This research addresses the issues of identity and culture in Latvia in the context of the upcoming European Union enlargement in 2004. Political self- determination of Latvia was historically indebted to culture. The phenomenon of cultural identity, so important 12 years ago when Latvian independence was regained, is largely ignored by politicians in the upcoming enlargement process. This is especially worth attention since the 8-th parliamentary elections took place in October 2002. The obvious lack of interest in cultural issues on the part of politicians is compensated by the apprehensions in the society (reflected in mass media) to loose Latvian specific culture and identity when joining the big European family.

Companies must constantly adapt to new concepts emerging in society. Socialresponsibility and sustainable development are modern concepts of today and offer avariety of activities to choose from. Therefore companies ask themselves: what areour goals and how do we reach them?The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of creating a simplifiedmodel,targeted towards management for prioritization and decisions on variousinvestmentspromoting the environment. The research focuses on companies from themanufacturing industries.

The technical evolution has a great influence on the public libraries. Electronic media becomes more and more common. This Master´s thesis is based upon the Swedish Library law 9§ (SFS 1996:1596) which says: Public- and school libraries should pay special attention to children and teenagers by offering books, information technology and other media, adapted to their needs, to encourage development of language and stimulate reading. From this point of view we have examined why the children´s departments in public libraries offer CD-ROM games which are based upon characters from the literature, how they are used in the daily activity and how they can contribute to the development of the children´s department.We have made literary studies and empirical investigations including interviews, observation studies etc. The results from this studies shows that both young and adults appreciate the CD-ROM games.

This report tries to discuss the concept of social sustainability; what it means and how residential development can be made more socially sustainable. This is done by interviewing several and various representatives in JM AB, the municipality of Uppsala and residents of Åriket to explore how JM AB as a housing developer and the municipality are working with issues regarding social sustainability and what the residents in one of the new housing projects themselves think of these issues. The result of these interviews will be compared and analyzed with the prospect of finding common variables and hopefully ways of improvement.This will result in our own recommendations of areas of improvement either by broad initiatives or specific actions to increase the social sustainability. Areas such as meeting places, sustainable functions and joint efforts between different parties. During the work on the report we come in contact with several other areas of interest that we are not able to process ourselves and therefore recommend them for future studies..

The purpose of this study is to reach an understandingfrom the teachers' perspective of their possibilities to successfully teach ina way that fulfills every child's individual needs in a classroom, according tothe idea of a school for everyone. This study also aims for an understanding ofhow the inclusion of children with special needs in the classroom effect the otherpupils. The main questions asked are:How do teachers think that the conditions of teaching adaptedto all pupils look like in practice?What are the factual conditions that affect the terms forinclusive education according to the teachers?The empirical data were obtained through qualitativesemi-structured interviews with six teachers in primary school, stage 1-3. The materialwas processed using an inductive thematic analysis.

Light pollution in urban areas - How to prevent light pollution at construction Jakob Sjöling Light pollution is a relatively new but rapidly growing form of pollution. Society's increasing demand for light coupled with the pace at which lighting technology evolves is accelerating that growth. The purpose of this study was to analyse how the construction industry plan and design outdoor lighting when erecting new buildings, specifically with regards to the issue of light pollution. It also investigated how local authorities work with these issues during urban planning. In both cases special interest was placed in ways to improve the planning and use of outdoor lighting in order to minimize light pollution.

It?s not for nothing the time we live in is often referred to as the age of information. Children and young adults who grow up I today?s society have greater access to facts and opinions than any earlier generations. This also applies to popular culture that during the last couple of decades have taken new expressions that no one could have ever dreamed of and more time goes to the consumption of it via visits to the cinema, television and computers.

This is a study concerning Hegel?s critic of Rousseau?s common will and shows how Hegel?s concept of freedom should be understood from this criticism. This is done first of all through a study of Rousseau?s social contract and Hegel?s Philosophy of Right. The different state theories which Rousseau and Hegel represent, are evaluated separately, first Rousseau?s then Hegel?s to see how Hegel?s philosophy is a continuation of Rousseau?s philosophy.

Abstract This master thesis is a result of the work thas was done for my entry in the international architectural competition Urban spaces and urban life in Ørestad South, that was announced by Ørestadselskabet on the 31st of October 2006. The project work lasted from early November until the deadline on 14th of February. In addition to the proposal that was handed in, the master thesis consists of a number of reflections about the work that was done and design work in general. The proposal is an answer to a not that evident task. One would expect that the assigment was clearly defined in the brief of the competition like this. And so it seems to do but to define the real assignment and join your own aims to it from such an extensive brief can be quite time consuming. Why do architects participate and what is an architectural competition? How does the brief affect the choices and statements made by the entrants? What is a square? What is the strategy that leads to a convincing concept? The role and use of a concept in the design process.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.

The study seeks to clarify a cultural change in the armed forces (FM). The study is based on the hypothesis that repeated operations in war-like environment, where the FM sends professional combat units, develop a warrior culture. The empirical results indicate that there is an existing warrior culture at all three units surveyed.The subculture is verified by the constants of western warrior culture described in theory. The cultural change leads to ethical / moral and leadership challenges for FM..

Teaching preschool children about the environment. A comparative study of how two preschools work with environmental issues.My investigations are based on qualitative interviews and observations carried out at two preschools, one of which has a nature and environment profile while the other works in traditional ways with these questions. I sought to explore the ways in which pedagogues in each preschool raise environmental awareness and, more generally, awaken an interest in nature in the children. The consequences of methodological similarities and differences will be considered.This term paper concludes that the difference between an environmental profile preschool and a traditional preschool working on environmental awareness is not large. The knowledge gained by children in the latter preschool surpassed that gained in the former.

In this Bachelor's thesis the result from a Delphi study regarding FRBR, performed by Yin Zhang and Athena Salaba in 2007 and published in 2009 ? What is next for Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records? A Delphi study ? is analyzed by qualitatively interviewing professionals active within the library and information science field in Sweden. The results are compared and possible deviations and adjustments are illuminated and discussed. The purpose of the thesis is to determine the topicality of the Delphi study in 2011 from a Swedish perspective. Conclusions made from the thesis shows that the main areas are still the same, but adjustments regarding the relative order of issues might be needed; primarily a shift of focus from theoretical to practical issues.

It is well proven that physical exercise has an impact on our bodies as well as our minds. The aim of this study is to examine if this impact also affects economic behaviour. Three hypotheses regarding the impact of acute exercise on overconfidence, risk enhancement and well-being have been tested by collecting questionnaires from 364 participants at Friskis & Svettis, Kungsholmen who all were asked to answer the questions either before or after exercising. The differences between the before and after group were analysed, indicating small increases in all three test areas after exercising. These increases were, however, not large enough to reject any of the null-hypotheses of zero effect on the given five per cent significance level.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.