AbstractIn this thesis we analyze how institutions describe the dichotomy between ?problem? and ?resource? when dealing with young adults. We also analyze the consequences of this dichotomy as it involves the younger generation's participation and group identity in today's society. Dichotomies and New Institutionalism Theory is the base for this case study completed in Malmö, Sweden. We have done eight qualitative interviews with politicians and employees in Malmö municipality and a quantitative content analysis of reference documents from both the Malmö and Swedish governments.

The purpose of this essay is to study causes for the lack of political trust in Europe and especially in Sweden. The essay starts with a presentation of two theories about the reasons for low political trust. Robert D. Putnam among others presents a theory that gives social capital an important role when viewing the low political trust. As Putnam sees it a person that participates in any kind of organization, political or not, develop trust for other human beings that in the long run affects political trust.

This thesis analyses how the European Unions institutions deal with the issue of illegal and harmful content on the Internet in key documents presented during the period 19961999. Particular attention is attached to content where the legal status is determined in relation to the user and to content that is legal, but characterized as harmful and entailing a need for special protective measures. The theoretical and methodological approach draws on discourse theory as formulated by Laclau and Mouffe. The thesis studies how the problem is represented in key documents from the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, with particular regard to the discourse on harmfulness, the child and Europe. The findings are that the overall discourse has shifted focus over time, from an emphasis on the protection of minors toward a more market-oriented discourse stressing the importance of protecting the competitiveness of the European economy.

The purpose of this essay was to examine and compare what attitudes Swedish and Belgian social workers may have towards residential care and foster care for children and young people. To answer the purpose eight qualitative interviews with four Swedish and four Belgian social workers were made. The results were analyzed by theory of organization and professional acting space. The results of the study show that the social workers in both countries preferred foster care, especially for small children, and that the Swedish social workers had a more negative attitude towards residential care than the Belgian social workers. Even though the Belgian social workers preferred foster care, they found themselves forced to choose residential care due to lack of available foster care facilities, something that did not seem to affect the Swedish social workers.

The aim of this investigation is to explain present and historical differences in the Swedish and Danish unemployment rates between 1976 and 2005 with a broad framework, making use of neoclassical and post-keynesian economic theory. The influence of the rate of investment to GDP, and various institutional factors are assessed in quantitative analysis. It is suggested that the crude answer of the question asked in the title, ?What is it that Denmark does that Sweden does not??, is that Denmark invests. This investigation suggests accordingly that the main reason of the relative labour market success during the 90?s in Denmark was a rising, and rapidly recovering, rate of investment to GDP, and perhaps not primarily its flexible labour market institutions.

The study's aim was to increase knowledge about the resistance of the Muslim religious expressions in the public sphere and its emergence on the basis of the case around the opposition to call for prayer. The study was conducted through the use of the qualitative research approach through interviews with informants who have a pronounced aversion regarding the existence of the public call to prayer in Sweden. The study's questions have been answered by an analysis of the empirical material by using different theoretical points that illustrate how Western standards are valued higher than the other, in the various standard systems. The view of the Muslim religious practices depicted by informants through an interpretative framework that is characterized by Islamophobic arguments that are considered to be incompatible with Western culture and the principles of the secular state striving. Such discourses can create an uneven distribution of power between Muslims and non-Muslims on the basis of the West's representations of Orientalism explained based in ethnocentric knowledge.

On the 1st of July 2011 a new education act was carried out, which elucidate that all education in course of a public principal shall be non-denominational. In relation to this a public debate about the educational system's policy toward religious institutions, particularly the earlier nation church Svenska Kyrkan, and religious traditions burst out. This thesis reconstructs the ?Lucia debates? that were kept during the years 2011-2012. The aim of this thesis is to identify the mechanisms of the Lucia debate's issue and progress.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the use of social media by the Swedish Police for democratic purposes. The idea of citizen empowerment is closely related to the development of new communication technologies such as social media. Yet many studies indicate that governmental institutions rarely make use of the assumed potentials of social media.In this study, the democratic potential of social media is derived from Habermas normative concept of deliberative participation. Operational definitions emphasize discursive equality, interactive reciprocity and external impact. The analytical framework is combined with qualitative text analysis to highlight the conditions of interaction between representatives of the Police and citizens.In conclusion: the democratic potential of social media, from a Habermasian point of view, is to a significant extent neglected at the expense of its strategic advantages.

