This study is about youths, democracy and school. It seeks to describe and problemize the school's role in the democratic society. Firstly, using Social Representations Theory, 44 upper secondary shool pupils? representations, or conceptions, of democracy are described and discussed. These representations are then analyzed in relation to the school's role in the democratic society, as it is described by different researchers.The results show that many of the youths have a rather simplistic and abstract view of democracy, describing it only in terms of general principles and the main features of the representative democracy, such as voting in national elections.

By the same time as the recent enlargement of the European Union, where Poland became a member, it was officially stated that the gender mainstreaming-policy was to be integrated into every area of EU. NGO:s working as entrepreneurs for the gender mainstreaming norm in Poland supported the accession largely because they believed it would help spreading the norm also on a national level. Qualitatively analyzing the Polish case and the difficulties gender mainstreaming as a norm candidate meets with I contrast expectations with what could actually be EU:s role in this matter.Arguing that EU is a context with room for spreading norms by both bargaining and socialization, this paper takes a social constructivist approach. Gender mainstreaming as a norm is difficult for EU to apply on their members, and thus was not widely discussed during accession negotiations. In the same time.

This paper examines whether membership in the European Union has contributed to democratic stability and integration in an ethnic diverse society. By studying the Latvian multicultural society, before and after membership in the EU, the author is looking for evidence of enhanced ethnic stability in the country brought through European integration. The author will analyze what the consequences have been, by adopting European regional policy, for a country that yet has to create a unified national identity. By analyzing different areas of the Latvian society, the author has concluded that the EU has played a small but yet not insignificant role for the Latvian domestic integration process..

The aim of this study about post-conflict economic, social and political reintegration of ex-combatants is to understand how such a process should be prepared for in order to help as many traumatized and sometimes destructive or disabled soldiers as possible to re-establish themselves as functioning civilians as well as preparing communities for their return. In order to do this I have focused on Africa and in particular the DDR-process of post war Sierra Leone. My study concludes that the relation between ex-combatants and civilians and the prospect of a positive future are crucial to a successful reintegration process..

The purpose of this essay was a follow-up of four female drug abusers with several mental problems ten years after my initial meeting with them at Korsaröds Behandlingshem. Using a qualitative method and interviews with the women, knowledge was obtained regarding their current vital conditions and their subjective experiences of the treatment at Korsaröd. Their perspective on the ethical as well as their desired relationship with staff within social services was also accounted for. When contacted the women lived a content and drug free life in their own flats. The women stayed at Korsaröd approximately five years, and they said that without the treatment they would not be alive today.

The purpose of this work is to map what inspiration means to people who work with music, how it feels when you are inspirated compared to how it feels when you`re not. How does inspiration affect us? Are we depending on it? What do you do when you lack inspiration? Is it possible to ?inspire? one self? My method has been to interview eight persons, selected by me, who all work with music. I have used literature, for instance about our intelligence, and also different theories on the subject of inspiration. The results of the interviews show that our experiences of inspiration are individual.

Jag följer bl a en debatt om bloggfenomenet och analyserar den utifrån upplösningen privat/offentligt. Jag granskar en mängd artiklar om bloggar för att se om man kan hitta generella tendenser i hur de omnämns. Lite jämförande textanalys av ledartexter och bloggtexter får jag också plats med..

There is an ongoing evolution in scholarly communication. The traditional way of communicating scholarly results through scientific journals is beginning to be replaced by other means of dissemination. One new channel for scholars to communicate their results is digital publication in so-called open archives. An open archive is a kind of full text database, where a scholar may archive/publish his or her articles, as a complement or a substitute to publishing in scientific journals. There are discipline-oriented archives and institutional archives.

Occasionally the views of medicine and Social Sciences can collide. Doctors typically relate to a explanatory biological model, and social workers and psychologists seek social and historical reasons for neuropsychological diagnoses.A diagnosis is an obligation for medical doctors as well as other professionals within Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and a neuropsychological diagnosis is a prerequisite for treatment and more often than not for other forms of support from society.The aim of this study is to examine the function of a neuropsychological diagnosis with regards to the individual patient, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and society. A second aim was to examine how psychologists and social workers trained in the Social Sciences view neuropsychological diagnoses.Qualitative interview research methods have been used. Most of the interviews were recorded and transcribed in their entirety. The data has been organised into appropriate categories and the most relevant quotes have been selected.

This thesis is concerned with political mobilization and the construction of a collective andsocial identity. The main purpose of the study is theoretical which emphasize their interaction.In order to do this I study the two phenomenons by seeing them as cases of each other. Wecannot understand one of the two phenomenons without taking into account the other as well.In addition, the secondary aim of my thesis is empirical. I use the political transformationduring the 70th and 80th on the eastern seaboard of Nicaragua to relate my theoretical analysisof political mobilization and the construction of identities. Nicaragua will provide mytheoretical analysis with new insights.

This thesis is seeking to explain why policy change come about. This is done by applying a part of Karin Lindgrens dissertation Vad styr ledaren?. The research evolves around the term pressure and the hypothesis are that policy change come about when there is middle range pressure on the decision-maker. Low and high pressure results in no or small policy change.The thesis is done as a case study where the economic crisis in Thailand 1996-1999 makes my case.

In the last couple of years changes in the legal systems treatment of young offenders has given the social worker more legal responsibility. In view of this, our purpose with this study was to examine how social workers and prosecutors apprehend the role of the social worker during the legal process. The study was delimited to look into the handling of young offenders between the ages of 15 and 18 years old. The questions we intended to look at were: How do the social workers reason when trying to see the need of a child within a legal context; Do prosecutors and social workers experience that they have different approaches when looking at young offenders, as a consequence of their different professions; What is the opinion among social workers considering the duty of the social services to administrate community service for young offenders; How do the social workers argue when determining whether or not a young offender has a "special need for care". These questions were answered through empirical studies where six social workers and two prosecutors were interviewed.

Den här uppsatsen syftar till att ta reda på om det finns något samband mellan social kompetens och stress. I uppsatsen presenteras vad social kompetens är och vad stress är. Sambandet har undersökts med hjälp av enkät med 16 slutna frågor, 8 som handlar om social kompetens och 8 som handlar om stress och en öppen fråga på slutet. Urvalet, som var ett bekvämlighetsurval, var 60 anställda på olika arbetsplatser i Karlskrona, av dem erhölls 52 svar. Med hjälp av en Pearsonkorrelation och en fenomenologisk analys visade det sig att det finns ett samband mellan social kompetens och stress.

The aim of this thesis is to study why Swedish authorities do organizational changes. Two organizations are analyzed; The Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) and the National Statistics Office of Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån). A qualitative method, consisting mainly of interviews with key officials, is employed to study two aspects of organizational change: first, the main reasons for changing the organization and, second, how the process that preceded the actual change was carried out. Furthermore, two different theoretical perspectives are used to construct a basis for the analysis. One of the perspectives assumes a social constructivist approach, while the other is rationalistic inspired.

Our curiosity was awakened when we became aware that many social workers use "mindfulness" methods in their profession. In this study, we used qualitative methodology in our desire to examine and understand why the mindfulness approach, with its roots in eastern philosophy, is becoming established in society at large and, simultaneously, being used in the social work field. We were interested in when and why social workers choose to use mindfulness with their clients. Our prior research has revolved around development and use of methods in social work, and on the human reaction to stress.We conducted seven semi-structured interviews, which incorporated four comprehensive questions:1. Why has the mindfulness method become established in the social work field and in the culture in general?2.