Previous research shows that Swedish teenagers? reading of fiction have decreased during the last decade (Skolverket 2006). As future librarians we found ourselves asking why, and an interest to look into this was triggered. The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is therefore to examine why teenagers? reading of fiction is decreasing. Focus lies on students? perception of their own reading, both inside and outside the school environment.

Introduction: The current research shows that cannabis use is increasing, while alcohol use is decreasing in many countries. The reason for the increase is considered to be the increased availability and that adolescents attitudes towards cannabis has become more liberal. Aim: This qualitative study aimed to examine adolescents attitudes and knowledge about cannabis. Methods: Data has been collected from focus group interviews with adolescents aged 15-18 years, in a west Swedish municipality. Participants were recruited through visits to secondary and upper secondary schools.

Den kapitalistiska organiseringen av ekonomin och det liberaldemokratiska representativa styrelseskicket har de senaste årtiondena blivit så cementerade och ?objektifierade? att denna ideologiska konstruktion i många avseenden inte längre betraktas som en produkt av det mänskliga medvetandet utan presenteras mer eller mindre som en naturgiven totalitet. Trossatsen att mänskligheten inte längre kan hoppas på något bättre än det liberal-kapitalistiska institutionella arrangemanget ? med det individuella ekonomiska subjektets fria förfogande över privategendomen, fri konkurrens, ekonomisk tillväxt, fri kapitalrörelser samt ett indirekt och representativt styrelseskick ? har blivit ett vedertaget sakförhållande inom den offentliga diskussionen. I det föreliggande arbetet utgår vi ifrån uppfattningen att den liberal-kapitalistiska världsbilden, liksom alla andra världsbilder, är en kognitiv konstruktion.Vårt syfte är att, med avstamp i Thomas Kuhns paradigmteori, försöka dekonstruera denna världsbild för att förhoppningsvis kunna skönja den historiska och samhälleliga bakgrunden till det rådande paradigmet, samt att synliggöra hur det ideologiskt orienterade liberala samfundet genom olika mekanismer och modifieringar försökt försvara och bevara denna världsbilds legitimitet och parametrar.

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.

Malmö has often been described as a segregated city, with relatively low democratic participation and high poverty and alienation. Behind this kind of statements we often find a material reality, with unequal distribution of assets and potentials that needs to be taken into consideration for political action. At the same time this categorisation of people into different groups can take stigmatising effects and result in increased inequality.I find the theoretical basis for my thesis in Lefebvre?s writings on ?the right to the city?, that shortly means that all inhabitants of a city have the right to take active part in the constantly ongoing process of producing and reproducing the city ? on all levels, from a hands-on everyday life level to a more abstract political level.With an interdisciplinary approach, where the right to the city is discussed in relation to citizenship, presence, representation and public space, I try to understand the connections between democracy, participation, justice and equality. These discussions are then applied to examples from Malmö; both publically initiated projects and individual physical markings in the city.

Cypernfrågan handlar om en etnisk konflikt mellan grek- och turkcyprioterna som uppstod direkt efter öns självständighet. Parterna hade väldigt svårt att samarbeta med varandra vilket ledde till att Cypern delades i två delar. Sedan dess har grupperna levt åtskilda med egna administrationer och strävan efter självbestämmande, den grekcypriotiska befolkningen strävade efter enosis, att hela ön införlivas med Grekland medan den turkcypriotiska befolkningen strävade efter taksim, att den norra delen av ön förenas med moderlandet Turkiet. FN har agerat som tredjepart för att försöka nå en fredslösning och lyckades lindra konflikten men många problem förblev olösta. I min uppsats har jag försökt komma fram till varför fredsförslaget Annanplanen, som upprättades av FN:s dåvarande generalsekreterare, blev avvisad av den grekcypriotiska befolkningen samt vad kan vara den största orsaken bakom den långvarige konflikten.

