It seems like Swedish municipalities are dominated by beliefs that all Citizen participation is good for the development of local democracy. A critic of this certainty is rising among Swedish scholars of political science. However, a critic with an ambition of such generalization is harsh. Different democratic projects contents different qualities and thereby diverse problems in the democratic process. If these democratic problems within the process can be recognized, a deeper understanding can be found and in the prolongation a strengthening of the democracy.This essay examines the democratic process of Lomma municipality's democratic project of Citizen participation.

Title: Journalism 2.0: About the journalist's perspective on Citizen participation and its influenceon the news content.Purpose: The aim with this study was to examine whether, and if so how, professional journalists experience that the production of news has changed as the media development has progressed and the Citizens opportunities for active participation in this process has potentially expanded.Research questions:Does professional journalists experience that the opportunities for Citizen participation in the news making-process has changed with the spread and accessibility of new media- if so, in what ways?Wheatear professional journalists experience that the relationship between themselves and their news sources has changes with the spread and accessibility of new media?What consequences can an empowerment from Citizens have on the production of news and on the professional role of the journalist?Theory: This essay is based on theories about convergence, gatekeeping, agenda building, participatory journalism, news sources and the journalistic profession.Method: The survey is based on ten qualitative interviews with ten professional journalists, eight reporters and two web editors from the newspapers NWT and VF.Results: The results of this survey shows that the Citizens? opportunities in influencing the production of news has partly changed. The journalists do not experience that Citizen participation affects their professional role. Citizens have always had an impact on the production of news but new technology offers Citizens and journalists new channels that facilitate the communication and interaction. The gatekeeping process is protecting the decision-making role of the journalist, which restrains Citizen participation.

The theme of this thesis is Citizen participation in the planning- and design process. It turns to everyone that studies landscape architecture or work as landscape architects and I hope that it can function as a ground for discussions as well as a source for inspiration. Rågsved is a suburb south of Stockholm. Just outside the centre of this suburb, a small industrial area called Snösätra, is located. In a few years time the leaseholds for the small industries will expire and the key question is: What will happen then? This is my general concern and it was the main cause for me to start this particular work. How do you attend to a place that appears like blank sheet of paper? To an empty page that can be filled with an infinite number of different formulations.

In the late 20th century there has been some changes in the public sector. These changes are described as New Public Management. When ideas from the private market is transferred to the public sector, for example to regard Citizens as cus-tomer. Central in this paper is the use of term customer in the Swedish public sec-tor. There are two questions in the paper; which possibilities has a disappointed customer to effect the public sector, and what may happen with democracy, the common good, when the Citizen becomes a customer?To answer the questions I study two different cases, Svedala kommun and the tax department, Skatteverket.

The knowledge that Citizens have of their own municipality is very useful for the local politicians and planners in the event of such a major reconstruction in the neighborhood. It is the residents in the area that are most affected, and their view on the reconstruction is valuable if the end result will be as good as possible. Since the municipality builds for the Citizens, and wants them to enjoy the outcome of the reconstruction as much as possible, it is essential that the municipality get a chance to inspect the Citizen?s views and experiences about it in an early stage. If the Citizens don?t want to get involved, or if only a few people involve themselves, it will be difficult for the municipality to find a solution satisfactory to all.

Abstract"Citizen Influence, Forms and Effects - A study of the Resistance Concerning the Establishment of a Juvenile Detention Center in Kristinehamn 2005-2007"Political Science, Johan Utter This essay circles around the concepts of Citizenship and the questions if and how Citizens in the modern democracy can influence and effect the political decisions made by the governing body on the local level. This is done by the means of a case-study concerning the establishment of an institutional facility for convicted youths in Kristinehamn. The planning of this facility and especially its planned location in Sunneberg aroused a significant negative response from the Citizens, demanding a better alternative for the location.The proposition resulted in heavy protests from the Citizens as the planned location was viewed as an important recreation area, where the Citizens could experience nature first hand, close to the centre of town. As a result, some Citizens living close to the planned location, formed a network called "Bevara Sunneberg", whose purpose was to influence the decision-makers and make the Citizen?s voices heard.

The representative democracy has become weakened during the last decades. At the same time the United Nations declared at the Rio de Janeiro meeting in 1992 that environmental problems can best be solved by involvement of all concerned Citizens in decision-making. The main purpose of this study has been to examine if Citizens panels is a possible way to involve Citizens in environmental decision-making and what the outcomes can be. Furthermore the study has investigated what the participation has contributed to environmental politics and how representative the results have been. This has been carried out by investigating the Piteåpanel in the municipality of Piteå by conducting interviews.The result of the study shows that the involvement of the Citizens in the decision-making influenced the environmental politics of the municipality.

