This thesis aims to explain the emergence of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, and its institutional shaping, by using elements of Neofunctionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism.Using Neofunctionalism, the Common Foreign and Security Policy can be explained both as a side-effect of Europe's economic integration, and as a way to maintain the former and the European Union's position as an economic superpower. The institutional shaping is a result of lack of convergence between important national interests. Therefore it rests on a firm intergovernmental base, with rigorously limited use of supranational decision-making.For Liberal Intergovernmentalism, geopolitics and ideology, and to a certain level log-rolling, have played important roles. The reunification of Germany convinced France to form an alliance between the two countries. France, determined to achieve an economic and monetary union, thus offered Germany a political union, including a Common Foreign and Security Policy on intergovernmental terms.

This is a two year master's thesis in the field of museum and cultural heritage studies. The purpose of the thesis is to examine different opinions among museum employees about the role of museums. The thesis also aims to find out to what extent and in what way these opinions are influenced by the museum's own policy documents, the national cultural policy and the academic field of museum studies. I have conducted qualitative research interviews with six employees from three different cultural history museums. The theoretical framework of the thesis is based on Laruajane Smith's term authorized heritage discourse.

The Arctic region has not been a topic of discussion or a reason for a conflict in the past, but with the development of environmental issues which has resulted in melting of the ice, so has the interest for the region developed. This has resulted in a conflict over the area, with five countries as main actors. This paper investigates the five main actors? goals with increased influence in the area, using the thoughts of Rational Actor Model, with states as utility-maximizing actors and foreign policy as the expression of national interest. Furthermore the paper investigates the means of getting to the goal, what kind of tools they use.The paper shows that all of the countries are interested in the economically benefits that are buried under the melting ice and the short cuts in sea routes that will be a possibility to use ones the ice melt more.

This essay examines the historical development of group rights for cultural minorities in Sweden between the years 1970 and 2010. The purpose of the study is to analyze the development of political measures taken at government level for different minority groups, foremost explaining the division that have arisen between measures aimed at the five national minorities, the Sámi, the Swedish Finns, the Roma, the Jews and the Tornedalians, and measures directed at other ethnic groups.My conclusions are that the division in Swedish public policy between one the one hand national minorities, and on the other hand immigrant groups, is in no way self-evident. The division has arisen from an international standard on how democratic states, such as Sweden, should treat their cultural minorities. Further, this division has had an immense impact in shaping public policy as well as determining the type of group rights introduced for minority groups in Sweden.A difference has also been found in how the minorities are perceived by state actors. Immigrant groups are currently perceived as less entitled to group rights due to their short presence in Sweden, whereas national minorities are seen as more entitled to group rights due to their long historic presence in the country.

The technological legacy from the early electrification of the Swedish railroads has resulted in a power grid with a lower grid frequency than the national power grid from which it is fed. Energy transfer between these power grids with different frequencies requires substations, adapting the grid frequency for the rail road power grid. For this purpose, a feeding power grid has been built, stretching across the country from Boden in the north to Tälle/Häggvik in the south.Power transfer in the Swedish power grid results in voltage angle differences which increase with increasing loads and transfer distance. These voltage angle differences are transferred from the power feeding substations to the rail road power grid, will in some extent cause loss of energy due to unwanted power flows from north to south.To minimize the losses due to this phenomenon, a power management system called EFS 132 kV has been developed and implemented. The system minimizes the unwanted power flows and controls the desired power flow for a good distribution of loads between the power feeding substations.This thesis investigates the extent of the transmission losses avoided due to the EFS 132 kV that coordinates the idling angles to a common reference point.The results indicate that EFS 132 kV affects the power flow, especially between the northern substations through an improved load distribution.

We have by Statistics Sweden (SCB) been given the task of using different dynamic regression models in order to forecast service price index for sea transport. The aim is to see whether these models provide better forecasts than those previously used. This essay aim to identify, estimate and evaluate the selected prediction models. Through our data material we were given access to 28 sightings of sea transport index during the period of 2004 q1 to 2010 q4. We have chosen to evaluate three different transfer function models, one ARIMA model and one naive forecasting model. The input variables we decided to test in our transfer function models were the price of petroleum products, the port activity in Swedish ports and the lending rate of Swedish Central bank. The results of our study suggest that transfer function models generally provide better models than the ARIMA model and the naive forecast model.

A big part of assets in companies today consists of their employees knowledge and skills. In today?s society knowledge insensitive companies are increasing. The survival of these companies lie in the knowledge of their employees, which make it of great importance that knowledge transfer is managed properly. Knowledge transfer is important since it makes it possible for co-workers to apply old solutions to new problems that arise, using knowledge that already existing within the organization.

Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) within the European Union are currently facing many challenges one being access to financing due to high risk and probability of default, another being cross-border taxation issues with double taxation and information asymmetry. Since the aim within the EU is to be the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world with sustainable economic growth and social cohesion it is essential that the EU operates as a single market. Despite this need, harmonization continues to be far from achieved in the area of direct taxation which also affects the integration and growth opportunities for SMEs. In the Agenda for Entrepreneurship, the Home State Taxation regime, which is based on formula apportionment, has been proposed by the Commission as one option in order to mutually recognize the different Member States? taxation systems to facilitate cross-border activities and reduce ?red-tape?.

Trots att organisationer satsar alltmer på utbildningsinsatser, står det inom forskningen fortfarande oklart vad som leder till faktisk förändring i det fortsatta arbetet. I denna studie undersökte vi utifrån Baldwin och Fords transfermodell vilka individ-, design- och miljöfaktorer som förklarade en grupp  Försvarsmaktsanställdas upplevda kunskapsinhämtning och transfer efter genomförd utbildningsinsats. Detta skedde med Self-Determination Theory (SDT) som teoretiskt ramverk genom en enkätundersökning. För kunskap var autonom motivation (AM), kontrollerad motivation (KM), upplevelse av autonomifrämjande implementering samt behovsstöd från chef förklarande faktorer. För transfer var autonom motivation, upplevelse av autonomifrämjande implementering samt kunskap förklarande faktorer.

The purpose of this paper was to discuss stigma and stigmatisation in relation to social policy and social work. By discussing welfare systems in social policy I wanted to see if there could be any connection between social policy and stigma. I used case studies of hearing impaired adults to give examples of how the stigma processes work. By connecting the stigma and the social policy theories with the case studies I wanted to see how the social policy could affect the stigma processes or vice versa.In the paper the concept of stigma has been described and discussed, foremost using the theories of Erving Goffman. I have also discussed the welfare system and the connection between residual systems and stigma.

The purpose of this study is to find out how IOGT-NTO conducted the debate about the Swedish negotiations with EU concerning the accession. The essay investigates how the debate was conducted between the years 1993, 1994 and 1995. A further distinction lies in five requirements IOGT-NTO delivered before the negotiations.The material for this study lies primarily in the editorial pages of IOGT-NTO's magazine Accent. The background content comes primarily from secondary sources and deals with the temperance movement and IOGT-NTO, and dealing with the EU and the Swedish alcohol policy.In July 1991, Sweden submitted its membership application to EU and subsequently in the 1993 the negotiations began. During the same time IOGT-NTO began its debate on a possible EU membership in the Accent magazine.

After the last election Sweden has got a government that claims to be feminist. This thesis discusses whether the change of labels has also brought along policy formulated in a feminist way, arguing that the way policy is expressed affects how people see a certain problem. Three policy proposals are analysed, and in only one case the government seems to have been influenced by feminist ideas. The other proposals partly support claims made by new institutionalism that norms and routines in an organisation work to resist policy change, but also shows that feminist ideas are resisted more actively. The fact that so called policy entrepreneurs was present in the policy process at a certain period in time, probably counts for one explanation to the exceptional policy.

Purpose: The purpose is to present a greater understanding of the progression of innovation capital in a technology transfer and biotech start-up context. The findings offer technology transfer professionals, entrepreneurs and academia an overall perception and mental framework of the technology transfer practice and the embracement of a promising invention, building upon its hidden value. Methodology: The thesis was conducted using a qualitative case study, executed with the help of interviews, in order to answer the research question: How is an embryo of innovation capital continuously cultivated in a technology transfer and biomedical start-up process? Conclusions: A technology transfer entity provides the means to establish a platform where an entrepreneur can build its own human capital, structural capital, and relationship capital. The forms of capital interact and thus create value, herein considered as innovation capital.

I denna uppsats behandlas ett nytt sätt att beräkna korrelationen mellan olika tillgångar. Me­toden, tvärsnittskorrelationen, har framarbetats av Bruno Solnik och Jacques Roulet som be­skriver den i artikeln Dispersion as Cross-sectional Correlation. Vårt syfte är att med hjälp av detta nya sätt beräkna korrelationen över en tio års period på den svenska aktiemarknaden och se om vi kan hitta tendenser i korrelationens utveckling. Korrelationens tendens har tolkats genom trendlinjer och determinationskoefficienter. De re­sultat vi får fram tyder på en ökning i korrelationsnivå inom de flesta av våra observerade sektorer på den svenska aktiemarknaden..

ABSTRACT The main purpose of IT security policies is to protect companies against intrusion and unwanted spread of information. Statistics show that IT related crimes tend to increase and because of that it is important, from the company?s side of view, to be well prepared. The IT security policy is an important part of that preparation. A lot of the crimes related to IT can be deduced indirectly to employees at the companies where the crime takes place.