Diploma thesis deals with local polity, politics and policies in the Nordic countries. The main aim of this thesis is to study local polity, politics and policies in the Nordic countries and then identify what are the most important common features of these countries and the most significant differences between them. The first chapter deals with known theoretical approaches to distinctions between local government systems. This chapter presents some typologies of local government systems. Another four chapters are dedicated to local politics in the Nordic countries. The second chapter is focused on Sweden. The third chapter deals with Denmark. The fourth chapter is focused on Norway, while the fifth chapter on Iceland. The each of these four chapters is split into several subchapters, which are focused especially on competencies, tasks and duties of municipalities, structure and functioning of municipal institutions, forms of intermunicipal cooperation, number and size of municipalities, structure of municipal earnings and expenditures and other financing matters, electoral and party systems at local level, neighborhood councils, user democracy and free commune experiments. The last chapter summarizes and compares findings. Conclusion presents the most evident common features of local polity, politics and...

This diploma thesis deals with an issue of a support of an early-age child in pre-school education in Denmark and Germany. The aim of the thesis is to analyse framework conditions as well as used approaches of pre-school institutions in early-age children adaptation in pre-school institutions in Germany and Denmark. The thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part deals with pre-school education in context with the systems in Denmark and Germany, with the characteristics of educational systems in these countries, an early-age child development and an issue of an early-age child adaptation in a pre-school institution. The aim of the empiric part of the thesis is to analyse the conditions, personnel securing and adaptation programmes usage in three selected foreign pre-school institutions. The empiric part provides the aims of the research, research questions and methods that were used in the research construction. Furthermore, it specifies three selected pre-school institutions (one in Denmark, two in Germany), characterises their space and material conditions and daily timetables for early-age children. Then it compares gathered information on basis of which it evaluates the given research questions. There are two research goals set in the diploma thesis. It surveys how is an adaptation...

Hate crime has emerged as a new ‘crime problem’ in Denmark, which has led to legislative adjustments and requirements of the police to improve identification, registration and handling of hate crime. International research shows that the investigation of hate crime is a complex issue not least because hate crime is legally not a crime category but an aggravating circumstance in principle to any crime. There exist no studies of hate crime policing in Denmark, and this study aims to fill a knowledge gap by a qualitative exploration of the processing of hate crime in the criminal justice system in a Danish context and from the perspective of the police, which is a relatively overlooked perspective. Specifically, the study explores why many hate crimes are filtered out through the criminal justice system, and through a thematic analysis the study identifies a number of challenges on a legal, organizational and practise level, that all contributes to a filtering out of hate crime throughout the Danish criminal justice system. Goldstein’s theory of problem-oriented policing is used as framework to discuss the implications of law in hate crime policing. The Danish police is expected to deal more effectively with the hate crime problem, and more knowledge on what works in hate crime policing is needed.   Keywords: Hate crime, investigation, criminal justice processing, problem-oriented policing, thematic analysis.

At the end of the 17th century, a small enameled cross was discovered in one of the royal graves in Saint Bendt's church in Danish Ringsted. According to the record of the administrator of the Danish Royal Treasury, the cross was found in the grave of the Danish Queen Dagmar - the daughter of the King of Bohemia, Ottokar I (+1230). Dagmar was married in 1205 to Valdemar II the Victorious, the King of Denmark. The cross - today exhibited at the National Museum in Copenhagen - is undoubtedly a Byzantine work. Most probably, it was made in the first half of the 12th century. It is so- called enkolpion, i.e. the hanging cross (gr. Έγϰόλπιου, on the chest). Both its sides are decorated with figurative scenes. The crucifixion of the Christ is depicted on one side. The Great Deēsis with St. Basil the Great and St. John Chrysostom is shown on the other side. There is a hollow in the body of the cross, in which a relic was deposited - most likely a particle of the wood of the True Cross. Although the Queen Dagmar's Cross is considered a national treasure in Denmark, only a little attention has been paid to it so far. It is almost unknown to the Czech researchers (it is briefly mentioned by J. E. Wocel, A. B. Černý, J. Květ, K. Chytil and most recently P. Balcárek). Regrettably, the most of researchers only...