The aim of this essay is to explore the lived Citizenship and its ideal. First, the form and expression of Citizenship practice and ideal is explored through a qualitative interwiev study of ten Citizens in the southern suburbs of Stockholm. The perception and expectations of the nature of Citizenship, presented by the informants, is then compared to their Citizen ideal, as well as to the ideal presented and promoted by the Swedish government. The point of departure is theory of democracy. The essay calls attention to an observed lack of empirical studies in the field of deliberative theory of democracy as well as studies that more broadly bring the theory down to empirical earth.

This essay analyses the national standard for maintenance aid and if it´s compatible with the standards set in the government mould.As new-liberal ideas get more scope in the Swedish policy the analyses focus consisted in seeing about the social contribution been changed, and if the standards in the government mould have lost their worth.The national standard is not edified on the basis of subsistence levels, but becomes paradoxical when numbers of welfare recipients is the measure used in order to measure poverty, concurrent as the government mould aims to protecting every Citizen?s welfare.The study analyses a type of society that has emerged during a period of time. In a normative analysis concepts are set in relation to each other where, the analysis presents standards that are vague. If the standards in the government mould are presented as something valuable and get their worth back in the policy, perhaps also the Citizen´s in Sweden change attitude to poverty and welfare contribution.   Social- liberalism justifies social contribution and the welfare State, while new-liberalism has other opinions about what redistribution should contain.

With the rise of the internet especially and information- and communication technology in general, the opportunities for fast and effective communication and sharing of information have proliferated. In relation to the new technologies, the Citizens? demands on organizations? communicative efforts have increased. Today?s Citizens have high standards regarding transparency, the opportunity to dialogue and have hopes to influence the public sector.

Citizen participation is fundamental in place analysis, where the aim is to define the sites specific character and identity. The local Citizens know the village better than anyone else since they lead their daily life in the environment. I have in cooperation with Sala municipality suggested guidelines on how to involve the local people in dialogue during place analysis. The target was to involve and enthuse as many people as possible with relatively small resources in time and money. The suggested methodology was tried out in a place analysis of Västerfärnebo, a community with about 3 000 inhabitants of which 500 live in the main village.

This paper is interested in Swedish psychiatry during the period between 1930-1950,localized to Mariebergs hospital in Sweden. The purpose of this paper has been to testSjöstroms evidence of the pattern that he used to create three analytical concepts, roughlytranslated to; morally educative discipline-treatment, the production process and the idealinstitution Citizen. Sjöström motivates that his concepts gives insight into one aspect of thepsychiatric expansion between 1860-1960 as well as creates an understanding of psychiatryas an institution. The source material for this paper has been patients' medical notes writtenby the chief physician of the institution. Via a method which mainly different from Sjöstromin its selection, categorization and more thorough presentation, this paper has seen the samepatterns which Sjöström has created his three concepts from.

With the rise of the internet especially and information- and communication technology in general, the opportunities for fast and effective communication and sharing of information have proliferated. In relation to the new technologies, the Citizens? demands on organizations? communicative efforts have increased. Today?s Citizens have high standards regarding transparency, the opportunity to dialogue and have hopes to influence the public sector.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the use of social media by the Swedish Police for democratic purposes. The idea of Citizen empowerment is closely related to the development of new communication technologies such as social media. Yet many studies indicate that governmental institutions rarely make use of the assumed potentials of social media.In this study, the democratic potential of social media is derived from Habermas normative concept of deliberative participation. Operational definitions emphasize discursive equality, interactive reciprocity and external impact. The analytical framework is combined with qualitative text analysis to highlight the conditions of interaction between representatives of the Police and Citizens.In conclusion: the democratic potential of social media, from a Habermasian point of view, is to a significant extent neglected at the expense of its strategic advantages.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the use of social media by the Swedish Police for democratic purposes. The idea of Citizen empowerment is closely related to the development of new communication technologies such as social media. Yet many studies indicate that governmental institutions rarely make use of the assumed potentials of social media.In this study, the democratic potential of social media is derived from Habermas normative concept of deliberative participation. Operational definitions emphasize discursive equality, interactive reciprocity and external impact. The analytical framework is combined with qualitative text analysis to highlight the conditions of interaction between representatives of the Police and Citizens.In conclusion: the democratic potential of social media, from a Habermasian point of view, is to a significant extent neglected at the expense of its strategic advantages.