The current trend towards globalisation and democratisation has made the theories of politics in pluralistic societies, and how to make them work, of particular interest and concern. Lijphart's theory of consociational democracy is an important influence in this field. At the same time the importance of civil society in transition studies and democratisation processes has been reinforced over the last thirty years. However, the complex political situation that plural societies face, creates obstacles for a healthy civil society. This thesis is based on a case study of Lebanon, a country with deep ethnic divisions and a government that resembles a consociational democracy.

Understensho?jden is Stockholm's largest eco-village which was built in the early 1990s with the vision of enabling ecological living for people. However the ecovillage is no longer considered as environmentally friendly because of its relatively high energy consumption, and non-updated energy system. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate how Understensho?jden should reduce their energy consumption and upgrade its energy system by using Blower-Door, IR-camera and Design Builder.

Syftet med den föreliggande studien har varit att beskriva och skapa en djupare förståelse för vad det innebär att vara sopdykare i ett postmodernt konsumtionssamhälle. Den teoretiska delen i studien har bestått av Zygmunt Baumans teorier om konsumtionsliv, globalisering och postmodern etik. Material har bestått av fem intervjuer med två kvinnor och tre män som sopdyker regelbundet. Den metodologiska utgångspunkten har varit att tolka materialet utifrån ett hermeneutiskt förhållningssätt i tre olika nivåer. De begrepp som tillsammans utgör en huvudtolkning om vad det innebär att vara sopdykare i postmoderniteten är: En ambivalent konsumtion, alternativa kicksökare, den kollektiva gemenskapen, tänk globalt ? agera lokalt, den gode stråtrövaren och gammaldags moral.

Since energy simulations are used to verify that projected residential buildings will reach the current energy requirements it is important that the results are reliable.This report investigates the extent of uncertainty in energy simulations, estimates the causes of the uncertainty and its economic and environmental consequences.The method used in this report is based on three validation methods; empirical validation, analytical validation and comparative validation. The analysis was carried out for five multi-family dwellings in Uppsala with installed meters for energy measurements. One of these objects, Klockarlunden, was studied in more detail than the others.The results show that the deviations are between 10 and 29% for the studied objects, which means that the uncertainty is estimated to be at least 29%. All simulations underestimate the buildings need of energy. The simulation for Klockarlunden can predict the energy consumption to be within the range of 46-98 kWh/m2year with 90% confidence level based on the current uncertainty.

The purpose on this study is to determine the extent of possible connections between tendencies to increased violent behavior and increased alcohol consumption among a total cohort of girls in the 9th grade compulsory school and 2nd grade upper secondary school in a Swedish county. In 2004 the Epidemiological Department carried out a health-status survey, using a self-report questionnaire, with students from both private and public schools in a specific county in Sweden. All respondents (N= ca 4000), attending all compulsory (at 9th grade) and upper secondary schools (second tier) on the survey date completed the questionnaire. For this particular study, 9 questions from the questionnaire, all concerning self-reported violent behavior and alcohol consumption habits were used either individually or combined in index variables. The result showed that while violence experience is low among these 4000 girls, it increased in relation to a corresponding increase in alcohol consumption.

This study was conducted by using a qualitative textual analysis on UNICEF Sweden?s website with the purpose of problematizing the role of UNICEF Sweden in today?s globalised society. This was done in the context of how organisations of civil society have gained influence. Following questions were answered: How does UNICEF Sweden legitimise its operation? Which strategies does UNICEF Sweden use to encourage involvement and donations?The study shows how UNICEF Sweden legitimises its work by promoting a unique influence, their unique methods of work and by showing how the organisation helps the most disadvantaged children.

The study aims to reduce energy consumption in apartment buildings where individual metering and charging of heat is applied. The aim is to develop planning and design for individual metering and charging in apartment buildings.The study is based on literature review, interviews and case study that include analysis of existing documents. Interviews were carried out with the property developer and the involved consultants who planned the apartment building Yasuragi. To investigate the differences the condominium association has noted in heat consumption between flats, the debit values of the heat were used to discern which houses that were furthest from the average consumption. On these flats there were temperature measurements and thermal photo shoots made for discriminating behavior and possible construction techniques which could be the explanation for the heat spread.Boverket shows that the consumption of heat can be reduced by 10-20% after insertion of individual metering and charging in an apartment block.

