France is committed to its ambition to lift the European Union's arms embargo imposed on China after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. France is of today the only member state that is acting to lift the arms embargo, evoking questions of motives behind its behavior. The underlying assumption in this essay is that France's actions reflect a need to find new ways of adapting itself and surviving faced with the threats of its decreased international influence. By using three different perspectives ? realism, liberalism and constructivism ? this essay examines three possible models of analysis to explain France's behavior.An analysis of the discourse covering this essay´s topic between 1989-2007 provided the basis of the paper.

AbstractThe aim of this study is to investigate the implementation process and the implementation steering of the social development aspects, gender equality and integration, in the program for regional development of the region Kronoberg in the period of 2004-2007.The study asks three questions: 1) How have the social development aspects, gender equality and integration, been implemented in the program for regional development of the region Kronoberg? 2) What has facilitated or hindered the implementation of the two social development aspects? 3) What possibilities to steer the implementation process of the two social development aspects exist at the governmental and at the regional level?In order to answer these questions a qualitative method has been used. To be able to analyse the empirical material, which consists of documents and interviews, the theoretical framework comprehends the policy process and implementation steering. The conclusion is that the incorporation of the social development aspects in the regional development program does not fully correspond with the central intentions, and that is due to circumstances at the regional level..

The focus of this thesis is on social workers? knowledge in assessing and making decisions in child welfare cases. The primary aim is to identify what skills or knowledge social workers find most useful within child welfare agencies in Swedish municipalities. Six different types of knowledge, social policy and the approach of child welfare cases are perspectives considered in the analysis. The interviews with social workers were held in three agencies in southern Sweden, in 2014.

The aim of this study was to compare educational systems in Sweden, Czech Republic, Italy and Scotland. In the light of the Bologna Declaration signed in 1999, I was particularly interested in comparing social work educations in these four countries. Especially to clarify how far they have come to fulfill the goals of the common European educational policy.Central questions asked were: How do the educational systems look like in each of the four countries? How are the social work educations organized in each of them? In what ways do the social work educations differ? How can we explain such differences?Each country in this study represents a different welfare regime, and therefore I was challenged to find out if this has an impact on the implementation of the incentives of the Bologna Declaration. By studying various documents from the European Union, documents from each country and presentations of various social work programmes, I have come to the conclusion that the differences found mainly depends on the historical and socioeconomic traditions in the countries.

Denna studie handlade om att undersöka vilka energireducerande metoder som åtta svenska rederier inom linjetrafiken har valt att tillämpa ombord på sina fartyg. Detta för att kunna ge en bild om vilka eventuellt nya system och metoder framtida sjömän står inför. Metoden som användes var genom ett utskickat frågeformulär där berörda rederier kunde svara på frågor angående deras energibesparingar. Även rederiernas hemsidor undersöktes för att kunna få en djupare insikt om vilka energibesparande metoder rederierna använde sig av. Sedan söktes vidare information om dessa energibesparande metoder för att kunna ge en beskriva dem.

There is a known link between relative deprivation and street crime among market liberal countries. Although some research has been done with cross-national data, there is none to suggest that the observed link is as valid in a country well known for its extended welfare and generous social expenditure like Sweden. The following study uses longitudinal data to see if this recognized link between relative deprivation and street crime also stands in a country with almost a century long tradition of striving for social-, economic- and cultural equality. Even though Sweden, over the last decade, has been subjected to a series of deregulations due to policy changes at national level, and with a following rise in inequality, it is still considered to be one of the most equal countries in the west. It is therefore not unlikely that the high degree of social security will reduce the negative impact of relative deprivation on social relations among its citizens, perhaps enough so that the correlation will be significantly weakened.

During the study's first stage we noticed that the Swedish term ? utanförskap? was constructed for political purposes, the term?s ambiguity what was first raised our interest. Therefore the aims of this study was to examine how social workers at the social welfare office and the labor market related project Framtid Kronoberg  as well as politicians within the administration of Arbete & Välfärd (Work & Welfare) relates to utanförskap as a social phenomenon. The study?s second aim was to examine how the aforementioned persons consider utanförskap to be counteracted among young adults.

I denna uppsats undersöks om det förekommer fiskal illusion i det svenska pensionssystemet. Fiskal illusion innebär att en felaktig bild av sambandet mellan kostnader och förmåner i det offentliga systemet uppstått hos medborgarna. Vi utreder vad en sådan illusion kan bero på, vilken betydelser den har och vilka åtgärder som kan vidtas för att minska den. Det framkommer att fiskal illusion existerar och att den till stor del beror på utformningen av pensionsavgifterna. Framförallt är det uppdelningen i en arbetsgivaravgift och en egenavgift, samt att båda betalas in av arbetsgivaren som leder till oklarheter.

