Filtyp
As developed democracies experience a decrease in political engagement and a rise in the adoption of new communication technologies, new forms and models of citizen participation continue to emerge. This research paper has the objective of understanding how citizen participation is being affected by the widespread use of the Internet. In order to do so, a case study of the Americans Elect initiati
Virtual currencies have recently emerged at the intersection of Internet and finance, bringing unprecedented innovations in payment systems, money and finance. In particular, Bitcoin is examined as the first example of virtual currency, dating back to 2009. Ever since virtual currencies emerged, they received increased attention from public, private and societal regulators, especially in the field
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the Canadian government’s stance on addressing the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and to perform an analysis of ongoing violence and asymmetric conflict in Indigenous-Government of Canada relations. The Canadian government’s approach in regards to holding a national inquiry into the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada w
Fifteen years after the adoption of UNSCR 1325, the resolution and its effects remains contested. Sweden, a champion of gender equality, was one of the first countries to adopt a National Action Plan and is now leading the push for worldwide implementation of UNSCR 1325. At the front of Sweden’s internationalist efforts is the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF). Internally, the SAF acts to be a gender equ
This thesis aims to explain how and why the representations of transit forced migrants in Indonesian major print media were vastly different within two time spans: (1) during the arrivals of the Indochinese refugees in 1975-1996 and (2) in the period of the new generations of refugees from Middle Eastern and South Asian countries in 1997-2013. Employing media content analysis of 216 news articles
This thesis explores a group of young Western-oriented Chinese consumers called xiaozi in Shanghai, comprised mainly by young individuals from an urban lower middle-class background who attempt at adopting a lifestyle and identity marked by a taste for fine arts and foreign culture. The study shows that by means of social distinction through taste and foreign cultural practices the xiaozi youth ca
Previous research has showed that Iranian immigrant women integrate easier and have a more positive attitude towards the Swedish society than Iranian men when they resettle here. In light of this, I employ a gender and social identity approach with the intent to understand the integration differences between Iranian immigrant men and women from Iran who live in Sweden. Gender and social identity t
This study tests whether the rise of free trade agreements (FTAs) in East Asia since 2000 has been an attempt to manage the growing complexity of trade both between members of that region and each other, as well as between them and the rest of the world. The study uses a measure of dependency based on GDP, as well as a measure of intraindustry trade as indicators. Descriptive statistics showed tha
The first aim of this thesis were to analyze China’s discourse of soft power in relation to their investments in the Zambian mining industry from the year 2000 to 2012. From a combination of Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and Joseph Nye’s soft power theory, I can conclude, that in the 12 years period the Chinese soft power discourse was dominating and China could persuade and attr
Much scholarly work has been devoted to the issue of the identity politics of the EU, often however by attempting to construe limited empirical findings as proof of how the EU generally aims to represent itself and others. This thesis takes a different, more contextual, approach by investigating, via a Laclau and Mouffe inspired discourse analysis, how the EU via representations in its foreign pol
Since the rise of Trumpism, debates in Washington have come to resemble the grotesque dialogues of Aristophanes’ political satires more and more. Has this had an impact on the legislative effectiveness of freshman Republican Con-gressmembers? That is the question this paper seeks to answer. Starting from a dataset comprising all freshmen Republicans serving from 2001 to 2025, a com-posite Legislat
This thesis investigates how human rights responsibility is constructed and negotiated between the Zambian state and foreign mining companies in Zambia’s mining sector under conditions of economic dependence on foreign investment. The study is motivated by observations from an internship in Zambia, where mining was consistently framed as central to development while questions of responsibility rem
While the British Empire is no longer a political reality, it continues to shape the organization of British state institutions, including the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO). As people with ethnic heritage from formerly colonized countries enter the British diplomatic service, they occupy the unique position of representing the state that colonized their ancestors. Existing l
The Sudanese revolution of 2019 was shaped in large part by the contributions of youth to collective action. Many of these youth have since been displaced by the ongoing Sudanese war. This study aims to explore how these youths’ emotion orientations towards political engagement have been affected by experiences of war and displacement. This will be explored by comparing how these youth convey thei
This thesis examines why the United States recognised Kosovo’s independence in 2008 while consistently refusing to support Chechen self-determination across two wars and more than a decade of conflict. Both cases involved secessionist movements, significant civilian suffering, and comparable normative claims, yet produced opposite recognition outcomes. This divergence constitutes a central puzzle
This thesis examines the transformation of Finnish international identity between Finland’s accession to the EU in 1995 and its membership in NATO in 2023. The study is significant as Finland’s NATO accession has frequently been portrayed as a sudden and unprecedented rupture in Finnish foreign and security policy following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Challenging this interpre
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 produced one of the largest displacement movements in contemporary Europe, with millions of Ukrainians seeking protection across the European Union. While migration from Ukraine has often been understood through the lenses of safety, protection, and humanitarian need, wartime mobility can also become morally charged. Decisions to leave, stay
After independence in 1963, Kenya emerged as one of the largest economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. While manufacturing has been a stated priority of economic transformation across successive regimes, Kenya’s economy remained dependent on agriculture and service sectors. Manufacturing has been largely driven by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) manufacturers. Meanwhile, there is limited aca
This thesis initially highlights the broader context of tech elites and far-right movements emerging within outer space as political space. The issue that this thesis addresses is how tech elites’ imaginaries tied to outer space not only extend Earth politics but also could challenge society on Earth. The aims are to critically examine how tech elites over time construct the need for outer space t
Within Peace Research, there is a long tradition of studying the creations and conditions of peace. Within this, Hybrid Peace Theory has constituted a more critical strand, emphasising the importance of the interactions between international and local actors. This thesis has aimed to contribute to critical peace research by arguing for the importance of including a gender perspective on the Hybrid
