In this thesis I discuss how the western conception of reason is an aspect of power. I consider the western comprehension of rationality to be a masculine and ethnocentric understanding, though by itself acclaimed to be universal. My purpose with this thesis is to analyze how this western and masculine conceptualisation of reason follows a gramscian structure of power, which makes it reproduce itself in the postcolonial project of science.The theory of hegemony and ideology of Antonio Gramsci is central for analyzing the reproduction of the western subject of knowledge. The theoretical approach is also based on the understanding of the Other as essential for defining the identity of the self. My two main objects of study is one text of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, which discuss the problems of representation, and one of Chandra Talpade Mohanty, in which she examines the tendency to neocolonization in certain western postcolonial feminist research.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers in primary school reason about and problematize the phenomenon of concentration difficulties. I want to know what the teachers think characterizes concentration difficulties, the situations in which difficulties creates the most problems, and whether the teachers think that these difficulties solely depend on external factors. To examine this, I chose to do interviews with three teachers in years four to six. I have completed parts of my work with my colleague Elin Preisz. We have used the same purpose and issues in our studies, although Elin has interviewed teachers in preschool. With this we want to be able to compare the reasoning between teachers at different stages in school. The results of my study shows that the interviewees think that it is hard to describe what characterizes the problems in concentration difficulties because the problems is very individual.

SJ is a government-owned passenger train operator in Sweden. SJ currently uses asystem called Ford for control and monitoring of maintenance. Technical andorganizational factors have given Ford the character of a monolithic system withoutflexibility and conditions to meet SJ's increased requirements.The main purpose of this master's thesis is to investigate how data quality can bedefined at SJ and to examine the data quality in Ford. This will give SJ an indication ofwhat their quality efforts should focus on in the future.The technical data quality parameters found are: accuracy, timeliness, completenessand consistency. The user centred data quality parameters are: accessibility,understandability and reliability.

Authorities, municipalities and county councils have great opportunities to pave the way to a sustainable society. In the public sector, the tax revenue is used and therefore it is important that both employees and societal stakeholders feel that they participate in the sector?s decisions and fields of application. Municipalities and county councils are primarily service organisations. The employees? commitment is necessary to be able to reach set goals, to develop procedures and policies that support the overall political goals, in other words, to be successful in the environmental work.

I denna studie testas tio hypoteser som relaterar till finansiell teori för att se hur väl teorin kan förklara skuldsättningsgraden i små börsnoterade bolag. De teorier som testas är avvägningsteorin (trade-off theory), hackordningsteorin (pecking order theory) samt teorier relaterade till asymmetrisk information och agentkostnader. Testen genomförs med multipel linjär regressionsanalys och de undersökta bolagen är samtliga bolag med färre än 200 anställda på tre av de mindre börslistorna i Sverige. Resultatet visar stöd för åtta av de tio undersökta hypoteserna och är i flera avseenden tydligare än i tidigare studier som testar onoterade små bolag eller ett bredare urval av bolag..

The banking industry is a fundamental part of the economy in Sweden. Despite its importance, the competition and the concentration level within the Swedish banking sector is relatively unexplored. This paper aims to examine the development of the concentration level in the Swedish banking sector during a period of ten years, 2003 to 2013. The examined banks in the study are the four largest banks in Sweden; Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB and Swedbank, and four selected niche banks, ICA banken, Ikano Bank, Länförsäkringar Bank and Skandiabanken. In order to examine the development in percentage change, there are six selected variables; loans, deposits and borrowings (both public and households), net interest income and return on equity, which are observed during a period of ten years.

Entrepreneurship as playing a important role for economic growth has been discussed by a number of theorists such as Joseph Schumpeter and Israel M. Kirzner. William J. Baumol developed these theories as he considered that all entrepreneurship doesn?t lead to economic growth, some entrepreneurial activities may even lead to stagnation.

