The purpose of this study is to map out and to analyze the spatial variation of female representation at the national level in established democracies. The aim is also to explain the variation in the female representation. The main questions that the paper tries to answer are:

1.How does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary?

2.Why does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary?

This study is a comparative and statistic study, i.e. a study that includes a bigger number of countries and where quantitative analysis methods are used in order to achieve comparative analyses. This study is both a descriptive and an explanatory study. The statistical method that is used in this study is mainly bivariat analysis and multivariat regression.

The results show that the variation in female representation in the established democracies is quite considerable. Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Netherlands feature high female representation at the national level during the period 1995-2005. The result also implies that the proportion of women in parliament increases during the current period. The result also shows that political institutions, socio-economic -and cultural factors, are important and necessary in order to explain the variation in female representation. The overall standards that can be discerned of the statistical analyses is that the proportion of women in parliament is higher in countries with a proportional electoral system, high number of parliament members, high socio-economic development (high HDI, GDI and GNP per capita) contemporary as the country introduced female suffrage in an early stage and have a more positive attitude toward female leadership.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera hur man i Örebro arbetar med den fysiska tillgängligheten i staden, och vilka erfarenheter detta arbete har gett. Jag utgår från tre frågor. Hur arbetar man politiskt när det gäller tillgänglighet i Örebro? Hur planerar man praktiskt inom Örebro kommun med frågor kring tillgänglighet i staden? Hur ser rullstolsburna på tillgängligheten i Örebro? För att besvara frågorna studerar jag litteratur och gällande lagar som behandlar ämnet tillgänglighet på olika sätt. Jag genomför även tre intervjuer som jag spelar in med en politiker, en tjänsteman samt en person som är rullstolsburen. Dessa inspelade intervjuer skriver jag rent för att kunna analysera i uppsatsen.

Utifrån min analys och den litteratur jag studerat kommer jag till slut fram till att det i planeringen av Örebro finns ett samarbete mellan politiker, tjänstemän samt handikapporganisationer. Politiskt arbetas det med att ge direktiv till tjänstemän. Praktiskt handlar det om att tillämpa gällande lagstiftning samt genom praktiska demonstrationer visa hur verkligheten ser ut för handikappade. Rullstolsburna ser tillgänglighet som något som sakta men säkert blir bättre, även om det finns mycket som kan förbättras.

The purpose of this essay is to examine sfi (Swedish for immigrants), which is an ingrational-political tool with objective of teaching immigrants to read and write in Swedish. With the use of critical discourse analysis we examine the discursive practices within sfi. We also examine our methodological and theoretical approaches, and our application of them. Our research questions are as follows:

• How are the discursive usage of “person centered” and “society centered” expressions being used?

• How well does our methodological and theoretical resources work?

In our theoretical viewpoint we use “post colonial theory”, which is a perspective concerned with global power relations seen from a historical perspective. Colonialism, in this view, still continues to determine the course of the world and cultural identity formation even after it has formally ended. According to our second theoretical viewpoint, “Governmentality”, the focus of analysis concerns differing forms of control. The shift from the state to the individual is of special interest.

The results of the analysis show that the integrational-political discourse order within sfi seems to be fragile. We also find that “person centered” expressions are more frequent than “society centered” ones.

The results also show that our theoretical and methodological resources are bound with certain difficulties. Firstly, critical discourse analysis has been found to be inadequate with regard to our empirical material. It was first when we applied Ulrich Becks theory regarding individualization that the discursive practice became comprehensible in a larger context. Secondly, our results showed that governmentality was problematic in the context in which it was used.

Medborgarnas politiska deltagande och samhällsengagemang ses ofta som en av demokratins livsnerver. Samtidigt sägs engagemanget vara på väg att urholkas – politiska partier tappar medlemmar, det blir allt svårare att finna kandidater till förtroendeposter. Den moderna medborgaren framstår som en solitär individualist. Detta är en vanlig situationsbeskrivning, men är det den enda?

I Jourhavande medborgare introduceras forskningen om politiskt engagemang och griper sig samtidigt an ett antal centrala frågor, såsom: Vad föder, göder och föröder engagemanget? Vilka uttryck tar det sig, och hur organiseras det? I boken beskrivs samhällsengagemanget i dagens Sverige med bilden av den jourhavande medborgaren - ett mer mångfacetterat och föränderligt engagemang än tidigare, men inte nödvändigtvis mindre.

