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..

Participation is central to the concept of democracy. The role of the civic participation varies with different types of democracy, but a fundamental requirement is that the participation is free and equal. In spite of this, there are significant differences between possibilities to democratic participation in Sweden today.This essay seeks to understand how disability, historically and still today, is constructed as a social deviation from normality, and is constructed to Otherness.One way to regard freedom and equality is to examine the personal autonomy, the legth to wich a person decides her/his roles and activities in abcence of external limitations. Personal autonomy is theoretically central in deliberative and strong democracy, but should reasonobly be a demand for the fundamental definition of democracy.The explanation to why the lack of personal autonomy is accepted, is that the construction of Otherness results in that the persons are categorized and are given simplified characteristics, and are thereby not accepted as equivalent people.In the inteviews conducted, seven politicians contribute both whiteness, pathological discourses regarding disability and ideas of normality through discussing democracy, participation and disability. Simultaniously, they express interest and an awareness on the majority's power and symbolic violence on the minority..

This master?s thesis aims at examining and structuring different viewpoints concerning the assignments of the Swedish public library system. The method used is ideology analysis.The main questions are: what are the overriding goals connected to each of the different assignments? How are these goals motivated? By which means are the goals to be reached? And how does our analysis relate to earlier research on the assignments of the Swedish public library? The thesis can be said to consist of three main parts. Part one is a theoretical framework introducing the concept ?ideology analysis? and the concept ?schools of thought?.

This study analyzes the discursive content of four history textbooks in order to demonstrate how national identities are formed and how they differ from each other. This was done through discourse analysis guided by social constructivism and John M. Hobson?s dichotomy of East and West. The study shows that textbooks mainly construct national identities in three ways; first by making a clear distinction between ?The Self? and ?The Other?, second by preserving a world order based on the notions of the invariant hegemony of the nation-state, and third by utilizing stereotype based dissimilarities in order to accentuate existing differences between nationalities. Implicit ideals and values in the historical discourse play an important part in the construction of identities; however sends a contradictory and ambiguous message.

During my time as a student at the School of Library and Information Science in Borås there was an ongoing discussion regarding whether or not the library and librarian were facing an identity crisis and what future consequences this may lead to. The discussion was and still is of interest to me since it most likely will have an impact on the identity I soon will make part of my self as a professional librarian. This master?s thesis is an attempt that to through discourse analysis seek clarity in what the future identity of the library and the librarian may consist of. I do so by examining articles from the two library journals Ikoner and Biblioteksbladet.

The First World War had a definite impact on all of Europe, not to say the entire world. The domain of art was no exception. In Zürich, neutral Switzerland, a group of young creative intellectuals who shared a hostile approach towards the structure of the bourgeois society, with its non-democratic rulers and current nationalism which lead up to the war, united under the artistic movement we today call Dadaism. After the war Dadaism sprung up in several cities throughout Europe, among those Berlin. In Berlin Dadaism became a socialist weapon of propaganda, with its norm breaking artistic manifestations, against the camouflaged conservative government of the new Weimar republic.

Fungi are everywhere around us and recently, there has been an increased interest in their role and importance in the forest. The fungi have several strategies to acquire energy and nutrition; one example is a mutual symbiosis with trees and plants - another being dissolving organic materials. Attempts have been made to better understand the circulation of nutrition in coniferous forests, and how fungi cooperate. Trees and plants have adapted with mycorrhizae and are now interdependent which is important to consider in forestry. A great number of fungi depend on dead wood and old trees to set fruiting bodies and spread further. These fungi also create environments for other species, such as birds and insects. The vegetation of a forest is determined by a series of factors; tree species, how old the forest is, soil type, as well as the ability of the fungal spores to spread and establish. Furthermore, in determining vegetation, the fungi?s ability to compete in the soil matters. These factors are nearly unexplored. Researching fungi knowledge and interest, a survey was distributed to five groups of people. The groups included forest owners, high school teachers, high school students, senior citizens, and a fifth group - ?o he ? - consisting of people of mixed ages and backgrounds.

