The aim of this thesis is to explore the institutional design of Participatory Budgeting (PB) in Sweden and how the design may contribute to realize central democratic goods. The study records the different PB experiences in Sweden and focuses on one particular case, which is the only case that successfully qualifies as a genuine PB-process according to international standards and definitions. To examine this, the following questions are asked: which municipalities in Sweden have implemented Participatory Budgeting? How can the institutional design of Participatory Budgeting be described and to what extent does it enable the realization of central democratic goods? To what extent does the institutional design enable the realization of the democratic goods inclusion, popular control, considered judgment and transparency? To what extent does the institutional design enable the realization of the institutional goods of efficiency and transferability?The study is based on an institutional theory of democracy. The method used is a mixed method ideal type analysis that combines document analysis, surveys and interviews.

In today?s genetic evaluation of Swedish beef cattle, mainly traits that are directly related to productivity are measured. However, other traits, such as temperament and mature cow weight affect the economy of the farmer, as well as the welfare of the animals. This thesis evaluates possible ways of measuring new traits, with focus on temperament and mature weight of suckler cows. The goal is to examine the possible benefits of including these traits in the Swedish breeding scheme.

Ett använt begrepp när det gäller tonårstjejer och sexualitet är sexuell agens, att handla efter egna beslut. Avsikten med denna studie är att nå en ökad förståelse av vad som påverkar utvecklingen av sexuell agens hos tonårstjejer, utifrån berättelser av två professioner vid ungdomsmottagningar. Syftet är också att göra en kritisk analys och en sociologisk teoretisering av upplevelsen av sexuell agens samt utifrån ett maktperspektiv utreda dess disciplinerande och frigörande potential.Tidigare forskning visar främst att det finns en avsaknad av lust och kunskap hos tonårstjejer samt att deras förmåga att ta självständiga beslut i relation till sexualitet är avhängt deras agens. I denna studie genomfördes kvalitativa intervjuer med barnmorskor och kuratorer vid ungdomsmottagningar. Tematisk analysmetod användes vid tolkningsförfarandet.

Örebro UniversityDepartment of Social SciencesSociology and social psychology, Continuation course, 61-90 p.Essay 15 p, Spring -08.Title: ?Youth (work)seekers?Author: Karolina LindellAbstractThis essay focuses on young people?s social background when they apply for their first job. I have interviewed four young people from a small town in Sweden, to see how social background and identity affects their vital conditions in general. I?m interested understanding the relationship between structure and agency.

Den här uppsatsen behandlar Sveriges narkotikapolitik, och då i förlängningen dess inverkan på individen, i form av missbrukaren. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att spegla individperspektivet i den aktuella narkotikapolitiska debatten, för att se hur missbrukarens position i samhället kan tänkas se ut framöver. Problemställningen utgår ifrån att politiken leder till att missbrukaren starkt marginaliseras i vårt samhälle, då målet om "det narkotikafria samhället" utestänger användaren av narkotika.Uppsatsen bygger på Foucaults teoretiska begrepp makt, disciplin, avvikelse och norm. Samt på det perspektiv man inom rättssociologin benämner normvetenskap. Utifrån dessa begrepp har en teoretisk modell skapats, som hjälpmedel vid genomförandet av undersökningen.

A range of public health and animal welfare problems has been shown to be associated with free-roaming dogs. With a high density of free-roaming dogs and with a major tourism industry, Samoan tourists are likely to be influenced by the presence of the dogs. The tourists are mainly from the Oceanic region; with New Zealand and Australia as the biggest contributors. The aim of this study was to examine the potential impacts of dogs on visitors to Samoa. A questionnaire was handed out to 281 visitors all over Samoa, collecting opinions and information on visitors? experiences and behaviour regarding the Samoan dogs.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how social workers experience and understand subjects such as racism, discrimination, and similar attitudes that can exist in institutions of social work. We also want to bring to light how ?race?/ethnicity, gender and class are related to uneven access to Swedish welfare. Our main questions aim to examine how structural and institutional racism forms social workers daily practices and how this in turn affects ?immigrant? women.

