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With Voting Advice Applications changing how people engage in democracy it has become more important to understand the work behind them. Much research has been given to the algorithm and methodology, but less has focused on the ideas that presupposes the development process. The aim of this thesis is to examine and further our understanding of how VAA’s as part of the media repertoire affects contemporary democracy. Scholars have denoted that VAA’s neutrally transmitting information may not be as neutral as one might think. Indeed, democratic presuppositions of the developers may play a role in shaping the intent of what VAA’s intends to do. In order to explore those presuppositions this thesis has interviewed developers of Swedish ‘Valkompassen’ and their answers have been examined by employing an ideal type analysis of democratic ideals. The results indicate that the democratic presuppositions of the developers seem to be more akin to an electoral democratic ideal.

This thesis investigates the economic integration of female immigrant entrepreneurs on a micro-level. This is done by employing the model of ‘mixed embeddedness’, created by Kloosterman et al. (1999), which states that immigrant entrepreneurs are embedded in an institutional, social and financial context. The thesis develops further on the model by studying the different contexts compared to each other and seeing what makes a difference for female immigrant entrepreneurs. Thirteen female immigrant entrepreneurs were interviewed about their experiences with economic integration through entrepreneurship in relation to the developed model of ‘mixed embeddedness’. Through the interviews, it was possible to learn about the Swedish institutional, social, and financial contexts, as well as the role they play in the integration of female immigrant entrepreneurs. The results show that all three contexts had an impact on the entrepreneurs' experiences starting their businesses, and they each had varying strengths in doing so. Also, it showed that the developed model of ‘mixed embeddedness’ is a useful analytical tool when studying economic integration through entrepreneurship. Additional studies are suggested to compare different national contexts to each other to further investigate what actually matters in the economic integration of foreign-born women.

Does being more knowledgeable about the EU increase support for the free movement of people and, secondly, do more knowledgeable people show less ambivalence in their attitudes towards free movement? These are the questions I want to answer in this thesis. Based on the literature on attitude formation both towards immigration and European integration I conduct a regression analysis using Eurobarometer data from every EU country. Of particular importance is the concept of ‘attitudinal ambivalence’, where respondents hold conflicting opinions towards a subject when different aspects of that subject are primed. This is also the case for the free movement of people: less people support it when the inward mobility of other EU citizens is primed in the survey question. In this thesis I theorise that people who have more knowledge of the EU are more supportive of the freedom of movement and hold less ambivalent attitudes because they realise the inconsistency of their opinions. These predictions are supported by the results of the regression analysis, providing evidence that knowledge is an interesting variable in attitudinal research. Furthermore, this thesis contributes to the rather new field of attitudinal research into the free movement of people.

Drug trafficking is a rapidly growing phenomenon that has a significant impact on communities. How the Swedish authorities work together to combat that problem is regulated according to Swedish law, as professionals who have the closest contact with the public are the ones who have the greatest responsibility to act and decide in suspicious cases. Despite the hard work of crime fighting, society experiences the availability of a functioning drug market. High seizure statistics are presented by the Swedish Customs in recent years. Therefore, there has been an interest in investigating the phenomenon, taking into account that the seizure statistics are high and drug sales are still taking place. Institutions that work against crime fighting such as authorities are a starting point for understanding what is actually happening in Swedish society according to policy makers and decision makers. The purpose of the study is to investigate both how the Swedish Customs Authority's powers currently look and to compare the views between the Swedish Customs Service, the Police Authority and the Coast Guard regarding these powers and the legislative proposals that the Swedish Customs Service has put forward to increase crime fighting. The results show that expanded powers for customs officers are needed as well as "a clear, expedient and uniform regulation" for the fragmented powers in various laws and regulations. Finally, the theories that this research applies are linked to gain more understanding as to why the results look like this. According to the aforementioned authorities, drug smuggling can be limited in a more efficient way if the requirements of the Swedish Customs Administration are met.

