As well as other politic fields, the cultural politics adapt to changes in society. The development in society has brought attention to the interaction between the cultural field and the economic field. One of the main goals within Swedish Cultural Policies today is the development of cultural and creative economics. Politicians and researchers claim that culture can be a significant part in economic growth in cities and making a place attractive to live in.I became interested in the discussion around the cultural experience as a factor of economic growth when I participated in a seminar at Karlstad CCC during Kulturparlamentet 2012. When I then started working at the music festival Putte i Parken during the spring of 2013 I thought about making this study.The main aim is to investigate in which way Putte i Parken can be a factor of growth and a factor of making Karlstad an attractive place to live in by analyzing documents, reports and literature in a qualitative way of working.

Background: Companies and organizations of today spend large amounts of money on IT-based business solutions. Such business solutions normally include business- consulting and software-creation (IT-related services). Due to the rapid development of the technology within this field of business the IT-customers find it difficult to select among potential suppliers on objective grounds.Purpose: To increase the understanding for the professionl approach of the people involved in the sales- and purchase process of IT-related services in a business-to-business context. The study is taking the buyers'as well as the sellers'perspective into account when analyzing the process. Method: The empirical findings were collected from eight companies in Linköping and Stockholm.

Nowadays, packaging design is seen as a competitive tool and its importance for corporations is becoming increasingly apparent. The rivalry within homogeneous markets puts high demands on differentiation and the ability to create something more than the product itself. With this fundamental question, the soft drink industry has been examined and a case study of the brand Coca-Cola has been performed. The aim is to investigate how packaging design is used as a tool for strengthening a brand and to explore which additional values this contributes. In addition, the study observes the most important factors in the development of packaging design.A theoretical work of reference, consisting primarily of theories related to branding, design development and visual identity, has been developed to support the study.

The management of information is one of the key aspects within a successful andefficient product development process, particularly regarding complex products.Scania CV AB is at the moment developing a new IT-system, OAS, which aims tomanage the company?s product data. With this as a background, the purpose of thismaster thesis is to identify the cross-functional user needs within Scania?s organizationconcerning product data and the management around it.To fulfill the purpose, an empirical study consisting of 40 personal interviews with 50representatives from different functions within Scania?s organization was carriedthrough. The empirical data was then analyzed focusing on identifying thecross-functional needs and issues.The study points out that there is a big potential regarding improvement among themanagement of product data.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the ERK model's relevance, validity and potential need of development to better reflect how it looks today (2013). Method: The study is conducted through three surveys; the first two were face interviews with companies that sponsor Swedish soccer teams and the third study was conducted with a questionnaire to supporters outside a soccer stadium. Results: A model that would better reflect the reality of today (2013) could contain company pride, chairman?s whim, exposure, relationships and associations..

The technological progress of the world has had a massive effect on how we communicate with one and other, it also has had an big impact on how companies communicate with their customers and consumers. Today you cannot only communicate a ?promise to your costumers and consumers you also have to ?deliver? what it is you promise. Strategic communication is today not only to market your product but to ensure that your strategic communication is shown even in you innovation, design and product development.  This thesis is conducted in collaboration with No Picnic AB.The purpose of this study was to get an insight in how Swedish companies use their strategic communication. We aim on bringing a new point of view of strategic communication with innovation, design and product development also as a communication channel.

During 2008 we experienced an expansion of large scale investments in foreign farmland. This increasing trend has become a political hot-spot, but there is not much research available within the field. Due to a lack of research it remains a vital task to outline the potential effects of this trend. Drawing on existing ideas from some of the main actors within the field, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The World Bank, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the latest G8 summit on agriculture, four main purposes are set out for this paper. First, to outline some of the underlying mechanisms behind the trend is considered crucial for the understanding of the nature of these investments.

Fresh water has become more and more of a scarce commodity. Water scarcity isn't first and foremost a cause of drought and wasting, but a cause of inequality and mismanagement. This is not only a problem for developing countries, and there can also be variations within countries. The municipality of Gotland has a development program called Vision Gotland 2025, with goals for growth and sustainable development. The aim of this study is to examine whether the use and management of water resources on Gotland and Vision Gotland 2025 is conformed to the Water Framework Directive and the Ecosystem Approach in terms of sustainability.

