”.

The aim with this study was to examine whether SVT’s documentary series Jag är muslim (I am Muslim in English) portrays Muslims differently from Swedish news media, and if so – how? To find out whether there was a difference, I used following questions:

• How are Islam and Muslims portrayed in the documentary series Jag är muslim?
• Does this documentary series give a different picture of Islam and Muslims than what previous studies have shown? i.e. how Islam and Muslims have been portrayed in Swedish news media according to previous studies.
• How can the variety and complexity that exists within Islam that is shown in Jag är muslim contribute to reducing the stereotypification of Islam and Muslims in Swedish media?
• What could explain that Jag är muslim gives a different picture of Islam and Muslims than Swedish news media, if that is the case?

The methods I used were qualitative content analysis and abductive method, and the theories used are social constructivism, news logic, news criteria, and the human-interest frame.

The conclusion shows that the Muslims participating in Jag är muslim are portrayed as any other Swede, but with some exceptions, such as that many Muslim women wear a veil. Because of this, they are portrayed in a very different way from how they are portrayed in Swedish news media, which is probably caused by the fact that they are shown from a human-interest frame perspective in the series, but from a news criteria perspective in Swedish news media. The Muslims participating in the series do most of the time share opinions, but the fact that Muslims with very different opinions exist are also brought up and discussed. 

Previous research among young people (Spini & Doise 1998, Doise & al 1999) has shown that attitudes toward human rights are influenced by perception of conflicts in society and experience of discrimination and that political affiliation as well as religion also may have effect. However interesting these results are for understanding what factors that may contribute to grassroots’ engagement in human rights, these studies have failed to consider important background variables such as gender and parents’ education level, but also to include a more nuanced operationalization of religion. Drawing on data gathered in Norwegian and Swedish metropolitan upper secondary schools (n=2044) this article therefore aims to replicate earlier research correcting for these research gaps. The analysis showed that while religion had a limited effect on attitudes toward political and judicial rights, controlled for background variables, the effect of experienced discrimination and perception of conflicts related to ethnicity seemed to add significantly to the models. It was also shown that Christians did not report more discrimination related to ideology and ethnicity than non-religious, but that Muslims on the other hand did report more discrimination both related to ideology and ethnicity than others. This study has shown that there is a relation between such perceived discrimination and attitudes toward political and human rights.

This study explores the relation between religion and attitudes towards human rights among young people aged 17 to 19. The data material consists of 1660 questionnaires filled out in the classrooms by upper secondary school pupils living in the capital city of Oslo and in the Stockholm/ Uppsala area. We want first to find out if there are closer relations between religion and attitudes towards human rights concerning the private sphere than for attitudes towards human rights concerning the public sphere. By rights related to the private sphere we mean views on abortion and family values and by rights related to the public sphere we mean the right to work, views on social equality, freedom of speech, political interest and environmental protection. The study also looks at differences in this regard between Christians, Muslims and a group of nonreligious. The main result is that while a closer relation can be seen between religion and attitudes concerning the private sphere than attitudes concerning the public sphere, there is no support for the assumption that this relationship is stronger amongst the Muslim sub-group.

The way in which media discusses religion has changed over time. Due to the separation of state and church in 2000, the Swedish state to a lesser extent legitimizes its political ruling with references to religious concepts. As a result, a higher tolerance towards religious minorities can be said to have taken place. This is an ambiguous change however, where critique raised towards religious practices and expressions of minorities also occurs to a higher extent. The public debate is in large part conducted through the media, but is also seen to be produced and reproduced through the media’s discourse. The aim of this study is to examine the way in which Islam, and Muslims by extension, are portrayed in editorials of two of Sweden’s largest broadsheet papers, Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter. The study takes a deductive approach, and uses a qualitative text analysis with inspiration from discourse theory to examine the editorials with the help of three theories. The first one is social representations theory as applied by Birgitta Höijer to media studies, the second is Charles Taylor’s Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition, and the last is Edward Said’s Orientalism.

The analysis shows that there are indicators of orientalist manifestations in the discourse regarding Islam, and Muslims by extension. This is mainly demonstrated through emotional anchoring as well as anchoring through antinomies. The orientalist manifestations apply to Said’s first and fourth dogma, where Islam and its different expressions are perceived as being at odds with the alleged democratic society. The analysis suggests that, in their role as producers of social representations and collective cognitions, the editorials included in this study withhold recognition from Islam as a collective identity and culture. 

