The purpose of this study is to gain understanding of how self employed entrepreneurs (hereafter referred to as ?entrepreneurs?) develop their competence based on their perceived learning space. The main question is: How do these entrepreneurs develop their competence based on their perceived learning space? Other questions relevant for the study are: How important is the social environment for these entrepreneurs and how do they interact with their social environment in order to develop their competence. The study has a qualitative approach.

In the society of today more and more employees are reported sick due to illness caused by their place of work. A lot of employees are stressed in their daily work and because of that they get mentally exhausted. These common occurrences are a part of the psycho-social work environment and it is the employers responsibility to avoid them. To rehabilitate an employee is often very expensive and takes a lot of time. Focusing on preventing illness in the work environment, instead of repair when illness is a fact, is an advantage both for the employers and the employees.The purpose with this essay is to illuminate the responsibility that the employers have to prevent psycho-social illness in the work environment.

Because of the increasing numbers of international tourist arrivals each year it is essential that tourist operators are aware of the impacts that tourism generate. Tourism affects the world in an environmental, social and economic way, positive but also in a negative way. To travel responsible and sustainable is therefore important, and operators have a responsibility in this subject.Because of this I wanted to look at how Swedish tourist operators manage responsible tourism, together with what amount of information their customers receive about this. To be able to study how operators work with this I conducted three interviews via email. The tourist operators were of different sizes and specializations to receive a more extensive result.

With the expansion onto the international market almost a decade ago, Swedish energy corporation Vattenfall began it's breaking and burning of coal on German soil. Criticism aimed at Vattenfall peaked in the mid 2000s with the revelation of large quantities of carbon dioxide emissions and the re-location of villages and graveyards in German states Brandenburg and Saxony. The purpose of this thesis is to show where the responsibility for these activities lie. By analyzing the history of, and the political debate surrounding, Vattenfall, I will show that the prevailing policies of right- as well as left-wing parties in the 20th century were all, regarding this matter, market oriented. I will also show that these market promoting policies made possible a situation where the transparancy of, and state control over, Vattenfall were close to eliminated.

 Sociala och miljömässiga faktorer har kommit att få allt större betydelse för företag i såväl deras verksamhet som för deras fortlevnad. Medvetenheten kring ansvarsfullt företagande har ökat på dagens marknad och med avseende på lönsamhet och marknadsvärde är syftet med denna uppsats att undersöka huruvida betydelsen för Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) har ökat. Undersökningen genomförs genom att testa korrelationen mellan CSR och lönsam-het (ROA) respektive marknadsvärde (E/P-tal), för företag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen mellan åren 2006 och 2009. För att ytterligare kunna uttala oss om huruvida sambandet mel-lan CSR och lönsamhet stärkts över perioden genomförs Fishers Z-transformation, där likhe-ten mellan korrelationskoefficienter testas. Resultaten för undersökningen påvisar ett positivt samband mellan CSR och lönsamhet, men däremot ges inget stöd för att sambandet mellan CSR och lönsamhet stärkts över den undersökta perioden.

Företags samhällsansvar (Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR) är ett väl debatterat begrepp som uppmärksammats allt mer i bland annat media, men även av företag. Däremot är begreppet konsumenters samhällsansvar inte lika uppmärksammat trots att det finns en interaktion mellan konsumenters- och företags samhällsansvar. Forskare framhåller att det finns bristfälligt med teorier om konsumenters samhällsansvar samt att definitionen är viktig för att fortsätta driva CSR-debatten, vilket gör ämnet relevant att studera. Studien syfte är att med utgångspunkt i samhällsansvarsmodeller på företagsnivå, utveckla en definition och en tentativ samhällsansvarsmodell på konsumentnivå. Slutsatsen baseras på en kvalitativ undersökning utifrån 15 intervjuer samt teorier som behandlar definitioner och modeller om samhällsansvar.

Uppsatsens syfte är att öka förståelsen för CSR ur ett varumärkesperspektiv genom att beskriva hur CSR kan stärka varumärket. Uppsatsen avser svara på: Hur kan CSR stärka varumärket?SlutsatserResultatet visar att CSR är på väg att bli en hygienfaktor för företagen. Som ett resultat av uppsatsen så har vi identifierat fem aspekter som är av vikt för företag att hänsyn till när man arbetar med CSR ur ett varumärkesperspektiv. Vi har dragit slutsatsen att varumärket kan stärkas genom att företaget utgår från ett grundläggande CSR-arbete, identifierar intressenternas förväntningar, skapar ett mervärde genom att ta ett utökat ansvar, integrera CSR som en naturlig del av varumärkesidentiteten och ha en väl avvägd extern kommunikation.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that is growing increasingly important, with more and more companies acknowledging that they have an obligation to the environment in which they operate. We were interested in inquiring into why companies chose to do so, even though there are no laws that condition them to engage in CSR. One answer to this might be that companies use CSR as a way to distinguish themselves from the competition as well as to gain trust and goodwill from the stakeholders. When it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility, the question is no longer whether or not companies should engage in it, but how they can gain competitive advantage by doing so. This study aims at providing a framework for possible ways of integrating CSR and branding, as well as different strategies for CSR-communication. We also tried to define how, and why, consumers respond to CSR-initiatives.

