The aim of this study was to reach a deeper understanding of the process that occurs within the social services after receiving a notification according to Chapter 14, section 1, The Social Services Act. More specifically the focus of this study was to illustrate how social secretaries reason about children?s participation in the process, as well as to examine whether the legislative change, Chapter 11, section 1 a, The Social Services Act, has affected the process in any way. The study?s results reflect interviews with five social secretaries who are active in four different municipalities in southern Sweden.

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the structured and evidence-based assessment tool/method The Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI) trough a social psychology perspective of conversation. The aim was especially to seek an understanding of the method considering aspects of children?s participation. The research question was: how do the method users apprehend the advantages and the limitations of the BCFPI method considering aspects of children?s participation.

This is a qualitative study with the aim of getting better knowledge and understanding of how people with mental illness experience having access to a public communication channel. The study builds upon qualitative interviews with four participants of a radio project called Radio Totalnormal (RTN). RTN is a community radio station where people with mental illness do radio. The study focuses on how the respondents describe the participation in the project and how it has affected their self-image. The analysis uses the concept of empowerment and four social psychological concepts: social responsivity, asocial non-responsivity, abstract sociability and concrete sociability.

According to the theory of elitist democracy civic political participation should be reduced to participation in the democratic elections. This essay examines whether a high rate of institutionalized political participation beyond the elections leads to: (a) that those who are included gets a more favourable treatment at the expense of the common interest, in other words that their self interest threatens the political equality, (b) reduced freedom of action for the politicians and the headmasters, (c) the emergence of vague conditions of responsibility. These hypotheses are examined in an empirical study of user-boards at four schools on three locations in southern Sweden. In these user-boards the parents are in majority and have the right of decision, which has been delegated to them from the local government and the headmaster. The main conclusion is that, based on this empirical investigation, there is no support in any of the hypotheses.

This study has researched different motivations for user participation in brand related activities on social media. The study used three types of participation to evaluate motivations for user participation. These types were the following: consuming content, contributing to existing content and creating new content. An online questionnaire was distributed on brand Facebook pages and was used as a foundation for two focus group interviews that were then held. The goal of the study was to see what motivates user participation, in order to aid companies and organizations in understanding users.

The purpose of this study was to examine pedagogues? experience working with shy children and their opportunities for participation in preschool. An increasing number of children are registered in preschools today; this leading to larger groups of children and the chance for the individual child to practice its rights of having its voice heard are therefore becoming more difficult.The literature review will start with what the UNCRC and the pre-school curriculum, Lpfö 98, say about children?s participation and their right to have their voices heard. After that, shortly about the shy child, and then moving on to what is important in the work with children?s participation.

Today adult patients' relatives are seen as a resource in psychiatric care but few researchers have examined the lived experience of relatives' participation in psychiatric care. The aim of this study was to illuminate how mental health staff and relatives of adult patients experienced the relatives' participation in psychiatric care on hospital ward.The study was guided by a phenomenological approach and a lifeworld perspective. Data were collected through in-deep interviews with ten adult patients' relatives and three group-interviews with ten mental health carers from two hospitals in Sweden.The essence of the lived experience of relatives' participation in psychiatric care in hospital ward is described in the constituents: invitation to participate in psychiatric care; meet the staffs' care; to participate in own or others terms; bring the common everyday world with you; feel burden; participation a trip in time and space. The findings of the study show that the relation between the staff and the relatives are important for the relatives' participation in psychiatric care. The relatives' participation can alter from no participation to a meaningsful participation, from suffering to well-being.This study can help medical staff to understand relatives and their participation in a new way..

Clients with dual diagnosis have difficulties to recover and have a tendancy to fall between two stools. Among other things this is due to the fact that caregivers have different approaches, values and focus. The purpose of this study is to compare how clients, therapists and socialworkers look upon the aim of the treatment, its form, residential care, the conception of goalfulfillment and participation. In our study we have applied the theories of Aaron Antonovsky, Howard Becker and Erving Goffman. The paper consists mainly of qualitative interviews with clients, therapists and socialworkers.

