The representative democracy has become weakened during the last decades. At the same time the United Nations declared at the Rio de Janeiro meeting in 1992 that environmental problems can best be solved by involvement of all concerned citizens in decision-making. The main purpose of this study has been to examine if citizens panels is a possible way to involve citizens in environmental decision-making and what the outcomes can be. Furthermore the study has investigated what the participation has contributed to environmental politics and how representative the results have been. This has been carried out by investigating the Piteåpanel in the municipality of Piteå by conducting interviews.The result of the study shows that the involvement of the citizens in the decision-making influenced the environmental politics of the municipality.

AbstractThe purpose of this minor thesis is to describe and systematize the Swedish debate about Sweden?s participation in the defence community of the European Union. Should Sweden take part of this or not? My aim is to describe the debate in a structured and legible way, so that the reader can get a comprehensive picture. The questions of the study are:· Which actors join in the Swedish debate about Sweden?s military participation in the EU:s defensive community; the possible common defence of the EU and the EU:s military crisis management?· Which arguments are delivered (for and against) in the debate?To be able to fulfil the aim of this study I have done an argumentation analysis.

This thesis deals with the concept of soft balancing, traditionally defined as the diplomatic means of restraining a dominant state's ability to exercise its military power. As the dominant power in today's unipolar system, the United States, and other states? behaviour towards it, is the focus of analysis. The aim of this thesis is to explore the possibilities of developing the concept of soft balancing so as to include strategies to restrain also the political and economic capabilities of a dominant power. The thesis also considers the possibilities of soft balancing that small states ? to a large extent overlooked in existing theories on the subject - can possess.As a state with policies that aim to reduce the U.S.

The purpose of the study is to contribute knowledge about the representation of fiction authors who have written in languages other than Swedish in educational school books within the Swedish subject. This is done in relation to the school's promotion of cultural diversity, a globalized world and to the Swedish curriculum. The study is a combination of a qualitative and a quantitative analysis that takes its starting point in six educational books for the courses Swedish 1 and 2. The analysis shows that all study materials include a broad representation of authorships from Europe and the USA. The selection of authors from other parts of the world is, however, limited.

Background and problem: The importance of banks was clearly shown during the last financial crises, when the crises that started in the banking sector spread to the rest of the world. This is one of the reasons that this thesis is focused on banks in particular, one other reason is that a lot of previous studies has chosen to exclude banks because of the fact that their balance sheet differ from non-financial companies. This thesis is a beginning in filling in the gap that exists in the knowledge of banks capital structure. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to prove that it is possible to explain the capital structure in banks and that differences in the capital structure of the banks in Great Britain, Sweden and the United states of America exists. Method: The fact that our study is partly a replication of two earlier studies made a deductive approach most appropriate.

AbstractTo take the role of another is an important and a central part of human interaction. When we take the role of another we not only learn about them but also we learn about ourselves and how we interact with other people.  Social work in this form, working with directly with families in crises, is much about understanding other people?s perspective and feelings. It is important to know the strategy of one?s work and which perspective to work from.

The term Temporary places could be used to describe a wide range of shapes, functions and not least different time sets . In this thesis, however, the intention of temporality should be seen as the main definition regarding this subject. This thesis is based on a literature study and the aim is to explore temporary places, their values and their functions. Furthermore, the purpose is also to highlight temporary places as a method to be used by urban planners, in order to create more flexibility in the city planning of today. The thesis describes the underlying factors and conditions creating an increased interest in flexible planning. Furthermore, a number of tactics and applications are presented, all drawn from current research on the topic.

The conflict over Western Sahara is primarily a conflict over sovereignty, with Morocco on one side claiming territorial rights, and the Polisario Front on the other side claiming popular sovereignty. The conflict has till this day not been resolved and is in a dire need of a solution. In order to determine which solution is the most appropriate, an understanding of all the complex aspects of the conflict is required. In this context, the study aims to examine the conflict in a globalized setting by analyzing how the American news agency AP News portrays the conflict. The US media conglomerate was specifically chosen due to its dominance over international information flows.

Structuring education so that students can discover connections between schoolwork and their everyday lives is a crucial task for a teacher. This is especially true in today?s school system that seeks to foster a spirit of lifelong learning, since educational motivation depends on being able to connect to the tasks at hand. In a system where these connections are not present, students will be motivated only by institutional mechanisms such as test results and grades. This leads to them using a number of techniques for ?optimizing the system? by getting maximal results for minimal effort. This essay looks at two pedagogical movements that aim to decrease the gap between schoolwork and students? reality.

