This thesis examines information seeking and information needs at the Swedish Government Offices. The Government Offices comprise the Prime Ministers Office, the Government Ministries and the Office for Administrative Affairs. Approximately 4 500 members of staff are employed, of whom around 120 are political appointees. For this study, interviews have been conducted with 15 senior officials and political appointees at the Government Ministries and the Prime Ministers Office. The interviews have been supplemented with literature studies based on user studies research in library and information science.

The association between social parameters (i.e. socio-economy and level of education) and voting behaviour has been reviewed and analysed based on data from municipal council elections in Stockholm and Gothenburg in 2002. Some social scientists argue that the class voting is in decline and that new social cleavages have emerged. However, by using regression analysis techniques, this study implies a strong dependence of voting behaviour on social parameters, such as socio-economic status (SES) and level of education. Socio-economy appears to be a dominant predictor in the analysis.

In this literature review the characteristics of two free-floating macrophytes, water hyacinth   (Eichhornia crassipes) and duckweed (Lemna sp.), and two microalgae, Chlorella and Scenedesmus, have been examined regarding their suitability as efficient nutrient removers in the treatment of wastewater with high levels of nutrients and suspended solids from a biogas plant in Loudden. The needs required for the plants to be able to grow in wastewater and the amounts of biomass they can produce have also been studied. The results show that Chlorella is capable of a very high uptake of nutrients in photobioreactors with high nutrient loadings. With an ammonia uptake maximum value at 10900mg/m2/d Chlorella outshines the other organisms in this study. The test organism that performed the closest to Chlorella in terms of nitrogen uptake was water hyacinth with an uptake about 1602mg/m2/d.

In this thesis the construction of identity within the EU is discussed. A thesis problem in three dimensions is used to explain the purpose of the construction, its realization and the consequences of such identity. These aspects show the complexity of the problems related to identity construction on a structural level.By using a post-modern and a social constructivist theoretical approach identity is presented as socially constructed by discourse. The theory of discourse makes it possible to analyze the development of an identity forming discourse within the EU and its status today.With an approach inspired by critical theory, we use discourse analysis as a methodological tool to illustrate the ideas that govern discourse, and in what way it is related to the social reality.The analysis states that the purpose of identity constructing is the striving for legitimacy. Without identification, the legitimacy is threatened.

Denna uppsats är en idéanalys av den mediala debatten av friskolor i dag. Vårt syfte med uppsatsen är att förstå den uppsjö av debatter om friskolor som uppkommit de senaste åren. Vi menar att media spelar en stor roll i skapandet av den bild svenska folket har av friskolor. Vår utgångspunkt är att analysera hur skolans funktion och valfrihet diskuterats i media.Tomas Englund, professor i pedagogik menar att synen på skolan har gått från att fokusera på likvärdighet och jämlikhet, till profilering och individuell anpassning.Så vad säger politikerna? Vår studie belyser att debatten om skolan är begränsad utifrån vissa normer, exempelvis att friskolan ska finnas men samtidigt vara under stark statlig kontroll.

The failure of Structural Adjustment Programs and its neoliberal policies to effectively reduce poverty have led to the creation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) by The World Bank and International Monetary Fund. PRSP, connected to both the Comprehensive Development Strategy and the HIPC initiative, are built on the notion of national ownership and stakeholder participation and thereby expand potential conditionality to include matters of governance. This thesis examines the evolution of PRSP and how the process of participation affects national governance structures. By analyzing the role of rules and norms within the World Bank and IMF from a historical point of view the thesis explains why the participation process has developed the way it has. It concludes that neoliberal norms, still at heart within the World Bank and IMF, have an impact on the process of participation within nation states and thereby its governance structure.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka varför hemvärnet har överlevt, baserat på hypotesen att en stark organisation- kultur spelat en betydande roll för dess fortlevnad. I uppsatsen används diskursanalytisk metod och teori, med inslag av andra relevanta teorier, såsom institutionell teori. Uppsatsen består av en analys av tidningen Hemvärnets ledare och framsidor, SIFO: s undersökningar om hemvärnets folkliga förankring samt överbefälhavare Håkan Syréns böcker om Försvarsmakten idag. Fokus ligger på hemvärnets identitet och funktion. Vårt resultat visar att hemvärnets identitet i huvudsak har bestått.

The aim of this study was to, with a social constructivistic approach, examine how parents,regarded as neglecting their children, are depicted in 12 LVU-legal cases from the Supreme Administrative Court in Sweden. By using a document analysis influenced by discourse analytical tools, we found that there are repeated descriptions of the parents, which constructs an image of parents as shortcoming in the care of their children. The categories lack of emotions, mental disorder, substance abuse and physical maltreatment were the main reasons for child neglect that the parents were described from. Attitudes towards authority, aggression and immaturity, lack of insight, and deficiencies in the home were repeated in the description of the parent. We further found that mothers were regarded as more responsible of the children compared to fathers.

