The main purpose of this C-essay is to answer the question: What have been the consequences and effects of the merit point system on language studies and the parties concerned (teachers, students and principals) during the school year of 2010/11?The merit point system is the result of a political decision and was implicated for the first time in the Swedish upper secondary school during the school year 2010/2011. Being a completely new phenomenon it is of great interest and importance to study its effects.The study in this essay also aims to verify, falsify or nullify two hypotheses very often referred to in the political discussions regarding the merit point system:The merit point system will replace affection and interest as main reasons for language studies in upper secondary school and cause a rectification amongst the students choices of additional courses.The merit point system will have a segregating effect upon society and make it harder for people to rise in society through education in the future.A verification of these hypotheses would imply the appearance of an increased rectification amongst students as well as an orientation towards an in the future more segregated society.The empiric material has been collected and examined with qualitative as well as quantitative methods (questionnaires and interviews) and belongs epistemologically to the phenomenological and hermeneutical traditions..

 Prostitution has been intensely debated in Sweden for nearly four decades. Two major investigations have so far been initiated by the government and numerous propositions have been put forward in the Swedish parliament resulting in the sexköpslag from 1999 that criminalizes purchase of sexual services. The law aims at punishing the buyer and protecting the women in prostitution, thus making it possible for women to be helped by various social interventions rather than punished. Swedish society has undergone major changes in these decades. Globalization, the internet and the membership in the EU have changed the Swedish society and influenced the discourse on prostitution.This paper has a twofold aim, on the one hand investigating if and how these changes have had an impact on the prostitution discourse in texts produced by the government and analyze how female and male sexuality in connection to prostitution is constructed.

This essay points at the importance of public libraries as arenas of meetings between refugees and the local population, and by this - creating social kapital in the society as a whole. The researchers Aabø, Audunson and Vårheim have created theories about low-intensive meeting places, that means ? neutral, public places where accidential meetings with different strangers can happen, which can create social capital and trust among each other. To complement these theories I also use Vårheim who have implementet social capital-theories to the sphere of public libraries. These two theories complement each other and can help me investigate two public libraries in a rural area in Sweden.

The aim of this study is to examine which communication channels and communication strategies Umea? municipality could use for information concerning outdoor recreation. To achieve this aim the following theories and views have been applied: social communication, communication strategies, two-way symmetrical communication, social media and uses and gratifications. The study was conducted through four focus group interviews and one informant interview. The focus groups consisted of four groups of outdoor enthusiasts in Umea? municipality: outdoor interested students, organized outdoor enthusiasts, active families and active seniors.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan?s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy.

This study intends to investigate the experiences of labeling on people with a ADHD diagnos and how individuals with an ADHD diagnosis handles labeling. In today's society normality is is something that is pursued and the individuals that do not meet the normality are perceived as deviant. The study is conducted with a qualitative method and is based on three autobiographies where individuals with an ADHD diagnosis writes about their life. The study deals with postmodern constructivism which is explaining that the normalization and deviances are constantly changing, both depending on time and context. The results and analysis of this study are presented under three main headings that are related to the study's research questions.

The aim and goal of this work has been to design and implement a voltage reference network for a 12-bit PSAADC, Parallell Successive Analog to Digital Converter. A chip containing the design has been sent away for fabrication. Because of the long processing time, no measurement data are presented. The main specifications for the voltage reference generator is to generate stable reference voltages with low noise and a good PSRR. Efforts has also been made to minimize the power consumption..

There was a silence surrounding homosexuality in the People's Republic of Poland. One can almost get the impression that same sex love, and same sex relationships, did not even exist there; that the communists had successfully removed homosexuality from society. The roots of this silence can be found in the Communist Party´s disdain for anything deemed individualist and deviant, and also in the conservatism and religiosity of the Polish society.In my thesis I study when and how gays and lesbians found a way out of the silence that surrounded their sexuality. Gay men did so by creating subcultures, which found refuge in parks, public bathrooms and a few bars in larger Polish cities, and offered a sense of belonging for them. Lesbians, on the other hand, lacked this access to semi-public spheres, which made it even harder for them to find each other and create a space for their sexuality.

