The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine whether the role of a public library in a rural community is different from that of a town library. To answer this, a case studie of two public libraries has been made. Interviews, collection of documents and observations were carried out on location in one public library located in a rural area, and one public library, situated in a town. A modified version of an analysis model, originally developed by Andersson and Skot-Hansen, was used to analyse the data.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the job satisfaction of librarians and try to nuance stereotypes, which the public has and which still exist in massmedia concerning librarians and their work. The study is qualitative and based mainly on semistructured interviews with ten libraries born between 1937s and 1973s of which eight are women and two men. Furthermore, I have divided them into two groups according to age in order to see if there are differencies between the older and the younger concerning job satisfaction. In addition, I have used participant observation to some extent. My assumption is that job satisfaction is effected both by individual factors and environmental factors at work.

The research in this thesis attempts to understand what happens when children (3-6 years of age) interact with each other in the context of free play in two pre-school settings when adults are not involved. The aim of the study was to get a closer look at how children create relationships and how they protect and defend their interactional spaces. Data was gathered through ethnographically inspired methodology, using video observation to capture the everyday interactions of the children. Results were analyzed using a phenomenological approach to peer cultures. Previous research suggests that it is very important for children to maintain their interactions with peers and gaining access to play.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine and analyze why, in the case of Afghanistan, the government chose to establish a highly centralized political system, when from a democratic standpoint a less centralized system would be preferable.The time period that is examined span from 2001 when the so-called Bonn-Accord was signed, to the parliamentary elections held in 2005, a period often referred to as the Bonn-process.The theoretical framework examines both the complex relations between federalism and democracy, as well as the relation between federalism and the role of existent ethnic minorities. The theoretical framework is then used in order to explain why it would be problematic to create a federal system in Afghanistan under the present circumstances.The conclusions that can be drawn are the following: In case of the republic Afghanistan the creation and implementation of a highly centralized political system was the only possible way for the government to be able to cope and practically deal with the problems of existent ethnic antagonism and regional warlords in order to create a stable political situation in the country..

As part of the project Self esteem and Life circumstances among teenagers (started by Johnsson, Lundh & Wångby at Lund University in 2006) results from pilot studies of expressive writing (intervention initially created by Pennebaker and Beall, 1986) among adolescents in six secondary school classes in Sweden were investigated. The study describes changes from pre-test to follow-up on adapted versions of Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Emotional Tone Index. Different strategies for emotion regulation are focused: voluntary and involuntary engagement and voluntary disengagement (Connor-Smith, Compas, Wadsworth, Harding Thomsen & Saltzman, 2000). The study is explorative. Results show a tendency towards more frequent diary use at follow-up for participants in expressive writing.

This thesis examines trust on the web. W3C is a consortium of organisations focusing on development of standards for web publishing, and one of their projects within the semantic web track is web-based annotations. The purpose of the investigation at hand is to evaluate to what extent different factors are being considered when webbased information is judged, and whether web-based annotations could serve as a confidence-inspiring tool. The main research question was therefore: How do the informants experience Annozilla as a possible confidence-inspiring tool? The empirical material consists of a case study with eight informants.

AbstractThe aim of this study is to investigate the implementation process and the implementation steering of the social development aspects, gender equality and integration, in the program for regional development of the region Kronoberg in the period of 2004-2007.The study asks three questions: 1) How have the social development aspects, gender equality and integration, been implemented in the program for regional development of the region Kronoberg? 2) What has facilitated or hindered the implementation of the two social development aspects? 3) What possibilities to steer the implementation process of the two social development aspects exist at the governmental and at the regional level?In order to answer these questions a qualitative method has been used. To be able to analyse the empirical material, which consists of documents and interviews, the theoretical framework comprehends the policy process and implementation steering. The conclusion is that the incorporation of the social development aspects in the regional development program does not fully correspond with the central intentions, and that is due to circumstances at the regional level..

Vaccination as a part of the preventative public health project has for many years been one of the important tasks of the children's health care. The vaccination program has been adjusted to current research and the health situation in the country. Having their children vaccinated is not something obvious for all parents, though. Especially the vaccination against measles, whooping cough and German measles have been questioned. The purpose of this literature study was to investigate the reasons for the resistance to vaccinate and to illuminate the security creating advice of the nurse at the public health centre.

