After the tsunami disaster in December 2004 many arguments were heared that one oft the major reasons behind the poor Swedish effort connected to the evacuation and health care of the Swedish citizens in Thailand right after the incident is the Swedish model with independent government authorities. By comparing the constitution, the political decision making tradition by the ministers and the handling of the catastrophe in the tree Scandinavian countries Denmark, Norway and Finland, plus analysing the behaviour of the Swedish foreign and prime minister from a rational choose inspired individual decision making theory the research shows that there is no proof that a constitutional change in Sweden into the traditional model with government authorities controlled by the ministers alone would led to a more effective crisis handling by the government due to crises concerning Swedish citizens out states. Although the research shows that the constitution and the tradition of decision making in the government provides the basic condition of the ministers individual rational decision making.

There is a lack of consensus within politics on how to deal with the so-called youth problem that exists in vulnerable areas. The politicians' positions are communicated in speech and writing and influence the majority society's attitude to children in vulnerable areas. Children are at the same time a vulnerable group in society. They are dependent on adults and need their guidance and support throughout their upbringing. In vulnerable areas live children whose health is affected by social and economic vulnerability and discrimination from the outside world. By looking into how hegemonic masculinity as norms are formulated in Swedish political documents, in relation to experiences of stigmatization and violence among children from vulnerable areas, this study wishes to examine if children?s right to a life without violence is being respected in vulnerable areas.

Uppsatsen granskar systemet för utjämning mellan kommunerna ur political economy- och tillväxtperspektiv. Political economy-analysen undersöker i vilken utsträckning systemets utformning möjliggör politiskt motiverad taktisk omfördelning. Av denna analys framgår att det rådande statsbidrags- och utjämningssystemet ger ett mycket begränsat utrymme för diskretionära bidrag. Den övergripande slutsatsen av political economy-analysen är att det finns en påtaglig kontrast mellan ansatserna i de akademiska studierna och de offentliga utredningarna. Analysen ur tillväxtperspektiv granskar vilka effekter långtgående kommunutjämning kan tänkas ha på arbetskraftsrörligheten, samt vilka konsekvenser detta kan tänkas ha för den långsiktiga ekonomiska tillväxten.

The purpose of our essay is to describe and analyse the experience of adults growing up with alcohol abusing parents and how their adult lives have been affected by this. The essay consists of both theoretical and empirical studies and we have used a qualitative method. We used a semi structured interview where we interviewed eight persons. We used symbolic interaction to analyse the collected data. The result is to a large extent consistent with previous research.

The EU Services Directive has caused an intense debate across Europe. Its purpose is to remove obstacles to trade and to open up the public sector to increased competition. The Swedish labour movement has been deeply involved in the policy process, and union leaders have proclaimed the compromise reached in the European Parliament in April 2006 as a success.In the paper two major aspects have been considered: the meaning of the Swedish model and the process of Europeanization. The Swedish model previously allowed for a strong labour movement, through a social democratic hegemony, but the EU membership has implied new conditions for union influence. The paper examines how this change has affected the strategic choices of the Swedish labour movement, and how it has been manifested in the union's work with the Services Directive.

The purpose of this essay is to critically review three different contributions to the agency ? structure debate from a political science perspective. My opinon is that the agency ? structure debate is one of the main problems within the social science. The theories which I will examine are Lennart Berntsons theory from 1974, Lennart Lundquists from 1984 and Walter Carlsnaes from 1992.

Vår uppsats är en komparativ studie av Rwanda och Burundi. I fokus står på vilket sätt etnisk polarisering har skapats och lett till återkommande konflikter. Den övergripande frågeställningen lyder: Varför har Rwanda upplevt svårare konflikter än Burundi? Vad har de båda länderna gemensamt och vad skiljer dem åt? Båda Rwanda och Burundi är rankade etniska system där social klass och etnicitet sammanfaller vilket har lett till konflikternas speciella karaktär. Rankade system kan utvecklas åt olika håll dess två länder är goda exempel på detta.I fråga om polariseringen av etniska grupper visar vi att det är myter som har spelat stor roll.

The aim of this thesis is to discover facts about the Sweden democrats by looking at statistics of five different municipalities. The main question at issue is: What can you say about the Sweden democrat's voters by researching the voter statistics of the voter districts in the municipalities. The five municipalities who are the object of the study are, Helsingborg, Hässleholm, Landskrona, Svedala and Trelleborg.The Method for this thesis is a case study of five municipalities in Skåne. I have been researching the voterstatistics in the local voterdistricts of 2002 and 2006. I have compared The Sweden democrats with the Social democrats, the conservative party (Moderaterna), and the liberal party (Folkpartiet Liberalerna).The theories that this thesis is based on are voterbehaviour and rightwing-party theories.The Results are that one can not see any signs of the Sweden democrat's success being a result of a far-reaching right wave.

Abstract (magisteruppsats, 61-80p)This paper is concerned with the national sentiments in the Federal State of Germany,regarding the east- and west-German cleavages, since the unification of the country in 1990.The point of departure is the nationalistic theory crafted together by the scholar AnthonyDavid Smith, which implies an ethno-symbolistic perspective on the dynamics of nations.The main question in the paper is to which extent you can consider the East- and WestGermans to be a unity, considering the past and the forty-year-division. For this reason theauthor basically uses two different sources: scientific books and the German journal DerSpiegel.Founded on Smith's theory, the study contains a broad explanation for national identities incontemporary states, which ranges from pre-modern times, when the ethnic communities werecreated, to the national world of today.The discontinuity of the German case, represented by the separation 1949-90 of the Germannation into two entirely different societies, makes it possible to draw conclusions about whichfactor that has the pivotal impact on national identities.The result turns out to be that the national historical core-values and symbols of the currentGerman state and nation are more profound than the splitting national sentiments. Thus theGerman nation is likely to recover from its Cold War break-up.Keywords: German unification, A. D. Smith, Nation and nationalism, National identity, DerSpiegel.

