Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union a lot of hope has been put on civil society to help develop Russia into a more democratic society. This study explores the constructive elements in the relationship between civil society and the state in Russia, and how this enables the work toward political development. By using Julie Fishers theory about political development and organisational autonomy I discuss the varying and often complex ways in which civil society and the state interacts. These are often not mentioned in the liberal tradition, which believes that civil society's most important democratic function is to act as a watchdog for the state.There is very limited political space for NGO's in authoritative Russia. The existing oppositional NGO's are important for the political development, but they are few and their impacts on society are limited.

Research about social support and social networks has mostly concerned the impact on a person?s wellbeing and health. However an aspect largely neglected is how social support within the social networks can affect the process of giving up a drug abuse. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of what role the social support within different relationships can have on the process of giving up drug abuse. Furthermore the aim is to examine how a self-help group can provide social support in the transitional period after leaving a drug abuse.

The number of blogs, from weblogs, are increasing every day. Blogs are also becoming more visible in the public debate as well as the awareness of their existance is rising among politicians and citizens. The aim of this thesis is to answer the question what democratic potential blogs can have. This question will be answered by initially studying the research that exists today about weblogs and democracy. The second part of the analysis consists of a selection of texts from weblogs that touches this subject.

Currently there is a controversial debate about that we must reduce our impact on the global warming; therefore both the Government and the local authorities have invested heavily in developing renewable energy in Sweden. The major development on the wind power market can be seen as a result of both the technological development and also on the decision that the Government took in 1996, which opened up the wind power market for private parties.This paper has aimed to examine the types of financial innovations that have arisen from the investments and financing of wind power on Gotland, and what these innovations can contribute to the future development of wind power.The problems that this thesis is based on is; what kind of financial innovations have occurred within investment and financing of wind power? How can these innovations contribute to the continued development of wind power on Gotland? The conclusion of this study shows that respondents and participants have defined a number of financial innovations that have emerged. Where some of the innovations only can be seen as incremental since they are based on continuous improvements, while others can be seen as radical as they are completely new for the context in which they operate. The study has also shown that Gotland has a great potential to produce more renewable electricity, but the development is dependent on the new power lines being built, in order to export electricity to the mainland..

Den 11 september 2001 innebar början på en stor förändring i amerikansk inrikes och utrikespolitik. I kriget mot terrorismen har en omfattande diskriminering skett av icke-amerikanska medborgare både inom landets gränser såväl som utanför. För att rättfärdiga detta för sitt eget folk samt det internationella samfundet har man i politiken och retoriken skapat bilden av "den andre" som ett potentiellt hot mot den amerikanska säkerheten. Våra två frågeställningar behandlar skapandet av "den andre" som används för att rättfärdiga agerandet efter 11 september.Målet i uppsatsen är inte bara att besvara frågeställningarna utan också att ge en djupare insikt i varför svaren ser ut som de gör. Våra angreppssätt och valda metoder har sina begränsningar men trots det anser vi att dessa kan erbjuda en ny synvinkel på USA:s agerande efter 11 september..

The purpose of this essay was to describe eight female universitystudents drinking patterns and their own experiences of alcohol. The main questions that guided us through our study were:*How the female students describe the meaning of alcohol*How they describe their experiences of not drinking alcohol*If they have experienced pressure to drink alkcohol and if they have pressed other people to drink alcohol*How the students describe the student life influence on the alcohol consumptionA qualitative method was used as the purpose of this essay was to investigate the female students own subjective experiences and not to investigate students alcohol habits in general..

The power system modelled in this thesis work has been developed for simulationwhen e.g. the production in some part of the power system is changed. The powersystem has been modelled according to the swing mass of the system, the frequencydependency of the load and the turbine governor. The model determines the systemfrequency, the period of regulation and the power exchange between the differentsubsystems in the Nordic synchronized system.In this model the system frequency is assumed to be the same in all different parts ofthe power system and the voltage conditions in the power system are neglected. Forthat reason power swings does not occur between different subsystems in the powersystem, which usually occur as a result of the swinging connection between thetransmissions line.

The thesis investigates how two of the world?s most powerful international actors, the US and the EU want to promote democracy and human rights. The aim is to compare how the US and the EU work in order to support a democratic development in the world. In order to fulfill the purpose of the thesis a qualitative text analysis was used. Since the aim is to compare the US and the EU I believe this method is beneficial.

