This thesis attempts to clarify the impact of cultural differenceson customer expectations of service level. Furthermore, wewant to determine whether or not expectations of service differenough to be quantifiable between two countries, Sweden andthe US, mostly regarded as similar in business practices. The conclusion showed that higher ratings on four of Hofstede?s five cultural indexes were associated with higher customer service expectations overall, and in all four SERVQUAL dimensions. This research contributes to retail internationalization and customer expectations theory.

International media groups and the freedom of speech are two issues that have been questioned during the last years when large media groups control a large amount of public-oriented information. The masters thesis at hand considers three debates that illuminate Bonniers and AB Mariebergs hereinafter referred to as the Bonnier Media Group positions on the media market. The objective of such a study is to establish in the face of the theory on hegemonia, for example from which factors the media actors deduce their argumentation when discussing the above-mentioned topic and the meaning of such a discussion in our time. The thesis also discusses whether freedom of speech and free opinion are affected by the increasing power of the Bonnier Media Group and if they, as a result, have diminished their own cultural and liberal assets, features that are firmly associated with the company. I conclude that various features have come to change the media market during the last years.

This thesis is of an historical nature and deals with two institutions in Bosnia and Hercegovina: waqf and the Library of Gazi Husrev bay. These institutions are placed in a societal context which makes it easier to understand their origins, development and decline. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the history of the Library of Gazi Husrev bay and its specific characteristics as well as analyze the institution of waqf in a societal context. The questions posed by this thesis are: What is waqf and its meaning? What are its benevolent as well as hostile periods? How did the Library of Gazi Husrev bay and its mission develop? The thesis is limited to waqf in its societal context.

AbstractIn the heart of Paris, you will find Sweden?s only cultural center abroad. Since the early 70?s a wealth of cultural activities has been offered, and every year the center receives more than 100,000 visitors. The center is a branch of the Swedish Institute (Si), a public authority which promotes mutual relationships between Sweden and other countries through culture, education, science and business.

The first law in Sweden containing an act of legal deposit is from 1661. Since then the printing-houses are supposed to deliver all printed material to the Royal Library and other recipient libraries. Today, more and more information is solely published electronically. This material is not yet included in the law of legal deposit. In a similar way as our printed cultural heritage is saved for posterity our electronic cultural heritage has to be saved.

With the political situation that prevails in the world, the need for contingency planning for the ecclesiastical heritage has become actualized with the aim of protecting the churches and their assets in war and armed conflicts. In accordance with Kulturmilj?lagen (SFS 1988:950) chapter 4 ? 15a, the Church of Sweden and its organizational parts are responsible for ensuring that contingency plans for the ecclesiastical heritage are established. In the legal statutes, it is not clear how this is to be carried out, who is responsible for all practical aspects or what is to be protected, something that creates gaps of knowledge regarding logistics, roles and selection. This means that there is currently a lack of principles and practice around the protection of the ecclesiastical cultural heritage, as contingency planning for cultural heritage is a fairly new phenomenon that has not been practiced in times of peace.

The aim of this study has been to investigate children and adolescent development in ?The turning point? children´s and adolescent program in Kristianstad. We also wanted to find out the support group leaders experiences concerning the children´s and the adolescents development in programs and how they apprehended their role as a support group leader. Our intension was also to study how the adolescent and the children considered their own development in the program. To carry through this study, we used two types of qualitative methods i.e.

In this essay I examine if socio cultural theory is present for teachers when pupils and students are using computers in class, especially when using blogs as a tool for learning. The aim of the essay is also to examine if blogs among pupils in class can promote peer support, co-operation and reflective dialogue, and in that case in what way. The essay consists of two studies, one small interview study and one literature study.  The interview study is made with the qualitative method phenomenographic analysis, presenting four Swedish teachers who have much experience using blogs in education. The aim of the literature study where some national and international research studies of relevance are presented, is to broaden the perspective.The result of the interview study shows that a socio cultural theory is highly present among the teachers who already use blogs in education. In addition, those teachers experience that the blog in the classroom supports dialogue and co-operation among the pupils.  In contrast, the literature study shows that most teachers in Sweden who made their pupils work with computers in classroom seem to let their student work alone, without guiding them and without creating co-operation or dialogue in the classroom.

