In this master thesis, I investigate four Public Librarys´ program activities. The purpose is to explore what the library program activities contribute to as a part of a well functioning democracy. The theoretical points, I have brought from political science. I assume three different ideals of democracy; electoral democracy, participation democracy and deliberative democracy. All have different views on what can be characterized by a well-functioning democracy.My empirical material consists of library program guides, the libraries´ target documents and interviews with staff at the libraries who work with or have overall responsibility for program activities in their respective libraries.

Swedish law (SOL 2001:45, LVU 1990:52) has gone through several changes to promote participation. The law also includes that young people should be able to participate even during a placement at youth detentions.  The aim of this study is to describe how young people at youth detentions are participated in their treatment plans. The questions of the study were: How and where are the young opinions produced in their treatment plans; how did the opinions change during the time in detention; and how have the opinions been considered at youth detentions? Participation is a wide concept with different meanings. The meaning of participation in this study is that youth have been listened to and that their opinions have been paid attention to.

The focus of this study is children´s influence and participation. This is an important part of preschool, according to the Swedish curriculum (Skolverket, 2010). Hoping to see another perspective of working with children´s influence and participation, my study took place in Nepal. The method used for this study is qualitative interviews. The interviews are made with teachers with insight in preschools in Nepal.

The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the participation of immigrant organizations to the partnerships in the Equal program in Sweden. The focus of the study was on the significance of the participation for the organizations and its impact on them. The point of view of the participant organizations has been object of study through interviews with the persons who, on behalf of the organizations, have been in charge for the work with Equal. Interviews have been conducted with people representing 10 of the 21 immigrant organizations that have been identified among the Swedish Equal partners. Many organizations have experienced that the participation has strengthen the awareness of target groups about their needs and their possibilities.

The aim of this study is to examine how and in what way users of the public participate and affect the archival information that is to be preserved for the future through the examination of three archival projects involving public participation. The study seeks to examine if participation of the public could lead to increased democracy and diversity of information in the archives. The study will be performed through the examination of three participatory archives all tied to traditional archival institutions.The study is based on the theoretical framework of Benn and Gaus and their notions of public and private which they discuss using the key words access, agency and interest. The study also takes into consideration Laura Millar?s theories of social memory as a means for the public good.

A vivid democracy requires participation from those who live in it, including children. Unlike adults, children have special laws and regulations to ensure them their democratic rights. Librarians? decision on what to buy makes an impact to someone else, which puts the librarian in a hegemonic position. Therefore, the purpose of this bachelor thesis is to, out of the child librarian?s perspective, view children?s participation at the public library in the matter of purchasing literature.

To reach health and wellbeing, despite a disease as rheumatoid arthritis, the patient needs help to manage and cope with his situation. The caregiver?s task is to give this support. The aim of this study was to illuminate how patients with rheumatoid arthritis experienced the relationship to the caregivers in the ?rheumatic-team?, and the participation in this team.

Participation is central to the concept of democracy. The role of the civic participation varies with different types of democracy, but a fundamental requirement is that the participation is free and equal. In spite of this, there are significant differences between possibilities to democratic participation in Sweden today.This essay seeks to understand how disability, historically and still today, is constructed as a social deviation from normality, and is constructed to Otherness.One way to regard freedom and equality is to examine the personal autonomy, the legth to wich a person decides her/his roles and activities in abcence of external limitations. Personal autonomy is theoretically central in deliberative and strong democracy, but should reasonobly be a demand for the fundamental definition of democracy.The explanation to why the lack of personal autonomy is accepted, is that the construction of Otherness results in that the persons are categorized and are given simplified characteristics, and are thereby not accepted as equivalent people.In the inteviews conducted, seven politicians contribute both whiteness, pathological discourses regarding disability and ideas of normality through discussing democracy, participation and disability. Simultaniously, they express interest and an awareness on the majority's power and symbolic violence on the minority..

Studies have shown that user participation is a good method when improving or developing a product. The method gives a company insight in what the customer wants and needs. It has also been shown that user participation benefits all parts included. For example, it creates a greater relationship with customers than most other methods do. Webportals is one of the most interactive systems online and it gives companies a unique chance to improve and maintain their relationship with customers.

The purpose of this study is to describe and understand how children?s participation and influence is described in the curriculum of preschool. The purpose includes how educators perceive, working with and what opportunities and challenges they believe that there is in the process of participation and influence. The methods I used were qualitative text analysis and e-mail interviews. I studied text in the curriculum and interviewed four educators to find out their views on children's participation and influence.

The main purpose of this essay was to study the program "Nationellt stöd för kunskapsutveckling inom socialtjänsten" ("National support for knowledge development within the social services") from the National Board of Health and Welfare on the basis of how such a development, as represented by the program, could affect clients' possibilities to participation and influence within the social services.To respond to the purpose I used the following questions at issue:* How is client participation and client influence defined in the program?* What arguments for and/or against client participation and client influence are stated?* Which patterns and similarities/differences are possible to discern between the municipalities and universities that participated in the program when it comes to client participation and client influence?The study was conducted as a document analysis. I studied documents from the program both on a national and a local level. The essay uses empowerment theories and theories concerning client participation and client influence. The main conclusions were that on the national level the authors of the documents spoke with caution about their view on client participation and client influence and expressed that it had to be balanced against the rights of the citizens and the social workers for example.

This study aims to explore how a gardening project with elderly living in Djuröhemmet, a nursing home outside Stockholm, affected them regarding psychological well-being and their experience of participation during the planning and construction of the memory garden. The gardening project is new in its kind by allowing the residents to influence the design of the garden by sharing the project leader their gardening memories from previous parts of their life and by wishing for specific plants and items.  The method being used was qualitative interviews where we interviewed seven people living in Djuröhemmet who participated in all or parts of the project. The theoretical framework is Molins (2004) definition of participation, but also theories of meaningfulness, social needs and gerotranscendence were applied. The results indicate that the participants did not realize that their involvement during the planning helped developed the garden.

Assessment of the level of the pupils´ knowledge and understanding are important parts of teaching. There are diverse ways to do this and many different tools to use.The purpose of this study is to explore, through qualitative interviews, how five teachers work with assessment. The focus lies on both how they work with assessment in general and how they use the assessment tools called »LUS» and »Nya språket lyfter!». The pupils´ participation in their own education is an important part of the Swedish curriculum, which is why the study also focuses on how the informants work to enable the pupils´ participation in the assessment and in their education.The informants all think that both assessment and the pupils´ participation in the assessment are important, since teaching is easier when the pupils are aware of what they need to know and learn. Many of the informants express that time is an issue when it comes to making the assessment trustworthy.

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.

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.