The purpose of this thesis is to look into the knowledge city concept and the preferences and requirements of companies on such a city. Furthermore, suggestions of ideal conditions in a knowledge city are proposed. The thesis has been conducted through a qualitative approach where a deductive procedure has been implemented. In order to examine knowledge cities, Barcelona has sketchily been looked at as an early example of a knowledge city, whereas a more exhaustive observation of Copenhagen was conducted. Since the concept of knowledge cities is a rather new phenomenon, models from several disciplines constitute the theoretical framework.

Sedan 2005 är det genom en förordning av Europeiska unionen bestämt att svenska börsnoterade företag ska nedskrivningstesta sin goodwill. Diskonteringsräntan som appliceras vid denna nedskrivningsprövning är av väsentlig betydelse. Vi replikerar delvis en studie av Carlin & Finch (2009) som beräknade teoretiska diskonteringsräntor enligt Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) och jämförde med de diskonteringsräntor som börsnoterade företag i Australien använt i sin redovisning. Carlin & Finch (2009) ansåg att avvikelserna däremellan kunde förklaras genom utövanden som är diskretionära och att opportunistiskt beteende förekommer när företag sätter sin diskonteringsränta. Vi använder ett underlag bestående av Sveriges största börsnoterade företag, de som är noterade på Large Cap- och Mid Cap-listan på Stockholmsbörsen, och studerar hur andelen som redovisat en enligt CAPM avvikande diskonteringsränta förändrats sedan de nya redovisningsreglerna trädde i kraft år 2005 till år 2009.

Domestic weekly magazines in Sweden are characterized by an emphasis on practical editorial material such as cooking recipes and knitting patterns, and also contain a comparatively large share of reader material. This makes it possible to study the readers through texts produced by themselves. The aim of this study of columns of readers' tips on domestic work is to analyze how readers embody a specific femininity centered around the woman as responsible for the home, in the sense of everyday maintenance as well as aesthetic development. The author defines this femininity as "home maker". The theoretical framework for the analysis is the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu, and Jonathan Potter's and Margaret Wetherell's model of interpretive repertoire is also used where modality is discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to find out how a few different women with a Roma heritage sees their to succeed possibilities in Sweden.To illustrate these issues has an hermeneutical approach been used. Materials were collected through interviews with Romani women in a municipality in western Sweden. The material created during the interview sessions is based on the five interviewees' interpretations of how they look at their life and the recognition of Roma people.The interview results show that Roma women have gone through various changes linked to school, language, family, work. Young women and their parents have become more aware that education is an important capital to invest in, in order to later obtain a good job and future. When it comes to school the results show that Roma children have become better at reading but there is still some Roma children who do not attend school, even though there is their native language, Romani, in many schools.

AbstractThe political parties in Sweden are losing members. This is seen as a problem because the political parties are the base and the recruiting ground for members to decision-making bodies. Social movements are seen as a place where people with a modest background could express their opinions and also learn the political process. These movements have also lost members during the last decades and this could seriously affect the representation of lower social groups among the decision-makers. This essay emanates from Robert D.

The aim of this study is to investigate where and why the fitness clubs, Sats and Friskis & Svettis in Stockholms county, choose to locate their facilities in certain places and which their primarily targetgroups are. Furthermore, the aim is to gain knowledge of people?s health status in areas where the facilities are located, in order to see if they are located where exercise is most needed. Interviews were conducted with members of the fitness clubs but also with non members, i.e. people who lived in areas with an absence of fitness facilities.

