The question of direct citizen participation in politics and administration is a contestable one. Its proponents claim that it has positive consequences even for the more "traditional", representative democracy, since participation leads to an increased political knowledge and increased political interest, and thus creates a revitalised democracy. Critical voices have however been raised to the validity of this claim. Critics have also pointed out direct participation as problematic, because it leads to problems of political inequality: a difference of political influence between ? on the one hand, the citizens participating directly and those that restrict their political participation to voting, and ? on the one the other hand ? between the institutions, for example schools, that employ, and don?t employ this method of direct citizen influence.In this essay, these two points of criticisms are tested in the context of user-boards in elementary and secondary schools.

AbstractThe purpose for this essay has been to illuminate some teachers opinions of integration of students with Aspergers syndrom in the compulsory school, then compare it with the statue documents and see similarities and differences.The studie has been of a quality character, based on quality intervjues to get the teachers understanding at a deeper level. The questions in the intervju are based on open questions with purpose not to control the person during the intervju.The most obvious result which was that it appered two perspective of integration of students with Aspergers syndrom. One in the short run and one in the long run.In the long run it was the integration of the individual into the society and in the short run integration in school.For the perspective in the long run, the opinions from the teachers in compulsory school is good corresponding to the statue documents, that the integration is necessary for our democratic and human values that our sociaty are based on.In the short run, during the years when the students are in school, it came out great difficulties to integrate children with Aspergers syndrom. To proceed an integration that works out for the students, the teachers took site from the individual and not from the society. If we do not look at integration from an individual base we are probably not going to succeed to integrate in society.Searchwords: Aspergers syndrom, neuropsychiatric funktional disorders, integration, inclusion, segregation..

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the extent of the civil rights political participation on a municipality level. The starting-point is the participatory democratic theory. I have chosen to make a case study of the extent of participation among KPR ? the board of the pensioners in the municipality of Skara. KPR is represented by fourteen members from the seven existing associations for pensioners.

Is there any truth in the saying ?no news is good news? or is there a reason to question whether media actually do reflect the world?s worst conflicts proportionally? The communication technologies have seen major developments in recent years, and more and more people choose to read their news on the Internet. With smartphones and other devices, one could imagine that there would be easier to cover more conflict areas than ever ? but is this what has happened?In this study we aimed to investigate how three chosen Swedish newspapers reflected five of the on-going conflicts of 2012 and how this can be explained with the theories; the CNN effect and Stealth Conflicts. We started out with studies of the two theories.

The study is a qualitative textual analysis comparing how two newspapers fromSmåland reacted to Nazi Germany during the interwar period. The purpose of the studyis to illustrate how newspapers' political orientation may influence its content. Theexamined material is limited to letters to the editor, editorials and columns. The twopapers are of different political orientations, Smålänningen is bourgeois andKronobergaren is social democratic. The theoretical basis is founded in Klas Åmarksperspective on Sweden's position in the war, the so-called small state realistic paradigmand the moral perspective, as well all Kosellecks theory about the written word.

Den här studien är utförd i Chiang Mai i Thailand och syftar till att undersöka situationen för burmesiska journalister som därifrån verkar i exil. Sedan 2011 har omvälvande politiska samhällsförändringar genomförts av regimen i Burma som internationellt omtalas som en pågående demokratiseringsprocess. Exilmedierna har i skrivande stund flyttat delar av produktionen in i landet i hopp om att i framtiden flytta hela verksamheten till Burma. Följande frågeställningar behandlas: 1) Hur upplever exiljournalisterna sin roll i den pågående demokratiseringsprocessen? 2) Hur ser förhållandet mellan exiljournalisterna och regimen ut? 3) Finns det skillnader mellan att jobba inifrån Burma eller i exil som påverkar rapporteringen? 4) Hur kan de studerade mediernas roll förstås i förhållande till McQuails (2003) teori om ?demokratiskt deltagande medier??Den teoretiska ramen baseras på teorier om demokrati, det offentliga rummet, mediers roll i underutvecklade länder, länder under samhällsförändring och alternativa medieformer.