This article compares student’s attitudes towards human rights in countries with different religious traditions, namely Lutheran dominated Scandinavian countries and Eastern Orthodox countries in the eastern part of Europe. The four countries involved in this study are Belarus, Romania, Norway and Sweden. Our focus is student’s attitudes towards questions related to the right to life, in this case abortion. The effect that religion and religiosity have on attitudes towards abortion is a central part of the analyses. In addition, we will look at the relationship between trust in institutions and support for certain human rights. Previous studies found that trust in institutions was positively correlated with values that stress stability, protection, and preservation of traditional practices, and negatively correlated with values that emphasize independent thought and change.  On this basis we expect  that trust in governmental institutions have different effects on attitudes in countries with democratic and authoritarian regimes.

The aim of this study is to investigate how frequently religious actors participate in public debates, on what subjects and with what arguments. This is done by studying the debate pages of Sweden’s largest tabloid: Aftonbladet. Furthermore, the aim is also to study what forms of authority and arguments the religious actors use while participating in the public sphere. In order to answer the research ques-tions the author takes an abductive approach and uses the theories of deprivatiza-tion and mediatization to conduct a sequential mixed method study of Af-tonbladet’s debate page between the years 2001 and 2011. The results show that very few religious actors participate in public debates in Sweden, and that the small sample of articles signed by religious actors are dominated by the Church of Sweden. The Christian groups are represented by religious authorities to a much larger extent than the Jewish and Muslim groups. However, the arguments used by all groups are predominately secular, which would indicate an acceptance of the secular norm in the public sphere.

This chapter presents two empirical case studies of religious education (RE) in Norway and in Sweden. In addition to introducing the Upper Secondary School section of the present volume, the chapter explores how media materials and discourses are being extensively used in a similar fashion as part of RE in both countries. Media materials and discourses serve to both contextualize the content of the subject and to legitimize RE by showing why religion is relevant for contemporary Norwegian and Swedish society; thus, they form an important part of the RE lessons. Applying a mediatization perspective, we argue that this use of media impacts both the choice of topics addressed and the way they are presented, as it inserts various media dynamics into the pedagogical practice of religious education.

In Sweden, media in various forms act as one of the main settings where young peopleencounter religion, both in schools and elsewhere. With a seemingly ever-expanding developmentof communication technology, researchers and politicians alike are arguing forthe need to educate our citizens in media literacy. By applying the concept of multiplemedia literacy, this article argues for a more nuanced view of the skills needed to criticallyengage with various kinds of media. By analysing interview material of both teachers andstudents, the article concludes that increased focus within RE on how various mediumsoperate, and on the complex nature of social media, would likely result in a richer medialiteracy for students and teachers alike.

The book reviewd offers an important argument for the evolution of a multitude of modernities in today's world. This challenges current research in the Sociology of Religion. To develop theories about the place of religion in late modern or post-industrial context seams to be an urgent task.

Boken innebär ett bidrag till diskussionen om religionens minskade eller ökade närvaro i det moderna samhället. Författaren argumenterar för att ett postsekulärt tillständ nu existerar som innebär att religion blir en synliggjord röst i debatten. Den liberala demokratin behöver moraliskt stöd för sina frihetsvärderingar. Det som säkans är en djupare diskussion om religionens ständiga närvaro. 

Religionen uppträder allt mer som en faktor inom den offentliga sfären, ett förhållande som skapar osäkerhet i Europa, och som kräver ingående studier.

Frågan om hur forskning och forskningskvalitet ska organiseras och utvärderas är ständigt aktuell inom vetenskapssamhället. I denna rapport redovisar jag mina erfarenheter av forskningsplanering med följande utvärderingar från Stat-kyrka-projetet inom FOS-programmet 1997-2002, Välfärd och religion i ett Europeiskt perspektiv 2003-2009 samt Linnestödsprogrammet Impact of Religion: Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy 2008-2018. Jag ger också en historisk och akuell översikt över de processer som har lett till framväxten av Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om religion och samhälle (CRS) vid Uppsala universitet. Mitt huvudargument är att arbetet med att utveckla forskningsmiljöer bör vara långsiktigt och syfta till att skapa en mångvetenskaplig grundhållning. Att foga samman forskningskulturer som präglas av olika discipliner går om det finns en väl avvägd infrastruktur och ett brinnande intellektuellt intresse att ta sig an samhällsutmaningar.

