In the social sciences, geopolitical theory is used in order to analyze states actions and commitments when it comes to foreign policy. This thesis develops a new understanding of geopolitical theory. Firstly, the development and application of geopolitical theory, from its foundations in the early twentieth century to contemporary geopolitical studies is discussed. Secondly a revised understanding of the variables integrated in the concept and how it can be operationalized as an analytical tool is presented and tested empirically.The critical assessment of the research field of geopolitical theory tells us that six different geopolitical perspectives have been considered the most influential (room, strategy, power projection, identity, affiliation and governance) when it comes to analyzing state action. This model is applied as an analytical tool and thus tested on a single case.

The purpose of this study is to find out teachers and students thoughts about sustainable development. Research shows that sustainable development should be a part of all education. When this is the case, the student´s will develop a competence to act in this matter. This is important so student´s encourages to act and make decisions based on knowledge about sustainable development. This field investigation is based on four interviews with teachers and eleven interviews with student´s. The result shows that the teachers has learned a lot about the concept, and in different ways realizated this in their teaching.

The aim with my work was to gain a deeper understanding of some adult adopted children?s experiences and reflections about which role parent ship plays for the adopted child?s development of identity. Following questions have been in focus: What does a working parent ship imply, seen from the perspective of adopted child? In which way can the development of identity for the adopted child be supported by a functional parent ship? Semi-structured interviews were carried out with the two following themes: Support and confirmation. The sample consisted of five foreign-adopted between the age of 18 and 37 years.

Sustainability reports are drawn up for the company's stakeholders and declare the company?s corporate social responsibility. Consumers are one of the companies' most important stakeholders for food companies. This study is aimed to describe how consumers perceive sustainability reporting in the food industry and if the application level of the GRI framework has an impact on how consumers perceive sustainability reports. Consumer perception is described in the GRI principles and the basis is the ICA and Coop's sustainability reports, which are two of Sweden's largest food company.

AbstractIn this essay, I have chosen to examine how four teachers in a work unit think and work with linguistic development and strategies, particularly in grade 4-6. The teaching profession has gradually become more like a cooperative profession. Therefore it is in a general pedagogic interest, to know, how each one of the teachers in the work unit, are thinking about linguistic development, teaching profiles and the significances of a work unit to achieve their aims to provide for all the individuals in their classrooms. My intention was to find out if a homogeneous work unit or a heterogeneous work unit is to prefer in work with linguistic development, which initially made me focus and realise the importance of each one of my informants? answers.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union a lot of hope has been put on civil society to help develop Russia into a more democratic society. This study explores the constructive elements in the relationship between civil society and the state in Russia, and how this enables the work toward political development. By using Julie Fishers theory about political development and organisational autonomy I discuss the varying and often complex ways in which civil society and the state interacts. These are often not mentioned in the liberal tradition, which believes that civil society's most important democratic function is to act as a watchdog for the state.There is very limited political space for NGO's in authoritative Russia. The existing oppositional NGO's are important for the political development, but they are few and their impacts on society are limited.

The purpose of the study has been to recognise good development and the factors behind this development. We have chosen an aid-project co-financed first by the Swedish government and later by the government of Great Britain for our study. One of the conditions for good development, according to our chosen theory Another development, is peoples participation. To study good development and peoples participation we conducted a Minor Field Study (MFS) in Rajasthan in the north-west of India in June-August 2001. We had a hermeneutic approach and consequently accomplished interviews and participant observations in the Lok Jumbish project in Rajasthan.

ABSTRACT System development has become more and more concentrated on development for the Web and this has resulted in larger target groups. It will most surely continue to be so considering that the Web will be the infrastructure of business and services in the future. A big target group involves that the owner of a system can earn a lot of money from the paying users, but that assumes that the system can meet user needs. If a system on the Web does not satisfy the user?s demands then they will use the competitor?s system instead because it is only a mouse-click away.

The study has been conducted to find out whether aesthetic expressions and experiences can benefit the smallest children's language development. How do the teachers at the preschool relate to aesthetic expression? Do they think that aesthetic expression and experience will be favorable for stimulating children's language? Children perceive through their senses, logically aesthetic expressions should promote children's learning and development. How does this claim stand in relation with the smallest children's language development and teachers' views on aesthetics as a pedagogical tool for language stimulation? To get closer to the answer a survey have been done.

AbstractThis study aims to describe and analyze how the 15 municipalities of Västerbotten County consider regional targets of development in their comprehensive plans. The study also investigate if there´s any need of improvements for the consideration of regional targets in comprehensive planning.This paper is based on studies of comprehensive plans in Västerbotten County and on three interviews with employers of different municipalities in the county. An thematic analysis were used to analyze documents and interviews.The result shows that a new comprehensive plan generally takes more consideration to regional targets of development than older plans. The consideration varies a lot between the municipalities of Västerbotten County and it can be explained by many reasons. The informant?s points out that lack of resources- and competence plus a deficient dialog between municipalities and regional organizations are the mainly causes.Keywords; regional development, comprehensive planning, strategy for regional development, regional development program, land-use planning.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to investigate a possible connection between the development of mobile library services in Sweden and the development of cultural policy during 1945-2006. Our main question is: is there a connection between the development of the mobile library services in Sweden, as described in Biblioteksbladet, and the development of cultural policy as portrayed by Anders Frenander and Dorte Skot-Hansen? In order to answer this question, we formulated two secondary questions: - How are the mobile library services described in Biblioteksbladet between 1945 and 2006? - Are there any similarities or dissimilarities between the development of the mobile library services and the development cultural policy as described in our theoretical models? If so, in what way? Our study covers the entire time period since the start of the mobile library services in Sweden in the late 1940s. The final year for our investigation is 2006.

The Income Tax Act is enacted what criteria must be met to obtain a tax reduction of household work. Household work is the common term for ROT- and RUT-works. The purpose of the tax reduction is to increase job opportunities and to discourage that undocumented work performs.It is only for the labor cost as tax reduction is given for. The concept of labor cost is defined in law as it is not comprised of cost of materials, equipment or travel. The preliminary work provides no closer explanation what the labor cost includes.

This study aim to investigate the conditions framing the professional development situation for physical education teachers (PE) in a small municipality in the south of Sweden. The Swedish National Agency for Education declare that "focus must be directed towards strengthening the teachers' profession", and that "schools need well-trained teachers and good teaching to help students achieve good results". The study focuses both the schools? contribution and the way in which the teachers take own initiative and are motivated to develop their professional skills. The investigation is all based on teachers' perspectives.

This is a study of proficiency development of major/lt colonel officers (level 2-3) within the Swedish armed forces. The study includes officers above the age of 45. The background of this study is a study from January 2000 (written by Björn Osswald). Osswald discovered that proficiency development decreased at the age of 45. Since the profession as an officer today is a lifetime profession, this is a result that the Swedish Armed Forces not can afford.

The purpose of this report was to investigate how the Umeå School of Business and Economics at Umeå university can work to increase the share of courses and programmes that discuss sustainable development. Furthermore the purpose was to develop an action plan that can be used to increase that share. Methods used were a questionnaire directed towards the educators at the Umeå School of Business and Economics and an assessment of the content of courses and programmes connected to the Umeå School of Business and Economics. There was no clear structured way of working with education for sustainable development, but at the same time there was a will to integrate sustainable development in the education. Curricula were according to the educators an important tool to achieve this integration, their experience were that there are not enough time, people and money to work with sustainable development in the education and they would like to see more clear directions from the management.