Bankruptcy is a problem for the society in form of high costs for including suppliers, customers, employees, investors, banks, insurance companies etc. The purpose of this study is to confirm or dismiss a bankruptcy prediction model that has been developed in a previous Swedish study, in order to predict bankruptcy with help of specific key figures. The model has only been tested in a larger perspective where the population consisted of all small firms in Sweden, in this study the model´s reliability is tested by that it instead been applied to a minor perspective, where the population only includes Stockholm. With a quantitative approach of 12 different key figures from a total of 60 Swedish smaller registered companies in Stockholm between the years 2005-2007, has been studied. The companies are divided into two groups, companies with good financial health and companies that have ended up in bankruptcy.The results shows that the model is applicable in a smaller population, but some of the key figures do not generate essential or any type of information about bankruptcy, but the majority of the key figures in the model did.

The value investing philosophy, which can be traced at least to the teaching of Graham and Dodd in the 1930?s, entails identifying and investing in potentially under valued stocks with a potential for extraordinary returns. The focus of this thesis is to identify patterns and characteristics in financial accounting data preceding creation of shareholder value. The authors of this thesis utilize a multivariate discriminant analysis in order to identify indicators of value creation and subsequent extraordinary returns in value stocks. A discriminant function is derived which successfully identifies which value stocks will eventually become growth stocks.

The aim with the project was to portray something to step on. Its purpose has been to experiment and explore the interaction between pattern, structure, material and colour for something to be applied on a floor. Focus has been on esthetic expression and not the creation of some¬thing for a specific environment or audience. My goal was also that this project would illustrate the importance of the floor to create a certain atmosphere in a room.The project was divided into three phases. The first one was the experimenting and exploring phase, where the goal was to find an expression.

The purpose of this study was to examine leadership in the public sector based on leadership models, organizational factors, conditions and health of employees. The study was divided into sub-study one and two. In sub-study one the design was an observational study using cross sectional design in which 67 first line managers in the public sector answered a survey about conditions and leadership models. Sub-study two was an observational study using case-control design focusing on a health promoting leadership intervention in the municipal sector. Two semi-structured interviews and 41 surveys were collected.

Portable IT devices such as laptops, smart phones and computer tablets are becoming ever more ubiquitous. At the same time, the population of the Western world is growing older, with aging bringing about changes with regards to individuals' physical and mental capabilities. These facts raises important questions about how well suited these devices are for use by elderly people. This study focuses on the cognitive aspects of the devices' usability, using the concept of mental models to analyze the users' understanding of a computer tablet. It also draws upon theory of graphical user interfaces in its analyses.

This is a case study of Carlstad Comic Con 2011 and 2012.The purpose is to study the event in relation to a project management and a local culture policy perspective. This in order to analyze the organization of a popular culture event and see how such a local event may benefit Karlstad as a city. Besides studying the organization of Carlstad Comic Con and its outcomes I am sketching a short cultural history of popular culture media and its context within recent year?s globalization.The study shows that the events have had a great beneficial impact on the local industry; lacking any negative sides, and have put Karlstad in an international context which goes directly in line with the standard guidelines for project management of region culture policy. Concerning how to organize the event the organizers have not followed a strict project structure.

In conjunction with an overview of the organizational structure of the municipality of Arvika the Balanced Scorecard was introduced as a management model. After the Balanced Scorecard has been in use over a period of years the conception of it varies throughout the organization.The purpose of this study is identifying which factors are facilitating and which factors are obstructing when implementing the Balanced Scorecard in the municipality of Arvika. This is a case study of the staff organization of the municipality of Arvika. The study is explanatory as our objective is to describe why the current situation appears as it does today. A qualitative method has been applied during this study.

70 % of the lakes and waters in the water district of northern Baltic Sea do not reach the requirements for good ecological status. This is mostly due to eutrophication caused by a too high deliverance of nutrients from agricultural land or effluents. Losses of particulate phosphorus through water erosion contribute to a great extent to this eutrophication. In the action plan for the water district cover crops are mentioned as a measure for reducing losses of phosphorus from arable land. This paper reviews the possible effect of cover crops in the water district and discusses what crop that would be most suitable.