Swedish preschools have a variety of children of different ethnic origins. The intention of this thesis is twofold; firstly to deeply examine how preschool teachers work with languages and secondly how to integrate the Swedish language with other native languages in practice. Hence, the aim is to get a deeper understanding and knowledge about how to integrate multilingual children that have other languages than Swedish as their mother tongue. The data collection for this dissertation is based on observations and interviews with three preschool teachers and child minders. The theoretical background is taken from literature which describes the social cultural perspective.

Sustainability has become more interesting to several companies through the last years, the trend attracts lots of attention around sustainability. Sustainable development means different to different people. The most frequent definition that we have found and which we believes compare with our definition of sustainable development.?a social change which satisfies daily needs without endanger next generation?s possibilities to satisfy their needs?.We have in this project commence from the English word sustainability and establish our own apprehension of its meaning, in the Swedish translation we have chose to call it sustainable development.This study is a part of an extensive project which is going on around the world and the material of the empirical study is designed after the international variation.Our study on over fifty small and medium sized enterprises has got the conclusion about what they think of sustainable development. We have compiled their answers and then the answers have been divided in three main categories.These main categories are:? Environmental-? Social-? Economic sustainabilityWe have also described what kind of obstacles which can be considered as standstill?s in the work with sustainable development, we have been summery them in three main categories:? Time? Cost? KnowledgeWe have seen that enterprises mostly see it as an competitive advantage to work with the main categories which is included in sustainable development, but the three standstill?s makes it difficult fore them to reach right up to sustainable development..

The aim of this paper was to examine the specific experience of being bicultural, what ackulturation strategy the person utilized and what influenced the use of this strategy. The findings were analyzed with the help of Pierre Bourdieu?s concepts of habitus and cultural capital. The empirical data was collected through qualitative interviews with four women of Chilean background, who either were born in or had been living in Sweden since childhood. The results of the interviews showed that all the respondents predominantly utilized the integration strategy, meaning that they participated in and felt a connection to both the Swedish and Chilean culture.

The aim of this thesis is to explore from a cultural diversity perspective, students 'views on teachers' leadership styles in the classroom and what style of management students prefer. The study uses a qualitative methodology to interviewed focus groups of students consisting of a total of twelve students at a secondary school in Botkyrka municipality. The corpus was divided into three different groups. Overall, results showed that students seem to prefer an intercultural situational leadership style. This is based on the students expressed need of wanting to be understood on the basis of their cultural background.

This degree project summarizes five years of education at the landscape architecture program at the Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences, SLU, Alnarp and the School of architecture at Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, Stockholm. The project has been carried out by Lovisa Berg and Per Crona in collaboration with DRIFT Scenkonst. This master project is based on the ongoing transformation of a former mining site in Ställberg, Bergslagen situated in central Sweden. The organization DRIFT is in the process of recreating to former industrial mining site as a green cultural center. Their field of artistic examination concerns existential questions connected to the site. The aim is to offer a place for both performing and experiencing contemporary performing arts in Bergslagen. Our objective is to contribute to the growth of the performing arts project and to demonstrate in concrete terms how a conversion of a mining area can be completed, while taking into account both its history and its new function.

Digitizing and digital libraries create great opportunities toprovide access to cultural heritage globally, but the quicklychanging information technology environment also raises manyquestions. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to analyse whatvisions and ideas behind one specific digital library, Europeana,that can be found in documentation related to the project. Whatideas can be identified concerning aspects such as userparticipation, access to information, knowledge andinformation literacy? What is the project?s role in relation toeducation, preservation of cultural heritage and democracy?The method used to answer these research questions is adescriptive idea analysis. The empirical material, consisting ofprimary sources written in relation to the project, has beencategorized within dimensions and analysed according toDouglas Raber?s three public library strategies: social activism,the conservative response and the populist initiative.

This study's main aim is to contribute with an insight regarding how employees of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) experience religion as a component of development work in religious contexts. The study focuses on whether or not religion is given enough space within Sida's development work and if the policies of Sida are enough to cover the needs in religious contexts. To answer these questions we have interviewed six employees of Sida which holds experiences of development work in religious contexts. The results show a lack of knowledge and encouragement of these questions within Sida and that the interviewees experience religion as a complex concept. The study also shows that the interviewees find policies, methods and tools within Sida as inadequate to cover the needs of religion in development work.