Diakonivetenskapen kan betraktas som ett mångvetenskapligt metodologiskt sätt att närma sig ett socialt problem med historiska, teologiska eller sociologiska analysverktyg.

Två avhandlingar har behandlat frågan om prästers alienation från utvecklingen och en pågående utbrändhet. Undersökningarna ger en god bakgrund till frågan, men behöver kompletteras för att bli mer allmängiltiga.

Linnea Lundgren har skrivit en intressant avhandling som berör statens ökade intresse av att reglera de demokratiska och sociala aspekterna av det religiösa livet i Sverige. I och med de nya lagarna om stat-kyrka och stat-trossamfund 1998 behövde staten legitimera sitt ökade intresse av att reglera religion. Detta kom att ske genom att fokusera på mänskliga rättigheter, demokrati och trossamfundens sociala bidrag ur ett migrationsperspektiv. Processen från stat-kyrka separation till state-religion integration framkommer genom författarens analys av statliga utredningar mellan åren 1952 (religionsfrihetslagen) till 2019 med den senaste utredningen om trossamfundens ställning 2018. Avhandlingen bör göras mer tillgänglig genom en förkortad version på svenska. 

A new visibility of religion in public life can be observed in the Nordic countries. This visibility is not due to a popular claim for a return of religion in the public sphere. As the research conducted at Uppsala University indicates, the visibility of religion in the Nordic countries reflects several concurring factors: namely the state’s continued relationship with churches and other religions; the growth of new forms of social exclusion drawing religion into public discussions on ethical and social issues; a growing religious pluralism prompting political and legal regulation; and a spirituality relating to existential and quality of life issues. The results raise important questions on Nordic modernity. They suggest that religion becomes public in several ways and emerges as an arena that connects the private and the public beyond conventional distinctions. 

De nordiska länderna har präglats av den successiva sekulariseringen under 1900-talet och forskningen har hittills varit inriktad på att förstå dessa processer. Norden dras nu in i europeiska och globala processer som gör att religionen får en delvis annan roll. Studiet bör nu inriktas på förståelsen av religionens både privata och offentliga roll.

Rapporten ingår i Svenska kyrkan i utlandets (SKUT:s) utredning om utlandsförsamlingarnas framtida ställning. Denna rapport granskar svenska församlingens verksamhet i London. Utredningen föreslår a) att Londonförsamlingen använder den paus som Covid-19 pandemin innebär för att tänka igenom vilka digitala långsiktiga förändringar i verksamheten som ska permanentas efter pandemins slut, b) att SKUT tillsammans med Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om religion och samhälle (CRS) genomför en fördjupad analys av globala migrationsrörelser som berör svenskar i utlandet. 

Den nordiska välfärdsmodellen, och religiösa organisationers roller inom denna, jämförs främst med den europeiska kontinentala modellen. Vissa konvengerande tendenser finns men i stort sett är de historiska förutsättningarna för de olika modellerna fortfarande tydligt närvarande.

Förändringstakten i det västerländska samhället har ökat dramatiskt och nya samhällsstrukturer byggs som vi fortfarande bara anar konturerna av. Situationen gör det helt nödvändigt med en nystart för forskningen som tar hänsyn till den komplexa osäkerheten inom områden som rör kommunikation, politik och religion.

This is the second volume from the European Commission Project: Welfare and Values in Europe. Transitions related to Religion, Minorities and Gender. It gives an overview of the religious and social situation in four out of twelve countries in Europe and examines local social and religious interaction in a gender perspective in one locality in each country. This examination is carried out through interviews with representatives of local majority churches, religious minorities and social authorities. This volume display the results from the so called Conservative or Christian Democratic Continental Europe with its specific form of welfare regime. The countries are Germany, France, Italy and Greece.

This is an overview of the relationship between welfare regimes and majority churches in eight selected countries in Europe. It shows that there is a connection between the evolution of the respective welfare regime and the religious organisation prevalent in the country studied. It also shows that a changing role of the welfare state and of religious institutions give religious organisations both an innovative role and a voice in the public debate on solidarity values.

This is the second of two volumes emanating from the Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective - project at Uppsala University. It includes four different analysis of the results from a comparative study of eight countries in Europe (Sweden, Finland, Norway, England, France Germany, Italy and Greece), a sociological, gender, theological and general theoretical analysis.