This essay studies the christening rites in Church of Sweden and what theological motives that are present herein, and how the current revision of the rites have brought in new theological motives with the basis in the contemporary theological debate about the liturgy and theology surrounding the christening rites.The conclusion of the essay is that the revised christening rites have not included any new motives, but has rather restructured and re-emphasized the motives to adopt the christening rites to the findings of contemporary research regarding the christening..

This essay examines the differences between the mediation practices concering youth crime in the swedish cities of Kalmar and Växjö. The analysis are made with the use of quality interviews which we have linked together with the three theories of Social Control Theory, Restorative Justice and Transformative Mediation. There after we have compared the results with one and another. Results show that there both similarities and differences, both in the theoretical aspects and in the organisations, for example the coopiration with the prosecutors and the police..

The Swedish Welfare Act § 4 says that "Animals must be kept and cared for in a good environment for animals and in such a way that promotes their health and allow them to behave naturally." Pigs in the wild spend 80% of their waking hours walking around and rooting for food, eating and exploring their environment with its snout. Fattening pigs in commercial farms spend 80% lying doing nothing. A lactating sow is lying down most of her day, and only 10-20% of the body surface is in contact with the floor, so the pressure is high on these spots. Piglets lie down and paddle with their legs, with high liquid content in the tissues, several times an hour, to stimulate and massage the sow's udder. In the existing system, these individuals are held more often on floors that are anything but inviting to sleep on.

Criminality is a very normal problem that occurs between youths within today?s society. In this study we will be accentuating and therefore be focusing on how young men are living their lives with criminality. In this study we have analyzed the underlying factors for what the causes and reasons are for young men to be part of the criminal life. One basic and underlying factor is families, growth, friendships and economic resources.

Swedish dairy production has during the last decades undergone considerable structural rationalisation and the number of dairy herds has decreased to less than 7000. At the same time the average herd size has increased and a large proportion of those investing in new buildings today choose automatic milking (AM). During 2008 more than ten percent of the Swedish cows will be milked with AM. The development has been faster than expected and the need for consulting has increased rapidly. This study aims to evaluate whether a check list originating from the FRISKKO (?healthy cow?) programme can be a useful tool when assessing how well the herd functions in various areas.

The present BSc thesis is part of a newly established collaboration between the Swedish zoo Skansen and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), and constitutes of an inventory of the Nairobi Animal Orphanage (AO). As a refuge for wild animals found orphaned, abandoned or injured throughout Kenya, the AO has grown over the years and reached an unsustainable point where external help is needed for solutions and improvements. The aim of the inventory is to specifically consider the husbandry and enclosures of spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), serval (Felis serval), Sykes? monkey (Cercopithecus albogularis) and vervet monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops) and with the aid of facts about the species, estimate how well their biological needs are satisfied. Different educational elements are also reviewed since one of the main purposes of the AO is for education.

This thesis describes how social work language practice circulates around the implementation process of an evidence based structured assessment tool – Savry. The purpose is to examine and understand the social workers language practice in a working group that uses this structured assessment tool in their work with youth. The purpose is also to look for dimensions of identity in terms of discourse. The ontological viewpoint is post-structuralism where language is in focus. The theoretical framework is discourse theory based upon the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe.

Syftet med studien var att utreda om det fanns kvantitativa och kvalitativa skillnader i elevers upplevelser av hur meningsfullt livet i allmänhet och skolan är, vad som är meningsfullt i skolan samt om de har långsiktiga mål med sin framtid och om det skiljer sig åt mellan elever på en Kunskapsskola och en skola utan liknande arbetsformer. Syftet med studien var också att undersöka om det fanns något samband mellan elevernas upplevelser av meningsfullhet i livet och i skolan. Kunskapsskolan valdes ut som skola av intresse för studien då eleverna på skolan planerar, genomför och följer upp sina personliga mål, vilket i tidigare studier visat sig ha positiv påverkan på upplevelsen av mening. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna som anammades var begreppet meningsfullhet inom Antonovskys teori om känslan av sammanhang, KASAM, samt ungdomars innehav och strävan efter mål och mening i livet enligt teorin om Youth purpose. I studien användes en kvantitativ och en kvalitativ delstudie.