The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine whether the term elasticity is relevant and functional to apply to public library organisations. Another aim of the thesis is to relate the term elasticity to public library organisations in a network society. Sociologist Manuel Castells provide the theoretical framework on the network society. Three investigations (meant to complement each other) in two Swedish public libraries seek to give answers to these questions.To be able to examine which areas of public library activity are elastic, I make a rough definition of what public library organisations consist of ? nine activity fields are identified using IFLA?s guidelines in combination with Swedish law of public libraries.

This essay explores how artwork in the public space can be analysed, conceptualized and described by bringing attention to site. Through an analysis of artworks in the yearly art exhibition of Fittja Open 2011, the essay draws attention to site-specific art and structures of power. The principal aim is to present not only the exhibition of Fittja Open 2011 but also other artwork in the public sphere in Fittja, a suburb to Stockholm. From this point of departure other interests evolve that concerns the "image" of Fittja. The analysis, based on research in art history, architecture, ethnology and philosophy as well as qualitative interviews, also focuses on understanding the role of site and the relations between art practice, institutions and site.The result shows that there are problems with a ruptured interface between the artwork and site.

This project was a request of Norrbodal´s Forestry Board, Västra Götaland. It was performed as a qualitative interview analysis of private forest owner?s deficient motivation regarding pre-commercial thinning. The purpose of the project is to investigate what the Forestry Board can do to motivate private forest owners to do more pre-commercial thinning. The results build upon 16 qualitative phone interviews with forest owners that have their forest within the district of Norrbodal. The owners are divided into two groups, the one who have performed the pre-commercial thinning and the one that has possible pre-commercial thinning needs on their properties according to the pre-commercial thinning analysis ,which is the result of a satellite analysis.

This essay is about a debate concerning the magazine Axess, feminism and antifeminism - in relation to a issue of Axess called To a new feminism. The theoretical foundation of this essay is Pierre Bourdieu and his field theories. The battles taking place in this particular field concerns the positioning of feminism and antifeminism in the way we culturally interpret these in our society. The essay shows that the magazine Axess (at least in the first edition of 2012) links feminism with a very prominent symbolic capital in a culture context. This discussion can at times seem confusing, and this is probably due to the fact that Bourdieus symbolic capital can be a very abstract concept. The journalist and author Maria Sveland writes about the development of a culture moving towards accepting antifeminism (and also xenophobia). She expresses the opinion that this, to a high degree, is due to actors in the culture domain with a big amount of trust in the public eye has moved towards expressing anti-feministic (and xenophobic) views.

The public libraries were quick to adapt to the changes that the Internet brought on, and today library websites are an important part of the public library. To meet the needs of teens today, the library website could offer a range of contents to make it an attractive place on many levels; both the academic needs as well as social and recreational needs should be addressed.The aim of this thesis is to evaluate public library websites for teenagers in Sweden, and to examine how well the websites address the developmental tasks and needs that teenagers have. The method used is website evaluation, one quantitative and one qualitative. A total of 60 public library sites for teenagers were evaluated, using 11 criteria based on Havighursts developmental tasks. The quantitative evaluation measured how many functions each website had per criteria, and showed that the majority of the sites had one or two functions for most of the criteria.

This study focuses on the encounter between the academic librarian and the academic library user with a specific need for information. The aim of the study is to examine the process of mediation of information and to uncover any inherent problems or systemic inertia that may occur within that process.Special attention has been given to information-seeking behaviour in the digital age and the possibility of viewing information literacy as a meta-literacy. The difference between the surface web and the academic invis- ible web is also investigated. Empirical data was collected by the use of ethnographic fieldwork at the Karolin- ska Institutet University Library over a period of five weeks. The data is analysed using actor-network theory as a point of departure.

The aim of this master´s thesis is to explore how Stockholms new library´s identity is constructed, and further to relate the case study to a general discussion of the identity of public libraries in Sweden. This is done through analysis of the visions and plans that the planned library is based on. We feel that it is a relevant study since questions concerning the public library's identity are for library and information science as well as the institution. Questions posed in the study are: How is the roles and identity of the planned library described in the texts that form the basis of the project? What characterises the relationship between the present and the planned library? What discourses concerning the public library's identity can we see in the material?The theoretical framework of the thesis is a discourse oriented analysis based on the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate what attributes were used in story-time activities, why attributes were used in story-time activities and what functions they have. The study is based on qualitative methods in the form of a literature studies, observations and interviews. The interviews were undertaken with two storytellers from the same public library. The story-time activities were adapted for children from three to six years of age. The study suggested that there was a connection between story-time activities and a social and cultural perspective.

