AbstractPaper in political science, C-level, by Lars A Roos, spring semester 2007. Tutor: Susan Marton. ?Policy networks and Nord Stream.?The purpose of this paper is to examine how the government and interest groups have been working together to commonly prevent the building of a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. To do this, a comprehensive question how does the government and the involved interest groups work together in policy networks? has been broken down to three more specific questions: (1) Can the cooperation between the government and the interest groups be placed within the frame of a issue network or a policy community? (2) Has the cooperation between the government and the interest groups contributed to new tools for the government to prevent the gas pipeline? (3) If the answer is yes to the second question then, which are these new tools?My examination is a case study of the policy network that exists around the Swedish actors in the case of the Baltic Sea gas pipeline.

The Roma people have many times, and for a long period of time been described in a negative way, as a group of people unlike every other. Both novels and encyclopedias has been a part of this misleading discourse and therefore contributed to large misunderstandings. Also scholarly research from Sweden, and elsewhere, has featured inaccurate representations of the Roma people and altogether this has created negative attitudes towards Roma people which are still today a considerable problem.However, the last few years positive changes has taken place and today the Roma people is an official minority group in Sweden which, among other things, has led to promising possibilities, especially in schools, for a deeper understanding of the Roma people in the future. Reading Roma literature I believe is an important part of this.Katarina Taikon and Hans Caldaras both consider themselves Roma. They also have in common that they want to give voice for the group of Roma that has lived in Sweden since mid-nineteenth century.

The purpose of the study was to examine how TalkingMats® canbe used to support communication in a group of people with aphasia. Fourpeople with aphasia and their group leader participated. Comparison wasmade between group discussion with and without Talking Mats. Theparticipants used one Talking Mat each. The group discussions werevideotaped and analysed.

AbstractBackgroundParkinson?s disease is a chronically not curable progressive disease that leads to different degrees of disability. Controlled studies on how patient education influences subjective health in Parkinson?s disease are lacking.AimThe aim of this study was to examine the influence patient education had on drug requirements and on subjective health status of persons with Parkinson?s disease.MethodologyA short form of Health Survey, SF-12, was used to measure perceived health. SF-12 was administered before and one month after patient education (intervention group; n= 48), and in waiting list control (n= 48).

Japan's foreign and security policy has seen some substantial changes as a result of events like the first Gulf war and 9/11th. This has been taken as proof, by some, that Japan is abandoning its antimilitaristic stance and pursuing a more traditional hard power role through military means. This essay aims to explore if these shifts have coincided with any substantial shifts away from antimilitarism, which has had a strong influence on the country's security policy since the end of WW2.To do this I use constructivist theory, specifically regarding the impact of norms and identities on states security policy and briefly look into the problem of actor designation. The thematic focus is on security policy, from a narrow perspective, and thus I examine areas like the input and output to the Japanese military and the actual applications of this force. State identity is used to explore the prevalence of nationalistic sentiments and support for anti militarism in the public opinion and the political elite.The result of this study points to the further relevance of constructivist theory and especially the application of norms and identity.

Rabbits carry a high risk of anesthesia related death. This study was part of a project to develop a form of total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) with minimal effects on cardiac, respiratory and metabolic parameters. In the study, TIVA with sufentanil and midazolam (group TIVA, n=9) was compared with inhalation anesthesia with sevoflurane (group SEVO, n=9) in female rabbits undergoing surgery (ovariehysterectomi). All rabbits were pre-medicated with medetomidin and carprofen before anesthesia induction. Anesthesia was induced with TIVA (2.3 ?g/ ml sufentanil, 0.45 mg/ ml midazolam) at a rate of 4 ml/ kg/ h and the mean induction dose was 0.4 ?g/ kg of sufentanil and 0.1mg/ kg of midazolam.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ongoing changes in German family policy. It explores the issue of whether the German welfare state, in this policy field, can still be regarded as a conservative welfare model or rather approaches a more liberal or social democratic model. A qualitative method is used to analyze the material, especially from the German government, including press releases, other public documents and also articles from the political weekly magazines Der Spiegel and Die Zeit. The changes analyzed are the new parental benefit, the expansion of child care, the concept of whole-day schools and the system of joint taxation. The point of departure is Gösta Esping-Andersen?s categorization of three types of welfare states: the social democratic, the conservative and the liberal.

