This essay is about democracy and how a democracy index can be used as a tool to illustratethe gap between reality and ideal. The purpose of this study can be expressed by two researchquestions: Does the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) democracy index illustrate thedistance between reality and the ideal of democracy presented by Dahl? and Can the EIU'sdemocracy index be modified by a) internal adjustments and b) using the variables includedin World Economic Forum?s (WEF) equality index?By using a combination of theories (Dahl?s theory of democracy, Rawls theory of justice andchosen theories critical to liberal democracy) as an analytical framework the following twoquestions have been answered:1) Which of the variables included in the EIU's democracy index have the potential to capturethe level of political equality?2) Which of the variables included in the WEF?s equality index have the potential to capturethe degree of political equality?By using a quantitative method the study?s third and last question has been answered:3) How strong is the rank correlation between the EIU?s democracy index and the WEF?sequality index, that is; how strong is the rank correlation coefficient (rho)?The data presented by the WEF?s equality index indicate that women are systematicallydiscriminated against as a group. From a democratic perspective the EIU may need tomeasure inequalities at a group level in order to capture the lack of political equality betweenindividuals. By reformulating some of the EIU?s variables, by revising the EIU?s point systemand by using the variables included in the WEF's equality index to extend EIU?s democracyindex, the chances of capturing the gap between reality and the ideal of democracy presentedby Dahl would likely increase..

The subject of this study is gender norms in the preschool and children who oppose those norms. The aim is to investigate how the discourses are linked with the way in which preschool teachers and teaching assistants talk about children?s gender identity. This study is founded in feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis, which was a basis for the interpretation of the results. My research questions are:? How do educators express themselves concerning gender norms?? What do educators need to work with a gender critical agenda?? How do the educators describe their work concerning gender, gender norms and children who oppose those norms?? For educators who have experience with children who do not identify with the gender they was given at birth, how do educators describe their own treatment of said children, and how would they describe the treatment from the other members of the teaching team?The study consists of qualitative interviews with five educators who were asked questions relevant to: norms, gender, gender criticism and how they work with those topics.I found both positive and negative aspects of gender work in preschool.

Thid thesis concerns pre-Roman religion in Gaul, taking as its starting point Caesar's De bello Gallico. Caesar's account of the Gauls and their religious customs is compared with the accounts of Lucan, Pliny the elder and Ammianus Marcellinus. These are also compared to, and contrasted to, the archaeological evidence. There is some discussion of the nature of the common interpretations of this evidence. The concept of 'the Celts' is touched upon, since much of the relevant evidence has, in our time, been thought of as Celtic.

Movies are a part of everybody?s, including student everyday life. Teachers have to give their students the tools and means to critically examine movies and media as a whole. This study aims to examine how seven teachers in southern Sweden didactically motivate their use of movies; specifically entertainment features in the history subject. The theoretical framework of this study is Knud Illeris theories about the three dimensions of learning.

The transformational leadership and the Swedish Armed Forces? basic outlook on pedagogy are two factors that affect a Swedish military officer. The author has identified a need of understanding the process of personal development. An understanding that couldn?t be supplied by the transformational leadership but that was found in the Swedish Armed Forces? basic outlook on pedagogy.

This paper examines dialect as a rhetorical means of persuasion. A survey containing inquires about four different Swedish dialects have been handed out mainly in Södertörn University and Stockholm University, in order to research the values and connotations of theese dialects. The four chosen dialects are as following: Göteborgska, Stockholmska, Norrländska and Skånska. The results of the survey are processed and compiled to see which attitudes these values and connotations may indicate to each dialect. These attitudes and values are then discussed in correlation with five rhetorical theories: Attitude as a means of persuation, Ethos, Persona, Rhetorical Agency and Pierre Bourdieu?s theory of Field and Habitus.

Studies have shown that user participation is a good method when improving or developing a product. The method gives a company insight in what the customer wants and needs. It has also been shown that user participation benefits all parts included. For example, it creates a greater relationship with customers than most other methods do. Webportals is one of the most interactive systems online and it gives companies a unique chance to improve and maintain their relationship with customers.

The purpose of this study was to understand how the concept of quality as an idea was spread to and translated in municipal elderly care. A central question was: How does literature, policy documents and key people describe the function and meaning of the concept of quality? The method of analysis was a qualitative case study with a critical discourse. The theoretical framework of the study is mainly what is known as institutional theory and a line of thought describing how ideas are transferred and spread. The theoretical focus is on how original ideas are interpreted and why they gain a foothold in new contexts.

The purpose with this work is to describe the language that is built around the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in Sweden. Our questions are: What does the professional field look like; who writes, about what and for which kind of readers? How do they describe the expressions and the upcoming of CFS? For which reasons can CFS be considered as a medical diagnosis/illness? How can CFS be understood from a social perspective? Our theoretical starting point is a social constructive theory and also Karin Johannisson's theory about medicalization and Foucault?s theory about power. We have from a literature-exposition of Swedish articles from 1989 to 2006, done a social constructive discourse analysis with help from Laclau & Mouffe's discourse theory, and Fairclough's model of social practices. In our textual analysis we found three dominating discourses: A medical discourse, a social/cultural discourse and a general/popular discourse.

Internal communication is an important factor in organisations today. For many system development teams it?s critical that the communication works well. Without communication, success would be impossible. This study aims to highlight the effect communication has on the members of agile project teams.

The Swedish museum world is a complex and disputed field. Changes are high on the agenda, but they are neither easy nor self-evident. This master thesis looks at how Swedish museum professionals discuss changes and how they envision museum work for the future. It is also an analysis of the current state of the field. We have made a critical discourse analysis of three recent projects; Svåra saker, Museum 2000, makten.nu and the debate articles from the journal Svenska Museer from 2000 to 2001.

Background: When a person suddenly pass away, the relatives often arrive to the Emergency Department under chaotic circumstances. In this critical situation the nurse has an important role for the care. Many nurses lack of knowledge about how to take care of the bereaved relatives. Aim: The aim of the literature study was to describe aspects of caring for suddenly bereaved relatives. Method: The data for the study were scientific articles found in the databases PubMed and Cinahl and from a manual search.

In this two years master?s thesis I examine the library?s representation of research and its influence upon the relationship between the library practice and the research practice. I also intend to find out what controls the representation and if it is possible to see changes in the representation over time. My source material has been texts published in the Swedish library journal ? and social domain ? Biblioteksbladet during the last decennium (2001?2011).

This bachelor thesis covers fire protection methods of structural steel and the aim is to develop an information tool designed for inexperienced structural engineers. The information tool covers basic fire protection methods and the general way to produce a fire resistance for structural steel. The layout of this information tool is a simple folder that contains information about the most important steps when producing fire protection for a steel structure.The thesis starts with a general overview of the fire protection needed in buildings to fulfill national legislative and regulatory requirements. To get an understanding of how steel components behave during the influence of fire, a brief overview is presented of the material properties of steel. This chapter also contains a review of previous research in the area.

The accounting scandals that have attracted attention in recent years have led to internal control becoming a more central part of business activity. Doubts about what firms actually do have increased, all caused by the attention of accounting scandals. To counter this, frameworks and laws evolved and gained a significant role in the organization and its surroundings. The aim of the present study is to find out how four companies in the Kristianstad region are working to ensure its internal control and how they work to minimize risk and reduce uncertainty. We have used a qualitative method and interviewed a person in a senior position in each company.