Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union a lot of hope has been put on civil society to help develop Russia into a more democratic society. This study explores the constructive elements in the relationship between civil society and the state in Russia, and how this enables the work toward political development. By using Julie Fishers theory about political development and organisational autonomy I discuss the varying and often complex ways in which civil society and the state interacts. These are often not mentioned in the liberal tradition, which believes that civil society's most important democratic function is to act as a watchdog for the state.There is very limited political space for NGO's in authoritative Russia. The existing oppositional NGO's are important for the political development, but they are few and their impacts on society are limited.

Adopting a socio-cultural approach to the study of cold war historiography, this master?s degree essay is a comparative study of the two main disciplinary fields of cold war scholarship, diplomatic history and international relations theory (IR). The study applies the theory of scientific development formulated by Thomas Kuhn and the concept of paradigm on the field of cold war research.Diplomatic history and IR shows many similarities in their development, and in the importance different schools has had in scholarly debate. These different schools are analysed as paradigms, a concept that has been more willingly adopted within IR than in diplomatic history. The transition from what historian John Lewis Gaddis has termed Old Cold War History to New Cold War History is discussed in terms of paradigms and paradigm shift.

Strong relationships are something that is really important for companies to succeed with, in purpose to increase and protect their market shares. After major research on the subject, it has been found that variables like exchange of relationship, trust, control mutability, satisfaction and commitment are important in the establishment of measuring a relationship. The purpose with this thesis was to: increase the knowledge on how companies measure, and then consequently evaluate, their relationships. To answer the purpose of the study we chose to do a case study at Stadium AB, which is a retailing concern with a high level of customer contact on a daily basis. The conclusion is that trust most likely is the key variable in measuring relationships.

The aim of this essay is to analyze how food and meals produce and reproduce values and power relations and how these processes are portrayed in Virginia Woolf?s To the Lighthouse. Using sociological writings in the field of food consumption and production I study the structures that affect our relation to food and eating. This perspective is combined with a phenomenological view, aiming to examine how food is perceived, which is also inspired by queer theories. Using the method of close reading, the theories are applied to Woolf?s work.

The purpose of this essay is to analyse how the leadership and the structure of the organization affect the process of changes within a specific department in Lunds kommun socialdepartment, from the director of social work to the co-workers at Utredningsenheten för ungdom och familj. We aim to answer the following questions;How does the structure of organisation affect the process of change?What do the co-workers and the leaders believe is the best way to engage the co-workers in the change?How does the leaders view their own leadership in the process of change?How does the co-workers view the leadership in the process of change?How does the leadership affect the process of change?To develop an organisation and to make it a functional, change is a necessity. The leaders are they who create the change but the co-workers are they who make it happen. In the process of change, leadership and the leaders capacity to create motivation for the co-workers, is therefore a matter that is decisive to its success.This is a study based on a qualitative method, where the interview is the main source of empirical material.

Drawing on theories of ethnic representations in mainstream news media and racial discrimination (van Dijk 2000, Hultén 2006, Husband & Downing 2005, Wodak 2011), and using methods of critical discourse analysis (mainly van Dijk 1993, 1991, Fairclough 1995) this bachelor thesis aims to investigate the inter-textual and inter-discursive relationship between selected editorial and opinion pieces written by three mainstream right wing ?symbolic elites? and the xenophobic blog ?Avpixlat?. The three selected symbolic elites are: Per Gudmundsson, editorial writer at the second largest Swedish newspaper SvD, Andreas Johansson Heinö, academic with a P.H.D. in political science, specialized on issues of integration and ethnic relations, and Paulina Neuding, editorial writer at SvD and editor in chief for right-wing oriented magazine Neo. All three are actively taking part in the mediated discussion of ethnic relations in Sweden from a liberal-conservative perspective.

This paper has its aim to investigate in which way the theory about the dynamic of the triadic nexus, presented by Brubaker, needs to be revised. In the first place this theory is presented and after then applied on the triad formed by: the Hungarian national minority in Transylvania, Romania and Hungary. Through the empirical evidences, that are presented here by following up the political relations and its dynamics over time between the three fields, is shown that the theory is usable for the case in question. Further as we approach the more actual development of the political life in the triad appears a need to deal with one more field which would be for example the NATO or/and EU.This means that Brubakers theory has to be revised so it would take in account a forth field and that of an international organization/institution. The arguments for this needed change is put forth through empirical evidences on the political relations that the two states has with NATO or/and EU and the huge influence these have on the states..