Detta är den svenska slutrapporten från projektet Från statskyrka till fri folkkyrka vid Vetenskapsrådet. Slurapporten visar på den komplexa situation som de nordiska folkkyrkorna står inför, med den Svenska kyrkan som exempel. Religionen privatiseras samtidigt som intresset att använda sig av kyrkans riter ligger högt. Detta tyder på en spesifikt nordisk paradox.

År 1997 antogs projektet ”Från statskyrka till fri folkkyrka” av det svenska Vetenskapsrådet. Tretton självständiga delstudier har ur olika synvinklar belyst religiösa och sociala förändringsprocesser i Sverige från mitten av 1800-talet fram till idag. I denna slutrapport bearbetas och vidareutvecklas resultaten, insatta i ett sammanhang av aktuell religions- och samhällsvetenskaplig debatt.

Det speciella i den svenska religiösa situationen har att göra med den tidigare starka integrationen mellan kyrka och stat. Successivt har relationen lösts upp, fram till separationen år 2000. Rapporten visar att religionen inte har spelat ut sin roll i det senmoderna samhället, utan förändras på sätt som tidigare forskning inte förutsett. I det globala tjänstesamhällets Sverige är människors trosliv starkt privatiserat, samtidigt som religionen på ett ibland överraskande sätt uppträder på den offentliga arenan. Religiösa institutioner och organisationer fungerar som existentiella och kollektiva resurser i sökandet efter livskvalitet och mening. Kyrkans auktoritet och legitimitet är inte längre kopplad till dess formella position, utan till dess upplevda värde för individ och samhälle.

Nya sociala förhållanden öppnar i dag för kyrkan som social aktör, men också som samtalspartner i en dialog om samhällsutvecklingens riktning och mål.

Att använda dialoger har visat sig vara ett viktigt inslag i verksamhetsstyrning då de kan överbrygga komplexitet och brister i formella styrsystem. Denna rapport handlar om Trafikverket, en av Sveriges myndigheter som tillsammans med andra aktörer styr med samhällsvärde i fokus. Trafikverket har formulerat en verksamhetslogik som bygger på ett värdeskapande utifrån-och-in-perspektiv vilket ska fånga många olika samhällsrelevanta behov, samtidigt som alla tillgängliga resurser ska användas på ett så kostnadseffektivt sätt som möjligt, inifrån-och-ut. Den övergripande styrningen i offentlig sektor är vertikal, uppifrån-och-ner, samtidigt som kraven ofta är horisontella. Detta är exempel på några perspektiv i verksamhetsstyrningen som behöver samordnas på ett öppet och tydligt sätt med trovärdighet, legitimitet och engagemang. 

Detta forskningsprojekt utgör en förstudie om dialogens roll i myndigheters styrning. Resultaten pekar på dialogens betydelse och vikten av att förstå och arbeta med dialogens villkor såväl i intern som i extern samverkan. 

Twenty years has passed since Fadime Sahindal was shot to death by her own father in “a crime of honour”. This happened in Uppsala, Sweden and a lot of people was shocked of how it could happen here. Today ”crimes of honour” is still happening and the debate is ongoing as well in media as in politics. This study will look at ”crimes of honour” and honour-related violence from a perspective in relation with religion and theories that involves purity and the collective, and how they appear in Sweden today. The purpose of this is to widen the view of honour-related violence and open for new understandings of it. Through a qualitative content analysis of published stories of people involved in an honour-related context and compare them against religious theories.

 Three questions are posed to guide the study: How is the meaning of religion described to honour-related violence in the selected stories? How does the relation between the described violence and Mary Douglas' theories of moral, sexuality and ritual purity appear? How does the relation between the described violence and René Girard's theories about the collective and the scapegoat appear?

The study finds that the honour-culture and honour-related violence are strongly tied to the collective, the group culture is strong and can be governed by the common culture, religion, family ties or a combination of these. The importance of religion for honour-related violence differs slightly in the chosen stories, but religion is clearly included as a factor and the people who figure in it are to varying degrees religious and are in a context of honour. In relation to Douglas' theories of morality, sexuality and ritual impurity, a woman's sexuality and her innocence constitute a clear boundary whose transcendence must be controlled and punished. Even Girard's theories about that the collective's need to find a scapegoat who can free the group and restore order are embraced on the stories.

Keywords: (Honour-related violence, religion, purity and danger, the collective and the scapegoat)

Denna uppsats försöker besvara om det finns ett samband mellan religiösa normer kring kön och amerikanskt bistånd. Den önskar även lyfta fram den problematik detta kan innebära samt hur detta påverkar kvinnor i Afrika söder om Saharas möjlighet till en minskad risk för HIV samt ett liv bort från fattigdom.

