The main purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent municipalities in Sweden use democratic innovations to include citizens in the decision making process. Along there are three research questions:? What different forms of democracy innovations are Swedish municipalities applying in order to increase the civic participation between elections and what forms are dominant?? What potential influence in decision-making are citizens getting through these democratic innovations based on the results?? Based on the results ? in what ways is the democracy innovations used in municipalities challenging representative democracy? The method used to fulfill the purpose and answer the research questions is a web survey including 287 of 290 (in total) municipal websites. The theoretic framework includes a model which is called ?Smith?s ladder of participation? and is influenced by the research of Graham Smith and Sherry Arnstein.

Holy war against the aberration and the newspaper terrorismHeligt krig mot förvillelsen och tidningsterrorismen This paper explores Bernhard von Beskow?s (1796-1868) conservative critique of the, for the early 19th century, new dominating voice in public matters namely the liberal press. There are competing narratives about the emerging liberal press and its critics. On the one hand the conservative critics were seen as hopeless reactionaries which acted against freedom of the press, themselves stripped of positive ideals and/or handled with little interest as footnotes in the great story of the liberal victory over its opponents. On the other hand this story has been questioned and an alternative has been presented of how to understand the conservatives and their critique of the press.

Syftet: Syftet med studien var att beskriva hur omvårdnadspersonal inom kommunens särskilda boende och korttidsboende upplever att vårda personer i livets slutskede.Metod: Studien bygger på åtta kvalitativa intervjuer med undersköterskor. Datainsamlingsmetoden baserades på Critical Incident Technique och som analysmetod användes kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: I intervjuerna framkom att samarbetet till de övriga i teamet och närstående hade en stor och avgörande betydelse för hur vården utvecklades. Omvårdnadspersonalen kände ibland att sjuksköterskan saknades i vissa omvårdnadssituationer. Fördelning av personal under dygnet bidrog till kontinuitet i samverkan.

Situationen för torskbestånden i Östersjön är idag så pass allvarlig att ett flertal forskare, miljörörelser och även en del politiker kräver att ett fiskestopp för torsken genast måste införas. Kraven bygger på Internationella Havsforskningsrådets (ICES) rekommendationer, vilka kan sägas representera den rådande vetenskapliga uppfattningen, men trots en internationell vetenskaplig enighet i frågan har inte forskarnas rekommendationer lyckats få politiskt gehör. Torskens väg från hav till förhandlingsbord är med andra ord en komplicerad process där ett flertal aktörer är inblandade och relationerna inte alltid är helt tydliga. Denna studie söker kartlägga varför forskarnas rekommendationer om ett stopp för torskfisket inte omsatts i handling. Studien visar bland annat att ICES forskare genom sin rådgivande roll erhåller ett visst mått av politiskt inflytande, men att möjligheterna att påverka frågans utgång huvudsakligen avgörs av i vilken mån rekommendationerna kolliderar med andra intressen.

SammandragMed detta arbete vill jag titta på de största skillnaderna mellan en kommunal-, en Montessori- och en Waldorfskola med inriktning på deras engelskundervisning. Detta för att få inspiration till olika sätt att undervisa elever i problem på, i framförallt engelska. För att kunna se de största skillnaderna och likheterna mellan den kommunala skolan, Montessoriskolan och Waldorfskolan började jag med att studera vad som finns skrivit om dem i litteraturen.Efter att ha gjort detta valde jag att ta kontakt med en skola av varje sort. Jag besökte de tre skolorna under två dagar vardera under tre veckors tid. Under de två dagarna satt jag med i klassrummet och tittade på hur undervisningen såg ut.

As a small and land scarce country, effective waste management is ofoutmost importance in Singapore. In this study the production of biogasthrough anaerobic digestion from the organic fraction of municipal solidwaste (OFMSW) was compared to incineration of the waste. At the momentalmost all of the OFMSW in Singapore is incinerated. Three differentscenarios were compared to the reference scenario (incineration): one with alarge scale biogas plant that can treat half of all OFMSW in Singapore, onewith a medium scale biogas plant about 15 times smaller than the large oneand one with a small scale biogas plant that can treat waste from e.g. ashopping center or a food center.By using life cycle assessment (LCA) the different scenarios were comparedin terms of global warming potential (GWP), acidification, eutrophication,energy use and land use.

The aim of this two years master thesis in Library and Information Science is to examine how librarians and library managers in the three Stockholm suburbs of Alby, Fisksätra and Rinkeby think and reason about the role of public libraries in the integration process. The aim is also to examine whether their perception differ from that of local politicians at the municipal level. The theoretical framework is Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hanses model for analysis of the local library profile, and Jose Alberto Diaz theory on the integration process. The method used is qualitative interviews. The interviews were recorded and the content was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The results of this study show that the library services in the three suburbs, rather than being stipulated by the legal demand for special services towards immigrants, are based on the needs of the local population.