Over 40 miljon people in the world suffer from hiv/aids today. Africa is the continent that is worst affected by hiv/aids but how is the situation in Sweden? Why is it so quiet concerning hiv/aids in Sweden? Our aim with this work was to find out about the hiv/aids situation in Sweden and particulary in Malmö. The result of our research was that hiv/aids have increased since the year 2000 and most of the people had caught the infection in other countries than Sweden. This raised our curiosity concerning how immigrants/refugees are being treated when they arrive in Malmö and what are being done to stop hiv/aids from spreading further.We became very disappointed when we realised how little that is actually being done and how poorly the collaboration between the institutions are working.

In the forest sector, non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners commonly interact with numerous stakeholders (e.g. forest managers, timber buyers, harvesting contractors and advisors) for counseling, planning, selling and hiring. Forest management is therefore built and influenced by the relationships between NIPF owners and other stakeholders. In the local context of a Southern Sweden, the Swedish Forest Agency (SFA) and the Southern Forest Owners Association (SÖDRA) are very influential stakeholders in small-scale forest management. Based on qualitative interviews and by means of grounded theory, an analysis of the relationships between NIPF owners and the mentioned organizations was carried out in order to understand the social context at the genesis of forest management decisions.

Since the introduction of the European citizenship in the Maastricht treaty, social rights havetaken a back seat to the economic and political elements. Nevertheless, over the past yearssocial issues have been increasingly included on the agenda following the universalrecognition of challenges resulting from further economic integration and demographicchange. The extensive research on European social policy so far tend to focus on initiativesput forward by the European Commission, and offers little to explain the multitude of lines ofreasoning on how far EU social policy should be taken or why it still remains one of the leastdeveloped policy areas. By examining plenary debates in the European Parliament concerningfamily policy, this Bachelor thesis aims to describe the complex of problems connected to afurther development of the social dimension of the European citizenship.The analysis finds that the most imminent problems impeding an expansion of the EU familypolicy lie not only in the many clashes of opinions between advocates of the various existingwelfare models, but also in the conflicts of interests and the different levels of ambitionbetween EU institutions - most notably the Commission and the European Parliament..

The purpose of this study is to discuss the use of social media by the Swedish Police for democratic purposes. The idea of citizen empowerment is closely related to the development of new communication technologies such as social media. Yet many studies indicate that governmental institutions rarely make use of the assumed potentials of social media.In this study, the democratic potential of social media is derived from Habermas normative concept of deliberative participation. Operational definitions emphasize discursive equality, interactive reciprocity and external impact. The analytical framework is combined with qualitative text analysis to highlight the conditions of interaction between representatives of the Police and citizens.In conclusion: the democratic potential of social media, from a Habermasian point of view, is to a significant extent neglected at the expense of its strategic advantages.

AbstractThe aim of this study was to highlight who represents elderly immigrants and apply the theory of social exclusion. We chose channels for representation that we found important in relation to this group. The first part is a study of available litterature of the subject. We found three main arenas: participation in elections, participation in associations and clubs and representation in political institutions. The findings showed a democratic deficit among elderly immigrants, which gave an indication of social exclusion from the political arena and from participation in associations.For the second part we decided to concentrate on the arena of participation in associations and clubs that represent the elderly and/or immigrants.

The aim of this study is to combine queer theories with quantitative methods. In social sciences, queer theories are being widely and increasingly used. Quantitative method is also widely used, and as a traditional method it can be regarded as a cornerstone in social sciences, sociology in particular. However, the two perspectives, queer theories and quantitative method, seem at a first glance to be very different in their understanding of social phenomena. Queer theories have, with some exceptions, mainly focused on qualitative research concerning such phenomena as sexuality, while the field of science is quite diverse.

Social policy has now received an increased attention in the European Union. The European welfare states experience a high level of unemployment, which the EU now tries to handle through the European Employment Strategy (EES). The core of this essay is whether the welfare institutions of the European member states are integrating through an institutionalization process or not. Within the EU four different types of welfare models can be identified: the Scandinavian, the Continental, the Southern and the Anglo-Saxon. The welfare models differ in the institutional settings e.g.