Begreppet medarbetarskap är långt ifrån ett välkänt uttryck idag. Det handlar om medarbetarens förhållningssätt till sin arbetsgivare, till sitt arbete och till sina kollegor. Syftet med denna uppsats är för det första att få mer kunskap om begreppets innebörd. För det andra är syftet att få kunskap om hur medarbetare i en kommunal verksamhet uppfattar och praktiserar medarbetarskap utefter en kommunal policy. För det tredje är syftet att ge förslag till hur medarbetarna i undersökningen fortsättningsvis kan bidra till att uppnå ett gott medarbetarskap.

The purpose of this study is to discuss various approaches to group work and the importance of different approaches in relation to group work in schools. The study also looks at the results of the children working in different groups and constellations.This study is based on what previous research, literature and the tree teachers say about the subject group work and group divisions. Issues: Is there any kind of group work that always works? Does the structure of the tasks have any effect on the outcome? Is there any good reason to choose the teamwork approach that? The method I chose is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach to the analysis. Three teachers were interviewed; result is presented in themes and concludes with a brief summary.

The aim of this paper is to describe which view the Chinese government in connection with the Olympics wants to display for the natural world and analyze if this view coincide with China?s foreign-policy goals. A qualitative content analysis is used. By using the theory of rational choice and a model with three different political approaches I want to examine whether or not the foreign-policy goals of the Chinese regime comport with the view that displays in two major newspapers in China. Since the runoff voting in Moscow in 2001 for the 2008 Olympics the Chinese government has been able to act rational and to compose different strategies to use the Games in Beijing for political propaganda.

This essay focuses on the theory of classical realism from two points of views. Realism is often told to be quite immoral and cynical and only interested in the power relations among nations. In the first part I am arguing that this picture is wrong and should be revised. By using the ethical theories of deontology and utilitarianism I am arguing that both these perspectives can be used to analyse classical realism. By defining a value that should be guiding one can assert that realism is a good moral theory.

Abstract We have chosen to figure out why a majority in a home-help service group in west of Sweden is, or has been sick-listed. The purpose with our work has been to investigate our area to be able to come up with different factors which can have contributed to the high numbers of this particular group. We have worked with qualitative method and conversation-interviews to be able to answer our purpose at the best way. We had separate interviews with the ten employees at their work and these interviews we chose to record with a computer. The result we got were that the group had existed for about four years and since then, they have had several different directors.

This thesis aims to describe and characterise the impact of the Kurdish question for Turkey's decision-making process and foreign relations from the 1980's until today. The Kurdish question as perceived by Ankara, is separatist, and poses a security threat to the entire country but has also international dimensions, which are responded with foreign policy actions by Turkey. Initially, a systemic view is considered in order to investigate Turkey's position in this issue in a global perspective. Moreover, this is completed with an ?Internal Politics Perspective?(Joe D Hagan), which gives a deeper understanding of the actual structures and actors in Turkish domestic policy that shape the foreign policy.

The aim of this essay is to study the decision making process and implementation of the principle of political participation and influence for Roma minority in Sweden. The results regarding the decision making process is structured through a discourse influenced policy analyses. Problem picture and recommended measures in the political documents representing the decision making process are analysed through theories of minority rights and equality. The implementation is seen through, by the author given minority discourse and the work in the roma council and analysed by the same theories already mentioned.The results show that regarding the decision process the aim of art.15 in the framework convention is based on the idea of equality while the Swedish documents relates more to an idea of the right to speak for the group. Regarding recommended measures, the framework convention gives several recommendations on specific measures for political participation while the Swedish documents focuses on the general politics of the state.

Aim: To examine director?s experiences of the process to implement smoke-free working hours and also their need of support to make it feasible in the municipality of Östhammar. Method: A qualitative interview study with a descriptive design was used. Semi-structured interviews were made with six directors who were selected from different levels, localities and administrations in the municipality of Östhammar. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data.Results: Many positive aspects were pointed out regarding the implementation of smoke-free working hours.