The Swedish welfare organisation is built on the fact that the legislation gives the municipalities and social workers guidance and direction how to assess cases. Through out this the clients have right to be assessed both equally and individually. How is this done? The purpose of this paper was to examine the effect of the organisation referred to the social workers ability to discretion and the evaluation of the assessment in first time applications of social assistant cases. The purpose was also to look for variations in decisions and if these could be explained out of organisational and assessment effects.

This is an examination of how interdependence affects the behaviour of politicians and their ability to govern the way they want to. I analyze the memoirs of two Swedish prime ministers, Tage Erlander and Ingvar Carlsson to explore their experiences. I focus on how the increasing interdependence affects the politicians with regards to security, welfare, and financial policies. Sweden had a special position between Soviet and NATO during the cold war. This meant Sweden gave priority to it's neutrality policy during the cold war, compared to increased trade cooperation.

In Sweden there is scepticism if there really is a difference between the two biggest political parties, the Moderate/Conservative party and the Swedish Social Democrats. The voters feels that the arguments used by both parties are more or less the same and that it does not matter on whom you vote. Hence I am going to compare the parties? policy programs, developed by the members in each party, by an analysis of ideas to see if the two parties are so similar that they hardly are two different options, or if there is a divergence between the two. My choosing of the parties? policy programs comes from a decision to look at the members? party, they are the authors of the programs, the core. I have to admit I am not unbiased in this work.

Urban planning is not only a matter of architectural trends; it is first and foremost political. This thesis seeks to understand the links between political ideas and visions for the city and the physical structure of the city. The study aims to construct a model to help understand these links, a helpful tool in analysing a city, focusing on the one hand at the physical structure of what I call "The City as a Welfare Provider" and on the other hand at "The City as a Growth Engine". It also sets out to test this model in an empirical study of Stockholm and the soon-to-be built district of Norra Station in the same city.The analysis shows that Stockholm has ambitions to be a welfare provider to its citizens, but have also adopted to a discourse of interurban competition which stresses the importance for the city to enhance economical growth. What is interesting is that the physical structures promoted in the planning documents of Stockholm are nearly exclusively those associated with the model of "The City as a Growth Engine"..

Today the individual ventilated cage system (IVC-system) is a commonly used housing system for mice in research facilities. IVC systems have HEPA- filters and are designed to control both supply and exhausted air at cage level, as well as temperature and relative humidity in the cages. This creates an optimal environment for the mouse and at the same time a protection against the risk of cross-infection between cages and the outside environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the health and welfare of breeding females and pups of two different strains of laboratory mice (NMRI nude mice and C57BL/6N) in three different kinds of IVC-systems; Arrowmight, Allentown and Tecniplast. The NMRI nude (Nu) females gave birth to 18 litters in Allentown, 16 litters in Arrowmight and 15 litters in Tecniplast.

Zambia is a country in Southern Africa where poverty is widespread and the traditional keeping of local poultry therefore plays a crucial role in improving nutrition. Meat and eggs from poultry are important sources of protein but also of income. Improving the poultry production is thereby a method to fight poverty. For poultry, the access to light is an important factor for both growth and egg production. In this paper, the focus is on the traditional village chickens used for both egg and meat production, how they are kept, their health and welfare and if the use of a solar lamp will influence their behaviour, growth and egg production. Three studies were conducted in Chibombo and Choma Districts in Zambia were 17 farmers were interviewed regarding the village chicken management of which six farmers participated in a solar lamp experiment.

AbstractObstacles or opportunities? ? A study of the experience of collaboration of social welfare secretaries and school staff.The purpose of this study is to illustrate the importance of the work with children and youth through the joint efforts between different authorities. The study deals with the collaboration between the social services and schools in the Ludvika municipality. The objective of the study is to investigate how teaching personnel and headmasters in compulsory schools and the social welfare secretaries in Ludvika, experience the collaboration, and how this works. On the basis of the objective, we have formulated some relevant questions; To what degree are schools aware of the model of collaboration, which is the basis for collaboration within the municipality, and are there any differences in awareness between different categories of employees? Other questions deal with differences in how the social services and schools experience the collaboration, discrepancies between different schools in this regard and if the respondents? experience any obstacles and/or opportunities by the collaboration.Collaboration is, and has been, a pressing issue for a long time in the public debate.