Det problem som uppsatsen önskar lyfta fram är att då religion får makt i samhället kan den påverka politik, vilket kan i få stora konsekvenser. Den söker även klarlägga hur denna politik, framförallt i förhållande till kvinnor, hindrar dessa från utveckling.

Genom jämförande litteraturstudier med material från internationella organisationer såväl som från det amerikanska biståndsorganet, forskare och samhällsdebattörer försöker detta klargöras. Diskussionen leder slutligen till en slutsats att den kristna religionens normer kring kön och sexualitet spelar roll och påverkar det amerikanska biståndsarbetet med att bekämpa fattigdom och spridningen av HIV/AIDS i Afrika söder om Sahara. Den kristna tron får makt över dessa aspekter, vilket bidrar till att kvinnokroppen blir politisk, genom den makt som religion kan legitimera. De religiösa ledarna och de som lobbar för att påverka amerikansk biståndspolitik har till sist en viktig roll i spridningen av sjukdomen i Afrika då deras ovilja att uppmuntra till ett användande av preventivmedel, gör att medlen för att stoppa sjukdomen inte når de drabbade afrikanska samhällena. Det innebär dessutom att kvinnor inte tillgodoses med självbestämmande, makt över sin egen kropp och familjeplanering, vilket ytterligare hindrar fattigdomsbekämpningen. Implikationerna av denna slutsats blir avslutningsvis att en förändring av synen på kvinnokroppen och preventivmedel inom kristen etik, vilken under lång tid talat om och arbetar för fattigdomsbekämpning, skulle kunna öka möjligheterna för minskad fattigdom i Afrika söder om Sahara där det finns en stark koppling mellan fattigdom och HIV/AIDS.  

The Swedish debate surrounding the Swedish and European welcoming of refugees has during the last couple of years engaged actors from all spheres of society. One of the prominent actors in this debate has been archbishop Antje Jackelén who has contributed with articles on the issue together with members of the church board as well as the other bishops in the Church of Sweden. These articles have been published on the debate pages of four major newspapers; Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen and Aftonbladet. The aim of this research is to study the way leaders in the Church of Sweden frame the welcoming of refugees and asylum seekers in these newspapers between 2014-2016. By using a qualitative frame analysis inspired by a theory of framing used in social movement research (Benford & Snow, 2000) the study will focus primarily on motivational framing, i.e. the way in which authors set out to inspire their audience to take action in a certain issue. In three of the articles collective action frames are identified, in which collective identities are constructed and where the writers stress the importance for people to come together and act towards a more humane way of handling the refugee situation. Another aim of the essay is to study the way in which the Church of Sweden is presented as an actor within the frames used in the articles. The analysis shows how the church is presented as an experienced organisation, driven by the Christian faith to take action in the face of suffering. Finally, the result is analysed through the mediatisation of religion theory, using the concept of three media functions; conduit, environment and language (Hjarvard, 2016). The analysis shows how the newspapers, by publishing the articles, can be interpreted to function as both conduits and environments for the religious information and messages present in the texts. Concerning the third function, media as language, the debate articles are interpreted as living up to the criteria of news value despite the use of religious imagery and language. However, the method and empirical material of this study did not allow for any conclusions regarding how the logic of debate articles have been affecting the way in which leaders in the Church of Sweden debate the welcoming of refugees. 

The main purpose of this dissertation has been to investigate how well diaconal work in seven chosen parishes corresponds to an official definition of the diaconal task of the Church of Sweden as above all to represent and direct activities towards the most disadvantaged and/or marginalised groups in society, a definition that well corresponds to the general expectations of the Swedish people regarding the role of the Church.

The empirical ground for the dissertation comes from diaconal inventories built mainly on a comprehensive interview material with parish workers and appointed representatives in the chosen parishes. Diaconal work being carried out has been analysed and discussed in relation to the understanding of diaconal work put forward on the national level as mainly intended for those in greatest need. Analyse is carried out with a point of departure in secularization theory. The apparent dichotomy between public and private religion offer some explanation and enhance the understanding of how religious actors on different levels within the Church organisation have elected to confront the marginalised role of the Church.

