Political disenchantment and detachment is proven to be growing in well established democracies. This development brings along concerning behavior regarding general political participation. Fewer citizens participate in elections, parties are losing members, and the trust in politicians is steadily decreasing. IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance) has been registering voter turnout worldwide for the last 60 years and their publications show a decline in voter participation since the 1980s.During the same period of time another development has caught attention, namely the fast progress of the medium Internet. The new generation of Internet functions is called Web 2.0 and allows users not only to create content, but also to interact with each other.This dissertation aims to explore the possibilities emerging when integrating Web 2.0 in political processes.

This study focuses on the use of animals in social work from the perspective of social workers. The purpose of this study is to examine social workers? experiences of animal assisted social work and how social workers view the integration of animals in various fields of social work. The research is based on a qualitative method and four semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers. The theories incorporated in the study are Attachment Theory and Sense of Coherence (SOC).The following results are presented: Social workers are considered to have a more comprehensive understanding of clients compared to their associates who do not hold a degree in Social Work.

Background: In Sweden it is a legal right for patients to have the possibility to participate in their own care. Several studies highlight the importance of a good relationship, good communication and good cooperation in order to increase a sense of security and thus the possibility of participation. One way to increase patients' ability to influence and participate can be to adapt person-centered care. This moves the focus from the patient's illness to the patient and his/her resources. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe patients' experiences of the possibility to actively participate in decisions regarding its care and treatment at surgical wards.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the institutional design of Participatory Budgeting (PB) in Sweden and how the design may contribute to realize central democratic goods. The study records the different PB experiences in Sweden and focuses on one particular case, which is the only case that successfully qualifies as a genuine PB-process according to international standards and definitions. To examine this, the following questions are asked: which municipalities in Sweden have implemented Participatory Budgeting? How can the institutional design of Participatory Budgeting be described and to what extent does it enable the realization of central democratic goods? To what extent does the institutional design enable the realization of the democratic goods inclusion, popular control, considered judgment and transparency? To what extent does the institutional design enable the realization of the institutional goods of efficiency and transferability?The study is based on an institutional theory of democracy. The method used is a mixed method ideal type analysis that combines document analysis, surveys and interviews.

This thesis examines the democracy theories that can be found in the internet websites of Region Skåne and Stockholm county council. Within the framework of deliberative democracy, participatory democracy and electoral democracy, the author tries to distinguish democratic aspects by empirically studying these websites and their communicative effect on the internet users.This research shows that Region Skåne is slightly better in implementing democratic aspects at their home page, which is probably due to an active work with these issues carried out by the politicians and the report on the democratic development from 2004. However, a great deal of work regarding democracy and the possibility of civic participation in the decision- making process is still to be done.The problems and challenges in using internet as a democratic tool shows that citizens run a risk of being neglected, due to their uneven participation in using internet in daily life. The conclusion of this thesis is that the politicians have to make an active choice in deciding to what extent the internet is allowed to be used when it comes to developing democracy. This work has to be done in cooperation with political scientists and IT experts, in order to assure a correct democratic model..

The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has since the start of the Syrian uprising in March 2011 moved from a low-key position in exile to become one of the main actors in the political opposition. There appears to be a consensus among researchers today on the democratic commitment of the Syrian Brotherhood. However, ambiguity remains regarding its commitment towards gender equality, women?s rights and participation. This essay focuses on the gender discourse of the Syrian Brotherhood?s leadership, according to its policy-documents, from 2004 ? 2013.

The purpose of this study is to determine if and how municipal consultative entities through influence may affect the legitimacy of the Swedish democratic model. The study aims to do this through analysing the opportunities for influence present with the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality, to determine how the councils may affect political participation and the role of elected representatives. To do so, the study asks the following primary research question:"What requisites for influence are present for participants of municipal consultative entities, as found for the representatives of the youth and the retired within the framework of their participation in the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality?"The study answers this research question by dividing it into one question of policy and one question of democratic perspective, and investigating these matters through nine snowballing interviews with the decision makers, organisational actors and participants of the councils. The information from the interviews is then analysed per council through a framework of democracy theory, policy process theory and organisation theory.

