AbstractIn the beginning of 2007 the Swedish municipality Örebro decided to have a democraticexperiment, which ought to go under the name, ?Dialouge for the citizens?. Therepresentative elected politicians in Örebro tried to find ways to involve the people in theprocess of ruling. Why they choose to try this experiment on this very delicate matter, theclosure of several schools in the municipal, is one of the questions this essay is trying toanswer.The purpose of this essay is to find out whether the process was an attempt for the politiciansof the representative democracy to implement deliberative democracy in the structure of thelocal governance.The result of this study is that the politicians didn?t manage to reach to the citizens the waythey formerly had planned..

Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) and Active Ownership have become increasingly important concepts when it comes to the corporate governance of investors today. Institutional owners highlight the importance of engaging in dialogue, in their pursuit to influence the companies to become sustainable. However, stakeholders and academia are requesting more insight into the workings of these dialogues, concerning their purpose, design and function. This study attempts to increase the existing knowledge of dialogue as a tool for active engagement, used by institutional investors in Sweden. The performed study is based on interviews with five public and private Swedish institutional investors, an SRI consultant firm as well as representatives from two NGOs.

Municipalities are steered organizations with a democratic decision-making. They are responsible for an extensive activity. The local municipal audit is the municipal council?s tool to control that the activity operates. The local municipal audit will in the beginning of every audit period plan for what they will review.

This thesis sets out to investigate three questions, first, how the Belarusian democratization process has progressed since the country?s independence in 1991 to the year of 2006. Second, how the relationship between Russia and Belarus has progressed during this time and third, if and how Russia has affected the democratization process. The study has been conducted through qualitative method, mainly using books and articles as sources of information. It has been found that the democratization process in Belarus has evolved in a negative direction ever since the presidential election of 1994.

How can I make art that face people in their everyday lives, which is integrated into their lives, becoming a part of the discussions both in the mundane and in the room of society? Can I do this by working with performative interpretations that are participatory driven? I have explored how artists and participants can create spaces that are both open and confiden- ce-building, and how they at the same time enable us to question established norms. How to engage in dialogues concerning social, political and existential issues like; What is freedom for me - What is freedom to you? What is it that is important? Which topics are never upraised for discussion?The project is about putting thoughts, experiences and bodies (my own, the participants and the viewer?s) in relation to each other and to the location and context they are in. It ?s about creating a broader perspective where everyone?s voice is important and can take place.

Syftet med denna studie är att få mer kunskap om hur man kan använda kroppen i sångundervisning. Jag undersöker vad ett urval av sångpedagoger anser om förhållandet mellan röstorganet och resten av kroppen och hur de tillämpar det praktiskt i sin undervisning. Metoden jag använder mig av är en kvalitativ intervjuundersökning och resultatet visar bland annat att pedagogerna använder kroppen i sångundervisningen genom övningar med rörelser, olika muskelspänning och avslappning. Några av slutsatserna är att det är viktigt med balans mellan anspänning och avspänning, att använda rätt sorts muskler och rörelser samt att använda dessa på rätt sätt.The purpose of this study is to get more knowledge of how you can use the body in voice-training. I examine what a selection of singing-teachers think about the connection between the vocal organ and the body and how they use that knowledge in their teaching.

Noise music is created around sounds not often welcome in a musical context. Since the birth of electronic music in the 1950s a new perspective on composing has emerged. In electronic music, sounds and their timbre are as much important as melody, harmony and rhythm. This composing perspective is not often observed. Therefore I have examined a musical genre that stretches the boundaries of what we consider music, sound, noise, beautiful and terrible.

The thesis investigates how two of the world?s most powerful international actors, the US and the EU want to promote democracy and human rights. The aim is to compare how the US and the EU work in order to support a democratic development in the world. In order to fulfill the purpose of the thesis a qualitative text analysis was used. Since the aim is to compare the US and the EU I believe this method is beneficial.