Erik Amnå för ett samtal med sin mor Elizabeth Amnå om hennes samhällsengagemang och reflekterar mot bakgrund av detta över sitt eget.

Bilden av den svenska medborgaren som slö och oengagerad är fel. I själva verket är medborgarna ständigt beredda att rycka in –om det behövs. Men den svenska demokratin behöver fördjupas. För första gången ska vi lösa konflikter med medborgare som inte ser ut som våra spegelbilder

International research into democracy has uncovered severe changes in patterns of political engagement and participation. Even political institutions such as political parties and voluntary organisations have undergone major alterations. Scandinavian democracies hitherto have been regarded as exceptionally stable and strong, due to their homogenous qualities of mass-based class politics, strong political parties, high degree of associationalism, peaceful labour market relations, and developed welfare policies. However, three official democratic audits recently revealed that Scandinavian democracies have also been severely affected by both exogenous and endogenous constraints. In addition, Scandinavian democracies appear to be diverging heterogeneously from the assumed ‘pan-Scandinavian’ model.

This paper presents a three-level study of conditions of active citizen participation in Swedish policy making. At individual level, focus group discussions with alleged most passive citizens as well as local leaders of various action groups and political parties expose complex motivations behind political orientations. At organisational level, interviews with leaders for new and old associations manifest crucial similarities regarding working methods, concepts of membership as well as concerning trust in political institutions. Third, at societal level, an ingenious (and voluntary) embeddedness of civil society in Swedish public sector is examined through analyses of budgetary and legally instructions.

Finally, two conclusions are discussed. The widespread blaming of citizens for being passive has to be reappraised in the light of a more dynamic and contextual understanding of the conditions for civic engagement in late modernity politics. Simultaneously, researchers ought to pay more attention to latent as well as contextual dimensions of political participation.

In contrast to often heard claiming about an overall weakened civic engagement in older Western democracies, this study goes beyond the surface of manifested behaviour traditionally used as measurements of political participation. Instead, it looks for latent individual civic orientations. Focus groups interviews with particularly Swedish citizens that usually are represented as “passive” in aggregated statistics results in analyses of a far more composite and dynamic civic engagement rooted in motivations regarding obligation, importance, ability, demand, effectiveness and meaningfulness. Additionally the study reveals a civic engagement that is deeply embedded not only in political and social movements and organisations but also in welfare state institutions such as their relationships towards civil society organisations.

Minskade anslag gör att den årliga undersökningen om våra levnadsförhållanden hotas att halveras. Det kan drabba redan svaga grupper som äldre, invandrare och ensamstående föräldrar.

Youth is claimed to play a crucial role in changes of political behavior. In this analysis, 14-year-olds in 24 European and North American countries self-predict a fairly wide repertoire. Voting is challenged particularly by protest activities. Southern Europeans demonstrate the widest predicted repertoire, not explained by levels of social capital, post-materialistic values, or political trust, but by resources, motivation, and school experiences. However, reports from about the same cohort some years later reveals a more limited political engagement. The cross-country pattern is altered by various structural and cultural factors. Political socialization processes in late adolescence and early adulthood appear to be both influential and dissimilarly manifested across nations. Therefore, cautiousness in viewing very young people as heralds of major political behavioral changes is recommended.

In modern, Swedish political science there are different ways of looking at ‘democracy’. A very common distinction is that between three groups of democratic theories: electoral democracy, participation democracy and deliberative democracy.

The nowadays frequently used concept of electoral democracy is often used as synonymous with the older concept of repre­­­­sen­tative or indirect democracy – frequently regarded as a contrast to the direct democracy of ancient Athens. However, there are also important differences. As for elections, people have no other significant role than voting for different political parties. It is a common view among defenders of electoral democracy that ‘ordinary people’ ought not to try to influence politicians between the elections.

There are mainly two different ways of looking at representative democracy; one stresses the future and focuses on mandates; the other focuses on retrospective accountability.

The modern concept of electoral democracy has many similarities with Joseph Schumpeter’s elite perspective. The main difference is that modern electoral democrats accept the concept of a ‘popular will’ – a concept that Schumpeter regarded as metaphysical.

