AbstractThe purpose with the study is to see if it is possible to create well functioning and democratic government and parliament in Kosovo, within a near future thru social capital. I have some research questions that will help me reach my purpose: 1. Are Kosovo?s institutions effective and democratic today?2. Does social capital exist in Kosovo today?3.

The purpose of this research is to examine some historical aspects of Robert Putnam?s thesisabout voluntary associations and social capital. According to a micro perspective theory ofsocial capital the trust and reciprocity required and created by associations is important toexplain the disparity between institutional performance and socioeconomic development ofsocieties. The social patterns governing this therefore set a precedent for the future. Using themutual sickness benefit societies in Sweden as variable for voluntary associations around1884, the essay discusses the possible links between social capital, associations and long termeconomic development.

In this thesis I will examine Willy Brandt's new Ostpolitik with the help of Robert Putnam's analytical framework of two-level games perspective and the theory of social constructivism. Firstly, I will briefly set out the development of Germany's history before it was divided into the Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic in 1949. After that I present West Germany's foreign policy from 1949 to 1969 in order to show how Willy Brandt continued and broke with different foreign policy doctrines. Finally, I want to illustrate his new Ostpolitik and the international and domestic factors, which contributed to its realisation. The main question of this essay is: How significant were the changes of the West German society for the realisation of the new Ostpolitik from 1969 to 1973? One of the most important findings in this essay is that on the one hand that many West Germans had accepted that their country was divided and on the other hand that many groups in the society such as the significant newspaper Die Zeit and intellectuals supported the new Ostpolitik.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the research library of Linnæus University is used by students as a meeting place. Building upon Putnam's theory of bonding and bridging social capital and Audunson's conception of high and low intensive meeting places, it aims to explore the research library's potential for creating social capital and thus strengthening both learning and democracy in a university context. Borrowing part of the survey design from a study conducted as part of the Norwegian PLACE project, this study collects responses from 134 students as to their use of the library as a meeting place. The results show that the Linnæus University library is used for a variety of meetings of both high and low intensity, why it should provide a good setting for the creation of social capital. There seems to be a connection between how often one visits the library, as well as to which department one belongs, and how one uses the library as a meeting place.

Den här uppsatsen problemställning är att tillväxttakten av nya företag i regioner som får högt statligt stöd är jämförbar med regioner som får lågt statligt stöd, samtidigt som den ekonomiska tillväxttakten är lägre i de regioner som erhåller högt statligt stöd än i de regioner som får lite statligt stöd. Istället borde det vara så att i regioner som erhåller högt statligt stöd bildas fler företag än i regioner som får lågt stöd, och att den ekonomiska tillväxten åtminstone ligger i paritet med de regioner som erhåller lågt statligt stöd. Därför är uppsatsens syfte att undersöka om det går att skapa ett gynnsamt företagsklimat med offentliga politiska instrument, när det resultatet av de hittills gjorda statliga satsningarna är så lågt. För att kunna besvara denna frågeställning, är det av vikt att veta vilka faktorer som styr bildningen av nya företag. Skälet är att det kan finnas liknande faktorer som styr både bildandet av företag, och förutsättningarna för att få redan existerande företag att växa.

In this undergraduate thesis you will venture on a journey through the land of democratic values and urban planning. My research question is stated as: whether or not urban planning can show effects on democratic values and whether or not the municipalities in Sweden takes these possible effects into account when planning their city centres. You will in my theory part of this thesis be able to read about different views on urban planning and on democracy. Famous authors like Robert D. Putnam and Richard Florida will be examined as well as other theorists on democracy and urban planning.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva och analysera om Kosovo har de ekonomiska och sociala förutsättningrna för att skapa en grogrund för ett demokratiskt styre. Som grund för uppsatsens teoretiska del ligger demokratiteoretikerna Robert D. Putnam och Robert A. Dahl tankar kring vad som krävs för att kunna skapa en väl fungerande demokrati. Maktstrukturen i Kosovo har varierat över tiden.

The purpose of this study was to investigate youth?s experiences of what meaning the nonprofit youth project Husby Marathon had on their social capital and self-identity. In order to answer the purpose a qualitative methodology was used based on interviews with four of the participant youths. Two teories were used, Social capital by Robert D. Putnam and Selfidentity by Anthony Giddens.