During the last seven years, the total cost for Swedish public transport provision has increased by over 30 percent in real terms according to figures from the government agency Transport Analysis. A similar pattern is found if considering a longer time span. Part of the cost increase can be attributed to an increased supply, and part is due to price increases on input factors that are measured by an industry index produced by the public transport industry. The fact that about half of the costs in Swedish public transport are covered by public funds calls for responsibility in how these funds are used, and this means that information about cost drivers and cost efficiency is necessary. The lack of information about these factors in the Swedish public transport sector is the main motivation for the two papers included in this thesis. In this cover essay, the developments over the last decades in Swedish public transport are described, and there is a focus on the last ten years with the Doubling Project and the market in 2012. As mentioned, the costs as a whole, as well as per unit costs such as cost per vehicle kilometer, have increased in real terms since 2007. Even though parts of the cost increase can be attributed to an increased supply or the price of input factors, this development might be problematic for at least two reasons. First, the ambition of the industry to double the number of travelers by the year 2020 seems to have resulted in a supply increase around year 2010 and a similar increase in the number of boardings. However, the cost per vehicle kilometer and cost per boarding have both increased since then, which can bring into question whether the supply increases have been made at the right places and to the proper extent to have the desired effect on travel. Second, it is not clear whether a price increase for input factors can be viewed as an ``acceptable'' explanation for the cost increase. To the extent that the Public Transport Authority (PTA) or operator can affect the price of input factors such as buses (detailed or environmental requirements, etc.) or labor (demands on take-over of previous staff), an endogenous relationship is possible, which could disguise these potentially cost-driving factors as general price increases. At the end of this essay, a discussion about the lack of publicly available data highlights the non-compliance with EU regulations related to this. More data resources, perhaps with open access, would enable more comparisons between contractual forms, PTAs, and operators, which would provide examples of good and poor solutions and concepts in the industry and would have the potential to ensure better use of public funds. Below is a summary over the two paper included in this licentiate thesis. Papper I - “Costs for Swedish Public Transport Authorities” - uses contract-level data for the year 2012 and econometric methodology to investigate how contract factors affect costs for bus contracts. A theoretical framework is established to show some of the cost mechanisms that are at work in the two most popular contractual forms in Sweden, and the paper provides some insights into what results to expect from the empirical analysis. The most important results from the econometric analysis are that higher population density and a contract being operated by a publicly owned (municipal or county council) operator are both associated with having higher costs. Also, no statistically significant differences could be found when using incentive payments in the contracts. Papper II - “Cost Efficiency in Swedish Public Transport” -has a similar perspective as Paper I, but it uses stochastic frontier analysis to focus on cost efficiency and differences across PTAs. Data for the year 2013 are used, along with other data sources, to derive a cost frontier from which some of the deviations from this can be attributed to cost inefficiencies. The results are similar to those of Paper I, namely that cost efficiency is lower in high-density areas and in contracts that are directly awarded to a publicly owned operator. When comparing the cost efficiency of the PTAs (or counties), most exhibit small differences. The difference between the 1st and 15th-ranked county is only about 8 percent. The difference is somewhat larger when turning to the third and second least efficient counties of Stockholm and Skåne. The least efficient county of Västmanland is about 30 less cost efficient than the 1st-ranked county. / De senaste sju åren har de totala kostnaderna för att bedriva kollektivtrafik i Sverige ökat med över 30 procent i reala termer enligt siffror från myndigheten Trafikanalys. Jämförs en längre tidsperiod hittas samma mönster. En del av kostnadsökningen kan förklaras med ett ökat utbud under perioden, och en del med ökade priser på insatsfaktorer vilket kan mätas med ett prisindex sammansatt av kollektivtrafikbranschen. Det faktum att ungefär hälften av kollektivtrafikens kostnader täcks av offentliga medel ställer krav på ett ansvarsfullt utnyttjande, vilket i sin tur kräver information om hur kostnader och kostnadseffektivitet påverkas. Dylik information är begränsad för svensk kollektivtrafik, vilket är den huvudsakliga motiveringen till de två papperen i denna uppsats. I den tillhörande kappan beskrivs de senaste decenniernas utveckling i den svenska kollektivtrafiken, med ett större fokus på de senaste tio åren med branschens fördubblingsprojekt samt marknadsöppningen år 2012. Som nämndes tidigare har kostnaderna som helhet, samt olika typer av styckkostnader såsom kostnad per körd utbudskilometer, ökat i reala termer sedan 2007. Även om delar av kostnadsökningarna kan attribueras till ett ökat utbud eller prisökningar i insatsfaktorer kan utvecklingen ändå vara problematisk av åtminstone två anledningar. För det första verkar branschens ambition att fördubbla resandet till år 2020 ha gett en utbudsökning under åren kring 2010, och en resandeökning något år senare. Vad som är tydligt är dock att både kostnaden per utbudskilometer och passagerare ökat. I ljuset av detta blir det tveksamt om utbudsökningarna skett på rätt ställen. För det andra är det oklart om en prisökning i insatsfaktorerna kan ses som ”acceptabla” anledningar till branschens kostnadsökning. I den mån kollektivtrafikmyndigheter och/eller operatörer kan påverka priset på insatsfaktorer såsom bussar (särkrav, miljökrav etc.) eller personal (personalövertagande etc.) riskerar man ett endogent samband vilket gör att dessa, potentiellt kostnadsdrivande, faktorer lätt kan sorteras bort som allmänna prisökningar. I slutet av kappan förs även en diskussion om den bristande tillgången på offentlig data i svensk kollektivtrafik, och att kollektivtrafikmyndigheterna inte följer uppsatta EU förordningar relaterat till detta. Ett större utbud av data, och helst ett öppet sådant, skulle möjliggöra för mer jämförelser mellan kontrakt, utförare och kollektivtrafikmyndigheter, vilket i förlängningen tydligare skulle kunna påvisa bra och dåliga exempel i branschen och bidra ett bättre resursutnyttjande av skattemedel. Nedan följer en sammanfattning av de två papper som ingår i licentiatuppsatsen. Papper I, “Costs for Swedish Public Transport Authorities”, använder data från år 2012 på kontraktsnivå för att med ekonometriska metoder analysera hur olika kontraktsfaktorer påverkar kostnaderna i busskontrakt. Analysen utgår från en teoretisk modell visar på kostnadsmekanismer i de två vanligaste kontraktstyperna, och som ger några insikter om vilka resultat som kan förväntas från den empiriska analysen. De viktigaste resultaten från den ekonometriska analysen är att kostnaderna är högre om kontraktet körs i ett område med hög befolkningstäthet, eller om operatören av ett kontrakt har en offentlig ägare (kommun eller landsting). Incitamentsersättning till operatören kan inte påvisas ha en statistiskt signifikant påverkan på kostnaderna. Papper II, “Cost Efficiency in Swedish Public Transport” , har en liknande utgångspunkt som Papper I, men använder stokastisk frontanalys för att fokusera på kostnadseffektivitet och skillnader i denna mellan kollektivtrafikmyndigheter. Data från år 2013 används tillsammans med ett antal andra datakällor för att ta fram en kostnadsfront, där vissa avvikelser från denna attribueras som kostnadsineffektivitet. Resultaten påminner om de i Papper I, nämligen att kostnadseffektiviteten är lägre i tätbefolkade områden, samt i kontrakt som direkttilldelas en offentligt ägd operatör. En jämförelse av kollektivtrafikmyndigheternas (länens) kostnadseffektivitet visar att de flesta län inte skiljer sig åt. Skillnaden mellan den mest effektiva och 15e mest effektiva länet är ca 8 procent. Skillnaden är något större till Stockholms och Skåne län, som har tredje respektive näst lägsta kostnadseffektivitet, samt det sist placerade länet, Västmanland, som är cirka 30 procent mer ineffektiv än det bäst placerade.

