This thesis is about the effect of political efficacy on societal participation among youths aged 15 to 29. It takes a starting point in the gloomy view of the decline of political participation among citizens in the western world, especially pointing out youths as a threat to democracy. This is a broad subject to take on so my aim becomes a bit more specific. The aim of the thesis is therefore to investigate if belief in ones own capacity and in the responsiveness of the political system affects the actual participation among youths in Europe, independent of a set of alternative predictors. Moreover the thesis is divided into two sub-investigations, one qualitative and one quantitative.

The purpose of this work is to examine how ecotourism exists in Sweden. In order to answer this, the essay has been based on a qualitative method, which means that the authors have mainly used depth interviews for information gathering. Some of the empirical work is also done using the qualitative method, by gathering statistics, figures and scientific articles. The essay is divided into various chapters to give the essay a clear structure and for the convenience of the reader. The part that have been of most use and support for authors is the depth interviews with the interviewees.

Schools inspections investigation has shown that most pedagogues are experiencing significant challenges to stimulate students and to invite students to participate and to influence the teaching structure and content. This study is based in the school inspections school questionnaire from 2013 which shows that Vallentuna high school results in two categories stimulation as well as participation and influence gets a low index value compared to all participating school units. Previous research has shown that the field studies creates greater amount of stimulation, increases students? participation and provide experience of a bigger influence. Careful preparations are also important and the right form of field studies.

The aim of this study was to, through a qualitative method, investigate students? participation in a specific library blog to find out what motivate them to create and share digital book recommendations through videos. It also intended to describe the students? own views of their participation.We conducted interviews with eight students in the ages 12 and 13, who all had similar experiences regarding the blog creation but diverse attitudes concerning the blog production and intentions to participate.The results showed that the strongest motivating forces behind the students' participation in the blog creation was that they enjoyed the making of the videos and also because they wanted to inspire others to read more and create resembling blogs..

Several studies show that the clinical reality in psychiatric care does not correspond to the demand of consumer participation from a variety of policy documents that has been produced recently. Studies also show that there is a lot to do in improving, patients with sever mental illness, becoming more involved in their own care. The nurse has a central role in this work. The Norwegian nursing theorist Jan-Ka?re Hummelvolls holistic, existentialistic model for psychiatric nursing were used as theoretical ground.The aim of this study was to examine how nurses in psychiatric outpatient units, caring for patients with psychotic disorders, experiences consumer participation.Qualitative phenomenological method was used.

This study is about how the dialog can help students with special needs to feel participation and inclusion in the class and the teaching. My purpose with this study was to look for how the students with special needs interact with other students and teachers through the dialogue. I also wanted to know if there is any positive and negative effects to teaching students with special need in the classroom compared with the teaching at the special teacher.I have taking purpose of the sociocultural theory in my study because it says that children learn together when they communicate with each other. The theory central words are dialog and scaffolding in the zone of proximal development. I also describe central words like participation, inclusion and students with special needs in the special teaching.I have investigated in four interviews, two of them were with a teacher and a special aids teacher, and two of them were students with special needs.

The ambition to involve younger people in future planning processes in order to get full participation of all groups in the society requires a deep and well-planned dialogue. Although, participation not always means inclusion. The purpose of this study was to analyze how the younger generation in the society is included in the future work. This is based on a case study of the developmental work in the municipality of Skellefteå.Questions that were answered were how the municipality has made the participation possible? To what extent has the younger generation been involved? How did this group experience their participation? The methodology consisted of mixed methods that include observations, surveys to the session leaders and to the participants in the dialogue and three interviews with two participants and one municipal civil servant.The result showed that the open information didn´t reach the younger generation to the open dialogues although the dialogue design gave good conditions for participation.

According to the theory of elitist democracy civic political participation should be reduced to participation in the democratic elections. This essay examines whether a high rate of institutionalized political participation beyond the elections leads to: (a) that those who are included gets a more favourable treatment at the expense of the common interest, in other words that their self interest threatens the political equality, (b) reduced freedom of action for the politicians and the headmasters, (c) the emergence of vague conditions of responsibility. These hypotheses are examined in an empirical study of user-boards at four schools on three locations in southern Sweden. In these user-boards the parents are in majority and have the right of decision, which has been delegated to them from the local government and the headmaster. The main conclusion is that, based on this empirical investigation, there is no support in any of the hypotheses.

