The purpose of this master?s thesis is to find out in which ways a group of first generation immigrants use Swedish papers and magazines in a public library and which information needs this group has about Swedish society. One important aspect in this essay is integration of immigrants in the Swedish society as a possible effect of newspaper reading. The method used in this study is qualitative. Data is generated through semi-structured interviews.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and to increase the understanding of the negotiation process between the public- and the private sector in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). I have chosen to explore the first ?real? PPP project in Denmark, the construction of Vildbjerg compulsory school in the municipality of Trehøje.This case study is based upon a qualitative method consisting of interviews with the leading negotiators from both sectors. Two different theoretical perspectives are used to construct the basis of the analysis - The Theory of Public-Private Partnership and Negotiation theory - and serve as a concept instrument.The result of the analysis indicates that the negotiators from the different sectors have problems to get out of their traditional roles as purchaser and contractor ? in PPP they should act like partners.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a relatively new method for learning a foreign language. CLIL programs are growing in popularity and more and more schools are adopting it all around the world. There is still no special education for the teachers working with CLIL, though research suggests it may be an effective method for achieving good results.To get a realistic view of the work of a CLIL teacher, I have interviewed four different mathematic teachers who work at CLIL international schools in Spain with English as the foreign language. I have compared their methods and experiences with the main ideas of current research in this particular field.The survey shows that the teachers? views about how CLIL is to be used do not completely correspond to that of the research.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine how five childrens librarians in Ireland and five in Sweden interpret and implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in public libraries. This study is hermeneutic. Using a qualitative method consisting of ten interviews with childrens librarians and structural factors such as; library policies and laws; together with an insight into Irelands political, social and economical history and the historical development of childrens public libraries in Sweden and Ireland, has enabled us to create an understanding for the interviewees statements. Anthony Giddens structuration theory has been used for the analysis, helping us to determine how the duality between the structure, the actors and their action effect the interpretation and implementation of the Convention in librarian work. The result of the analysis clearly shows that in comparison to Irish librarians, the Swedish interviewees are more aware and have a better understanding of the Convention and how to put it into practice.

In the late 20th century there has been some changes in the public sector. These changes are described as New Public Management. When ideas from the private market is transferred to the public sector, for example to regard citizens as cus-tomer. Central in this paper is the use of term customer in the Swedish public sec-tor. There are two questions in the paper; which possibilities has a disappointed customer to effect the public sector, and what may happen with democracy, the common good, when the citizen becomes a customer?To answer the questions I study two different cases, Svedala kommun and the tax department, Skatteverket.

This thesis examines the relationship between recognition of prior learning and the aim to increase social and ethnical diversity in higher education. Recognition of prior learning is a result of educational politics aiming to broaden social and ethnical recruitment to higher education. By examining if recognition of prior learning rather can, and shall, be seen as part of what Pierre Bourdieu calls educational social reproduction I try to question whether it fulfils education policy goals or not. My results show that persons responsible for recognition of prior learning rather recognise knowledge from prior educational institutions than knowledge gained outside the educational system. Considering this, recognition of prior learning does not quite live up to the aims.

This thesis explores how public art is received by the general public in Borås, Sweden. As a point of departure it was assumed that a study of the local papers would offer an accurate insight in to the debate of public art. Hence, press clippings were chosen as primary source material together with the works of art. The questions addressed in the study are: what is written in the local daily press about public art? Who writes in or makes statements to the local dailies about public art? Textual analysis is the predominant method employed while hermeneutics is the underlying theory.

The purpose with this thesis is to understand the relationship between a square?s design and its function as a public meeting place, were Sundstorget in the city of Helsingborg is used as a study object. The architect Jan Gehl developed a theory of people?s outdoor activities in his book Livet mellem husene (1996). He divides the activities in three categories; 1) necessary activities, 2) optional activities and 3) social activities, which are differently affected by the place?s design.

The aim of this study is to examine the significance of having a music department at the public library in Enköping, and how the organization of the phonograms is handled. The different areas examined are the reason of the reintroduction of a music department, its budget, its users, the work with selection, the marketing, statistical data concerning loans, the work with classification, indexing, and organization of the phonograms and the future of the music department. The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with staff connected to the music department at the public library in Enköping. For the theoretical frame, Sanna Taljas discourse analysis of music libraries in Finland is used. Talja presents three discourses which all show different views on what kind of material a music library should contain.

