The aim with this Master's thesis is to study the debate that takes place in the local community when a public library branch is threatened by closedown through the local newspapers. Through this it is our aim to understand why the debate takes place, and why so many people gets concerned with it. By relating this debate to contemporary research of library- and information science, and the discussion in three major Swedish library journals, we have found the answers to these questions. By studying the debate, we found six subjects that where essential for this study. These were Politics and economics, Urban and rural districts, Democracy and accessibility, The service of the library, The meeting place and To replace a closed down library.

The subject of this master thesis is the school library and how we find its potential unutilized. We look at this problem in connection to the democratic assignment that the Swedish school has. The purpose is to elucidate what the democratic assignment consists of and to establish the role that the school library ought to have in this assignment. To describe the democratic assignment we examine and interpret the documents that regulate school and library activities today, including UNESCO/IFLA School Library Manifesto and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We use critical ideology analysis because we consider democracy to be a sort of ideology and have a critical view of how the school library is used or rather not used in school.

The purpose of this examination was to make a qualitative study focusing on children's influence from a gender perspective. The study is based on interviews. We wanted to investigate teachers' perception of children's influence in the preschool.Earlier research on children´s influence and gender has also helped us in the conclusion of this examination.The survey consists of ten interviews with teachers of varied work experience in the preschool. We also chose to interview teachers in other positions, since this is often the case in preschools today. From the result we can see that there are different levels of skill and awareness regarding the topic of children's influence from a gender perspective.

I boken Patterns of Democracy (1999) påvisar Arend Lijphart att tio institutionella variabler fångar variansen mellan majoritets- och konsensusdemokrati längs två separata dimensioner. Den första dimensionen ? exekutiv-partisystem ? behandlar fem olika arrangemang av den exekutiva makten, parti- och valsystem samt organiserade intressen. Den andra dimensionen ? enhetsstat-federalism ? behandlar den institutionella kontrasten mellan enhetsstat och federa-lism.

The aim of this study was to examine if an organisation that strives for democracy and participation, also possess an open information culture. This study deals with the information culture in a social movement organisation, Attac Gothenburg. To achieve the aim, following questions were asked: What is the organisation culture like, is it open or closed? What is the information culture like, is it open or closed? What is the information culture like, in relation to the identity of the organisation? The focus has been put on earlier research in social movements, organisation and information culture. In this qualitative study I have collected material mainly from interviews.

The purpose of this MA thesis is to examine the computerisation of sources that are of interest to genealogists. The primary focus of the thesis is an empirical study, by using a questionnaire addressed to 118 genealogical societies in Sweden, in order to find out what kind of computerisation is being performed by these genealogical societies and what their opinion is of the computerisation of sources of interest to genealogists. The result of this questionnaire has shown, together with printed and electronic material, that there is a good deal of interest from genealogical societies in the computerisation of sources. About half of the genealogical societies who answered the questionnaire are computerising sources themselves and the societies have a positive view in general of the computerisation that is being done and of the increased usage of modern information technology in genealogy. There are on the other hand certain issues that are being discussed such as the important question of the quality of the computerised material.

This Masters thesis concerns feature film services in Swedish public libraries. We have investigated the opinion of eight librarians concerning values and criteria for selection as regards film. The theory chosen comes from varied disciplines, for example sociology, adapted to our subject. The most important theories are Antonio Gramscis idea of hegemony, Herbert J. Gans concept of taste cultures and Carl Gustav Johannsens discussion about quality.

The purpose with this essay is to find out ifneo-fascist connection will change the next generationscitizens (in this specific case ninth graders) opinions about a specific political party. In modern day Sweden,only one political party stands for political ideas that can be seen as neo-fascist (Sverigedemokraterna). Whatwould happen if the next generation citizens saw this connection and how would they respond? That?s whatthis essay is all about, are the students ?positive?, ?negative? or ?on changed? to a neo-fascist politicalparty? The studies research type is mainly of a qualitative nature butquantitative elements occur. The data iscoming from two classes of ninth graders that answered eight questions each.

