The question of direct citizen participation in politics and administration is a contestable one. Its proponents claim that it has positive consequences even for the more "traditional", representative democracy, since participation leads to an increased political knowledge and increased political interest, and thus creates a revitalised democracy. Critical voices have however been raised to the validity of this claim. Critics have also pointed out direct participation as problematic, because it leads to problems of political inequality: a difference of political influence between ? on the one hand, the citizens participating directly and those that restrict their political participation to voting, and ? on the one the other hand ? between the institutions, for example schools, that employ, and don?t employ this method of direct citizen influence.In this essay, these two points of criticisms are tested in the context of user-boards in elementary and secondary schools.

We aim to develop knowledge of how new technology, in this case social media, can contribute to how sports fans interact with their idols. Therefore our framing of a question is to present how fans experience their contact with mixed martial arts (MMA) & ultimate fighting championship (UFC) through social media platforms. To specify our study, we also have a supplement question with in which way sports fans uses social media.We have chosen to conduct a qualitative study consisting of interviews and data observations of websites, related to the organization UFC, to approach our main question. We have interviewed nine randomly selected people with one common interest - MMA/UFC. With an implant of theories, consisting of social media, fandom and lurking, on the result of the interview and website data, we try to come closer to a conclusion for our intention with this thesis.Our conclusion is that the interviewed fans express that through the usage of social media, they feel like they have come closer to UFC.

The main purpose of this C-essay is to answer the question: What have been the consequences and effects of the merit point system on language studies and the parties concerned (teachers, students and principals) during the school year of 2010/11?The merit point system is the result of a political decision and was implicated for the first time in the Swedish upper secondary school during the school year 2010/2011. Being a completely new phenomenon it is of great interest and importance to study its effects.The study in this essay also aims to verify, falsify or nullify two hypotheses very often referred to in the political discussions regarding the merit point system:The merit point system will replace affection and interest as main reasons for language studies in upper secondary school and cause a rectification amongst the students choices of additional courses.The merit point system will have a segregating effect upon society and make it harder for people to rise in society through education in the future.A verification of these hypotheses would imply the appearance of an increased rectification amongst students as well as an orientation towards an in the future more segregated society.The empiric material has been collected and examined with qualitative as well as quantitative methods (questionnaires and interviews) and belongs epistemologically to the phenomenological and hermeneutical traditions..

Problem area and purposeNowadays, 2006, the downloading of music and movies is an increasingly more burning issue. But while the music industry has made great progress in using the Internet as a distribution channel the film industry has been at a standstill for several years. Recently however there has been progress in the form of a few film companies beginning to offer their customers legal ways to acquire films over the Internet. But with this progress one central question arises, which this report will try to answer; what are the important factors for selling films as the Internet moves from primarily being a information channel to also functioning as a distribution channel? The purpose is to examine what the consumers find important when purchasing film, and to establish to what degree there is a substitution effect between DVDs and downloadable films.MethodThe report is first and foremost based on an Internet survey with a total of 383 participants.

Shortselling and loan of shares are becoming a common complement to"traditional"trade in shares. To be able to lend shares, it is necessary to reregister the shares so that the shortseller is competent to sell these shares further. In a legal sense, the proprietorship of the shares has changed hands, though it is not obvious for those involved to see what happens to the prorietorship. The obscurity is principally whether a complete changeover of the proprietorship is made between those concerned. This essay makes clear which legal consequences loan of shares and shortselling get concerning the proprietorship, and how a conflict between the lender and the third party should be solved if the shortseller becomes bankrupt.

The retail banks are usually looked upon as conservative. Since the launch of internet banks in the 90's they have not developed much. Meanwhile the internet is developing in a fast pace and social websites are increasing in popularity. The purpose of this essay was to investigate how internet banking will develop in the near future based on interviews, literature and trend studies. With web 2.0 techniques the internet bank could develop to help the costumers take more informed decisions regarding their economic situation.

After the mandatory rules for clearing was removed in 1994, the clearing area has increased in Sweden. After the storms Gudrun and Per, the areas became planted with new plants, mainly spruce, but also other tree species. Storm areas are now being invaded by naturally rejuvenated birch in the tilling tracks. Since the birch often is initially growing faster than the spruce it is inhibiting the growth and is also damaging the spruce. The purpose of this thesis is to study the new brush saw with chain and compare it with the conventional clearing saw, mainly in terms of performance and ergonomics. The results show that the new brush saw with chain is very good in almost all clearing operations compared to the conventional clearing saw.

