During the last few decades sustainable development has become a frequent topic among policy makers. In order to achieve this goal, the local level in the society has been regarded as one of the levels where changes towards a more sustainable development must come about. To this end, the Swedish state has used different instruments of control to influence its municipalities to start these changes. One example is the Local Investment Programme (LIP) which supported many different local investment programmes in Swedish municipalities between 1998-2002. The municipality of Luleå, where changes of the public transportation system were on the political agenda, received in 2000 financial support for a project called Public transportation in change. The aim of the project was to create a more attractive public transportation system, i.e. bus system, in order to get more people to choose the bus for their daily travels. Policy processes are however not always as rational as policy makers might think. Instead, they can sometimes be characterized as an incremental process with sudden changes. In order to conceptualize such processes, especially agenda- setting and decision making, John Kingdon has developed the multiple- streams framework (MS). According to this framework the policy process is separated into three streams; problem, policy and politics. When a window of opportunity opens, a policy entrepreneur with the right skills and institutional position might couple the streams thereby creating a policy change. The aim of this study is to describe and analyze the policy process underpinning the public transportation in Luleå kommun and explain why the process developed the way it did. The purpose is thereby to contribute to the understanding of the problems that are associated with local policy making regarding public transportation and sustainable development. Another aim is to test whether MS is applicable in a local context. The empirical material is made up of documents, interviews with policy makers, material from the local newspapers and a survey to the public. It is concluded that the 2002 election to the municipality council was the window of opportunity that finally brought about the introduction of a new bus system. The LIP programme mainly affected the local process in a positive way. It might even have been another reason that the new bus system was realized at this point. There were some problems concerning the institutional arrangement around the LIP programme, which seems to have caused a minor delay in the project. The study also indicates that sustainable development at the local level is associated with many problems. Rhetorically sustainable development is regarded as an important goal, but in reality there are differences about how to view and realize the concept. Sustainable development has been described as ecological, economical and social sustainability in cooperation or that they can be ranked. It is concluded that economical constraints seem to set the conditions in reality. Finally, MS has been found useful in a local context as well. MS have weaknesses concerning how it addresses value based conflicts and institutional arrangements. While this study deals with those problems, it is suggested that more studies should be conducted. / <p>Godkänd; 2006; 20070109 (haneit)</p>

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The purpose of this study is to examine the experience that secondary school teachers in Swedenhave of the charter school reform (friskolereformen). The reform meant that charter schools couldcompete on equal terms with municipal schools, the idea being that competition would cut costs andimprove the overall quality of all schools. The main objective of the study is to investigate how thishas affected teachers working for municipal schools, who's main objective remains to cater to thepublic good. Through interviews with several teachers from municipals schools in Uppsala, it'sclear that the reform has had a clear impact on their profession. The municipality's will to reducecosts seem to have increased the workload for the teachers. A lot of new administrative tasks, notregarded as essential educational tasks, have been added. Meanwhile the reputation and salary ofteachers have dropped along with a decreasing collegiality, attributed to lack of time. It appears thatthe teachers are overall dissatisfied with the implementation of the reform but agree thatcompetition can have positive and diversifying effects on the education system. The teachers areabove all sceptical to private companies making profit of students, claiming that it promotes a faultycompetition that tries to attract student not by promising a lot of lessons but rather few lessons andeasy grades. The conclusion is that even teachers in municipal schools have felt the effect of NPMreforms.The teachers feel that their autonomy has decreased and that their profession has sufferedas a consequence of the charter school reform. The bureaucratic and professional logic that hasguided teachers has had to make way for a new market logic.

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Jämställdhetsintegrering är i Sverige den huvudsakliga strategin för att nå de jämställdhetspolitiska målen. Strategin går ut på att ett jämställdhetsperspektiv ska finnas inom alla områden, nivåer och processer i beslutsfattande och utförande av politik. Strategin har används sedan 90-talet men några tydliga effekter har inte kunnat påvisas och samhället är fortfarande inte jämställt. Inom forskningen har jämställdhetsintegreringens transformativa potential ifrågasatts. Man menar att strategin när den sätts i praktiken anpassas till etablerad politik och processer snarare än att förändra dem. Det är jämställdhetsintegreringens transformativa potential som undersöks i denna uppsats genom en fallstudie av för teorin kritiska fall. Strategier, styrdokument och utvärderingar studeras i tre svenska kommuner. Slutsatsen är att jämställdhetsintegreringen i dessa gynnsamma fall inte är genomgående transformativ utan att det sker en viss teknokratisering och avpolitisering av jämställdhetsarbetet. Därmed ger den stöd till forskningen som menar att jämställdhetsintegrering inte uppfyller sin transformativa potential när den sätts i praktiken.

The Egyptian civil society operates under a number of formal restrictions and the government’s repressive policy has held back the emergence of autonomous organisations and made them lose their power and impact. Nevertheless, civil society organisations in Egypt have grown in number, scope of activities and impact. In addition, the press has got relatively greater freedom of expression. Taking this evolution in account, this essay examines the contemporary Egyptian civil society in practice through two Egyptian newspapers; Al-Ahram and Al-Wafd. / Det Egyptiska civil samhället verkar under en mängd formella restriktioner och regeringens hämmande politik har förhindrat utvecklingen av autonoma organisationer, vilket har bidragit till att de har förlorat makt och påverkan. Trots detta har de civila samhälls organisationerna i Egypten ökat i antal, omfattning och påverkan och pressen har fått relativt ökad yttrandefrihet. Med hänsyn till detta undersöker föreliggande uppsats det samtida Egyptiska civil samhället i praktiken genom två Egyptiska tidningar; Al-Ahram och Al-Wafd

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There is a wide spread discrimination between the genders at the Swedish labour market. Women get lower wages, their skills are undervalued compared to men, it is harder for women to advance, they are more likely to involuntary do part time jobs and they usually end up in the least qualified and stimulating jobs. The governmental policy seems affectless and companies are unable or unwilling to change. Historical, sociological and rational choice institutionalism can offer an explanation to the problem. The segregation has historical roots that go back to the early days of industrialisation when women entered the labour market with working conditions that were worse than men‟s. Because of the conservatory character of institutions, the perceptions of the genders have been reproduced until today. The conclusion is that what the government does is less important than the fact that it does anything since the institutions are working to conserve the current order.