The aim of this study is to examine some teachers and assistants? perception of conditions for students? democratic participation in the compulsory school for learning disabilities specialization training school. In order to deepen and more clearly describe the purpose of the study, three issues have been selected. Firstly, how do teachers and assistants perceive the concept of participation? Secondly, how do teachers and assistants perceive students opportunities for participation in teaching? And finally, do teachers and assistants perceive students? opportunities for participation in democratic activities of school? It is a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews.

This thesis aims to study the impact of the transition from communism to democracy on the public libraries in Poland. The central areas of study are changes in: the organisation of the public library system, the role of the public library in society, the librarian's daily work and job situation and collection development. The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with public librarians, public library managers and researchers in Warsaw, Torun and Gdansk. The theoretical background consists of chapters outlining thoughts on democratic and communist library ideas and public libraries' responses to a changing society. The results show that the public library system has been affected by two major decentralisation reforms in Poland, leaving the libraries in the care of local governments.

This is an interview- and literature study that discusses teaching about the Second World War and the Holocaust, while working with the basic values in grade 7-9.The purpose with this examination is to see how teachers of history in grade 7-9 choose to teach about the Second World War and the Holocaust, how they work to integrate the basic values in their education and whether the teachers? education can be sustained by the Swedish school curricula.In this study I?ve been doing qualitative interviews with five teachers of history in grade 7-9 from different schools. I have also perused the Swedish school curricula and read some literature and studies about different ways of dealing with the subject: the Holocaust.According to the central parts of the Swedish curricula, LGR 2011, the fields about the Holocaust and the 20.century World Wars are to be studied during grade 7-9. All my respondents in the study teach about this think that the most important thing with this complex time in history, is to give the students a deeper understanding for the time leading up to the beginning of the  Second World War in 1939, and why the Holocaust actually took place.Regarding the work with the basic values, all the five respondents agree on the fact that, this subject shall permeate the entire work at school, all the time, every day, but that it?s absolutely essential while studying the Holocaust.

The aim of this study is to investigate the notion of pupil influence in English teaching at level 1 and 2 at High-School level. The study focuses on how the students and teachers experience the possibility of influence in their English classes. Empirical data has been collected through questionnaires from two classes at year 1 and two classes at year 2 in English. The study also includes interviews from four teachers and four students. The study is both qualitative and quantitative.

In subsequent to Post-colonialism the African nations have dilated into different political directions. While some nations have established well-functioning democracies, others are still under authoritarian regimes. The aim of this thesis is to examine if civil society has an impact on democratic development in West Africa. Therefore the theoretical starting point is Putnam?s theory of social capital, but this study will also examine other possible causal explanations for democratic transition.This study will be based on a comparative analysis of Ghana and Guinea.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate librarians views on reading and reading promotion for young people. The main issue is if activities in reading promotion for people between the ages of 13-19 years can result in inspiring non-readers to actually become readers. To find the answers, qualitative interviews were held with eight librarians. The literature review covers research on the reasoning of young people on reading, a historical review of fiction and reading, a review of arguments on the benefits of reading and finally a chapter which concerns reading promotion activities. The result of this study showed that the conceptions of reading promotion and book talk are very complex and that they each can have different meanings.

This is an analysis of how the Swedish newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet and the English newspapers The Independent and The Guardian reported about the sexual molestation and rape charges that were alleged against the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in August 2010. Through a critical discourse analysis, a theme- and proposition analysis and a process analysis this paper aims to investigate how the above mentioned newspapers create reality in their articles. The purpose is to shed light upon with what means the journalists through the inherited structures of the newspaper illustrate actions and events, how they let other people get visible in the text and who is described as responsible for current events.    The results of the analysis shows that Aftonbladet uses a relatively large amount of propositions and speech cues to create an image of the reality that is almost explicitly angled. Dagens Nyheter and The Independent claims a higher degree of objectivity and through micro themes with different perspectives and few explicit statements they create a reality with plenty of room for the reader to make her own conclusions. The Guardian creates an image of the world where the Wikileaks is a great force of democracy and where actions are performed by humans as well as by objects and organizations.   .