Sammanfattning Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka och belysa hur olika faktorer påverkar vårdpersonalens upplevda trivsel på äldreboenden. Studiens mål är också att öka förståelsen för hur arbete i ett team såväl som ledarskap påverkar vårdpersonalens trivsel. Genom att identifiera möjliga förbättringsområden för att främja trivseln bland vårdpersonalen kan man skapa en mer positiv arbetsmiljö. Studien utförs med en kvalitativ metodik och inkluderar intervjuer med 16 respondenter utvalda via ett snöbollsurval. Studien analyserades och utvärderades med hjälp av ett teoretiskt ramverk som omfattar HR perspektivet, Herzbergs tvåfaktorteori och Maslows behovstrappa. Detta ger oss möjlighet att granska hur kommunikation och hantering av konflikter från och tillsammans  med ledare påverkar trivseln hos vårdpersonalen. Resultaten från undersökningen visar att vårdpersonalens trivsel påverkas av arbetsplatsfaktorer som tydliga arbetsrutiner och ansvarsområden. Arbetsmiljön, inklusive fysiska förhållanden och teamarbete, spelar också en viktig roll. Vissa upplever bristande kommunikation och stöd från ledningen, särskilt den högsta chefen, vilket kan påverka arbetsmiljön negativt. Effektiv konflikthantering, både internt och tillsammans med ledningen, är avgörande för en positiv arbetsmiljö och trivsel hos vårdpersonalen.