Earlier studies shows that democracy within the preschool is an important and on-going work, but could implicate certain consequences. For example that goals regarding democracy and influence in the preschool, rarely is done in practice but instead remains just words on a paper. It could also mean that the pedagogues lack education and knowledge within the area, but also how they react to the influence of children. Preschool is expected to be a place for all children, no matter what luggage the child is carrying. The luggage is filled with the life experience, the personality and in this case the needs that the child has. The needs could be anything from nearness to physical and psychological disorders that requires more pedagogical attention.

Study: Degree project in teacher education, Advanced level, 15pUniversity of SkövdeTitle The Battle of the School ? The attempt of four organizations to influence the Swedish school and the good citizen.Number of pages: 43Author: Christoffer HärsjöTutor: Erik AnderssonDate: January 2009 Keywords: Democracy, organizations, school, influence, citizen This exam discusses the influence of four different organizations in the public school. The chosen organizations are the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, LO, the Enforcement Authority and the political party Feminist Initiative. They all have different agendas about what they think the school should teach children. These agendas will be analyzed from the point of view of lobbying, corporatism, influencing of public opinion and the theory of curriculum, to find out what impact they have on the Swedish school system.

1998 beslutade Nässjö kommun att ett minnesmonument skulle uppföras lagom till millenieskiftet. En av de drivande personerna till idén var Jan Holmquist som vid tidpunkten var Kultur- och fritidschef för kommunen. Monumentet skulle göras av "den bäste" varpå Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd fick förfrågan.Skulpturen gestaltar Nässjö stad med hjälp av ett minne, historien om stadens uppbyggnad med järnvägen som en central del. Tåg som rörde sig framåt med hjälp av hårt arbete och kol inspirerade konstnären. Skisserna till verket spelar stor roll för att kunna förstå konstnärens intention med Kolskyffeln.

I have in this study examined, through qualitative interviews, how adults with foreign background that are pupils in adult education in Sweden, understand the concepts democracy and dictatorship. Their expressed understandings have been compared with their former life experiences as well as with the aim of the social studies to create a qualitative understanding of essential social concepts. My starting point is theories about the adult in leaning processes. It has been assumed that the adult interprets the world much through former life experiences. I have also relied on the idea that having a qualitative, more scientific, understanding of essential subjects is important for the adult as a member of society and participator in the on-going political debate.

The Swedish state and educational system are secular, so to say they do not depend on the former protestant state church anymore. Many people in Sweden are also secular. Even so, in school teachers meet students with a religious faith. The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers without a religious belonging experience the encounter with religious students. The method used was semistructured interviews with five teachers in a upper secondary school in a multicultural suburb of Stockholm.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the problems of building a new region in the Southeast part of Sweden. The idea of a big south Swedish region is brand new; no former studies in this area have been done before. The main analytical focus of this study is legitimacy, identity and democratic credentials. The study has been carried out by interviews with several leaders in organizations working with the collaborations of the smaller regions in to the big region. The method of this study has been a single-case study and dialogue interviews.

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.

Previous studies have shown that economic sanctions have adverse effects on the level of human rights in sanctioned countries. The focus of research on the effects in sanctioned countries has left the question of whether economic sanctions can have a regional effect on human rights levels in countries not sanctioned in the same region. Therefore, this essay has sought to investigate if economic sanctions aimed at an individual state have a regional effect on the level of human rights in countries not sanctioned within the same region. A previous study found that economic sanctions in Latin America positively affected the level of human rights in non-sanctioned countries within the same region. This essay has examined whether the same result can be found in a region with a different level of democracy.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyze how the European union relates to the different dimensions of abortion. What kind of problem is abortion and whose right is it? Does difference framings of the problem enable different solutions?By analyzing debates from the European parliament through Carol Lee Bacchis method ?What?s the problem approach? I have come to see that different representations of a problem changes the problem it self. This emphasis that a problem is a problem in one context, but not in an other.Depending on the work of, among others, Barbara Hobson and Ailbhe Smyth I have focused upon the European union as a economical project, leaving social issues to national competence. This makes the EU a patriarchal project that fails to guarantee women?s rights.