AbstractThe aim off this study is to research social workers´ knowledge, use, risks and possibilities of social media in their work with clients. Because today the society is using social media networks in daily life and social media has become a tool in social work as well. How does social media and social work cooperate? And how does social media effect social workers? For example the website Facebook has grown huge and many people use it everyday. Where is the line between work and private life? To reach this knowledge in this study, qualitative interviews have been done with six social workers that work with children, youths and families.

Many reports in recent years are suggesting that young people should be involved in the development of the digital society. The Swedish government's Digidel campaign launched in 2011 involved adolescents to train elderly people. This thesis builds on the campaign with its major aim being to investigate how young people think about digital society and their own knowledge and skills to promote digital inclusion.The research questions were set to examine how adolescents look upon the competencies needed in today's digital society, what specific skills and capital the adolescents suggest that they have which can promote digital inclusion and how projects in this direction are perceived by the participants. The theoretical framework is based on theories about social capital. It encompasses Bourdieu's theories about symbolic capital and people's habitus, Putnam's theories about social capital and the power of the organization and Gidden's vision about how people are organizing themselves in the modern world.

The aim of this study is to investigate differences that exist in Estonia and Russia with regard to civil society, democracy and corruption and try to find out what can be possible causes to the vast differences in these two countries. Many political scientists claim that civil society plays a key role in democratic transitions. This paper takes its point of departure in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia and Russia became independent. Since then Estonia has had a flourishing economy which attract many foreign investments, with Sweden as the greatest investor. The country has also managed well to adjust quickly from totalitarianism to democracy.

Officially, the EU gender policy since 2000 has been guided by the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming. This strategy aims to promote gender equality and is informed by a feminist ontology which stipulates that women are structurally subordinated.In this essay, I examine whether the European Commission has adequately adhered to this gender policy in its free trade negotiations with the ACP (African, Caribbean, and Pacific) countries as part of the Cotonou Agreement. As a result of my text analysis of documents related to the negotiations, opinion pieces by interested actors and policy papers of the EU, I find that the Commission does not act in accordance to its stated gender policy.To explain this discrepancy between policy intent and actions, I employ postliberal feminist theory and Robert Putnam's Two-Level Game Theory Model. By analyzing statistics and published research, I explore how gender issues are being represented politically on a domestic and international level.My findings show that a key cause of this discrepancy lies in the low levels of female participation in the political institutions of the EU and ACP; a lack of participation that is especially pronounced in the area of international economics. In explaining the constraints on female participation and the prospects of full implementation of the EU's gender policy in the international political economy, I emphasize the role of culturally and historically gendered institutions..

För att utveckla landsbygden behövs fungerande verktyg att arbeta utifrån. Lokalekonomisk analys, LEA, är ett sådant verktyg som funnits i snart femton års tid. En Lokalekonomisk analys ger statistik över exempelvis in- och utflyttning, befolkning och disponibel inkomst. Verktyget beställs och köps av Statistiska centralbyrån. Som med de flesta verksamheter behöver LEA uppdateras för att kunna bemöta de behov som finns och anpassas till den teknik som är tillgänglig i dagsläget.

This study is about trust for public institutions and what the foundation is that builds this confidence. For this study I have used three dependent variables to define different aspects of public institutions. These are trust in the legal system, trust in political parties and state of health services nowadays.  The method that is used in the study is based on a comparative study between two countries, Sweden and Portugal.  The actual result is made up by comparing means and regressions by using 13 independent variables. Many of the independent variables that has been used is deriving from institutional theories of Putnam and Rothstein These theories points out the importance of strong traditions of civic engagement and that the success of the trust of the institutions depends in large part on the horizontal bonds that make up social capital.

I ungdomsåren skapar vi grunden för de värderingar vi bär med oss resten av livet. För att fylla ett samhälle med deltagande, kunniga och tillitskännande medborgare är det med andra ord viktigt att introducera dessa värden redan i ungdomsåren. I Putnams teorier om socialt kapital har ideella organisationer en central roll I skapandet av en fungerande demokrati. Uppsatsen syftar till att svara på huruvida svenska ungdomar engagerade i organisationer visar större tecken på socialt kapital än oengagerade. Socialt kapital definieras som ?inslag i samhällsorganisationen, till exempel förtroende, normer och nätverk, som kan förbättra samhällseffektiviteten genom att underlätta samordnade operationer? (Putnam 1996, s 201).