The aim of this essay is to examine which of the two approaches within the field of conflicts that best explains the conflict between Georgia and Russia using negotiations, dialogue and conciliation. According to the first approach negotiations are used to handle a conflict, according to the second approach negotiations are used to solve a problem.  The focus will be on how the two states acted and how the dialogue from the European Union as a conciliator was brought before the war escalated in 2008. The EU is today an important actor within the international politics and has established close relations to the two states. The conflict goes back in history and is still not solved. In the fields of international studies, there is a realistic view that claims the international politics to be shaped by suspicions between states as main actors. War is never far away, what is claimed to be solved through diplomacy.

This master?s thesis analyzes how cultural policy was problematized in three governmental policy areas; culturalpolicy for the free sector, education policy and popular education policy, during the social democrat Ragnar Edenman?s time (1957-67) as minister of ecclesiasticalaffairs. Earlier research has examined the policy for the free sector, concerning artist?s economic problems. This thesisadds an analysis of the other fields of policy, which were reformed in the 1960?s by the same ministry.

This thesis studies the subject on how disabilities are written about in Swedish politics, the programs of the seven parties in the parliament are studied. The thesis is divided into two parts; where the first part is a content analysis to see how often disability are mention in each programme. It differs between one (the Left Party) and 33 times (the Christian Democrates). This first part also works as a backround to the second part of the study. This part of the thesis is built upon a discourse analysis.

This bachelor thesis delves into the role and impact of cultural dimensions, identity and leadership on post-merger acquisition in Sweden through an in-depth analysis of two companies that have undergone acquisitions or mergers. Using an abductive method, where theories are continuously adapted based on empirical data, qualitative information was gathered through semi-structured interviews with managers and employees from the two companies. The study aimed to gather well-founded insights on how corporate cultural dimensions, identity and leadership are experienced by individuals during the merger. By examining culture, leadership and identity in three different time phases of the integrationprocess, a comprehensive understanding of the integration process was achieved. The results of the study highlight that cultural factors such as leadership, culture, and identity play a central and crucial role in mergers and acquisitions. By considering and managing employees' and leaders' identities, organizations can create a sense of coherence and continuity despite changes.

The purpose of this study was to, using statistical analysis, investigate to what extent families of a different cultural background have participated in family therapy and other family treatment programs at Familjeenheten in Lund. With questions regarding the goals of treatment, and the importance of cultural competence in the treatment process we have let two unit managers comment on the statistics. The population of the study is too small to allow general conclusions to be drawn, however, we have been able to ascertain that families of a different background are over-represented relative to their percentage of Lund´s population. Familjeenheten has no statistical record of ethnicity and the interviewed persons express no certain importance in the families´ cultural origins. They express no need to develop special treatment methods that take the clients´ cultural background in regard as they feel that so many of family issues are universal.

The Stockholm Bypass is an infrastructural project planned to be located west of Stockholm. This study investigates the argumentation concerning the project from different perspectives. The theoretical starting point is within Decision Theory. The main theories include Bounded Rationality, Kingdon's study of the political agenda and theory regarding venue shopping, framing and lobbying. The method chosen for this qualitative case study consists of both gathering data through semi-structured interviews and through documents provided by stakeholders and information available publically through archives and media.

The purpose of the study is to explore preschool teachers experiences of how immigrant parents become involved in the preschool activities and how their linguistic and cultural background appears in relation to participation.The survey was conducted through individual interviews with eight preschool teachers working in various multicultural preeschools.The results of this survey shows that the preschool teachers perceive that parents with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are reluctant to participate in various forms of cooperation, such as parent meetings. Preschool teachers believe that the lack of parental participation depends on the parents linguistic and cultural backgrounds, such as different approaches to understand the pre-school educational activity or the view of parenting, and other things such as language difficulties.Another result reveals also a great lack of written methods, because teachers sometimes face difficult dilemmas. To seek itself the right approach in a current situation can be both difficult and time consuming, therefore, the preschool teachers wish that there were already complete methods for use..

Eleven years after broking the Kyoto-protocol, the European Union still stands in the front line, combating climate change. How come the EU, with 27 diversified states, is able to integrate its members to what is widely considered the most progressive climate policy in the world? This thesis takes a closer look at the negotiations that have shaped EU climate policy. Using negotiation-models to categorize different aspects of EU climatenegotiations, several key-findings are presented. The thesis concludes that while EU entered the Kyoto-protocol with little to lose because of external factors like previous energy-reforms in key member countries, it had plenty to win in global influence and the satisfaction of an overwhelmingly Kyoto-positive public.

