This study deals with Swedish nuclear-energy politics from 1980 to 2006. The purpose is to trace and to explain change and stability in three political parties? rhetoric concerning the phase-out of Swedish nuclear-energy and the Swedish government?s nuclear politics. Two hypotheses based on path dependency theory are tested to analyze if rhetoric and politics are developing in separate directions. The first hypothesis is based on the idea that earlier promises from the political parties affect what promises they can make later on.

The aim of this paper was to examine how social workers' comprehension of the need of financial aid exists in, and is influated by, the organisation they work in. To investigate this, we asked ourself questions concerning how the social worker view the way that the finicial aid-system and work surrounding it is formed, whether the social worker's understanding of the need of financial aid co-exists with the percieved common understanding of the work place (do the understandings coincide, do the social worker adjust his or her understanding or is it possible to have a separate understanding), whether the social worker feel that he or she have discretion to influence the organisation and how possible conflicts between different views are handled. We felt that a qualitative method would best help us answer these questions. We therefore interviewed seven social workers working in the same organisation. We then looked at our material from an organisational theory perspective, focusing on the individual in the organisation.We found that the social workers were socialised into the organisation and adapted the norms and values that existed there.

The purpose of this essay was to examine what consequenses of alcohol and narcotics that youth magazines describe and how the user and addict is described. My porpose was also to examine what situations the magazines claim that alcohol and narcotics are related to.The questions for my studie was:1. How is an alcoholic/drug addict /user described in youth magazines?2. What situations are related to alcohol/narcotics in youth magazines?3.

The following study explores the relation between psychosocial work environment and individual health. The purpose is to examine how female employees in the occupational health sector experience their own psychosocial work environment, focusing on different influencing factors in both the workplace and their private life regarding the employees own health. The study applies a hermeneutic approach in which qualitative interviews constitute the empirical data. Previous research on this particular subject has focused on the following themes: the combination of work-family life, demand/control model and flexibility in the workplace in relation to health and stress. The theoretical framework used in this study integrates relevant concepts, specifically SOC, poor leadership and flexibility.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the concept of competence within the social services. More specifically it aims to find out how the social workers themselves look upon their own competence in social investigations concerning children. As the study was based on focus groups the main questions were vague at the beginning and were cleared later on during the group sessions.In three focus group interviews in three different municipalities in southern Sweden 11 social workers were asked to discuss this issue. The interviews were then thoroughly transcribed. In the data I identified 9 themes seeming to play a special roll in the discussions about competence: practice; experience; approach; intuition; responsibility; theories, methods and laws; reflection; resources and ethics; specialisation versus integration.The analysis made on these themes was based on two different kinds of perspective; one focusing knowing-in-action and the other focusing the organization framing the competence considered.As a conclusion the 7 first themes can be seen as a definition of the competence used in social investigations concerning children.

Utredningshemmet in Hässleholm, Sweden, is a special residential home for acute management and investigative evaluation of juvenile delinquents.Utredningshemmet has, since 1991, used an investigative model, which is based on systems theory. The investigative work is done in close co-operation with social workers, youths and their parents.This study takes into account the youths, who have had a commissioned placement to carry out an investigation of their needs of care and treatment, 71 juvenile delinquent cases. They are divided into three one year intervals: 17 cases in 1993, 28 cases in 1998 and 26 cases in 2003.The purpose of this evaluation is to illustrate changes in the social workers, parents and youth's level of satisfaction during the development of the special residential home's investigative model.Approximately one to three months after discharges social workers, youths and their parents completed a level of satisfaction questionnaire. The results demonstrate no significant difference in the level of satisfaction between different time periods. There are, however, differences in satisfaction levels between social workers, who have the highest level of satisfaction, parents, who have the next highest level and finally the youths level of satisfaction..

Social workers ideas about what domestic violence is influence their ability to recognize vio-lence in cases where this occurs. Social workers awareness and understanding of domestic violence can also influence the handling of these cases. Education on the subject domestic violence can increase social workers knowledge about, awareness and handling of violence. The present study aims to investigate how social workers in child protection investigations understand, recognize and interpret domestic violence and which interventions the social workers suggest. This is a qualitative vignette study in which semi-structured interviews was carried out with social workers working with child protection investigations.

