This master thesis is based on the sociocultural perspective. A qualitative research study was conducted to investigate children's attitudes towards reading, texts and libraries.The theoretical background is constituted by ideas from the new sociology of childhood, literacy-studies and reader-response theory.The study was conducted with 23 children, 13 girls and 10 boys, participating in focus groups.The results of the study reveal that children's literacy-activities in school are strongly influenced and limited by adults. Children's interest in pictures and non-fiction-reading do not correspond to the school institution that favors traditional media and fiction. The study also reveals a gender division between children's literacy-activities that tends to grow with age. All the children in the study regard libraries as book-houses and wished for libraries that combine activity and serenity.The thesis shows the importance of being aware of, and engage in, children's reading-interests and reading-practices if the reading stimulating activities in schools and libraries are to be successful.

The aim of this Bachelor?s thesis is to investigate the public librarian?s professional identity and its relation to the public library as an experience centre. The development of the library as an experience centre raises questions about how public librarians understand their professional identity, and about their motives for working with activities like workshops and qigong, activities that have no significant connection with the librarian?s traditional tasks. The data was collected via semi-structured interviews exploring the perspectives and points of view of four public librarians.

This study examines working teachers? thoughts and views regarding multilingual children in assembly situations. The purpose of the study was to increase my knowledge and understanding surrounding the educators? approach when it comes to integrating multilingual children in common activities. By using semi-structured, qualitative interviews with six working educators in three different pre-schools, I examined their thoughts and approaches to working with multilingual children in assembly situations.

Organic cotton has been in the medias field of vision for quite some time. This interestalso reflects in a growing awareness in the textile industry where more and morecompanies today offer organic cotton in their product range. With this in mind wequestion whether organic cotton has become a viable commercial product. We alsoacknowledge there is a lacking of understanding the complex problems that organiccotton manufacture involves, for example the huge effort and cost required for a transitionfrom conventional to organic cotton farming.The purpose of this paper was to study how textile, ecology and competition today arebeing combined by companies. We wanted with our investigation to find out whethercompanies in the textile industry use ecology as a competitive advantage.

When the competition is getting stronger and companies must work harder to find new markets, new products and create new needs to reach growth, it appears strange that they overlook an obvious target segment right in front of their eyes. For some years ago, marketers of fashion brands feared that older women would wear their clothes, because it gave bad promotion for the young economically viable target group. Today, older women have difficulties finding clothes with right fit, style and personal taste. They would gratefully accept a brand, they felt were aimed for them. The purpose of this study is to give new ideas to companies in the fashion industry, how to reach this target group, but also be a contributing reason for older women to see the market opening for them.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are constantly evolving in today's information society. The school uses ICT as a teaching tool and it begins to be included at the leisure-time in school by the educators.Aim of this study is to examine how educators describe their perceptions and experiences of using ICT in the leisure activities. The questions is about how the educators use ICT, what they believe children learn of ICT, and which advantages and disadvantages they see with ICT at leisure-time in school.Through a qualitative approach, I have had my questions answered by six trained educators, five of whom are recreational educators and one who is a preschool teacher. These have individually answered my interview questions as an interview took place over a phone call, while the others answered the same questions by e-mail. The interview questions were open-ended questions that were formulated so the educators could respond so freely and fulfilling as possible.The survey shows that teachers use ICT in multimodal approach at leisure-time in school, both in informing parents and in activities with the children.

The aim with this study was to describe how the board members of athletic clubs view and value their youth program. A qualitative approach was used in form of interviews. The interviews were made face to face as well as being taped, this to facilitate the analysis. When the board members viewed their youth program to be in alignment with the overall club philosophy there was a discrepancy between their views and the ?de facto? conditions of the youth program.

The purpose of this study is to identify the points-of-difference that should form the basis for Bryggarsalen?s future marketing efforts. Bryggarsalen is a newly established conference business in Stockholm. To be able to identify these points-of-difference, Bryggarsalen?s marketing problems have been studied from the resource-based view, claiming that the source of sustained competitive advantage derive from a firm?s unique bundle of resources.

