This thesis aims at investigating the two municipality?s Gislaved and Ljungby. Where the aim is to see if there is any connections, between the type and the degree of public-private partnerships, and the municipalities obtained environment performance. In this essay the starting point is that the environmental performance in the chosen municipalities is good.Interviews among local politicians and representatives for the municipalities plastic industries, has functioned as a way to test the hypothesis. Gislaved and Ljungby have thereafter been compared, in order to see if there is any similarity in the sort and the degree of public-private partnerships, and how that will affect the environmental performance. The overall questions in this essay are:How can the cooperation among the chosen municipalities and the      local business life be described? What kind of Public-private partnership      exists in the selected municipalities?Is there any difference between the municipalities, referring to      the degree of cooperation between the municipalities and the local      business life? Does the degree of cooperation affect the progress on the environmental      performance? The end result shows that the local business life doesn?t have any impact on the environmental performance.

The purpose of this study is to examine teachers and school-leaders attitude to the school library. Both the cause of and the consequences of these attitudes are examined. In order to fulfil my purpose I have examined this through both literature and empirical studies. I have interviewed the headmaster, the school librarian and two teachers at two comprehensive schools. As theoretical framework I have used David Loertschers taxonomy containing theories about the levels in an ideal school library and Miles model of school development.

This essay is included as a sub-study of a survey about child poverty, which the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University, the Ombudsman for Children and Gillbergska Stiftelsen (the Gillberg?s foundation) has been commissioned by Uppsala Town to implement. The intent of this essay is to investigate how three pre-school managers in the municipal preschool in Uppsala describe child poverty, how they see the preschool?s social responsibility and how they manage child poverty in their practical operation. The essay is a qualitative study and informants' responses has been analyzed and related to symbolic interactionism, the thesis theoretical basis.

This thesis is about School libraries and the honour "School library of the year". I have examined the questions - Whats to say about school libraries in the curriculum and the library law? - Who administer the honour "School library of the year" and whats demanded to get it? - What have made the school libraries I have examined to school libraries of the year"? As theory I have used the Taxonomies of the School Library Media Program by David V. Loertscher. I have given a background to and defined the school library as a function, a room and in the teaching among others.

pcSKOG-gård is a computerised manager plan for private forest owners, developed by the pcSKOG AB. The program is based on forest stand data, joined with a map of the forest and GIS-applications. The purpose is to offer a program for private forest owners managing the forest and with the possibility of updating the actual status of the forest. The company pcSKOG AB is the leading producer of programs for forest management and has developed the program since 1997. The program is currently the most common program used by private forest owners in Sweden. The aim of this thesis, leading to MSc in forestry, is to investigate the purpose of the private forest owners when purchasing the pcSKOG-gård. The thesis also studies how private forest owners use the program, what they use it for and how the private forest owners state that the program has achieved to fulfil their expectations. The thesis is also a market research concerning the knowledge and attitudes the private forest owners have about the program and associated services. The study material has been collected during two phases.

This essay is a study about the school introduction of immigrant pupils in the Swedish compulsory school. The purpose if this study is to examine the organisation municipal school introduction for immigrant pupils in the compulsory school in Södertälje. The method I have used is qualitative research method which depends on interviews and analysis of documents.The result shows that the municipal is without a plan for the school introduction of the immigrant pupils and that the individual compulsory school has the main responsibility for the school introduction of the immigrant pupils. The result also shows that there is a need of increased teaching of mother tongue. There is also a need of competence development within intercultural pedagogy.My conclusions are that a municipal plan for the school introduction of immigrant pupils should increase the immigrant pupils? possibility to a shorter time of introduction to the compulsory school..

The purpose of this study has been to explore the expectations of the primary school on the activities of the pre-school. In order to limit the study I have chosen to compare the expectations found in two different schools. In the first case, the pre-school is integrated with the after-school centre and grade one to three (primary school), into the same building. In the other case, the pre-school share localities with the after-school centre in a separate building, with its own yard, within the primary school area. Since the purpose is rather comprehensive, it has been divided into sub-themes with separate set of questions.

This thesis studies private equity firms' implementation of management control systems in their portfolio companies and whether the systems are affected by cross-national differences. A comparative case study examines five different private equity firms to derive if there are any differences between the private equity firms' management control systems in the United States, Europe and China. The empirical observations are categorized according to the framework developed by Merchant (1985) and further developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003). Theory on the effect of multinationality on management control systems, also developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003), are used to explain possible findings. The applied theory includes the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (1984) and Hofstede and Bond (1988).

