The means to political participation at the local level in Sweden are changing and this change is analyzed through a case study. The first aim is to explore the forms of public political participation in Swedish municipal Älvkarleby, namely public question time in local government, citizen motions and open meetings. A part of this is also to analyze he every day contact between citizens and representatives. The second aim concerns the reasons why politicians decide to support these means to participationThe empirical material consists mainly of semi structured interviews with local politicians, civil servants, participating citizens and local press. Official documents such as public minutes are also used in the process of creating an image of local participation.Local political participation is found to be limited but yet having the potential to strengthen democracy, provided that public decision-makers are open to a dialogue with the participants.Using Kjell Arne Røvik's theories of organisational change, the changes in local democracy can be explained as being partly rational, partly symbolic and partly identity shaping political decisions..

The first official Islamic bank was established in 1975. The characteristic of an Islamic bank is that the bank is based on an interest free system. The interest free system is a requirement for an Islamic bank. The Islamic bank system is based on Sharia laws which are laws that are followed by Muslims and it is based on the text from the Quran. The Islamic Banks had a rapid expansion between 1993 and 2003, the expansion was about 23 percent and since 2003 have the expansion been about 20 percent.

The global financial crisis hit hard on banking operations worldwide and the sector fell under considerable scrutiny, with particular criticism directed against the banks' own trading practices. A bank owned by the Swedish financial corporation HQ seemed to go without serious financial damage duringthe crisis.In 2008 Finansinspektionen began a review of HQ's activities and a number of shortcomings were identified. Among other things, HQ's risk management was questioned by Finansinspektionen and further how this potentially affected the valuation of complex financial products.In our paper we have chosen to highlight both national and international laws and guidelines that HQ used for their operations and study if HQ followed those laws and guidelines. We also want topresent the theoretical model used by HQ for the valuation of its European options and how HQ calculated their capital requirements ratio. Our purpose is to show how the valuation affected the capitalrequirement ratio and whether HQ followed the necessary laws and guidelines for the valuation of complex financial products.We have chosen to carry out a case study from a deductive approach.

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.

AbstractThis degree thesis was made in cooperation with Chematur Engineering in Karlskoga.Many of the environmental issues of today are a result of the motor traffic. Consumption of fossil fuels harms our environmental through formation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. To get under control with our environmental issues it?s important to find substitutes for oil that are both cheap and environmentally friendly. Ethanol has a long history as a motor fuel and is both enviromentally friendly has a high efficiency.According to the EU commissions directives for motor fuels, 5, 75 % of all the fuels in Sweden should be renewable in 2010.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the way George W. Bush used the language as a means to exercise power in an attempt to justify Operation Iraqi Freedom. The theories used to answer the purpose are discourse analysis and three different moral metaphors that are applied on the data.The collected material for the metaphors is constituted of cognitive linguistic books from prominent linguists, such as George Lakoff, Alan Cruse and William Croft, and the material for the discourse analysis is also collected from prominent discourse analysts such as Michél Foucault and Norman Fairclough. The official White House website provides the material for my data. The scientific method used in this study has been qualitative text analysis where the hermeneutic approach has been an essential part of it.The main question: In what way did George W.

AbstractAim; With this study we aim to know more about the possibilities teachers in pre-school regard useful in their work, when encouraging children?s language development. In the study we are inspired by the thoughts and ideas of Lev Vygotskij. Method; We interviewed eight trained teachers at four pre-schools in Sweden. The interviews were recorded and later written down.

As the number of inhabitants increases, the cities expand into the former rural landscape. The urbanization causes changes to the functioning of the peri-urban fringe. Land that previously was used for agricultural production is now used for alternative enterprises, as for example horse keeping and recreation. 75 % of all horses (approx. 200 000) are situated in the peri-urban fringe.

The analysis of regional development and the formation of regional policy have experienced an increasing importance in Europe and in Sweden during the last decades. There is a widespread assumption that the increasing significance of regions is due to the diminishing role of the nationstate in the era of globalization. This essay suggests that there is a hegemonic discourse, heavily relying on the assumptions of New Regionalism, when addressing regional building. Sometimes described as an ideology, New Regionalism, which is derived from research of successful regions, is based on the assumption that regional competitiveness and autonomy creates economic growth. The Committee on Public Sector Responsibilities (Ansvarskommittén) suggests that Sweden requires new regional structure, due to the increasing expenditures facing the welfare state.

The purpose of this essay is to examine Marjane Satrapi?s comic novel Persepolis from a gender and postcolonial perspective. To reach this I have used several theories from mainly three different fields of theory: gender studies, postcolonial theories and theoretical texts which focus on the form of comics.My analysis has shown that idols, heroes and other cultural symbols are important for the creation of the main character Marji?s identity, but that she at the same time has many Marxistic influences. These casts of mind do not stand in opposition, but become an expression for her hybridity.

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to investigate the role of the public library when the local government in the municipality arranges distance education at university level. The thesis has two main areas of questioning and these are goals and resources. In the study it is examined if the local goals have changed during the period 2000 until 2005, due to the development of distance education. It is investigated if change actually has occurred and if it has, in what way the goals have changed. It is also examined if and how the goals correspond with the work that is being performed in the public library.

Objective: 1.4 million people in Sweden state that they are having problems with hearing and the majority havehad no contact with the hearing rehabilitation services. To have a hearing loss seems to be associated withseveral negative attributes. This could be due to bad attitude and insufficient knowledge on hearing loss intoday?s society.Purpose: The purpose with this study was to map the adult populations attitude towards hearing loss and selfratedknowledge of hearing with a survey.Methods: A web survey was made for this study. An official link to the survey was shared from two Facebookaccounts to a total of 997 contacts and a total of 247 responses were collected.Results: The majority of the respondents have estimated their general knowledge of hearing to fairly extensivefollowed by very small.

In the beginning of the 19th century, Swedish was the only official language of Finland, and thus the dominating language in administration and higher education. However, during the latter part of the century, efforts were made to develop Finnish into a language which could be used in every part of society. In 1881, the medical society Suomalainen Lääkäriseura Duodecim was founded with the development of a medical terminology in Finnish as one of its main purposes. In 1885, a medical paper, Duodecim, and a medical dictionary were published. The aim of this study is to illuminate the vocabulary of the dictionary.

Background: The request for the Reggio Emilia practice has expanded enormously the last couple of years within the Swedish preschools. This particular practice describes the environment as a third educator. This third educator is supposed to work as - not only a tool - but also a support to ease children's learning experiences and help develop their mind. Previous research has shown that design of, for instance, furniture has a way of affecting the children's learning process and development.Aims: The purpose of this study is to see how two different teams of preschool educators on two differed Reggio Emilia inspired preschools work and handle the physical indoor environment. Method: We started out by contacting Reggio Emilia inspired preschools.

Wind power is expanding rapidly in Sweden. Increasing amounts of wind power sets higher requirements on balancing power and grid expansions and would affect the whole Swedish electricity system. The aim of this report is to examine the factors affecting the wind power expansion in Sweden. How many wind power plants projects will obtain building permissions and what costs and revenues can be expected? How much balancing power will be required and does a changing geographical distribution of the wind power plants reduce the need of balancing power?A survey of the county board?s official applications has been made and out of all the applications, corresponding to 80 TWh produced per year, about half of the applications are expected to obtain a permit with a major portion of them located in the north of Sweden.Especially older wind power plants, deriving revenue from Nord pool, find themselves today in a complicated financial situation.