The study aims to examine how censorship and comics have been discussed in three debates. The aim is also to identify discourses and the orders and relations of power constructed in the debates, and to examine how librarians should handle debates about censorship and comics. Selected sources are articles from Swedish newspapers and tabloids about the debates on the Pox-trial, the manga case and the debate about Tintin in Kulturhuset. The results from the analysis indicates that the debates have been dominated by two main discourses: a discourse on freedom of speech and a discourse on social responsibility. Within the discourse of freedom of speech there is a range of perspectives that emphasize: artistic freedom, the need for open and free conversations, a discussion about how the comics are assessed in comparison with other media formats as well as a discussion about moral and moralism.

At the beginning of the 21st century, youth unemployment is paid attention to by the Swedish government and media. A grand part of the unemployed youth live at their parents´ house because of economic reasons contrary to their primary goal to be able to make their own living. It can be argued that the young unemployed´ s social citizenship is inferior to working citizens´ social citizenship. The thesis will not deal with suggestions on practical solutions, but rather seek for theoretical answers to whether the responsibility for the young people referred to should be a responsibility of the State or of the family. Communitarianism is a relatively young theory which is interesting for this thesis because it sheds light on the dichotomy individual - community.

Den ekonomiska globaliseringen och ökade världshandeln har lett till att multinationellaföretag till viss del fått ta sig an den roll som stater tidigare har haft och många företaghar börjat använda sig av corporate social responsibility (CSR) som ett verktyg för detta.Frågan är om utvecklingen har gjort att andra aktörer, såsom fackföreningar, som tidigarevarit en självklar aktör på den politiska arenan och en given del av den svenskaföretagssfären, nu kommit i skymundan. Det leder vidare till frågan om vadfackföreningar i så fall har för roll idag. Det föreligger ett gap i forskningen vad gällerfackföreningarnas roll i CSR-diskursen samt levnadslöner i utvecklingsvärlden, som kanses som en del av CSR-konceptet. Ambitionen är att denna kvalitativa flerfallsstudie skakunna bidra till den kunskapsbrist som tycks finnas gällande svenska fackföreningar ochderas syn och roll vad gäller CSR och specifikt levnadslöner. Resultatet av studien visaratt svenska fackföreningar överlag är skeptiska till CSR och att ett införande avlevnadslöner är komplext.

The focus of this essay is set on a number of processes that affect the challenges of the tourist trade, to be more precise ? an analysis of the attitudes towards tourism and sustainability within this line of business ? from an ethical and moral as well as social view. These issues are examined with reference to the concept of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Thus, acquaintance with theories of social constructivism, post colonialism, globalisation and global civil society is essential in order to understand the analysed material. The essay is mainly based on the outcome of qualitative interviews with various kinds of persons working with CSR related questions.

This essay has aimed at exploring how different companies work with CSR. We want to highlight their opinions about the topic, what it means for the companies that work with it and how important it is to apply CSR in a business. The reason why we chose this subject is because of the possibilities that come with working with CSR. We think there are a lot to be done when it comes to corporate social responsibility and we want to be a part of this new type of marketing. The win-win-situation that occurs with CSR is unique and it makes the subject interesting.

The increasing significance of social economy as a concept is linked to general global processes such as the crisis of the welfare state, neoliberal globalization, anti-bureaucracy tendencies and decentralization, but also to a growing political interest in human rights and social development. In Sweden the idea of the social economy generates wide support within civil society as well as within the government and across party political boundaries. Furthermore, what is problematic in this context is the fact that the discussions on the subject tend to be relatively uncritical and often it seems as if though the expansion itself is the main objective. The emphasis on cooperation and the third sector in terms of welfare production implies a set of risks in relation to state responsibility, democracy and the autonomy of civil society. This paper aims to explore those risks and how they can be dealt with within the Swedish context..

Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges in our history. As the average temperature is rising due to anthropogenic emissions, impacts such as floods, droughts and hurricanes, affect the lives of millions of people. Though the least developed countries are least responsible for emissions, they are the worst affected. This thesis focuses on environmental justice in the adaptation discourse. By outlining the adaptation discourse from the United Framework Convention on Climate Change principles, to the Marrakesh Accords, via the Kyotoprotocol my ambition is to analyse how environmental justice has been interpreted in relation to the adaptation discourse.