During Sweden's economic crisis in the early 1990s a governmental committe of prominent economic and political experts were gathered to produce an analysis of and suggestions to the solution of that crisis. The committe produced a report that became widely commented in the media and in parliment. The report anc the reception of it gives us insights in how the boundaries between social science and politics are created an how new fields of expertise is added to a science. This thesis uses a constructivist approach to explore how the techniques of the economic science were made into credible means of knowöedge production outside of the field where it traditionally holds epistemological authority. Working from the assumption that language does things to the objects that it describes I claim that the episode investigated in this thesis was shaped by the committee's ability to define the economic crissi and thus making it into a knowable object.

När det offentliga väljer att upphandla välfärden och köpa in tjänsteutförandet från fristående vårdbolag följer ett behov av nya verktyg för att driva välfärden i önskad riktning. Den här uppsatsen söker beskriva hur kommunala tjänstemän bemöter konsekvenserna av trenden att omvandla de byråkratiska välfärdssystemen till marknader för välfärdstjänster och utvecklar nya verktyg för styrning. Utgångspunkten för undersökningen är de förfrågningsunderlag tjänstemännen formulerar och som utgör grunden för upphandlingsprocessen. Fördjupad kunskap om hur upphandlingsprocessen utformas i praktiken samlas genom intervjuer med ansvariga tjänstemän vid Uppsala Kommun samt marknadschefen vid ett av kommunens utförarbolag.Undersökningen visar att tjänstemännen lägger stor vikt vid formuleringen av obligatoriska krav som utförarna måste leva upp till för att maximera de boendes välmående. Dessa krav utformas för att stärka tydlighet, uppföljningsbarhet och standardisering.

The aim and research questions of this study are concerned about how, and what kind of, problems and subjects that citizens raise during verbal interaction with politicians and officials in the field of participatory democracy. The theoretical framework of the study dominates by theories with a positive approach towards participatory democracy, but there is also a broader discussion on the phenomenon?s strengths and weaknesses.The case in focus of the study is a specific phenomenon of participatory democracy created by the municipality of Växjö. The empirical material that is analysed is consisted of written text based on the verbal interaction from these meetings between citizens and politicians/officials.The outcome of the study shows that most of the verbal interaction was held between citizens and politicians/officials in a vertical direction and that a major part of the responsibility concerning the raised subjects is estimated to be in the hands of the latter part. In the light of under what circumstances the meetings are practised, the democratic and collective minded performance of the citizens is argued to be in good condition, despite the dominating vertical interaction and estimation of trust..

Den 8 augusti 1995 tog USA:s president Bill Clinton ett beslut att försöka skapa fred i Bosnien. Beslutet skulle komma att ha betydelse för USA:s fortsatta roll i europeisk politik efter kalla kriget. Vi argumenterar för hur beslutet kan ses som ett strategiskt val men också för hur självständiga organisationers möjligheter och begränsningar samt viljestarka individer gjorde beslutet möjligt.Vi använder oss av Graham Allisons tre modeller: rational actor, organizational behavior och governmental politics för att analysera Clintons beslut. Tillsammans med tillgänglig kritik av dessa modeller hittar vi både för- och nackdelar med Allisons ansatser i fallet Bosnien och kommer fram till att modellernas interrelation både underlättar och försvårar vårt fall. Vi hittar också svårigheter med att använda modell 1 i en unipolär värld.Slutsatsen är att alla tre modellerna krävs för att fullständigt förstå varför USA agerade som de gjorde i slutfasen av Bosnienkriget..

The purpose of this study is to examine to what extent there is a discrepancy between the formal guiding documents and the employees experiences of the activity at Kronobergshäktet. Furthermore, is it possible that any discrepancy could be explained by institutional imbalance? My main theories are normative institutionalism and a modified type of institutional analysis. The model consists of three parts ?values (a common value-system), rules and practice (the unpredictable reality) and it assumes a reciprocal relationship between them.

The purpose of this study was to examine participants' experiences and descriptions of a municipal activation program, and how participants perceive their opportunities for influence on their own needs and requirements. The results are based on statements from six semi-structured, individual interviews conducted by the qualitative method. Empowerment, paternalism and social capital are among the study's theoretical frame of reference. The main results show that more participants are critical of aspects of coercion and involuntary willingness in participation. Motivation for participation seems to mainly be linked to whether the activity is experienced as meaningful, as well as to the attitude of the staff.

