A qualitative study is presented concerning children?s participation in the local decisionmaking in Swedish municipalities. The study also aims at finding out what are considered to be successful factors and obstacles connected to the implementation of children?s participation in local decision-making. The study contains a summary of the convention on the rights of the child, focusing on article 12, as well as previous research findings concerning children?s participation and factors enabling respectively hindering participation.

More elderly, fewer hands: The way forward Sustaining the care workforce as a political challenge ? A case study of?elderly care in Kalmar Municipality This study examines how Human Capital Theory and New Public?Management are reflected in the governance of eldercare in Kalmar?municipality. Based on document analysis and interviews with politicians?and senior officials, the study shows that investments in staff competence?and well-being coexist with efficiency-oriented management practices.?Rather than being contradictory, these approaches are often combined in?everyday governance. The study concludes that the main challenge is not?funding, but capacity and that sustainable eldercare depends on aligning?national goals with local conditions and strong human capital.

The research in the field of biotechnology is rapidly developing all over the world. Modern biotechnology offers unique opportunities, simultaneously as it gives rise to a number of ethical issues. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), PGD/HLA (Human Leucocyte Antigen) and germline gene therapy (GLGT) are controversial techniques. PGD gives a possibility to identify a genetic disease prior to the embryo?s implantation in the uterus.

The purpose of current paper is to identify the differences (ifany) between Swedish and Turkish consumers in terms ofproduct design perception and to identify the differences toproduct design in relating the four dimensions / characteristics:1.Aesthetical attractiveness, 2.Functionality, 3.Value and4.Quality.The findings of the study indicate the existence of a universal perception of design. Despite the culturally different countries that are examined the empirical material consistently display similarities between the two countries. Both the quantitative and qualitative data point to a very similar perception in terms of design. The possibilities of global design are discussed for companies as well as managerial implications and future research..

This essay contains two stories that reflect the reality I face as an educator, as well as a reflective discussion about my self-perceived dilemma. The dilemma reflects a classroom situation where I as an educator have trouble dividing my focus, my focus is either put on entire the class or on the child with special needs. Through this self-perceived situation I have started to question how children with special needs find their place in the school today. I discuss how I can handle and look at the unique situation that occurs when meeting this child.Terms like integration, inclusion, segregation, social rights and the expression "a school for everyone" will be discussed in this text, as well as how we can connect these terms and expressions to the problems I find in the school system?s way of handling children with special needs.I also highlight my dilemma from different ethical perspective.

The paper examines how human inner properties and the interpretation of the external worldare explained and presented in Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998). Aspects as the relationship between the body and soul/consciousness, body snatching, memory transferences and dystopian cities are analyzed. The field of study is compared to a general science-fiction film perspective regarding the aspects. Dark City contains an alien race with a common mind, but who lacks soul and individuality. They represent what humanity can become if the scientific development goes too far.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the extent of the civil rights political participation on a municipality level. The starting-point is the participatory democratic theory. I have chosen to make a case study of the extent of participation among KPR ? the board of the pensioners in the municipality of Skara. KPR is represented by fourteen members from the seven existing associations for pensioners.

Management consulting firms are dependent on attracting and recruiting new talents since the human capital has a vital role in these types of organizations. In the following years a new generation, Generation Y, will to a large extent enter the labour market. According to several studies this generation has different characteristics than older generations.This thesis examines management consulting firms? views of Generation Y and which strategies they use to attract and retain the generation. The fact that the subjects are unexplored led the authors to conduct a qualitative study of seven management consulting firms through in-depth interviews.

The main focus for this essay is to describe the relationship between human and nature through a material investigation that takes its shape through sculpture. With the help of a fairytale-like story the reader can share the creation of the sculpture and how my thoughts flow through the process that will result in an exam project. Rooted in earlier projects I discuss the crash between civilization and the wilderness as well as talking about the likeness of the creative process and child play. I also discuss the body's place in the forest and the loneliness that we humans created that has cut us off from the rest of the creatures and plants in the forest. My aim is that in the final piece I will create a fiction place where these can be joined together again.

