The point of departure for this essay is the observation that themunicipality of Lund is giving priority to handicap associations overother forms of associations. This act can be regarded as trespassinginto the realm of civil society. In respect of this, two aspects appearto be particularly interesting to explore. The first is to determinewhich perspective of freedom the municipality of Lund holds. Ireconstruct how the liberal and the communitarian state relate to thenegative and the positive freedom.

This thesis researches the value creation process in Internet based subscription services in accordance with service dominant logic. The aim of the paper is to identify the characteristics of these services and to envisage the future of Internet based subscription services. The authors have utilized a qualitative method in their research which consists of personal interviews as well as a focus group. The main theoretical subjects that are discussed are value creation, customer participation and service dominant logic. The paper analyses the empirical findings by matching them with the theoretical framework.

The aim of this essay is to answer the question of how, and in what ways Martina Bigert?s and Maria Thulin?s picture Allt om min buske (literally, All about my bush) is queer. Inspired by Judith Butler?s idea of the heterosexual matrix, and Michel Foucault?s discourse I attempt to investigate how sex and sexuality are described in relation to heteronormativity, and if Allt om min buske is either norm-breaking or norm-creating in a wider perspective. This study concludes that antinormativity and queerness are evident within the framework of the picture.

Using Varshney's theory about intra- and interethnic networks, this thesis examines how civil society in southern Thailand is built up.During 2004 the violence between Muslims and Buddhists rose in southern Thailand. The government tried to fight the insurgency using violent police and military forces, resulting in hundreds of deaths and part of reason why Thailand is loosing rank in Freedom House's democracy index. Varshney means that a civil society built up on intraethnic networks works favourable to violence between different ethnic groups. Sorting out and defining what is meant by ?ethnic? and ?civil society?, this thesis shows why to look at the insurgency in southern Thailand as an ethnic conflict surviving partly because of an intraethnic civil society.

The purpose of this essay was to research the level of condition and requirements of democracy which faces states applying for a membership in the European Union. The focal point was to research the levels of democracy requirements on two set enlargements which are the cases of the 1981 and 1986 enlargements together with the 2004 and 2007. The states that did reach the goal of becoming member states had similar political backgrounds that made them suitable for a most- similar system study. By using my theoretical framework which consists of democracy theories, together with the chosen method was I able to find answers to my research questions when examining the material. The result of the study is that even though the condition might have been quite similar but the reality of them was different.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate what prompts student nurses to seek information required to their educational tasks and how they evaluate and utilize that information. The questions addressed in this thesis regard how information retrieval becomes part of student nurses? social practice; which physical and intellectual tools student nurses make use of in their education; and which mediating resources they use to perform their tasks. Roger Säljö?s sociocultural approach provides the theoretical framework for this thesis.

The aim of this thesis is to study why Swedish authorities do organizational changes. Two organizations are analyzed; The Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) and the National Statistics Office of Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån). A qualitative method, consisting mainly of interviews with key officials, is employed to study two aspects of organizational change: first, the main reasons for changing the organization and, second, how the process that preceded the actual change was carried out. Furthermore, two different theoretical perspectives are used to construct a basis for the analysis. One of the perspectives assumes a social constructivist approach, while the other is rationalistic inspired.

When Sweden acceded to the European Union in 1995 the term social economy was introduced to the Swedish context, gradually replacing the term civil society. This replacement can be seen as an indicator of a changing meaning of what the concept of civil society used to stand for.The aim of this essay is to study if it is possible to identify changing perceptions of the role of civil society for democracy in Sweden in government bills between 2002 and 2008, and, if so, what effect does this have on the delineation between the civil society and the government.An analytical model is proposed consisting of two dimensions which both capture the roles of civil society for democracy and the model examines how those roles relate to the government.The conclusion is that the government still sees the main function of civil society as a democratic school and a change agent for democracy. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the civil society is increasingly regarded as more of a welfare producer than a fosterer of democracy..

Since 1983 the people of Sri Lanka has endured an ongoing Civil war, however the intencity has varied over the years. The aim of this theses is to examine what influence the asymmetric relationship between the Sri Lankan goverment and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has on the process of negotiating a solution to the civil war. I am also examining whether the asymmetical relationship has changed over time and if these changes have had any effect on the process.To analyze the asymmetries I divide them into material and non-material. I measure the material asymmetries in economic and military resourses, and to measure the non-material I use indicators such as commitment, alternative, controll and legitimacy.The results show that the asymmetrical relations between the parties in Sri Lanka have changed since the 1990s. Factors like 9/11 and the recurrent suicide bombings by the LTTE has had a great influence on the singalese-tamil relationsship.