The purpose of this study was to examine how SOS Children's Villages as an organization in Swaziland is affected by, and takes into account, the cultural, organizational and societal context in which it acts. Material was gathered through a field study during one month in one of the three SOS Children's Villages in Swaziland. The study has a qualitative approach and is based on the result from 12 semi-structured interviews with village mothers and other representatives from the organization. The other representatives were: social worker, program director, child and youth development coordinator, board member and educational manager. Since this study is both characterized by a specific historical, cultural and organizational context, we decided to connect the postcolonial perspective with an organization theory with focus on the concepts of culture, power and a children?s right perspective.

Purpose/Aim: Exhibitions in cultural-historical museums have traditionally been object-centered and associated with one-way communication. The aim of this thesis is to gain knowledge about how exhibition producers ? and educationalists at swedish cultural-historical museums today relate to communication in exhibitions from a communication scientific perspective.Material/Method: The method of the thesis is interviews exhibition producers ? and educationalists at five swedish cultural-historical museums about how they work with communication issues in exhibitions. The empiricism gained from the interviews have been analyzed from a communication scientific angle, using two communication theories as idealtypes for communication processes; Shannon and Weaver´s model and Stuart Hall´s encoding/decoding-theory.Main results: Communication in exhibitions have developed, much due to the use of more channels for communicating with the visitors and the acknowledgement of the visitor as an active subject in interpreting the exhibitions and their message.Despite this development, communication in exhibitions still have features of a one-way communication. The main feature is the lack of possibilities for visitors to communicate their interpretations and point of views of the exhibition back to the exhibition producers.

The local politicians in Sweden are responsible for a great deal of the welfare system why one would assume that there are a lot of demands put on them - demands for certain skills or a certain level of competence. I have in this study tried to find out how the demands on the local representatives concerning the demands for competence and the actual level of competence among the politicians are affecting the local politics. This was done through investigating how the local politicians are perceiving their level of competence and the demands put on them, but also how the employees are perceiving the demands and the level of competence put on the politicians. The study was made in the municipality of Gislaved in Southern Sweden. I was using both quantitative method (an opinion poll among the politicians and employees in the municipality) and qualitative method (interviews with three politicians and three employees and literature studies).In order to investigate the demands for competence I split the concept into ?soft? competence (socially and emotionally based skills), and ?hard? competence (skills based on knowledge, education and experience).

This thesis title starting from zero alludes to storstadssatsningen's democratic work being accomplished among immigrants in Malmö. My thesis examines which types of political participation storstadssatsningen were trying to increase. The goal was to turn the immigrants into political participants, but in many of the projects the democratic work had to focus on building a ground for democratic participation by bringing isolation to an end and teaching the Swedish language. This may have been the reason that there were not extensive forms of resources to put into projects actually raising the political awareness. Some of the projects can however be said to increase a very large number of types of political participation, both temporary and every day participation.

According to the Swedish curriculum, teachers have an assignment to educate children to become democratic citizens. Students will develop values given in the curriculum's section, dealing with aspirational values. Teachers also have an assignment to transmit a cultural heritage. The curriculum states that education, in a deeper sense, is about to transmit a cultural heritage. This claims that the two assignments would be one and the same.

The Swedish security policy has changed from stressing neutrality to embrace co-operation within the EU and other organisations. New threats like terrorism, boarder-crossing criminality and natural disasters require new ways to deal with this type of problems to protect the society. Since the beginning of 21st century the high Russian economic growth has made it possible for the country to play an increasingly role as a superpower on the international political stage. In the same time the democratic development has been replaced by an autocratic rule which has obstructed the Russian- European relations. From a Swedish security policy view the Russian political development is of importance and the picture of Russian as a threat has changed from 1996 to 2008/09.

AbstractIn the heart of Paris, you will find Sweden?s only cultural center abroad. Since the early 70?s a wealth of cultural activities has been offered, and every year the center receives more than 100,000 visitors. The center is a branch of the Swedish Institute (Si), a public authority which promotes mutual relationships between Sweden and other countries through culture, education, science and business.