The aim of the study is to see how teachers and students work in a multicultural school according to a method which teaches students to write before reading with the aid of computers. A further aim to investigate is how pupils with Swedish as a second language develop their linguistic skills using the method.To participate in modern society requires a lot from the individual. To function in a society that is constantly changing requires a good knowledge of the use of language in order to participate as a democratic citizen. It is therefore important that all students develop good linguistic knowledge regardless of their first language.The study is based on interviews with four teachers, operating in a multicultural school. Besides the interviews observations were made of the teachers and students in their daily work with computers.The results of the study showed that the method is language stimulating and develops the second language of the learners.

The purpose of this study is to examine the phenomenon ?Living library?, where people are lent out instead of books. First it is looked into what the Living library means to the person who is borrowing a living book and what it means to the living book itself. Than the Living library is put in a public library context. This is done through a case study of the city library of Helsingborg and the city library of Malmö.

The purpose of this study is to improve our understanding of how immigrant children become included in some preschools. With immigrant children we meant those children who immigrated to Sweden. In order to achieve our purpose we have chosen to find out some educators' perceptions about inclusion and which strategies they use to include immigrant children.To realize the study purpose, we have chosen to use qualitative interviews as a method. We conducted interviews with sex educators who worked in two preschools. The empirical materials we got from the interviews formed the basis for our analysis.The analysis of our collected data was based on our theories and conceptions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the problems of building a new region in the Southeast part of Sweden. The idea of a big south Swedish region is brand new; no former studies in this area have been done before. The main analytical focus of this study is legitimacy, identity and democratic credentials. The study has been carried out by interviews with several leaders in organizations working with the collaborations of the smaller regions in to the big region. The method of this study has been a single-case study and dialogue interviews.

The topic of interest is why Swedish unemployment after OPEC - 1 remained exceptionally low, compared to the OECD average. The object of study is the evolution of welfare institutions, like the Rehn ? Meidner model, after WWII, and the aim is to explore why the institution of solidaristic wage bargaining collapsed coming the nineties. Deployed theoretical perspectives are how domestic institutions determine a country's adaptation to alterations of the international economic system. However, equally important are how policy objectives, like full employment, becomes institutionalized and therefore guides the actions undertaken.

The aim of this study is to enhance the knowledge of target and performance management?s effects on the judiciary. In the past decades there have been a number of reforms in the general public sector of many countries. The management philosophy often used to describe these public sector reforms is called New Public Management (NPM). One main theme has been an increased focus on the management control systems, for example a greater emphasis on target and performance management.

The purpose of this study is to research into the role of the citizen and the educational system in Sweden throughout periods of time based on previous theoretic works, and also to deepen the understanding of students with special needs in Swedish education focusing on the primary school years. This shall be carried out by illustrating the different points of view and choices within the educational system that are at hand for students with concentration difficulties and social difficulties.I will analyze these points through a cultural and social perspective on contemporary society in order to contribute towards today?s discourse on the norm. The result of this empirical investigation presents a dilemma existing in the democratic educational system of today. Nationally and internationally, the educational system has been structured around a normative system containing both rights and duties that effect everyone working within it.

In this thesis we have examined opinions of the social web in Scandinavian Library journals. Our interest lies in aspects about the social web, and above all about Library 2.0. The central question is how this new technology, a growing digitalization, and a social web that focuses on interactivity and participation affects opinions about libraries. We have investigated opinions about Library 2.0, with respect to three different dimensions: The role of the library in society, power/hierarchy and knowledge. The method used in this thesis is idea analysis using these dimensions as analytical instrument.

The purpose of this thesis is to attain a deepened understanding concerning views on videogames at four Swedish public libraries, especially in relation to library practice and how videogames fit within this context. It also aims to provide insight as to why these libraries have included videogames in their collections and what thoughts were behind it. To fulfill this aim we conducted a qualitative hermeneutic study, using interviews as the main source of research material, but also written materials and a lecture on the city library of Malmö and how they work with videogames. The theoretical framework of the study is founded on Dorte Skot-Hansen?s and Douglas Raber?s theories on the values, roles and functions of public libraries.