Democracy has been a part of the Swedish society for a long period of time and it is also a part of the Swedish elementary school curriculum, in which you can find a number of statements that expresses that the Swedish elementary school should socialize the children into becoming role model citizens. This also conjures with the available research that describes schools in general as socializing. This led me to a question that hasn?t been answered: How much of the curriculums reasons for socialization the pupils are based on democratic values and how much of it can be dated back to events prior to the curriculum?The methodological approach is an analysis of ideologies as described by Sven-Eric Liedman and Ingemar Nilsson in Ideologi och ideologianalys. The text is focusing on the fact that a text has two layers; one is the manifest which is roughly the same as explicit or present in the text.

ABSTRACTBachelor essay in political science by Hanna Richter, spring 2006Supervisor: Mats LindbergTitle: A study of the phenomenon of micronationsThe purpose of this essay is to study the phenomenon of ?micronations?, to describe it to the reader and to discuss why this phenomenon is interesting to study in the field of political science. The questions this essay seeks to answer are:- What are micronations, and which variations are to be found within the phenomenon?- Why are micronations interesting to study in the field of political science?Bary Buzans theory of the nature of the state works as a frame of reference to this investigation of micro ?state-like? units. The phenomenon of micronations has not been investigated by the social sciences in any extent worth mentioning yet.

The purpose of this master thesis is to show how a chosen actor in form of the Swedish union organization IF Metall (the Swedish union for metal- and industrial workers) works with pro-reading activities. The project being scrutinized is the Read to me dad-project which aims at fathers who are not used to reading activities within the LO-group (the Swedish Trade Union Confederation). The methods used are interviews and literary studies. The theoretical background of my discussion is based on three education ideals. The neo-humanist ideal emphasizes the personal improvement through literature.

The theory of deliberative democracy believes in collective decision-making to achieve an expanded legitimacy and rationality in the political process. It is argued that those good public dialogues best take places in public spheres between citizens, where the common interest is carefully thought about. This thesis was done with the assumption that theatre can strengthen the idea of the public sphere and create a meeting place in the civil society, where a good public dialogue can appear. To create a good public dialogue you need citizens that are corresponding and participatory. Citizens who participate in the political process develop an increased knowledge about the society and the more knowledge about the society the larger reason to participate.

Syftet med studien är att ta reda på pedagogers perspektiv och förståelse för hur barn blir bemötta enligt riktlinjer om normer och värden i den reviderade läroplanen för förskolan, Lpfö 98 (Skolverket 2010). Forskningsfrågor i studie är: Hur tolkar pedagoger läroplanens riktlinjer om normer och värden? Vilket förhållningssätt utifrån normer och värden använder pedagoger sig av i förhållande till barn i verksamheten? Hur kan pedagogers perspektiv av normer och värden uttrycka sig i praktiken?Undersökningen i studie grundar sig på en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi. Skriftlig intervju och observationer med nio respondenter och sju ostrukturerade observationer på flera förskolor. Av resultatet från de skriftliga intervjuerna ser vi att diskussion om normer och värden på förskolorna är viktiga för att få en förståelse för riktlinjer i läroplanen, Lpfö 98 (2010).

This report is about accessibility in a station environment. Studies have been made about how an accessible building should be designed. Accessibility is an important issue when striving for a society with equality as the foundation. Sweden is one of the most accessible countries when speaking about the built environment. A result of prosperity and a well-managed democracy.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur medborgarinitiativ för hållbar stadsutveckling kan tillvaratagas. Med litteratur- och fallstudie undersöks följande frågeställningar: Vilken roll kan medborgarnas initiativ ha för en hållbar stadsutveckling? Vilka problem möts dessa initiativ av? Hur kan förhållanden för medborgarinitiativen förbättras? Hur kan man med fackkompetens stödja medborgarinitiativen? Fallstudien utgörs av Möllevångsgruppen, ett boendeinitiativ i Malmö med målsättningen att bidra till ett ekologiskt och socialt hållbart samhälle. Intervjuer med nyckelpersoner inom föreningen och dess kommunala samarbetspartners utgör det empiriska materialet. För analysen används Collins Good to great-modell, Healeys teori Inclusionary argumentation, Landrys teori Creative city och teori kring samhällsentreprenörskap för bearbetning av interna respektive externa förhållanden och former för stödåtgärder.

The purpose of this study is twofold: First, to inquire how the George W. Bush administration plans to keep America safe from external threats and second ? based on the assumption that neoconservatives have influenced the Bush administration ? examine how neoconservative ideas have influenced this strategy to protect America. The research questions are as follows:What is the content of the Bush administration?s security strategy?How are neoconservative ideas reflected in this security strategy?To answer the first question, the main points of two studied documents were summarized.