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The aim is to offer an overview in queer theory designed for political scientists. First of all queer theory is placed in a context of feminist studies, gay and lesbian studies, the discursive turn in social science, postmodern approaches to identity, postcolonial theory and Foucault's ideas of power. Then I highlight the political theorist Shane Phelan and her considerations in citizenship. Taking a critical stance against the Modern use of binaries, Phelan argues that acknowledgement of strangeness/strangers should be given priority in ethical aspects of citizenship. In the third section I refer to Butler's theories about gender performativity and the heterosexual matrix, Sedgwick's approach to the concept of homosexuality as well as Rubin's theory about sexual hierarchies. Finally queer theory is neither antifeminist nor profeminist. Yet this theory may support feminist goals. Adapted from the source document.

Argues that democratic citizenship consists of three related qualities: participation, influence, & involvement. The willingness of a citizen to be politically active, ie, participate in politics, is decided by the perceived probability that this activity will create political influence, & by the subjective experience of involvement in public affairs. 1 Figure. Adapted from the source document.

The Swedish cities have been moving towards city regions that will have consequences for democracy, local citizenship and political institutions in forms of economic development, competitiveness and living environment. The proposed study will research how the citizens are affected and how the political institutions are responding to these changes. L. Pitkaniemi

Introduces the nomination process for the Swedish Political Science Association's Essay Prize and the winning essay for 2008 by Mikael Persson titled 'Did the egalitarian reforms of the Swedish educational system equalize levels of democratic citizenship?' The essay studied the effects of the educational reform done in the mid 1990's and was proclaimed to be well written and methodologically advanced by the awarding committee. L. Pitkaniemi

Climate change raises a number of drastic environmental changes, such as soil erosion, water shortages, water contamination and deforestation, which leads people to leave their homes and seek livelihood in other places within or outside their own country. Perhaps the most obvious reason why people are forced to flee for environmental reasons is the rising sea levels and subsequent flooding. The IPCC has estimated that sea levels will rise between 28 and 43 centimeters in the next 100 years. It has also estimated that regional variations in the increase of sea levels mean that some small island states are particularly hard hit in terms of loss of land area. Adapted from the source document.

The immigration of people from other parts of the world has meant new challenges to the Nordic welfare model and its fundamental idea of social integration and full citizenship. Current policy in Scandinavian countries calls for distributing newly arriving refugees between different regions and housing areas. This article examines the dilemmas created by this policy, and how such dilemmas are perceived and handled in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. With reference to previous related research, similarities and differences between the three countries' policies are analyzed at both national and local levels. The article's authors note that an immigrant policy characterized by the goal of social integration has created tensions between the ideals of integration versus the preservation of ethnic cultures, the individual versus the collective, and egalitarianism versus specialized treatment of immigrants as a group separate from the general population. Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have differed in their handling of these tensions, with Sweden opting for an approach based on a multicultural model, whereas Denmark has adopted a strict integrationist policy, including limits on the immigration of foreign residents' relatives, and Norway adopting a middle position. On the local level, the immigration policies and practices of Malmo, Arhus, and Oslo, as respective representative communities of the three countries under study, are compared. Adapted from the source document.

"In inter-war Sweden, the psychiatric diagnosis of psychopathy served as a controversial but powerful tool for the management of people who failed to live up to contemporary civic ideals. The diagnosis was based on theories of a broad spectrum of biologically-based disorders in the borderland between normality and actual mental illness. The disturbances were assumed to manifest themselves as, for example, homosexuality, hysterical attacks, emotional coldness, mythomania, or restlessness.Another controversial diagnosis was paranoia querulans or querulous paranoia, a disease that was linked to the emergence of the modern state and its rule of law, and thought to manifest itself mainly in hyperbolic complaints against supposed wrongdoings. Thus, the disorder implicated an excessive use of one's civil rights. A particular dilemma related to this disease was that the kind of behaviour that had usually led to the diagnosis and subsequent psychiatric confinement, namely a ardent manner of writing letters to public authorities, was precisely what was required for discharge.In De samhällsbesvärliga (The Social Troublemakers), historian of science and ideas Annika Berg examines how patients described as psychopaths or querulants could negotiate for discharge with doctors and authorities in 1930s and 40s Sweden. This was a period in time when the system of psychiatric care in Sweden was greatly expanded in answer to a perceived shortage, but was also transformed into a somewhat more open apparatus with possibilities to apply for preliminary discharge and other forms of outpatient solutions. It was also a time when psychiatry was under attack from different quarters, and psychiatrists were accused of using flexible diagnoses such as psychopathy to confine people wrongly. Against this backdrop, how did the management of psychopaths and querulants fit with contemporary ideals of citizenship and democracy? How did the patients view themselves? And how were negotiations in individual cases affected by notions of, for example, class, gender and sexuality?"