The need of raw material does of course fluctuate but the long term view is an increasing demand due to the growing consumption of sawn timber products, pulp, paper and lately also biomass. This has led to a keener competition for wood. At the same time there is an ongoing structural change of a significant part in the Swedish wood supply market, the private forest owners. In 1992, 22 % of Sweden´s 335 000 private forest owner lived apart from their forest. In 2007 this figure had risen to 36 %.

The thoughts of a common school for all children have been around since the 1800?s but was something that was introduced in Sweden first in 1962. When the curriculum for primary school came in 1980 there was a new concept, a school for all. With a school for all it was aimed that all children should have the right to participation and a common education no matter what needs they could have.During my education I have come across the concept a school for all and that is something that interested me. Today?s curricula and school laws aim to ensure that all children have the right to equal education and inclusion whatever needs you have.The purpose of this study is to find out some pedagogues? thoughts and work around the concept a school for all.

This essay intends to examine the atheists Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Michel Onfray's arguments against religion, based on the themes of religion, atheism and the perception.of their present worldview. In addition, the research aims to find out whether it is suitable to talk about a new atheism. And, if so, whether such newatheism correspond with the definition represented by the Christian critics. The essay intends to contribute to a very limited research on the so-called new atheism without applying pro-religious arguments.Previous research and theory highlight the problem of defining the terms atheism, religion and secularism a concern that is reflected by the five critics troughout their arguments. What really united the critics were the idea about religion taking too much place in society, and the opinion that atheistic morality is at least as good as religious morality.

The aim of this master thesis is to study the reliefs of a Romanesque tombstone from 1130 AD, with the intention to form a plausible understanding of their meaning. During the course of the investigation, my main focus will be on collecting materials of an iconographical and historiographical nature, as they appear in previous studies. I will also use performative analysis when examining the tombstone. Consequently this thesis can be seen as a survey of history and place; early Christian iconology as well as the experience of the viewer. As a result, the 900-year-old tombstone will not only be seen as a memorial in this text, but also as a performance of one man?s faith and as representing the core message of the early Christian church.The tombstone is a rarity in Swedish art history and well worth a closer examination.

I meet in my work as art teacher many students of different descent, were they, or their parents, have different school experience than the Swedish. This, in combination with therecent discussion after the Muhammad caricatures about the banning of images in Islamic religion, made me curious to study what art education in a Muslim country looked like. I went to visit the Maramra Egitim Köyü school in Istanbul, Turkey, and especially their art classesfrom grade five to eight, which are the same age of students that I have been working with thelast ten years. This was my first visit to Turkey.The question I ask is: What does the practice of Turkish art education look like, using the Marmara school as an example. Which discourses can I identify in the art teacher practice? What surprised me the most was the frequent visual exposure of the founder of the Turkishstate, Kemal Atatürk.

Private equity bolag som skapar värde genom leveraged buyout har under de senaste åren fått ökad konkurrens inom den process vilken syftar till att finna attraktiva investeringar som kan generera avkastning enligt uppsatta avkastningskrav. Processen som karaktäriseras av informationsasymmetri och kallas för deal sourcing har därmed blivit ett svårare moment för dagens private equity bolag. Denna empiriska fallstudie undersöker hur svenska private equity bolag inom kategorin leveraged buyout i praktiken arbetar med deal sourcing och vilka drivkrafter som processen utformas efter i syfte att finna potentiella investeringar. Detta undersöks i ljuset av den akademiska forskning som tidigare gjorts på området. Studien utgår ifrån tio intervjuer med företagsrepresentanter vilka har insyn i och är delaktiga i processen med att finna bolag.

Private equity-investeringar innebär kapitalsatsningar i onoterade företag med ett aktivt och tidsbegränsat ägarengagemang. Detta kan indelas beroende på tidpunkten och kapitalbehovet för investeringen och benämns: affärsänglar, venture capital och buyout. Det finns en allmän uppfattning att dessa bolag agerar som affärspirater, vilka suger ut tillgångarna i företag för att sedan sälja av det utan att tänka på konsekvenserna. Det finns en ovetskap om vad som egentligen tillför värde och på vilket sätt detta sker. På uppdrag av Svenska Riskkapitalföreningen skrivs därför denna uppsats.