Social policy has now received an increased attention in the European Union. The European welfare states experience a high level of unemployment, which the EU now tries to handle through the European Employment Strategy (EES). The core of this essay is whether the welfare institutions of the European member states are integrating through an institutionalization process or not. Within the EU four different types of welfare models can be identified: the Scandinavian, the Continental, the Southern and the Anglo-Saxon. The welfare models differ in the institutional settings e.g.

This master thesis explores the nature of public participation as a central and most current subject in the field of urban planning. A first impression exposes a seemingly unanalyzed consensus on the values and benefits which public participation provides the process of urban planning. The city may be a concern to all its inhabitants; hence knowledge and opinions of the local public are of great importance for the urban development. But is there really something new to these assumptions, and are the advantages of increased public participation in urban planning always obvious?  By using Action Research as a main method, I have put myself into the context of the Swedish municipality of Nacka and their projects dealing with the development of public participation.

Although  ?naming and shaming? paedophiles are growing in Sweden, professionals working with the rehabilitation and treatment of paedophiles describe that the naming and shaming might not prevent child sex abuse. On the opposite naming and shaming alienates the perpetrator from any ordinary life. The alienation could lead them to only having other paedophiles as friends. Previous studies show that professionals are often distancing themselves from working with paedophiles, even if there is competence.

This master´s thesis in Library and Information Science examines the experiences of children who read to a dog. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the interactions between the librarian, the readingdog-handler, the child-ren and the dogs and what the benefits from the interactions might be. The aim is also to examine how the child-ren express their literacy during the readingsessions and how to develop the readingsessions at a specific library. The author follows a reading dog project for seven weeks, in collaboration with a specific school and library. Action Research was used as a research strategy, and since Action Research is done on the basis of practice, a coll-laboration with the participating children, the librarian and the readingdog-handler was significant in this study.The theoretical framework concists of theory and concepts from the sociocultural theory developed by Ro-ger Säljö, and human-animal studies with concepts from Donna Haraway.

The law which makes the purchase, or the attempt to purchase, temporary sexual services a criminal offence has been implemented in Sweden for more than six years. It appears as if very few, possibly no, sex-selling women have used the law to report men who have bought their services during these years. How can this be understood? With this thesis I suggest a new way of thinking on agency. A way which questions the traditional view on action whereby agency equals to act in certain, predefined ways.

The purpose of this essay is to examine if the municipality has a real freedom of action to control the use of the land and the shaping of the buildings in a large and prestigious building project.In Karlstad there is now (2006) a large building project in form of a shopping mall. This project is in its final stage of completion and offers me a suitable case to examine. To undertake the purpose of the essay, the following research question is formulated:Do the municipality have a real freedom of action to control the use of the land and the shaping of the buildings in a large and prestigious building project as the Mitt I City project?In an attempt to examine the project and the planning process, three themes are applied. The first theme derives from the hypothesis that the part that initiate the process gets the upper hand as future discussions are taking place in relation to the original ideas.

This thesis examines the underlying components that affect consumer behavior regarding organic food. The thesis theoretical framework is based on Ajzen and Fishbein?s The Theory of Reasoned Action combined with theories regarding involvement and routine purchases. The empirical material is based on a desk research with 19 research papers between the years 1994 till 2009 and sales statistics over organic food.  The thesis conclusion shows that the underlying components when looking at attitude towards conventional food are price, taste, expiration-date and healthfulness. While the components for involvement in organic food is the environment, personal health and supply.

SAMMANFATTNINGDen här magisteruppsatsen omfattar en empirisk studie i textilslöjdsundervisningen på en F- 6 skola. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur elever reflekterar och bedömer sina kunskaper i textilslöjd under en aktion samt om aktionen fungerar som stöd för dem. Empirin består av 3 delstudier där elever i år 6 skrivit loggbok, gjort en självvärdering samt besvarat en enkät. Undersökningen har genomförts i pragmatismens anda med aktionsforskning som metod inom ramen för den ordinarie slöjdundervisningen under fyra veckor i följd. Ledstjärnan för studien har varit en matris för bedömning, vilken använts som utgångspunkt för aktionen.

Instagram is one of the most common used social media platforms among teenagers today. It is not only one of the most common used social media platforms, but as well one of the most common places where cyber bullying takes action. By using focus groups, netnographic studies and a questionnary we investigate the meaning of technology regarding how the bullying on Instagram takes shape and the strategies used by teenagers to handle cyber bullying.Our research shows five different ways that cyber bullying takes shape and ten different strategies implemented to handle those. The findings are compared with previous research. The ten different strategies are then discussed from aspects that are found to have a big influence on how those are implemented: gender, knowledge, experience and awareness, presence of parents and other relatives, personal experience, trust in the technical solutions and the weaknesses of those. .

