German regional policy has changed from a strategy of redistribution to a regional growth focused policy- strategies, which are often seen as opposites. Both policies, however, still have to relate to the constitutional objective ?to achieve equal living conditions for the country?s citizens.?This paper examines what effects a political change may have had on the interpretation of the German constitutional objective. Its aim is to examine German regional policy and its relationship to justice, using John Rawls? A Theory of Justice.

The research of this Bachelor?s thesis examines classifieds for librarians, and makes use of Ørom?s theory of sixlibrarian identities plus Schreiber?s complementary seventh identity. The main focus of the thesis was to examine what qualities and skills are presented and what identities are manifested in the classifieds. A third issue was to explore how relevant Ørom?s theory is to examine and understand the profession today.The data was analysed by the use of content analysisand a hermeneutics approach was taken.

En tät och funktionsblandad stad med ett rikt folkliv ses många gånger som dagens stadsbyggnads-ideal. Genom förtätning kan stadens kollektiva lösningar utnyttjas effektivare men samtidigt så belastas de mer. En av dessa kollektiva resurser är det offentliga grönområdet och grönskan är viktig för människan och staden. Denna uppsats behandlar konflikten som uppstår när staden blir tätare och grönområdet riskerar att påverkas av den växande staden. Studiens resultat består av två delar.

The aim of this thesis is to map the intellectual base, and identify the general research interests, of Cultural Policy studies. In addition to this the thesis also aims to trace the uses of theoretical and conceptual approaches within the identified research interests. This is done by analysing citations from 130 articles published in the leading scientific journal International Journal of Cultural Policy between the years 2002-2007 using the bibliometric method author cocitation analysis (ACA). The results of the ACA confirm the overall notion that the research field of cultural policy studies is an ambiguous one, even when it?s studied with a quantitative method specialised in uncovering hidden structures within a given field as ACA.

This thesis compares political participation by the public through the Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsman (PO) and the German Petitions Committee of the Bundestag (PC). Through studies of literature and statistics I examine how citizens can participate through the institutions, how frequently they do and the likelihood of sparking a debate while participating.Using media theories as well as theories of participatory and representative democracy I study how citizens can use these institutions for purposes of control and proposition.Both institutions deal with complaints but the PC also deals with propositions for legislation, making the institution more versatile. The PO deals with more cases than the PC and has more far-reaching competences and areas of inspection, although neither institution has binding decisions. Thus the direct advantage for citizens using the institutions is the chance of reaching out to media and the public through freedom of information laws and the German online petition forum.The PC to a larger extent fits the representative model while the PO in some respects is more a legal than a political institution, being managed by lawyers instead of MPs. Neither institution meets the ideals of participatory politics although the German official petition is closer to it..

This paper seeks to clarify the attitudes and positions of five Swedish Christiannewspapers in relation to the Suffrage reform (1907-11) and the Courtyardcrisis (1914). Furthermore I try to investigate the reasons behind their attitudesand positions. The five newspapers examined are: Göteborgs Stifts-Tidning,Församlingsbladet, Vår Lösen, Svenska Morgonbladet and Wecko-Posten.The results of my research show both convergence and divergence. Commonfor the newspapers is their criticism of the political agitation on the basisof ethics and that they all, except for Göteborgs Stifts-Tidning, recognizedemocratic principles. Divergence is evident, for example, in the reactions tothe consequences of the Courtyard crisis.I have distinguished three main factors that may help to explain the attitudesand positions of the newspapers?: nationalism versus internationalism,confessionalism and polarized political positions, and have found that the conceptof a ?Christian press? can be defended as well as put into question.

This thesis is set out as a testing of the crosscutting cleavages theory on twocontemporary cases. The aim is to test the explanation process of the crosscutting theory applied to the political and social situations in Belgium and Switzerland and furthermore to examine potential conflicts in pluralistic states. Our main questionis: How can the crosscutting cleavages theory explain the different outcomes ofsocial coexistence, even with the states numerous similarities? We have examined the two federal states through their social divisions of language, region, religion and socio-economy. Our findings show that both Belgium and Switzerland possess divisions in the above mentioned variables, which in most cases are cumulative structured.

