This paper explores a model for self-assessment of purchasing maturity in large companies. The author adapts contemporary purchasing theory and further enhances existing tools and procedures to create a survey based instrument for maturity measurementThe paper also explores potential methodological challenges associated with conducting a more extensive study of purchasing maturity via the proposed model. A preliminary study is made and the learnings discussed.The preliminary findings of the survey indicate that the purchasing maturity varies with industry. The purchasing function average score was found to be 3,4 out of 6 with samples spread across the whole spectra ? agreeing with previous theories stating that the purchasing maturity is highly varied between different industries..

Taiwan räknas idag inte som en stat, har ingen plats i FN, och territoriet efterfrågas av Kina. Hur ser möjligheterna ut för en lösning av problematiken mellan Kina och Taiwan? En problematik som dessutom har en lång historia och vars grund främst står att finna i revolutionen 1949 i Kina. Framförallt Peter Wallensteens teorier om uppskjutande till framtiden och förändrade positioner, som konfliktlösningsmekanismer anses vara relevant. Den ökande globaliseringen och interdependensen samt det omfattande ekonomiska utbytet mellan aktörerna i vårt fall är också relevanta faktorer för utvecklingen.

This essay examines how age, power and agency is represented and reproduced in contemporary Swedish picture books.This is done through a combination of discourse analysis and literary analysis.It uses theoretical perspectives from sociology, and views childhood as a social construct. It sees discourse and language use as both representing and constructing social reality in the tradition of Norman Fairclough and critical discourse analysis. The main results is that the discourses of childhood in the material construct children as a separate group in society, and childhood as a special time in life. Children is portrayed as both social actors and in need of protection from adult themes and worries..

Are different ways of life possible in a world that increasingly becomes "Westernized" or globalized? This study examines and analyzes the diverse and complex way of life that includes socioeconomical nomadism as the Irish Traveller community are availing themselves of on the island of Ireland. In a broader perspective the study of the Travellers is put in context to how modern society emerged, and what characterizes the contemporary western societies. This is to understand the way Travellers nomadic lifestyle has been constrained and how the interrelationship between the dominant society and the extended family group constituting Travellers social composition has affected their livelihoods. Their social role is considered from two identification points ? home and work.Nomadism as a phenomenon, its history, expression and possible motives are being described in this work.

This thesis is intended to respond to the extent to which South African textbooks on the subject of history is linked to the governmental policy documents and whether they are producing and reproducing national identity. The two textbooks are aimed at students in grade 10. Both books were produced in 2008 but published by different publishers.The essay is based on Norman Faircloughs critical discourse theory which has been supplemented by Michael Billings theory Banal Nationalism, which assumes that it is the national words that remind us daily of our homeland that is producing and reproducing national identity.  The survey shows that both textbooks are closely tied to the government policy document for the teaching of history. The textbooks refer to the policy, both explicitly and implicitly. The two textbooks reproduce a common national identity in South Africa based on the discussions taking place in society.

Svenskt Rockarkiv is an organization located in Hultsfred, Sweden. Its goal is to collect and document the history of Swedish rock music. The archive contains several types of documentation, such as audio recordings, photographs, posters, video recordings and books representing Swedish rock music history. In order to store information about the audio recordings in the archive, Svenskt Rockarkiv uses a SQL Server 2000 database and a client application written in Microsoft.NET C# and Windows Forms. The purpose of this degree project is to audit the database and windows client, since the organization has needs of new functionality.

In this study I have analysed the history of a forest belonging to Saxåhyttan in Värmland. The study area is 448 hectares and has been used by iron industry since the 16th century. A forest that has been used by man during at least 400 years should have few ecological values. This inventory however shows the opposite. The aim of the study is to interpret the history of the forest in the area, i. e.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify and understand the difference between Brunius?, Zettervall's and Graebe's valueing of a historical building, the cathedral of Lund. Between 1833 and 1963 the cathedral of Lund went through three larger restorations. The character of the restorations however differs a lot between the three church architects, Brunius, Zettervall and Graebe. In a time of low interest for the Middle Ages and of many demolitions of churches in the countryside, Brunius stood out as a researcher and an enthusiast of that special time.