Air tightness in new buildings has been discussed for several decades. But the knowledge in the subject is low. With tougher requirements from the Swedish government about energy consumption for a new building required competences how these shall be met. It's not only the thick mess of insulation that are important, it's also the air tightness. This report is about air leakage in Swedish houses.

This thesis explore women?s needs when reentering society after having served a sentence at the female prison Färingsö, outside Stockholm and whether those needs are being met in the reentry strategies that are being provided. Parallel to this the thesis also examines if there, based on nonconformity and gender theories, is a socially constructed representation of women maintained in the rehabilitation work.The method of this thesis applied semi-structured interviews and used snowball sampling to expand the network of informants to obtain the data necessary. Totally five interviews were carried out. Previous research has shown that women in prison have much more complex problems than men and that there is a need for reentry strategies that take gender in account.The results showed that in terms of being able to reenter back in society, women needed help to structure a previously chaotic life.

According to a decision of the European Commission, measures are to be taken to reduce the use of energy in the EU. The goal is to reduce it by 20 % compared to the current use. This shall be done to the year 2020 (European Commission, 2011). One industry that use large amounts of energy is the construction of buildings which account for almost a third of the energy use (Brogren, 2012). The major part of the energy that is used in the construction industry is not used when the buildings are built, but rather during the rest of their subsequent lifetime.

 Prostitution has been intensely debated in Sweden for nearly four decades. Two major investigations have so far been initiated by the government and numerous propositions have been put forward in the Swedish parliament resulting in the sexköpslag from 1999 that criminalizes purchase of sexual services. The law aims at punishing the buyer and protecting the women in prostitution, thus making it possible for women to be helped by various social interventions rather than punished. Swedish society has undergone major changes in these decades. Globalization, the internet and the membership in the EU have changed the Swedish society and influenced the discourse on prostitution.This paper has a twofold aim, on the one hand investigating if and how these changes have had an impact on the prostitution discourse in texts produced by the government and analyze how female and male sexuality in connection to prostitution is constructed.

During the beginning of the 19th century Sweden is effected by the Napoleonic Wars and in the aftermath of the war Sweden looses Finland to Russia. This loss leads to the dismissal of King Gustav IV Adolf and the introduction of the Bernadotte dynasty on the Swedish throne. Over the century the industrialization plays a big part in the progress of Sweden. The growth of the industries leads to developments in the areas of agriculture. With this essay I would like to examine if the people on the countryside of Gotland keep the same pace as the people on the mainland in their introduction of new things.

The foundation for this thesis lies in whether or not, and how, the body representation in printed commercials, specific products directed to the body (shampoo, body lotion etc.), has changed during the last fifty years. Four years have been chosen because of the changes in society that we believe might have had an impact. The commercials that have been picked out are the ones that best represent the general view of the body. We have found that the changes when it comes to body presentation has followed the social development to a certain degree, but it is difficult to say how much the society has had an affect on the body ideal in advertising. Representations of the male body is something that has escalated since the early 70?s, fifteen years earlier few commercials was made with male models, and the few there were, never showed more than the face.

The climate changes that are occuring in the world have resulted in that the EU callingfor a 20 % reduction in energy consumption to the year 2020, to reach that goal theEU want the public sector to go forth as a good example. Västfastigheter owns andmanage the hospital buildings in the Västra Götaland region. To be able to reducetheir energy usage Västfastigheter has hired several consulting firms to chart out theenergy consumption on each hospital building. The biggest energy savings potentialhave been calculated and what the cost will be to perform each action. The energyaudit have been completed and stand as the decision basis for Västfastigheter?s choiceon which action packages that should be implemented.