This thesis is a cultural theoretical case study of the art project (O)önskad samhällsförbättring.Via an analysis of the project, that is based on theories of power, resistance and contemporaryurban development, it examines the construction of urban space, its impact on public art including the ability of art to initiate evolvement of the urban public space.The last decades art has plaid an important role in what is called the creative city; to become attractive nodal points of the global economy, larger cities increasingly invest in art,culture and creative industry. Simultaneously the urban public space is limited to activitiesand expressions of art that are presumed to create economic growth. This introduces animpression of what is allowed and what is not allowed, possible and not possible, wished andnot wished which, as a consequence, evolves the public space. The events during the artproject and the reactions that followed enlightened these limitations. This tells a story, not only about the structuring process of the local urban space, but also important changes that are created as a simultaneous effect at different levels in society, as well locally as globally.

Environmental subsidies are used as incitements to farmers for development of sustainable land use. In 2014, applications for funding constructed wetlands were not available. This paper examines the environmental consequences of this lack of funding in one intensively cultivated region Skåne län, southern Sweden.A review of wetland applications between year 2007-2013 show that the average rate of applications has been 31 projects per year with a wetland size of 4,48 ± 1,61ha per project (mean±95% CI). Based on interviews, the result suggests that the lack of funding in one year leads to between 102 and 140 ha of constructed wetlands that is not built. This correspond to a total loss of increased nitrogen retention capacity between 6,0 and 91,7 tons/year and a loss of increased phosphorus retention capacity between 0,17and 2,1 tons/year in the drainage basins of Skåne.Further the interviews show that continuity of environmental regulations and funding is important for the farmers? interest in environmental measures.It is concluded that the total loss of increased retention capacity is small compared to the annual transport of nitrogen and phosphorus in the drainage basins.

All companies face risk in their daily business. Internationalised companies tend to experience higher risk due to for example unfamiliar business environment than companies that act only on the national market. Estonia became independent as late as in 1991 and is therefore a new interesting market for many companies in neighbouring countries like Sweden. Risks that are most apparent for an internationalised company are political risk, currency risk, capital and interest rate risk, business risk and credit risk. Our intention of this study was to find out how Swedish companies acting on the Estonian market faced the different risks when entering the Estonian market and how they value the risks today.

The purpose of this study is to examine what motivates people to help others at risk to themselves. The focus is on international aid workers, which in their work put themselves in situations of risk. Earlier research shows that international aid work involves risks such as infectious diseases, violence, death threats, assaults, constant insecurity and risk to be traumatized etc. There is not much research done on what motivates to help others in spite of risks, hence we find this an interesting area. We have interviewed six respondents about the content and character of their motivation and factors that are important for the maintenance and development of this motivation.

After the mandatory rules for clearing was removed in 1994, the clearing area has increased in Sweden. After the storms Gudrun and Per, the areas became planted with new plants, mainly spruce, but also other tree species. Storm areas are now being invaded by naturally rejuvenated birch in the tilling tracks. Since the birch often is initially growing faster than the spruce it is inhibiting the growth and is also damaging the spruce. The purpose of this thesis is to study the new brush saw with chain and compare it with the conventional clearing saw, mainly in terms of performance and ergonomics. The results show that the new brush saw with chain is very good in almost all clearing operations compared to the conventional clearing saw.

The attitudes towards nature conservation in forestry are based on the individual forest owner. The theme of the interviews is the opinion on nature conservation in forestry. The purpose of this study is to identify if there is any difference in attitude to nature conservation in forestry according to the age of the forest owner. The study discusses different factors that affect the private forest owners consideration of nature conservation and give an insight in different generations attitude to nature conservation. Other topics that are discussed is if future change of generation will change the consideration of nature conservation in Swedish forestry and what is needed to enhance the interest in nature conservation among forest owners.This study is the result of interviews with a number of forest owners in the county of Uppsala, Sweden.

This study is grounded in an interest in the Swedish Upper Secondary Schools? role as an educator of democratic citizens, with a specific interest in the moral and cognitive development of Upper Secondary School students. Development in these two areas is treated as results of citizenship education.The purpose of the study is to examine moral and cognitive development of students in Upper Secondary School to see if there are any structural differences to be found between the Upper Secondary School programs that are vocationally oriented and the programs that are preparing for further studies on higher levels ? since these differences have been both theoretically and empirically implied. The study is based on an enhanced version of Lawrence Kohlberg?s stages of moral development (with teachers? evaluations of students? capacity as a reference point of the students? actual level of moral development) as well as on Kieran Egan?s theory of development through the use of cognitive tools (as seen in five different ?shapes of understanding?).

Previous research about contextual effects on advertising has mainly focused on the editorial context, while advertisements' broader context has been overlooked. This paper aims to take a broader perspective on advertisement context. Its purpose is to get an understanding on how physical exercise influence the effectiveness of print advertisements, and furthermore to look at the effects of thematic incongruence between ad and the physical environment. We hypothesize that physical exercise increase ad effectiveness through affective priming and that thematic incongruence is beneficial for ads' effectiveness, especially after training when awareness about the environment is higher. A 2×2 experiment was conducted in a gym, where each respondent was exposed to either an incongruent or less incongruent ad, before or after physical exercise.