Lao People?s Democratic Republic (PDR) is a country where the majority of the population works within the sector agriculture in one way or another. The number of goats are increasing and the animals can be an important income source for families. However, during the dry season, lack of feed is a great problem for the farmers. Fodder trees have shown great potential as dry season feeding, due to that the trees often hold green and fresh leaves a long time into the season, compared to grass that dry out quickly.

This bachelor thesis? purpose is to investigate how purchase librarians work with foreign language collection management. Since about 15% of the citizens of Sweden are born abroad or have a foreign background, the subject of investigation becomes relevant because it touches a wide user group of the public library.Interviews were conducted with four librarians responsible for purchasing of foreign literature. The purpose of these interviews was to investigate which underlying strategies and thoughts are used as a basis for purchasing.Since the library act does not include guidelines regarding the content of the foreign literature collection, how is the literature chosen and to what purpose?As a theoretical framework a self-developed model was used to categorize the foreign literature into its different functions.

This essay is regarding the problematic facts about child poverty in Sweden. Since the beginning of the new millennium child poverty has increased, in Sweden. The last report which came out in the spring this year (2012) opened up for a lively political debate as well as big headlines in news papers and other media. The attention it got in Society became hard for the politicians to avoid. The Swedish section of Save the Children, demanded in their report concerning child poverty in Sweden that the Swedish Government need to do an inquiry about the increasing child poverty.  Today in Sweden, there are two big parties, and they have been the biggest for a long time now.

The aim of this paper is to describe the position of the Swedish welfare state within the shaping of a Swedish national identity. This is done through the study of Mångkulturåret 2006, and its rhetorical context. The point of departure is that history is formed continuously in current speech and a text analytical method has been used. Mångkulturåret was issued by the Department of Culture as an extended perspective of Cultural politics. The rhetoric used in the official document Agenda för Mångkultur is analyzed through a comparison with earlier official documents on the field of multiculturalism and integration.

The purpose of this investigation is to study how librarians experience bookcrossing. We focused on the two following questions: Which variations are there in librarians conceptions of bookcrossing as literature exchange and reading support activity? Which variations are there in librarians conceptions of bookcrossing compared to other methods of literature exchange and reading support? Bookcrossing is an international book club where you share your books by leaving them at public places. The thesis is focused on librarians? conceptions and not the conceptions of members of bookcrossing.

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 concerning issue of declining number of hunters in North America is also apparent in Europe and Sweden. When the bulk of research found on human dimensions and hunting participation has almost exclusively been done in the United States, this report seeks to add to the needed knowledge on a national level focusing on the causes of hunter declines related to social factors within Sweden. Using hunter data reaching from commune, county to National level, this report describes the correlation between a number of variables and the hunting participation in Sweden.The typical Swedish hunter lives in an area with low population density, the person usually has higher education, the living situation is stable with no recent moving and there is relatively good access to forest land. Persons with weaker connection to the Swedish culture such as foreign citizens, people with foreign background and people born outside ?the Nordic countries? are less likely to start hunt or participate in hunting.A strong relationship was found between the favorite game, moose (Alces alces), and the amount of hunters participating in the hunting.

To many of us blogging is a natural part of our everyday life. Bloggers dedicate hours to writing in blogs, reading blogs, commenting on posts or answering comments on published posts. But what we choose to blog about can differ; this is an important note due to my discovery that what we choose to write about determines what benefits blogging holds to the blogger.This paper discusses the conventions of blogging as well as tries to answer the question of why blogging is so popular: why do we start blogging and why do so many choose to continue? These questions get answered by me analyzing the phenomenon that is blogging.I have studied both blogging as genre and as a kind of performance, as well as I have tried to hold an open dialogue with my informants. Thus I have concluded that blogging is to be considered a tool with many uses.