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?.

Detta examensarbete syftar till att skapa en digital översiktsplan för Bengtsfors kommun. Arbetet har gått ut på att digitalisera kartdata samt att bygga upp en databas med kartinformation och attributdata, för att få en fungerande översiktsplan, med ökad tillgänglighet för politiker och tjänstemän. Utifrån att ha fört en dialog med länsstyrelsen och studerat olika översiktsplaner har en databasbeskrivning arbetats fram. Kartorna har digitaliserats i AutoKa PC och lagrats i RT 90 2,5 gon väst, och sedan förts över till Mapinfo där även attributen lagrats. Kartorna har lagrats i olika skikt i mif- format.

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.

Syftet med studien är att ta reda på om och i så fall hur sex stycken elever i årskurs 9 på en grundskola i södra Sverige använder sig av den kunskap de får inom ämnet kost och hälsa i hem- och konsumentkunskap i sin vardag samt att ta reda på vilka faktorer som avgör om eleven tar till sig kunskapen i ämnet kost och hälsa i hem- och konsumentkunskap. Resultatet jämförs köns- och beygsmässigt samt med Nationella utvärderingen av grundskolan 2003 - NU-03. Metod som använts är en ostrukturerad kvalitativ metod med strukturerade intervjuer. Undersökningen visar att eleverna tycker ämnet är meningsfullt och ger dem kunskap för livet vilket stämmer med NU-03. Eleverna vill ha tydligare mål så att de lättare kan delta i terminsplaneringen.

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.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att ta reda på vilken funktion den pedagogiska dokumentationen fyller i förskolan. Vi har tittat närmare på hur pedagogisk dokumentation fungerar i praktiken utifrån både lärares perspektiv och barns perspektiv. Målet med undersökningen var att få djupare kunskaper inom ämnet. Under undersökningens gång har vi genomfört både lärare och barnintervjuer där vi har fått svar på hur de arbetar med pedagogisk dokumentation i förskolan. Lärarna använder sig av observationer för att följa upp det individuella barnet och förtydliga den verksamhet som bedrivs.

Political disenchantment and detachment is proven to be growing in well established democracies. This development brings along concerning behavior regarding general political participation. Fewer citizens participate in elections, parties are losing members, and the trust in politicians is steadily decreasing. IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance) has been registering voter turnout worldwide for the last 60 years and their publications show a decline in voter participation since the 1980s.During the same period of time another development has caught attention, namely the fast progress of the medium Internet. The new generation of Internet functions is called Web 2.0 and allows users not only to create content, but also to interact with each other.This dissertation aims to explore the possibilities emerging when integrating Web 2.0 in political processes.

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 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.

Our study is focused on how the public sector can collaborate with the private sector on a certain issue. The public sector wanted to create a project to increase bicycling in the municipality of Kalmar. Our problem was to develop a sustainable way to collaborate between the two parties. We managed to present a suggestion on how the public sector with communication could improve their Public Relations with the private sector and therefore letting the parties benefit from their differences, thus making it possible to release synergy.Using semi-structured interviews and a workshop, we could clarify the values and attitudes of the parties to bring forth the core values to develop a shared vision. Where the identified differences were found, we used a dialog strategy based on intercultural conflict management as a communication tool.

Introduktion: Arbetsmiljö och hälsa är viktigt och längre uppmärksammade på arbetsmarknaden, inte minst inom den offentliga sektorn som landstinget. Inom området har ett nytt tänk, för att mäta och följa upp hälsofrämjande effekter och följa upp dem, börjat användas och studeras. Hälsobokslut är ett nytt begrepp som börjat få fotfäste. Tidigare forskningsresultat bevisar att ett synliggörande av sambandet mellan hälsa och ekonomi är centralt för att minska ohälsotalen.Tillämpligheten av hälsobokslut testades genom ett förbättringsarbete på två vårdenheter.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att klarlägga möjligheteroch svårighetervid införande av hälsobokslut (HB) inom sjukvården samt nyttan av HB. Studien vägleddes av följande frågeställningar: -Hur ser chefer inom vården på hälsofrämjande projekt och hur följer de upp resultatet av dem?  -Vilken nytta får cheferna av hälsobokslutet? -Hur stödjer hälsobokslutet utvärderingen av hälsofrämjande insatser?Metod: Studien har en interaktiv forskningsansats med kvalitativa och kvantitativa data.