Syftet med detta arbete är att ur ett journalistperspektiv visa vilka komponenter som god journalistik med dennaturvetenskapligt orienterade forskningen som bevakningsområde består av. Arbetet fokuserar på massmedierna som agendasättare och frånser de kommersiella aspekterna av verksamheten..

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine and analyze what discourses about children that can be found in three Swedish culture publications, and also to identify the different social roles that are attributed to children in these publications. The theoretical and methodological background is discourse theory, as described by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Additional theory used is social constructionism and Norman Fairclough?s critical discourse theory. Three questions are asked: What discourse/s can be found in these publications? What do these discourses tell us about the view on children within the library domain? What social roles are attributed to the children in the texts and what consequences do these have for the power configuration between children and adults? Furthermore there is a discussion concerning what effects these discourses might have on the direct and indirect reception of children in the library.

The aim of this essay was to investigate how social workers, within chosen Social services districts in the northwest of Skåne, work with children placed in foster care. Our purpose was to investigate the interaction between the child and the foster home from the perspective of the Ecology of Human Development. Our questions were:* How do the social worker prepare the child and the foster home before a placement?* What kind of support is offered to the foster home with the purpose of supporting the child?* How do the social worker make the childs contact with the biological parents easier?* To what degree does the social worker work on strengthening the child's network?* Which factors do the social worker decide the allocation of support?* What do the social worker think affects the work with the foster home from a society level?To answer our question we have interviewed nine social workers. We found that the social workers were generally good at perceiving how the micro- and meso-systems, and to a certain extent the exo-system, influenced the foster child.

In Sweden, prostitution is politically defined as a social problem, more precisely, as a form of male violence against women. The definition is distinctly manifested in the government bill Kvinnofrid, characterised by the unique Swedish law that prohibits the purchase of sexual services.This thesis examines how the Swedish solutions of prostitution are carried out. By interviewing central actors working with prostitution in different ways we aim to answer the question: What measures are taken to decrease prostitution and what implications does the Swedish solution have?The analysis is divided into two parts. First, we analyse the concrete measures taken against prostitution ? what is done, how, and why? Second, we analyse the complexity of prostitution measures by applying complementary analytical perspectives: the symbolic and the discourse perspective.The study shows that measures taken to decrease prostitution vary and depend on individual actors? understandings of the political definition.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify power structures and instruments of power within the Jehovah?s witnesses and investigate how they affect the baptized youths baptized within the organization. The material consists of qualitative in-depth interviews and is analyzed with Foucault's theories of power. The results show that the participants have a very strict relationship to the rules of the congregation and also that they take great care in observing these rules carefully. It becomes evident that young members are exposed to disciplinary measures from the organization.

Vi har valt att titta på hur organiseringen påverkar sociala rörelse-organisationers fortlevnad. Medlemsantalet är vår operationalisering av fortlevnaden. Våra två fall är Amnesty International och Attac.För- och nackdelar med olika organisationssätt tydliggörs med hjälp av två organisatoriska idealmodeller som till stor del är varandras motsatser. Dessa är den vertikala modellen och den horisontella modellen.Dessa för- och nackdelar har vi ställt mot empirin. Vi har använt oss av litteratur, hemsidor och intervjuer för att få en bild av hur organisationerna ser ut.Trots att Attac är nätverksbaserad och Amnesty är mer vertikalt ordnad, har båda visat prov på flexibilitet och lyckats skapa delaktighet, vilket är positivt för organisationernas fortlevnad.

In recent years the concern about the future of the European Union and itssupposed lack of democracy, efficiency and legitimacy has increased. Thisconcern has resulted in extensive debates and the establishment of a conventionwith the task to create a draft treaty for a European Constitution.The aim of this essay is to study how the three theoretical concepts,democracy, efficiency and legitimacy, have been described and used in the debateabout the future of the European Union. My main interest is to see how theseconcepts are described in a debate regarding a political system that goes beyondthe borders of the nation-state. I have made a comparative textual analysis of thedebates taken place in Sweden and Spain during a period of over two years. Ihave, for instance, found out that openness and clearness have a prominentposition as democratic values together with equality and justice (in Spain) and theinstitution of accountability (in Sweden).