Background: As a part of a national health control program, Statens VeterinärmedicinskaAnstalt performs diagnostics to screen flocks for certain pathogens causing high mortality,morbidity and/or serious economical losses. There are several viruses in the programincluding IBDV (infectious bursal disease virus), IBV (infectious bronchitis virus) and NDV(Newcastle disease virus). Method: 96 serum samples were collected from different poultryflocks in Sweden and analyzed by ELISA, which are currently used in the health controlprogram as well as by a commercial prototype of a multiplex immunoassay manufactured byLuminex Corp., which is currently under evaluation at the United States Department ofAgriculture USDA. This 4-plex assay detects antibodies for the three above-mentionedviruses as well as antibodies of avian reovirus. In the context of this study the ELISAs run inroutine diagnostics as well as a REO ELISA were used as the standard for comparison.Result: The antibody concentration in serum from vaccinated chickens was high while theantibody concentration level in serum from not vaccinated chickens was low.

AbstractThe purpose of this paper was to examine preschool teacher?s thoughts about using Manual Signs as Alternative and Augmentative Communication as an aid for children in/with communication disabilities. The method I?ve used in the survey is qualitative interview.The three interviewed preschool teachers use Manual Signs foremost for those children who have a poorly developed spoken language. Manual Signs are used as a complement to the spoken language and the preschool teachers use it to increase the children?s power of concentration.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att utröna huruvida Förenta Nationerna (FN) och säkerhetsrådet utifrån idag rådande förhållanden kan förhindra folkmord. Uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk baseras främst på Mary Kaldors teorier om ?nya krig? och på Helen Feins teori om hur ett folkmord kan förhindras. Det Kaldor baserar sin teori på är en förändring av krigsföringen, en förändring som till stora delar sammanfaller med globaliseringens utveckling de senaste 20 åren. Feins teori säger att det finns två vägar för att förhindra ett folkmord, den primära och sekundära preventionen, vilka båda redogörs för i uppsatsen.

This essay explores the economical and social paradigms surrounding one of the most influentialNordic border dynastic noble families in the second half of the fifteenth century - the AxelssonTotts. How mercantile possibilities and opportunities offered to them, reflected on their politicalactions and social bands. The Axelsson brothers of the Tott Dynasty would become of one of themost powerful noble families within the Nordic Union between 1444 och 1487.Axel Pedersen (Tott) would through well chosen marriage alliances into the noble families of bothDenmark and Sweden, and with political prowess lay the foundation for one of the most dynamicfamily empires of the fifteenth century. In the year 1442, the Axelsson brothers swore loyalty toeach other; to protect and defend their mercantile and economical interests in Denmark andSweden. They would eventually control the trading routes in the border areas of the Union, and byexploiting the political chaos within the Union they would gain access and influence to the landtrading routes for export and import within the Union and the shipping export routes in the BalticSea allowing them access to the Russian market through Finland and Estonia.The island of Gotland, with its tactical and important geographical position in the Baltic Seabecame the key to the Nordic Union.

This master thesis is a study of a new electronic library reference service-project called Speak instantly to a librarian and the purpose of the thesis is to investigate a new electronic reference service and how the librarians who work with it experience it. This should be seen from an informational society point of view. The study is conducted from two questions: - What needs do the libraries have and how do they argue for the project and the chat-reference service Speak instantly to a librarian? - How do the librarians experience the personal work situation in the new reference service, and its use of chat technology? Together with interviews of a selected group of librarians from the public libraries of Göteborg, Malmö, Nacka and Stockholm, this thesis includes aspects such as the theory of the informational society by Manuel Castells, as well as literary studies of the history of library reference, the development of electronic reference service and the virtual library, and the background and the beginning of the studied project Speak instantly to a librarian. The thesis also contains an overlook of other similar library projects in the United States of America.

I vår uppsats valde vi att undersöka hur kommunikation och social interaktion förändras vid användande av intranet. Vi ville även se vilka fördelar/nackdelar användandet kunde medföra för individen i relation till dennes arbetssituation. Detta då vår erfarenhet av intranetlitteratur var att den utlovar guld och gröna skogar till sina användare. Vi frågade oss, upplever även individerna intranet så bra. För att kunna studera dessa fenomen utfördes en fallstudie på United States Information Service, (USIS), vid Amerikanska ambassaden i Stockholm.