A couple of hundred years ago half of the earth?s surface was covered by forest. Today, only half remains and every year an area the size of Nepal is disappearing. Deforestation, together with the burning of fossil fuels, is also one of the reasons for the increasing greenhouse effect. Another relatively unknown problem for the world?s forests is the trade with illegally harvested timber.

This Masters thesis aims to study the reading habits of readers of romantic fiction, especially focusing on gender issues. The main areas studied are the function of reading romances compared with reading other genres, and how the readers value romantic and general literature. The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with seven readers of romances, five women and two men. The theoretical background is based on reader response theory and gender theory. Before I started interview the readers I asked them to read two romances; Sidney Sheldons - The best Laid Plans, and Rosamunde Pilchers - The End of Summer, which we later discussed during the interviews.

This thesis explores some issues regarding estimations of the cost of capital on the Stockholm Stock Exchange through reverse engineering of the Residual Income Valuation model and through usage of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Previous studies are in conflict of whether the risk premium changes considerably over time or not. Furthermore, the risk premium estimated by CAPM tends to be fairly stable. In this study, reverse engineering of the cost of capital implied by analysts? forecasts shows a significant difference in the risk premium over time.

Since 1820 there has been a continuous discussion about the contents of history courses and the current debate considering this school subject is no exception; it is as vital as ever. Both in educational policy and public debate the role of history as a school subject has been brought up for discussion.In this study the writer has chosen to study the politically independent interest organization HLF. The organization is a non profit association, which works for the consolidation of history in Swedish schools.The purpose of this study is to investigate how the organization HLF has received and met the ongoing debate on this issue. The writer has chosen to examine the strategies the organization has used in order to influence this school subject and if they have succeeded in doing this.To carry out this study the writer has made use of HLF´s annuals as well as Aktuellt om historia, which is a publication that the organization issues three or four times a year. The conclusion of this study is that HLF has little influence when it comes to the formulation of the education of history.

During the late twentieth century, political and societal changes gave rise to an increased interest in performance evaluation in public organizations. This development also affected libraries in the public sector. The main concern for this master thesis is performance measurement in libraries. In this study two different types of libraries are investigated, one public and the other academic. My aim is to find out if and how performance measurement appears in the libraries annual activity reports.

Bakgrund och problem: Banker är en viktig institution i vårt samhälle, och i den senaste finanskrisen var bankerna en viktig aktör. Detta i och med de subprime-lån som var en av orsakerna till krisen utbrott, vars redovisning inte innehöll tillräckligt med information om riskerna. Som ett gensvar på den pågående krisen valde IASB att göra förändringar i IFRS 7, som behandlar upplysningar av finansiella instrument. Krisen vittnar om att bankers agerande kan medföra stora konsekvenser för samhället. De som är anställda inom bank har därför ett stort samhällsansvar, eftersom redovisningen av risker, trots ändringen i IRFS 7, lämnar utrymme för subjektiva bedömningar av vilken information som skall tillföras den.

I dagens läroplan för grundskolan (Lgr 11) finns syftesbeskrivningar för de naturOrienterande (NO) ämnena som säger att eleverna ska utveckla kunskaper och redskap för att formulera och granska information och andras argument samt ta ställning i frågor som rör ämnen med naturvetenskapligt innehåll. Detta är formuleringar som speglar det man i dag anser att NO-undervisningen ska ge de elever som går ut grundskolan. I det här arbetet har elever i slutet av högstadiet fått argumentera kring användandet av genmodifierade grödor (Genetically Modified Organism, GMO). Detta är ett exempel på så kallade Samhällsfrågor med Naturvetenskapligt Innehåll (SNI) och den här typen av samhällsfrågor har lyfts fram som ett sätt att arbeta med de formuleringar som nu finns i läroplanen. Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka högstadieelevers användning av argument i en naturvetenskapligt grundad diskussion och hur användningen av SNI i undervisningen kan hjälpa elever att utveckla sin argumentationsteknik och sitt intresse för naturvetenskap.

