On December 1th 2009 the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, and through Article 13, the recognition of animals as sentient being was given a more visible part in the very core of EU law. This was an effect of a political decision to commit to the issue, partly because of the will to further harmonize the EU market, but also due to increased societal concern for the wellbeing of animals. Over the last decades, ethical awareness is growing in many countries, one reason being new scientific discovery. This influences legislators and policy makers to take proper action, and in this way, ethics and science often work together as the very basis for the development of new legislation and policies. There is yet to be seen what the actual consequences of Article 13 will be, since the legal obligation remains the same and there are still some reservations in it.

In 2002 George W. Bush held a speech where he classified six nations as being the main threats to American security, one of them being Syria, a state with a secular constitution, no resent offence towards the US, and with an improved diplomatic relationship to the US during the Clinton years.Being an ally to the Soviet Union during the Cold War Syria was forced to redefine its role in the region. Using neorealistc theory one part conlusion is the fact that the new Syrian leader, Bashar al-Hasad, in the early 21th century determined to set higher goals for the Syrian power ambition in the Middle East, threatened to destabilize the region and leave the US and its allies in a caotic situation.In the US, however, the new administration after 11/9 sharpened its tone towards states that did not cooperate in the new ?war on terrorism? or/and were likely to harbour terrorists. Syria was accused of doing both.

This study is about howStockholm?s policy for zero tolerance of graffiti from 2007 affected the graffiti culture inStockholm. We have researched what consequences there were for the practice of graffiti, and what consequences there were for the stylistic performance of graffiti. In doing so, we have had two focus group interviews and one deep interview including eight graffiti writers from Stockholm. The individuals in the groups have been practising graffiti for a varied amount of time, but we have representation from both before, and after/during the policy of zero tolerance from 2007. Our study shows that the result ofStockholm?s policy for zero tolerance of graffiti for the graffiti culture inStockholmwas a ?subcultureification?, a ?stylistic generalization? and the ?subculture?s ambivalent identity?.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att genom intervjuer med medarbetare i två olika organisationer undersöka om, och i sådana fall hur, olika delar i en organisation kan påverka arbetsgivare och arbetstagares förhållningssätt till frågor rörande alkohol och arbetet med drog- och alkoholpolicyn. Vidare har syftet varit att se vilken roll denna policy spelar i arbetet med dessa frågor.De frågeställningar vi har för avsikt att besvara är följande:? Hur förhåller sig medlemmar i organisationen till problem rörande alkohol?? Finns likheter eller skillnader mellan hur medlemmar förhåller sig till en organisations alkoholpolicy respektive hur de agerar i praktiken?? Vad är det som påverkar dessa förhållningssätt?De resultat vi har fått fram pekar på tydliga tendenser till att alkohol- och drogpolicyn inte används som ett verktyg i frågor rörande alkohol och droger i de undersökta organisationerna. Trots detta stämmer medarbetares tillvägagångssätt många gånger överens med det som står i respektive organisations policy. Detta beror till största del på dokumentens vaga utformning.

The aim of this paper is to explain how the European Union?s common strategy for theCommon Foreign- and Security Policy (CFSP) will change with the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon. A comparative case study and qualitative method is used. On the basis of Smith?s theory of institutionalization we will analyze two member states: France and Denmark.

The parental education groups are an activity that attracts the majority of all couples that awaits their first child. Therefore this is a forum with strong influence on the formulation of the parenting. The aim of the study was to examine how parental education within Swedish child health care, affects the construction and shaping of parenthood. We have also studied this from a gender perspective. The starting point for our understanding of parenting is that it is socially constructed.

I have conducted a review on four countries in Scandinavia and the goal was to create a better understanding about what has caused homelessness in this countries. The result shows that the causes of homelessness can be explained by a variety of reasons. The most common causes of homelessness were related to mental illness and drug abuse. There where also other causes of homelessness, which was considered normal in Scandinavia. Examples of other causes were eviction, unemployment, housing policy, housing shortage, payment of debts, separations and family problems..

The Swedish teacher education is continuously changing along with the understanding of learning. The teacher education at Södertörn University has an intercultural profile, which is considered modern and innovative. In this essay, students? experiences from their practical training are analyzed to examine the correspondence between teacher practice and the modern teacher role conveyed by the University. The results show that some students have experienced practical training where the standards of the University?s teacher role were met, whereas others feel that they have not received the practical guidance needed to be able to wholly use their education in their future employment.

