Background: Municipalities are organizations facing a turbulent environment characterized by social, economical and political changes. It is the responsibility of the topleaders of the municipality (the municipal manager and the chairman of the local government board) to manage the situation and to make sure that the organization continuously develops. Purpose: To explain, from a leadership perspective, how the municipal topleaders'duties have developed during the past 25 years. Results: The municipal topleaders have nowadays got more issues to handle. Cooperation, networks and projects have increased, like international issues.

The subject for this paper is the Class Action against Skandia Association, a civil organization formed in 2003 with the aim of claiming compensation for some 1.2 million life insurance customers. The background to its formation was one of the largest financial scandals in Sweden in recent times, involving a number of questionable affairs within the insurance corporation Skandia and its subsidiaries, most notably the life insurance company Skandia Liv. The interests of both the stake- and stockholders of the company seem, in certain ways, to have been grossly misrepresented. The scandal, as well as the reaction it spawned, pose a number of questions. In this study, we focus on two: a possible, and in many ways apparent crisis in the representation of interests in Swedish society, and the role of civil society in upholding the balance between these interests.We argue that what is often held to be the ?greed? or ?immorality? of individuals in scandals such as Skandia is, to a great extent, a mere reflection of the ?rational? underpinnings of modern-day capitalism.We find that trust has been a key mechanism of control in the relationships between consumers and agents in pension and life insurance markets, and that ?the Swedish model? that distinguished post-WWII Swedish society was a model heavily based on trust towards existing models of bureaucratic governance.

Using interviews conducted within the municipality of Nam Dich, Vietnam, this qualitative study explores how ethnic minority parents and children navigate around the state's supervision in order to preserve their traditional practices of child marriages. Moreover, the research explores the roles and expectations between individuals within an ethnic minority family as a collective unit. Using governmentality supported by the concept of state evasion, culture bearers and empowerment, I argue that understanding child marriage as a phenomenon requires analysis of cultural context. The paper starts with an introduction of the ongoing relation between the Vietnamese state and ethnic minority traditions related to child marriage. While the Vietnamese state ?s modernization projects aim to empower individuals by creating more freedom within the process of marriage and increasing the opportunity for education and work, certain ethnic minority groups want to uphold their cultural ways of marriage when parental arrangement occurs from an early age.

Erfarenheter från de senaste årens komplexa konflikter har bidragit till insikten att separata militära insatser ofta är otillräckliga för att skapa fred. Comprehensive Approach ses av många som ett koncept med målsättningen att skapa en integrerad civil-militär ansats för konfliktlösning. Konceptets innebörd är emellertid oklar. Dessutom är det problematiskt att empiriskt belägga att användandet av konceptet leder till framgång, vilket medför svårigheter att granska dess värde.Uppsatsen utnyttjar Michael Howards teori om strategins dimensioner för att analysera Storbritanniens syn på Comprehensive Approach som strategiskt koncept. Som metod används en kvalitativ textanalys av systematiserande typ.

The aim of this essay is to examine whether democracy in St Petersburg isconsolidated or not. Since studies of democratic transition have been rarelyconducted on post-communist cities, this study seems fruitful. Using the Linz andStepan theory, where democracy is considered consolidated when it has become?the only game in town? and Orttung's three criteria legitimacy, politicalpolarisation and policy effectiveness; this essay analyzes people's attitudes,political behaviour, the rule of law and civil society in St Petersburg. Theory isused to interpret the material mainly consisting of two interviews and newspaperarticles.

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to identify problems that may occur in the execution of a civil engineering project and suggest measures to reduce the risk of errors. The study was conducted in cooperation with a civil engineering company in the Gothenburg area. During two weeks in February 2012, a field study took place on two construction sites where disruption and problems that took more than 15 minutes to correct were noted. During the field study we identified 39 such occurrences in the projects and then these were classified into different categories according to their cause.The two largest categories were "Design" and "Planning", which accounted for half of the errors that were discovered.In the study results were evaluated to decide whether it was possible to detect discrepancies at an earlier stage. The cost to fix an error in the design stage may be significantly less than to correct the problem in production.According to the evaluation, 55% of the errors could have been detected earlier if there was a greater degree of observation for such issues by everyone involved in the project.

Militärt ledarskap har tidigare utforskats inom en militär kontext. De senaste åren har många officerare slutat inom försvaret och blivit chefer inom det civila. Uppsatsen undersöker kvalitativt huruvida dessa chefer har nytta av erfarenheten från försvaret i sitt civila ledarskap. Detta görs utifrån en litteraturgenomgång av ledarskapsforskning och den militära kontexten. Tretton chefer på mellanchef till VD-nivå intervjuades i ett semistrukturerat format inspirerat av grundad teori.