The purpose of this essay was to in a specific project for unemployed youths between 18 and 24 years, from an ecological point of view, examine how the youths experienced their unemployment and also to compare the purpose and structure of the project with the participants' experience.Important questions in my essay were how the unemployment affected the youths' identity and social circumstances, if the participants found the project meaningful, and experienced that they could influence how the project was formed, if the purpose of the project was in accordance with the youths' experience and how the ecological perspective could be used to understand the situation of the youths.To answer these questions one interview was made with one of the employees and five interviews were made with participant youths.The results of the essay was that the youths' experience of the project were very much individual. All of the participants found something in the project meaningful and most of them thought that it was possible to influence the project in some way. Something that both the youths and the employee pointed out as important was the employees and their supporting role..

When Sweden acceded to the European Union in 1995 the term social economy was introduced to the Swedish context, gradually replacing the term civil society. This replacement can be seen as an indicator of a changing meaning of what the concept of civil society used to stand for.The aim of this essay is to study if it is possible to identify changing perceptions of the role of civil society for democracy in Sweden in government bills between 2002 and 2008, and, if so, what effect does this have on the delineation between the civil society and the government.An analytical model is proposed consisting of two dimensions which both capture the roles of civil society for democracy and the model examines how those roles relate to the government.The conclusion is that the government still sees the main function of civil society as a democratic school and a change agent for democracy. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the civil society is increasingly regarded as more of a welfare producer than a fosterer of democracy..

Syfte: Inom ramen för studien är syftet att få en ökad förståelse för hur en ung mamma i gymnasiesärskolan upplever sin skolgång.Teori: Studien använder sig av teori och ansats från livsvärldsfenomenologin. Med livsvärldsansatsen har möjligheten att ta del av den unga mamman erfarenheter och upplevelser och därefter synliggöra dem möjliggjorts.Metod: Studiens empiri består av sex halvstrukturerade fenomenologiska intervjuer med en öppen och reflexiv anstas där den unga mammans upplevelser och erfarenheter synliggörs. Två intervjuer av viktiga andra i huvudinformantens närhet och åtta observationer ur ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv i olika miljöer finns också representerade inom ramen för studien. I studien är empirin bearbetad utifrån ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv. Det innebär att istället för att förklara vad min informant har varit med om så avser jag att beskriva och förstå hennes livsvärld.Resultat: Studiens resultat visar att lärarnas bemötande och förhållningssätt är centralt för hur den unga mamman upplever skolan.

AbstractVäxjö University, School of Social SciencesBachelor thesisTitle: Ansvaret för skolan ? en studie om ansvarsfördelningen ur ett nyinstitutionalistiskt perspektivAuthor: Hanna JanssonSupervisor: Conny JohannessonThe aim of the study is to investigate which ideas that dominated the official political debate concerning the responsibility distribution for the Swedish school from 1974 to 1991.The study asks two questions: What ideas have dominated the official political debate concerning the responsibility distribution for the Swedish school from 1974 to 1991? and Why did the responsibility of the Swedish school change in 1991? In order to answer these questions an idea analysis were used. Three ideal types concerning democracy, effectivity and professionalism were used in analysing official governmental documents. The conclusion is that all three ideal types dominated the debate concerning the responsibility distribution, but in different degrees, and they can also explain why a new responsibility distribution came up in 1991..

Syftet med studien var att belysa hur några förskollärare ser på och förhåller sig till begreppet utomhuspedagogik och hur dessa tankar tar sig uttryck i samband med barns lärande i förskolan. En fenomenografisk forskningsansats låg till grund för studien och med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer har empirin samlats in. Sammanlagt har åtta förskollärare intervjuats på olika förskolor. I bakgrunden tas olika definitioner av begreppet utomhuspedagogik upp och det redogörs för olika tvärvetenskapliga perspektiv på utomhuspedagogik. I resultatet framkommer förskollärarnas uppfattning om utomhuspedagogik där platsen för lärandet framhålls - lärande utomhus var utomhuspedagogik. Resultatet visade att förskollärarna ser främst till var lärandet sker och inte till hur, när och varför lärande sker utomhus i deras syn på begreppet.

This essay contains a comparative analysis of Erik Olin Wrights Marxist class analysis and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negris post-Marxist class analysis as presented in their books ?Empire? and ?Multitude: War and democracy in the age of Empire?. I discuss the shift in analytical focus from state level to global level that Hardt and Negri's analysis represent and the ensuing relevance of this for contemporary class analysis. The essay also address the challenge and implications posed to class analysis by the ever increasing economic globalization, from a material production to an ever growing immaterial service economy and the decrease in state power in controlling capital and labor movement. I propose that analytical understanding of class conflict help us to a better understanding of the mechanisms and dynamics that generate social and economical inequalities and that an updated Marxist class analysis still have much to contribute to our understanding to how these issues not only shape our society but also our capacity to counteract them..