The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the implications and challenges of intercultural communication. An in-depth study was performed of the perspectives from people who work within an international organization. How they experience cultural differences and how they handle them, in particular when it comes to communication. Also, their perceptions of communicative competence were explored. The study was carried out at Svalorna India Bangladesh, at the Swedish office in Lund.

The main aim of this study is to examine the development policies of Sweden and the European Union from a postcolonial perspective. Sweden and the European Union are increasingly coming to be viewed as normative powers rather than military powers. So how does the colonial past of the western societies affect the policies of today? Are there any signs of the power structures of the past, and if so, how are these power structures manifested in the development policies of today? Since both Sweden and the European Union have come to be viewed as normative powers they are compared with each other to highlight their similarities and differences. The results of the study shows that both Sweden and the European Union can be seen as carriers of western values and interests.

The social community is structured around data, a lot of that data is stored in different types of databases. The meaning of this essay is to develop an interactive tool that will change the way database visualization is done, and also to research in which fields a tool of this type can be used. With the help of different methods we discovered areas where it could be of use, such as; presentation of a database, development and documentation of a database. The primary goal of the prototype was to make viewing of database structures easier, even people without prior database knowledge should be able to understand the structure. During the development we used prototypes.

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.

This thesis is a case study that analyses the seaside resort Ystad Sandskog and its private architecture between 1850 and 1940. The multitude is evident in the area's architecture. The architectural development is analysed with the use of a social historical perspective, including class and hegemony. Regional as well as national affective factors are used in the analysis. Aside from the social aspects, architectural ideological developments, general development of the seaside resort and the area's committee with its prescriptions are all factors considered.By dividing the development in four different chronological phases, which all represents a certain architectural expression exemplified by a selection of buildings and the social class that it accompanies, a culmination in the architectural structural development of Sandskogen is shown.

I have chosen to write this essay on language development in a preparatory class due to the fact that I live in a city where diversity is big and newly arrived students from different countries are constantly increasing in schools. My study has been made in a preparatory class in Södertälje. The National Agency for Education highlights the deficiencies in preparatory classes and believes that education is not adapted to each student's knowledge and maturity and it is therefore difficult for students to reach the goals in school. According to studies by the National Agency for Education, it appears that many newly arrived students do not recieve study guide in their native language, a resource that they are entitled to. Teachers and principals do not take charge of  students knowledge from previous school attendance in their home countries such as mathematics, history and other subjects.

In this thesis the survival and development of a yearly recurring event will be examined. The purpose of this work is to examine how the festival Stockholm Pride has developed and to find out what underlying factors and conditions that lays behind the development. Also being examined is how the event affects Stockholm city?s tourism industry. To be able to fulfill the purpose of the thesis a qualitative research has been used and two persons with allot of knowledge about Stockholm Pride and Stockholm?s tourism industry has been interviewed.

This thesis investigates the Designated Operational Entities (DOEs) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. The DOEs serves as independent third-party auditors with the task of validating, verifying and certifying projects under the CDM. The majority of the DOEs are private entities. This is in line with the CDM objective of including the private sector in the climate change combat. The introduction of private entities in the role of DOEs can be questioned from a legitimacy point of view, but is corresponding to a development in international environmental governance where private actors are increasingly involved in governance arrangements.The thesis concludes the DOEs to be a form of public-private partnership and investigates the legitimacy of this form.

There is an increasing demand for information literacy, which is mirrored in curriculum throughout the whole educational system. This, in turn, has brought forward a growing need for librarians who can teach. But do librarians possess pedagogical competence, and if they do, how is this ability used in everyday library practice? The aim of this study is to investigate librarians' conceptions of the pedagogical role, as it is expressed in their didactic interaction with the users. The research questions focus on librarians' experiences of teaching information seeking and use and their activities in this respect.

Eco-design is all about improving products environmental performances throughout the products lifecycle by including the environmental aspect into the product development process. There are a large number of different tools that can be used for this, but there are several factors that can affect which one will be the best to use. Some tools for eco-design takes comprehensive studies and can only be performed by experts, while some tools can be used more time- and cost efficient and with basic knowledge. The choice of tool should be based on the company?s situation.This report describes the research of how the design and furniture company Blå Station could include a tool for eco-design in their product development process.

 The purpose with my study was primarily to illuminate the students' expectations on gained knowledge during their studies at the upper secondary school Hotel- and Restaurant program, and to what extent these expectations were fulfilled. Secondarily, the purpose was to compare the students' expected and perceived knowledge with the program goals set by the Swedish government and the knowledge requirements expressed in a pilot study made by the Education council of the Hotel and restaurant business (UHR, 2007).I chose a quantative approach and I used an anonymous group enquiry among students at the Hotel- and Restaurant program at two different upper secondary schools to carry out my study.Tendencies in the result suggested that the students at the Hotel- and Restaurant program expected high knowledge level within the competence areas of Guest reception and communication, Cleaning and hygiene, Cooking of cold and hot dishes and Waiting. The expectations were not big within the areas Computers and Internet and Business economics and management.Fulfillment of expected knowledge tended to be high within the areas where the expectations were big. It might therefore be a good investment for schools to work on the student expectations to increase motivation within the low expectation areas.A confrontation of the tendencies in the result with the program goals and the competence requirements expressed in the UHR study, suggested that the upper secondary Hotel- and Restaurant education might focus some more the areas of Guest reception and communication, Beverages and Organization of banquets. Business economics and management should be given much more weight..

The subject field studied in this essay is environmental scanning. The aim of this study is to analyse how three public organizations within the subject field sustainable development work with their environmental scanning. Most organizations have to relate to their surroundings such as clients and competitors. Environmental scanning is another very important field that organizations have to relate to in their work. This essay has three questions in focus which are the following;How is the work with environmental scanning in the three organizations arranged?How does the work with environmental scanning differ in the three organizations?How important is environmental scanning for the subject field sustainable development?The study was carried out through four conducted interviews with key persons within the three organizations.

The point of interest in this study is to identify whether ethnicity is a correlating factor regarding Hungarian immigrants? development of identity in Sweden. The general aim is to increase knowledge and understanding of the conditions for the Hungarian ethnical group in Sweden to reach self-realization. The main question is whether the general view of the background of this ethnical group has a connection to their self-realization in Sweden? Since the study involves a whole group of minority, a limitation has been made to adults living in the city of Halmstad, Sweden.

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is a broad discipline that studies different concerns regarding interactive systems? development. One of the major interest points within the discipline is the reasoning behind building specific functionality into computers and the long-term effects that usage of systems will have on humans.Within Human Computer Interaction there are theories and frameworks how to involve a user in the process of developing new systems. In this paper focus is applied to the development process within developing applications for Enterprice Digital Assistants (EDA) and to what extent the end-users are involved in the process. Fazer Bageri AB has been choosen to represent a business corporation that uses handheld computers in their everyday tasks.The method used to gather information for this study has been by performing interviews and observations with key stakeholders at Fazer Bageri AB and MobiOne AB.

This thesis provides a descriptive study from a pedagogic perspective that analyzesobjectives, directives and content related to the social science core class, SAMSAM01b, atGothenburg public high schools. The purpose is to further explore the role of education inrelation to global development and international relations. The study is built aroundcurriculum representation and course implementation of three aspects considered importantfor global development and knowledge of the operating environment: critical thinking,international cooperation and sustainable development. Knowledge theory and likemindedideas of what constitutes a good education form the core of the study?s theoreticalperspective.