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the structured and evidence-based assessment tool/method The Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI) trough a social psychology perspective of conversation. The aim was especially to seek an understanding of the method considering aspects of children?s participation. The research question was: how do the method users apprehend the advantages and the limitations of the BCFPI method considering aspects of children?s participation.

The purpose of this study is to examinehowdemocracy andstudent participation hasbeen developed inthethree curricula for upper secondary school. To find this out, I have used the following questions:?Howare the conceptsof democracy and student participationformulated in the various curricula Lgy70, Lpf94 and Gy11? ?What changes with regard to these formulations have been made between the curricula Lgy70, Lpf94 and Gy11?The essay is written so that I have interpreted my empirical material to make a discourse analysis in which I analysethe three curricula of upper secondaryschool with the intention to highlight how the ideal of student participation was supposed to look like. The source material that I use in the essay arethe three curricula;Lgy70 , Lpf94 and Gy11 .Student participationhas had a major role in allthecurricula,but ithas changed in how it was madeand how it would be implemented. Lgy70stresses thatformal and collective participation is important, but there are indications of ashift to a more personal and informal participation forthe students.

This study highlights the importance of computer technology and its impact on elder care staff's skills development in the public sector. The government presents the digital agenda within which information and communication technology today is considered to have a potential for sustainability, growth and development. According to the EU Commission, there are several important elements that should be improved to digitize the workplace. Among these are digital literacy, collaboration between agencies and increased investments in research, education and innovation. New technology can be understood in different ways by individuals, some see the computer as something positive and exciting, while others may find it hard to see the opportunities for learning and development.

This paper examines the consequences of membership and participation in immigrant associations on individual immigrants? political integration and indirect political participation with reference to Swedish society. The theoretical underpinnings consist of a social structural outlook on social capital, combined with the Civic Voluntarism Model, both of which focus on the potential role of social networks for moving people into political action. After a presentation of parallel qualitative data over the experiences of individual members in a Finnish and Bosnian-Hercegovinian organisation, it is suggested that immigrant associations support the political integration of their members into the host society. Firstly, the case studies indicate that members of immigrant associations gain the opportunity to augment their civic skills, which is a significant prerequisite for political participation.

The aim of the study has been to explore what participation and hope means for persons with disabilities living in an institution called Horizon House, in Stellenbosch South Africa. The aim has also been to discover the South African approach to disability and how Horizon House fits into this approach. Horizon House is an institution and a protective workplace in Stellenbosch for adults whose main impairment is of an intellectual nature but there are also physical and emotional disabilities. Another aim has been to explore the perspectives of the residents. The research questions of the study are: ? What does participation imply for the residents of Horizon House?? What does Hope represent for the residents of Horizon House?? What importance can hope have for people with disabilities, in their approach towards increased participation? We travelled to South Africa during a two week period in March 2009, where we participated at the protective workplace of Horizon House.

In this thesis the pragmatic pedagogy as formulatad by John Dewey is applied to theswedish national campaign Digidel and its work to spread the digital participation among thegeneral public. The purpose of the thesis is to visualize and problematize that differentunderstandings of a problem, lead to different solutions, as lifted in John Dewey´s pedagogy, thatconstitutes the thesis' theoretical framework. The term digital participation is used by the Digidelcampaign, where public libraries take active part to spread digital participation througheducational efforts. By qualitative interviews with four librarians this thesis examines howunderstandings of the term may vary and in turn lead to differenent educational goals, designsand executions. The result shows that basic computer- and Internetskills are seen as either equelto or prerequisites for digital participation and that the digital participant is seen as either apassive recipient or an active participant.

AbstractHow do pupils with intellectual disabilities experience participation and involvement in school work? It was a question I had in mind when I was formulating the thesis statement. I wanted to catch pupils? experiences and analyze them from the sociology of childhood. Do pupils want more involvement and what obstacles and opportunities do pupils find to exert participation and involvement?The study is based on six interviews conducted with pupils enrolled in the compulsory school for pupils with intellectual disabilities.