The purpose of this study was to gain deeper knowledge about the special needs of guidance significance as an aid to students based on teachers' views and perceptions.Eight teachers from three different municipalities, active in primary school and middle school have been interviewed since all have participated in and have experience with special needs tutoring. Their responses were compiled and answered the three research questions: What experiences have teachers of special education counseling? How do teachers the guidance they received from a special teacher? What effect has the special educational guidance given for the inclusive education? The result shows that the special educational tutorial helps teachers gain a deeper understanding of students in need of special support and guidance to the mission vary in scope and content. The special educational tutorial that is aimed directly at the teachers seem to have a positive effect on inclusion and a critical/dilemma perspective while the consultative guidance primarily directed towards the adaptation of educational material and allows students to walk out of the classroom to receive special education promotes exclusion and ability grouping and a compensatory perspectives. From a sociocultural perspective pointing results of the study that teachers with special education tutoring experience to students in an inclusive education contribute to each other's learning,creating meaningful for everyone involved..

The purpose of this masters´ thesis is to examine the attitudes of public librarians towards easy-to-read literature and see whether a connection between these attitudes and accessibility can be made. The study has been performed with a qualitative approach and consists of four depth interviews with emphasis on how librarians relate to and experience easy-to-read literature and its´ users. As complement to the depth interviews, two micro interviews were made. The study can be seen as a follow up to a survey I made 2005, commissioned by The centre for Easy- to-Read. As analytical tools the cultural sociological theories of Pierre Bourdieu, with his concepts field, cultural capital and habitus, have been used.

The aim of this master thesis is to study what relationship mentally disabled adults have with the public library and what factors affect their meeting with the library. The work of the library is also studied so that the experiences of the mentally disabled can be put in relation to the work performed for the group. The method used was interviews with four mentally disabled adults and one librarian responsible for the social function and availability at the library. As a theoretical framework Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen?s model over the profiles of the library and Michael Buckland?s barriers, which must be overcome to achieve full access to information, were used.

 The purpose of this thesis is to study the education of newly arrived 16-20 year old immigrants and how their education in the towns of Södertälje and Malmö matches up with national inquiry into the subject.The research questions in this thesis are as follow: What type of documents shape the work with newly arrived students? What's the preferred development surrounding the education of the newly arrived students nationally? What does the latest study, which is a proposed reform of the Gymnasium system, say about the education of newly arrived students?How does the local work connect with proposals of national investigations? Do the cities take responsibility for evaluating the education of newly arrived students? From arriving to graduating, what does the road to graduation look like for a newly arrived student? What is the curriculum of a newly arrived student?The methods used here are studies of investigations made primarily by Skolverket (The National Agency for Education) and Myndigheten för skolutveckling (The Agency for Development of Education), studies of local documents such as annual reports of quality and promotional material for programs at local Gymnasiums (High Schools), and interviews with local persons in charge of shaping the work with newly arrived immigrants.This thesis has not used theory as a foundation for structuring the analysis, but postmodern theory and the use of three dimensional power inspired the thesis.The conclusions made focuses on the future of the education for these teenagers at large and makes connections between the national investigations and the local work with immigration education.In order for these teenagers to be allowed to join the Swedish national Gymnasium, they need to learn Swedish, and integration seems to be an important part of learning Swedish quickly. .

The aim of this master?s study is to examine the function of the public library in the local community at present. I have searched for the answers to the following questions: Which position has the public library in the local cultural policy? What characterizes each library and which are the priorities? What is the local profile of the public library? What cooperation partners does the public library have and what do they mean to the library? Does the public library intensify the local community in any way? To answer this, I have made three qualitative case studies. Interviews and collection of documents were carried out in three different communities.

The public spaces of the city from a social sustainability perspective, Jubileumsparken, a public space for the young, aims to see how public spaces can be open and accessible to all young people in the community. New public spaces can be created and formed by urban planning. A public space that is undergoing considerable development is Jubileumsparken, which is situated in Gothenburg. This area constitutes the case study for this thesis. Due to the commercialization in the neo-liberal society of today, there is a risk that economically weak people, such as the young, the unemployed or students, can?t take part of all public spaces.