In the 21st century more states are realizing the benefits with hosting “Sports Mega-Events” such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup. These events create an opportunity for a country to spread a carefully selected image and to gain influence and attraction in the international arena, or in other words, to exercise soft power. This thesis investigates how the Chinese government, through mas

The etiology of epileptic seizures is not completely understood. Literature results estimate that the main reason for epileptiform activity is a shift in the fine-tuned balance between excitation and inhibition in neural circuits, leading to hyperexcitability. Normal brain function is dependent on local inhibitory GABAergic input of interneurons on pyramidal cells. GABAergic interneurons and loss

Through salience and framing, the media has significant power in influencing how the public views a given political, societal, or economic issue. Through the lens of framing theory, this research paper is investigating how immigration was framed in two Swedish and 4 United Kingdom newspapers during the week surrounding the Brussels terrorist attack on 22 March 2016 in a content analysis. By lookin

The aim of this thesis is to set up a high-fidelity fluid structure interaction (FSI) simulation environment to study the gust load alleviation capability of camber-morphing airborne wind energy (AWE) wings. The simulation environment will enable studying the transient flow phenomena around the wing when encountering wind gusts and gives the possibility of investigating dynamic instabilities. To m

The democratic peace theory explains why liberal democratic states do not engage in war with one another. According to Michael Doyle, the theory rests on three pillars, which together explain the democratic peace - whereas one of which pillars is of interest for this thesis. The cosmopolitan pillar is concerned with the “spirit of commerce”, that is, international trade and economic interdependenc

The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the European Union (EU) is based on the Member States’ foreign policy preferences. Several third states are however at times invited to align with certain CFSP acts, a procedure which provides the EU with support for its diplomatic efforts. The degrees to which these invited states align with CFSP acts differ substantially. This thesis has taken a b

Moving between hegemony and counter hegemony this thesis adds to the field of food politics by contributing to a further understanding of current hegemonic relations within this topic and counter-hegemonic theory in general. In the form of an interview study it draws upon the narratives of radical leftist activists in Lund and Malmö in order to outline a hegemonic framework within food politics in

How to sustainably feed the world amounts to one of our biggest contemporary challenges. In Sweden, the environmental footprint of the dairy industry has caused a lively debate which culminated in a law-suit between LRF Mjölk and Oatly over the use of marketing phrases such as “Wow No Cow” and “No Soy. No Milk. No Badness”. Even though Oatly lost, their development was not hampered; thus, this the

Since the Financial and Eurozone crisis that erupted in 2009/2010, Germany has seen the rise of a new populist radical right party; the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). In the years after its establishment in 2013, this party has experienced many electoral successes and entered not only thirteen federal state parliaments, but also the European Parliament in 2014. This development is atypical for

In October 2016 the European Border and Coast Guard [EBCG] was installed as the new institutional structure responsible for border management. In contrast to its predecessor Frontex, the EBCG consists not only of an agency but also of the respective national authorities, responsible for border management and coastguard functions. A better understanding of the creation of the EBCG is needed because

Ever since the EU’s sanctions against Russia were imposed in 2014, the bloc has managed to keep a united stance outwards. Under the surface, the measures have however generated sharp divisions among some of the Member States, where one faction wants to scrap the sanctions, while another faction wants to see them expanded. Divisions of this proportion are unprecedented in the EU’s sanctions history

Social capital and political participation are created by deliberations. Often these deliberations occur within one’s housing context. Therefore, this thesis investigates how different housing contexts impact upon an individual's political participation. By examining thoroughly this under researched topic and by applying a new methodological approach a scientific contribution is made. Moreover

In the beginning of 2016 an intense debate took place in Swedish media concerning the quality of higher education. In the debate it was claimed that the quality is in decline partly due to result based financing for universities and an increase in competition amongst them. Despite the large interest for the subject no study has so far been conducted to discern what is true and what is not. This st

After having received criticism during previous inter-governmental conferences the European union decided to arrange a convention on the future of europe during 2002 in order to draft a European constitution. This was done to foremost to improve the transparency, participation and decision-making in the preparatory phase of inter-governmental conferences. At first, it received little attention, bu

Återfall i brottslighet har under alla tider varit ett vanligt förekommande problem. Unga personer, dömda till sluten ungdomsvård, löper på grund av sin låga ålder extra stor risk att återfalla i brott. Svensk statistik uppvisar att så många som 60 procent återfaller i brottslighet redan inom ett års tid. Uppsatsens syfte är att utreda vilka orsaker som kan hänföras till återfall i brottslighet efRecidivism has always been a common problem. Young people, who are convicted and subjected to closed institutional youth care detention (LSU) runs, due to their young age, a particularly high risk to reoffend. Swedish criminal statistics shows that as many as 60 percent relapse into crime within a year. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the causes that can be attributed to relapse into c

Facebook is a global phenomenon with only a few previous studies. This study has therefore with the help from Robert A. Dahl’s five criterions for democracy studied if Facebook is violating the Swedish democratic standards. A sixth criteria has also been created for this purpose. Some of the previous studies about Facebook and technique based websites have been the main source for information. How

This study examines whether the new EU enlargement strategy has brought expected results and led to the changes that go beyond adoption of formal rules and institutions in Montenegro. It establishes whether improvement in the sphere of judicial independence occurred since the introduction of the new EU approach to enlargement, in the next most likely candidate, by analysing the impact of each comp

The European Union (EU) is a gender equality actor growing in importance. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of gender equality in the EU context by examining the EU enlargement process. The study takes a discursive approach to gender equality and is guided by the question: What is the meaning of gender equality in the EU enlargement context? Using critical frame analysis, the key

This thesis analyses how social policy in the form of benefit sanctions targeted at the long-term unemployed is made by case workers within the Swedish Public Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen). Since the 1990s, rising unemployment and fiscal pressures on the welfare states made countries more oriented towards policies of “activation”. In 2007, the Job and Development Programme (JOB), was init

The advent of the epoch known as the Anthropocene has been treated as a paradigm shift throughout the natural as well as parts of the social sciences. This shift entails mankind’s becoming of a geological force alongside others. Political theory and International Relations in particular have, however, been slow to pick this up. This thesis is an attempt to fill this gap. In this thesis I examine t