On the 17th of January 2002 the Swedish government presented a bill to theSwedish parliament, proposing ways of strengthening the Swedish democracythrough reforms for increased elements of participatory democracy. A publicreport on the state of the Swedish democracy had been released two years earlierwith similar enthusiasm for participatory democracy. However, the participatoryideals of these two documents were strongly criticised by a group of scholars.The aim of this thesis is to analyze and compare the arguments articulatedbetween the years 2000 and 2002 by the actors mentioned above, and to examinetheir relation to arguments concerning political participation, articulated bythinkers from previous times. By classifying the arguments into different groupsdepending on their content I find that both parties in the Swedish argumentationfocus on the effects of participatory democracy on political equality, on theefficiency of the political decision-making and the quality of the decisions beingmade, and finally on the personal character of the citizens. Among the argumentsarticulated by thinkers from previous times, similarities with the Swedishargumentation can be seen as well as important differences.

The aim of this study is to create an increased understanding of shared leadership and how it takes shape in the relationship between first-line managers in human service organizations. Shared leadership is seen as a complement to the traditional one-man leadership and briefly means that two managers share the role that usually is held by a single leader. The study has a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with managers in human service organizations. The interviews mention the mangers thoughts and experiences about shared leadership and gain approval in the hermeneutic science field. The study is analyzed based on symbolic interactionism where perspectives from the theoreticians Mead and Goffman are used.

Användbarheten av IT-system förbättras ständigt och företag har fokus på att förbättra sina IT-system som företagets kunderna använder då det leder till fler och nöjdare kunder. Annorlunda ser det ut för interna IT-system, alltså datasystem som används av medarbetare och som ska förenkla arbetsuppgifter, effektivisera arbetet eller även möjliggöra att utöva arbetsuppgifter vid en arbetsmiljö på distans. Användbarheten av interna IT-system står inte lika mycket i fokus som användbarheten av kundcentrerade system och istället för att åtgärda brister i användbarheten tvingas medarbetarna att lära sig hantera IT-systemets brister.Utgångspunkten för arbetet var funderingarna över vilken betydelse användbarheten har för ett företag när det gäller interna IT-system vid en arbetsmiljö på distans. Ansatsen var att undersöka om användbarhetsproblem i praktiken leder till att användarna upplever ett IT-system som dåligt i den särskilda situationen av ett arbetsmiljö på distans. I en fallstudie utvärderades ett IT-system som används av försäkringsombud som arbetar på distans med hjälp av en enkätundersökning och användarintervjuar samt hierarkiska uppgiftsanalyser.

In 2002 the local council of Lund, Sweden, decides to implement the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. A number of actors, such as the state, the civil society, the political society and the bureaucracy, participate in the political process with different authority and points of departure. This thesis studies the actors´ interactions from an inside perspective by applying concepts such as political power, democracy and implementation. The methodological departure is action research from within, a local NGO, the local board of Save the Children Sweden. The results of the study indicate that governance and steering of the implementation process at the communal level is weak.

I denna rapport har vi undersökt hur utvecklarna tagit hänsyn till användbarheten för slutanvändarna vid utvecklingen av ett säkerhetskritiskt system. Resultatet erhölls genom en empirisk fallstudie på två företag som utvecklar säkerhetskritiska system. Datainsamlingen bestod av intervjuer med personer som varit delaktiga i och har kunskap om utvecklingen av systemen som ingick i vår fallstudie. Sedan analyserades insamlad data mot teori inom Människa ? Dator ? Interaktion (MDI) samt teori om säkerhetskritiska system.

This thesis examines how knowledge management professionals use trust as a component in the creation of knowledge management systems, and what methods they use for building trust.Adopting a grounded theory approach, interviews with 8 knowledge management professionals active in different industries served as the base for an analysis that identified trust to be the single most important common factor in the data. The concept of trust used by the informants was identified as relating to the knowledge management system itself, rather than other users, employees or groups in an organisation.Building trust, the KM-professionals mainly focused on three methods: simple solutions, system superiority, and implementation security. Using these methods, the KM-professionals seek to ensure system trust by creating opportunities for users to obtain positive experiences of using the system, and thereby generate a foundation for a trust-based relationship between the user and the system..