Summary Title: Taxes and Human Capital as Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in EU: The role of Most Favoured Nation treatmentAuthor: Andreas HelmerssonSupervisors: Cecilé Brokelind and Rikard LarssonProblem discussion and problem Formulation: The recent year?s rapid increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) is a clear indication of increasing globalisation. In order to stay competitive companies must take advantage of talented people, new technology and new markets around the world. Not only companies but also countries and regions, such as EU, need to take advantage of globalisation and the advantages that come with the increase in FDI around the world. Studies have shown that FDI does not only make companies more competitive but it also stimulates the economic growth of the region where the FDI takes place.

The main purpose of this Bachelor´s thesis is to investigate the visions chief librarians have for their public libraries. The world around us and our way of living is changing as the society is changing ever more rapidly. This evolvement also influences the public library, its role for society and individuals, its activities and its design. The question is how the public library can face these changes and what function and role it can get and make for itself in the future. Through qualitative interviews with five chief librarians our aim is to answer the main question of this thesis: What are the visions that chief librarians on public libraries have for the public library´s future? This study also contain the role the chief librarians give the public library of today and what they mean is necessary for their visions to be achieved.

AimThe general aim with the study was to investigate what the reasons for quitting and/or continuing with a sport are, using competitive sailing as an example.MethodsThe used method was partly a survey investigation of 20 people and partly deep interviews with 8 of the persons who responded to the survey investigation. The respondents in the investigated group are all former active sailors within the Aland Island Yacht Club. Half of the group have continued sailing actively since the optimist class and the other half have quit competitive sailing. In the survey 15 men and 5 women participated and in the deep interviews 4 men and 4 women participated. The survey covered a great age span.

A B S T R A C TP U R P O S E / A I M : The main objective of this essay is to investigate the difference of visual representation between girls and boys in two mail order catalogues - Ellos and La Redoute. I want to examine how girls and boys interact in the pictures of the catalogues and what kind of activities are going on. Do these activities differentiate between the girls and the boys? Does the representation differ if the children are in a group or by themselves? A second objective is to compare these representations between the two catalogues.M A T E R I A L / M E T H O D : Two mail order catalogues are used, Ellos (Swedish) and La Redoute (originally French). The material consists of 345 pictures of children.

Aktiviteter är betydelsefulla för ungdomar som vistas på institution. Forskning visar att ungdomar som har en meningsfull tillvaro med aktiviteter och en variation av sysselsättning under sin institutionsvistelse har större möjlighet att lyckas förändra ett problembeteende. En institutionsmiljö bör tillgodose ungdomarnas behov av en hemlik miljö och kontakt med pro-sociala ungdomar i övriga samhället. Syftet med denna studie är att belysa aktivteters betydelse för ungdomar som är placerade på institution, relationen mellan schemalagda och icke schemalagda aktiviteter samt vilken roll personalen har i utövandet av aktiviteter för ungdomar som vistas på institution. Studiens metodansats bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med professionella som tjänstgör på ett HVB-hem (Vård och boende) för ungdomar.

The Go Down Arts Centre is a proposal for a new building to an existing organisation in Nairobi, Kenya. The proposal relates to the scale of the city by making a statement on a future urban path, and by welcoming the city in to the building. The proposal houses both activities affiliated to Go Down, such as studios and rehersal rooms, as well as opportunities for the visitor to meet and interact with the culture produced at Go Down, both in formal and informal settings. The building is closed to its surroundings, apart from a grand entrance towards the urban path. There, the city passes through the building to an inner courtyard, where the communication to all the rooms and activities takes place.

Denna studie har haft som syfte att belysa ledarskapet i grundskolan avseende den studie- och yrkesorienterande verksamheten samt förhållandet mellan ledarskap, personalens engagemang och verksamhetens resultat. Avsikten har bland annat varit att synliggöra om skolorna har ett reellt ledarskap avseende verksamheten eller inte. Bedömningsgrunderna för ett reellt ledarskap har inspirerats av den transformativa ledarskapsteorin. Studien baseras på enkätsvar från 107 yrkesverksamma studie- och yrkesvägledare i Stockholms, Skånes och Västerbottens län. Resultatet visar att den stora majoriteten skolor saknar ett reellt ledarskap avseende verksamhetsområdet samtidigt som flera studie- och yrkesvägledare säger sig vilja inta en ledande funktion för detta.