The representative democracy has become weakened during the last decades. At the same time the United Nations declared at the Rio de Janeiro meeting in 1992 that environmental problems can best be solved by involvement of all concerned citizens in decision-making. The main purpose of this study has been to examine if citizens panels is a possible way to involve citizens in environmental decision-making and what the outcomes can be. Furthermore the study has investigated what the participation has contributed to environmental politics and how representative the results have been. This has been carried out by investigating the Piteåpanel in the municipality of Piteå by conducting interviews.The result of the study shows that the involvement of the citizens in the decision-making influenced the environmental politics of the municipality.

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.

A QUALITATIVE STUDY ON THE EXPERIENCE OF ESCORT SERVICE UNDER THE ACT (SFS 1993:387) SUPPORT AND SERVICE FOR THE DISABLED The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of escort service under the Act (SFS 1993:387) concerning Support and Service for the disabled (LSS) for self-determination, participation and equality of living conditions. In the results of this study appears that the escort service fulfills its role in breaking the isolation of persons with disabilities. It gives a picture of the escort service is much more than to break the isolation of people with disabilities. The aspects that emerges is that escort service gives persons with disabilities the opportunity to develop their independence, increase their self-esteem and broaden their frames of reference through increased participation in community life. All users report that they experience autonomy in the choice and order of activities within their grant initiatives.

Background: Young adults undergo a phase in life when they try to become independent individuals and are expected to take responsibility. The transition to adult life, cause hardship for all young adults, but with concurrent mental illness this transition can be more complicated. The young adults may need support from their parents in connection with care.Aim: The aim of this study was to describe nurses' perceptions of parental participation in the care of young adults with mental illness.Method: To describe the perceptions of a phenomenon, qualitative interviews with a phenomenographic approach were conducted. The interview texts were analyzed into five description categories and 10 perceptions. In the study, eight nurses were interviewed.Results: The result shows that parental participation in the care is based on the young adult's decision.

The aim with this study was to illustrate communicative meetings between people that are visiting and working in two different associations for people with intellectual disabilities. The method we used was interviews. To find out the meaning of the associations for the members creating of identity, participation and self esteem we asked them if they felt stigmatized and if they thought that the associations reduced that feeling and how the pedagogy cooperation between them selves and the coaches were working. The results of the study showed that the members of the association experienced that it had a positive influence according to their creating of identity, participation and self esteem. The members felt that coaching and the pedagogy cooperation had both positive and negative aspects but mostly it worked well..

Clients with dual diagnosis have difficulties to recover and have a tendancy to fall between two stools. Among other things this is due to the fact that caregivers have different approaches, values and focus. The purpose of this study is to compare how clients, therapists and socialworkers look upon the aim of the treatment, its form, residential care, the conception of goalfulfillment and participation. In our study we have applied the theories of Aaron Antonovsky, Howard Becker and Erving Goffman. The paper consists mainly of qualitative interviews with clients, therapists and socialworkers.

Background: A patient undergoing surgery will meet many caregivers in different settings pre-, intra- and postoperative in the surgical pathway. Lack of communication is a common digression and the handoff is such an occasion. The purpose is to describe current knowledge about the patients´ right to safe care perioperative. The study is a systematic review (pilot). Result: The handoff was informal, unstructured and inconsistent.

The function of budgetary controls is to control the resource allocation within companies. It can also be an instrument for measure and control subordinates and/or business units? performance (Van der Stede 2001). This paper concerns the latter; when the budgetary control function is used to measure and control subordinates performance based on budget. Previous research in this area has not yet accomplished to explain the effects of tight budgetary control which Hartman (2000) considers as the main issue to be concerned about in management accounting research.Previous research has presented contradictory findings regarding tight budgetary control explained by positive effects as well as negative effects during the last decades.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether and how nine teachers of special education for older students, primarily at Upper secondary school, consider the smartphone an appropriate pedagogical means of assistance to improve participation and to support students with special education needs within and outside the school environment. Theory: The theoretical framework for the study is the sociocultural perspective on learning. The sociocultural perspective is related to the relational perspective and sociocultural learning theory involves learning and participation in school. It views the human being as socially active within a certain historical and cultural context which actively influences the way we act, how we learn and develop through interaction with others in the social, everyday practice. The latter is of vital importance here.

This paper examines how the ideal of manhood is portrayed and constructed and how the participation of Swedish soldier volunteers are motivated and legitimatized. The purpose of this examination is to gain understanding and knowledge about the Swedish soldiers in the Swedish brigade, how they legitimatize and motivate their participation and how the ideal of manhood is portrayed and constructed. The study is based on material from the war archive in Stockholm. The empirical material is composed by letters and propaganda material. In the analysis of the empirical study, there have been two theories used which are Eric Hobsbawms historical method and theory about invented traditions and Peter Aronssons historical method and theory about ?historiebruk? and legitimacy.

ABSTRACTThe aim for this study is to examine how relatives to children who participated/participate in Youth and family team Sputnik-group, oriented towards support groups for children of substance abusing parents, perceive the work done by the organization. On the basis of this aim three questions were formulated: do the relatives perceive a change in the communication with the child as an effect of the child?s participation in Sputnik?s activities, do the relatives perceive a change in their relationship with the child as an effect of the child?s participation in Sputnik?s activities, do the relatives think that their awareness of substance abuse have changed following the child?s participation in Sputnik?s activities. Previous research, Mead?s perspective, the concept of ?groups? and support groups for children, were used to interpret the results.

The aim of this study was to reach a deeper understanding of the process that occurs within the social services after receiving a notification according to Chapter 14, section 1, The Social Services Act. More specifically the focus of this study was to illustrate how social secretaries reason about children?s participation in the process, as well as to examine whether the legislative change, Chapter 11, section 1 a, The Social Services Act, has affected the process in any way. The study?s results reflect interviews with five social secretaries who are active in four different municipalities in southern Sweden.

 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.

The function of budgetary controls is to control the resource allocation within companies. It can also be an instrument for measure and control subordinates and/or business units? performance (Van der Stede 2001). This paper concerns the latter; when the budgetary control function is used to measure and control subordinates performance based on budget. Previous research in this area has not yet accomplished to explain the effects of tight budgetary control which Hartman (2000) considers as the main issue to be concerned about in management accounting research.Previous research has presented contradictory findings regarding tight budgetary control explained by positive effects as well as negative effects during the last decades.

The Swedish metropolitan politics have had the bottom-up perspective as a major principle to evolve the democratic participation in segregated areas. My objective was to investigate if a bottom-up perspective has been used as a method of evaluation in a sample of 10 evaluation reports made about democratic participation in Malmö.The key questions were; In the evaluations:- How was the bottom-up perspective and related concepts defined?- What criterias and theories were used?- What values surfaced?- What methods were used?- Has a critical approach been used?The method used is analysis using the theories of Critical Social Method by Alvesson & Deetz, Values in evaluation by House & Howe and Choices of perspective by Eliasson.None of the analysed evaluations have used participatorial methods. As participation is defined mainly statistically, the criterias are usually quantitative measurements, though the evaluators agree that democracy is a matter of quality. There is a common lack of theoretical basis of analysis and methodology description.