Society and technology develop together in interaction processes. Because of the development of information technology, the Industrial society has been left behind in favor of a society where information is the key production factor, i.e. the Information society. In the Information society, social functions and processes are organized in networks. These networks integrate geographically separate markets to parts of a complex global economic system.

Social control in different forms has existed in all known societies. This control has taken different shapes and expressions. In older smaller communities there was a collective control among the citizens. In modern societies the state is trying to control the lives of the citizens. These control mechanisms can be seen as both freedom-reducing and freedom inducing depending on which concept of freedom one upholds.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union a lot of hope has been put on civil society to help develop Russia into a more democratic society. This study explores the constructive elements in the relationship between civil society and the state in Russia, and how this enables the work toward political development. By using Julie Fishers theory about political development and organisational autonomy I discuss the varying and often complex ways in which civil society and the state interacts. These are often not mentioned in the liberal tradition, which believes that civil society's most important democratic function is to act as a watchdog for the state.There is very limited political space for NGO's in authoritative Russia. The existing oppositional NGO's are important for the political development, but they are few and their impacts on society are limited.

Prisons are for many an unknown world, and few know about the prison culture which includes unwritten rules, power structures, interactions and relationships between inmates and correctional employees.While many think that Swedish prisons are too comfortable,inmates are facing extreme stress due to surveillance and detention, by depriving inmates their possibility to shape their own lives. When the inmates is deprived of control over their own life?s the penal system have great power to shape and to influence the inmates.The purpose of this paper is to investigate prisoners' experiences of treatment and exercise of power in prisons. Starting point is to examine what are the kinds of relationships between prison officers and inmates from a power perspective, if there is any difference between the closed and open prisons and how the inmates affected by the structures that exist.Based on my overall purpose, and with my informant´s stories which revealed a number of similar points, four main headings were developed; Mass media and society´s view, and unknown world, interaction between inmates and prison officers and consequences.Prison officers with the role as a contact persons as well and other staff which work close to the inmates play a significant role by supporting through motivational interviewing and can help the inmates to gain insight about their life situation and actions. My informant?s underlined that a good contact person can either help or discourage.Inmates who contributed with their experiences express that there is a big difference between open-and closed prisons.

The senior essay examines the geographical imaginations, notions of Self and community that were mobilized in the media and by the government in conjunction with an event, namely, the space voyage of Christer Fuglesang ? the first Swedish astronaut in space on December ___ 2006. The study is a critical investigation of media discourses, representations of space, and geographical imaginations that were triggered by the event. The specific issues addressed by this study are (a) which representations of Sweden were mobilized in narrating the event? (b) In what ways has Fuglesang´s space voyage influenced the image of Sweden? (c) How was the event rallied vis-à-vis discourses of entrepreneurial culture and neoliberal growth by the government? (d) Which themes and clichés were mustered in the media dramaturgy of the event? (e) Which topics were excluded in media narratives and representation of the event? (f) Have familiar geographical imaginations, notions of Self and community been reconfigured? If so, how?The present study analyzes narratives of the event in the two largest newspapers in Sweden - Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter, as well the two biggest TV-channels ? Swedish Television and TV4.

Prisons are for many an unknown world, and few know about the prison culture which includes unwritten rules, power structures, interactions and relationships between inmates and correctional employees.While many think that Swedish prisons are too comfortable,inmates are facing extreme stress due to surveillance and detention, by depriving inmates their possibility to shape their own lives. When the inmates is deprived of control over their own life?s the penal system have great power to shape and to influence the inmates.The purpose of this paper is to investigate prisoners' experiences of treatment and exercise of power in prisons. Starting point is to examine what are the kinds of relationships between prison officers and inmates from a power perspective, if there is any difference between the closed and open prisons and how the inmates affected by the structures that exist.Based on my overall purpose, and with my informant´s stories which revealed a number of similar points, four main headings were developed; Mass media and society´s view, and unknown world, interaction between inmates and prison officers and consequences.Prison officers with the role as a contact persons as well and other staff which work close to the inmates play a significant role by supporting through motivational interviewing and can help the inmates to gain insight about their life situation and actions. My informant?s underlined that a good contact person can either help or discourage.Inmates who contributed with their experiences express that there is a big difference between open-and closed prisons.

AbstractKarin Johansson, Institutionen för genusvetenskap, Göteborgs universitet, 2007.?Bröst, rumpor och kroppsstrumpor: En kvinnas självförtroende är aldrig längre bort än närmsta shoppingcenter?.In Kanal 5?s production Snygg naken, based on the British television show How to look good naked, eight women undergo a make-over which is said to enhance their self-confidence and transform their attitudes toward their bodies. This, in turn, is accomplished with the assistance of a stylist and an undergarment expert. However, the transformations are based on normative structures and ideas regarding the female body, which, on the one hand governs the participants? needs for a make-over in the first place, and on the other hand forms the basis of the experts? authority.

In this thesis I explore the debate on surveillance in Swedishnewspapers that preceded the FRA law. The development ininformation technology has made it possible to monitor society toa greater extent than before. It is therefore interesting andimportant to explore a debate preceding a controversial law onsurveillance. The primary purpose of this thesis is to add to abetter understanding of how such a law was discussed in Swedishnewspapers and the relationship between idea and ideology in thisdebate. To answer these questions I explore the newspaper debateby using Isaiah Berlins notions of liberty, positive and negativeliberty.

