How effective is consumer power? Can consumers regulate corporate behavior?And if so is the case, could the mechanisms where consumers regulate corporatebehavior have any democratic value to contribute with? These are the questionsthat this master's thesis comprehends with. The purpose of this writing is toconstruct a theory of consumer power that is compatible with democratic theory,this in order to contribute to the ongoing discussion within the discipline ofpolitical science about the third democratic transformation. A discussion that hasbeen actualized due to the democratic deficit created by the growing corporatepower and the shift of power from state to private enterprises. Besides showingfor a parallel between the democratic mechanisms that exists in the relationbetween citizens and state on the one hand, and the consumers and corporationson the other hand, this paper argues that consumers do have a great potential inregulating corporate behavior towards a higher social responsibility andawareness.

Abstract The main purpose of this study was to investigate if and how the employees in elderly care experience stress and which underlying causes they understand to be important in their work situation. The purpose was also to investigate whether Karaseks and Theorells demands and control models could be used to explain the employees feelings of stress and to see in which categories the participants are in. Furthermore, the purpose was also to understand the participants work situation and to describe the factors and remedies the employees perceive to contribute to the stress levels at their workplace. 81 questionnaires were distributed at three different locations, two of which were in Ronneby and one in Örebro. 56 people answered the questionnaires. The result yielded that 80% of the participants felt stress during their working hours the last few years. The results are in agreement with the demands and control models which showed that people with high demands and low control experienced a higher degree of stress than people with lower demands and higher control, which corroborates the hypothesis 1.1..

Syftet med detta arbete är att ur ett journalistperspektiv visa vilka komponenter som god journalistik med dennaturvetenskapligt orienterade forskningen som bevakningsområde består av. Arbetet fokuserar på massmedierna som agendasättare och frånser de kommersiella aspekterna av verksamheten..

Syftet med denna studie var att öka kunskapen om hur syskon påverkas av att växa upp med ett funktionshindrat syskon. De flesta av oss kommer att möta människor i skolan och arbetet som växer upp eller har vuxit upp med ett syskon med ett funktionshinder. Denna studie genomfördes med hjälp av 52 öppna och slutna frågor som studerade 16 syskons uppfattning angående ansvarstagande, hjälpsamhet och uppfattningen av syskonskapet i relation till platsen i syskonskaran. Studien visade att de som har en åldersskillnad på upp till 2,5 år förklarar för andra om syskonets funktionshinder i större utsträckning än ensambarn. Resultat visade även att yngre systrar undviker konflikter med sina föräldrar i större utsträckning än deras äldre systrar.

The aim of this essay was to investigate how social workers, within chosen Social services districts in the northwest of Skåne, work with children placed in foster care. Our purpose was to investigate the interaction between the child and the foster home from the perspective of the Ecology of Human Development. Our questions were:* How do the social worker prepare the child and the foster home before a placement?* What kind of support is offered to the foster home with the purpose of supporting the child?* How do the social worker make the childs contact with the biological parents easier?* To what degree does the social worker work on strengthening the child's network?* Which factors do the social worker decide the allocation of support?* What do the social worker think affects the work with the foster home from a society level?To answer our question we have interviewed nine social workers. We found that the social workers were generally good at perceiving how the micro- and meso-systems, and to a certain extent the exo-system, influenced the foster child.

In Sweden, prostitution is politically defined as a social problem, more precisely, as a form of male violence against women. The definition is distinctly manifested in the government bill Kvinnofrid, characterised by the unique Swedish law that prohibits the purchase of sexual services.This thesis examines how the Swedish solutions of prostitution are carried out. By interviewing central actors working with prostitution in different ways we aim to answer the question: What measures are taken to decrease prostitution and what implications does the Swedish solution have?The analysis is divided into two parts. First, we analyse the concrete measures taken against prostitution ? what is done, how, and why? Second, we analyse the complexity of prostitution measures by applying complementary analytical perspectives: the symbolic and the discourse perspective.The study shows that measures taken to decrease prostitution vary and depend on individual actors? understandings of the political definition.

