The aim of this master?s study is to examine the function of the public library in the local community at present. I have searched for the answers to the following questions: Which position has the public library in the local cultural policy? What characterizes each library and which are the priorities? What is the local profile of the public library? What cooperation partners does the public library have and what do they mean to the library? Does the public library intensify the local community in any way? To answer this, I have made three qualitative case studies. Interviews and collection of documents were carried out in three different communities.

This paper aims to analyze how preservation of and access to old and rare book collections are organized in public libraries in Serbia. The paper is based on an analysis of documents, a survey and qualitative interviews with librarians in Belgrade and Novi Sad. Serbia is a country that has experienced violent historical periods with far-reaching consequences for its old and rare book collections. The interpretative background refers to documents about cultural policy in Europe and in Serbia. Serbia is a country in transition which aims to join the European Union.

This thesis takes as its point of departure the Swedish governmental family policy and the debate on the proposed reform ?vårdnadsbidraget?. The supporters of the reform present it as something that will increase the freedom of choice for families and benefit the children, whereas the opponents warn for decreased equality and a return to the male breadwinner-model.From a constructivist perspective, language is closely related to power through defining and ascribing meaning to reality. By applying a feminist political theory on the debate within the Swedish national parliament 2007/2008 and conducting a discourse analysis, the aim of this paper is to analyse which concepts are used and how they construct to what makes a family within the political debate ? is there any difference or similarity between the view of the opponents and the supporters of ?vårdnadsbidraget??The main conclusion of this paper is that even though the political ideal and rhetorical concepts differ between the supporters and the opponents, they still constitute the heterosexual nuclear family as an obvious norm in family politics.

The underlying purpose of this study is to investigate how the libraries in Sweden organize and administrate the service of providing literature in other languages than Swedish. The study focuses on the central guiding principles that regulate the provision of multilingual literature and how these guidelines are implemented in to practice at the libraries. As the guidelines are closely connected to the official discourse in Sweden concerning policies targeted towards immigrants, the guidelines will be examined from a perspective of integration politics. To assemble data a survey has been conducted looking into factors such as how the libraries perceive the guidelines, how the libraries do business intelligence and user inquires to reach out to the users of the multilingual media, forms for statistics and method of working. The results points out that the libraries in their work with multilingual media are confronted with three tensions; the first tension is that between the libraries aim to promote equality and freedom for the individual and at the same time to fulfil certain collective interests and goals.

This masters thesis investigates the relation between China and the Information Society as it is manifested in the UN conference the World Summit on the Information Society WSIS. The first phase of this two-phase conference took place in Geneva 10-12 December 2003, with two documents, Declaration of principles DP and Plan of action PA, as main results. The information policy is central to an authoritarian rule in its efforts to keep control over the national identity. The thesis investigates the impact that the information revolution and Internet might have on the Chinese national identity through the acceptance of DP and PA in various aspects. With the use of the information science theories by Manuel Castells and Frank Webster, the vision of WSIS was compared with the Chinese information policy.

The European Union has faced lots of criticisms over the last couple of years when it comes to how refugees are treated in Europe. The Lisbon Treaty states in Article 2 that the European Union is founded on respect for human freedom, dignity and equality. Values such as democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights and that the rights of persons belonging to minorities should be respected are also something that the Union should be based on. How is it then that the Roma people, which are Europe's largest minority, are being persecuted all over Europe, that they get deported and have their camps destroyed? Why are refugees from North Africa being sent back before they even have a chance to seek asylum?  In this essay I have examined how the EU are treating refugees and tried to distinguish if there are any differences in how they treat internal and external refugees.

The main purpose of this master thesis is to give the reader a picture of the experience of art and of its room in the public libraries, but above all to examine the phenomenon temporary art exhibitions in public libraries in the county of Östergötland. The study is limited to a specific activity of art, namely temporary exhibitions in libraries. Geographically, the investigation is limited to the public libraries and their branch libraries in Östergötland. Time concentrates on the present situation in 2000 and 2001. Methodologies are partly observations in some libraries, partly qualitative questionnaires to all primary libraries and their affiliates in Östergötland.

The aim of this study is to examine physical education teachers? and students? views on the thesis and its part in the physical teacher education program at The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences.Does the view on the thesis differ between techers/students and the program with its curriculum and other policy documents?What does students/teachers value in a thesis?Does teachers/students have a mutual habitus concerning the thesis in the form of essay writing and how is this expressed?The study is based on a qualitative survey in which the respondents mainly answered open-ended questions with written answers. These answers have been categorized and analyzed with the aims of the study and the previous research in mind. The views on the purpose of the thesis differ, both within the group teachers/students and to a certain degree in relation to policy documents. The value of the thesis differs within the group.

