Children of today are surrounded by many different kinds of media. Books have to compete with new media like computers, video games, many TV-channels etc. The aim of this study has been to investigate the reading habits of 9-12-year old boys in their spare time, and their reasons for reading related to their use of other media. Our interest has been to shed light on the boys reading habits, their preferences and motives for reading and their reading functions. Even though our focus has been on their reading, we also have examined their use of other media and the function of this use.

This thesis examines the ongoing European political debate on the links between livestock production and climate change. In the end of 2006 the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released their report Livestock?s long shadow, showing that livestock production represents some 18 % of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the European Commission?s position and response to this question since the release of the report.Using Arne Naess? argumentation analysis, statements made by the Commission will be systematically organized and broken apart.

Sara Lidman?s second novel Hjortronlandet (1955) unfolds in the north of Sweden in the early 20th century. It describes the progress of modernity and the conflicting Interests of an old local culture and a new more ?civilised? one. The two cultures are constituted by different value systems and in the novel they are represented by two neighbour communities.

In Sweden, the main responsibility for urban planning lies with the municipalities. The county administrative boards are responsible for clarifying the governmental Interests for the municipalities. The main purpose of this essay was to study documents with descriptions of national heritage areas in order to examine whether certain problems within these documents are still present in the most recent ones. This was done by comparing old documents with new ones. The problem with these kinds of documents has been the lack of clarification of cultural values in national heritage areas.

Over the last decades there has been a steady increase in the representation of women on the political arena. Despite of this there are still fewer women in comparison to men in political organs particularly at the municipal level. It is therefore of great importance to examine which different factors that tend to effect the female representation at this level. Doctor of philosophy at Umeå University Jessika Wide presented in a study from 2000 that the share of women in the municipal councils tended to depend upon cultural, socio-economical and political factors. Other scholars also mean that women have specific Interests and therefore are more represented in some areas.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and to increase the understanding of the negotiation process between the public- and the private sector in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). I have chosen to explore the first ?real? PPP project in Denmark, the construction of Vildbjerg compulsory school in the municipality of Trehøje.This case study is based upon a qualitative method consisting of interviews with the leading negotiators from both sectors. Two different theoretical perspectives are used to construct the basis of the analysis - The Theory of Public-Private Partnership and Negotiation theory - and serve as a concept instrument.The result of the analysis indicates that the negotiators from the different sectors have problems to get out of their traditional roles as purchaser and contractor ? in PPP they should act like partners.

This thesis examines how the EU and Sweden aim to prevent radicalization through their strategies on preventing violent extremism (PVE). It contributes to PVE knowledge by examining how both actors plan preventive measures to combat radicalization and promote resilient societies. Analyzing Sweden's anti-terrorism strategy (Skr. 2014/15:146) and the EU strategy (COM(2020) 795 final), this study shows similarities in their approaches, particularly in targeting schools and youth with their preventive measures. Emphasis is placed on education to promote democratic and critical thinking, thus promoting resilience against radicalization.

The aim of this master thesis is to find out if young people and librarians think that reference groups can support public libraries to meet the needs of young people, and if the reference groups, which the librarians describe, differentiates from the young peoples requirements. I have made a qualitative study with a questionnaire to six librarians who have experience from reference groups and ten interviews with teenagers. The result showed that young people have many Interests and needs which can be met from the library. The teenagers were positive to the library and many of them showed interest in having more influence on the library. Many would like to join a reference group, but on the condition that they would be offered real influence.

In theory, the logic behind partnerships is simple: All organisations have strengths, but no organisation has all the strength required to do everything. Triggered by global perspectives and challenged by sustainability objectives, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 pointed out needs for corporate responsibility. In this conference, Private-public partnership, PPP, was identified as a potential way to work towards sustainability, especially as a way to emphasize a corporate responsibility commitment. Nowadays, organizations exist to satisfy the needs and Interests of all their stakeholders, such as customers, markets, shareholders, as well as secondary stakeholders such as media, NGOs, and society at large. Addressing all stakeholders and working towards a sustainable business development makes PPP a potential solution, but also a source of challenges.

