This research addresses the issues of identity and culture in Latvia in the context of the upcoming European Union enlargement in 2004. Political self- determination of Latvia was historically indebted to culture. The phenomenon of cultural identity, so important 12 years ago when Latvian independence was regained, is largely ignored by politicians in the upcoming enlargement process. This is especially worth attention since the 8-th parliamentary elections took place in October 2002. The obvious lack of interest in cultural issues on the part of politicians is compensated by the apprehensions in the society (reflected in mass media) to loose Latvian specific culture and identity when joining the big European family.

The aim of this Bachelor´s thesis is to investigate how library statistics, performance measurement and indicators represent the modern public library activity. During the last decades the public library has gone through a lot of changes. Information overall has increased and new technology has been introduced into the library. This new development has had effects on the library users. The statistics reported to the Statens kulturråd (National Arts Council) has not changed in the same way.

Our paper is a study about youth and their self-images. During our practical training period we found that the problems young people had always were connected with their self-image. We therefore wanted to find out what youth believe influence their self-image. The purpose of our study was to examine young people and their self-images in a perspective of the ecological systems model. Essential issues have been what self-images young people have, what they consider influence their self-image most, how they think they can resist influence from the environment and how they would like to be influenced by the environment if they could decide themselves.

My point of origin concerning this thesis was an interest for how school may develop students? reading comprehension. International surveys show that the results for Swedish students? performance regarding reading comprehension have declined and the current curriculum, Lgr-11, emphasizes the importance of incorporating this into all school subjects. The special teacher education programme has raised the awareness concerning the importance of including the students and that learning is achieved in an interactive setting.

This bachelor thesis is based on the current discourse within the aid policy, whichhighlights and focuses on measurability and reporting of results within the development cooperation.The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Swedish CSOs Diakonia and Plan Sverige, bothoperating many of its activities through which Sida are directing Swedish aid, are influenced by theresults agenda in it?s work, and to investigate which impact this has on participation of the recipient.The research is based on information collected through examination of relevant text such asdocuments from the organisations, agencies and from debate articles and inquires. Together with datacollected through informant interviews with informants from the organizations this information hasbeen analyzed through a qualitative content analysis. The study show that the demands occurringwithin the development cooperation mainly generates quantitative, short term results in order tomaintain legitimacy as an organization. The focus has changed from a traditionally high reliance onthe organizations activities to instead focus on which results the organizations can present as a resultof its work.

Syfte: Vi ämnar beskriva och analysera svensk kommunal miljöredovisningspraxis samt identifiera målgrupper och förklaringar till varför svenska kommuner väljer att publicera en offentlig miljöredovisning. Metod: Vårt syfte besvaras dels genom en surveystudie och dels genom en dokumentstudie. Surveystudien bestod av en enkät som ställdes till samtliga Sveriges kommuner och denna erhöll 156 svar. Enkäten utformades utifrån teorier och tänkbara förklaringar till fenomenet kommunal miljöredovisning som beskrivs i uppsatsen. Dokumentstudien bestod av att undersöka 91 kommunala miljöredovisningar och deras innehåll på en övergripande nivå.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate how teachers work to lead and motivate high-performing students, and how these students were defined. The method used was qualitative, more specifically an interview, which was then analyzed with a thematic analysis. Six teachers participated in the survey, and what emerged was that high-performing students were often ambitious, structured and social students. High performing students were also characterized by the fact that they needed challenges, attention and positive feedback on their performances, otherwise they ran a risk of not performing. Structure was also important for the teachers themselves, that they had a goal when teaching and a way of achieving that goal.