Med Köpenhamnsskolans säkerhetiseringprocess som analysverktyg kan man tolka institutionaliserandet av apartheidpolicyn som en följd av att rasfrågan i Sydafrika under tiden efter andra världskriget säkerhetiserades. Den vita identiteten formades, med ett postmodernistiskt perspektiv, i och med denna process. Den samtida politiska diskursens konstruerade föreställningar om ?vi? och ?dem? blev en förutsättning för samhällets uppfattning om apartheidsystemets legitimitet. I och med apartheidregimens fall reverserades emellertid rasfrågan i säkerhetiseringsprocessen och introduceras åter som politisk fråga.

IKEA HaparandaTornio employ some two-hundred people in its furniture retail store.Keeping track of staff statistics and employee information has previously been achievedthrough the use of a basic Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet. The store?s human resourcesdepartment requested an upgrade to this system with the hope of speeding up andsimplifying the administrative process, as well as to make it easier to monitor HR-relatedtarget statistics. The following report documents the development process of that upgrade ascarried out by the author. The project draws on research in usability design and cognitivepsychology to develop a user-friendly interface.

Every human being has the right to the highest attainable standard of health. This is regulated by the UN in the Declaration of Human Rights. However, Swedish legislation discriminate the group of irregular immigrants, regarding the right to health care. Therefore, Paul Hunt, the UN's special rapporteur on the right to health, draws serious critique on Sweden which has caused extensive debate regarding the matter, both in the civil and political sphere of society.Thus, the aim of this essay is through an analysis of the political debate; make visible the norms of citizenship which are dominating the argumentation of the seven parties represented in the Swedish Parliament. An analytical framework, consisting of three dimensions, is therefore used in order to interpret the material which is relevant for the debate.The conclusion is that Moderaterna and Centerpartiet mainly base their arguments on communitarian values, while Kristdemokraterna and Folkpartiet rather show influences of liberal ideas.

Bolognaprocessen är en förändringsprocess som syftar till att skapa ett gemensamt europeiskt område för högre utbildning (EHEA). Målsättningen formulerades ursprungligen i Bolognadeklarationen 1999 och avser ett Europa där studenter, forskare och lärare enkelt kan röra sig över nationsgränserna. Detta ska uppnås genom förbättrad jämförbarhet och ökad överensstämmelse mellan ländernas utbildningssystem. I Sverige pågår just nu implementeringen av Bolognaprocessen.Genom teorier om policyprocesser och europeisering kan Bolognadeklarationens målformuleringar sägas ge vissa förutsättningar för implementeringen i de deltagande länderna. Att målen är öppet formulerade, att de söker vinna legitimitet samt att de varierar i tydlighet är de sätt på vilket dessa förutsättningar främst lämnas.

Håller den offentliga sektorn på att förändras i en mer ekonomistisk riktning? Har new public management tagit över den offentliga verksamheten? Håller de offentliga värdena på att försvinna från dagordningen? Det är frågor som vi i vår uppsats söker svar på. Vårt studieobjekt är kvalitetsmässan, ett forum för debatt kring den offentliga sektorns verksamhet. Genom en kritisk diskursanalys undersöker vi hur debatten ser ut, vilka diskurser som finns representerade samt hur detta kan kopplas till större samhällstrender. Det vi har funnit är att mässan präglas av en effektivitetsdiskurs hämtad från new public management men att även mer traditionella offentliga värden tas upp.

Hammarskjöld och Boutros-Ghalis effektiva ledarskap inom FN analyseras. Teorierna som används är path-goal teorin och Greensteins teori. Genom dessa finner vi utgångspunkterna för analysen, vilka är: generalsekreterarnas administrativa arbete, val av lösningar i kris- och konfliktsituationer samt deras relationer med medlemsstaterna. Utifrån dessa tre kategoriseringar analyserar vi sedan deras effektivitet genom användandet av indikatorer från Greensteins teori. Stor tyngdpunkt ligger på den empiriska framställningen av deras respektive karriär som generalsekreterare.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate how psychosocial support for families where a parent suffers from a life threatening illness can be constructed. The intent was also to explore how the child's perspective is protected and what barriers and opportunities there are for family oriented support. The study has a qualitative approach and includes interviews with four social workers. The interviews were analyzed with a systems theory and attachment theory. The conclusions are that the whole family suffers psychological and social pressures when a parent is sick.