I denna fallstudie av Region Skåne undersöks uppkomsten av nya forum för samarbete i samband med regionbildning. För att undersöka detta använder vi oss av tre politiskgeografiska begrepp. I Skåne har kommunerna delats upp i fyra samverkansorgan i vart och ett av regionens fyra hörn, detta för att kunna hävda de egna intressena gentemot regionen. Kommunerna i varje hörn har olika grad av beroende till regionen och undersökningen visar att ju större beroendet är desto mer integrerat blir samarbetet inom det egna samverkansorganet.För att skapa en förståelse för ämnet ges en kort presentation av hur regionaliseringsprocessen har sett ut i Europa, Sverige och Skåne. Materialet till analysen utgörs främst av intervjuer och rapporter där vi fokuserar på tillväxt- och utvecklingsfrågor.

Globalization is one of the most popular catchphrases in the international relations debate today. Globalization is a complex concept with as many definitions as authors. National borders or jurisdictions do not control the phenomenon, instead, it is moving without restraints from region to region. Is this a threat to the sovereignty of nation-state and an end of the system of Westphalia? Does the globalization undermine the nation-state by increased factor-mobility, less tax revenue and participations multilateral co-operations, as the globalists think? Or is it strengthens its importance by offering better allocation of resources through free and healthy competition, as the skeptics believe.The aim of this thesis is to analyze theories of globalization by applying them on Sweden and the Netherlands.

The purpose of this thesis is to expose the political myth in the West about the ageing population seen as a threat against the welfare society. To do so I have described what a political myth is, and showed how it is presented in the most influential newspapers and organisations in the West. I have also presented alternative perspectives to the dominating view on the ageing population and it's impacts on welfare. In this way I have tried to point out that the subject has a political dimension. In the thesis last section I compare the message presented in the newspapers and the organisations with the characteristics of a political myth.

Detta är en undersökning som tar upp hur en orientalistisk mediediskurs med ett polariserat synsätt kan ta sig uttryck i svensk medierapportering i samband med terrorattentaten i Madrid den 11 mars 2004 och London den 7 juli 2005. Det empiriska materialet är hämtat från två av Sveriges ledande dagstidningar, Aftonbladet och Dagens Nyheter. Vi utgår ifrån Edward Saids postkoloniala teori om orientalism, som menar att västerländsk media angående muslimer och islam genomsyras av ett synsätt som betonar Väst som "vi" och den muslimska världen som "de andra". Undersökningen ger exempel på hur en diskurs som kan anses inspirerad av orientalism kan ta sig uttryck inom svensk medierapportering..

Abstract Title: Krig och fred - 080808. Freds-, krigsjournalistik och propaganda i mediernas rapportering om Georgienkriget: en komparativ studie av Sveriges, Rysslands och USA:s press. (War and peace ? 080808. Peace Journalism, War Journalism and Propaganda in the Media´s Reporting on the Georgia War: a Comparative Study of the Swedish, Russian and American Press.)  Authors: Daniel Lövgren & Tatiana Makarova Tutor: Anna Roosvall Course: Bachelor Thesis: Media and Communication, PR Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to compare how the press in Sweden, Russia and the USA reported on the war in Georgia 2008.

In this essay I analyze the concepts security and security policy from a critical, feministic point of view. The traditional way of thinking security is state-centred and narrow with its military oriented threatening pictures and solutions.I advocate that the two concepts need a more feministic and holistic approach to be able to cope with the threats of our time and include the security for women explicitly.To suggest how this can be done I introduce a model; security-sphere, which should be seen as a way to constructively connect my objections to the existing research with a new approach to security problems. The security-sphere is based on two analytical parts; the private security sub-sphere and the public security sub-sphere, in order to make new images of security problems visible.It is a fact that most of the threats against women specifically, take place in the private sphere where no traditional analytical tools reach in - these threats have not been seen as 'real' security problems. My aim is therefore to integrate these issues into the agenda of security policy..