This master thesis deals with outsourcing in public sector specially focused on one type of public services. There are three main goals of this thesis: to describe outsourcing in public services, to determine methodology of evaluation forms of providing public services and as a case study to compare past and current form of providing public service called Publishing city hall magazine in Prague 7. Firstly, the thesis describes outsourcing in public sector in general, highlights current trends and future development of outsourcing. Secondly, the theoretical part determines evaluation criteria that are used in the practical part for comparison of the two forms of providing the above mentioned public service in Prague 7. Moreover, the criteria are applied to compare the same public service among 10 Prague districts. The result of the case study shows that the current form of publishing city hall magazine in Prague 7 is less expensive and the magazine has better quality than the previous one.

The niqab is a veil worn by some Muslim women that covers the face except the area around the eyes, which can be seen through a rectangular slit in the fabric. In recent years, a number of countries have enacted measures against the niqab in public spaces. Canadian law and policy makers have made significant contributions to ongoing debates about the niqab as well as the acts of facial covering and uncovering. While objections to the niqab have been framed in many different ways, the guiding premise of this dissertation is that negative reactions to the niqab are grounded within the expectation and demand to see the human face. Drawing upon the case of R. v. N.S, the niqab ban during the Canadian citizenship oath, and Bill 62: An Act to foster adherence to State religious neutrality and, in particular, to provide a framework for requests for accommodations on religious grounds in certain bodies, this dissertation considers how Canadian legal and political actors have justified restrictions against the niqab by invoking the idea that the visibility of the face is a central part of Western cultural values. Ultimately, my research questions the kind of work that the human face and the sense of sight is expected to do by examining how demands to see people’s faces reflect and maintain interlocking cites of privilege and oppression such as racism, sexism, ableism, imperialism, and colonialism.

Community Engagement (CE) in South Africa is an increasingly important feature of the relationship between the university and a broader community, and may aid in bridging the entrenched social divisions of this nation. This will only be possible if CE succeeds in uniting the knowledge production interests of the university and the broader community. Through CE, knowledge production and dissemination from within the university should be made more relevant and applicable because it is based on a relationship or engagement with a community. Based on the perceptions of student volunteers in a CE programme at a South African university, this thesis set out to ask whether or not students are transformed through university-community collaboration. This research examines the perceptions and motivations of student volunteers entering community partnership programmes. More importantly, it asks whether these engagements are merely a “weekend special” consisting of shallow engagements, which last only a few hours a week that provide institutional window dressing; or well-intended engagements through which students build meaningful relationships and experience learning opportunities that prepare them for real world civic participation. As this thesis focuses on the student perspective, it explores whether or not CE has an impact, both personally and educationally or academically, on the lives of individual student volunteers. The literature on CE argues that students’ participation in CE opportunities should enhance academic learning, personal growth and promote a sense of citizenship or civic responsibility. Based on the perceptions of a small group of student volunteers at one university, this thesis identifies possible successes and limitations of CE volunteering programmes in order to see if what is promoted in the literature or institutional policies is being experienced or achieved in practice at universities. I argue that students are indeed transformed through processes of CE, often in unexpected ways, and despite many difficulties. Therefore, if CE provides students with more holistic learning opportunities while attending universities for academic ends, it is important to look at in what ways this is achieved.

Thesis on the topic of the possibilities and limits of using the method of mystery shopping in the measurement of the public services quality is intended to introduce the method of mystery shopping and to evaluate the possibility of its use in the public services quality measurement through its application. Quality is a broad term which is associated with many definitions. Public services have many specifics compared to the private ones, dominated by the lack of profit and focus on meeting the public interest. Even the definition of quality and performance standards in the public sector differs from those in the private sector. Mystery shopping, which is heavily used in measuring the level of service quality in the private sector occurs rarely in the common practice of public services. The public sector is declaratively for several decades focused on the quality of its services. We can identify a clear commitment to achieving quality perceived from the perspective of actual customer which is represented by the approach of good governance, promoted by the UN, to the National Quality Policy and Strategy of national policy to quality strategy Smart administration. Strategy and objectives are accompanied by a number of methods to standardize, manage and measure the quality of public services, which are...