The aim with this essay is to examine in which way self-realizing and solidarity can bereconciled in a multicultural society. The essay is a sociological literature study whichexamines the self- realizing process and puts it in a multicultural perspective.The issues areWhich role does self-realizing play for solidarity?How is solidarity created in a multicultural society?Can everyone be self-realized in a multicultural society?Conditions and problems for self-realizing processes are examined and are treated mainly onthe basis of Jeffrey C. Alexander and Axel Honneth theories. In the essay is established thatself-realizing and society-solidarity is mutually interdependent and that solidarity requires aform of shared value, but it doesn?t need to be based in the traditional values that commonhistory, ethnicity or culture.

Prisons are for many an unknown world, and few know about the prison culture which includes unwritten rules, power structures, interactions and relationships between inmates and correctional employees.While many think that Swedish prisons are too comfortable,inmates are facing extreme stress due to surveillance and detention, by depriving inmates their possibility to shape their own lives. When the inmates is deprived of control over their own life?s the penal system have great power to shape and to influence the inmates.The purpose of this paper is to investigate prisoners' experiences of treatment and exercise of power in prisons. Starting point is to examine what are the kinds of relationships between prison officers and inmates from a power perspective, if there is any difference between the closed and open prisons and how the inmates affected by the structures that exist.Based on my overall purpose, and with my informant´s stories which revealed a number of similar points, four main headings were developed; Mass media and society´s view, and unknown world, interaction between inmates and prison officers and consequences.Prison officers with the role as a contact persons as well and other staff which work close to the inmates play a significant role by supporting through motivational interviewing and can help the inmates to gain insight about their life situation and actions. My informant?s underlined that a good contact person can either help or discourage.Inmates who contributed with their experiences express that there is a big difference between open-and closed prisons.

Prisons are for many an unknown world, and few know about the prison culture which includes unwritten rules, power structures, interactions and relationships between inmates and correctional employees.While many think that Swedish prisons are too comfortable,inmates are facing extreme stress due to surveillance and detention, by depriving inmates their possibility to shape their own lives. When the inmates is deprived of control over their own life?s the penal system have great power to shape and to influence the inmates.The purpose of this paper is to investigate prisoners' experiences of treatment and exercise of power in prisons. Starting point is to examine what are the kinds of relationships between prison officers and inmates from a power perspective, if there is any difference between the closed and open prisons and how the inmates affected by the structures that exist.Based on my overall purpose, and with my informant´s stories which revealed a number of similar points, four main headings were developed; Mass media and society´s view, and unknown world, interaction between inmates and prison officers and consequences.Prison officers with the role as a contact persons as well and other staff which work close to the inmates play a significant role by supporting through motivational interviewing and can help the inmates to gain insight about their life situation and actions. My informant?s underlined that a good contact person can either help or discourage.Inmates who contributed with their experiences express that there is a big difference between open-and closed prisons.

When Sweden acceded to the European Union in 1995 the term social economy was introduced to the Swedish context, gradually replacing the term civil society. This replacement can be seen as an indicator of a changing meaning of what the concept of civil society used to stand for.The aim of this essay is to study if it is possible to identify changing perceptions of the role of civil society for democracy in Sweden in government bills between 2002 and 2008, and, if so, what effect does this have on the delineation between the civil society and the government.An analytical model is proposed consisting of two dimensions which both capture the roles of civil society for democracy and the model examines how those roles relate to the government.The conclusion is that the government still sees the main function of civil society as a democratic school and a change agent for democracy. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the civil society is increasingly regarded as more of a welfare producer than a fosterer of democracy..

This essay aims to examine managers experiences of control at the workplace within the property sector, and how these experiences differ between female and male managers. This study is a qualitative single case study that intends to offer a deeper understanding of a unique case and uses an abductive method approach. The essay is based on two main theories, Foucault?s (2003) theory of control and the gender system of Hirdman (1988, 2001) and is supplemented by previous studies of the modern workplace. The study is based on eighteen semi-structured interviews that aims to capture the participants personal experiences regarding control at the modern workplace, and the norms, surveillance, hierarchies, and self-discipline that make up this control.

Based on an analytical overview of post-Communist civil society development in Russia, the present thesis attempts a critical discussion of general civil society theory from the perspective of its relevance for the case study in question. The text consists of three closely interconnected, mutually reinforcing parts. In the first part, major issues of current civil society research are being thematically presented and discussed. The second part concerns itself with the case study as such. It is divided into two parts, one dealing with the relations between state and civil society in Russia, the other with civil society and the individual.

The discussion concerning what role the church and theology should have in a modern, western society is a question that is ongoing in Sweden as well as in other countries. The present; American theologians Stanley Hauerwas and Max L. Stackhouse have different ideas concerning the identity of the church and theology as well as their relation to the society they are in. This essay surveys their views on the church and the theology and how they should relate to the society. Hauerwas focuses his theology on the church, and the first part of the essay deals with his view on what makes a church, how it differs from the rest of the world and what the church?s calling is.