What impact and effects are created by the placement of an international ranking? Could it be that a top rank is detrimental to an entire country's efforts to fight corruption?This bachelor thesis in political science is about Swedish corruption. In essence, so questioning the Transparency International's indexed rankings that placed Sweden in third place. Issues concern since if the third placement has created nonchalance and a careless mentality in Swedish government and in particular in the municipal operations. Research results show that Transparency International's rankings have low validity and low reliability and that the government is not acting sufficiently to prevent and fight corruption.

Ett av Sveriges största folkhälsoproblem just nu är den dramatiskt ökande sjukfrånvaronpå våra arbetsplatser, vilket drabbar både individer och samhället i stort. Det är därför viktigt att skapa hälsofrämjande arbetsplatser. Studiens syfte var att undersöka vilka faktorer personalen på en kommunal förvaltning anser kan bidra till att deras arbetsplatser blir mer hälsofrämjande. Vidare syftade studien till att undersöka personalens syn på hur förändring och lärande kan ske på deras förvaltning för att skapa hälsofrämjande arbetsplatser. Datainsamlingen har skett genom fyra fokusgruppsintervjuer med anställda inom en kommunal förvaltning.

Equality is a central aspect within development work. All development work is expected to be influenced by a gender equalty thinking, and these directions are distributed by the Department of Foreign Affairs, through Sida to Forum Syd and down to the very grasroot level, through Forum Syds local cooperation organisations. The essays question of research is a reflection over empowerment, with other words how international organisations influence other societies understanding of the society dynamics. This aspect triggered my interest for the subject, aswell as the link between aid, equality and men, and how these factors are in need of eachother. My study is mainly build on theoretical starting points, and not on earlier studies.

This study is case study of political participation among the Kani tribe from Kuttichal grama panchayat in the Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala, India. The study is based on the collected data of 117 people of the Kani tribe living in four different settlements: Pankavu, Mangode-Valippara, Chonampara and Kaithode. The aim of the study is to examine the impact on political participation by different factors, which is done by the use of the quantitative method of cross tables. The study confirms previous studies in its conclusion that high status individuals, defined in terms of education and economic standard, are the group of the highest political participation, when this is defined as being involved in political work and holding a party membership. On the local political scene however, where political participation consists of participation in local assemblies and voluntary work, the impact of the examined variables are very limited.

This thesis aimed to investigate how a rising sea level would affect the livable area of the island Fongafale, Tuvalu. Through the IPCC stabilization scenarios it was examined which areas of the island that would be affected by flooding. The local population?s perceptions of the effects of climate change were studied to see how the consequences of a world-wide problem such as global warming affect people's lives. The paper clarified the Tuvaluans place in the discussion of climate refugees, explained IPCC's work and described the results of previous studies concerning people in Fongafales perceptions and concerns about climate-related changes.

Due to poorly functioning local and regional markets, the smallholders in San Francisco, Petén, were dependent on intermediaries that took advantage of the smallholder?s distance to markets. In an attempt to secure income and strengthen their bargaining position, 189 smallholders joined forces through the creation of a social smallholder network, held together by a community based enterprise. This enterprise was initiated in 2011 with the help of government incentive programmes and NGOs that within a few years will leave the enterprise to auto regime. This study treats the sustainability of a community forest based enterprise, Chachaklum, in northern Guatemala. The study identifies factors that enable smallholders to organize themselves in order to obtain business practices that support an improved standard of living.

The current debate about environment and climate change has contributed to more andmore investment in alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and biogas. The Swedish Parliament has set the target that wind power should supply 10 TWh in 2015.In Sweden, wind power establishment began in the early 1980s. Since then the development has gained a tremendous momentum. The purpose of this study was to find out what problems wind power brings and what power relations that exists in connection with wind power establishment and how the landscape is affected by windpower construction, focusing on some cases in Falkenberg and Varberg. This study shows that wind power establishment is a very complicated process.