The general aim of this thesis is to analyse and compare archival materials concerning Huguenot and Walloon families, and to carry out a sample analysis of these and whether it is possible to find the cities of origin where they lived until the Nantes Edict was revoked in 1685 and they were forced to flee because of their reformed faith. The selected sources consist primarily of materials from the French departmental archives and materials accessed via the internet as digitalized pictures (.jpg-files) and so on.  The descriptive section of this thesis concerns literature about Huguenot and Walloon history, genealogy, and exodus, as well as research into archive and information sciences primarily access and findability. I begin by describing the overall view, to set the stage. Then, I investigate the European archives. Thirdly, I proceed with a time intensive sample analysis of 30 known families from varying places in France, Belgium, Norway, and Sweden and finally, I attempt to clarify the difficulties that arise concerning findability and why those arise.  The method is genealogical research on sources accessible by the internet, and it turns out in the conclusion that 50% of the chosen families can be found in their home parishes, even if findability issues often show themselves, both because we’re talking about a religious minority, people fleeing the country, and a large geographic area. It was heartening and surprising however, that my search was successful in finding so many of the 30 families, and interesting to note which areas were easier to search than others.  The findability issues are further deepened because the archives’ Internet pages are not optimally designed as their metadata is often insufficient, and the pages furthermore so difficult to navigate since they are both widely different from each other, and because they are not, in the words of Wendy M. Duff, managing to hit the “perfect pivot point” between archiving and usage. Reasons for this include a lack of descriptive data attached to the digitalised files, and because .jpg-files are often not searchable, as observed as well by Catherine Styles.  More user research is required in the area of archives, so that better and easier access to these webpages can be guaranteed, especially given varying userbases and their differing needs in searching.

本論文は19世紀のデンマーク社会にディアコニッセとディアコニアの働きを広めるために尽力したハラルド・スタインのディアコニア思想に光を当てる。スタインは、産業革命や社会主義の台頭により激変する社会において、キリスト教会は人々の身体的、霊的救いに力を尽くすべきだと考え、キリスト教の愛の業すなわちディアコニアの働きを教会に根付かせようとした。スタインのディアコニアの働きの理想と実践はのちのデンマークの社会民主主義の政権にも継承された。 / This study sheds light on the ideas of Harald Stein, who did his utmost to spread the work of deaconesses and diakonia in 19th century Denmark. In a society rapidly changing under the influence of industrialization and socialism, Stein thought the Christian Church ought to aim at saving people physically and spiritually, and he sought to plant the Christian Works of Love, i.e., the work of diakonia, in the Church. The ideals and practices of Stein's work of diakonia were later inherited by the Danish Social Democratic governments. / 博士(神学) / Doctor of Theology / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University

. This thesis consists of an introduction and four previously published articles. The joint empirical focus is papermaking based on textile rags as fibre raw material. Furthermore the physical environment is central in the studies. The relationship between continuity and change is a prevailing theme. The thesis also pays attention to the use of different sorts of rags and to the connection between this kind of papermaking and the textile industry. The overall purpose is to throw new light upon the paper industry based on rags – a part of early industry seldom mentioned in historical surveys of the industrialization process in Sweden. The aim is also to question the prevalent Swedish historical writing commissioned by the branch, characterized by set divisions between different phases of technical and industrial development, from simple craft to modern industry. One of these borderlines has been drawn between papermaking by hand and papermaking by machine, with the 1830s as the selected transition period. By studying and analysing changes in the traditional and seemingly static papermaking as well as the opposite: the traditional that has lingered in the new, this thesis shows that the course of events was much more complicated than that. An outcome of the studies is that the industrialization of the rag based paper industry has been a complex, uneven and prolonged process. The first main part of the thesis consists of two Swedish regional studies centred on the province of Östergötland in a long-time perspective. The focus is mainly on the long continuity of papermaking by hand, which was carried out between 1628 and 1968. The study shows that a variety of types and sizes of mills regarding ownership, forms of production, location, paper qualities and techniques can be identified. Continuity was the dominating feature but within this framework technological and industrial change also took place. The second main part of the thesis has a Nordic perspective and deals with a shorter period, mainly 1830-1870. One study examines the introduction of the paper-machine and the establishment of the first machine-made paper mills in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland with special attention given to the Swedish mill Holmen in Norrköping and the Finnish Tammerfors mill, both situated in textile mill towns. A second Nordic study surveys hand-made paper mills founded during and after the time when the paper-machine technology had been established. As the studies show, two parallel development tracks were prevalent in the paper industry in the Nordic countries during the period 1830-1870 – papermaking by machine and papermaking by hand. The first paper machines were imported from Britain to some of the oldest and largest paper mills. The introduction of the new technology led to changes in for instance the paper mill buildings and the organization of work regarding the papermaking process. In the preparatory and finishing work manual methods remained, and as before it employed mostly women. At the same time, papermaking by hand continued to change and new hand-made paper mills were founded until as late as the 1890s. The study discusses possible explanations, among them growing markets for special qualities and combinations with other branches of industry. All the studies show a connection between hand-made paper mills and wool mills on one hand, and machine-made paper mills and cotton and linen mills on the other hand. The paper industry based on rags could in fact be characterized as a kind of textile industry / <p>QC 20101129</p>