Introduction. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the means of control that a municipality has over privatized library services. Specifically what methods of evaluation it uses, and how it formulates its demands in contracts and other documents. The case study was the municipality of Nacka, Sweden. Method. All documents investigated in the thesis with information concerning the public libraries of Nacka kommun were gathered from the municipality's website and archive. Interviews were conducted with representatives of the two contractors currently in charge of operating the six library branches of the Nacka library system. Analysis. Document analysis was used to identify sections of text with relevant information. Taking into account the status and relationship of the source documents theses were arranged thematically according to a model of organizations proposed by Charles Perrow. The motive of the analysis was to identify the ends the municipality has in mind for the libraries and what means they propose to use to reach those ends. Perrow’s concept of bounded rationality was used to look for inconsistencies in the relationship between means and ends in the organizational structure. Insights gained from the interviews were used to corroborate the findings. Results. Instances of bounded rationality was found in the way the municipality specifies and evaluates the work of the external contractors. Further studies should take into account the interests of the contractors and how that affects the privately run public libraries. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

This thesis project addresses the obsolescence of technology through the lens of accessibility to public services. It explores the processes by which electronic devices age in regards to a technological normativity that marginalizes owners of obsolete devices. My research focuses on two main questions: How might we enable owners of non-smart phones to have access to public services that have been digitalized? How might we design public services’ infrastructure in a way that challenges the obsoletion processes of technological devices?  The research is based upon a critical analysis of the term ‘obsolescence’, low-tech approaches and studies that examine the accessibility of technology. This work is based on the study of the digitalization of public services in Sweden, with specific attention to public transportation and to the electronic identification technology which enables access to various essential public services. I present the exploration of these services through the lens of obsolescence and encounter with users of obsolete devices. This leads to the design of two prototypes that propose ways of integrating obsolete devices’ users in the existing digitalized Swedish infrastructures, followed by their analysis. The designs seek to take a critical stand on technological progress as it is understood in the technology industry and propose ways of reimagining the digitalization of public services while taking into account the obsoletion processes they foster. Overall, I argue for design for obsolete devices as a way of caring for groups that are put aside during technological innovation processes. I propose ways of ‘circuit bending’ public services’ infrastructures in a way that is more hospitable to obsolete devices.

The thesis deals with an institutional reform of public employment services implemented in the Czech Republic in 2011. By merging social benefits administration with employment services into the newly established Labour Office of the Czech Republic, the right-wing government attempted to reduce the staffing and administrative costs of these services and to improve the governance of local labour offices. Another aim of the reform was to unify the management of employment services. Using the theoretical concept of "policy cycle" and "policy fiasco" the thesis analyses these organisational changes in the functioning of public employment services in the Czech Republic. Data consist of interviews with experts on labour market policy in the Czech Republic and two focus groups with employees of labour offices. The thesis concludes that there appeared several mistakes during implementation of the institutional reform of public employment services in the Czech Republic in 2011 in terms of the policy cycle and it can be referred to as a policy. The reform harmed the reputation and efficiency of employment services.

Vote-selling in Nigeria pervades and permeates the electoral space, where it has become the primary instrument of electoral fraud. Previous research has indicated a strong correlation between vote-buying and underinvestment and poor delivery of public services. There remains, however, a significant gap in the current literature regarding the nature of the relationship between vote-selling and the delivery of public services. The purpose of this study was to uncover voters' behaviors by investigating their common and lived experiences with respect to the provision of infrastructure, delivery of public services, and voting during elections. Using Bandura's theory of reciprocal determinism, the research explored the connection between environment and vote-selling. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 10 individuals who participated in the most recent elections in Akoko North West Local Government, Ondo State, Nigeria. The data were analyzed using Moustakas's transcendental phenomenological process. Key findings suggest a reciprocal relationship between vote-selling, and infrastructure and public services. The study findings also revealed that vote-sellers' feel justified because vote-selling is perceived as a product of disappointment, lack of trust and voters' apathy, willingness to accept their own share of 'national cake,' and poverty. These findings are consistent with Bandura's proposition that people create the society and equally react to environmental factors. This study contributes to the existing literature and may enhance social change initiatives by improving the understanding of the connection between the provision of infrastructure and the delivery of public services and vote-selling.

In the new Library Act of 2014, it is stated that public library supply should be characterized by quality. To investigate what this means for the library, I do a functional analysis of ideas of librarians' views on quality and how they work with purchasing, weeding and mediation. I have chosen to limit the essay to fiction for adults in Swedish public libraries. By combining the basal idea analysis, where I investigate librarians' ideas about quality, with an operational analysis of ideas, where I examine the effects librarians' quality ideas get for the daily work, Iwant to find out the librarians' quality ideals. The material I analyze consists of 18 questionnaires, filled out by librarians with responsibility for purchasing and / or thinning in libraries across Sweden. The analysis is done with an analytical schedule, that consists of a number of opposing ideal types taken from previous research on quality, purchasing, thinning or mediation. In this way I want to show how librarians quality idea and practical work relate to previous quality ideas and ways of working. The result shows two in many ways opposing ideas of quality: craftsmanship, where quality sits in the work's aesthetic, and impact on the reader, where quality arrisis in the meeting with the reader. Put in context, idea number one can be seen in quality definitions where quality is seen as relatively objective, where experts best can judge a work's quality. The second quality idea is often associated with a user-defined and subjective quality. One can also see how it is a special kind of impact, development, that is associated with quality. If we look instead at the operational analysis we can see how librarians, especially in the work of purchasing, promote the popular, both in terms of authors, titles and genres. The librarians purchase a lot on demand and use circulation figures to see what needs to be purchased: that which it lent much. Popularity rather than quality is what decides what should be purchased, except for literature of very low quality that is not bought at all. Also in weeding circulation figures is used; even though literature of very high quality is moved to the magazine instead of beeing weeded. Regarding the mediation of literature, librarians to some extent try to lead their users toward literature of higher quality, but they are careful not to judge neither reader or literature. When giving advice on literature, it is from one reader to another. It is important that the readers themselves choose what and how they want to read. User influence is what steer the work of purchase, weeding and mediation. The librarians quality ideas only to a very limited extent influence the librarians practical work, why I believe that it is impossible to speak of a quality ideal. Instead I want to describe the librarians' way of thinking about the library's literature as a value ideal. Furthermore, I would call the librarians value ideal a customer-driven value ideal, where the user is seen as an enlightened and well-informed customer with both the right and the knowledge to determine what the library should purchase and prioritize. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

