In this thesis, the introduction of smoke-free restaurants and bars in several EU Member States in a policy convergence perspective is studied. The thesis sets out to explain whether policy convergence has occurred and the possible explanations connected with it. It is stated that 15 out of 25 EU Member States had introduced or decided to introduce smoke-free restaurants and bars up to April, 2006. Out of all the countries in the world, 35, including the EU Member States, had introduced or decided to introduce smoke-free restaurants and bars. The result is analysed by using policy convergence theory and by putting the case in a global environment where tobacco control has become an ever more central theme for public health policy.The EU Member States are different in several ways considered to be important factors for policy convergence, such as cultural, institutional and socio-economic similarities, and the conclusion is made that EU membership has been a most crucial factor for the rapidity of the policy diffusion.

The purpose of this study is twofold: First, to inquire how the George W. Bush administration plans to keep America safe from external threats and second ? based on the assumption that neoconservatives have influenced the Bush administration ? examine how neoconservative ideas have influenced this strategy to protect America. The research questions are as follows:What is the content of the Bush administration?s security strategy?How are neoconservative ideas reflected in this security strategy?To answer the first question, the main points of two studied documents were summarized.

The following essay is named The canonization of Joan of Arc, a Church political strategy or the creation of a national symbol? Joan of Arc, the French heroine of the Hundred Years War, was canonized as late as 1920, in a process that began already in 1869. In the following essay I am trying to work out if this canonization is a work of the Vatican in order to gain popularity in France after the breakup with the state in 1905. The Catholic Church had, since the French Revolution, faced difficulties withstanding its position of power in the presence of the upcoming Secularism and Liberalism and their growing public support. The Catholic Church had been fighting for its members and at the same time fighting the new ideas of Socialism, Communism and Liberalism.

AbstractIn this thesis I will discuss the relationship between the European Union and the regions of Europe. The development of the European Union has meant that many decisions are taken in Bruxelles. Many actors participate in the policyprocess ranging from national goverment to policynetworks of different kinds. An emerging actor has been the regions of Europe. Their influence on the policyprocess have grown and today almost all of them are represented in Bruxelles through Region Offices.

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.

Author: Gabriella Agné and Helena LarssonTitle: Disability policy program ? a case study of a municipals implementation of UNs Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Supervisor: Marianne Westring-NordhAssessor: Ulf DruggeThis study aims to examine how a small municipal in southern Sweden works with the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and examine the assistant officers knowledge about this work and user organizations inclusion and user involvement.The study operates from a qualitative approach based on the results of nine semi-structured interviews with local politicians, assistance officers and representatives from three different user organizations.The results show that the municipal has chosen to work with the implementation of the convention by creating policy programs for their departments through dialogue with user organizations, and by mapping the accessibility to public places. The results also show that the assistant officers have been given no information regarding the convention or the policy programs from their employers and instead operate from national legislations and prepositions. The user organizations feel that they were initially included in the process, but that their impact has later been removed due to structural reorganization..

AbstractThe European union experience sometimes difficulties in advancing its work due to the member states? different ambitions and interests. The budget is one common tool that the member states can use in order to implement different policies according to their preferences. A large share of the budget is presently tied up in the CAP, the common agricultural policy. This share could be spent in another area and by doing so the EU could take a slightly different direction.

The aim of this study is to look closer at collection development and the use of collection development policies in Swedish public libraries, with the help of a few examples. Through interviews with three librarians in three different public libraries and an analysis of these libraries? collection development policies, the authors try to find out how the creation of collection development policies takes place in these libraries, how these librarians use the policy, how these policies have been followed up and revised, and also to see what the policies of these libraries include. The material of the study suggests that a lot of work is required to write the policies, and that the written policy itself is seldom used by the librarians. The interviewed librarians still find the policies useful because the writing of them gave a detailed understanding of what the collection of the library contains.

This is a case study of the planning and building of a new IT education facility when thedepartment of Media Technologymoved its operation to Flemingsberg and the main campus, due tothe termination of Campus Haninge at Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden. The study isbased on a case study an on administrative material from the process such as emailscorrespondences, policy documents, contact reports etc. The material is analysed using qualitativecontent analysis and the different observations done are distilled into four recommendations,aimed at being able to contribute to a improved process in similar future situations, whereverneeded..

Culture Management Cultural management administration producent KKE management.

One of the big challenges for the European Union today lies in finding a common foreign policy for its 27 sovereign member states with their divided interests, experiences and traditions. New objectives set requirements on the Union to develop and intensify its military ability. The European Union´s view on when military force can be utilized sets concepts like sovereignty and intervention in focus. Can sovereignty be limited and if so can an intervention be justified? How did the Union argue regarding its participation in the intervention in Afghanistan, 2001? The Just War Theory gives the essay a normative framework against which to assess the Union´s view and guidelines for the use of military capabilities.

The Swedish society and welfare model are under constant changes anddevelopment. One of the core areas in this welfare model is the social policy. By analysing the changing role of the organizations in the civil society on a local level with a theoretical typology changes in the roles can be noted. These changes can with a model for ideal types raice questions about bigger changes concerning issues of legitimacy and accountablility. I uses qualitative method including interviews with actors on the local level, earlier reseach in the field and public documents.

Sustainability and the traffics impact on the environment have become increasingly central within spatial planning. For many years, planning has been focusing on building new roads - this has resulted in increased use of automobiles, which many believe is unsustainable in the longer term. Therefore, authorities at national, regional and local level want to increase the use of alternative transport modes ? such as walking, cycling and traveling by bus.The thesis intends to study if the Municipality of Umeå?s policies for sustainable development have led to an increased use of public transportation. The use of public transport in Umeå is also compared with developments at national level, in order to see if there are differences in the level and trend.

Total amount of words: 15 269.In this essay, the purpose is to examine the personalization of Swedish national coaches during international championships in the Swedish tabloids. Research shows that a leader nowadays is representative for her organization. Therefore it could be assumed that the way the national coach is portrayed can have some kind of effect on the public opinion about the team as a unit and their sport federation in total. This essay is a quantitative study of the sport tabloids Sportbladet och SPORT-Expressen during three international championships: Euro 2012 in football, WC 2013 in ice hockey and Euro 2014 in handball. We have studied the coverage of the national coaches Erik Hamrén, Pär Mårts and Ola Lindgren/Staffan Olsson in contrast to the coverage of their teams in total.The main results are that the national coaches are mentioned in every second article that is written about the national teams during the championships. They are mainly portrayed in a neutral way, even though the coverage of them is affected by the results in the matches.

In this study, I intend to examine some aspects of the activities of cultural companies in the town of Arvika. The study is qualitative in nature and based on in-depth interviews with self-employed cultural workers, as well as representatives from Arvika municipality. Cultural policy documents have been studied to clarify the self-employed status in the cultural sector and thus their importance to the cultural life in Arvika overall.My hope is to get a glimpse of what it means to work as a self-employed within the cultural sector in Arvika and the conditions that exist, in order to successfully run and develop their businesses.There is a shift in cultural policy, which has led to permanent forms of employment becoming fewer and self-employment to grow ( Karlsson & Lekvall, 6 ). One can say that the cultural sector has moved in the direction from a public matter, to the more privatized ( Köping , Lantz & Stenström, 3 ). The problem with this is that the policy of self-employment has not progressed at the same rate as the amount of business.