This study aims at examining the prospects for a policy transfer of a Swedish municipal environmental policy (that of Växjö) to the French urban commune Blois, for which an ambition of becoming a leading eco-city in France, was declared by the mayor in 2008.In the analysis, emphasis is laid on mechanisms to institutionalize the main environmental policy principles, such as political and institutional structures and processes. Other prospects for an institutionalization of a new environmental policy that are to be investigated are economic structures as well as visions of the different decision-makers concerned. Research methods used in the study are qualitative interviews, document studies and a questionnaire.The findings of the analysis show that today?s prospects for an environmental policy in Blois close to that of Växjö, are clearly limited. The limitations can partly be found in economic structures but these seem to be rather related to a lack of priority amongst actors.

This thesis studies how the Swedish government articulates social exclusion within the spring budget of 2007. Through a discourse theoretical approach, inspired by Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the empirical findings are reconstructed through the nodal point of labour and two chains of equivalence, based upon the duality between employment and unemployment. By viewing social exclusion as a phenomenon concerning discourse, identity and politics, this duality forms the basis of a deconstructive and hegemonic analysis.I argue that the term social exclusion is a powerful and flexible political concept in that it obscures ideological assumptions and objectives as well as draws attention away from alternative social concepts. Throughout the thesis social exclusion is stressed as a social category constituting the relation between individual and society. Hence I argue that it is of vital importance that the values underlying its usage are made explicit and that social exclusion as a floating signifier is made an object of academic analysis..

Organizational culture is a widely discussed topic. Today job mobility in society is increasing as well as part-time employment. This study aims at investigate how organizational culture is maintained in an organization where employees work as combiners of different work occupations. The study is a case study of the department of Art at Konstfack (The University College of Arts, Crafts and Design). The organization is unique in the respect to that the majority of the employees have part-time employments within Konstfack combined with their parallel own artistic occupations.

This study aims at investigating the spousal relationships of persons who have been diagnosed with dementia and are living in a nursing home. Eight spouses? descriptions of their relationship, spousal interaction and the relationship´s impact on the spouse´s life were captured through qualitative interviews. The results show three main types of interaction patterns: one of spousal joy and happiness; a combination of both happiness and sadness; and a pattern of no positive reactions. The strength of the relationship was based on the analysis of trust, intimacy and commitment to the relationship.

The Oresund Region, consisting of the Swedish county of Scania and the Danish islands of Sealand, Lolland, Falster and Bornholm, is widely recognised as a successful example of European cross-border co-operation. The purpose of this region building project is to form a cross-border fully integrated functional region in order to accomplish a high level of economic growth and employment.This thesis argues, by the means of discourse analysis, that the project can be viewed as a kind of post-politics, defined as a politics that under a neoliberal hegemonic consensus strives to manipulate citizens (and to redefine them as consumers and investors) into better economic performance.This manipulation is carried out by extensive discourse production aimed at convincing people that the Oresund Region exists, that it is a successful region, and that the people who inhabit it are also successful. The deliberate vagueness and contradictory character of the Oresund discourse is investigated and explained as a discursive strategy to incorporate as many views and desires as possible..

För att utvärdera effekterna av psykoterapeutisk behandling av obestitasopererade finns det ett behov av psykologiska mätinstrument med goda psykometriska egenskaper. Acceptanceand Commitment therapy (ACT) är en behandlingsmetod som har visat sig effektiv för gruppen obesitasopererade. Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Weight-related Difficulties (AAQ-W) är ett formulär som används som utfallsmått i behandlingen. För attundersöka AAQ-Ws psykometriska egenskaper genomfördes reliabilitetsmätning med upprepad mätning samt beräkning av intern konsistens. Validiteten i AAQ-W testades genom samtidig mätning av mer etablerade mått samt en faktoranalys.

In organizations today Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming a common means to try to gain legitimacy and credibility for their business. A successful CSR strategy has the potential to generate positive outcomes for a company and reaching out to stakeholders about the corporation?s contribution in the field is an important part of the work. In this study I examine how the employees at Max Hamburgare receive the corporation?s efforts within sustainability, how it is perceived and what this means to the employees.

Those companies that have taken a stand in corporate social responsibility and work with these issues often experience difficulties orienting themselves in these areas. There is a picture of how companies want to be in their CSR commitment on corporate websites and a different reality which is reflected in the media. These different images are not in harmony with each other.The purpose of this study is to revise the CSR work of Sweden?s largest clothing companies.To answer the problem of this study a qualitative method has been used. The choice to explore a few clothing companies resulted in a multi-case study.

Title: Employee experience of psychosocial working environment during change at the workplace.In times of change processes the working environment at the workplace may be affected. Lack of balance between demands and the ability to handle the workload can lead to reduced work satisfaction, which is an important component for an individual?s performance and commitment. The aim is to investigate experiences in the employee?s psychosocial working environment during change management.

In this examination paper I?m using the qualitative method: phenomenographic analysis to present twenty educated and working pre-school teachers opinions about being outdoors in Swedish pre-school. The purpose is to describe the variation between different pre-school teachers? opinions, not to focus on wrong or right.    The paper starts with a review over the opinions presented by the literature on the subject.

This study is an attempt to shed light on problems and possibilities of the school library of the Swedish comprehensive school concerning library law and goals of the school and the school library. Many investigations about the role of the school library of the comprehensive school have been carried through. They have all more or less come to the same conclusions. In spite of Swedish library law and goal documents of the school library, the school libraries are often neglected, if not will and commitment are to be found among teachers. Using a model of the school organisation by Gunnar Berg, three cases of school libraries are presented and analysed in a larger organisational and political perspective.

Since 1983 the people of Sri Lanka has endured an ongoing Civil war, however the intencity has varied over the years. The aim of this theses is to examine what influence the asymmetric relationship between the Sri Lankan goverment and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has on the process of negotiating a solution to the civil war. I am also examining whether the asymmetical relationship has changed over time and if these changes have had any effect on the process.To analyze the asymmetries I divide them into material and non-material. I measure the material asymmetries in economic and military resourses, and to measure the non-material I use indicators such as commitment, alternative, controll and legitimacy.The results show that the asymmetrical relations between the parties in Sri Lanka have changed since the 1990s. Factors like 9/11 and the recurrent suicide bombings by the LTTE has had a great influence on the singalese-tamil relationsship.

Title: The future is looking bright - Studies of burnout among musicians and music teachers. Since late 1970's, the burn-out-syndrome has been researched in several ways, especially among people working in care-oriented employments. The object with this study is to find out the biggest issues about why musicians and music teachers burn themselves out. This is based on musicians and music teachers own stories when they got burned out. The method I have used is qualitative interviews and in the result chapter I will present summaries of the interviews.

In this thesis recruiter?s attitudes and usage of social media within the media business has been examined. The purpose was to find out whether a certain type of behavior in social media could or could not lead to a future employment. How much weight is put on the virtual identity and what does recruiters look for when the look someone up on the internet. Personal interviews with recruiters were done in six different media companies in Stockholm to find out how they used social media when searching and employing new employers.

Our purpose with this essay was to explore students? experiences of interdisciplinary working method in thematic form. With a starting point from Lpf-94, the curriculum for the upper secondary school and several theories of learning, we wanted to explore if interdisciplinary working method in practice could create an environment for a meaningful learning situation. The study took place in an upper secondary school class, study preparatory, third grade, who works interdisciplinary in thematic form. Our study was qualitative and we used an open structural questionnaire where the students confidentially were able to describe the working method, explain which subjects that participate in the work, and bring forward good respectively bad factors about the method.