The background to this report is the author?s ambition to understand individuals? work situation, how it?s formed in interaction between the individual and factors in the work-setting. Such an ambition is well in line with the concept of Human-Technology-Organization (HTO), a cross-scientific approach that puts a system-oriented perspective on how human, technolog-ical and organizational factors interact within work systems.The aim of this report was to explore managers? work-situation and generate an understanding of it from an HTO-perspective by using an organizational model as a framework for an interview guide and to analyze the work situation from an HTO-perspective following the ques-tions at issue:1. How does the managers experience their work situation?2.

The background to this report is the author?s ambition to understand individuals? work situation, how it?s formed in interaction between the individual and factors in the work-setting. Such an ambition is well in line with the concept of Human-Technology-Organization (HTO), a cross-scientific approach that puts a system-oriented perspective on how human, technolog-ical and organizational factors interact within work systems.The aim of this report was to explore managers? work-situation and generate an understanding of it from an HTO-perspective by using an organizational model as a framework for an interview guide and to analyze the work situation from an HTO-perspective following the ques-tions at issue:1. How does the managers experience their work situation?2.

Studiens syfte är att, med hjälp av life-history metoden, bidra med en fördjupad förståelse av hur föräldrar med utländsk bakgrund upplever och erfar sitt liv under ankomsten till Sverige och hur de minns och konstruerar sin egen migrationshistoria och sönernas skolgång. Livshistorierna baseras på intervjuer med två föräldrar från Irak och Iran. Föräldrarnas utsagor visar att de livsval som föräldrarna har gjort har haft betydelse för sönernas skolgång. De har valt att undvika att bosätta sig i segregerade områden och de har strävat efter att bli integrerade i det svenska samhället. Familjer med utländsk bakgrund genomgår en ackultureringsprocess och de båda informanterna tillhör assimilerade familjer vilket betyder att de har anammat majoritetskulturens normer. I informanternas utsagor belyses de erfarenheter de har av maktförhållandet mellan minoritetskulturer och majoritetskulturer vilket leder vidare till begreppet intersektionalitet.

SammanfattningSyftet med uppsatsen är att ge en bild av hur verksamma historielärare pratar om och arbetar med det mångkulturella uppdraget som ligger latent i all undervisning i skolan. Mångkulturalitet i det här avseendet fokuserar på hur lärare tänker kring etnisk mångfald och på hur detta avspeglas i undervisningen. För att kunna uppfylla uppsatsens syfte har historielärare som är genuint intresserade av mångfaldsfrågor intervjuats, eftersom ett genuint intresse också betyder en större medvetenhet om sin historieundervisning utifrån ett mångkulturellt perspektiv. Metoden som används är kvalitativ, eftersom detta har kunnat ge det bästa resultatet, då uppsatsen handlar om att få ta del av verksamma lärares erfarenheter, tankar och dagliga arbete. För att kunna tolka lärarnas utsagor har en modell som är en sammanställning av olika forskares resultat gällande det mångkulturella perspektivets integrering i historieundervisningen använts.

The background to this report is the author?s ambition to understand individuals? work situation, how it?s formed in interaction between the individual and factors in the work-setting. Such an ambition is well in line with the concept of Human-Technology-Organization (HTO), a cross-scientific approach that puts a system-oriented perspective on how human, technolog-ical and organizational factors interact within work systems.The aim of this report was to explore managers? work-situation and generate an understanding of it from an HTO-perspective by using an organizational model as a framework for an interview guide and to analyze the work situation from an HTO-perspective following the ques-tions at issue:1. How does the managers experience their work situation?2.

Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka huruvida historieundervisningen för grundskolans senare år ska inkludera miljöhistoria. För denna bedömning gjordes en textanalys av vad sex styrdokument på nationell och internationell nivå föreskriver. Skollagen, läroplanen och kursplanen för historia analyserades. Utöver dessa granskades tre internationella dokument som ligger till grund för läroplanen. Undersökningen utgick från ett perspektiv där historiemedvetande, i bemärkelsen handlingsberedskap inför framtiden, stod i centrum.

The topic of this thesis interest is the relation between branding as a place making/marketing technology and the process of regionalization. The main proposition advocated is that the officially communicated image of the Øresund Region, as a cohesive place and community, is a space that has been configured with branding and can be described as a territorial simulation. The concept of territorial simulation consists of two conjoined terms: simulation which aim at explaining the idiosyncratic brand image, as a social formation, which does not represent the place it imitates but commoditise it; and territorial which seeks to visualize the process of the unfolding of this image as a territory. The main argument is made in the third chapter, which traces the process of actualization of the brand image as a territory: ?Øresund?.