Today patients are more aware of their rights regarding their own care. They are more informed, more engaged and have more and individual requirements, which leads to increased demands for information and participation increases. The Health Act sets out the patients´ right to participation. Participation increases patient satisfaction with care, promotes healing and increases adherence to health care advise. The patient doesn´t always experience participation in their own care to the extent they wish, which suggests that nurse?s does not always succeed in getting the patient involved.

In 1998 the Swedish Socialist Government initiated a project in order to promote economic growth and to end the discriminating social and ethnic segregation in the greater city regions of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. One of the goals of the project was and still is to promote political participation in 24 of the poorest areas of the three cities. In a quantitative analysis I evaluate whether or not the project so far has been successful in promoting a specific part of political participation, i.e. electoral participation in communal elections. The results of the 24 poor city areas are compared with a group of 14 likewise poor city areas of major swedish cities.According to my hypothesis, general improvements of the socio-economic status of poor city areas ought to generate positive effects on electoral participation in communal elections.

The Swedish school law says that students who need special education should have all the support they need to reach the qualification that is set up. The arrangements have to be written down in an Individual education plan (IEP). Before the IEP is set up there has to be an investigation about what kind of support and measures the student needs to reach the qualification that is set up. The aim of this study is to examine student?s participation in school and in the progress with their own IEP.I have accomplished a qualitative study by interviewing eight students during the letter part in the nine-year school.

The means to political participation at the local level in Sweden are changing and this change is analyzed through a case study. The first aim is to explore the forms of public political participation in Swedish municipal Älvkarleby, namely public question time in local government, citizen motions and open meetings. A part of this is also to analyze he every day contact between citizens and representatives. The second aim concerns the reasons why politicians decide to support these means to participationThe empirical material consists mainly of semi structured interviews with local politicians, civil servants, participating citizens and local press. Official documents such as public minutes are also used in the process of creating an image of local participation.Local political participation is found to be limited but yet having the potential to strengthen democracy, provided that public decision-makers are open to a dialogue with the participants.Using Kjell Arne Røvik's theories of organisational change, the changes in local democracy can be explained as being partly rational, partly symbolic and partly identity shaping political decisions..

The purpose of this study was to explore young people's participation and experience of participation in child protection investigations. The study was conducted using qualitative methodology and is based on interviews with four adolescents aged 13-19 years old who have experience of child protection investigations. Our chosen method has made it possible for us get a deeper understanding of young people's own experiences of participation. In order to analyze the material we have used Shiers (2001) model of children's participation, symbolic interactionism, and some concepts relating to shame and pride.The results show that all adolescents have had the opportunity to be heard during the investigations, but it is different to what degree they feel that someone has listened to them.Two of the young people have been involved in their investigation, been listened to and have had impact on the decisions taken. The results indicate that it does not seem to be the external factors, such as how many meetings they have had, or what quality it was on the information, that matters if the social worker did not manage to convey to the young people that what they told was of any importance.

This thesis focuses on the problems involving immigrants and their voting behaviour in Sweden. We presuppose that immigrants vote in a far less extent than Swedish citizen according to general statistics. We try to explain and give solutions to this problem. To our help we use both integration theory focusing on multiculturalism and electoral participation theories.Starting off in these two theories, we have further analyzed a number of policies issued to solve the participation dilemma. The policies were issued in order to elevate the socio-economic standards, inform citizens and close the distance between voters and politicians.Our results show that what work best is long term ventures aiming at integrating immigrants to the Swedish society.

The purpose of this study is to highlight how preschool teachers reason about their own beliefs about their active participation in the play. The study is a qualitative research method where interviews have been used to talk with four preschool teachers to obtain their perceptions of their participation in the play. I have approached my questions through previous research and theses which turns to play and preschool teachers' involvement. The result of my study shows that preschool teachers see differently on their active participation, but they think that active participation is essential for the development of the play and that by being involved in the play in different ways will create interaction and interactivity. The result also shows that preschool teachers find great joy in participating in the play, and also that many relationships will be established by participation in the play..