This bachelor thesis examines the library as a public sphere in the notion of Jürgen Habermas? theory from 1962. The questions asked concerns how the public sphere is discussed in relation to Swedish public libraries today in our late modern society. The analyzed material consists of the Swedish Cultural Bill of 2009 and five qualitative interviews with librarians. The material is analyzed with two of the four social actions presented by the sociologist Maw Weber: value-rational and instrumental.

This study aims to examine attitudes and conceptions of staff who work with mentally disabled persons, concerning normalization and gender. Six qualitative interviews with such professionals were performed and subsequently analyzed. Since the method of this study is qualitative, no claim of generalizability is made. The interview material has been categorized into themes by means of coding. The result of the study is presented according to those themes.

AbstractCopyright is designed to not interfere with society's general and overriding interest of effective competition. An effective market competition benefits consumers by lowering prices, raising the quality and expands the range of goods and services.The purpose of the paper is to investigate if the collecting societies licensing violates competition laws. On the basis of the investigation regarding the bill for a new Swedish copyright law (URL), mainly the new wording that regulates the license agreement, corresponds to the EU competition rules and customs within the area.The collecting societies licensing violates the competition laws in the following cases? Discrimination of members because of nationality?           Authors transferring their sole rights to global exploitation?           The collecting society have the right to manage the rights after the author have left as a member?           Users that are established abroad do not get access to the repertoire of  the collecting societies, the same goes for concerted practice if this is the purpose or result?           Parallel behaviours that cannot be explained objectively?           Dividing the market?           Fixed Prices?           Refusal to sign multi-territorial licenses?           Apply different conditions for equivalent transactions resulting in competition disadvantages for a company that cannot be justified by reasonable causesCurrently there are no indications that the new bill to a new URL violates EU law. The author of the paper thinks this may change if the collective management extends, so that other member states get the extended license agreements, then the single market is affected by the competition restriction that the new bill to the URL mean.

The aim with this masters thesis is to investigate how gender is presented in Swedish picture books, in order to give librarians and other actors in the field knowledge about what kind of books they supply impressionable children with. I investigate if and how the changes concerning gender-equality in the Swedish society during the last 25 years are reflected in childrens literature, and compare how men and women are portrayed in four books from the early 1980s with four books from the 2000s. My study is delimited to three aspects of character formation, introduced by Maria Nikolajeva: description of psychology, actions and relations to other characters. It is carried through by consultation of Yvonne Hirdmans theory of how men and women are held apart and that the man in this relation constitutes the norm as well as Nikolajevas list of typical male and female characteristics. By reading and interpreting the chosen books, I analyse both text and pictures.

Social work as an traditional aid is an area that provides welfare services financed from public funds, which is one of the methods of microloans. Microloans have since the mid-1970s has become an increasingly common tool in the fight against poverty. Instead of purely assistance is now offered microloans from more banks and other institutions, as well as NGOs (non governmental organization). This paper aims to study whether and how microcredit can contribute to the empowerment of women in Bangladesh and India. This study is based on a qualitative text analysis, and has hence been based on a number of reports and articles. The paper examines, from a radical feminist perspective how microcredit can fight and eliminate poverty, and how empowerment can help women in developing countries to become independent and liberated. The introduction of micro-loan is considered to have positive effects on women's empowerment in the short term. But it is, however, the longer term effects that are considered to have the greatest positive impact on society's unequal structures.

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.

This study was made in collaboration between Umeå University and Västerbotten sportsfederation. The study was aimed to find out how the municipalities are working with variousissues in the sports field. A subject of interest for this study was to see if the municipalitieswere implementing strategies in the sports field on determined goals by using policydocuments. Our study focused mostly on kids and youth that participate in organized sports inVästerbotten. Other aspects of interest in the study were economics in sports, how youthsports should be organized, and segregation in sports due to financial factors.

The aim of this study was to examine young adult cannabis users? attitudes towards cannabis and their perception of the normalization of cannabis. The purpose was also to explore how their views of cannabis correspond with norms regarding cannabis. This study is based on interviews with five young adult cannabis users. The theoretical framework is based on Parker?s normalization thesis, Goffman?s notion of stigma, Becker?s definition of outsiders and the definition of social identity developed by Stone.

