The aim of this study is to examine how and in what way users of the public participate and affect the archival information that is to be preserved for the future through the examination of three archival projects involving public participation. The study seeks to examine if participation of the public could lead to increased democracy and diversity of information in the archives. The study will be performed through the examination of three participatory archives all tied to traditional archival institutions.The study is based on the theoretical framework of Benn and Gaus and their notions of public and private which they discuss using the key words access, agency and interest. The study also takes into consideration Laura Millar?s theories of social memory as a means for the public good.

This study aims to explore how a gardening project with elderly living in Djuröhemmet, a nursing home outside Stockholm, affected them regarding psychological well-being and their experience of participation during the planning and construction of the memory garden. The gardening project is new in its kind by allowing the residents to influence the design of the garden by sharing the project leader their gardening memories from previous parts of their life and by wishing for specific plants and items.  The method being used was qualitative interviews where we interviewed seven people living in Djuröhemmet who participated in all or parts of the project. The theoretical framework is Molins (2004) definition of participation, but also theories of meaningfulness, social needs and gerotranscendence were applied. The results indicate that the participants did not realize that their involvement during the planning helped developed the garden.

The aim of this study has been to investigate the significance of the newly started project Vimmerbymodellen for unaccompanied young refugees. This regarding to how the unaccompanied young refugees are participating in creating networks and meeting points in the local community. Vimmerbymodellen is described as an integration project where the nonprofit sector collaborates with the municipality. The empirical material has been collected through semi-structured qualitative interviews where five unaccompanied young refugees and four involved adults have been interviewed. The empirical material from these interviews has thereafter been analyzed through the concept of social capital, identity and empowerment.The main result of this study shows that participation in the project is expected to contribute to the creation of networks and meeting points which has significance for unaccompanied young refugees.

The aim of this study is to through six interviews, with six experienced, social workers?, in three cities, understand how the child?s position in the Swedish child protective services? enquiries has change, and the factors behind it. The aim is also to compare if the social workers? view of the child?s position in the enquire has change accordingly to Socialstyrelsens intentions of BBIC. The theoretical approaches that was used is the new institutionalism, the Shier?s pathways to participation and the term discretion.

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.

My big interest in sports was what shaped my choice of subject for the essay. The purpose of this study has been to explore the social meaning of team sports for functionally impaired persons. In order to fulfil the purpose of the essay I formed following questions: How do the actives experience their participation in team sports? And how important is the social intercourse in team sports to the individual welfare? The methods I?ve used have been qualitative with an ethnographic approach. I have used participant observations and field interviews to gather my empirical material.

Abstract:Objective: This study aimed at describing the health concept in the Swedish follow up programme for cerebral palsy (CPUP), with main focus on how aspects of participation is expressed in the agenda of the programme. Design: Document analysis: The home-page of CPUP was searched for three types of written material; references to the nature and aim of the programme, protocols used for data collection and abstracts from articles and reports on the list of publications. Within these all expressions of health, with bio-psycho-social understanding of the concept, were extracted and condensed with manifest content analysis. The meaning units obtained were linked to the International Classification of Function, Disability and Health ? Child/Youth (ICF-CY).

The failure of Structural Adjustment Programs and its neoliberal policies to effectively reduce poverty have led to the creation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) by The World Bank and International Monetary Fund. PRSP, connected to both the Comprehensive Development Strategy and the HIPC initiative, are built on the notion of national ownership and stakeholder participation and thereby expand potential conditionality to include matters of governance. This thesis examines the evolution of PRSP and how the process of participation affects national governance structures. By analyzing the role of rules and norms within the World Bank and IMF from a historical point of view the thesis explains why the participation process has developed the way it has. It concludes that neoliberal norms, still at heart within the World Bank and IMF, have an impact on the process of participation within nation states and thereby its governance structure.

The objective of this thesis is to explore the prerequisites for children?s participation in the activities of the public library as expressed by six children?s librarians. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out to investigate how the librarians interpreted the concept of participation and viewed power issues between children and adults. Further, difficulties and possibilities experienced in working with children?s participation and manifestations of children?s participation in everyday library work were also investigated.

The purpose was to describe the significance of participation concerning leisure time and household duties for persons with mild intellectual disability living in a group home with some support from caretakers. Interviews were performed with five persons, two men and three women, living in such a group home. The questions in the interview guide had an open character and were divided into four different areas, leisure time, economy, cooking, cleaning and laundry. The results indicate that all informants felt they participated in all four areas. Further on, the results show there was participation of three different kinds.

This study is case study of political participation among the Kani tribe from Kuttichal grama panchayat in the Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala, India. The study is based on the collected data of 117 people of the Kani tribe living in four different settlements: Pankavu, Mangode-Valippara, Chonampara and Kaithode. The aim of the study is to examine the impact on political participation by different factors, which is done by the use of the quantitative method of cross tables. The study confirms previous studies in its conclusion that high status individuals, defined in terms of education and economic standard, are the group of the highest political participation, when this is defined as being involved in political work and holding a party membership. On the local political scene however, where political participation consists of participation in local assemblies and voluntary work, the impact of the examined variables are very limited.

School activities are under constant discussion. This literatur study examines student participation and its relationship to democracy mission and the factors that contribute to students marginalized in school. The study also intends to examine the relationship between intersektionall analysis and the limitation of opportunities for student participation in school. The study results problematize the relationship between student participation and school democracy quests, this by highlighting the challenges and difficulties the school faces. Our results also strengthen the relationship between the study theory and marginalization of students and the limitation of opportunities for student participation..

ABSTRACT: Introduction: There are intentions from the Swedish government to provide guidelines and tools for a healthy social planning. The field is in a Swedish context relatively unstudied regarding psychosocial health and the neighbourhood. Aim: The study aimed to examine how social planning can affect the health of individuals. The focus areas were contextual and compositional factors related to individuals' psychosocial health and the contextual risk- and health factors that exist in the neighbourhood. Method: A literature-based study was conducted and 15 scholarly articles form the basis for analyse.

The purpose of this study was to examine in which way personnel who work with LVM approach their client?s integrity, autonomy and their participation in decision making. We used a semistructured interview when we interviewed three social workers, one placement secretary and four care personnel who work at institutions for LVM. In the theoretical approach of this study we used the total institutions and the user influence by clients. The study has shown that personnel?s considerations to their client?s integrity, autonomy and participation in decisions are a convoluted problem.

Participation of the people is essential for a democracy's vitality and survival. In this study we focus on the individual as an active participant in the traditional political arena and beyond its sphere into the society as a whole. The first part of the study has a normative aim. Firstly we examine why political participation is essential for democracy, and especially the ideal of representative democracy and the restricted passive participation of its citizens in comparison to the ideal of participatory democracy and its ideal of an active participant in all aspects of society. An ideal participant is drawn up to set the course for the empirical part of the study.