Officially, Sweden has a very low level of corruption and in 2008 topped Transparency International?s list in terms of the perception of a lack of corruption. However, on closer examination it would appear that the Swedish public sector is not as clean as the Transparency International list suggests. What appears to be relatively common and quite widely accepted in Sweden, especially in local government, are conflict of interest situations in which public officials use their position to obtain advantages for themselves, their friends and their colleagues, in particular with respect to public procurement. According to the Swedish constitution, the public administration shall be governed by the principles on legality and objectivity. Grave violations of these principles are deemed illegal and contrary to the penal code provisions relating to bribery, public misconduct and breach of confidentiality.

ABSTRACTThe EU as a normative power in Belarus ? a critical caseBy Anna JohnssonUniversity of VäxjöSchool of Social SciencesSpring semester 2007The European Union?s identity is a much debated topic. Some say it?s a unique actor in the international arena because of the different tools it has at its disposal. Ian Manners claims that the EU is what he calls a normative power.

This study's main aim is to contribute with an insight regarding how employees of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) experience religion as a component of development work in religious contexts. The study focuses on whether or not religion is given enough space within Sida's development work and if the policies of Sida are enough to cover the needs in religious contexts. To answer these questions we have interviewed six employees of Sida which holds experiences of development work in religious contexts. The results show a lack of knowledge and encouragement of these questions within Sida and that the interviewees experience religion as a complex concept. The study also shows that the interviewees find policies, methods and tools within Sida as inadequate to cover the needs of religion in development work.

This study focuses on the Nordic model of Extended Collective Licenses (ECL) and how this model can be used in the process of digitalising and publishing archival material such as photos, letters, maps or films. The question that this study aims to deal with is what advantages, and disadvantages, there are for archives and copyright holders when an ECL is being used. To help answering this question the ?theory of the knowledge commons? has been applied. The research question has been answered through a text analysis based on legal texts including Swedish law.

This master thesis was written in the purpose to study how the location and access to computers in the physical realm of the public library reflects the undergoing changes in the public libraries role in Swedish society. This study is done in a form of a case study of three small public libraries. All of them were in the process of transforming both their physical and virtual space. The thesis focuses on where in the library the computers are placed and how their location interacts with the libraries main tasks. It also focuses on the analysis of the relationship between these two elements and how that relationship reflects the alteration of the public libraries place in society.

The purpose of this comparative study is to investigate how certified family therapeuts, with base professions psychologist and social counsellor respectively, construct boundaries through language. The study aims to demonstrate and analyse how the two professions present each other, through similarities and differences. For the purpose of definition and elucidation, the study comprises five main themes (see Appendix). The first theme is concerned with motives for choosing a professional career in family therapy. The second theme investigates conceptions of the professional role, while the third theme looks at professional practise and the implications of family therapy work.

The purpose of this thesis is to research public librarians view ofthe public library as a meeting place and how it may contribute tofacilitate social integration. To study this we have asked thefollowing research questions: How do public librarians work withthe public library as a meeting place? And how do they contributeconditions for ?soft inclusion??The method we have used for this study is semi-structuredinterviews. Seven public librarians from the Gothenburg areawere interviewed and the empirical material was analyzed usingqualitative content analysis.As a theoretical foundation we have used Dorte Skot-Hansensmodel of the public library as a third place and Mikael Stigendalstheory on social inclusion. Furthermore have we used research onthe public library as a meeting place and social integration as acomplement to the model and the theory.Conclusions from the material gathered is that public librarianssee the public library as a meeting place with potential tocontribute to integrating individuals and groups with one another.The librarians? foremost method was to attract visitors withactivities aimed at certain target groups.

With this master thesis I wanted to find out whether Erik Fichtelius, an SVT employee, interview project with prime minister Göran Persson is acceptable according to the public service ideology. In order to do that I used Swedish newspaper articles to analyse the so called Fichtelius affair. I also gathered material on SVT and the public service ideology. The master thesis is based on sociologist Manuel Castells theories on mass media and television as presented in the Information Age. Castells claims that in our time different areas, such as politics and television, are melting together.