By the year of 2007, 97 % of all listed companies in Europe had a CSR strategy described on their website. As the concept of CSR during the last decades has increased rapidly in popularity, a need to understand how such a strategy can be implemented has followed. While working with CSR in an integrated manner shows similarities to other popular management ideas, such as Lean and TQM, companies applying to a CSR strategy has been shown to be under higher scrutiny from media and NGO:s. Through a case study this thesis examines how these special circumstances of a CSR strategy makes The Body Shop use organizational control to avoid being subject to scandals due to not fulfilling the promises made to its customers. The results show that The Body Shop's commitment to CSR creates a need for a stringent bureaucratic control system that highly restricts the freedom of action for its employees.

The loss of such great wetlands, which has arose in Sweden the last decades, has created a situation that threats both the function and the biological diversity within the wetlands. Many ecological niches can be found in the wetlands and it is one of the habitats where most different species exist. In the 17th Century people started to ditch damp environments, such as bogs, to create a productive cultivated ground. Further ditches were made when the forestry gave large economical profits. The wetlands were impoverished from both groundwater and nourishment, and this led to a great loss of species.In a corporation with WWF and Skogsstyrelsen in Arvika, the University of Karlstad has participated in the Laskerudproject, a hydrological restoration-project in a forest landscape.

KKS includes difficulties hearing speech in background noise although results from pure toneaudiometry are normal. The condition is also called ?Obscure Audiotory Dysfunction? and?Auditory disability with normal hearing?. KKS affects a heterogeneous group. We believethere is a need for synthesis of existing studies to acknowledge the condition in Sweden toimprove rehabilitation for the affected individuals.

The aim of this study was to investigate the importance of nature for the health and well-being of young adults. A qualitative method was used and data was collected through semi-structured interviews with eleven people from the ages of 15-20. The interviews were transcribed with the results of the study revealing that nearly everyone felt calm and relaxed while they were in a natural environment. The most common motivation to be outdoors was socializing with friends, performing any kind of sport and/or taking walks. Reasons to stay indoors were rainy, cold weather, lack of time, and in some cases circumstances related to their surroundings, such as where they live.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate and describe the literary life of Madame de Staël, during the period of the French Revolution and the time shortly after. My intention is to do research on her impact and influence. I also want to examine her effect on Swedish literary society, with special references to Swedish authors. The method used is a qualitative one, where I have studied nonfiction and fiction connected with the field, for example Mme de Staëls own writings, which I make use of to illustrate the phenomena. During this period the society was dominated by patriarchical values and patterns of life.

The purpose of this study is to develop and practically evaluate a new approach for the introduction of changes in internal and external processes in a customer front, but with the aim of maintaining or increasing customer perceived quality during insertion. A working model has been developed and is used in a qualitative research in the form of a case study carried out in a customer front, on a customer group in Telia's mobile customer service in Sweden. There is currently little research that has studied the implementation phase.The results of the study show that the designed working model works satisfactorily, but also that it can be developed more. Employees are satisfied and the sale was a positive boost, however, declined the customer experience a little bit. Employees raises questions as leader behavior, confidence in the group ahead, everyone's different circumstances and desire for the individual choice.The biggest challenge for future leaders will be to manage and lead continuous change.

The purpose of this study is to, based on qualitative interviews, understand the home care staff's experiences of insufficiency and also which strategies they are using to deal with these experiences.The questions of this study are:In which situations are home care staff experiencing insufficiency?What copingstrategies do home care staff set out to deal with these experiences? Method: Interviews has been used as a method to gather empirical data.Theory: Theories of coping-strategies has been used as theory in the analyses of the empirical material.Results: The result of this study concludes that experiences of insufficiency mainly promotes in situations of lack of time for various reasons. The main strategies home care staff is using are planning, adapting, accepting, compensation, get themselves together, control and manage their emotions and understanding. Other situations that promote feelings of insufficiency are lack of competence and when the eldery person doesn't want to receive a planned effort. Other strategies they use are social support and changing the circumstances..