The many meanings of the concept of ‘representation’ are analysed with reference to political scientist Hanna Pitkin, who defines its core character as ‘acting in the interest of the represented, in a manner responsive to them’. Others, like Bernard Manin, regard representative democracy as substantially different from direct democracy. The main difference is the election in contrast to the lot. For Manin, the election is indeed equal and democratic because every person has one and only one vote but at the same time unequal and aristocratic – sometimes even oligarchic – because we usually choose a person who is ‘better’ than the average.

In the electoral democracy model as well as in Schumpeter’s view, ordinary people need not participate much in the political parties or in the nomination process. The ballot is coming to the voter from the outside – like a stock on the market. For Manin, on the other hand, the nomination process is the central point.

One conclusion of this analysis is that the so-called electoral model may be regarded as an ideal type, in a Weberian sense. However, there is a risk that the model is interpreted as an ideal in a normative sense, since the concept of electoral democracy not only is narrower and ‘thinner’ than the concept of representative democracy. It is also narrower than the democratic views of Pitkin and Manin. More specifically, using ‘electoral democracy’ synonymously with ‘representative democracy’ may exclude these authors’ understanding of the dynamic mechanisms of the latter’s nomination processes.

The means that the Swedish State has to legitimize and standardize different perspectives of women and their sexuality is significant. Persecution of gender and sexuality is today something that can grant refugee status according to the Swedish Aliens Act. By studying the documents that forestall the amendment of the laws is it possible to unveil the concept and ideas about women sexuality that the state manifests and reproduces through these laws and official documents.

The aim of this essay is to look upon the sexual policy as it occurs in official the documents that deal with lesbian refugees. The study cover and maps present research on this group of women and gives an answer to how norms about women sexuality are expressed in these documents.

Throughout the survey of the research field not much previous research was found, therefore even research that only partly covers the field is included and reviewed.

As method a detailed reading of the official documents and a discourse analysis with it’s emphasize on theoretical themes like gender and sexuality, lesbianism and state feminism, was made. Lesbians are missing in the official state documents and the one time the Migration Board’s documents refer to lesbians they are ascribed to as gender and not as sexuality.

The essay concludes that the confusion about the category gender and the category sexuality has the result that the lesbians become invisible. Lesbians tend throughout the material to be ascribed to the category gender and gay men to the category sexuality.

The standardized perspective and normative discourse that has been found in the official documents has the effect that women is looked a pound as gender and therefore, by the same logic loose their sexuality. In this way the Swedish State discriminates lesbian.

Another conclusion is that the Swedish State has a somewhat ambivalence perspective on their own work on promoting gender equality.

Örebro University

Department of Social Sciences

Sociology, Continuation Course, 41-60p./61-80p.

Essay, 10p. Spring 2006

Title: Att arbeta som genuspedagog

Author: Anna Bark

Abstract

My aim in writing this essay is to explain why the government has decided to educate gender-educationalists, and to describe the conditions they are working under. The questions I will raise are:

° Why does the state educate gender-educationalists?

° What are the gender-educationalists supposed to do?

° What kind of work are they doing today?

° How would they like to work?

° What is preventing some of the gender-educationalists from working as gender-educationalists?

° Which conditions make their work easier?

° Are the gender-educationalists doing what they are supposed to do?

I have made seven interviews with gender-educationalists. Three of them are not working as gender-educationalists to day, and four of them are. To sort out the things that are preventing the educationalists from working I have found Ingrid Pincus theory about male resistance to equality-reforms very helpful. I have also developed some new categories that include the conditions that are benefiting for their work.

I have found that the state has educated gender-educationalists to make sure that the schools in Sweden are working with equality the way they should, according to the curriculum. The working possibilities are dependent of the circumstances in the municipality where the educationalist is working, and how the municipal leaders understand equality.

Den filosofiska diskursen har sedan Platons dagar präglats av skriftångest. I den-na artikel behandlar Peter Berglez frågan om varför filosofin ständigt definierat sig som något bortom det skriftliga. Den dekonstruktiva metafysikkritikens främste företrädare, Jacques Derrida, kallar filosofin för ett “visst sätt att skriva”, och med detta reser sig en rad frågor: Om filosofi är skrift, vågar man då säga att denna specifika skrift – liksom alla andra skrifter – präglas av en särskild stil? Av retorik? Och varför inte våga säga detta?