The European Union's work on equal opportunities for women and men can be described historically in three eras; equal treatment, positive action and, most recently, the gender perspective. In accordance with the latter, gender mainstreaming is the latest method in dealing with these issues. Its aim is the implementation of the gender perspective in all policy processes and to challenge the male norm that permeates all decision making. EU:s work on equal opportunities, though, persists not only of gender mainstreaming but has a double approach also including special actions.This thesis bases its argumentation on discourse analysis of communications from the Commission regarding employment and social affairs. It argues that the two components of the double approach; gender mainstreaming and special actions, are incompatible and even becomes contra productive put together.

Konfliktrelaterat sexuellt våld är ett fenomen som fått stor internationell uppmärksamhet under de senaste två decennierna. Det har talats om passiva och sårbara kvinnor som brutalt våldtagits av uniformklädda män. I realiteten drabbas dock även män och pojkar av sexuellt våld och våldtäkt, likväl gör sig kvinnor och flickor skyldiga till sexuella övergrepp i konflikter. UN Action är det internationella organ som FN använder för att kordinera sitt arbete mot konfliktrelaterat sexuellt våld och denna uppsats syftar till att analysera UN Action:s diskursiva representationer av förövarna och offren. Dessa representationer diskuteras mot bakgrund av tidigare forskning som har dekonstruerat de hegemoniska representationerna av det konfliktrelaterade sexuella våldets förövare (män) och offren (kvinnor), samt påvisat andra kontignenta diskursiva representationer; så som ?män och pojkar som offer? samt ?kvinnor och flickor som förövare?.

This thesis examines the extent to which segmentation and categorization in the context of direct marketing is an efficient way for a company to enhance its marketing effectiveness. The thesis is built on social identity and categorization theory, and tested by using statistical analysis. The conclusion is that segmentation and categorization is indeed an effective way of conducting marketing campaigns..

The aim of this study is to describe and understand the reasons to why people choose to become foster parents. By using the theory of action we wanted to investigate their intentions rather than their motives. The questions we wanted to answer where: How do the foster parents describe their reasons for becoming a foster home? What reasons do they give fore keeping on being foster parents? How do they comprehend their task and the fulfilling of it? The study was performed by utilizing qualitative interviews with five foster parents, four women and one man. In the analysis we used the theory of action as a theoretical perspective.

The action where form is given to inner thouhts and ideas is a creativ course of events which is difficult to grasp. The main purpose is to research how such an action can appear and function. The method which is used to research this purpose is the qualitative interview. The respondent?s inner descriptions and thoughts about a particular phenomenon is what the qualitative interview aims to elicit.

With the increased significance of information technology (IT) in today?s society the term ?electronic democracy? (e-democracy) has gained much importance within the democracy theory. Naturally, there are several competing views on how the technology should be used for democratic purpose. One aspect of this is the somewhat revitalized claim for direct democracy in accordance with the hypothetical opportunity to finally realize it as a democratic system. The ideal of direct democracy combined with the almost total credence in the potential of technology constitute the idea of a ?push-button democracy?.

The purpose of this paper is to study how people without home experience social services and how they experience their space of action when they meet social services. In order to answer these questions, a qualitative approach has been used. The empirical material consists of five interviews with people who have contact with social services because they are homeless. To support my analysis of the space of action for the persons being interviewed, I?ve used two theoretical perspectives, power analysis by Michel Foucault and Rational Choice.

The subject of my thesis is what I have chosen to call the ?action babe cinema? of the 21st century, essentially action-movies featuring a female heroine in the lead role. Inspired by the theories of Vladímir Propp, author of Morphology of the Folktale, I have tried to reveal the underlying structure of these films. I have chosen eleven films which form my material, and from these extracted a number of functions (which means the actions of a character), that reoccur frequently. The heroines? transformation can be seen as a central theme of the action babe cinema, and I have divided the films into two groups depending on the course of the transformation, either from soft to hard or the other way around.

