In 1974 the three municipalities of Åsele, Dorotea and Fredrika were amalgamated despite of hunger strikes, mass protests and a serious threat of violence. But after six years the marriage shattered as Dorotea left the other two after years of continued struggle. In 2005 the idea of an amalgamation of Åsele, Dorotea and Vilhelmina municipalities was brought to life by an older and ever declining population.By creating a democratic ideal type consisting of the three variables ? legitimacy, participation and identity ? this study assesses what impact an amalgamation of the three municipalities might have on local democracy.Combining a qualitative and a quantitative approach this study concludes that amalgamating the municipalities today could create a democratic unit lacking legitimacy, having a weak identity and impeding participation. But the study also brings forth that the impact of an amalgamation upon the variables of the ideal type as defined is not written in stone.

The Swedish political organization is subject for the investigation of this thesis, with regard to the realization of universal human rights. There is a discrepancy between the Swedish state's international undertakings in legally binding treaties and theactualization of human rights by local authorities. The local authorities are ruled by a complex function of both national and local government. Of interest here, is the effect that these, and other organizational aspects, between the national and the local, have for the realization of human rights in local authorities. Also, the discrepancy between the national and the local is attempted to be understood.

In an effort to strengthen democracy in the union, the EU in 2005 took a new approach to communications policy to reach out to the citizens. The strategic document "Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate" was accompanied by two other documents, and the three of them were the core of this policy. Both democracy and communications work means at EU level a higher complexity than in the nation-state arena. Objective of this study is to examine how the implementation of Plan D has turned out in a democracy renewal perspective. To achieve that answers are sought to questions concerning the goals of Plan D, how they are still present today, what happened in practice regarding the efforts that are highlighted, and how the substance of the activities can be judged from a democratic theory perspective.

In 1998 the Swedish Socialist Government initiated a project in order to promote economic growth and to end the discriminating social and ethnic segregation in the greater city regions of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. One of the goals of the project was and still is to promote political participation in 24 of the poorest areas of the three cities. In a quantitative analysis I evaluate whether or not the project so far has been successful in promoting a specific part of political participation, i.e. electoral participation in communal elections. The results of the 24 poor city areas are compared with a group of 14 likewise poor city areas of major swedish cities.According to my hypothesis, general improvements of the socio-economic status of poor city areas ought to generate positive effects on electoral participation in communal elections.

When new land use policies are made, opinions of stakeholders need to be taken in account, to avoid future conflicts. The motivations of commercial enterprises are often clear and easily communicated but due to inaccessibility and language barriers the indigenous people?s perspectives and needs are harder to reveal. This study therefore aims to identify species and sites of importance for the local people in Masihulan village on Seram Island, East Indonesia. This is a first step to facilitate better integration of local people´s needs into local government decision-making processes.Researchers at the Center of International Forestry Research (CIFOR), with headquarter in Indonesia, have developed an approached called ?Multidisciplinary Landscape Assessment? that aims to assess important natural resources for local communities in tropical countries.

The Swedish school law says that students who need special education should have all the support they need to reach the qualification that is set up. The arrangements have to be written down in an Individual education plan (IEP). Before the IEP is set up there has to be an investigation about what kind of support and measures the student needs to reach the qualification that is set up. The aim of this study is to examine student?s participation in school and in the progress with their own IEP.I have accomplished a qualitative study by interviewing eight students during the letter part in the nine-year school.

The purpose of this study was to examine children's participation in court proceedings on supervised visitation and to analyse the descriptions of children in court verdicts. Eleven verdicts concerning supervised visitation resolved in 2014 were collected from two district courts in Stockholm County and studied with a qualitative textual analysis. The material was analysed with participation levels influenced by the ladder of participation for children developed by Roger Hart and with the theory of sociology of childhood. Our findings showed that children's opinions were mentioned in eight of the verdicts. In four verdicts the children's will influenced the courts decisions.