AbstractIn Östhammar a change has been noticed in the statistics regarding incoming reports, appraisals and investigations concerning a suspicion that a child or youth may be harmed.There are some earlier reaserch made concerning the sorting process that takes place when a report is made. In Östhammar the social workers have been interested in finding out what the main reasons are for not opening an investigation. It has also been some research from the ?sociology of childhood perspective? on how childhood is being constructed and how children are positioned in the investigative texts. From a social constructionist perspective and by using both a quantitative and a qualitative research, I have examined all the reports that have not led to an investigation from the first quarter of 2011 in Östhammar. This to find out the main explanations for not investigating and how children are positioned in such appraisals.It has been shown that most appraisals closed either because of the situation which led to the declaration no longer exists, to another input already exists, the problem is not seen as  serious or that it was felt that the parents are capable of giving the support they need. I have discovered that the childs voice is missing in most of the report investigations. I have not found any explanations to why one has chosen not to speak with the child, but there may be explanations such as limited time, limited knowledge or a will to spare the child the discomfort..

Pollen analysis of a peat core was used to reconstruct the last 2500 years of vegetation history, with focus on the impact of anthropogenic disturbance, in Hamra National Park, central Sweden. In addition, analysis of pollen in soil samples was performed in an attempt to locate ancient cultivation plots in the National Park. The analysis of the peat core shows a development of the vegetation that can be divided into four stages of different degrees of human impact: A - virgin forest (c. 500 B.C.-A.D. 1300), B - grazed forest (c. A.D.

This essay has a purpose to understand and investigate how disabled people, where the handicap imply difficulty to speak for one self, get the rights of self-determination and influence satisfied. Our purpose with this essay is to focus on how representatives from organizations, trustees and Support and Service for Persons with Certain functional Impairments- officials(abbreviated LSS after the Swedish title of the Act lag om stöd och service till vissa funktionshindrade), describe and discuss matters concerning the individuals? opinions and requests from within their respective position. We will with this as a base analyze how these three parties facilitate and meet the individuals? influence and self-determination.

This thesis is concerned with investigating the Roma, a group that is left out in most of the territory bound theories. The theoretical purposes are to develop theories that increase the understanding for the Roma as a diasporic nation without state and the advocacy networks they are organised in. The main empirical purpose has been to study two organisations as cases and how they position themselves against the European Union concerning identity politics. The two organisations are European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and Dzeno. They are a part of the same network that works on different levels with the rights of Roma.

Written declarations in the European Parliament have not been given muchattention in the field of political science. The scope of this Master's thesis is toexamine whether symbolic politics are present in written declarations and howthis may show. In this study, the aspects of symbolic politics of writtendeclarations of the sixth parliamentary term are examined using a taxonomy foridentifying symbolic politics developed by Peter Santesson-Wilson. Thetaxonomy is applied on 15 written declarations, all adopted by the EuropeanParliament, dealing with a variety of EU-related issues, ranging from July 2004 toJuly 2008.The main findings of the study show that symbolic politics is a presentphenomenon in nearly all written declarations (13 out of 15 cases) subject to thisstudy.In the final chapter of this study inter alia symbolic politics as a deliberateaction is discussed in the view of written declarations. Irrespective of this, onecould say that symbolic politics are institutionalised in the European Parliament,at least when it comes to written declarations..

The aim of this study is to describe and analyze how the European union relates to the different dimensions of abortion. What kind of problem is abortion and whose right is it? Does difference framings of the problem enable different solutions?By analyzing debates from the European parliament through Carol Lee Bacchis method ?What?s the problem approach? I have come to see that different representations of a problem changes the problem it self. This emphasis that a problem is a problem in one context, but not in an other.Depending on the work of, among others, Barbara Hobson and Ailbhe Smyth I have focused upon the European union as a economical project, leaving social issues to national competence. This makes the EU a patriarchal project that fails to guarantee women?s rights.