Participation of the people is essential for a democracy's vitality and survival. In this study we focus on the individual as an active participant in the traditional political arena and beyond its sphere into the society as a whole. The first part of the study has a normative aim. Firstly we examine why political participation is essential for democracy, and especially the ideal of representative democracy and the restricted passive participation of its citizens in comparison to the ideal of participatory democracy and its ideal of an active participant in all aspects of society. An ideal participant is drawn up to set the course for the empirical part of the study.

People have utilised and influenced the boreal forest for many centuries. Prior to the industrial revolution during the 19th century, however, human use primarily only had a low impact on the forest. When the timberfrontier swept over the country, the Swedish forests came to change for ever. The study site for this thesis is situated in the northern part of the county of Västerbotten, Sweden, and has previously been a National forest. Today the area is an ecopark and the land is owned by the forest company Sveaskog.

During my one year master in pedagogic science, I was frequently given the impression that depicts the pedagogue?s profession as a rather transcendent talent or, more precisely, a matter of having ?it? or not. It seemed to me, as if the communicative part of the teacher?s specialised skill was more or less undefined in the description of what makes the pedagogue a professional pedagogue. On those premisses, I was led to the aim of this study, which is pursuing the very essence of the profession by discussing how five teachers validate their daily work from a habermasian perspective on communication, society and pedagogy.

This paper deals with knives excavated in the Birka Garrison between 1997 and 2004, in a selection of 100 knives out of approximately 400. The aim is to measure and analyze the material to find out if certain elements in design points to a specific craft. Two groups of knifeblades can be seen, one with a convex bevel and one with a flat bevel of the blade. Considering osteological evidence, historical sources, and the main suitabillity of the knives, it is concluded that some of the flat beveled knives may have been used for crafting leather and fur, whereas the convex beveled knives are of an allround type..

The aim of this masters thesis is to analyze how subjects of ethnographical objects should be described. To obtain this we focus on which subject aspects of ethnographical objects that could be possible and valuable to analyze and to index. This is done with the help of established LIS subject indexing theories, and through the perspective of ethnographical museum documentation. The theories are both general, concerning the stages of subject indexing, and more specific, regarding the indexing of pictures. One of the latter is the theoretical model of Sara Shatford, from the article Analyzing the Subject of a Picture.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine how the gender structure appears in detective novels and in the society during the 1960s and 2000s. We have a pre-understanding that the gender structure is more distinct in the earlier books and we will investigate this by looking at the two aspects occupation and family role. We find this to be an important question to notice because society today isnt equal between the sexes. Our study is based on a theory of Yvonne Hirdmans, she claims that the man is the dominant part and the woman is in an inferior position. We apply a stereotype model she has conceived and we try to categorize the characters in the books we have analysed into this model.

Due to the Danish kings? engagements on the British Isles, the early town of Lund, was influenced by English and Anglo Saxon traditions, architecture and technology. The main aim of this essay is to find out in what ways, and most importantly how this can be seen in the archaeological material, and how it changes over time. Within a framework of historical sources, archaeological finds like excavated stave and stone churches, cemeteries, pottery, and everyday personal objects, both English immigrants and English influence is found. The problem of the English origin of the palisade wall technique is discussed, as is early Lund as a Viking age town.

This essay investigates the statements of Växjö municipality?s motives for some of its many environmental projects. The aim of the essay is to be theory-testing as to see how a municipality/city which promotes itself as being ?green? motivates its efforts in the environmental area. Växjö city promotes itself as ?The greenest city in Europe?, an award appointed to the city by BBC and other international media.

The number of public schools in Sweden has increased strongly over the past twenty years. This essay gives a possible explanation to how the Social Democratic Party in Sweden took part in this evaluation from 1987 to 1997. I've analysed how the party's ideology in this issue was shaped and adapted to the opposite politics, when the Liberals and Conservatives Parties were in government.The empirical analyse is primarily based on official documents from the Parlament such as debates, government bills and motions. I have also studied the Social Democratic Party's congresses which took place during this period of time. I have practised two different theories in analysing the motives behind the acting.

The aim of this study has been to get a better knowledge and understanding of the way teachers are working with reading comprehension in the grades 1 and 2, which was done through description of 5 teachers way of working.The theoretical basis of this study grounds in the sociocultural perspective. I based my study on Vygotsky?s theory which claims that strategies transferred from adults to children through social interaction get internalised and then used independently. I have also made use of several theories that specifically deal with reading comprehension that allowed me to identify this area of teaching as a complex one, consisting of several elements. In order to understand a text on a deeper level a reader has to be able to infer, or read between the lines.

This thesis discusses the existential consequences for the human being in creatio ex nihilo, where the main subjects of discussion are contingency, freedom and identity. The starting-point of the discussion lies in the presentation of the history of the doctrine of creation, especially the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo. Once the historical and philosophical importance of the doctrine of creation is clear, the anthropological and theological consequences are obvious; creation is contingent and at the same time deeply dependent upon God. The contingency of creation may bring a sense of non-necessity among people, and therefore it makes the question of human freedom and identity in the doctrine of creation utterly important..

The aim of this thesis is to study what conceptions of literature that are present in the teacher magazine Svenskläraren between the years 1985 and 2012. In other words: what is the underlying view on literature's value as a teaching aid and why should we study it in school? I relate my analysis to previous research about the use of fiction in education. A critical methodology has been used to study the material. In my results I distinguish three conceptions of literature that are present in Svenskläraren.

In Sweden the social assistance from a historical perspective, has been a part of the social legislation, since the 18th century. In that time called poor relief. Through the centuries this has established the social assistance we have today. With focus on the child, we have attempted to illustrate how the social workers consider the child perspective when they are dealing with the social assistance. We wanted to get a view of how the social worker reasons about needs the children have and how they can see that the benefit has been provided for.

Syftet med arbetet är att presentera en handlingsplan för lärare som vill använda sig av studieteknik i historieundervisningen. Genom att sammanväva teorier om inlärning, utveckling, studieteknik, historiemedvetande, identitet, lärobokstexter, minnet och hjärnan presenteras dels en förberedande handlingsplan dels en utförande handlingsplan. I den förberedande handlingsplanen är målet att eleverna skall bli effektiva i sitt användande av studieteknik. Detta för att eleverna sedan genom den utförande handlingsplanen skall kunna utnyttja studieteknik för att öka sin inlärning och förståelse i ämnet historia..

This study focuses on nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe. Anchored in theories that this region historically has been characterized by a nationalism that is based on the ethnic group rather than on liberal or civic concepts, it is the purpose of this study to explore whether these theories still apply in recent times when the region has been liberalized, for example manifested in the entry to the European Union. The research question has been tested through analysis of the constitutions of a number of Central and Eastern European countries in order to investigate what type of nationalism that the states have codified in their basic political documents. The results show that some of the states give expression to the historical ethnic nationalism in their constitutions, which indicates that the theories still are relevant..