Our aim with this study is to investigate whether or not Utbildningsradions - which is a public broadcasting agency - educational programmes reproduce the existing gender patterns of the female and male genders. We have chosen to analyse two educational programmes, Home Farm Twins and Rena rama forntiden.We use a social constructionist theory regarding the construction and reproduction of gender and the method we have chosen to use is a qualitative content analysis to study the educational programmes.Our conclusion is that in the case of Home Farm Twins, it reproduces the current stereotypes that exist in society. Rena rama forntiden on the other hand does not, the program has got a clear gender perspective in regards to its content. Though it can be said that in some ways it does not reflect upon the gender patterns that exist in society today, to a satisfactionary extent.Utbildningsradion does not achieve its policy concerning Home Farm Twins, but on the other hand it shows that in the case of Rena rama forntiden they do own up to the standards regarding cultural diversity and creative aim..

The aim of this master?s thesis is to analyse the construction of European identity in three ofcontemporary EU initiated projects for the digitisation of collections from museums, archives, andlibraries. The source material consists of the web pages of the projects Minerva, MICHAEL, andEuropeana, as well as some other policy documents on digitisation and access from EU authorities.Theories on nationalism and construction of heritage are used as an overall context to the problem.After a brief description of the mentioned projects, the author undertakes an analysis of theways that the concept of ?European heritage? is depicted in the source material. The result is thefollowing: normally, the true European heritage is considered being united even though it isdiveded culturally, historically and linguistically.

Trots att den svenska policyn, för skydd av nationella minoriteter, infördes med hopp om att lösa vissa problem hävdas i denna uppsats att annan problematik kan ha uppstått i dess kölvatten. Både vad gäller motiv och innebörd kan delar av policyn ses som problematiska, vilket i huvudsak grundar sig i att det har skapats en skillnad mellan olika etniska minoriteter. Policyn innebär att särskilda åtgärder vidtas för att skydda vissa kulturer. Vi sluter oss till åsikten att kulturer är centrala i människors liv, och just därför anser vi det motiverat att diskutera kring vilka etniska minoriteter som inte får tillgång till detta skydd. Vi menar att denna diskussion saknas i svensk policy.

Den här uppsatsen handlar om utbildningspolitik och syftar till att undersöka hur svenska politiska partier talar om skolan i ett antal debattartiklar och repliker, samt om de är överens i några aspekter och vilka dessa i sådant fall är. Utgångspunkten är att det sker en avpolitisering av politik, där kampen mellan ideologier inte längre existerar på samma sätt som tidigare. Genom diskursanalys har ett antal texter analyserats med ett resultat som visar att det mycket väl verkar stämma att partierna inte längre kämpar ideologier emellan, utan att man är övergripande överens och först och främst förvaltar ett redan existerande system. Den politiska kampen, eller spänningen, är inte särskilt stark då samtliga partier är eniga på flera punkter. Däremot existerar en diskursiv spänning kvar i aspekten av att man ständigt försöker underminera varandras kapacitet att vara i regeringsställning.

I uppsatsen studerar jag hur Institutet för arbetsmarknadspolitisk utvärdering (IFAU) har följt upp och utvärderat det svenska friårsförsöket. Jag undersöker om deras tillvägagångssätt stämmer överens med hur man teoretiskt bör följa upp och utvärdera arbetsmarknadspolitiska program. Hemström med fleras (2002) ?Att följa upp och utvärdera arbetsmarknadspolitiska program? ligger som huvudsaklig teoretisk grund för studien. IFAU:s uppföljningar av friårsförsöket stämmer till stora delar överens med vad man bör ha med i enkla uppföljningar av program och de har även studerat hur implementeringsprocessen av friårsförsöket har gått till.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the cooperation between the public employment service and the refugee reception in a medium-sized municipality in southern Sweden on basis of the establishment reform. The study examines how the collaborative process is regarded when it comes to implementation of the reform, and when it comes to the directives and resource allocation between the employment services and the refugee reception. The study also focuses on the deficiencies and the benefits that can be discerned with the establishment reform at local level.A qualitative data collection method has been used. It is semi-structured interviews with workers from the public employment service and the refugee reception. Information materials and evaluations that various authorities have made have also been investigated.The study concludes that it is important that the directives are clarified and that a new local and regional agreement will be established on paper.

The unemployment rate in Sweden is increasing even though there are more and more municipal activation policies established. The activation policies aim is to decrease the unemployment but that is not yet happening. This problem has led us to go through with this study.The aim of this study was, from an organizational perspective, to examine and describe how the interaction works between the Municipal Employment Services, Employment Office and Social Services in a Swedish medium sized municipality. Special focus was upon the legitimacy of the Municipal Employment Services.  This study was based on nine semi-structured interviews with managers and employers within the organizations in this study.