A hearing loss may affect the identity development and participation among adolescents. To understand adolescents with hearing loss in modern society, it?s of great importance to ascertain how identity- and participation processes occur in new areas, such as the internet.Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate what research shown regarding identity development among adolescents with hearing loss and whether social processes on the internet may influence the participation of this group.Method: A literature review was conducted to obtain a cohesive framework of research about participation processes and identity development among adolescents. Included articles have been published 1995-2015.Results: The results show the importance of the individual?s identification with the surrounding.

This thesis studied which factors affect political participation among people with physical disabilities in Sweden.? The aim of the study was to test how Civic Voluntarism Model should explain the low political participation among people with physical disabilities in Sweden, through deep interviews.? Following research questions has been studied in the thesis:? How can the Civic Voluntarism Model, based on the time, communicative skills and economic resources, explain the low political participation of people with physical disabilities in Sweden??Which other factors, linked to accessibility, discrimination and legislation, are needed to further explain and understand the barriers to political engagement and participation for people with physical disabilities?? Results about treatment, clearer legislation, economic possibilities and inclusion was central. It became important to considered that where is differences in which capabilities where are to political participation. The CVM could partly explain the low political participation among people with physical disabilities. It needs to be complete with external factors; accessibility, discrimination and legalization, to make more inclusive explanations.? .

Purpose: From an activity-perspective examine the meaning of housing accessibility and older persons´ perception of participation. Method: Systematic literature review of articles searched in the databases, Medline, Pubmed, Ahmed, Cinahl, Scopus and Google Scholar. Search on individual keywords, and in various combinations of the words home environment, home modification, occupational therapy, aging, accessibility and participation. Nine scientific articles were examined. Results: The articles were published between 2005 and 2009.

The purpose of this study is to examine how adolescents can participate and have influence in the society, by making obstacles and opportunities that are considered central for their possibilities to power visible. National and international research indicates that adolescents opportunities to participation and influence are limited by the structures of society. A qualitative method was chosen, in which group interviews were made with 14 youths in development areas in Örebro. Theories are presented which constitute tools for analysis of the obtained results and has been chosen based on power- and participation perspective. An analytical model has been used to illuminate what kind of participation adolescents have in different parts of the society, where the concepts from the theoretical perspectives, power and participation are inserted.

The purpose of this thesis was to study local bank offices work with customer satisfaction. A case study concerning two local bank offices was made, the cases were based on interviews with the managers at the bank offices. The research questions that we wanted this thesis to answer was how local bank offices create customer satisfaction among small business customers, and how local bank offices assess customer satisfaction among small business customers. The study showed that local bank offices find customer satisfaction among small business customers important and use complaints as the primary source in the process of creating customer satisfaction..

This thesis title starting from zero alludes to storstadssatsningen's democratic work being accomplished among immigrants in Malmö. My thesis examines which types of political participation storstadssatsningen were trying to increase. The goal was to turn the immigrants into political participants, but in many of the projects the democratic work had to focus on building a ground for democratic participation by bringing isolation to an end and teaching the Swedish language. This may have been the reason that there were not extensive forms of resources to put into projects actually raising the political awareness. Some of the projects can however be said to increase a very large number of types of political participation, both temporary and every day participation.

The Swedish school law says that students who need special education should have all the support they need to reach the qualification that is set up. The arrangements have to be written down in an Individual education plan (IEP). Before the IEP is set up there has to be an investigation about what kind of support and measures the student needs to reach the qualification that is set up. The aim of this study is to examine student?s participation in school and in the progress with their own IEP.I have accomplished a qualitative study by interviewing eight students during the letter part in the nine-year school.

Studies show that older is an increased proportion patients in hospital and that it is a patient group that can be difficult to communicate with because of older patients' often multiple disease picture. Relatives to the patient can be help for caregivers in the communication and the care of the patient. The aim with the study was to examine relative's experience of participation, meeting/support, accessibility and information on a geriatrics rehabilitation care unit. The study had a descriptive design and was designed as a questionnaire study. It was implemented on one geriatrics rehabilitation care unit on the countryside in central Sweden, belong to Uppsala University hospital.