AbstractThe purpose of this thesis is to examine if performing art is a good medium to convey human rights.To make this examination Riksteatern, The National Touring Theater of Sweden has been used as anexample. To bring more depth to the thesis and to be able to answer whether performing art is agood medium to convey human rights Riksteatern´s work with human rights has been examined andalso what kind of responsibility Riksteatern think they have to communicate human rights. Toanswer the questions the thesis have investigated Riksteaterns policy documents, webpage, differentprojects and performing arts performances. Moreover interviews with five employees at Riksteaternhas also been used to answer the questions. Different theories regarding theater, culture and learninghave been used to highlight what purpose art and culture has and to see what kind of qualitiesperforming arts has when it comes to convey human rights.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe intensive care nurses? experiences communicating with patients during mechanical ventilation.Methods/design: A qualitative interview study. Interviews where analyzed using descriptive content analysisSetting: Nine intensive care nurses from two different intensive care units were interviewed using a semi structured interview guide.Background: Past research has shown that patients during mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit, feel very vulnerable and the helplessness of being unable to speak. These patients feels that they are completely dependent on the nurses and their competence. It has been shown to be very important that the patient feels included, acknowledged and respected.Results: The analyzed data resulted in a theme; through communication strive to preserve patients´ dignity and three main categories; create relationship to the patient, minimize patients´ vulnerability and don´t give up.

On the night of the 26th December 2011, large parts of southern Norrland were struck by the storm ?Dagmar? that caused serious damage to the forests. In the past 10 years wind damage has become a hot topic after several major storms. Forest companies own 25% of the Swedish forest and thus influenced largely by wind damage. The main purpose of this study was to examine whether forest companies attitude towards preventive wind damage actions were changed after the storm ?Dagmar?. The result was developed by doing interviews with two forestry companies.

The aim of this paper is to describe the position of the Swedish welfare state within the shaping of a Swedish national identity. This is done through the study of Mångkulturåret 2006, and its rhetorical context. The point of departure is that history is formed continuously in current speech and a text analytical method has been used. Mångkulturåret was issued by the Department of Culture as an extended perspective of Cultural politics. The rhetoric used in the official document Agenda för Mångkultur is analyzed through a comparison with earlier official documents on the field of multiculturalism and integration.

Citizens are in need of information to form an opinion about how society works. As a reviewer of the Public power the media plays an important role in a democratic society. The communicative power shift appears in contemporary media landscape, where technology offers great opportunities for actors to use their own channels to communicate their own image and thereby influencing power over the agenda. Alongside this, the number of communicators is increasing which makes power of resources affects the communicative whole picture. The study is based on a media profile case of the described assault and looks at what can happen strategic communicative at a police department when journalism offers a negative image.

Swedish public administration has for the last few decades undergone reforms aimed at making it more efficient. A substantial part of these reforms have concerned creating clearer roles for politicians versus officials in the public sector, i.e. giving politicians a responsibility for setting goals and steering activities and public officials the role of implementing them.This study aims to examine one reform following this path that is under implementation in a Swedish public authority; Försäkringskassan, the Social Insurance Agency. The purpose of the reform is to increase the organization?s effectiveness and the rule of law.

Cultural bias in health assessment has been asserted in various scientific reports. The aim of this study was to determine whether ethnicity effects how patients are represented in such medical certificates that are needed to obtain a certain Swedish social insurance. The setting was an analysis of 18 medical certificates for patients whose parents were born in Sweden, respectively of 18 medical certificates of patients whose parents immigrated to Sweden from non European countries. The main objective was comparison of the two groups to test for ethnical heteronormative representations of the patients and their parents. The method used is mainly based on critical discourse analysis in combination with Fowlers (1996) semantic tools used to decipher disparity in the discourse.

Background: The world of sports possesses a lot of knowledge when it comes to leadarship and coaching. Coaching as a term is relatively new to the business industry and something that is up and coming among alot of companies. Leadership and coaching are two terms that can be combined with each other both in sports and in the business industry.Objectives: This study aims to compare leadership in sports and in the business industry. The purpose is to see if they can learn from each other and how they define the term leadership.Method: Interviews were chosen as a method in this study. Six individual interviews were performed and there were three leaders from the business industry and three leaders from the world of sport participating in the study.