There are lots of theories about participatory democracy, but rather few examples of how to create it in practice. In the 1930´s, scientists at the Chicago School, implemented some projects within the Chicago Area Project, with the aim to decrease the youth delinquency in the socio disadvantaged areas surrounding Chicago. In this thesis, I assess wether these projects, and in particular the one at the Russell Square Area, have some common features with the thoughts of two of the most famous participatory democrats, Carole Pateman and Benjamin Barber. My question is if the Chicago Area Project could be seen as an experiment in participatory democracy. I find that participatory democrats could benefit from the experiences of the Chicago Area Project.

Are agency and responsibility solely ascribable to humans? The advent of artificial intelligence (AI), including the development of so-called ?affective computing,? appears to be chipping away at the traditional building blocks of moral agency and responsibility. Spurred by the realization that fully autonomous, self-aware, even rational and emotionally-intelligent computer systems may emerge in the future, professionals in engineering and computer science have historically been the most vocal to warn of the ways in which such systems may alter our understanding of computer ethics. Despite the increasing attention of many philosophers and ethicists to the development of AI, there continues to exist a fair amount of conceptual muddiness on the conditions for assigning agency and responsibility to such systems, from both an ethical and a legal perspective. Moral and legal philosophies may overlap to a high degree, but are neither interchangeable nor identical.

The aim of the study was to install a biogas system consisting of three tubular polyethylene biogas digesters at a rural household in Malawi and to evaluate the constructed biogas system with regards to relevant system parameters. The purpose was to evaluate if the technology is a possible solution to reduce deforestation and support Malawi in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The study was carried out in the southern part of Malawi in cooperation with the University of Malawi. Locally available materials were used to construct and install the system. Three different feed materials, cow, goat and a mix of cow and goat manure, were used in order to determine which one was best suited to utilise as a digester substrate. After the installation, measurements of temperature, pH, biogas production, biogas composition and system functionality were made. The results of the study show that a biogas system with tubular polyethylene biogas digesters can be successfully installed at a rural household and that the most suitable feed material is a mix of cow and goat manure.

Detta projekt gick ut på att under åtta veckor försöka utveckla en interaktiv tavla, där en karaktär i tavlan med hjälp av en monterad web- kamera skulle kunna interagera med tavlans åskådare. Rapporten handlar om hur man kan gå till väga för att skapa miljön till en sådan tavla, anpassad för realtidsspelgrafik.

This report is an attempt to clarify how religious and non-religious views-of-life [livsåskådningar] are created through the collaboration and opposition of religious and scientific elements/ideas. This with the hope of reaching a fruitful result related to the solution of world-view related conflicts, such as the ones existing between science and religion, on an individual and societal level.This is accomplished with the help of two assertions: (1) Mankind has a need to explain its existence and surroundings. (2) Religion and science has their origins in the same seed and aim to serve the same purpose, or function. Together these two assertions lay the theoretical foundations of this report which implies that all humans have an innate need of sustaining a stable world-view.The result of this report is that a final solution to world-view related conflicts are beyond reach as our mental and physical nature limits us. However there are strategies for minimizing world-view related conflicts effect on society..

The Swedish Library Classification System, known as the SAB-system, can be viewed as a product of the cultural and social norms and values in Sweden during the time in which it was created and subsequently reviewed. The main purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine the archaeology section J in the SAB-system, in order to observe if values and norms within this discipline had any impact on the Swedish Library classification system. Our intention is therefore to verify any correspondence between the choice of topics and hierarchical structure of that section, and the values and norms that ruled the Swedish society during the 20th century at large but with particular emphasis to the academic discipline of Archaeology. At the present, Archaeology is often disputed as a value-free interpretive science.

The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of the phenomenon that there are so many young people placed in institutions in Sweden despite the valuable knowledge regarding the problems and risks of doing so. The questions that follow in the essay were what guided the social workers to choose institutional placement for youngsters. It went on to also ask if this knowledge could contribute to an increased understanding of why there were so many young people placed in institutions despite the criticism from scientists. To accomplish the goal of the essay, former science in the subject was reported and six social workers within social services were interviewed. The material of the interviews was analyzed with help from the theory of human service organizations, street-level bureaucrats work situation and the new institutionalism.The result of the investigation showed that the social workers choices to place young people in institutions is guided by specific work and organizational factors connected with a belief in the helping function of the surroundings.