The purpose of this study is to survey how the Sweden Democrats? success in the latest election to the Swedish parliament has changed teaching in social science. The main question is: in what way has the success of the Sweden Democrats influenced social science teaching? This leads to following sub-questions: 1) how do the social science teachers define the Sweden Democrats, 2) how do teachers relate to the Sweden Democrats in the classroom, 3) has there been a change in students? political opinions and 4) were there any discussions or proposals from the school administration which followed the parliamentary election of 2010? To answer these questions, interviews were made with four teachers. The main conclusion of this study is that the Sweden Democrats? success led to a simplification of teaching because phenomena and opinions that were previously taboo nowadays are normalized and thus have its place in the classroom.

This report describes an interview study of Swedish elementary school teacher?s view on stu-dent influence. The objective is to find out about teachers' approach to student influence, what do they think happens with students that are allowed to influence and what are the negotiables and non-negotiables when it comes to student influence in elementary education? And do the teachers really want their students to have influence?According to the official policy documents for the Swedish school system the Swedish school shall work towards a democratic school. Not only should the students be educated about de-mocracy but they should also learn to use democratic values and processes.

ABSTRACTThe EU as a normative power in Belarus ? a critical caseBy Anna JohnssonUniversity of VäxjöSchool of Social SciencesSpring semester 2007The European Union?s identity is a much debated topic. Some say it?s a unique actor in the international arena because of the different tools it has at its disposal. Ian Manners claims that the EU is what he calls a normative power.

 Background and aim: Media development and digitalization has expanded the PR industry's working area. More participants are on the media market and it is becoming more and more difficult to define what PR really is and what the PR agencies/departments really do. Is PR marketing, information, event marketing or maybe propaganda? We believe that the complexity to define the term PR can lead to a loss of critical approach to the business, especially among young people. Has the PR industry managed to eliminate their negative image among students in upper secondary school and what do they associate with PR today? The aim of this essay is to examine what a selection of students associate with the term PR and if they are critical to the PR industry or not.Method/Material: The method is a quantitative survey.

Uppsatsen behandlar frågan huruvida dagens Ungern bör kunna betraktas som en konsoliderad demokrati. Frågan utgår ifrån teorin om för att ett lyckat demokratiskt samhälle ska kunna uppnås måste fem dimensioner vara uppfyllda: ett väl fungerande och demokratiskt institutionaliserat civilsamhälle, politiskt samhälle och ekonomiskt samhälle samt en rättstat och statsbyråkrati. Uppsatsen tar tre av dessa samhälleliga arenor i beaktande samt medborgarnas och politikernas attityder och utgår i huvudsak från artiklar, böcker och tidsskrifter. För att åskådliggöra Ungerns utveckling från demokratisk transition till dagens situation har en viss historisk tillbakablick varit nödvändig för att ge perspektiv åt landets sociala, politiska och ekonomiska händelseförlopp..

This work is designed to monitor developments in the relationship between teacher and student in the school environment, but also outside, from the 1950s until today. The survey was based on four interviews with teachers in the same age, and based on their life stories. Their experiences range from student to novice teachers and a long working life until retirement. In addition, all four children has a parent perspective. The following issues have been focused:                      1.What factors have been crucial in teaching elevrelationens development from the 1950s up     to today?                      2.

The discussion concerning what role the church and theology should have in a modern, western society is a question that is ongoing in Sweden as well as in other countries. The present; American theologians Stanley Hauerwas and Max L. Stackhouse have different ideas concerning the identity of the church and theology as well as their relation to the society they are in. This essay surveys their views on the church and the theology and how they should relate to the society. Hauerwas focuses his theology on the church, and the first part of the essay deals with his view on what makes a church, how it differs from the rest of the world and what the church?s calling is.