The essay aims to compare Swedish and Finnish decisions regarding refugee policies by tracing them back to the critical junctures when the policies were established, in order to explain why there are big differences prevalent today. The questions asked involve the motivations of the refugee policies and how they have changed over time.The theoretical framework employed is based on historical institutionalism and path dependency. By using a most similar system design and process tracing, material in the form of government declarations and government bills are studied and summed up in two analytical models. The results show that there might be a weak path dependency in the case of Finland. However it is more apparent in the case of Sweden, with frequent statements of a generous refugee policy that is characterised by humanity.

Globalization is one of the most popular catchphrases in the international relations debate today. Globalization is a complex concept with as many definitions as authors. National borders or jurisdictions do not control the phenomenon, instead, it is moving without restraints from region to region. Is this a threat to the sovereignty of nation-state and an end of the system of Westphalia? Does the globalization undermine the nation-state by increased factor-mobility, less tax revenue and participations multilateral co-operations, as the globalists think? Or is it strengthens its importance by offering better allocation of resources through free and healthy competition, as the skeptics believe.The aim of this thesis is to analyze theories of globalization by applying them on Sweden and the Netherlands.

Denna uppsats redogör för hur sociologin samt svensk självmordsprevention konstruerar självmord som problem. För att ringa in detta har socialkonstruktionistiska teorier om sociala problem och förklaringar använts. Dessa teorier har i analysen applicerats på ett varierande material bestående av sociologisk litteratur samt intresseföreningar, socialpolitiska åtgärder och dokument som hör till dessa. Resultaten av denna studie har visat att självmord som avvikande handling ofta är i behov av förklaring. Dessutom framgår det att sociologin koncentrerat sig på självmord som teoretiskt problem vilket medfört konsekvensen att lösningar till stor del uteblivit.

This thesis investigates how lobbying influences the European Union Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles (2020-2025). It asks which actors dominate, what strategies they use, and how these patterns can be explained by pluralism, corporatism, new institutionalism, and Kl?ver?s exchange logic. Using a qualitative case study with process tracing and text analysis, the study examines consultation data, official EU documents, and transparency reports. Findings show that commercial actors dominate consultations and expert groups, prioritising product-focused measures over systemic change, while transparency gaps enable informal influence.

The aim of this study is to through six interviews, with six experienced, social workers?, in three cities, understand how the child?s position in the Swedish child protective services? enquiries has change, and the factors behind it. The aim is also to compare if the social workers? view of the child?s position in the enquire has change accordingly to Socialstyrelsens intentions of BBIC. The theoretical approaches that was used is the new institutionalism, the Shier?s pathways to participation and the term discretion.

In 1992, the European Union began institutionalizing the cooperation against terrorism within the EU structure. Since then, this cooperation has gone through a number of changes. From a historical institutionalistic point of departure we explain these changes by identifying sources of institutional resilience and institutional change. Based on these results, we were able to pose hypotheses of when and what category of change was most likely to take place.The results show that the cooperation against terrorism within the EU was most likely to remain stable because of strong sources of institutional resilience. If change would occur through an increase in the sources of institutional change, it was most likely to be of a less extensive category.

The purpose with this master thesis is to analyze how the Swedish County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen) acts in an environment that changes fast with more regional actors than ever before. There are also proposals regarding new public authorities and eventually a reduction of the Swedish County Administrative Board.By studying a report issued by the Board in December 2005 the aim is to find their intentions and actions for the future. By using three diverse theoretical concepts - the public organisation, the instrumental perspective and two separate perspectives from new institutionalism - the expectation is that I will have the possibility to analyze the intentions of the organisation in many different ways.In this case study I also want to take into consideration the central discourses in the regional debate, shall we decentralize or shall we keep on having a strong state even in the future? What kind of regional policy does the Swedish County Administrative Board prefer?The result shows that the Swedish County Administrative Board struggles for a strong state even in the future, but it does not propose any huge changes. In many ways it seems like they act as they are supposed to - as an instrument for the government - but despite that it is obvious that the Swedish County Administrative Board tries to show that it has the traditions and knowledge.

AbstractIn this thesis we analyze how institutions describe the dichotomy between ?problem? and ?resource? when dealing with young adults. We also analyze the consequences of this dichotomy as it involves the younger generation's participation and group identity in today's society. Dichotomies and New Institutionalism Theory is the base for this case study completed in Malmö, Sweden. We have done eight qualitative interviews with politicians and employees in Malmö municipality and a quantitative content analysis of reference documents from both the Malmö and Swedish governments.

Bakgrund: Tidigare forskning och litteratur som behandlar controllerns professionella yrkes-roll beskriver den tekniska rollen, där controllerns administrativa och funktionalistiska roll i organisationen står i fokus. Rollen kan beskrivas vidare med hjälp av sociologisk rollteori där rollskapande och rollåterskapande är två centrala begrepp.Problem: Utifrån tidigare forskning har vi formulerat tre frågor i syfte att förstå controllerns yrkesroll utifrån ett socialt rollperspektiv: Vad betyder begreppet controller och vad säger teori och tidigare forskning att en controller bör göra? Vad är controllerns roll i praktiken och hur skapas yrkesrollen? På vilket sätt går controllerns rollskapande att förklara med hjälp av rollteori?Metod och teori: Vi tillämpade en fenomenologisk tolkande metod i denna studie, då vi valde att fokusera på controllern som individ. Utifrån sociologisk rollteori ur ett multipelt perspektiv analyserar vi rollbegreppet, i syfte att få kunskap om hur individer skapar mening i den värld de lever i. Vi använder oss av tre rollteorier av tre välkända författare inom sociologisk roll-teori för att vidare tolka controllerns roll bortom den tekniska beskrivningen.