The most important conclusion generated by this dissertation is a clear lack of correspondence between the understanding of the deaconry as formulated on the national level and diaconal practice in the parishes studied. This discrepancy can arise because actors on the national and local levels have different strategies for counteracting the marginalisation. The gap between the national strategy emphasizing the task of the Church to represent the needy and a diaconal practice expressing quite another strategy represents a concrete and grave dilemma for the Church; a dilemma that in a not too distant future can have serious consequences for the Church’s credibility in the eyes of a distanced, nonreligious public.

In March 2018 the Swedish Social Democratic Party presented the election promise to ban faith-based schools. This election promise evoked strong reactions and gave rise to a debate about the role of religion in Swedish schools in many Swedish newspapers. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to explore what arguments that have been utilized in the debate about faith-based schools. Debate articles are here examined using argumentation analysis: Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen and Aftonbladet. The results conclude that the most common arguments in favor of a ban on faith-based schools are: segregation, religious indoctrination, and serious shortcomings in said schools. From the other side of the debate, in defense of faith-based schools, the most common arguments are the following: integration, freedom of religion and high-quality education. An additional aim is to study these arguments using Hjelm’s (2014) explanations of the “New Visibility of Religion”. The analysis reveals that the debate is informed by a secular norm where religion is viewed as something unwelcome in the public eye. The debate is informed by a conflict of how religion ought to be valued, and if it should be viewed as a resource or a problem. Advocates in favor of a ban on faith-based schools claim that these schools constitute a social problem in contemporary society. Defenders of faith-based school, on the other hand, view them as a resource and argue that there today is a great need for faith-based schools. Rather than discussing faith, this debate deals mainly with the question of what role religion should play in today’s society. Religion is visible because it can be good or bad, something that Hjelm (2014) refers to as the ”secular return of religion”. Neoliberal reforms have changed the Swedish School system, which in turn affects the debate. This debate ultimately reveals a conflict of aims regarding the purpose of the Swedish school system and where equality is put against freedom of choice.

This article studies empirically the complexity of religion in the public sphere by systematically comparing the five Nordic countries. Sociologists debate if current trends in the West point to secularization or a return of religion (deprivatization, desecularization, or post-secularity). By drawing on the social science complexity reference, this article offers a critique of current scholarship and introduces the concept of religious complexity. The empirical study asks how religion is regulated, debated, and negotiated in the state, the polity, the media, and civil society in the Nordic countries since the 1980s. It is based on multiple sources of data. The analysis shows several religious trends at different levels: A growing secularization at the individual level, and the deprivatization of religion in politics, the media, and civil society. The conclusion outlines the religious complexity in the Nordic countries and discusses possible explanations that link the different and seemingly inconsistent trends.

The aim of this paper is to study in which contexts Muslims and Islam are represented in newspaper- articles in the Swedish press. The research questions are formulated as follow: In what contexts are Muslims and Islam represented in Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter during the years 2011-2013 ?Does the newspaper-articles in Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter reflect open or closed attitudes about Islam?

My material compromises twenty-five newspaper- articles from the newspapers Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter during the years 2011-2013. The material became a subject for qualitative content analysis. This resulted in four categories, the categories were formed from the content of the newspaper-articles.

 The categories are: (1) Violence / Terrorism, (2) Extremist / Fundamentalist, (3) Islamic god´s state / government / Islamism and (4) Others. Those categories are produced by a number of different phenomena where Muslims and Islam are called.

The analysis was based on two theories: The Runnymede Trust model and stereotyping theory. The Runnymede Trust model explains if it exists open and closed attitudes about Islam in the newspaper-articles. The aim of the stereotyping theory was to see the specific role of the media as a mediator of stereotypes, particular in the descriptions of Muslims and Islam.

 The examination shows that that there is no closed attitudes about Islam, but there are open attitudes about Islam in the newspaper- articles that was published during the years 2011-2013, in Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter. This study shows that the media has a less prominent role as a mediator of stereotypical traits of Muslims and Islam in the newspaper- articles.

The conclusion of this study can be summarized as follow: Muslims and Islam are represented in the context Violence/Terrorism, Extremists/Fundamentalist and Islamic god´s state/government/Islamism when Islamist political parties/organizations or Muslims as supporters of extremist terrorist groups have acted violently during the Arab Spring.

The aim of this paper is to examine how gender and religion is described and portrayed in relation to one another in Swedish textbooks. The research questions used in order to reach the aim of the study is what interpretation of gender and feminism is represented in the textbooks and is the gender perspective consistent regarding all religions described in the textbooks, or does it vary depending on which religion that is described?