Fairtrade is a certification of products that has grown from the criticism of conventional trade. By increasing the focus on the producers? economic and social conditions, poverty can be fought and the producers? voice in the marketplace can be strengthened. Fairtrade City is a certification for municipalities who wish to engage in ethical consumption. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the Fairtrade City concept and how this can be a tool for working towards sustainable development. To be more concise, we want to answer the following questions: Why does Örebro municipality work with the Fairtrade City certification and how can Fairtrade City be used as tool for working towards sustainable development? The thesis is based on qualitative interviews and e-mail interviews with members of the steering committee for Örebro Fairtrade City and on literature studies. We have in our thesis identified Örebro Fairtrade City as a result of 1) that Örebro municipality through Fairtrade City wants to change their surrounding environment by engaging in ethical trade 2) that the surrounding environment effects Örebro municipality through isomorphism regarding its way to deal with sustainable development 3) that the municipality through its work with ethical trade becomes legitimized by their surrounding environment.

Internet is the future and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is growing in use. Companies are starting to realise the benefits with VoIP. Skype is the number one soft phone on the market but it doesn't satisfy the needs of companies (e.g. transfer calls, redirects calls and so forth) and leaves therefore a gap. The purpose of this master thesis is to provide Objektor AB (thesis initiator) with tips on how to design a usable soft phone that they know is based on relevant human computer interaction research.The method used in the thesis has been iterative development.

Det blir allt vanligare med teknik såsom mobiltelefoner som pratar med människor och vardagen blir allt mer lik en verklighet som tidigare endast existerat i fiktion. Tekniken talar med hjälp av så kallade röstgränssnitt, system som låter datorer tolka och/eller förmedla information genom tal. Uppsatsen ifrågasätter strävan efter att göra dessa gränssnitts röster mänskliga och undersöker hur tekniken kan ges en egen individualitet. Undersökningen grundas i tidigare forskning som behandlar hur människor bemöter röstgränssnitt. Genom en filmanalys med utgångspunkt i identitet och relationer undersöks hur relationen människa-maskin gestaltas i fiktion.

AbstractElisabeth Hellström: Hur lät Jenny Lind, Christina Nilsson och Signe Hebbe? En studie av sångskolor och röstideal under 1800-talet. Uppsala universitet: Institutionen för musikvetenskap, uppsats för 60 p, 2007.The aim of this essay is to, with starting point in the Garcia- and Lamperti-schools, describe the voice ideals of the 19th century, and how it may have sounded. To exemplify the last-mentioned I have studied the voices of the three singers Jenny Lind,  Christina Nilsson and Signe Hebbe (there are no recordings of any of them).The essay contains two major parts. In the first I describe the technique of the Garcia- and Lamperti-schools and their views on registers, vibrato and messa di voce, ending with a summarizing analysis of the 19th century vocal ideals.

In a multicultural society such as Sweden opposition between different ethnical groups can be hard to avoid. In the educational arena there is legislation and there are guidelines that aim to avert any kind of xenophobia directed at individuals or groups. As teachers occupy the end point of the educational chain the execution of these guidelines is for the most part left up to them.This paper aims to study how teachers handle situations where xenophobia is present and if so how they work preemptively against it. It also takes a closer look into the notion of professionalism within the teacher force with the aim of trying to answer whether teachers reach the requirements of professionalism. To do so we apply Gunnar Berg?s definition of the term 'professionalism' together with other scholars' thoughts on the subject.

A B S T R A C TTitle: Democracy- Choice of the people or the voice of media? (Demokrati- Folkets styre eller Mediernas Makt?)Number of pages: 36Author: Carolina VallinTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn term 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose with this essay is to discuss which influence media has on the democracy.Material/Method: Qualitative explorative research method is used to see how much space the newspaper Dagens Nyheter gave to the parties represented in the parliament, and compare the results with the numbers the parties received in the general election 2006.Main results: This research showed similar results in the survey made of DN and the numbers the parties received in the general election 2006. Media can?t decide how people should vote in a election, but they can influence what citizens think and talk about by having the power to choose which information that shows on the agenda.Key Words: Dagens Nyheter, Agenda setting, Media, Power and Democracy..

This paper examines whether membership in the European Union has contributed to democratic stability and integration in an ethnic diverse society. By studying the Latvian multicultural society, before and after membership in the EU, the author is looking for evidence of enhanced ethnic stability in the country brought through European integration. The author will analyze what the consequences have been, by adopting European regional policy, for a country that yet has to create a unified national identity. By analyzing different areas of the Latvian society, the author has concluded that the EU has played a small but yet not insignificant role for the Latvian domestic integration process..