The project contains a force analysis of the vertical axis wind turbine Lucia's supporting arms and a measuring device to experimentally measure the forces is made. The forces between the supporting arms and the tower are calculated theoretically and then simulated by a computere. A measuring devise is then designed to measure the forces experimentally. The forces acting on the attachment between the supporting arms and the tower is primarily the centripetal force, gravitational force and the aerodynamic forces on the rotor wings. The maximum forces were theoretically calculated and is 13.38 kN along the x-axis, -0.25 kN along the y-axis and then 0.5 kN along the z-axis.

The purpose of this essay is to explore how social media affect the political orientation and commitment of youths. Three scientific questions highlight the purpose from different angles. The didactic perspective is discussed in the initial and closing discussion, and is analyzed in the corresponding chapter. Two methods are involved in the study; one survey and one interview with a focus group. The survey had a total of 98 respondents from four different classes, all in the first grade of upper secondary school.

This study focuses on the use of animals in social work from the perspective of social workers. The purpose of this study is to examine social workers? experiences of animal assisted social work and how social workers view the integration of animals in various fields of social work. The research is based on a qualitative method and four semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers. The theories incorporated in the study are Attachment Theory and Sense of Coherence (SOC).The following results are presented: Social workers are considered to have a more comprehensive understanding of clients compared to their associates who do not hold a degree in Social Work.

The aim of the study is to see how teachers and students work in a multicultural school according to a method which teaches students to write before reading with the aid of computers. A further aim to investigate is how pupils with Swedish as a second language develop their linguistic skills using the method.To participate in modern society requires a lot from the individual. To function in a society that is constantly changing requires a good knowledge of the use of language in order to participate as a democratic citizen. It is therefore important that all students develop good linguistic knowledge regardless of their first language.The study is based on interviews with four teachers, operating in a multicultural school. Besides the interviews observations were made of the teachers and students in their daily work with computers.The results of the study showed that the method is language stimulating and develops the second language of the learners.

Aim and question at issue: The aim of this study is to compare the motivation to participate in the course Idrott och hälsa A between students studying vocational and further education preparatory programs at upper secondary school.What level of motivation do the students of the two programs have towards participation in the course Idrott och hälsa A.What kind of motivational factors are important for students in the two programs concerning participation in the course Idrott och hälsa A According to the students of the two programs, what type of motivational factors would increase the motivation to participate in the course Idrott och hälsa A. Method: A quantitative study has been carried out using a questionnaire. Thirteen randomly chosen upper secondary school classes were included in the county of Stockholm, 7 of them in the vocational program and 6 of them in the further education preparatory program. The questionnaire was filled out by 278 students, 120 in the vocational program and 158 in the higher education preparatory program. The response frequency for the study was 92 %.Results: The results of this study show that the majority (77%) of all students in the population are highly motivated to participate in the course Idrott och hälsa A.

The advancements in digital technology and its availability contribute to the transfer of companycentricproduct development and value creation to networks or communities. It also changes the basisfor creation of customer relationships as described in previous research on Customer relationshipmanagement (CRM). The purpose of this case study was to gain an understanding of how companieslike our case study object Memoto who developed a physical product which gets added-value fromdigital product-related services looks upon product-centered communities as a way of buildingcustomer relationships. How Memoto looks upon incentives for participation in product-centeredcommunities was also examined.Our research indicated that firms in the start-up phase (which Memoto was when this study wasconducted) initially want to have more control over the process of innovation and hence have directcontact with end-customers. The reason for this is because they see a need to define the basis forfurther innovation work.

Swedish healthcare are in need of radical changes to meet the requirements from both the government and the patients to create organisational working methods that better support the patients through their healthcare processes. Digitalization of patient data has been going on for decades in order to increase participation and understanding among patients in their care processes. However, availability of information does not ensure understanding. Therefore, resources should be devoted to create conditions to enable participation. The purpose of this study is to explore how visualization of patient data in the patient?s journal can affect the consultation in the encounter between the doctor and the patient.

In 1997, the Swedish parliament adopted a decision on Vision Zero (nollvision) in the road and transport system. Vision Zero means that no one should be killed or seriously injured in traffic accidents in the road transport system (Prop. 2003/04: 160). For the Transport Administration in Sweden (Trafikverket), this means increased demands on security and signage at road work sites around the country. This in turn means increased demands on the contractors that carry out road work for the Transport Administration.