The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to do a benchmarking study of the marketing activities at the public library of Valdemarsvik. The purpose is also to describe and get a deeper understanding of benchmarking as a method for improving library activity. Four major problem areas are addressed: How can one use benchmarking as a tool to achieve change? How can one learn with benchmarking? What similarities and differences are there between benchmarking and other similar methods for competence development? Is benchmarking better than other similar methods for competence development? The empirical approach was qualitative and the method chosen was action research.

This study highlights the importance of computer technology and its impact on elder care staff's skills development in the public sector. The government presents the digital agenda within which information and communication technology today is considered to have a potential for sustainability, growth and development. According to the EU Commission, there are several important elements that should be improved to digitize the workplace. Among these are digital literacy, collaboration between agencies and increased investments in research, education and innovation. New technology can be understood in different ways by individuals, some see the computer as something positive and exciting, while others may find it hard to see the opportunities for learning and development.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the view of Finnish dialects and identity of first, second and third generation of Sweden Finns students in 7th, 8th and 9th graders, in two Sweden Finn schools. The questions at issue for the essay were: How do Swedes of Finnish extraction think of the Finnish dialects? Is there a correlation between identifying as Finnish and knowledge and usage of the Finnish dialects, as opposed to Finns living in Finland? To which extent do the Finnish students have knowledge regarding the Finnish dialects? To answer the questions a quantitative method was used and a questionnaire was answered by over 100 students. The results of the study showed that the Finnish dialects did not exert any influence on the students? life nor their sense of identity.

The goal of this thesis is to investigate the W3C Geolocation API from a developer?s perspective, focused on whether it makes development of location-based applications more accessible to developers. This has been investigated by looking at available ways to locate, possible uses, the functionality offered, the necessary level of prior knowledge needed for a developer and requirements on developer tools. This has been achieved through studies in relevant areas, a thorough introduction to W3C Geolocation API functionality, and by using the API to develop two different location-based applications as a demonstration. Testing of applications, on different platforms and in different environments, in conjunction with investigation of the rest of the material has shown that W3C Geolocation API in many ways actually makes development of location-based applications more accessible for developers. The API also provides fully adequate functionality and quality to meet the requirements for development of both simple and very advanced location-based applications. Målet med denna uppsats är att undersöka W3C Geolocation API ur ett utvecklarperspektiv, fokuserat på om den gör utveckling av positionsbaserade applikationer mer tillgänglig för utvecklare.

This master is a study of the co-operation between "Angered?s culture schools" and compulsory schools. In many reports of today one can see that there is a lack of co-operation between compulsory school and other cultural institutions. This master aims to study a ?good example? to see what makes it successful in the terms of organizational conditions, profession, authority and legitimacy as well as knowledge creation.

All since Thomas Kuhn?s strongly influential The Structure of Scientific Revolutions the Philosophy of Science and ?even more so ?the Social Sciences have contained a greater amount of theories that could be described as more or less relativistic, meaning that the standards of justification or truth thereafter more often were said to be relative to language, culture, or biological makeup. One of the more elaborate ways of developing Thomas Kuhn?s theories in a more relativistic direction ismade by the philosopher Richard Rorty. Rorty, mainly a supporter of Thomas Kuhn, is also a philosopher who has been seen as a main exponent of a so called Postmodern philosophy.My intention in this thesis is to evaluate whether Kuhn's and Rorty's theories of science and knowledge could be regarded as relativism, in respects of their view of incommensurability, rational argumentation, and of their position vis-á-vis the more conventional picture of scientific knowledge and truth.

My main purpose with this study is to investigate how the social worker relates to knowledge, power and profession. From this purpose has also the concept ?to be a social worker? emerged.The study is based on a qualitative study and consists of semi-structured interviews with seven social workers from different fields of expertise.The result of the study shows that the knowledge is dependent of different fields of expertise. But in the contact with the client, regardless of field of expertise, the knowledge is gathered through a reflective pattern. Through theoretical attempts and earlier experience from social workers, this is brought to life in this unique meeting.