The present study deals with the scope of action available to a social worker when analyzing, assessing and proposing measures regarding young persons experiencing social problems. The interest in the subject area emanates from the fact that the number of youth placed in different forms of round the clock out-of-home care in Sweden increases, whereas research in the subject shows that such placement gives few positive results and sometimes even has negative consequences for their development.The study investigates how the preconditions of the social worker influence their scope of possible action, in particular as regards their place of work, the situation of the individual dealt with, and the profession itself being one based both on scientific evidence and knowledge gained by experience. Lipsky?s theory on ?street-level bureaucracy? and Hasenfelds theory on human servicing organizations form the theoretical framework of the present study. The empirical input comes from interviews with focus groups of active social workers.The analysis of the interviews shows that social workers generally feel that they have a broad scope of action as far as the regulatory framework and office management are concerned.

Lundbergs Plåt AB is a small company situated in Jönköping. Their main task is to process different kinds of steel such as stainless steel. Lately, they have shown an interest in Lean production.On the basis of the situation mentioned above, we developed the purpose to find and decrease the non value-added wastes in the production at Lundbergs Plåt AB. Out of this, we also developed and answered two questions: Which wastes can be found with help from a value stream mapping (VSM)? In what way can these wastes be reduced and how can these reductions contribute to an improved production? VSM is the method used to find the non value-added wastes.

I organisationer koordineras personal och resurser för att de i samverkan ska utföra mer eller mindre krävande aktiviteter. Organisationsstrukturer förändras över tiden, vilket är en naturlig del i all samhällsutveckling. En viktig förutsättning för att kunna förändra sig själv och sin organisation är att skapa förståelse, delaktighet och acceptans för förändringen. Chefer och medarbetare måste kunna svara på frågor av olika slag, framför allt på ?varför?, ?vad?, ?hur?, och har någon annan gjort något liknande och vad är i så fall deras erfarenheter? Aktionsforskning eller Action Research har sin grund i de teorier som Kurt Lewin introducerade redan 1946 och som sedan dess har utvecklats och förfinats i ett flertal riktningar men alla med den deltagande, reflekterande och iterativa forskningsmetodiken som grund.

Det här examensarbetet undersöker om ett anatomiskt system framtaget för att kategorisera ansiktsrörelser inom psykologisk forskning kan anpassas på en ansiktsrigg för att effektivare kunna framställa ansiktsanimation för datorspel. Rapporten beskriver varför Facial Action Coding System skapades, hur det används samt tar upp olika sammanhang som systemet tidigare använts för. Rapporten beskriver det praktiska arbetet för att konstruera en ansiktsrigg ämnat för datorspel och diskuterar skillnader mellan att rigga för datorspel och film. Examensarbetet beskriver klassiska användbarhetsprinciper och vad man bör tänka på när produkten skall bli så användningsbar som möjligt. Ett animationsverktyg baserat på FACS och de ?Action Units? som systemet innehåller har tagits fram för att genomföra undersökningen på animatörerna från min praktikplats på Starbreeze Studios AB.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att undervisa i musik och ensemblespel på en anstalt och studera vilka effekter undervisningen har på internernas aggressiva beteende och destruktiva tänkande. Aktionsforskningen baseras på teorin om att ensemblespel även är en utmanande och effektiv gruppsykologisk övning. Situationen tvingar dig att ta ansvar för din uppgift i gruppen i realtid. Den negativa, kollektiva konsekvensen av en persons misstag är snabb och konkret. Studien vill se om musik och ensembleundervisning kan användas i såväl träningen av interners samarbetsförmåga och tolerans som ett verktyg för interners utveckling inom kognitivt beteendeterapi.

The intention of this study is to perform a content analysis based on a theoretical framework founded on multi-level governance, MLG. The thesis examines the formal changes within employment politics between 1999 and 2004 (Sweden´s action plan for employment) and 1998 and 2007 (the spring budget proposition). I will investigate how multi-level governance has effected the Swedish employment politics. Furthermore, the purpose of the thesis and the questions under consideration are: How have the formal structures within Swedish employment politics changed since Sweden?s admission to the European union, particularly during the periods 1997-2008 and 1999-2004? And: How do the changes in Sweden, together with the European union directive concerning employment, coincide in the so-called employment strategy?While performing the analysis I have focused on multi-level governance.