Örebro UniversityDepartment of Social SciencesSociology and social psychology, Continuation course, 61-90 p.Essay 15 p, Spring -08.Title: ?Youth (work)seekers?Author: Karolina LindellAbstractThis essay focuses on young people?s social background when they apply for their first job. I have interviewed four young people from a small town in Sweden, to see how social background and identity affects their vital conditions in general. I?m interested understanding the relationship between structure and agency.

Vi har valt att titta på hur organiseringen påverkar sociala rörelse-organisationers fortlevnad. Medlemsantalet är vår operationalisering av fortlevnaden. Våra två fall är Amnesty International och Attac.För- och nackdelar med olika organisationssätt tydliggörs med hjälp av två organisatoriska idealmodeller som till stor del är varandras motsatser. Dessa är den vertikala modellen och den horisontella modellen.Dessa för- och nackdelar har vi ställt mot empirin. Vi har använt oss av litteratur, hemsidor och intervjuer för att få en bild av hur organisationerna ser ut.Trots att Attac är nätverksbaserad och Amnesty är mer vertikalt ordnad, har båda visat prov på flexibilitet och lyckats skapa delaktighet, vilket är positivt för organisationernas fortlevnad.

In recent years the concern about the future of the European Union and itssupposed lack of democracy, efficiency and legitimacy has increased. Thisconcern has resulted in extensive debates and the establishment of a conventionwith the task to create a draft treaty for a European Constitution.The aim of this essay is to study how the three theoretical concepts,democracy, efficiency and legitimacy, have been described and used in the debateabout the future of the European Union. My main interest is to see how theseconcepts are described in a debate regarding a political system that goes beyondthe borders of the nation-state. I have made a comparative textual analysis of thedebates taken place in Sweden and Spain during a period of over two years. Ihave, for instance, found out that openness and clearness have a prominentposition as democratic values together with equality and justice (in Spain) and theinstitution of accountability (in Sweden).

A unified model of stress and affect consciousness was proposed. The connection between affect consciousness and perceived stress was studied. Teachers (n = 19) were interviewed using Monsens affect interview, followed one month later by a questionnaire containing Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S, STAI-T) and Twenty Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).Statistical analysis showed no connections between level of total affect consciousness and perceived stress. Though there were some indications of a negative relationship between affect consciousness and trait anxiety. There were also indications, using a complementary analysis, of a connection between level of affect consciousness on the subscale distress in the interview and perceived stress.

Syftet med denna studie var att få bättre förståelse för hur datoranvändare organiserar filer och att få ökad förståelse för vilka vägar datoranvändare väljer för att komma åt filer i ett datorsystem designat efter skrivbordsmetaforen. Resultatet tolkas utifrån aktivitetsteori och distribuerad kognition samt tidigare forskning. Halvstrukturerade intervjuer gjordes med 18 datoranvändare i den ordinarie arbetsmiljön. Utöver att svara på frågor fick de också visa och förklara hur de organiserat sina filer samt hur de gick tillväga när de använde dem.Resultatet pekar på en betydande ökning i användning av datorns skrivbord jämfört med tidigare studier. Två typer av lagrad information kunde identifieras, temporär och långvarig.

Den 4 oktober 2004 beslutade socialdemokraterna i Sverige och dess samarbets-partier i kärnkraftsfrågan att Barsebäck skulle stängas under 2005. Beslutet startade en mediedebatt i både Danmark och Sverige kring kärnkraften som tidigare varit död. Med en komparativ argumentationsanalys har vi studerat två danska respektive två svenska dagstidningar för att jämföra debatten mellan länderna. Sverige och Danmark har olika demokratiska utgångspunkter i frågan om Barsebäck. Skillnaden är att svenskarna är inkluderade i demos medan danskarna står utanför i denna bemärkelse.

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.

Our purpose with this study was to look at the connection between social capital and integration. Particularly if meetings between people from different cultures can increase social capital and in that way affect integration. We start by identifying the social integration perspective we are going to use through out the study and then we introduce social capital theory as a way of narrowing down the field even more. The study was done through six semi structured interviews. We interviewed three women that was established in the Swedish society and three women that had immigration background.

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.