With the meteoric rise of artificial intelligence over the last decade, it is playing an increasingly important role in our societies. This technology can play a decisive role in the development of many sectors. However, it is also necessary to have a large volume of quality data available in order to obtain high-performance models. In the healthcare sector, useful, high-quality data is often subject to fairly high security and confidentiality standards, as it is personal data that is subject to legislation (such as the GDPR at European level). At national level, each country has its own strategy, approach and objectives for integrating artificial intelligence into public services. Here, we will be looking at two European Union countries, Sweden and France. Sweden is characterised by openness and transparency. In France, on the other hand, privacy is a very important concept. Comparing their approach to the subject can therefore yield some interesting results. To carry out this comparison, a state of the art was carried out. This state of the art was based on the reading of various documents, and was accompanied by conducting five interviews with players active within this system. The analysis showed that despite different healthcare organisational structures and approaches, Sweden and France are at similar stages and have similar safety standards. However, the major difference lies in the structure of the healthcare system, which results in different advances for the two countries, with, for example, the Swedish regions working independently and interpreting the legal grey areas individually. In reality, the legal framework remains a limiting factor for the development of this sector for both nations, despite the desire of all parties to maintain an ethical approach. Finally, the future political choices concerning artificial intelligence and its legal environment will be societal choices that correspond to the cultural values of each country. However, the AI Act (a draft European law) should harmonise the legal aspects, based on an approach to technology based on the risks it could pose to individuals. / Den artificiella intelligensen har under det senaste decenniet fått ett enormt uppsving och spelar en allt viktigare roll i våra samhällen. Denna teknik kan spela en avgörande roll för utvecklingen av många sektorer. Men för att få fram högpresterande modeller krävs det också att man har tillgång till en stor mängd kvalitetsdata. Inom hälso- och sjukvårdssektorn är användbara, högkvalitativa data ofta föremål för ganska höga säkerhets- och sekretessstandarder, eftersom det är personuppgifter som omfattas av lagstiftning (till exempel GDPR på europeisk nivå). På nationell nivå har varje land sin egen strategi, sitt eget tillvägagångssätt och sina egna mål för att integrera artificiell intelligens i offentliga tjänster. Här kommer vi att titta på två EU-länder, Sverige och Frankrike. Sverige kännetecknas av öppenhet och transparens. I Frankrike, å andra sidan, är integritet ett mycket viktigt begrepp. Att jämföra deras förhållningssätt till ämnet kan därför ge intressanta resultat. För att kunna göra denna jämförelse har en state of the art genomförts. Denna state of the art baserades på läsning av olika dokument och kompletterades med fem intervjuer med aktörer som är aktiva inom detta system. Analysen visade att Sverige och Frankrike, trots olika organisationsstrukturer och tillvägagångssätt inom sjukvården, befinner sig i liknande skeden och har liknande säkerhetsstandarder. Den stora skillnaden ligger dock i hälso- och sjukvårdssystemets struktur, vilket resulterar i olika framsteg för de två länderna, där till exempel de svenska regionerna arbetar självständigt och tolkar de juridiska gråzonerna individuellt. I själva verket är den rättsliga ramen fortfarande en begränsande faktor för utvecklingen av denna sektor i båda länderna, trots alla parters önskan att upprätthålla ett etiskt förhållningssätt. Slutligen kommer de framtida politiska valen om artificiell intelligens och dess rättsliga miljö att vara samhälleliga val som motsvarar de kulturella värderingarna i varje land. AI-lagen (ett förslag till europeisk lag) bör dock harmonisera de rättsliga aspekterna, baserat på en inställning till teknik som bygger på de risker den kan innebära för individer.