This essay deals with how the development of society, the media society in particular, has an impact on the teaching of the subject of art. In the society of today, we are bombarded with more images than ever before. As an effect of this, the curriculum of 2011 emphasises the importance of the ability to orientate oneself in the modern society. Furthermore, it describes art not only as a practical subject, but also as a verbal and community-orientated subject. Because of sparse and dated research, the subject of art is in danger of marginalization as a school subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate art teachers? conception of the aim of the subject of art.

- ABSTRACT ?Title: Winners of the Web ( Webbens vinnare)Number of pages: 35 (including enclosures)Author: Lydia KellamTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall Semester 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information SciencePurpose: The aim of the research paper was to see Internet and the digital techniques impact on marketing communication and consuming behavior on the Web. By understanding the relationship between marketing communication and consumer behavior my intentions were to comprehend how consumer behavior on the web could be understand. The purpose of this paper is to understand how different marketing activities on the Internet are followed by consumption.Material/Method: By using focus group interviews I wanted to study how individuals act on the Internet. How different activities such as communication and participation on the web could lead to consumption on the Internet.

This study examines the eWOM effect, more specifically: how customer reviews effects consumers. The study is based on a modified version of the Regulatory Focus Theory which describes consumer behavior using consumer consumption goals. The purpose of this study was to examine how positive and negative customer review's influence consumers when analyzing products that are equally characterized by two consumption goals: promotion and prevention goals. The authors combined quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (focus groups) research methods with the sample selection for both research methods being based on students of Södertörns University. Results indicate that negative customer reviews have a stronger influence on consumers than positive customer reviews when analyzing products that are equally characterized by the promotion goals and prevention goals.

This report was performed in order to evaluate a new technological measure and focuses generally on a heat pump system to a HWC-washing machine. The client is Asko Appliances AB, a company well known for its environmentally friendly products. The goal of this study was to improve the energy efficiency of a washing machine by combining a heat pump device to the heater of the wash water, in order to reduce the energy consumed for heating the water. Besides reducing the energy consumption in heating the water, the washing machine was required to meet low noise and short operating time specifications. For that purpose, nine trials in three test series have been carried out.

This paper deals with the concept "Information Overload" (IO). It describes the intellectualcontent of the idea as well as its supposed domains of activity. Furthermore it problemizes theimage of "Information", "Information Society" and other concepts related to those phenomenons.A division by two fundamental different distinctions of IO are being made. InformationOverload serves as a name for:I. An information-intensive environment.II.

Over the past decade, the fashion industry has experienced a relatively high rate of consumption with material and clothing becoming increasingly subject to waste and disposal. As a result of the increased awareness within the industry the interest in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) amongst retailers has increased substantially in an attempt to shy away from the critically amplified media attention. In addition the underlying demand from external stakeholders has forced companies to ensure they focus and act upon each stage of the product life cycle.This study provides a further in depth analysis of the fashion industry and conveys the key messages and steps that firms are taking in response to the external pressures and requirements based on four different merged process areas. This research paper examines the impact of CSR on two Swedish fashion retailers Åhléns and JC and shows how accountability relates to the external expectations and norms that prevail in society. The result shows that the firms do meet the demands within each sub category as a response to market demands.

The master thesis, conducted at Metrima AB, concerns the development of a non-intrusivedistribution meter as a basis for individual tap water billing in apartments.The project is conducted in response to the market interest in individual tap water billing inapartments as an answer to environmental concerns regarding water consumption. Due to thehigh installation cost of traditional water meters, a new method of determining waterconsumption, without having to cut water pipes, is proposed.The proposed method distributes the total water consumption for an apartment complex toindividual apartments according to distribution meters, measuring water run-time, in eachapartment. The water run-time is estimated by measuring the water pipe?s outward vibrationsand temperature changes.A test environment was established and a prototype built, using a tilt- and vibration sensor forvibration sensing and a precision temperature sensor to measure temperature changes. As bothsensors work well in the test environment, further testing was done in 3 apartments for aduration of 5 days.

Intelligent IT-based solutions, often called Smart Grids, are considered to be the future balancers of renewable energy sources. One area within the Smart Grid concept is called demand response, which is focused on making customers more consumption flexible by making them more active in their consumption. In this thesis the aim is to analyze a business model by investigating the income potential for a demand response solution as well as its market potential. This has been done through literature studies, interviews and development of a computational model.The use of 5000 households with flexible consumption can provide a cost reduction of 17.2% or 2.4 million SEK for a balance responsible party during an average year. If the solution is used to make strategic bids on the regulation markets the study indicates that the largest potential for revenues lies within this strategy.