By using modern methods of casting concrete, cast in place can get more effective and industrialized. A modern method is self compacting concrete. By using this type of concrete, advantages like improved working environment and rationalized construction can be reached. Because the concrete doesn?t need to be vibrated, the amount of staff on site and the noise can be reduced.

ABSTRACT Poverty, and in particular child poverty, is a serious social problem. Statistics show that the number of children living in poverty has increased over the last ten years. Earlier research shows that there are huge gaps in our knowledge of how the actors in civil society handle child poverty. With this study we hope to help fill this gap. The aim of our study is to look at how four different organisations working in the civil society in Uppsala perceive and handle child poverty.

This study was conducted by using a qualitative textual analysis on UNICEF Sweden?s website with the purpose of problematizing the role of UNICEF Sweden in today?s globalised society. This was done in the context of how organisations of civil society have gained influence. Following questions were answered: How does UNICEF Sweden legitimise its operation? Which strategies does UNICEF Sweden use to encourage involvement and donations?The study shows how UNICEF Sweden legitimises its work by promoting a unique influence, their unique methods of work and by showing how the organisation helps the most disadvantaged children.

Vår uppgift var att praktiskt genomföra och utvärdera två kalibreringsmetoder för modväxlande kammare hos Saab Avionics AB i Linköping. En metod som Saab Avionics använder och en metod enligt europeisk civil flygstandard, EUROCAE ED- 14D kapitel 20.6. Uppgiften löstes genom att utföra mätningar enligt de två kalibreringsmetoderna och därefter analysera mätdata i MatLab. Vi hann med att göra Saab Avionics kalibreringsmetod i samtliga mätpunkter som krävdes för utvärderingen, men bara drygt halva kalibreringen enligt europeisk civil flygstandard. Utifrån de mätningar vi gjort kan vi dra följande slutsatser: Båda kalibreringsmetoderna säger att Saab Avionics modväxlande kammare uppfyller respektive krav när den är olastad.

This study examines how a couple of Swedish daily newspapers construct the hacker network Anonymous, with an aim to discuss its possible effects. The question was: In which ways is the network Anonymous constructed in a few Swedish newspapers?                      26 articles from four chosen newspaper were analysed, but because of many similarities in content, only 10 were chosen for deep analysis. With Fairclough's model of critical discourse analysis as chosen method, constructions varying from the images of heroes to villains were found as a result. The most common construction was that of Anonymous as a threat, which was most often exaggerated compared to what actions were actually described in the texts.

AbstractIn the literature on multiculturalism and group rights there is a strong tradition that sees diversity as something directly paradoxal to unity. In this tradition, scholars put forward a view of multiculturalism as a divisive and exclusionary process which breaks down the cohesion and unity of society. Related to this notion is that of a neutral and universally valid frame of reference in which political dilemmas can be solved; for example a neutral civil sphere where the ?true essence? of society lies. In this essay I attempt to criticise these two notions.

This thesis deals with the issues of participation and influence in the multicultural society. The aim with the study is twofold, first to identify determinants improving participation and influence in this context, and second to see if the ecouragement of a strong civil society in ethnic segregated areas is a possible way forward to a multicultural democracy. This is conducted through a case study of brobyggarna in Malmo, Sweden, and how they as an integration policy is working with these questions. Six qualitative interviews have been conducted with seven persons workning as brobyggare or in close connection with them. Toghether with readings of earlier research this material is analysed through an eclectic model with theories put together in five analythic dimensions, Multicultural democracy, Social milieu, Unequal possibillities to participate and influence and Local powerstructures.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how different fractions of Sweden?s left wing (the Social democrats, the Communists, the Syndicalists and the Socialist party) framed the end of the Spanish Civil War and the defeat of the republicans.To answer the purpose four newspapers Arbetaren (syndicalist), Folkets Dagblad (Socialist party), Ny Dag (communist) and Socialdemokraten (social democratic) have been analyzed qualitatively. The thesis has focused on how the different ideologies have framed the war, how they framed the other labour organizations and themselves plus how they relate to information about the war during the period of February 1st1939 till April 5th1939.The analysis shows that the Social democrats and the Communists framed the war as a conflict between fascism and socialism, whereas the Syndicalists and the Socialist party framed the war as a socialistic revolution. Because each side had their own view, their opinions on what threatened a republican victory differed. The Social democrats were most concerned that a non-democratic movement would win the war and the Communists feared that fragmentation within the republicans would threaten their chances to win.