The purpose of this essay was to study the implementation of a policy document, which concerns questions of integration, in a municipality with an indirect government. I have especially focused on issues regarding how civil servants describe the usage of a specific policy document and to what extent their autonomy and the indirect government have had an impact on implementation, and to what extent signals from surrounding institutions have had an impact on the creation of the policy document. The study was based on qualitative interviews in groups, pairs and with single individuals with twenty-seven civil servants and politicians working with issues concerning the specific policy document.One of the conclusions of my study is that the reason for producing the document in the first place is that the municipality as an organization strives to acquire a sense of legitimacy. The intentions of the document have only partly been implemented by the civil servants and politicians, since the document is not used in their daily work. Here, their autonomy has played an important part, as the choice to not use the document is the servants' own.

The purpose of this study was to examine social workers apprehensions about institutional placement of youths and what determines when these proceedings are used. When research not always shows that institutional placements lead to positive changes for youngsters, we wondered how social workers act on their assessment to institutional placement. We wanted to find out if the social workers meet any dilemmas along the way. To find out about that we used qualitative interviews with ten social workers, who worked in social service and came from different places in the southern parts of Sweden. To analyze our material we used the theory of human service organization and street-level bureaucrats work situation.

Due to deficiency in dementia care, the government has commissioned the National Board of Health and Welfare to develop national guidelines for health care services to people with dementia and support for their relatives. It has been allocated stimulus funds that may be applied for to work on improvements in dementia care. In August 2010 these guidelines formed the basis for a decision made that collaboration would take place between the county and the municipalities regarding dementia care in Halland, named Anna's path. The aim of this study is to investigate, analyse and describe how our respondents in the project Anna?s path are planning and preparing for the implementation of the registry of quality BPSD - Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia.

The purpose of this study was to examine and illustrate how people look at themselves and their happiness in relation to their economic situation. This study was based on interviews with eight adults divided in two groups, four were big-income earners and four were unemployed/sick-listed. I identified factors that affected the feeling of happiness such as family, friends and economy. During the process four themes were identified, happiness, work, economic strain and the importence of money versus happiness. The analysis was based on the concept of aspiration levels and an economic perspective.The conclusion of the analysis was a surprise to me, showing that economic strain could be detected in both groups but by different means.

The aim of this thesis is to study discursive change in the Swedish environmental political discourse between 1987-2005. The text of three Swedish budget propositions are analysed for this purpose.The results from the analysis are related to a few relevant theoretical perspectives that hold partly different views on what constitutes ?sustainable development? and ?ecological modernization?. Through these theories the thesis continues the discussion around the two central but somewhat blurry terms sustainable development and ecological modernization. The aim of this discussion is to conclude whether the discursive change in Swedish environmental politics can be said to go more in the direction of sustainable development or ecological modernization, or if elements of both perspectives can be found.The analysis shows that the Swedish environmental discourse has come to include more and more political fields such as general welfare politics, during the period.

The aim with this study was to examine professional peoples' view on the reason why females, under the age of 18 years old, self-harm and the professionals view on their treatment. The study is qualitative and based on eight interviews with professional personnel who work with young females with self-harm behavior in the region of Skåne. To be able to analyze our qualitative interviews we used two theories; the attachment theory and trauma theory. The results of this study show that there are many different functions with the self-harm behavior and that the cause of the behavior can be different among the females. Most of the young females seem to self-harm to reduce anxiety but some also do it to punish themselves, to feel alive or to belong to a group of friends.

The aim of this study was to examine why young females develop self-harm behaviour. We also wanted to look at the differences between young females born in foreign countries and young females born in Sweden and investigate if there were any differences regarding the reasons for developing self-harm behaviour and the actual extent of the self-harm behaviour within the group. We used a qualitative method and performed interviews with nine professionals that work with young females with self-harm behaviour. To be able to analyse our qualitative interviews we used concepts such as modernity, anomie, safety and cultural differences in the bringing up of children. The results of this study shows that self-harm behaviour is a symptom of excessive anxiety, which can be caused by a number of reasons, such as childhood trauma or great demands in modern society.

Children, who grow up in families, where their parents have decided to take care of a foster child on a commission of the social welfare services, are not often given the possibility to tell about their experience of having foster siblings, in research and other studies. The aim of this study was to give biological children, in these families, a chance to tell their narratives of growing up with foster siblings, creating opportunities for families, who might have plans to take care of foster children in the future. They can get a picture of how it could be for the family´s own children. The biological children got the opportunity to tell their narrative stories including the relationships in their families and how they were looking forward into their own future and family life. The used theory takes part in systemic thinking, looking at the family as an organization and how identities are created in relationships and in communication.