The ambition of this study is to examine the discussion surrounding the Swedish participation in the European security- and defence policy. By forming feasible areas of arguments the goal is to gain further comprehension in the case of Sweden. These arguments are formed in close relation to the empirical sources; With less public funding there are economic aspects of cooperation, this could also be related to Swedish the industry of defence systems; A high level of participation in the UN is a tradition in Swedish foreign policy, the European battle groups are the perfect tool to further strengthen the UN ability in conflict management and peace keeping missions; Outside the EMU Sweden could face the political margin, to retain influence a high level of activity ought to occur in the integration process; Finally, the future position of United States and NATO is not clear, Europe needs an capacity apart the US to contribute to lasting peace and stability. The arguments are close related to each other, but the main argument is to through ESDP create a tool that will strengthen UN, there is also a wide range of economic arguments related to the industry..

The purpose of this study was to examine how commitment to a cause on a local basis had developed in four smaller groups during one decade. In 1996 I interviewed representatives in Åsele, Borrby, Hasslarp and Tving about their commitment and citizen initiative. Now, ten years later, I followed it up by interviewing them again. I wanted to know if the groups/associations still existed, if they had achieved their goals as they where pronounced ten years ago and how a strong commitment on a local basis can develop during ten years. Which phenomena decide whether the group develop or phase out? I use the term citizen commitment instead of citizen initiative to stress the fact that it is no longer an initiative but an on-going commitment.

Lack of political interest and will to deal with human rights violations carried out under the civil- military dictatorship, has characterized the transition and post-transition in Uruguay. The systematic use of torture, arbitrary imprisonments and forced disappearances in the relatively small country created a culture of fear that has been present through out the post-transition phase. Human rights groups have been central actors in the fight for truth and justice and against impunity. This study analyzes how these groups multiple democracy-building functions have contributed to democratic development. It also analyses how the democracy-building functions have been constrained by the political context.

This paper examines if European integration has had an impact on national political parties by looking at the stances of the Swedish Green Party and the Left Party on the issue of the European Community and the European Union over time. With the development of the European Community and the European Union, national political parties face the challenge of an emerging political arena. European integration research has recently become more involved with what is called europeanization and political integration within the member states them self, this paper aims to provide further leverage to the thesis that national political actors undergo some degree of europeanization and are politically integrated in the EU, by examining manifestos of two historically eurosceptic Swedish political parties. The theoretical framework provided by neo-functional integration theory as well as europeanization is used to examine the empirical material in order to see if the political parties at the focal point of this study can be said to have undergone a change in political policy regarding the EC and EU, both in quantity and content. The analysis show that indeed both parties has undergone a change and what might be considered a europeanization, considering that the presence of the EU as a political issue seem to have risen in prominence and importance in the examined manifestos.

The aim of this study was to investigate how school counselors experienced collaboration with social services and whether they felt they have the ability to improve upon this collaboration. The empirical data consists of qualitative interviews with eight school counselors from public schools, ages 13 to 15, in eight separate municipalities in the Stockholm area. The main results showed that the school counselors recognized the positive benefits from collaboration, but that they in practice experienced difficulties turning this into a high-quality collaboration. The school counselors experienced that due to uncertain expectations in the collaboration it led to unclear distribution of areas of responsibilities. The school counselors expressed small or no possibilities for them to improve upon collaboration but pointed out that higher commitment and a positive attitude are valuable attributes to improving collaboration.

Suicidology deals a lot with taking into consideration significant symptoms, risk factors and establishing causal relationships which inevitably are very important for suicide prevention. But do we understand the suicide attempters better thereby? The aim with the study is to elucidate the meaning of the lived suicidal experience that is expressed by participants on an Internet forum. Ten participants' texts which concerned own suicidality were chosen out from this Internet forum and were analyzed and interpreted on the basis of a phenomenological hermeneutical method inspired by Ricoeur (1976). The result established twelve themes that with the aid of Heidegger (1993) and Derrida (1978, 1991) led to that the following conclusions could be drawn about the meaning of the suicidal lifeworld: suicidal concern and care in itself reduces the sense of identity, practical suicidal doing in itself reduces the world, sense of identity is more affected by the future than the present and the past, the death is escaped from through a calculating determination to have the death at one's disposal, inability to turn away from the death increases oscillating between states of emotions, the surrounding world's requirement to avoiding death becomes to a compulsion to isolate one self; and finally: to both feel anxiety in front of one self's own death and dread when escaping from it..

This paper examines a long run macroeconomic dilemma. This dilemma states that given a real appreciation, i.e. a continuous increase in the real exchange rate, an economy has two options open with respect to inflation and nominal exchange rate. Either the economy chooses a fixed exchange rate- regime but has to allow for a rising inflation. Or the economy can choose an inflation targeting- regime, but then has to allow for an appreciating nominal exchange rate.

