The purpose of this essay is to examine the concept of competence within the social services. More specifically it aims to find out how the social workers themselves look upon their own competence in social investigations concerning children. As the study was based on focus groups the main questions were vague at the beginning and were cleared later on during the group sessions.In three focus group interviews in three different municipalities in southern Sweden 11 social workers were asked to discuss this issue. The interviews were then thoroughly transcribed. In the data I identified 9 themes seeming to play a special roll in the discussions about competence: practice; experience; approach; intuition; responsibility; theories, methods and laws; reflection; resources and ethics; specialisation versus integration.The analysis made on these themes was based on two different kinds of perspective; one focusing knowing-in-action and the other focusing the organization framing the competence considered.As a conclusion the 7 first themes can be seen as a definition of the competence used in social investigations concerning children.

The purpose of this essay was to inquire how workplace conflicts are managed at a number of public social services offices in south-western Skåne. This essay's main research questions were: What organizational factors determine how conflicts arise and are managed in a work environment? To what extent are such factors prevalent at the above-mentioned social services offices? Are certain conflicts typically prevalent in the public social services? If so, what are they? How does the workplace in question manage the conflicts that arise? The inquiry was conducted among the staff of three public social services offices, applying the vignette method. According to previous research, certain system conflicts are typically prevalent in public sector organizations, which adversely affect the work conditions of social workers at the organization's professional level. Two examples each of this conflict type and of interpersonal conflict were included in the inquiry.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate which factors are important with foster home placing, to achieve a positive result for the child. The questions that we have focused on is the importance of the child's earlier experiences and relations, the foster homes attitude and approach, the social service organization and the cooperation between these concerned parties. We have also looked at the importance that the relation between the biological family, the child and the foster home can have. This study has been carried out using qualitative interviews with several foster homes, social welfare secretaries and a researcher in the area. We have also chosen to separate the foster homes on the basis of two foster homes only accepting teenagers while other accepting younger children.The theoretical concepts we have chosen to use are connected to attachment theory and the ecology of human development point of view.

The present memorandum outlines the structure, theoretical starting points and disposition of a thesis about the activities of Finnish immigrants in a Swedish local community, more specifically their political integration. The intention is to study the municipality of Katrineholm in the years 1944 to 1991.Previous research about the actorship of immigrants in spheres such as politics, labour unions, immigrant associations, educational associations and mass-education, as well as churches and religion, is presented to give an overview of possible areas connected to political integration that can be studied. The overview of previous research also covers local immigrant politics.The intended theoretical starting points for the proposed thesis are political economy and hegemony. The latter is intended to be investigated through its expression in the social relations class, gender, ethnicity, nationality and generation. It is suggested in this memorandum that hegemonies and social relations within a local political economy can be operationalised fruitfully in a study of political integration.

This study investigates communication and data in information systems. The paper deals, more specificly, with communication in a CRM-system implemented in a Swedish-founded company in Beijing, China. It discusses cultural, political, linguistic and gender based dilemmas that can arise from the use of a CRM-system in an international and bilingual environment. Fifty-nine interviews were conducted in Sweden and in China, either in Swedish or English. The result of this study shows that communication in the information system is affected by factors, that are not originated in technical shortcomings of the system, but rather from cultural, political, linguistic and gender based pre-knowledge among individuals.

This is a discourse analysis concerning the visions for Malmö's future. Three concepts are studied to see which meaning these are given in the Malmö context. The studied concepts are ? development (utveckling), industry (näringsliv) and citizen (befolkning).The meanings of these concepts are studied against a backdrop of theories of inclusion/exclusion in general and inclusion/exclusion in the city more specific. Michael Foucault´s notion of a discourse which stigmatizes those not following a behaviour which is defined as being right and normal is central to this.

The main purpose of the culture is to serve people and represent the people's social will and freedom. Culture does not exist in a vacuum but shaped and framed by political and artistic structures that are not neutral, and this is why the artwork itself cannot be an independent business. The public function of art can be understood as a defense of the ideals of democracy. But today, when political power is often replaced by hegemony, the role of art and functions are changing. How these changes reflect to the identity, reality and truth of society? What political functions are fulfilled when art becomes ?public?? The issue of democracy is linked question of people?s power in a democratic society where power is legitimized in social space.