This study treats cultural policy, it´s view of the value of literature, and how this view varies within different fields of cultural policy. The aim of the essay is to find different competing approaches through an investigation of texts from three different fields within cultural policy. The fields investigated are: The publishing subsidy of the National Council for Cultural Affairs, which values above all quality literature. En bok för alla, concentrates on spreading quality literature to new groups in society. Centrum för lättläst, which values that the contents of a text are successfully delivered to, and understood by, the reader.

This study sets out to investigate how the roll of the teacher is constructed in the Swedish Teachers? Unions trade publication. Based on the theory of social constructionism we have used the method of critical discourse analysis to establish dominant trends and patterns in how the roll of teacher is constructed in editorials in Swedish Lärarnas Tidning. We have established that the conflict between a modernist school tradition and a postmodern society has resulted in a dominant, traditional teacher discourse which is being simultaneously challenged by both a market-orientated discourse and a professionalization discourse. Furthermore, we attempt to highlight how these ?ideal? constructions can create problems in terms of identity construction for teachers.

Our essay focuses on media's coverage on the topic of overweight. We investigated how media portrays the picture of the ideal body and person and how the overweight person deviate from those pictures. We also tried to uncover how the media addresses specific types of subjects which we interpret to represent the normative way of being. From the way media presents their message we distinguished which subjects are being excluded. For this work we studied articles from the daily newspaper called Aftonbladet and a lifestyle magazine for women called Må Bra.

This is a qualitative study that has investigated four people's experiences of making a physical change of life. With narrative depth interviews, the study was characterized by the informants own experience of their experiences and thoughts. With questions surrounding their experiences of alienation, belonging to the standard, people's attitude and prejudices against their appearance. The investigation revealed that the informants experienced shared experiences and things that separated them. The conclusion based on the people in this study was that people with low self-esteem are at greater risk for experiencing alienation.

This Masters thesis aims at presenting a picture of, and critically examining, the Swedish debate concerning the public library and the future by way of 21 articles in three library periodicals. The questions examined are: -What are the views concerning the future public library in Swedish library press? -What characterizes the debate and why? Theories on political institutions and information society are used and the method is hermeneutic, a type of idea-analysis. The first step in the analysis consists of a categorized presentation of the material. The themes concern the form and content of the library as well as competence and hopes/fears.

The overall purpose with this thesis has been to study the strategic development of the Swedish Green Party, Miljöpartiet de Gröna. From its first appearance in the Swedish parliament 1988 to its decision to cooperate with the Social Democrats and the Left Party in 1998, the Greens has gone from a radical antiparty to a pragmatic support party. The analysis has concentrated towards identifying the causal factors behind this strategic move made by the Greens, and to determine how this party change has affected the party's strategic goals. In order to do so, a qualitative case study has been conducted where an integrated theoretical approach has been used. By studying official statements and internal debates the thesis concludes that the strategic change made by the Greens was due to the evolvement of a new dominant coalition of within the party.

Denna kandidatuppsats behandlar sambandet mellan hållbar utveckling, spårväg och städers varumärke. Med utgångspunkt i europeisk planering har en fallstudie av städerna Montpellier och Malmö gjorts för att undersöka dagens ideal och de drivkrafter som ligger bakom byggandet av spårväg. I uppsatsen ges en kort översikts om trafikplaneringens historia för att få en förståelse varför läget ser ut som det gör idag. En genomgång och förklaring av begreppet hållbarhet görs också samt en undersökning kring marknadsföring av städer och begreppet ?place branding?.

This thesis examines which function the information technology may have in thechildren's library, with the example from two library computer programmes. One is anexpert system, Hedvig, which will help children to choose and to find books, and theother is a computer game, The mysterious signs, that will teach children library user education.The main question is: What conceptions do the project-leaders, the children'slibrarians and the children have concerning the function of these two programmes in thechildren's library?The study is based upon qualitative interviews with two projects-leaders, fourlibrarians, three computer programmers and twenty-eight children.The theoretical material consists of examples on other library computer programmesfor children developed in Denmark and USA, some American studies in children'sabilities to use computerized information retrieval systems, and studies concerningchildren's relations to computers.The adult's conceptions of the computer programmes are divided into categories asfollows: Democracy, aspect of sex, complement, marketing, reading promotion,development of competence, information technology development, pedagogics, adulteducational activities, compensation and armusement, pedagogics, usefulness,effectiveness and information. These categories shall be seen as the conclusions of the thesis..