This master thesis is based on the sociocultural perspective. A qualitative research study was conducted to investigate children's attitudes towards reading, texts and libraries.The theoretical background is constituted by ideas from the new sociology of childhood, literacy-studies and reader-response theory.The study was conducted with 23 children, 13 girls and 10 boys, participating in focus groups.The results of the study reveal that children's literacy-activities in school are strongly influenced and limited by adults. Children's interest in pictures and non-fiction-reading do not correspond to the school institution that favors traditional media and fiction. The study also reveals a gender division between children's literacy-activities that tends to grow with age. All the children in the study regard libraries as book-houses and wished for libraries that combine activity and serenity.The thesis shows the importance of being aware of, and engage in, children's reading-Interests and reading-practices if the reading stimulating activities in schools and libraries are to be successful.

Ethical competence is an important precondition when people are to respond to moral problem situations as efficiently as possible. In these situations it is not easy to make choices and decisions, especially when many stakeholders are involved with various opinions and Interests.The purpose of this thesis was to generate a web-based support tool to train and promote ethical competence of the users of this tool.We first created a theoretical basis by studying the major theories of ethics in general and ethical competence in particular. The importance of ethical competence and its main subject, namely, the autonomy in the theoretical part described and specified. In addition has the practical ethical reflection over morality preferred and characterized to the classical ethical passivity over morality. We have also preferred and characterized the autonomous thinking to the heteronomous one.Based on the theoretical base a prototype tool to support the training of ethical competence was designed and developed.

In the master thesis the focus of the study has been on the special library of the Goethe-institute in Stockholm. A survey was made among the visitors coming to the library, to find out how they used the library and how they would judge the quality of service. To find out how the needs and the opinions of the users were meet by the library I also made an interview with the staff one librarian and the chief librarian. In the analysis I used the theory about service quality of Christian Grönroos as a framework. The theory distinguishes the service quality into technical resp.

The purpose of this study has been to examine what it is in the situation that affects which leadership that is applied on the members of the organization. Our questions that we have explored were; What is it in the situation that influences the leadership applied on an individual or staff group? What similarities and differences have emerged by Hersey and Blanchards situational leadership model?Further, we used qualitative semi-structured interviews at the interview procedures with three managers and three employees. Hersey and Blanchards situational leadership model and Goffmans theory in the book "The presentation of self in everyday life" have been used as a foundation and inspiration in this study.We have found that circumstances like the size of the staff group along with the organizations financials and the resources affect the leadership behavior and how well it is matched with the employees. The function of the leaders position in the context, and the purpose of the situation influences how the leadership is formed.

The purpose of this study was to examine how a selection of social welfare officers based on the principle of the best interest of the child construct a minimum level of the material standard in a home. Another purpose was to examine whether different units with varying socioeconomic prerequisites in the municipality of Stockholm construct this level differently.The method used in this study was Sociology of Law and two focus groups were used for the gathering of the data. A social constructive theory, a class perspective using concepts of Bourdieu and a perspective of law were used to analyse the material of data.The results showed that the courses of action varied from enactment and the policies of the municipality of Stockholm, unspecified theories of the development of children, the conception of what is normal and what children needs, the context in which they work, the development of the society and what they estimate that children needs when attending school. The results also showed a difference between the two units concerning the minimum level of the material standard in a home.

As more and more book publishers are starting up in Sweden, despite of tough competition, this thesis aims to understand the necessary resources required by new publishing houses in order to create a long-term role on the national publishing market. This is a market characterized by a high level of cultural Interests, where success is not always measured in economic profit. Four new publishing houses have been chosen, whose start-up phases and entry processes are described in order to determine what factors have been essential in creating a role. In addition, relevant actors such as other publishers, distributors, and retailers have been interviewed with the purpose of acquiring the complete picture of how the new publishers? can create a role within the industry.