This essay studies the relationship between politicians and municipal chief officers from the point of view of the bureaucracy and its role in democracy and the substance of the chief position. I conducted interviews and observations with politicians and senior officials from the local public administration in Bromölla. The roles of the chief officer and politicians have certain common characteristics which makes it difficult to separate them. Senior officials working full time in contrast to part time politicians give them an advantage in the political process. Budget cut backs both enhance the role of politicians and chief officers in the administrative organisation.

The aim of this study was to examine the view that officials involved in youth unemployment have on the significance of collaboration between organizations working with unemployed youth. The study was based on nine qualitative interviews with officials from PES offices and from municipalities such as job coaches. The results were analyzed based on qualitative content analysis. The analysis led to two different themes: conditions and the individual. In the analysis two different theories were used, new institutionalism and Lipsky's theory about street-level bureaucrats.

The purpose of this study is to understand the collaboration between school and social services. The primary focus of this study is the subject of interaction. The study analyzes how confidentiality affects collaboration between school and social services and examines what effect the organizations? different roles have on collaboration. The method used is qualitative interviews and the gathered empirical data has been analyzed using theories of discretion and street-level bureaucracy.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan?s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy.

AbstractTitle: Gender equality ? of course! A qualitative study on gender equal recruitment at a universityAuthor: Ingrid ÖhlundSeveral studies show that the division of gender in Swedish universities is uneven. Since universities are important organizations where our future citizens get their education and become socialized, I found it interesting to investigate how a Swedish university handles the gender equality issue in the process of recruitment. The aim of this study was to contribute with a higher level of knowledge and understanding about the recruitment process out of a gender equality perspective. The aim was also to identify which stages of the recruitment process that was vulnerable out of a gender equality perspective.

The purpose of this thesisis to examine the female body ideal of the Swedish fitness blogs and how it is reproduced. To answer the research question five of the most read female fitness blogs were chosen for a critical discourse analysis. The results show that pictures is an important communication event. The ideal is reproduced by representing bodies with desirable attributes in environments and poses that communicates positive feelings. There is a dialectic relation between picture and text in each published post.

AbstractBackground: To have type 2 diabetes affects life situation and thus the experiences oflifestyle changes. Treatment of type 2 diabetes consists of adapting to new lifestyles and theirown involvement. Orem (2001) theory of self-care has been used as a kind of scientificfoundation. Aim: The purpose of this study is to describe the experiences of lifestyle changesin people with type 2 diabetes. Method: Systematic literature review of descriptive andinductive synthesis approach has been used.

This essay takes its starting point in the making of a new national general school curriculum for the Swedish elementary school. The purpose of this essay is to estimate what the policy makers intended with the new policy documents and relate that to how a few teachers perceive these changes. In order to get an understanding of how the teachers view these changes I have done qualitative interviews with four teachers which all work in the Swedish elementary school.Theories on "implementation" and "street-level bureaucracy" are used to analyse my empirical material. My results tell that there is a difference how teachers relate to the new curruculum and the policy makers' intentions with it. That can be explained by the fact that teachers' work is complex and as to they work in a complex organization..

This essay is a qualitative content analysis of Flickornas julbok andPojkarnas julbok from 1915/1916 to 1920 and from 1966 to 1970. Mainfocus is the representations of gender that is produced in the books, and howthe ideal of the girl and the ideal of the boy is described.The result shows that the girl is undergoing a change of personality. The idealimage of the girl develops from caring, helpful, compassionate, and diligent,to become independent and brave. The Ideal for the boy in the books, bothfrom the 1910s and 1960s, is described as adventurous, courageous, curious,independent, sensible, strong and loyal. In the 1960s books the girl and theboy are described with similar characteristics, but the girl is also expected tobe cute while boy is expected to be technical and knowledgeable.

This thesis is a case study that examines what political decisions have been taken and how these policies have been implemented. Further this thesis discusses how legitimacy of local policy makers and implementors is affected. The subject studied have been the social service of Jönköping municipality and the intervention of safe-housing aimed at women who have been, or are subject to violence by person close to them. In our study we have examined local policy within the territory of the intervention and how this policy is implemented. A qualitative method with semi-structured interviews was used in combination with quantitative methods to examine protocols from the social welfare board and an action program named "Skydd och stöd för misshandlade kvinnor och deras barn? [Protection and support for abused women and their children].The purpose of this study has been to highlight how the social services implemented the local policy of safe-house accommodation in Jönköping municipality from the legitimacy and discretion perspectives.

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.

Syftet med denna studie är att försöka förstå vilka ideal som påverkar grundskoleflickors självbild.Metoden vi använt oss av, har bestått av kvalitativa intervjuer, genom vilka vi har intervjuat nio grundskoleflickor enskilt.Resultatet av vår undersökning visar att dagens flickor är på väg att bli mer jämlika pojkar, än tidigare. De uppfattar sig inte som ett andra kompletterande kön, utan vill själva bejaka sina egna intressen, och själva ta ansvar för sina liv. Dessa flickor har som ambition att ta livet och världen i besittning, såsom aldrig tidigare..

The law firm industry has during the last years met new demanding conditions and one tool to handle these new conditions has been to implement a Knowledge Management system. Large investments have been made in these Knowledge Management systems but the implementations have met many challenges from within the organizations.With a multiple study, based on interviews with Knowledge Management Managers included in a Knowledge Management network, this thesis aims to study the challenges with Knowledge Management and the underlying causes. The result, based on McDermott's theories shows challenges within technical, personal, social and management areas where the law firm need to shift a focus from Information to Knowledge Management, create a culture of trust and integration and use the informal powerbase.The causes for these challenges are found in the base of Mintzbergs theories of Professional bureaucracy where the Knowledge Management is affected by strong self-regulated individualist, a divided organizational structure and industry conditions..

Undersökningens syfte är att studera läraridealgenom dödsrunor för att se vilka ideal som den avlidne framställdes i samt sehur dessa skiljer sig åt i ett genusperspektiv. Minnesrunorna finns publiceradei Sveriges allmänna folkskollärarföreningstidningsorgan Svensk läraretidningoch undersökningsperioden är åren 1928- 1930. Undersökningen visade på att bådeden manlige och den kvinnliga läraren framställdes i stort sett lika även omdet skiljer sig åt procentuellt sett. Läraridealet för denna tid var enpliktrogen och nitiskt lärare/lärarinna som på ett dugligt, intresserat ochsjälvuppoffrande sätt utförde sitt kall. Därtill tillkom ideal såsom glad,avhållen och godhjärtad.

Den här studien undersöker egna resurser och ideal som fyra studerande på den grundläggande utbildningen i psykoterapi vid Sankt Lukas utbildningsinstitut ger uttryck för. Vidare intresserar sig studien för hur de fyra studerandes uttryckta resurser och ideal överensstämmer med CER-modellen av Skovholt och Rønnestad. CER-modellen beskriver vad som gör en psykoterapeut framgångsrik, en så kallad master therapist. Undersökningsmaterialet består av åtta intervjuer som ingår i ett forskningsprojekt som är ett samarbete mellan Sankt Lukas utbildningsinstitut och Psykologiska institutionen vid Stockholms universitet och som fokuserar på frågan: Vad händer med studenter under en psykoterapi- och psykoterapeututbildning? Materialet har bearbetats enligt en deskriptiv metod och har sedan prövats mot CER-modellens kriterier.