The explosion of new digital media puts pressure for developments within copyright law both in Sweden and internationally. These developments are taking place on two different international areas: (1) WIPO which is a part of the UN family and (2) the EU where a new directive on copyright law is being prepared and probably implemented during 2001. The aim of this thesis is twofold: (1) to study which considerations libraries must make when handling the new digital media both under today's copyright laws and under those which are being developed internationally. (2) What will be the consequences, for Swedish libraries, if the new EU-directive on copyright law is implemented in Sweden? By analysing current copyright laws, international treaties and the proposal for a new EU-directive as well as the national debate the thesis brings attention to a number of central issues for libraries.

The Swedish and Icelandic women's movements, the Support Stockings and the Women's Alliance both had the goal to change their nation's women politics. The goal was to increase the low representation of women in their parliaments and to highlight women issues on the political agenda. The essay shows that the most important reason behind the will to form a party, was a new issue being disregarded by existing parties, although there is a considerable interest concerning the issue amongst society. While a party was formed on Iceland the Swedish equivalence did not occur. Even though only one party was formed, both movements achieved the same results.

This study aims to highlight patients´ experiences about and thoughts of side effects fromelectroconvulsive therapy (ECT), a therapeutic method commonly used when having severedepressions. The framing of questions were how the respondents of this study describe theirlife before, during and after ECT-treatment, how the treatment has affected their daily life andhow these experiences may contribute to the awareness of power in professional relations.The study is based on three semi-structured narrative interviews and the main result showedthat, according to my interpretation, ECT as a treatment obliterated memories, quality of lifeand daily structure for all participants. Unfortunately they have all become subjects ofpsychiatric power and have faced considerable difficulty in getting professional recognitionaccording to their severe memory issues. The respondents have lost the ability to relate totheir past which clearly makes them struggle in their present context. A point in commonamong them is that neither of them wanted ECT but, because of the lack of communicationbetween them as patients and the health care in general, they all ended up getting it..

Intimate partner violence is a problem which is increasingly drawing attention in society. The authority responsible for providing care and support to victims of intimate partner violence and their children is the social services. The purpose of this study was to show how social workers deal with intimate partner violence and to create a description of how this work is currently carried out in seven municipalities in the north-west of Stockholm. This was done through a quantitative survey including all investigating social workers in the municipalities concerned. The results were analysed with concepts from organizational theory.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to investigate issues concerning the role of the public librarian and their work with adult learners. This is done by examining Studiebibliotek Halland, a project initiated and financed by Kulturrådet, with the aim of improving for adult learners to use the public libraries in Halland. The major questions raised in this study are: How do the librarians interviewed experience their role as public librarian since the number of adult learners at the public library has increased? In what way do the librarians think they have to change their work in order to meet the demands of the adult learners? How do they feel about the change? Do they think their work will change more as a result of the project? Data was collected through interviews and the study is a qualitative study. The main results are that the librarians have a very positive attitude towards adult learners using the public library.

 The purpose of this essay is to examine some teachers' reflections on the importance of mathematics in preschool and the importance of language, communication and conceptualization in children's mathematics learning. The study's methodology is based on a qualitative approach, where I interviewed four teachers who work with the 6 -year-olds in two different municipal schools. The study shows the importance of language and communication in mathematics learning. It also shows the importance of the teacher's attitude as well as the educational environment to capture children's curiosity and interest.  Purpose and Issues: The purpose of this study is to investigate some pedagogue?s descriptions of mathematics in the preschool class.

The subject of the essay is about a society called Klippan and the existing conflicts there between an active racist group and some youths with foreign heritage. The essay also concerns issues like racism, its effects and how it is expressed at different levels in a society. Futhermore we discuss how a community can prevent 'subtle' racism and open declared racism and how to work in a racist manner. We also talk about which role the immigrant youths play in the conflicts and how their behaviour can be understood. Another perspective that is discussed is which aspects can affect individuals to join an active racist group and which factors can make them leave such a group.

The Swedish boat industry is considered quite conservative and subject to only limited development. The purpose of the study is to explain the structure of the boat industry, to analyze and evaluate ways of competing and provide recommendations for developing a competitive strategy. The aim of this thesis is to explain how to be competitive in the Swedish boat industry. To be able to do so three areas are used to deepen as well as broaden the understanding. The three areas within competitiveness we have chosen to highlight are differentiation, individualization and distribution.