States have for a long time participated in international military operations, but their reasons for contributing with military capabilities are varied. This study intends to investigate and demonstrate how military contribution is motivated in the political decision-making process to justify its necessity, and how strategic culture influences the decision. The theoretical framework is extensive, containing several identified sub-beliefs of strategic culture, and factors within a rationalist and constructivist perspective used to capture political motivations. By employing a qualitative content analysis, the empirical material examined contains official documents, such as government propositions, reports, and protocols. The investigated cases are Sweden and Denmark’s military contribution to operations in Kosovo (Operation Allied Force, KFOR) and Mali (MINUSMA, EUTM, Operation Serval/Barkhane/Task Force Takuba). The findings indicate that while both Sweden and Denmark use the full spectrum of political motivations, Sweden emphasizes constructivist motivations, and Denmark rationalist motivations. This is traced to the central discovery that strategic culture within a state, influences how political motivations are portrayed to justify the necessity of contributing to international military operations. Thus, indicating the existence of an intertwined relationship between strategic culture, political motivations in terms of both rationalist and constructivist factors, and contribution of military capabilities.

The purpose of this thesis aimed at trying to find out why the Sweden Democrats have increased their support, to become the second largest party in the Swedish parliament, while, the Danish People’s Party, has lost the majority of their support after being the second largest party in the Danish parliament to almost falling out a few years later. Is it possible for the Sweden Democrats to share the same fate? To find this out, we’ve decided to conduct this study using a qualitative comparative method, with a Most Similar System Design. The analysis mainly consists of two concepts to explain this phenomenon which are “Cordon Sanitaire” and “Normalization”.  The results of the analysis show that in Denmark, the Danish People’s Party’s views and policies on migration, have gotten normalized across the political spectrum. As such, they can no longer argue that they are anti-establishment, but instead, they have become a part of the establishment themselves. In Sweden, the Sweden Democrats have been kept out of power, with a “cordon sanitaire”, and thus their view and policies have not gotten normalized and adopted by other parties, and therefore they have continued to grow. An interesting aspect of this is that recently, the Sweden Democrats have gotten normalized and they are now a support party for a right-wing government, which we argue might lead to a similar situation as in Denmark, meaning that the Sweden Democrats might lose support in the future.

This study investigates the history of the phenomenon illiteracy and the response of the public library in selected countries for about one hundred and fifty years with particular focus on the Republic of south Africa. The influence that this manifestation has on the individual Black urban adult, the society in which the illiterate adult lives and the economy of the country are sharply focused. The principal argument is that public libraries have historically adapted their services to meet new social challenges, and in South Africa illiteracy among Black urban adults constitutes such a challenge. As an extension of its traditional educational function, the public library is beginning to meet this challenge in the role of literacy support. The reasons for the high illiteracy rate among the Black adult urban population are discussed in their historical context. As far as the methodology is concerned, extensive literature studies were undertaken on international as well as local data bases. Correspondence was entered into with overseas research institutes, academics and consultants. Interviews were conducted to ascertain the most recent developments relating to the literacy problem in a well-defined geographical region. Conclusions are made to the effect that there is a historical imperative for the South African public library system to fully discharge its responsibility to Black South Africans. In order to achieve this the public library in South Africa should re-examine, re-interpret and extend its educational function to include the challenge of the role of literacy support. It is further reconunended that the Provincial Library services in south Africa should coordinate disparate efforts and activities in this regard. The marketing of the public library has become more important in the prevailing economic climate. If the public library wishes to remain an indispensable social institution in the lives of the citizens of South Africa and specifically if it takes the role of literacy support seriously, it will of necessity have to market its services. Other organizational implications for public libraries of this new challenge of literacy support are spelled out clearly and areas requiring further research are indicated. / Information Studies / D. Litt. et Phil.