Franchise theorists have to a large extent failed to keep up with the actual development in global franchise chains. The recent emergence of fast growing multi-unit-franchisees has fundamentally been ignored, and it has been claimed that the new phenomenon can be regarded as a mere replication of the franchisors? structure and control system into sub hierarchies. This study however, suggests that the reality is more complex. Through conducting case studies of two Nordic multi-unit-franchisees, new theories are built explaining how and why control systems are designed the way they are.

Background and purpose: Volleyball requires a lot of the human body, andeffective core stability is necessary for the athlete. Our muscles cooperate as achain of motions and core stabilization is the base for the moving muscles.The most well-known stabilization muscle is m.transversus abdominis (TrA).The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the function of TrA inSwedish female elite volleyball players and to observe the influence of eightweeks of stabilization exercise on the TrA. Method: 10 female elitevolleyball players (mean age 24,7 years, range 18-31 years) participated inthe study. TrA was measured in supine position with a pressure biofeedbackunit. Subjects were instructed to draw in the abdominal wall without movingthe pelvis and hold for 10 seconds.

Background:Due to a more open climate in society for homosexual people several lesbian couples have given birth to children in their relations. Research has shown no differences between children in lesbian families and children in heterosexual families considering mental and social health. International research has also shown that lesbian parents often have bad experiences from meetings with healthcare providers.Theaim of this study was to describe lesbian child families/familyplannings and the lesbian parents experiences and expectations of the healthcare.Themethod for the study was qualitative interview with 9 lesbian parents. The data was analysed by the queer theory heteronormative concept.Theresults of the research was that lesbian families considered themselves as a nuclear family and at the same time distanced themselves from the nuclear family concept. The findings showed that lesbian couples are involved in a very long process when they try to become parents.

The municipality of Falkenberg is a result of a unification of several smaller municipalities in 1971, each one with a small library. This left Falkenberg with an unusual large amount of smaller branch libraries. The object of this thesis is to describe and try to understand the political conflicts that have erupted during the period 1971-1994. Through a case study containing press clippings from the local newspaper, different reports, political meeting protocols, a historical Background of the library and a study of library specific norms and regulations I can create an image of the heated debate. The participants in this debate can be divided into politicians and civil servants and the conflict circles round the fact that from an economical perspective, there is not enough budget to keep all the small, local libraries.

This essay intervenes in the politics of urban segregation in Stockholm. The main aim of the essay is to analyze and describe how advanced marginality and territorial stigmatization are expressed in the lived experiences of four unemployed youths, that have participated in a labor market training program located in the ?social vulnerable? area Rågsved. With a theoretical framework based in Henri Lefebvre?s production of social space the empirical findings are interpreted in regard to how the youths produce social space in dialectical interplay with urban politics, advanced marginality, territorial stigmatization, and their local neighborhood.

This Masters thesis aims to study the reading habits of readers of romantic fiction, especially focusing on gender issues. The main areas studied are the function of reading romances compared with reading other genres, and how the readers value romantic and general literature. The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with seven readers of romances, five women and two men. The theoretical Background is based on reader response theory and gender theory. Before I started interview the readers I asked them to read two romances; Sidney Sheldons - The best Laid Plans, and Rosamunde Pilchers - The End of Summer, which we later discussed during the interviews.

Background: For most children, being hospitalized is a whole new experience. The care should be safe and meet the children?s needs. In hospital care, children are a large group of patients. It?s important for them to be involved in decisions regarding their care and to get proper information.

This paper deals with Will Kymlicka's and Charles Taylor's theories of multiculturalism, and the criticism of these theories by Jürgen Habermas and Seyla Benhabib. It also gives a brief Background to the Swedish integration and minority policies and places them in relations to the academic discussion. Taylor advocates cultural survival to be a legitimate policy objective and Kymlicka argues that rights should be diversified in order to adapt to different needs of cultural minorities. The thesis aims to confront the theories with interviews of four persons who voluntarily or by profession work for the interest of minorities. The theories have been operationalized as questions and structured in four themes with the purpose of analyzing the interviews.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the municipal library of Västervik. There have been four previous libraries and our examination starts in 1859 with the foundation of a parish library. The other forerunners were a working-class movement library and two libraries in the International Orders of Good Templars. Before the merger of the libraries there were discussions in the municipal council, among the working-class movement and in the IOGT.

The purpose of the work is to highlight schools work to prevent bullying and abusive treatment, find out about schools work to prevent bullying and abusive treatment follow what is written in the governing documents and how schools can work preventively against the same. The questions have been investigated through qualitative interviews and analysis of documents or in the theoretical Background. The interviewees and partially schools were selected through an arbitrarily selection. In each plan against abusive treatment states that the monitoring and evaluation should be conducted in a manner that is not consistent with the responses from leisure educator 1, 2 and 3. School B's plan does not contain an overview of the measures needed to prevent and stop abusive treatment of children.

Background: The hurricane in the south of Sweden in January 2005 was the worst storm in Sweden for the last hundred years. The storm named Gudrun has blown down forest that according to estimation is corresponding to one year of cutting down in the entire country.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe how credit granters act when facing falling forest real estate mortgage and describe if they will make considerations due to the storm in the south of Sweden 2005.Method: With help of a qualitative method, we investigated how the credit granters act when facing falling forest real estate mortgage. Interviews were obtained with three credit granters, SEB, Landshypotek and FöreningsSparbanken in the county of Jönköping and Kronoberg.Conclusion: The conclusion is based upon the empirical study, the analysis and our own reflections and it shows that the credit granters do not change their policy concerning credit granting to forest real estate properties. The policy of the credit granters has proven to be valid even in this extreme situation..

Background: Patients with heart failure is a patient group growing in numbers, the most common treatment focuses on reliving symptoms and the only cure is heart transplantation. Objective: Aim of the study was to illuminate patients' experiences of living with heart failure at his home. Method: Qualitative design, with a manifest content analysis. The results are based on 12 scientific articles.  Results: Patients with heart failure find that the disease is limited to their daily lives through mental illness and physical symptoms.

Background: The stress in the society seems to having become more amplified and more trying. Statistics show that the appearance of stress related industrial diseases have increased strikingly. What can be stressing at the workplace? The work conditions are not the only thing that causes stress but no matter what the causes are employers have to restore the employees to their former positions. How are companies dealing with the problems of stress in reality? Do they have formulated strategies for how to manage the problems? Purpose: The purpose with this essay is to try to see pattern in how companies manage and treat stress and stress related industrial diseases.

The purpose of this study is to investigate information seeking habits among young persons with mild mental disability. We wanted to know how they seek information in everyday life, barriers they experience when seeking information and also if they consider the library to be a source of information.The theoretical Background of this study is based on the works of T. D. Wilson and Michael Buckland. Wilson?s model of information seeking behavior and seeking information was used as a tool analyzing the results from the interviews.

Background:Due to a more open climate in society for homosexual people several lesbian couples have given birth to children in their relations. Research has shown no differences between children in lesbian families and children in heterosexual families considering mental and social health. International research has also shown that lesbian parents often have bad experiences from meetings with healthcare providers.Theaim of this study was to describe lesbian child families/familyplannings and the lesbian parents experiences and expectations of the healthcare.Themethod for the study was qualitative interview with 9 lesbian parents. The data was analysed by the queer theory heteronormative concept.Theresults of the research was that lesbian families considered themselves as a nuclear family and at the same time distanced themselves from the nuclear family concept. The findings showed that lesbian couples are involved in a very long process when they try to become parents.