Klimatkonventionens ramverk, om att stabilisera graden av växthusgaser i atmosfären på en nivå som minskar människans påverkan på den globala uppvärmningen, fick i Kyoto 1997 ett protokoll som innebar bindande krav för ratificerande länder. Kyotoprotokollet trädde i kraft 2005 med resultatet att samtliga OECD-länder, exklusive USA och Australien, accepterade differentierade åtaganden om att sammantaget minska sina växthusgasutsläpp. Undersökningen utgår från detta faktum och med en jämförande studie mellan Sverige och Australien, genom teorin liberal institutionalism, syftas till att frambringa ett svar på huruvida Kyotoprotokollet är ett effektivt internationellt samarbete ur implementeringssynpunkt. Det empiriska materialet är hämtat från lagtexter och policydokument. Resultat och analys visar att Kyotoprotokollet är effektivt i avseendet att det har bidragit till uppkomsten av en omfattande universell diskussion som har påverkat även ett icke-ratificerande land som Australien att mer aktivt minska sina växthusgasutsläpp.

The overarching goal of this paper is to explain the intensive occurrence of partnerships ? regarded as a specific organizational structure ? in the formulation and implementation of Regional Growth Programs.By using theoretical concepts from new institutionalism, the paper tries to examine the explanatory capacity of this theory in the specific case of partnerships. The basis is a skeptical stance towards the conventional interpretation that views partnerships as rational organizational tools. Hence, the purpose of the paper is also to compare our own institutional explanation with the conventional.The paper finds that the occurrence of partnerships can be understood as the effect of an intensive institutional pressure. The government has, in what we regard as the institution for regional development, prescribed the partnership as a rational solution ? a rationalized myth - to the regional growth problem.

Inledning : Postmodernismen har existerat i cirka 30 år och varit på den sociologiska agendan i drygt 20 år. Den har fått utstå omfattande kritik, men har också lockat många. Ofta framstår den postmoderna teorin som irrationalistisk och enbart kritisk, men om man utför en närmare granskning finner man en systematisk teori med positiva ansatser. Denna sida lyfts dock sällan fram, men har under de senaste 10 åren fått allt större fotfäste inom samhällsvetenskaperna, ibland under beteckningen postmodern teori, men minst lika ofta har den kallats vid andra namn. Att finna rötterna till den postmoderna teorin och se hur denna systematiska teori växer fram är därför viktigt för att förstå den samtida utvecklingen inom sociologisk teori.Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att försöka frilägga de gemensamma nämnarna i den postmoderna teorin och på så vis kunna betrakta den som en rörelse med enhetlig grund och positiva förtecken.

Klimatkonventionens ramverk, om att stabilisera graden av växthusgaser i atmosfären på en nivå som minskar människans påverkan på den globala uppvärmningen, fick i Kyoto 1997 ett protokoll som innebar bindande krav för ratificerande länder. Kyotoprotokollet trädde i kraft 2005 med resultatet att samtliga OECD-länder, exklusive USA och Australien, accepterade differentierade åtaganden om att sammantaget minska sina växthusgasutsläpp. Undersökningen utgår från detta faktum och med en jämförande studie mellan Sverige och Australien, genom teorin liberal institutionalism, syftas till att frambringa ett svar på huruvida Kyotoprotokollet är ett effektivt internationellt samarbete ur implementeringssynpunkt. Det empiriska materialet är hämtat från lagtexter och policydokument. Resultat och analys visar att Kyotoprotokollet är effektivt i avseendet att det har bidragit till uppkomsten av en omfattande universell diskussion som har påverkat även ett icke-ratificerande land som Australien att mer aktivt minska sina växthusgasutsläpp.

With background in the acknowledgement of the current period of major change in the characteristics of traditional Swedish foreign policy, considering the membership in the European Union, as well as the new contextual scenarios that Sweden has been situated in after the end of the cold war, this thesis aims at scrutinizing the Swedish Foreign Policy from 1991 to 2010. The purpose of the thesis is further to localize continuity and change in the ideas which Sweden has explicitly stated in its foreign policy. Based on the theory of institutionalism, the thesis also aims to bring forward plausible explanations built on the main empirical findings. This has been done by identifying different types of goals and means within realism and liberalism as well as categorizing each theory within three ideal types.The chosen research method has been a qualitative text analysis with focus on an ideational analysis. The material on which the descriptive analysis is based upon is constituted by the annual statements of government policy in parliamentary debates on foreign affairs.The results of the thesis show that the ideas that are related to solidarity, consensus and active foreign policy are constant through the period of examination.

The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of the phenomenon that there are so many young people placed in institutions in Sweden despite the valuable knowledge regarding the problems and risks of doing so. The questions that follow in the essay were what guided the social workers to choose institutional placement for youngsters. It went on to also ask if this knowledge could contribute to an increased understanding of why there were so many young people placed in institutions despite the criticism from scientists. To accomplish the goal of the essay, former science in the subject was reported and six social workers within social services were interviewed. The material of the interviews was analyzed with help from the theory of human service organizations, street-level bureaucrats work situation and the new institutionalism.The result of the investigation showed that the social workers choices to place young people in institutions is guided by specific work and organizational factors connected with a belief in the helping function of the surroundings.