AbstractMotor sports have been around as long as motor vehicles have been. Sports are often seen as costly polluter but in the same time the motor sports have encourages a large part of development, both for vehicles and other industries. Inventions like rear mirror and ABS brakes come from motor sports. One way to once again drive development forward while making motor sports carbon-neutral is to run the race cars on hydrogen. In this thesis, the goal is to convert a spark ignition engine for hydrogen operation.

Lansen Technology develops and sells alarm systems. The communication between the system devices are wireless. The radio protocol used by the system is developed by Lansen with the purpose to be energy efficient. The alarm systems target groups are individuals, businesses and government agencies. The current system is installed, configured and controlled from a control panel for all audiences.

This study is about how students 'performance in school is influenced by parents' educational background. The study has been performed by cooperation with two schools in Stockholm. One class in each school has participated and the students have amongst other questions answered regarding their grades in natural science subjects. To examine whether parents 'educational background affect students' performance, a quantitative survey in the form of poll has been conducted. Even a literature review was conducted in this area to get a clearer picture of how parents' educational background affects the performance of students.This study shows that students who have academic parents perform better than students who have not got academically educated parents.

ABSTRACTBachelor essay in political science by Hanna Richter, spring 2006Supervisor: Mats LindbergTitle: A study of the phenomenon of micronationsThe purpose of this essay is to study the phenomenon of ?micronations?, to describe it to the reader and to discuss why this phenomenon is interesting to study in the field of political science. The questions this essay seeks to answer are:- What are micronations, and which variations are to be found within the phenomenon?- Why are micronations interesting to study in the field of political science?Bary Buzans theory of the nature of the state works as a frame of reference to this investigation of micro ?state-like? units. The phenomenon of micronations has not been investigated by the social sciences in any extent worth mentioning yet.

Växjö is a medium-sized town situated in the centre of the county Småland in Sweden with a good infrastructure and logistics and with a university that encourages cooperation with private and public companies. It is in this town that our case study of Småland Airport will take place. The aim of this study is to examine in which way the program of Library and Information Science at the Linnaeus University in Växjö offers knowledge that can be relevant for the staff at the airport in Växjö - Småland Airport. Using Wilsons model as our theoretical framework we examine how these two align with each other and by using a matrix that we ourselves elaborated in our analysis, we provide a clear picture of how the comparability two places comparability is represented. The result shows that there are compatible aspects to the Småland Aiports needs and what the program of Library and Information Science has to offer.

This report describes a project, which was carried out as a final thesis covering 30 ECTS during the final semester of the Master of Science programme Industrial Design. The assignment was issued by Fagerhults Belysning AB in Habo. The assignment was to design a family of products in which LED was to be used as a source of light. The main focus in the initial part of the project was to find a way to design the inside of armature which was suitable for LED technology. An armature, already in the range of products at Fagerhult, with the desired qualities that was to be strived after was the Zintra. The lighting source of the Zintra is a compact fluorescent lamp.

This study was performed in collaboration with Moelven Skog AB, Örebro district. The purpose of the study was to review existing literature in order to describe the current status of harvester based measurement technology as the way to provide information for calculating payment to the forest owners. In addition to this, a short survey was conducted to find out how a switch to harvester based measurement would affect the administrative workload on timber purchasers working for the district. The literature study shows that the harvester measurement technology is ready to use if it is combined with well-established routines for control of the harvesters, methods for automatic quality indexing of the timber and ways of creating pricelists specially adapted for harvester measurement. Pricing each stem seems to be the most promising method. Stem pricing has several benefits.

This report is focusing on problems with introducing standard enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) in businesses. A study has been carried out on a service and support department at a Swedish heat metering company, SVM North Node. The study aims to help the company become a better customer in choice and customization of a new ERP system. We make a description of the department studied and the work carried out there, on the basis of learning, knowledge and cooperation. As a final point we present some ideas on how computer systems could support their work, hoping that this will result in them making adequate demands on a new ERP system.