This study focuses on work related factors which have an effect on the balance between peoples work and private/social life. Commonly discussed in the daily debate is the so called ?livspusslet?, the time puzzle. The question is: How do you balance the demands from work, family and society? A lot of peoples health and family relations suffers from a stressful situation at work.It?s not hard to figure out that the possible factors which could have an effect on the balance between peoples work and private/social life are many.

Journalists and communication managers are becoming more professional and to reach out to its stakeholders in society today, organizations must work strategically with communication, to enter the news. Many make use of press releases to provide journalists with information, hoping to influence what is published on the news. With a background in the medial change that occurs is the purpose of this study to elucidate and problematize which role press releases has for newsrooms and for organizations today and in the future. A qualitative interview study has been used, and communication managers from three organizations and journalists from three newsrooms has been interviewed. The study has been combined with a quantitative pilot study of selected press releases and articles from the selected organizations.

Our study is focused on how the public sector can collaborate with the private sector on a certain issue. The public sector wanted to create a project to increase bicycling in the municipality of Kalmar. Our problem was to develop a sustainable way to collaborate between the two parties. We managed to present a suggestion on how the public sector with communication could improve their Public Relations with the private sector and therefore letting the parties benefit from their differences, thus making it possible to release synergy.Using semi-structured interviews and a workshop, we could clarify the values and attitudes of the parties to bring forth the core values to develop a shared vision. Where the identified differences were found, we used a dialog strategy based on intercultural conflict management as a communication tool.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how social workers perceive the concept of knowledge within social services, particularly within children and youth services. Our goal is also to study the employer's expectations and demands on graduate social workers. The main questions we address in this thesis are; What knowledge is seen as useful by employers and graduate social workers working in social welfare offices? To what extent does university education bring useful knowledge to the work being done by social workers? What practical knowledge is there in the workplace for social workers to learn? When recruiting, what expectations does the employer have of graduate social workers? What challenges are there with recruiting a graduate social worker?We have interviewed six social workers and four employers in the social childcare division in different municipalities in Skåne region, Sweden. We have used epistemology in our analysis.

AbstractThe aim off this study is to research social workers´ knowledge, use, risks and possibilities of social media in their work with clients. Because today the society is using social media networks in daily life and social media has become a tool in social work as well. How does social media and social work cooperate? And how does social media effect social workers? For example the website Facebook has grown huge and many people use it everyday. Where is the line between work and private life? To reach this knowledge in this study, qualitative interviews have been done with six social workers that work with children, youths and families.

This paper deals with Will Kymlicka's and Charles Taylor's theories of multiculturalism, and the criticism of these theories by Jürgen Habermas and Seyla Benhabib. It also gives a brief background to the Swedish integration and minority policies and places them in relations to the academic discussion. Taylor advocates cultural survival to be a legitimate policy objective and Kymlicka argues that rights should be diversified in order to adapt to different needs of cultural minorities. The thesis aims to confront the theories with interviews of four persons who voluntarily or by profession work for the interest of minorities. The theories have been operationalized as questions and structured in four themes with the purpose of analyzing the interviews.

This B.Sc. Thesis examines how Swedish Large Cap companies communicate CSR in social media. We describe the current state of CSR communication in four different social media channels, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, and blogs. This research, supported by interviews with stakeholders and a quantitative survey, analyses the potential risks and benefits from communicating CSR via social media and provides concrete advice on the development of a CSR communication strategy for social media. Although some benefits have been realized, many companies have failed to truly reap the potential benefits from an effective social media strategy for CSR.

SammanfattningSyftet med denna undersökning är att prova ut ett verktyg bland en grupp blivande lärare i träning i mänskliga relationer (Human Relations Training eller HRT). HRT är en utbildning i hur man kan kommunicera med bl a elever, kollegor och föräldrar för att skapa goda relatio-ner och konstruktivt hitta lösningar till konflikter och andra problem. Tidigare forskning visar att blivande lärare samt nyblivna lärare i Sverige anser sig ha goda ämneskunskaper men upp-lever en osäkerhet i det kommunikativa mötet vid exempelvis konflikter och vanliga problem som kan uppstå i det vardagliga mötet med elever och andra personer. I USA har det sedan decennier ingått HRT i lärarutbildningen, men då vi inte fann någon tidigare koppling till HRT i den svenska lärarutbildningen blev det intressant att prova HRT:s rekommendationer med kunskaperna som snart nyblivna lärare i Sverige har. En av oss författare fick en utbild-ning i HRT, i USA.