The aim of this paper is to look into the occurrence of home schooling by choice in Sweden. It examines the subject of home education in order to provide an informative overview. It also looks into the legal aspects of the matter to see whether freedom of choice is an issue here when it comes to choosing a certain type of teaching for children of compulsory school age. A further purpose is to provide a comparison of home education in Sweden and in other countries such as the United States, England and Norway.In order to do this we have carried out a secondary analysis of previous research and have also interviewed teachers as well as people with experience of home educating their own children. To accomplish this, we had to look to England for literature and home educating families as home education is a much more common practise in England.The result of this paper strongly indicates that home schooling is not only a legally viable option to traditional schooling, both in Sweden and the other countries concerned, but that it is also a trend that is expected to increase.

The purpose of this study was to find out whether young women´s conceptions on femininity are based on school culture or other possible factors. The theory chosen for this study is the sociological perspective. A theory where sociologists such as Emile Drukheim, Talcott Parsons and Pierre Bourdieu are all prominent. The discussion links to Habitus and their theories on social, cultural and collective groups. A qualitative method has been used.

This bachelor thesis, written as a part of the European Studies at Gothenburg University, is concerned with the European Unions? (EU) climate political governance in their both climate- and agricultural policy, and in particularly the question whether it is sustainable. This thesis intends to problematize if it is possible for the EU to continue to pursue its current agricultural policies, while at the sametime maintain its role as a sustainable actor on the global arena. The framework of theEUs? climate policy governance disciplines this analysis.

In this thesis a transport system is sought after thatif realised in the city of Uppsala could provide bothwell-being to all its inhabitants and sustainability,here jointly refered to as liveability. It is found thatthe car dominated transport system that is inoperation today provides two fundamental values,namely accessibility in both time and space, whichsets it apart from other transport solutions. Thesetwo values are of immense importance for theliveability in our modern world. On the other handthe car dominated system decreases the liveabilityof Uppsala in several different ways. Some of theseproblems, it is argued, could be solved within thecar system, through the adoption of moreenvironmentally friendly cars etc., but otherproblems are inherent in the car system and willremain no matter what changes are made.

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how venture capitalists can use their network in order to reduce information asymmetries between themselves and the venture management team. A qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews, consisting of open questions, have been used to receive gradate information in order to reach our explorative purpose. Our theoretical framework consists of relevant studies made on the dynamics of networks and the problems that can arise in the complex relationship between a principal and an agent. We have been interviewing two venture capital firms and therepresentatives from two business angel networks. We also made an additional interview with an influential financial actor in order to try to verify our conclusions Our conclusions are that an extensive network can be used by venture capitalists in order to; verify ventures? technologies, complement the competences in the venture management team, and arrange co-investments, resulting in reduced information asymmetries between themselves and the venture management team.

This thesis studies the Swedish advertising business as an actor in the national formation of Sweden. It argues that earlier research has ignored to see advertising businesses as possible forces of these formations. The essay investigates how this appears historically through collaboration with an informational organisation that had risen due to the Second World War and that was a part of the national defence. I can, by investigating a discussion that focused on this informational organisation and the advertising businesses relation to it, show how the business as an effect of a civic engagement expressed an interest to participate in the informational work. The thesis will also, through the pamphlet Om kriget kommer.

Mezzanine is a collective term for hybrid instruments on the leverage finance market, offered as an alternative to traditional debt. As a hybrid, mezzanine combines elements of debt and equity financing. Mezzanine appears, in its most common shape, as subordinated to the senior debt, but ranks higher than pure equity. Reminiscent of security interests, the main importance of subordination is upon the default of the borrower. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is partly to investigate the legal prerequisites for a solid subordination of mezzanine financing, and partly to explain the consequences of subordination in a default.

The implementation problem refers to the situation when political decisions are not implemented as intended by the decision makers. In this thesis I examine how one part of the new school reform GY11 has been implemented in Social Science in high school in Sweden. The part that interests me is entrepreneurial learning. Using implementation theory, and the actor properties understand, can and will, as described by Lennart Lundquist, I have interviewed five high school Social Science teachers in Malmö and Lund. The result was that they all understood the concept of entrepreneurial learning.

The aim of this study has been to describe and clarify the phenomenon violence from patients within neuropsychiatric institutions, as experienced by staff members. The study has adopted an actor perspective and phenomenology as a philosophic and theoretical framework. The method used for data collection and analysis has also been influenced by phenomenology. Data consisted of five semi-structured interviews of a descriptive nature, and the goal of the analysis has been to articulate the general structure of the phenomenon. The results showed that the violence from patients is characterized by a professional commitment which includes always staying ahead and being able to help, protect and express a high level of emotional self-control.