The aim of this study is to examine the democratization process in Bosnia & Herzegovina since the Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995. By applying Linz & Stepans five arenas for a consolidated democracy on this case: Civil Society; Political Society; Rule of Law; State Apparatus and Economic Society, this paper wishes to provide the reader with a better understanding of the issues Bosnia & Herzegovina has had in its democratization development. The results of this study shows that Bosnia & Herzegovina lacks sufficiently in all arenas, and the greatest issues the country has includes nationalism, political clientelism and corruption.

Sex tourism is a process whereby most commonly men from the Global North travel to the Global South to gain access to the bodies of women. This process perpetuates inequalities at the intersection of gender, race and class. This research seeks to uncover contemporary power relations in the relationship between male sex tourists from the Global North and female sex workers from the Global South. This research attempts to understand how sex tourism motivates problematic international gendered assumptions about Global South women by Global North men, whether and how the customers from the Global North are the dominant participants in the tourism-related sexual entertainment industry, and to what extent sex tourism is indeed exploitative. The research puzzle was addressed through data triangulation of a content analysis of men’s accounts as sex tourists and an expert interview. It was found that colonial patriarchal constructions of Global South women as available and passive and as commoditised objects of male lust are perpetuated in contemporary sex tourism in Thailand. Moreover, I argue that because the men that enlist the women’s sexual services are aware of the women’s deficient economic situation, these men are consciously exploiting these women to gain access to their bodies.

Idea-born – public partnership (IPP) is a state-initiated form of cooperation that are supposed to make it easier for civil society to cooperate with the public sector to solve complex social problems. The study explores how municipalities organize collaboration through IPP and examine opportunities and obstacles with the form of collaboration. Theoretically, the study is guided by concepts from Emerson et al' (2012) model of collaborative governance. The study adopts a qualitative research strategy, and the material was collected from semi-structured interviews with people who work in both the public and idea-based sectors. The results of the study show that the interaction through IPP is complex. There is no predetermined template – IPP becomes what the parties make it. Since there is no uniform definition, there is also no given organization. The parties establish the organization deemed necessary to achieve the purpose of the collaboration. IPP can be preceded by time- and resource consuming processes or be a fast track to collaboration. Likewise, the IPP organization differs in terms of incentives for collaboration, number of participating parties, duration, steering groups, meeting frequency, meeting constellations and personnel administration. The study also shows that the respondents experience following opportunities with IOP; the actors complement each other; share and maximize resources and that the municipality can employ coordinators who are responsible for the IPP work. The obstacles appear to be inadequate procedural and institutional arrangements; lack of knowledge; insufficient dialogue and that trust is damaged by the voice function of civil society.