This bachelor thesis aims to analyse archaeological finds related to mead during the Late Iron Age in southern Scandinavia. Five central places from the Iron Age are compared to five historical texts, that in some way connects to either the central places or to the use of mead. This will be done by using action theory. The action theory focuses on what kind of actions humans have done to create social and cultural purposes. Since the last part of the Late Iron Age, the Viking Age, is getting more popular due to movies, games and tv-shows it is also relevant to study how modern-day mead represents the Viking Age through its marketing.

The overall purpose of this essay was to provide a better understanding of the importance of discretion for social workers in direct social services. To answer the purpose three questions were formulated: (1) How do social workers define and describe their discretion and their ability to independently accomplish their work? (2) How do social workers experience that workplace organization, policies and economic conditions interact with their discretion and (3) How do social workers experience that the interaction with the client can affect how they use their discretion in the individual case? The method used was qualitative interviews. The theoretical framework was Michael Lipskys (1980) Street-level bureaucracy and the four themes organization, professional role, skills and interaction.The results showed that the respondents, although they did not consider themselves to be affected by the economy still adapted to budget restrictions when they said that they were cost conscious in their work. This adjustment to budget framework could possibly be what made them not feel limited in their work.

The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers see the use of action plans for students in need of special support in physical education. The questions used were: What do the teachers consider being the causes for students not reaching the objectives in physical education? What experiences do four teachers have considering the work with action plans for students in need of special support? And, what experiences have one chosen head of school about establishing action plans for students in need of special support?To reach the answers to these questions qualitative interviews were made with four teachers from different schools. The interviews deal with the teachers views on assessment, curriculum, and the work with action plans for students in need of special support.The results show that that the underlying causes for students not reaching their objectives was either lack of participation or difficulties in certain parts of the subject. Despite this, the teachers write very few action plans even though it appears there are students in need of special support.

Klassisk kriminologisk forskning fokuserar på antingen individbaserade eller miljörelaterade förklaringar till brottsliga handlingar. Situational Action Theory avser att föra samman dessa två synsätt för att bilda en integrerad kriminologisk handlingsteori. Vad får Situational Action Theory för stöd i den kriminologiska forskningen? Vad finns för kritik? Och vad bör forskningen fokusera ytterligare på när det kommer till att testa teorin? Den forskning som finns tillgänglig och som jag presenterar i denna litteraturgenomgång visar att teorin får stöd i empirisk forskning. De flesta studier visar att teorin får bra stöd, några visar stöd för vissa delar av teorin medan andra delar av teorin inte får något stöd.

The study sheds light on how individuals from different countries experience the labour action Komjobb. The study aim to examine in which consideration experiences of the action Komjobb differs among the participants. The study is based on eight qualitative interviews and analyzed by using the method of phenomenography. We have based this research on a theory about Social constructivism. Other theories that we have used are Bauman's theory about the changing value of work in the modern and postmodern society and Andersson's theory of unemployment as a social category.

Sex equality law within the European Union is well developed and has since the Rome Treaty, given rise to several directives and other judicial acts on this matter of community law. The concepts of direct and indirect discrimination emerge from the general principles of Equal pay and Equal treatment and have been codified and amended several times until present.The lasts years, authors within the field of Equality Law has been pointing out that there is a common desire for simplification of discrimination law in Europe. The question has arisen whether this simplification could be implemented trough the introduction of a general justification defence for direct sex discrimination.The concept of direct sex discrimination - when a person of one gender is treated less favourably, on the grounds of gender, than a person of the other gender would be treated in similar circumstances - leaves no possibilities for such justification today. Indirect sex discrimination ? which arises from the equal application of neutral rules that shows an adverse impact on one group ? can be justified if the rule answers to true requirements of the job.Does the proposition that direct discrimination should be justified find support in the inconsistency of the present legislation? This paper will examine this and other questions concerning the wish for a general justification defence through studies of case law from the European Court of Justice as well as differing opinions from authors within the field of equality law..

This study is mostly based on previous research, which includes Sub-national actor?s attitudes and regional action towards the European Union. The purpose of the study is to investigate if four Swedish municipalities in Värmland operate internationally towards the European Union and deepen an understanding of their actions. The main research question is: - How can we increase our understanding of municipal action against the European Union? The research questions of this study are answered through qualitative method and semi-structured interviews were conducted.