Detta examensarbete är en utvärdering av nätverkssäkerheten hos J BiL AB, både på social och teknisk nivå. Företaget är beroende av säkra Internet-anslutningar för att nå externa tjänster och interna servrar lokaliserade på olika geografiska platser. Företaget har ingen IT-ansvarig som aktivt underhåller och övervakar nätverket, utan konsulterar ett externt dataföretag. Syftet med examensarbetet är att utvärdera säkerheten, upptäcka brister, ge förbättringsförslag och till viss del implementera lösningar. För att undersöka säkerheten har observationer och intervjuer med personalen gjorts och ett flertal attacker mot nätverket har utförts.

Sustainability work is something that is emphasized more and more. Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, is discussed and the question of how much responsibility companies should really take is frequently in the news. Companies tend to ask themselves how much responsibility they should take. CSR is a common concept of companies environmental and social work and a concept we tend to see here and there in our modern society. CSR includes companies? social responsibilities, both in terms of carbon footprint, working conditions, social responsibility and more.

The aim of the study is to examine how the executive leadership and the decision-making process are shaped by the leadership environment in a transition democracy as Venezuela. The questions I intend to answer are: What kind of leadership environment surrounds the leadership and what kind of consequences does it have on the leadership and the decision-making process in Venezuela? To answer my questions I will use the literature: Political Leadership in Liberal Democracies (Elgie, Robert 1995, London: Macmillian), together with the method ?The cultural determinist school of history? by Tomas Spencer, later reproduced by Kellerman. The leadership environment provides unique opportunities for a leader to gain control over the decision-making process. Institutional structures and the needs of the society are major parts in determining how the political leadership is exercised.

Policy document conversion in practice ? a qualitative study of five upper grade teachers approach to the 2011 policy documents in history.This essay examines five upper grade teachers approach to the new 2011 policy documents in the history school subject, as well as it?s impact on the teachers class room activities. Also, the study examines what factors have influenced this conversion process. Colleagues, the school management and the Swedish Skolverket (the Swedish school management organisation, controlled by the Swedish government) are in this study the main external influences that are studied. The study is carried out with an organisation theoretical approach, witch states that controlling the schools practical activities is hard, taking in to account a great variety of ?problems? that follow a teachers every day work.

Tobaksrökning är ett allvarligt hot mot en god folkhälsa i det västerländska samhället. Gällande tobakssnusning är forskningen dock inte enig. Världshälsoorganisationen anser att tobaksprevention ska innefatta policybeslutande samtidigt som Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting rekommenderar kommuner att arbeta strategiskt för att uppnå tobaksrökfrihet bland deras anställda. I Sverige har 67 kommuner antagit policyn Tobaksfri arbetstid. I detta examensarbete har intervjuer genomförts med politiker och tobakspreventivt ansvariga tjänstemän i tre kommuner i Västmanlands län som har påbörjat en arbetsprocess med policyn Tobaksfri arbetstid.

Köpenhamns cykelvägnät har anor så långt som 100 år tillbaka i tiden och på 1980-talet genomförde stadens cyklister stora demonstrationer för att få politikers och planerares uppmärksamhet, som man ansåg hade förlorat fokus på cykeln i planeringen (Jensen, muntligen, 2011-05-02). I detta arbete presenteras siffror som visar att det idag är fler än en tredjedel av Köpenhamns invånare som cyklar till och från sitt dagliga arbete. Köpenhamns kommun vill öka det antalet och målet idag är att bli världens bästa cykelstad år 2015 (Köpenhamns kommun 2007). För snart tio år sedan upprättade man på Köpenhamns kommun ett dokument, Cycle Policy 2002-2012, innehållandes mål för att förbättra förhållanden för stadens cyklister till år 2012. Detta dokument har studerats närmre i denna uppsats.Som blivande landskapsarkitekt blir jag nyfiken på hur de gått till väga.

In this thesis I have used post-colonial theory to analyze the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group located in Xinjiang province in the Northwest of China, and their identity shaping process in relation to the dominating Han Chinese. I have analyzed the possibilities to use the power perspectives in post-colonial theory, especially Edward Said's Orientalism and the creation of the Other in a new context, where the main focus is on the Uyghurs through the eyes of Han Chinese. I have argued that Han Chinese, with colonial tendencies, have created two generalizing pictures of the Uyghurs; one romantic picture to use as an exotic tourist attraction and one threatening picture that portray Uyghurs as Islamic terrorists to win support in international politics. The thesis is a qualitative single case study with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding for the Uyghurs as well as examine possibilities of widening the analyze areas for post-colonialism. My conclusion is that the power perspectives in post-colonial theory are usable implements also for non-western contexts and in this case function as a way to understand the identity shaping process for the Uyghurs and their relation to Han Chinese..