Author: Gabriella Agné and Helena LarssonTitle: Disability policy program ? a case study of a municipals implementation of UNs Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Supervisor: Marianne Westring-NordhAssessor: Ulf DruggeThis study aims to examine how a small municipal in southern Sweden works with the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and examine the assistant officers knowledge about this work and user organizations inclusion and user involvement.The study operates from a qualitative approach based on the results of nine semi-structured interviews with local politicians, assistance officers and representatives from three different user organizations.The results show that the municipal has chosen to work with the implementation of the convention by creating policy programs for their departments through dialogue with user organizations, and by mapping the accessibility to public places. The results also show that the assistant officers have been given no information regarding the convention or the policy programs from their employers and instead operate from national legislations and prepositions. The user organizations feel that they were initially included in the process, but that their impact has later been removed due to structural reorganization..

Information management is today a matter of great importance for every organisation. It is therefore necessary for organisations to see information and its management as a significant part of the organisation s key to success. In this essay we have chosen to study the implications of information policy and information strategy for The Nordic Council/The Nordic Council of Ministers. These two intergovernmental organisations share the same information department. Although The Nordic Council/The Nordic Council of Ministers are non-profitable organisations, they share some characteristics with those acting in a competitive market.

My study is about a preparation class in a selected municipality. It is based on the child¹s perspective, and it tries to highlight the school situation of new arrivals in a school where the majority of the pupils are of Swedish origin. The purpose of my study is to visualize how the education for newly arrived children is organized in the municipality, and to get an understanding of a range of student?s view of the schooling in the preparation class as an introduction to a regular class.To reach my goal, I have used qualitative methods, based on qualitative interviews. The interviews were made with six newly arrived pupils, and one interview was made with the deputy head of the school, which is in charge of immigrant education in the municipality.

Aim: The purpose of the study was to investigate how the assessment and grading is designed and practiced in the practical courses of physical education at GIH - the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, along with how it could affect newly graduated physical education teachers? ability to assess and grade students. The study was based on Habermas?s system and life-world theory.What view occurs concerning proficiencies, basis for assessment and marking among teachers who are responsible for examinations within physical education at GIH?How is the examination structured within physical education at GIH?How are skills and proficiencies among assessment and marking further mediated to students in the teacher education at GIH?Method: The case study was realized by performing qualitative interviews with a total of four teachers at physical education at GIH. Additionally, syllabi were text-analyzed to improve the validity of the study.Results: From the results we found that the teachers experience marking as a complicated assignment, where particularly the didactic ability but also the practical ability form a formative and summative assessment.

In 1990 the education training program for teachers working with children with special needs was changed. One major difference in the new program compared with the former one is that the specialized teacher is now mainly supposed to supervise teachers instead of teaching pupils who have learning difficulties. The aim of this qualitative interview study has been to find out what the specialized teachers think about there education, and how this could influence children with cognitive disabilities in special schools. I have interviewed six teachers who specialized in teaching pupils with cognitive disabilities. Three of them where educated prior to 1990 and the others were educated after 1990.

ICT and digital artifacts is an important resource in the society, especially in schools. That is why we have chosen to study if and how teachers uses ICT and other digital technology in their education in the history subject. We think that both subjects are important because history is a subject that has to do with the past, the present and the future.We made qualitative interviews with seven teachers from three different schools. We have analyzed if the teachers sees ICT as a burden or a resource in their education and also in which extend they have digital literacy. We have chosen to discuss different authors view on ICT in the education and digital literacy.

AimThe purpose of this study has been to examine attitudes towards dance in a broad sense, among Swedish schoolchildren. The study has been done with three different questions in mind: What do pupils think and express about dance? Are there any differences in attitude towards dance between girls and boys? And how do the pupils relate to gender conceptions in connection to dance illustrations?MethodEight pupils 12 ? 14 years of age have been interviewed separately during physical education lessons. During parts of the interviews dance illustrations were used in order to encourage the pupils in their discussions, especially when asked to relate to dance and gender conceptions. The statements have been interpreted from a gender theoretical perspective.ResultsMy interview study shows that male pupils to a larger extent than female pupils inhabit hostile feelings towards dance as part of physical education lessons.