This study is based on the will to understand the importance of a specific theory within social work. From the concept of neo-liberal governmentality, the aim is to critically examine and discuss how governance and self-governance is manifested in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). This will be accomplished through an analysis of:? How governance (and self-governance) is manifested in text through the advocacy of CBT and methods based on CBT.? How (governance and) self-governance is manifested in text through the contents of CBT and methods based on CBT. The study has a deductive approach including the hypothesis that the discourses inherent in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory of CBT and methods based on CBT, may be related to the West?s development of a neo-liberal concept of governance.

The purpose of this study is to examine two educational materials from different decades, to see if they have a conscious gender and equality perspective, and to see if they have followed the development society made regarding gender and equality. Even the curricula have a part in my study as I will relate them to the educational materials. Equality as a concept means briefly that women and men should have the same conditions, and gender depicts our notions of femininity and masculinity.I have chosen to do textual analyses, focusing on multimodal discourse because I analyze both text and image. I also use both quantitative and qualitative methods.My questions are: In which way do the curricula and the educational materials express equality?; In which way do the curricula and the educational materials express gender?; Do the educational materials express the fundamental values written about equality and gender in the curricula? And, if this is the case, does it mean that educational materials have followed the development of the Swedish society?The conclusion of this work is that equality and gender are presented as goals in both curricula, but the new curricula have developed that section more.

Scania InfoMate develops web applications that support truck distributors and workshops with the necessary tools for an effective maintenance process. However, the end-users of these applications are faced with as many different graphical interfaces as there are applications. As a consequence, important effects of recognition are lost, developers spend unnecessary time designing new solutions for each application and Scania InfoMate does not present a homogeneous brand image towards its customers.Therefore the aim of this study is to give a suggestion of how a standardized graphical interface for web applications at Scania InfoMate should be designed. The given suggestion should come from thorough investigation of both end-user needs and recent research within the area of usability. In addition to a standardized interface this study also aims to deliver guidelines that support future web application development at Scania InfoMate.Through a combination of methods, mainly heuristic evaluation and user interviews, an elaborate description of usability and consistency problems in a defined web application portfolio is produced.

Sense of coherence, SOC, is a way to study health and wellbeing in a salutogen perspective. SOC is a theory that Aaron Antonovsky came up with and it involves three elements; comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. These three elements is a objective way to look at our existence. The aim of this study was to examine how high the pupils sense of coherence was in the grades 1, 3 and 6 in a school in Karlstad. And with the result as starting point have a discussion around the pedagogical consequences and which educational work procedures we can use to work with SOC in school.

The aim of this study is to examine the market reaction when information about a company?s foreign direct investment is announced and how that affects the shareholder?s value. Also of interest is whether the market reacts differently depending on which country the investment is established in and which mode of entry is used. This will be achieved by using an event study approach. The selection that was used consisted of 206 companies registered on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic homepage, which had during a time period stretching from 1999 to 2009 established a foreign direct investment in the regions BRIC, Europe or the USA using the mode of organic growth, joint venture or acquisition.

This is a qualitative study aiming to find out how and why teachers work with art, music and movement in the English subject in the early years. In this study we have conducted a background study of previous research and as a starting point and as a point for reference we have relied on education policy documents like The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and the Swedish curriculum for the English school subject. Our research has consisted of interviews with six teachers and ten observation occasions in a total of three different primary schools. Our result show that there seems to be a consensus in both theory and praxis when it comes to integrating art, music and movement in learning and teaching of English in the early school years. The use of methods including art, music and movement in early language learning seems to promote the language development for all students but especially for young learners that require extra support for their language development.

The ongoing construction of Kristianstad is a trade mall in the city center, the City Hall and the railway station neighborhood is rebuilding, new residential projects are planned and "The healthy garden", "Accessibility for everyone" and "ERA-farms" are also current. Kristianstad has always a sustainable way of thinking in the background during the development and they are trying to meet all three perspective of sustainability: economical, ecological and social. The municipality seeks knowledge both by sharing their own and takes part in other municipalities in the development process..