Bakgrund: De äldre i Sverige blir allt fler och allt äldre. Många får leva ett friskt och aktivt liv som äldre och andra drabbas av sjukdom och ohälsa redan i ett tidigt stadie av ålderdomen. Sjuksköterskan inom kommunal hemsjukvård ansvarar idag för ett stort antal patienter och har inte möjlighet att gå ut och träffa alla sina patienter dagligen. Det krävs därför att många av de hälso- och sjukvårdsuppgifter som förekommer ute i patienternas hem utförs av delegerad hemtjänstpersonal. Deras ansvar har ökat och de står ofta ensam ute i hemmen med beslut om när patientens hälsotillstånd kräver kontakt med sjuksköterskan.Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva hemtjänstpersonalens upplevelser av att arbeta med delegerade hälso- och sjukvårdsuppgifter.Metod: Åtta Narrativa intervjuer genomfördes vilka analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalysResultat: resultatet visar hemtjänstpersonalens upplevelser av att arbeta med delegerade hälso- och sjukvårdsuppgifter.

The purpose of this investigation was to study what students in in the first year of the social science program in high school think about the guidance they had access to during their time at primary school. This is to ensure that it the guidance students are entitled to and contribute to the development of the business. The survey was conducted at two different high schools in southern Sweden. A total of 57 students participated in the survey. The results show that 46 and 29 percent of students at the two schools did not feel they had the information they needed for their upper secondary school The results proving what previous research reached that students selection process can lead to stress and uncertainty associated with the choice to high school. The results of the present study showed that girls in particular have high standards for themselves and experience stress and anxiety associated with their selection to a greater extent than boys.

ABSTRACTTitle: Elle & Café ? a study of fashion magazines cover pages.Number of pages: 38Author: Greta SimonssonTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring Semester 2008University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityAim: The purpose of this essay is to:? Analyze the cover images from the 2007 editions of the magazines Elles and Café, using semiotic analysis.? Analyzes eventual resemblances or differences between the two magazine's cover images based upon the result of the semiotic analysis.Material and methods: The study of Elles's and Café's cover pages has been done using a model built upon semiotic analysis, developed with the purpose of suiting observation and examination of cover pages of fashion magazines. The cover pages were analyzed from the categories character, context, and environment.Main results: The main results include the observation that both Elles and Café chooses well-known figures from women's fashion industry as prime characters on their covers. In Elles, all main characters are famous women emerging from the music, television and fashion industries. The women in Café are known for similar professions.

Problem definition and purpose: A debated question in journalism today is if the mass media have the power to affect norms and values in the society. There are therefore many who believe that the media must works for democratic and equitable news coverage. Studies have shown that there are still many differences in how women and men are being portrayed in the Swedish media, even if Sweden is one of the most equal countries in the world. This inequality may affect the democracy and equality in the society negative.Previous studies have mainly been using gender as the only explanatory factor to explain the difference of coverage between men and women in the news content. The purpose of this study will therefore not only be to compare the coverage of the Green Partys two spokespersons, Åsa Romson and Gustav Fridolin, from a gender perspective but also to take in count other factors that could contribute to differences in the news coverage.Method and material: To find an answer to the purpose of this thesis a quantitative content analysis have been done on a total of 238 news articles in which Åsa Romson and/or Gustav Fridolin occur.Main results: The results of the content analysis show that Gustav Fridolin occurs more frequently in the news than Romson does, and that the articles he appears in is lager than the articles in which Romson appears.

This surveys hypothesis is based on the notion that all citizens have the right to access information of the municipality they live in. The aim of the study is to examine how residents of Vilhelmina municipality take note of the current information, and also how they would proceed to access information in the future. In order to conceptualise the results these following theories were used: digital divide, digital immigrants, digital native, uses and gratification theory, social capital, communications strategies and two-way communication. The survey is conducted with four focus group interviews and one separate interview with a person working at the municipal office. The focus groups were divided into age categories in order to see the similarities and differences between the groups' media habits and preferences of future communications.

AbstractThis paper is a comparative study of the final reports of the Norwegian and Danish power studies performed in 2003. While the Danish study found that democracy is thriving, the conclusion of the Norwegian power study was that democracy is in a crisis. The purpose of this paper is to find explanations to why the studies in two Nordic countries arrived at such different results.Methodologically, the paper consists of an ideological text analysis and critical analyses of the discourse. In order to study how the results of the power studies can differ so considerably, the following aspects have been surveyed; 1) external contexts (government inquiries); 2) work process (the researchers? background, role and co-operation); 3) the problem areas and themes studied; and 4) power perspectives.

Industrialisation, modernisation and urbanisation are common words used to describe an evolving community. General patterns are often linked to the meaning of the above words but can these patterns be applied to individual parishes on the agricultural countryside?The purpose of this study is to seek moving patterns and how they change during the 19th century in the parish of Västra Eneby, municipal of Kinda, Östergötland. The main thesis is that the study will show an increasing intensity of translocations over the parish border towards the end of the 19th century.The study is based on material from Västra Eneby?s church archives to establish statistical data beginning with 1809 and with a sample rate of 10 years, ending with 1909.

The aim of this master?s thesis in administrative law has been to study the property owners' legal rights when a third party impacts on the property. The essay is based on several case studies of landowners in central Sweden which has the purpose of forming a background to the legal studies of this field. The framework for current studies builds therefore on landowners' experiences of impairment and damages on their property and has been added to highlight a current problem that exists in central Sweden. The purpose of the study is therefore to see whether a protection in law is imposed on landowners with such problems as the land ownership study shows.