The purpose of the essay is to analyze the welfare state from a gender perspective. Further, the paper analyzes and critically examines three different normative solutions provided by Irish Marion Young, Nancy Fraser and Jürgen Habermas for the realization of a welfare state that includes women.Habermas argues that the welfare state has created a situation of dependency and state paternalism which reduces both individual and collective self-determination. Young follows Habermas? argument. She argues for a political climate where justice is reduced to the distribution of material goods rather than the elimination of underlying relations of domination and gender specific patterns.

This is a study concerning the conventions surrounding death and it´s rituals during the latter half ofthe 21th century. The study´s main material is the official magazine of SBF - Sweden´s funeral association ? Memento. By studying the undertaker and the self-image of his services at an intervalof years from 1945 to 2005, one is able to notice certain changes of values concerning what afuneral, a chest and a tombstone really is ? or rather how the meaning of these symbols of death slowly shifts from the ?dignity? of death towards the self-expression of the individual.In the 1940´s towards the 80´s, there is much talk of giving the dead a ?dignified? funeral and burial, and this is how the undertaker defends himself against public critique of his or her´sprofession´s ?trade with death?.

The purpose of this media scientific study is to contribute to a better understanding about how blind people?s empowerment and participation may affect their role in the digital society.Earlier international studies in this area have shown that blind people not only need more knowledge then the seeing population about the computer, but also about the technology behind their tools for using Internet. The results from these studies have also shown that Internet increases the blind people?s independents and that those who use Internet feel more involved in the society.A qualitative method was chosen to study the three most common categories from the earlier studies: knowledge of technology, empowerment and participation. Are there differences in the results compared to our study in Sweden 2014?Interviews with eight blind, experienced computer users have shown that knowledge of technology is essential for their use of Internet and that the Internet increases their empowerment and their participation.

AbstractUniversity of Växjö, School of Social SciencesCourse: PO 5363, Political Science 41-60Title: US and UN, cooperation or conflict?Author: Charlotta BjuvlingSupervisor: Lennart BergfeldtDate: Autumn 2007The international society changed a great deal after the end of the cold war. It gave the United Nations a new oppertunity to act after the deadlock during the war, and it gave the United States a new hegemone role in the world politics. The aim of this paper is to investigate wheter the United States foreign policy action have been accordence to a realistic way of thinking since the end of the cold war. I will do this with the help of my research questions:? Have the United States followed the guidelines of the United Nations in their foreign policy?? Are there signs that show of a change, either towards more or less cooperation between United Nations and the United States?To answer these questions I will use the theories realism and Hedley Bulls concepts of fairness and his ideas of an international system in his book ?An Anarchical Society?.

Our starting point has been to use the football player Zlatan Ibrahimovic as a model person for individualism that seams to break the ordinary socialization pattern in Sweden. The purpose of this study is to examine how the team leaders handle the socialization of more individualistic focused individuals/young persons into groups, since the Swedish School Curriculum is designed to meet each individual on his or hers former experiences. Is the socialization of individuals within team sports affected by their cultural background? And, in that case, should those facts have consequences for the sport subject at school? Those are the questions we want to explore. Besides a survey of documents, we have been seeking answers to our questions through interviews with the team leaders Roland Nilsson and Peter Bergander, the pedagogues/teachers Karin Jutterström and Håkan Jensgård and the professional football player Abgar Barson.Our study shows that the leaders and teachers of today have begun to change their view about individualists.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the Swedish Plymouth brethren?s relation to contemporary technology. What types of technology are considered acceptable and where do they draw the line? Due to the brethren?s separation from the parts of the world they believe leads people away from God, such as the entertainment industry, immoralities etc., they reject use of television and radio. These two are viewed as uncontrolled types of technology since the user does not have control of its contents.

This work has treated the subject of gender, with demarcation against the norms regarding appearance and beauty, conveyed by the media and how it affects society. This is expressed through social satire cartoons. This work has also led to an exploration of the importance of a personal drawing style and how it manifests itself..