This study is based on four Swedish textbooks used when teaching religion in Swedish upper secondary school. The books chosen are published after the most recent curriculum for the upper secondary school, published in 2011. The curriculum gave new directions stating that questions of gender in relation to religion should be a part of the education. The material is subject for qualitative content analysis and the extracts are analysed with Judith Butler’s performativity theory and three feminist theories. The feminist theories used are based on three different perspectives – biological determinism, social construc- tivism and postcolonialism.

The result of the study shows a lack of postcolonial feminist perspective, while a biologi- cal approach towards gender is dominating the textbooks. Representation of gender as a social construction occurs, but not as frequently as the biological approach. In addition to this result the study also shows that the gender perspective represented varies depending on which religion being described. The representations regarding Hinduism and Islam are dominated by a biological approach towards gender, while the authors present a broader perspective on Christianity. 

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the new Swedish curriculum, GY11 brought with it changes to how non-religious world-views are presented in five different books in religious education, RE. The method used to analyze the material was a qualitative content analysis as well as counting the pages that dealt with secular world-views. This was later analyzed using philosopher Charles Taylors description and theory on secularization. This was used to identify secular processes as well as to define wether the books definition and description of secular world-views using Taylors concept of ”exclusive humanism”.

The research questions are:

• What are the authors writing about when describing the secular world- views?

• What differences and similarities are there between the different editions prior and after the implementation of the new curriculum, GY11?

• Are the secular world-views presented in a way that is compatible with Taylors concept of ”exclusive humanism”?

The results that are being presented are, first of all that the change between the different editions are not big. Nor are secular world-views given much space in the books to begin with. On a quantitative level the amount of pages given to secular world-views is actually decreasing with the new curriculum.

Different non-religious world-views are presented in different ways, for instance humanism is often as a movement with a certain focus on the Swedish secular humanism organization, Humanisterna. This can be contrasted to existentialism which is potrayed almost entirely as a result of certain individuals and their ideas.

When it comes to Taylors concept of exclusive humanism this study shows that this corresponds with the defentions of non-religoius world-views in some of the cases. Two of the books are not defining non-religious world-views in a way that is coherent with Taylors term exclusive humanism. 

Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att undersöka fyra religionkunskapslärares di-daktiska val, med utgångspunkt i de didaktiska grundfrågorna vad, hur och varför. Frågeställningarna som används har varit de tre följande:

• Vilket innehåll förespråkar lärarna för religionsundervisningen?
• Vilka metoder förespråkar lärarna för religionsundervisningen?
• Varför väljs detta innehåll och dessa metoder i religionsundervisningen?

Den metod som använts har varit textanalys med systematisk textkondensering som tillvägagångssätt. Denna metod har tillämpats på materialet, vilket har varit fyra stycken lärarintervjuer. De teorier som använts har varit både religionssocio-logiska och didaktiska. Från dessa teorier har koncept och begrepp hämtats och applicerats vid analys av resultatet.De slutsatser som framkommit i denna uppsats är att det innehåll, de metoder och de syften med innehållsval och metodval som lärarna lyfter fram kan ses av-spegla det sekulära och individualiserade samhälle där de är verksamma. Detta tar sig uttryck i lärarnas formuleringar kring deras didaktiska val, då de strävar efter att sprida kunskap och skapa acceptans för religion. Det innehåll, metoder och syften de förespråkar handlar framförallt om att skapa förståelse för ett kontrover-siellt ämne i Sverige – religion.

This study in the field of sociology of religion examine how Judaism, Christianity and Islam havebeen interpreted and represented over time in Swedish elementary school textbooks in the subjectof Religion. Three research questions were formulated to see how gender, sexuality and ethnicityare portrayed and how this portrayal has changed over time. The study examines four books, whichwere written between the years 1989 and 2014, by using a qualitative research approach. The theoryIntersectionality is applied in order to analyze and answer the formulated research questions. Theresults from the study show that Judaism, Islam and Christianity have been represented in differentways in the textbooks and that the interpretation has changed over time. Islam is often presentedas an antithesis to the West and European Christianity. However, the change over time shows aslight improvement of the representation of Islam in the studied textbooks. Judaism is in thematerial often represented as a religion that urges people to study, and that the Jewish people oftenare very intelligent. Christianity is the normative lens which the other religions are seen throughand throughout the textbooks it is the religion that is given most focus.