As a newly graduated student in construction you rarely have as much knowledge as you wish you had. It is a complicated line of business that requires knowledge and understanding of both technical solutions and interaction between actors. It is impossible to be fully learned and with that much unknown it can be hard to know where to start. This report is one step in the right direction. It contains a planning that contains construction and installations for a one level house in Kiruna with its different choices motivated.

This essay will examine in which way festival tourism can affect the physical location of a festival and to operationalize this we implemented a case study of the music festival Storsjöyran. Storsjöyran is a Swedish music festival held annually in the city of Östersund and since the festival, with the accompanying festival week, attract up to 300 000 visitors annually, we wanted to see what impact the festival contributed to from a development perspective of the destination. The method for gathering data has consisted of both qualitative and quantitative approaches and the data was collected via interviews and questionnaires. We also presented various theories about festival tourism and destination development, as well as previous research on urban festivals. The conclusion is that Storsjöyran contributes to a variety of factors which can help Östersund to a destination development and increased tourism.

The purpuse of this study was to develop knowledge about learning condition that are to be in a context of interaction with persons that have Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis are included. The pre-understanding has evidence in that the public very often has a lack of knowledge in understanding persons with this kind of disabilities that can put the social interplay in disharmony. The phenomenological approach was used to reach the essence of the learning influence processes. Seen from the respondents experiences of interaction as a help for the informal learning in a working context. The purpose was to see the result of interplay and the effect of learning condition and to see what help those respondents acctually have experienced.

The object for this study is a company developing and manufacturing vehicles for heavy transportation. The company distributes their products on a global market. Therefore the company is required to have efficient internal production development processes in order to successfully beat the competition. The purpose of this master thesis is to study how this particular company intends to implement their standardized theoretical product development process within their organization and how well it is done. We intend to identify and specify if the process has any unexploited capacity.

The purpose of this study was to examine the resources and barriers that social workers have incorporating the Social Service Act states during meetings with clients, using and developing the client's skills and knowledge, develop their own resources and to promote the use of self-determination. A qualitative study was done by interviewing six social workers working within the in social service?s department for family and individual welfare. Social workers were encouraged to describe and discuss the key aspects of cases that developed positively respectively negatively. Motivation theory, evidence-based practice, empowerment, and expert-expert relationship are the theories and concepts that we used to analyze the material.The study's main conclusion is that the most important prerequisite for positive development of cases is that the social worker emphasizes and stimulates the client's own resources during meetings.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze and understand how producerbrands are able to communicate their brand through today's marketing channels, also how development and changes that occur in the society can affect the producers communication abilities. We have seen a tendency that many retailers have created their own brands that are competing with the producers, this leads to the fact that producers in some cases are having trouble communicating their brand to the end-consumer. The fact that the producers marketing through retailers now is more limited than before, the producers now have to capture the consumers wants and needs through other channels.This essay is based on a qualitative method involving seven interviews. The persons that we've chosen to interview are carefully selected based on their specific knowledge about the subject in question..

The aim of this study is to examine educationalists experiences of play as an educational toolin the work to promote the social development in children with autism.The relevant issue, for this study, is: In what way does an educationalist work with play withchildren with autism? What are the results of using play in the educational work? What arethe possibilities and what are the obstacles in using play in educational work?This study has been carried out as a study of literature in the field and qualitative interviewswith five educationalists that are working in a mid Swedish county.The result of the study shows that educationalists have a positive view of using play in theirwork and are using play in varying ways in their everyday work. Using play as a method intheir work always happens according to the ability and condition of the child. They (theeducationalists) think that play has great opportunity and advance as a method and gives thechildren joy, increase their sense of ability, the base for the social participation in play, andthe development of social skills.There is a certain hesitation among educationalists when it comes to using play as a methodfor children with autism , but the most of the educationalists consider play as promoting thesocial development although the development always will happen at the pace(rate)of thechild..

Each year approximately 2,000 new detailed development plans are accepted in Sweden. When an area is covered by a new detailed development plan, it is often necessary that land has to be acquired to adjust the property units to the new plan. The owner conditions of the property units can usually be adjusted through negotiations between the seller and the buyer. But in some situations, when no agreements can be reached, it is possible to use coercive measures to purchase the land. Compulsory purchases are only permitted when certain legal criteria?s are met.