This paper examines the reasons behind firms considering backsourcing. While firms experience problems with their outsourcing activities, backsourcing emerges as an alternative solution. Firms primarily take cost considerations into account when reconsidering their outsourcing practices, but this only scratches the surface. A deeper analysis is needed, since cost increases arise from issues such as quality defects and cooperation problems. Even though production costs are low, outsourcing always implies transaction costs.

This study is based on interviews with five directors of educational administration within the Stockholm County. The purpose is to investigate how the directors of educational administrations, in the different municipalities, describe the relationship between the administration and the local school units. Moreover, the aim is also to describe the administration director?s work in relation to the various levels of the administration. To what extent can it be identified as a dimension of the learning organization described in this report.The study shows that skepticism is usually directed upwards toward the next level in the organization and that the decision-making right for local schools is consistently safeguarded.

This paper is part of the research programme ViSuCity, a programme with the goal of creating more sustainable urban planning through the development of better visual tools, which ultimately means better communication between various parties of public planning. The paper concerns the implementation of MCE into a 3D program for visualization. Multi criteria evaluation (MCE) is a technique that has been developed during the last 20 years. It merges GIS with AHP, forming a decision making tool for localization of, for example, new buildings.The result is an automated tool that enables advanced analysis of geographic areas.The tool has a very high potential due to the completely automated MCE and it is adapted for people without a technical background, let alone formal training in MCE. It provides great opportunities to test different scenarios, something that should be an important advantage.

The purpose of this essay is to examine why some countries in the world decided to support Kosovo?s declaration of independence in 2008, while others did not. The essay is a type of case study, with Kosovo?s independence as the main focus. For the purpose of the essay, main focus will be on the United States of America, Russia, China and Serbia.

My analysis consists of an in-depth study of the experience of a group of development programme participants who were exposed to the use of art and artistic work in organisation and leadership development, resulting in positive effects. My starting point is creativity as a concept according to paediatrician and psychoanalyst DW Winnicott who stresses how important playing and creativity is for us, even as an adult, for us to utilise our full potential. He believes that we have a psychological space ? a crossover area ? where the outer, objective reality and the inner, subjective reality meet. Playing, creative development and experiences occur in this space.

My analysis consists of an in-depth study of the experience of a group of development programme participants who were exposed to the use of art and artistic work in organisation and leadership development, resulting in positive effects. My starting point is creativity as a concept according to paediatrician and psychoanalyst DW Winnicott who stresses how important playing and creativity is for us, even as an adult, for us to utilise our full potential. He believes that we have a psychological space ? a crossover area ? where the outer, objective reality and the inner, subjective reality meet. Playing, creative development and experiences occur in this space.

In order for any society to exist there must be a sense of belonging. In other words "We" need to be made distinctive and differentiated from "the Others". The aim of this thesis is to examine the processes behind the making and upholding of collective identities and the consequences of doing so. Theories regarding stereotypes, enemy images, power over the discourse and glocalization have therefore been applied to an empirical example in the form of a case study.The study is made on the municipality of Laxå in Sweden. Representatives on assumed key positions have been interviewed on their and Laxå's inhabitants views on the asylum seekers in the community between the years 1986 and 2005.Yet another aim of the thesis is to examine the possible connection between the perceived collective identity and the decision to close down the asylum facility in Laxå.

Denna rapport tar upp problem med revisionskontroll i realtidsbaserade kollaborativa system. Enligt Fan & Sun (2012a); Fan & Sun (2012b) behöver man bryta kraven som definerar realtidsbaserade system för att uppnå detta.Den stubbaserade lösningen som beskrivs i rapporten lyckas minska antalet fel i testfallen som utförts i fallstudierna. Genom att implementera personliga editeringsflikar och stubbar är det möjligt att ha revisisionskontroll i ett realtidsbaserat system. Dock för att detta ska vara effektivt och användbart bör detta endast användas i specifika fall och med noggrann granskning.Fallstudien som genomförts visar inte på några imponerande siffror men en förbättring är fortfarande möjlig vid specifika fall..

Previous research in the field of consumer marketing has confirmed the positive effects of divergence on advertising efficiency. Despite the coherent evidence, some industries lag in the adoption of these findings, one of which is the Swedish real estate market. Divergence has not been elaborately investigated within said context and this paper addresses the need of actionable insights for housing advertising. Starting with the proven success of housing firm Fantastic Frank who work with detail photos in contrast to the common wide angle, this paper examines theoretical implications of detail photos' characteristics. Besides being divergent, detail photos are also ambiguous which renders access to effects related to visual perception.