"Riksäpplet deals with a shipwreck that has a neglected position in the grand narrative of the history of the Swedish navy. The story of its destiny and the missing accounts in scholarly and popular works in history says something about heritage processes within Swedish maritime archaeology. On 5 June 1676 Riksäpplet came loose and adrift from its moorings outside Dalarö Sea fortress. The hull struck a rock and sank. The loss was considered both ignominious and embarrassing and the ship's fate has been overlooked in all major history books. The rock onto which Riksäpplet sank was named 'Äpplet' after the incident, and the wreck itself has become an integrated component of the underwater seascape. As a consequence the wreckage has never enjoyed a proper 'discovery' or undergone documentation under the sensational forms that many other famous shipwrecks have, even though they have sunk in more inconvenient places.
In Eriksson's study the official handling of Riksäpplet's wrecked body is compared to the more wellknown ships Kronan and Svärdet, which both sank during battle only days before. Eriksson draws on different motifs and driving forces behind the study of naval wrecks from the period from his comparison, and the differences are discussed. Riksäpplet has never achieved a prominent position with the romanticising works of history that honour the national heroes and their deeds which are associated with this era of the Swedish Empire. The first half of the book thus sets out to unpack the ideas that have led to the relative disinterest in Riksäpplet in comparison to other shipwrecks.
The second half of the book sets out to analyse Riksäpplet from a specific archaeological perspective, with focus on the ship as material culture. Eriksson's departure is to explore the relatively low budget fieldwork that has been done at the wreck site. He the combines those facts with a survey of the artefacts recovered from the wreck, of which all are kept in museum archives and private collections. This, in addition to his studies of preserved written correspondence concerning the construction of the ship, has brought new insights into seventeenth-century shipbuilding and how the balance between the global political superpowers affected this trade. In this context Riksäpplet has great potential to show how military alliances are materialized through ships' architecture. - Riksäpplet: Arkeologiska perspektiv på ett bortglömt regalskepp handlar om kulturarvsprocesser inom svensk marinarkeologi. Men boken handlar också om ett skeppsvrak som hamnat en hårsmån utanför den stora vedertagna sjökrigshistoriska berättelsen: regalskeppet Riksäpplet. Den 5 juni 1676 slet sig Riksäpplet från förtöjningarna vid Dalarö skans. Skrovet högg i en klippa och sjönk. Förlisningen kom att betraktas som både snöplig och pinsam och har i efterhand kommit att förtigas i historieböckerna. Klippan bär idag namnet Äpplet och vraket har kommit att bli en integrerad och självklar del av landskapet. Som en konsekvens av detta har vraket inte kunnat påträffas och dokumenteras under de sensationella former som gällt för andra välkända skeppsvrak trots att de förlist på mer otillgängliga platser.
I boken jämförs hanteringen av Riksäpplets vrak med de mer välkända regalskeppen Kronan och Svärdet, vilka gick under i strid fem dagar före Riksäpplets förlisning. Utifrån jämförelsen diskuterar Eriksson motiv och drivkrafter som legat till grund för studiet av vrak efter svenska örlogsfartyg från stormaktstiden. Riksäpplet har inte kunnat erövra någon framträdande roll i den romantiserande historieskrivning som lyfter fram nationens hjältar och deras stordåd. Boken första hälft syftar till att synliggöra de mekanismer och drivkrafter som ligger bakom att Riksäpplet prioriterats bort till förmån för undersökningar av andra vrak.
Bokens andra hälft ägnas åt att fokusera på ett nytt, mer renodlat arkeologiskt perspektiv på skeppet som materiell kultur. Erikssons utgångspunkt är ett till resurserna tämligen begränsat arkeologiskt fältarbete på vrakplatsen som ändå har genererat stora resultat. Han kombinerar detta med en genomgång av de föremål som genom åren har bärgats från vraket och som finns arkiverade i olika museimagasin och hos privata samlare. Tillsammans med bevarad skriftlig korrespondens kring skeppets byggande väcks nya insikter om 1600-talets skeppsbyggeri och hur detta kunde påverkas av den globala politiska maktbalansen över världshaven. Satt i en sådan kontext har Riksäpplet stor potential att visa hur stormaktens militärallianser materialiserades genom skeppens arkitektur. "