The aim of this study is to investigate the discourses of widening recruitment to higher education in some political documents from the 21st century. The scientific method applied is critical discourse analysis as developed by Norman Fairclough. This implies the analyses of the actual texts, the social practice as well as the discursive practice, i.e. the conditions under which the texts are produced, distributed and consumed.The major results include four discourses: a post-modern discourse, a neoliberal economic discourse, a political discourse of multi-culturalism and a modern discourse with its roots in the 20th century?s discussions about social imbalance in recruitment to higher education.

The purpose of this study is to examine which aspects of blogs and blog design that are important to blog readers but also to find new ideas for blog design. From a qualitative standpoint we have examined how seven users experience that blogs design, structure and functionalities affects the general experience of the blog. The study also examines how the users wish to interact with a blog. During two design workshops we let seven active blog readers imagine and sketch out the design and functionalities they would like in a blog. We put this in relation to theories about the anatomy of blogs, methods of design, social navigation and virtual communities.The major finding is that the aspects most important to blog readers are navigation, structure and social interaction.

This essay studies the relationship between politicians and municipal chief officers from the point of view of the bureaucracy and its role in democracy and the substance of the chief position. I conducted interviews and observations with politicians and senior officials from the local public administration in Bromölla. The roles of the chief officer and politicians have certain common characteristics which makes it difficult to separate them. Senior officials working full time in contrast to part time politicians give them an advantage in the political process. Budget cut backs both enhance the role of politicians and chief officers in the administrative organisation.

This thesis has the purpose of developing a normative theoretical framework based on different political philosophers and scientists view on deliberative democratic theory, discourse ethics and a modified norm of citizenship. This framework is supposed to contain the ideal communicative situation for people seeking asylum. Hence, the thesis argues that political influence is best practised through communicative rights, and that people seeking asylum are in title to such rights. We conclude that the standards needed to be met in order to reach the ideal are: translators, translated information, arenas for- or channels of communication, language education, and deliberative education. Once the framework is established we focus our interest on the Swedish state.

Can coercive care be justified against drug and alcohol addicts or should treatment be offered on a strictly voluntary basis? This was one of the central questions debated in Sweden during the 70's when the development of a new social legislation, The Social Services Act (Socialtjänstlagen), took place. The first aim of this thesis was to analyse whether the arguments that were presented both in favour for and against coercion were sound. To achieve this, a method for analysing arguments was employed, where a sound argument is defined as acceptable, relevant and adequate. The analysed material consists of both official government reports and books of influential debaters.

This article seeks to re-imagine the Alandish hembygdsrätt to a regional citizenship. Hembygdsrätt is a judicial tool that regulates acquisition of property and voting rights. Its a central part of the autonomy as it constitutes a social-border between Finns and Alanders.However as Åland and Finland became members of the European Union questions arouse concerning the legitimacy of the current statues. The community argued that it could be considered as a breach of the anti-discrimination principle. Therefore Alandish autonomy was recognized as an exception in the joint-accession treaty of Finland and Åland.

The purpose of this paper is to study and describe the occurrence and conditions of aesthetic subjects and choral singing in Swedish upper secondary schools 2014. The paper is based on seven recorded individual interviews with three music teachers, four principals and one director of education in three upper secondary schools in Sweden. The study uses discursive psychology and the interviews were analysed with focus on music teachers and school leaders interpretative repertoires and rhetorical strategies and how they use the language to legitimate aesthetic subjects in an upper secondary school context. In the most recent upper secondary school reform of 2011 the aesthetic subjects are no longer mandatory. Today there are different ways to provide opportunities for the students to participate in music activities but since the government no longer decides how it shall be implemented it is up to the management of each school to determine the activities.The statement made by the informants are interesting in relation to the status of music subjects, but due to the limited scope of the paper, no general conclusions can be drawn.

This essay is based on students' growing lack of interest in science at school. Both from a democratic and social perspective, this is a worrying factor for the future. Through observation, I investigated how five science teachers conduct their teaching. This is to get a better understanding of how teachers' behaviour in the classroom can affect students' interest in science. With a socio-cultural research approach, I have tried to highlight a few pieces of the puzzle that may explain students' declining interest in science.

ABSTRACTSince Robert D. Putnam first wrote about the causes behind the regional differences in economic and political development in Italy, the theory of social capital has truly flourished in the fields of social science. This days you constantly hear politicians and scholars stressing the important role of the quality of the social fabric to a society?s wellbeing. There all looking at ways to construct policies and institutions that help the spread of social capital.