This study aims at examining the prospects for a policy transfer of a Swedish municipal environmental policy (that of Växjö) to the French urban commune Blois, for which an ambition of becoming a leading eco-city in France, was declared by the mayor in 2008.In the analysis, emphasis is laid on mechanisms to institutionalize the main environmental policy principles, such as political and institutional structures and processes. Other prospects for an institutionalization of a new environmental policy that are to be investigated are economic structures as well as visions of the different decision-makers concerned. Research methods used in the study are qualitative interviews, document studies and a questionnaire.The findings of the analysis show that today?s prospects for an environmental policy in Blois close to that of Växjö, are clearly limited. The limitations can partly be found in economic structures but these seem to be rather related to a lack of priority amongst actors.

Uppsatsen undersöker fem mäns berättelser kring krigsfilmen Saving Private Ryan, med fokus på maskulinitet. Föreställningarna och bilderna kring maskulinitet som kan urskiljas i intervjupersonernas berättelser, knyts till R.W. Connells teoretiska ramverk kring hegemonisk maskulinitet och de hierarkiska relationerna mellan olika maskuliniteter. Vidare resoneras det kring hur berättelserna exemplifierar en syn på mediepublik som aktiva meningsskapare, då intervjupersonerna tar fasta på olika aspekter i filmen samt ger den olika mening och betydelse. Slutligen belyses hur genus- och andra identiteter är något som kontinuerligt skapas i mötet med en mängd olika diskurser varje dag, samt hur själva handlingen att se på krigsfilm i sig kan ses som konstruerande av maskulinitet..

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine and analyse how the public librarys mission is interpreted and formulated in a selection of library related journals. The journals are both international scientific referee journals from the LIS field and journals with a closer connection to the practitioners within the public library field. The idea is that these journals can be seen as windows to an academic theoretic perspective on public libraries, as well as to the practitioners way of talking about the librarys mission. The study also aims to examine if there is a difference in the way that the librarys mission is interpreted and discussed among theorists and among practitioners within the field. The theoretical starting-point is Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory, and the method is text analytic.

Management by contract is nowadays a common method within the public sector since the NPM overtook as paradigm with its mechanisms of control inspired by the private sector. The public agency is foremost a service provider where they interact with citizens in the service process. Swedish eldercare has significantly increased its expose to competition which means that eldercare can be executed not only by the municipalities own provider. Such an adaption increases the requirements to inspect quality and how the purchasers assure goal achievement by control. The outmost liability stays with the municipality to ensure that the service produces god care since their position as the service purchaser implies the responsibility to plan, precise and evaluate the required work that the executor has to accomplish.

Bachelor thesis in political science by Malin Bergkvist, autumn 12.Title:Political governance for increased digital inclusion.Subtitle: Aspects of "governance" and "government".Supervisor: Joachim Åström. While digital inclusion is a hot topic in both academia and in policy circles, little research is done when it comes to governance issues. To help filling this gap, this essay asks which mode of governance is dominant in the field of digital inclusion. What aspects of governance "governance" or "government" is the dominant in the field of digital inclusion, and is it possible to see any difference in how the state governance is described by the government and perceived by other actors? To answer this overarching question, two sub queries are formulated and analyzed. First, what aspect of "governance" or "government" dominate when state governance of the area are examined based on how the government describes it? Second, what aspect of "governance" or "government? dominate when state governance are studied based on how the perceived by other actors and stakeholders active in the field.

The use of chainsaws in both private forestry and commercial companies is highly associated with personal injuries and accidents with deadly outcome. As a result to this, a driver?s license for chainsaws was presented in the year 2005. To get the license you have to attend a course given by the Swedish Forest Agency or one of several private educators. This study is an evaluation of one course given by the Swedish Forest Agency in Uppsala.

This study deals with religious independent schools and its impact on society. The purpose of this essay has been to examine what various teachers from both religious independent schools and public schools have for perception of religious independent schools. The questions highlighted in the study is the teachers´ general view to religious independent schools, teachers´ perception of the Education Act " a denominational education, but a non- denominational teaching", and what teachers believe to be segregated or inclusive.The study has consisted of five qualitative interviews with different teachers, where three of them work at religious independent schools, while the other two teachers work in public schools.The study shows that there are prominent differences of approach to religious independent schools. Teachers who work at religious independent schools avert criticism of religious independent schools and argue that teaching in religious independent schools do not differ appreciably from the public schools. Instead can religious independent schools serve as a good alternative to the public school.