The Swedish alcohol policy has by tradition a restrictive composition, with high taxes and the Swedish Alcohol Retailing Monopoly as important elements. The Moderate Party has been powerful critics of the alcohol policy and has advocated a reformation. However, today the Moderate Party seems to have changed the attitude towards the alcohol policy and it even supports the Swedish initiative to create cooperation about alcohol matters at the EU level.This thesis examines why the Moderate Party has changed its attitude towards the restrictive alcohol policy. Three aspects have been considered: the rise of a European public policy, strategic choice, and the influence of the political environment. The paper discusses the problem from a strategic perspective, which means that the political change is viewed as a result of strategic considerations.The party has indeed been affected by all of the three aspects, although to different extent.

Political consumption is a manner of impinging politically that has become more frequent lately. Adolescents seem to be attracted by the idea of expressing oneself politically through ones wallet. The purpose of this analysis is to elucidate this essay?s participants? manner of expressing political consumption and analyze how they discuss motives against and for political consumption with a sociological perspective. To accomplish this, this essay will aim to answer the following questions: In what manner do the participants express their political consumption and what are their motives for and against political consumption?  In order to answer the essay?s purpose and questions, two focus group interviews have been made.

The purpose of this essay has been to compare different constitutions, and their outlook on citizenship, rights, obligations and natural duty. This has been done in the light of the political philosophy, in order to give the answer to four questions. These questions are: Which rights and obligations can be seen in the constitutions, and how can it be interpreted. Can there be signs of any political philosophy in the constitutions?  Are there any differences between the constitutions regarding citizenship, rights, obligations and natural duty? If so, what are the differences? Can the rights be seen in a further extent than the obligations in the constitutions?I have conducted a qualitative comparision study and analyzed the political philosophers and made a classification scheme of their views.

I denna uppsats gör vi en ansats till att förklara varför konflikten i Tjetjenien inte är löst. Genom att undersöka om konflikten i Tjetjenien är en Protracted Social Conflict, får vi fram de underliggande mekanismerna och komplexiteten som gör att konflikten kan fortgå. När dessa är tydliggjorda identifierar och senare kritiserar vi de traditionella fredsbyggandestrategierna, vilka inte är tillräckliga i en sådan komplex konflikt. Detta framförallt på grund av att de traditionella fredsbyggandestrategiernas mål snarare är att bygga en liberal markandsdemokrati snarare än fred. För att komma till en lösning krävs en uppmuntran till civilbefolkningen att utveckla forum som kan överbrygga splittringen mellan de olika identitetsgrupperna, detta är dock något som måste ske frivilligt och på folkets egna premisser..

Hur staten organiserar sin förvaltning, i form av specialisering och samordning av verksamheten, har betydelse för hur väl uppdraget att implementera den politiska viljan genomförs. Många menar att betoningen på samordning idag ökat efter flera år av specialisering som dominerande organisationsform. Vi har därför valt att undersöka begreppet samordning och dess tillhörande problematik för att se hur, när och var samordning är önskvärt inom statlig förvaltning och vilka problem som kan uppstå. Då samordning är en flertydig term som kan vara svårförstådd, avser uppsatsen också konkretisera begreppet och dess övergripande problematik. Genom intervjuer på Migrationsverket ges praktiska exempel utifrån en svensk kontext.

The purpose was to look into the pattern of consumption among middleage women. Our questions were how women experienced the need to consume, how they defined the expression of consumption and if there was a difference between "shopping" and "buying". The research has been done through eight qualitative interviews and searching in litterature, illuminating our questions.All women defined consumption as satisfying basic needs. According to them everything bought on a daily bases is consumption. More difficult to define was the experience of "need".

The aim of this essay was to look into and compare the experiences and opinions about the practice of 13 § LVM among persons that, through their profession, use the law.The questions we have been asking were; what experiences and opinions the individuals have about the paragraph in general, what they think about the cases when no application for LVM is made after a client has been taken in charge as directed by 13 § LVM, and of the fact that the majority of cases of LVM are initiated by the same paragraph. Another question was how the individuals think about the legal security in connection to 13 § LVM.The methods used are qualitative and we have interviewed individuals from different fields of social work that comes in contact with drug abusers.The findings from these studies include that care made out of the clients' free will is the main reason why an application is not made. It is also the reason to why many LVM initiates as directed by 13 § LVM for the reason that the districts above all try to help the clients without force. The economical aspects are repeatedly mentioned as another reason to the problems appeared in connection with 13 § LVM..

The aim of this Master's thesis was to examine the political and cultural reasons for making music materials compulsory at Danish public libraries by the new library act of 2000. The aim was also to examine how the public libraries have responded to this reform. To answer these questions a literature study was conducted as well as interviews. The results of the literature study indicated that the main reason for making music materials compulsory is to increase the influence of the library users. The study of the debate concerning the new library act showed that a majority of the Danish political parties as well as the Danish library organizations had a positive attitude towards the new obligation.