The Swedish working-class author Ivar Lo-Johansson (1901-1990) wrote a collection of one hundred short stories between the years 1968-1972. His other productions, generally speaking, have partially different social reform purposes, but, according to himself, these short stories were written with the intention to be totally free of tendencies (even though he himself doubted that he succeeded with this).During the same period that these short stories were published, the Swedish social democrats were under the challenge of radical movements that, mainly on the radical left?s ideological foundation, had a relatively strong influence in Sweden, among other countries, from the mid 1960?s to the late 1970?s. Since Lo-Johansson mainly seemed to have supported the politics of the social democrats, the purpose of the investigation in this thesis has been to see if he ? in the three short stories: Vikingakärlek (1970), Rikslögnaren (1971) and Ansgars resa till Sverige (1972) ? is conveying an ideological use of history and basic political values that were used by the social democratic party during this time period.

According to the Swedish Red Cross, there are over 40 million people fleeing from war and conflict around the world. Some of these individuals are suffering from a disorder named PTSD (Post Traumatic Disorder Syndrome). This disorder is caused by previous experience incurred by war, conflict and violence. My intention with this study has been to increase the knowledge about refugees in Sweden suffering from PTSD syndrome. I have performed a study based on a project named Exigo.

In Jan Jagers and Stefaan Walgrave theory about populism as a political communication-style they claim that one can find this in the rhetoric of political parties. In their study of Belgian politics they found that the extreme-right party Vlaams Block has embraced this populism to a larger extent than other parties. Based on this theory this thesis aims at finding populism as a communication-style in three different Swedish political parties with the purpose to see if the extreme-right party ?The Sweden Democrats? will show populism to a larger extent than other parties, as was the case in the Belgian study.Based on Jagers and Walgraves operational definition of populism as a political communication-style this thesis applies it to the rhetoric of three different parties being ?The Social Democratic Party?, ?The Moderate Party? and ?The Sweden Democrats?. This is done in order to be able to clarify on the one hand if their theory is applicable to the Swedish case and on the other hand to what extent populism as a communication-style exists in Swedish political rhetoric.The method for this thesis has been a qualitative text analysis since and leads to the result that Jagers and Walgraves theory of populism as a communication-style is applicable to the Swedish case and that ?The Sweden Democrats? to a larger extent uses this political communication style, than the two other parties..

This report describes a comparative study of the change in grading system in the year of 1995 and the coming year of 2012. The objective is to analyze and compare the political debate from two Swedish parties, the Social democrats and the Moderates, from a number of the parties political periodicals. Futher the objective is to show, from the periodicals debate, what approach to knowledge the parties are presenting. The theoretical base of this study is rooted in the political background of grading system and in literature defining different theories about knowledge and approach to knowledge. The investigation is qualitative and the main research method is text analysis.The conclusions is that the parties overall stood their ground and kept their opinions throughout the two debates and the change in grade systems.

The purpose of this essay was to find out what alcoholics themselves mean were the way out of their drinking abuse.The questions at stake are:· What kind of context did the interviewed live in before and after the turning point?· How did the process of getting out of the alcohol abuse look like?· What different factors may have influenced the turning point, the maintenance and the interviewee's choice to stop the abuse of alcohol?· Where there any other important occurrences that may have had an impact on their decision to stop drinking?For the investigation we have interviewed three women and five men. They all have had sever problems with alcohol, but all of them also have found a way out of the abuse.Our research shows that the way out of alcohol abuse is very complex and individual. The turning point is rather a process than a single occurrence. Our research also shows that the interaction between the alcohol and important individuals in their immediate surroundings are the absolute most important factor to stop using alcohol in a destructive way but also important when it comes to maintaining soberness..

This thesis explores and compares the former armed opposition groups; Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO), Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) and South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) transformation processes into political parties. The first question addressed is; What factors determines the ability of these armed opposition groups to transform into political parties after armed conflict? The question is addressed through four structural and organizational factors; international involvement, the organizations ideology and identity, their ability to change inter-elite relationships and their ability to change collective incentive strategies. The second question addressed is if the transformations process can affect the parties? degree of institutionalization? The degree of institutionalization is examined through the party's adaptility, complexity, autonomy and coherence.