The primary purpose of this thesis is to investigate the operation of membership criteria, which are applied against countries that wish to join the European Union (EU). More specifically, the importance of some criteria in comparison to others is considered. To answer this proposal, three questions are posed: What are the EU membership criteria? Are some criteria more important than other criteria? Does the EU treat candidate countries differently in applying the membership criteria? Three countries are used in this analysis, each country representing one recent enlargement round: Poland (2004), Romania (2007), and current candidate country Turkey. Both official documents, such as EU treaties, and unofficial documents such as statements from EU leaders are used to analyze the application of membership criteria.

ABSTRACTIn this study I have analyzed, throughout a gender perspective, two textbooks Den levandelitteraturen and Upplev litteraturen which are purposed to be used as teaching materials inSwedish schools in the subject of Swedish when teaching the history of literature. The intentof this study was to provide a gender analysis of two textbooks and the focus was on thepresentations of female and male writers, because they have not been studied earlier. In thisstudy, a qualitative text analytic method was used to achieve the best results as possible.Theories used in this study were Yvonne Hirdman?s and Raewyn Connell?s theories. Hirdmanclaims that there are differences between men and women at different levels in the societywhile Connell believes that this is a myth because, according to her, men and women arepsychologically alike.

The paper examines how human inner properties and the interpretation of the external worldare explained and presented in Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998). Aspects as the relationship between the body and soul/consciousness, body snatching, memory transferences and dystopian cities are analyzed. The field of study is compared to a general science-fiction film perspective regarding the aspects. Dark City contains an alien race with a common mind, but who lacks soul and individuality. They represent what humanity can become if the scientific development goes too far.

The purpose of the essay was to examine the role of the professional communicator in the Swedish Unemployment Funds. Focus was on measures carried out by the communicator to enhance and streamline communication and how the communicator supports their coworkers in their own communication role. In order to fulfill the purpose, two main questions were asked;? How do the communicators support and develop their coworkers communication role?? What to the communicators identify as challenges in their work in doing this?The theoretical base of the essay was Heide and Simonssons (2011) challenges for the professional communicator. The theory states that organizations communication processes are the foundation to its existence and development and that the professional communicator therefore needs a solid base with the possibility to monitor the whole organization.A questionnaire was sent to communicators in all Swedish Unemployment Funds and even though the non-response was rather considerable, the answers received was assessed sufficient to make an analysis.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to compare the perception and significance of reference work in two countries, Sweden and Germany. This will be achieved by means of a literature review of previous research literature and public documents and a content analysis of articles from two library journals.A first step was to examine the historical development of reference work in the selected countries. In connection with this there proved to be distinct phases in the discussion regarding reference work. These phases with their specific discourses, themes and emphases reflected and thus later were confirmed in the second part of the study.The results show that despite some similarities there are also quite a few differences in how reference work is perceived in both countries. For Sweden, the idea of reference work was introduced relatively early.

The purpose of this essay is to study two film adaptations of the original Planet of the Apes novel and see what kind of relationship the two adaptations have with each other. The main question is if the secondary film adaptation is restricted by the primary and if the relationships between these two are as two separate adaptations or as a remake of an adaptation. What the results of the study show is that the secondary adaptation can not be seen as a remake even though it gets some of its inspiration from both the original story as well as the primary adaptation. The secondary adaptation is, however, restricted in what it can adapt due to the primary adaptation having the first pick, at least if the secondary adaptation wishes to be a whole new adaptation and not a remake of the primary. The study shows also that the fidelity in the secondary adaptation is not necessarily to either the original or the primary but to the knowledge the audience has about the Planet of the Apes universe which they have gathered from all of the important versions of the story.

Researchers in the field of political corruption generally expect voters in democratic states to lose trust in corrupted politicians. However, there are cases where corrupted politicians maintain their popularity, a phenomenon studied in this thesis. Focus lies on three cases of political corruption: the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who has been the subject of several judicial investigations and court cases; the impeached former president of Lithuania, Rolandas Paksas; and the German Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) involvement in a party funding scandal. The cases are chosen based on the method of agreement. Berlusconi, Paksas and CDU have all, in spite of their corrupt behaviour, kept or regained popular support among a large group of their country's citizens.

This report, written by Ma?ns Ridze?n and Jonas Stenberg, presents the thesis carried out the spring of 2012. The authors met the first time in 2008, when they started their studies at Uppsala University. Since then they have completed various projects, both within and without the university. This study is based on a theory that was first conceived when Jonas Stenberg did his internship in the summer of 2010.