The purpose of this essay was to study the implementation of a policy document, which concerns questions of integration, in a municipality with an indirect government. I have especially focused on issues regarding how civil servants describe the usage of a specific policy document and to what extent their autonomy and the indirect government have had an impact on implementation, and to what extent signals from surrounding institutions have had an impact on the creation of the policy document. The study was based on qualitative interviews in groups, pairs and with single individuals with twenty-seven civil servants and politicians working with issues concerning the specific policy document.One of the conclusions of my study is that the reason for producing the document in the first place is that the municipality as an organization strives to acquire a sense of legitimacy. The intentions of the document have only partly been implemented by the civil servants and politicians, since the document is not used in their daily work. Here, their autonomy has played an important part, as the choice to not use the document is the servants' own.

AbstractTitle: Who said what? ? A qualitative content analysis regarding the UD?s, the government?s and the travel agencies after the Tsunami disaster.Number of pages: 38Author: Malin HanssonTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Autumn 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of information science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose of the paper is to find out what person said what to the media and public after the tsunami catastrophe. The aim is to find out if there is any difference in how the government and communicators talked, and if those differences agree with the public opinion about these persons.Material/Method: The material is interviews with the relevant people on TV news. The first three days are included and the interviews have been transcribed and counted in sentences. The method is therefore quantitative content analysis.Main results: All of the analysed persons used the category Concrete action the most, which is what they are doing at the moment.

Local participation in nature conservation has gained more attention over the last decades due to international conventions as well as local and national initiatives. This development can be seen as a reaction to a more expert oriented nature conservation characterized by centralized control and strict preservation of so called "original" nature. The overall objective of this thesis is to contribute to research on new forms of conservation where democracy and local participation is included. The case study focuses on the process of producing a pre-study for a suggested national park in southern Jämtland in the Swedish mountain region, and aims to investigate to what extent local participation was included. The pre-study was led by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and the County Administrative Board (CAB) in Jämtland.

 This study aims to deepen the understanding of which opinions and perceptions the teachers in the study have about the national goals, as well as local, when they plan their lessons in science studies for the younger ages. We wish to illustrate which goals these teachers find most important, their opinions on how they use these and how the different goals affect their design of teaching. The study also aims to examine which syllabuses, national or local, the teachers believe have an effect on their planning. Data were collected by interviews with four teachers, combined with questionnaires sent to 25 teachers teaching in science studies in forms 1-6. To analyse the data, key terms from Vygotsky and a sociocultural theory was used, such as situated learning, artifacts, the zone of proximal development, thinking in group and mediation. The data was also interpreted and examined by recent studies regarding this subject. The results show that the teachers find their own knowledge, the national syllabus and their colleagues as most important for their planning.

This study focused on how local politicians in Kalmar perceive journalists and their intertwined relationship. We based our study on the theoretical understanding of today?s media-centric democratic society. The ?adversary model? offered an understanding of the intricate relations between politicians and journalists.

Magdalena Rudenschöld (born 1766, died 1823) was a woman in Swedish history, who lived a turbulent life. As a young woman she was employed at the Swedish court and got to know the king of that time, Gustaf III, and she became the mistress of one of his closest deputies, Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt. After the killing of Gustaf III, a temporary government was formed. This was a regency that was put there on behalf of Prince Gustaf Adolf, since he was not yet of age to run the country. The commission to conduct this temporary government was given to Duke Carl, who was the dead king?s brother.King Gustavus III?s former employees and Officers were after the king?s death, opposed by the temporary government, and they were moved to other assignations.

Multi-branch companies are facing many challenges in order to become successful. Competitive advantages can be gained through a unified strong brand, standardised products and economies of scale. This normally calls for centralisation. On the contrary is decentralisation, which is said to improve work motivation and local market orientation, which are also competitive advantages. The focus of this thesis is to study how local branch managers want their companies to be structured in accordance with this dilemma.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the points of view of three groups of actors about their local learning center and its collaboration with the library. By interviewing groups of actors from the municipal sector, the library staff and students, I aim to investigate their associations of the learning centre, what kind of services it should offer, and how they understand the role of the library staff in specific collaboration between the public library and the adult education administration. The study design is based on Gunnar Grepperud?s and Terje Thomsen?s three missions for a local learning centre; the mission of a broker, a meeting place and a motivator. I also use Carol Kuhlthau?s levels of mediation as an approach to investigate how the actors want the library staff to work in relation to the centre.