Bachelor thesis in Business administration, School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University, Controller, 2FE13E, spring semester 2014Title: Capital budgeting in Municipal-real estate companies - A study of the law of public housing company impact on capital budgeting.Authors: Axel Erlandsson, Caroline Hellman and Niklas LundqvistTutor: Anders JerrelingBackground: Municipal owned real estate companies  has in the past been obliged to take responsibility for providing housing to Swedish municipal inhabitants. Municipal owned real estate company?s has in the past been prohibited to act in profit purpose. In January 2011 the previous law of public housing was replaced with the new law on public municipal housing companies. The municipality may not provide the municipal owned company with any financial advantages against a private owned real estate company.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether parents that obtain long-term maintenance support in Enköping, consider the support as adequate when trying to meet their children's basic needs. The thesis also intends to investigate whether parents experience that their children, because they receive income support, have been socially excluded or stigmatized in their daily lives because of the family?s maintenance support. Further, the thesis aims to examine if there are any discrepancies in the above mentioned issue in relation to how long the parents have received maintenance support. Theoretical starting points used in this thesis mainly consist of the child perspective, social exclusion and the stigmatization theory.

The structural rationalization of rural firms in Sweden has led to many new creative ways of developing companies. The agriculture sector is characterized by the need of capital in form of buildings, labor and inventory. The rationalization process has led to free capacity in rural firms when new technology make buildings and inventory not longer necessary for the production process. To get a better cost coverage this free capacity can be used to start-up new business areas that help the rural firm to growth.The study aims to identify factors that motives entrepreneurs in rural firms to develop new business areas. The purpose is also to analyze driving forces that lies behind development of rural firms and the forces that support or not support development in rural firms.The study is built upon five cases that all can be categorized as firms with different size and orientation.

Background: The global capital markets have enlarged investment opportunities and thus also the sources of funds for companies which increasingly face global markets for their services and products. Huge capital movements show that investors are constantly searching ways to minimise risk and maximise returns. In the light of the substantial growth of assets in institutional funds, an important question for international finance is the degree to which institutional investors have diversified their portfolios internationally. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the international diversification of portfolio investments of institutional investors in Japan, the US and the UK and deepen into international diversification in portfolios of Japanese institutional investors. Demarcations: Institutional investors can use their power directly in companies or indirectly through capital markets.

Uppsatsen beskriver junk bonds ur företagets perspektiv. Den första, teoretiska delen inleds med en genomgång av obligationsupplåning i allmänhet, där viktiga begrepp beskrivs. Därefter beskrivs den i detta sammanhang viktiga kreditvärderingen, med särskild tonvikt på junk bond-relaterade förhållanden. En beskrivning av den svenska räntemarknaden följer och den i detta sammanhang växande europamarknaden poängteras. Härefter sker en teoretisk genomgång av junk bond-marknadens uppkomst och historik, dess användningsområde, dess för- och nackdelar som finansieringsmetod samt den kritik som i många stycken har riktats mot den.

Variations in fertility have caused a problematic situation in Sweden among other European countries. According to the Council of Europe we are facing an economic and demographic challenge, when the baby boomers of the 1940?s are retiring. Economists have for a long time studied the connection between economic factors and fertility, and several studies have found a correlation between business cycles and birth rates. This connection is again of current interest 2008, when a financial bubble bursts at the same time as a baby boom occurs.

The insurance industryis challengedby major changesthrough internationalizationand thusgrowingcompetitionwithmore optionsand greater availabilityfor customers.Solvency II, a new regulatoryframework and anew standard forinsurance companies,is therefore implemented in a steptowardsa more competitive Europeaninsurancemarket. Solvency II will result in extensive structural changes for many insurance companies. Newstandards andinternal models must also be implemented by the companies. Solvency IIhasa tightening effect on thesolvency capital requirements forinsurance companies. At the same time it also leads tomajor changesandincreased demandon risk management andinternal control, alongside with demands fordisclosure of informationto the market.

The population growth and urbanisation in low-income countries bring issues of poor living standards and miserable sanitation conditions onto the agenda. If well-functioning waste management systems were developed, this could master some of the problems. The already existing local informal waste handling system that is common in many low-income countries, needs to be developed with proper sorting and composting solutions to decrease the environmental burden and improve the overall situation in the dense cities. This master?s thesis project is performed with the intention of developing functional decentralised waste management units in the city of Pune, India.

Folkhälsovetenskapligt program.