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding and knowledge of how Cubans living in Sweden experience the Swedish pattern of communication in relation to the Cuban. The questions asked by the authors were: Do the Cubans experience any differences or similarities between the Swedish and the Cuban patterns of communication? If that is the case, what are they and how would they describe them? The questions were answered through a qualitative method, based on interviews with five Cubans who were raised in Cuba and are now living in Sweden. Communication Theory has constituted the fundamental theoretical tool of analysis, complemented by Social Psychological Role theory. The results of the study have been analyzed using both phenomenological and hermeneutical methods.

The aim of this two years master thesis is to explore the relationship between public libraries and deaf adults. I want to know if deaf adults are a prioritized group in Swedish public libraries. Deaf adults use Swedish sign language witch is a visual language and differs from Swedish. I discuss the difference in Swedish Sign Language and Swedish and the importance of Sign Language literature. I also explore what methods can be used for mak-ing the library service towards the deaf group more customer centered and service oriented.The lack of sign language knowledge among the library personnel can lead to communication barriers.

Med den växande internet- och mobilmarknaden harpublic service bolagen inom media följt publiken till att erbjuda sina tjänster via både internet och mobil. För Sveriges Radio har de snabbt växande marknaderna inneburit en problematik för ekonomi- och verksamhetsstyrningen. Problematiken härrör i produktivitetsmåttet, som tidigare tagit hänsyn till sändningstimmar. I och med att Sveriges Radio utöver radiosändningar idag erbjuder tjänster på internet och mobil är det svårt att beräkna företagets totala produktivitet på ett tillfredställande sätt. Syftet med denna uppsats är därför att utreda den problematik som finns med att mäta produktivitet i public service sammanhang och att formulera nya mått för att mäta produktivitet i den internetbaserade verksamheten.

In this literature review the cemetery is studied in its role as a public space in an urban context. To be able to scrutinize the cemetery?s relationship to the public domain in the future, the cemetery?s background and history is studied in the beginning of the essay. The cemetery?s connection to the church, as well as a variety of other factors such as economic, architecture, hygienic aspects and different ideals has influenced the cemetery to be the place it is today.

This paper deals with how people use public libraries. An attempt is made to distinguishbetween different user groups on the basis of how they use the library. The roles of thelibrary in relation to its users are also discussed.The paper is based on a user study with the cooperation of 195 users. The user studywas carried out at the Public Library of Alingsås 1994. As material for comparisonsimilar studies from Sweden, but even from Denmark, have been used.

Muslims and islam are unquestionably a part of European social life. In recent times, however, different events, such as the enlargement of the EU and the fact that muslims to a higher extent demand their rights, have brought a number of questions to the fore concerning muslims and islam in Europe. Moreover, we can see an increasing level of islamophobia in contemporary Europe, but also that the EU has launched several programs to increase both the diversity and the unity throughout the Union and to combat islamophobia. However, most of these programs focus on islam as religion and muslims in general, and such a narrow viewpoint runs the risk of missing important issues.In this new context it would be interesting to widen the scope and ask what place not only the muslim community and islam, but also sharia (an important element in islam), may have in future Europe ? especially when it comes to muslim identity?My main objects are to see how the concept of sharia is constructed in the debates in the European Parliament, how that discourse relates to a social practice ? the increasing islamophobic ideas in Europe ? and what effect this may have on muslim identity in a European context.The results shows that the Parliament constructs sharia as, for example, something archaic, threatening, inhuman and misogynistic.

The aim of this study was to shed light on how journalists describe the child?s world and what gender labels are used in their descriptions. We wanted to get a better understanding of what happens when gender is constructed.In order to study how gender is constructed, we chose to examine how the children?s magazine Kamratposten describes children?s spare time. We chose Kamratposten because it turns to both girls and boys.