The society has always tried to get rid of those who do not "fit in". They doesn't follow the normal behaviour and rules and have to be "dismissed". The community has developed different kinds of institutional care for individuals with dysfunctional behaviour. Those institutions are mental hospitals and prisons. Many of these institutions put the individuals in an extreme situation since they loses their independence and freedom.

The aim of this essay is to study how the University Church is represented in student newspapers. By conducting an inductive thematic analysis on sixteen articles chosen from newspapers distributed by the student union at three Swedish universities, the main purpose of the study is to further understand the role and function of the University Church in a contemporary Swedish context. Three themes emerging from the initial step of the thematic analysis were chosen for further analysis: (1) a secularized church?, (2) provocation and (3) reasons to seek out the University Church. The themes were then highlighted by two theoretical perspectives: Mark Chaves? theory of internal secularization and a theoretical framework developed by Anders Bäckström with the aim to explain the role of the church as a welfare agent in Sweden.The study shows that the University Church is portrayed as both an ambiguous and complex organization.

This degree project aims to evaluate alternative methods to the unanaesthetized castration of piglets. Castration of piglets is performed to prevent the development of boar taint. Boar taint can cause great financial losses for the pig manufacturer. Unanaesthetized castration of piglets is not regarded to be satisfactory from an animal welfare perspective and the procedure will for that reason be outlawed in the near future.Several alternative methods are used in countries all over the world with promising result. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if this methods could be applied in Swedish pig production.A literature study has been combined with interviews; field studies, questionnaires and a small study on male pig production.To be applicable to and applied in Swedish pig production the alternative method must be financially accepted by the manufacturers but also accepted from an animal welfare perspective.Castration is the only way to guarantee a meat free of boar taint.

Within the field of welfare research, few people take into account both the aspect of gender and class. Thetraditional class-oriented research has a one-dimensional perspective on gender and the feminist welfare researchrarely carry out large comparative studies. A multi-dimensional perspective on the construction ofgender and class would benefit from both the feminist and class welfare-oriented research, and contribute toincreasing the knowledge about the individual's experience and attitudes to work and work time. The aim ofthis paper is to examine the correlation of the intersectional relationship between sex / gender position andclass position with the attitudes and motives for working time reduction. Especially in, (1) the value in work,and (2) the attitude to a high number of working hours, as well as (3) its combined effect on the conflict betweenwork and family.

 In 2009, the responsibility for animal welfare was moved from the local authorities at the municipality(kommunerna) to the County Administrative Board(länsstyrelsen). This was a result of many differences between the different municipalities in how they handled animal welfare. Shoulder lesions of sows are a matter of opinion and therefore, a complicated question. Sows suffer from shoulder lesions for many reasons: e.g. the amount of straw available.

In this essay my aim is to examine how the term utanförskap is constructed and defined as a social problem in the public arena of the Swedish Parliament. The term utanförskap was widely used in the election-campaign prior to the Swedish Parliament election in the year 2006. The term, mainly articulated by the Right-wing Alliance, was used to describe indi-viduals and groups that were depicted as being outside the Swedish society. In the political debate, work and benefit dependency were constructed as binary opposites, with the latter describing the individuals in utanförskap. Translated to English the term utanförskap would be something like ?the state of being outside? or ?outsidership?.

Rabbits today are used for different reasons. They are often held as pet rabbits but they also can be found at zoos, in laboratories and as a producing animal where their meat, fur or wool are used. All rabbits in Sweden are protected by the Swedish animal welfare legislation. For rabbits held as pets, in laboratories or at zoos there are more detailed rules or regulations that defines for example how much space the rabbit must have or how the cage should be enriched. For rabbits in the production there is no detailed legislation, which is a problem because their welfare could be hard to secure when the producers do not have any guidelines to follow. Rabbits are social animals and therefore they should have the company from either one other rabbit, or from the owner.

The domesticated rabbit stems from the European Wild rabbit and researchers have found that they share most of the characteristics and behaviors of their wild ancestor. They form mating groups in which strong hierarchic orders are formed and they are known for their ability to dig warrens which serve as one of the most important resources for this species. Although research has been performed to increase the welfare of rabbits kept in laboratory settings little is known about the housing, behavior and welfare of the pet rabbit. Among the research that has been performed within the area results have shown that the animals are kept in small solitary cages and that although many rabbits are purchased mainly for the children many animals cannot be handled by children due to display of aggression. Another conclusion drawn is that the animals are kept in ways that differs greatly from their natural environment.