What kind of international actor is the European Union and how shall we define it? These are questions that many have tried to answer often by addressing the apparent uniqueness of the EU itself. One of these theories is Normative power Europe. A theory whose main argument is that the EU is best perceived as a changer of norms. My aim with this thesis is to test this claim and to see if the Union should be regarded as a normative power.

In 1989 the United States choose, after years of conflict, to carry out a military intervention in Panama, to remove Manuel Noriega, convicted for drug dealing and for threatening the lives of the Americans living in Panama. The aim of this study is to examine whether George H. W Bush?s arguments for the military intervention comply with the principles of the just war.The method chosen for this study is a qualitative literature study, based primarily on secondary data. It is a case study with two complementing theories, the theory of the just war and the world system theory.The result showed that the American intervention both can be justified and unjustified following the principles of the Just War Theory.

The research of organizational structure and control in the audit profession suggest that there is a contradiction in that auditors should both nurture collegialities while they at the same time have their own responsibility for their individual development and career. This creates a competitive situation among colleagues who in return are expected to maintain a good social relationship and team spirit with each individual. Subsequently, being part of the collegiality and being highly individualistic, gives rise to a theoretical dilemma where these opposing forces are supposed to coincide with each other.The purpose of this paper is to create a bigger understanding of how auditors at major accounting firms can handle the conflict that arises. In order to explore this dilemma, we conducted a qualitative study based on an abductive approach. We have made seven semi-structured interviews from a localistic view.

The purpose of this diagnostic master thesis is to examine the motivation of the individuals working in a specific section at Sony Ericsson BGNMVNL. In order to do this, we will distinguish motivational and de-motivational factors that influence the individuals? in their work. Further, we also have the aim of giving recommendations on how to act on these outcomes in order to improve the motivation in BGNMVNL. Our thesis is a diagnostic study in which data is collected by qualitative face-to-face interviews and observations with selected individuals at Sony Ericsson.

The aim of this thesis is to describe the development of profitability and capital structure in Swedish quoted companies during the period of 1990 to 2004. Further, the aim is to determine the relationship between profitability and leverage in order to conclude whether the choice of capital structure supports the pecking order theory or the trade-off theory of capital structure. The findings show that return on assets fluctuates between 3 and 11 percent and that return on equity fluctuates between 3 and 22 percent during the period. Further, the leverage and the cost of debt have decreased. This indicates lowered financial risk in Swedish quoted companies in the period between 1990 and 2004.

The purpose of this case study is to see how all the involved parties; students, custodians and teachers look upon ?A meeting of learning ? personal development dialogue that is led by children and young people?, on a school south of Stockholm. Our questions at issue were to see what the students had learned from their personal development dialogue, if the custodians had received all the information they expected to get from a personal development dialogue, and last but not least if all the involved parties; students, custodians and teachers, wanted to continue with this model? We used interviews and paper questionnaires to collect answers to our case study and the questions at issue. In both the interviews and paper questionnaires we could see that an overwhelming majority had a positive opinion about students leading and ?owning? their personal development dialogue, especially the students themselves.

The Arctic region has not been a topic of discussion or a reason for a conflict in the past, but with the development of environmental issues which has resulted in melting of the ice, so has the interest for the region developed. This has resulted in a conflict over the area, with five countries as main actors. This paper investigates the five main actors? goals with increased influence in the area, using the thoughts of Rational Actor Model, with states as utility-maximizing actors and foreign policy as the expression of national interest. Furthermore the paper investigates the means of getting to the goal, what kind of tools they use.The paper shows that all of the countries are interested in the economically benefits that are buried under the melting ice and the short cuts in sea routes that will be a possibility to use ones the ice melt more.

What impact and effects are created by the placement of an international ranking? Could it be that a top rank is detrimental to an entire country's efforts to fight corruption?This bachelor thesis in political science is about Swedish corruption. In essence, so questioning the Transparency International's indexed rankings that placed Sweden in third place. Issues concern since if the third placement has created nonchalance and a careless mentality in Swedish government and in particular in the municipal operations. Research results show that Transparency International's rankings have low validity and low reliability and that the government is not acting sufficiently to prevent and fight corruption.

The purpose of this study was to do a narrative survey of the discussion about violence in partner relationships that is held in research literature. The question at issue was: How do research literature discuss violence in partner relationships, with focus on heterosexual relationships? The eight primary documents that have been chosen are written by researchers, professional therapists, National Counsil for Women's protection (Nationellt Råd för Kvinnofrid, NRK) and Swedish Government Official Report (Statens Offentliga Utredningar, SOU). To investigate the theories, discover the similarities and differences between them and how they can complement each other, the documents statements has been analyzed with a dialectic-hermeneutic approach and social constructionism and discourse theory.The research findings showed that the gender perspective theory, the psychodynamic theory and the social psychology theory have a few things in common, but that they on the whole are different and contradict each other. The gender perspective theory dominates the discussion but needs to be combined with the other theories to give a more all-embracing understanding.

Changes in the society engender changes in the practice of the auditor profession. Stricter laws, more detailed recommendations, and demands from the auditor?s clients have increased. The auditor constitutes a profession and therefore it is important that there is a trust since the auditor is the one that certifies the quality of the company?s economical information.

Bakgrund: Om VaR kan estimeras väl med hjälp av ES-metodik, kan man få bukt med VaR-måttets brist på sudadditivitet (vilken innebär dels praktiska problem vid utformning av finansiella organisationers limitstrukturer, dels teoretiska problem i enlighet med Artzner et al (1997, 1999)) samtidigt som man uppfyller det formella kravet på att rapportera sitt VaR på 99 %:snivån. Syfte: Att undersöka hur väl ES ? estimerat på olika konfidensnivåer och med olika metoder ? duger till att skatta en banks 99 %:s-VaR. Metod: Två ES-metoders och sex VaR-metoders förmåga ? både avseende frekvens (Kupiec-test) och oberoende (eget längsta-följd-test) ? att skatta 99 %:s-VaR utvärderas och jämförs.

Under tidigt 80-tal växte olika sorter av kommunikationsmodeller fram, bland annat Daft och Lengels, Media Richness Theory. Denna teori var baserad på den tidens kommunikationsmönster. Idag nästan 20 år senare har vi sett explosionsartad IT-utveckling vilket har medfört förändringar i det dagliga kommunikationsmönstret. I denna uppsats undersöker vi om Media Richness Theory fungerar på ny teknik med hänsyn till dagens utökade kommunikationsmetoder. Vi studerar bland annat användnings- och påverkningsmönster ur ett abduktivt perspektiv, det vill säga både kvalitativt och kvantitativt.

In today?s changing environment, creation of projects by organizations has become more common. The problem is, though, that the knowledge of the subject is still limited which causes many projects to fail. This has made it extra important to have a good project manager whocanlead the project in the right direction. While doing this both the project method and the project manager?s motivation are contributing sources.

Denna uppsats är tänkt som en introduktion till ämnet humor i landskapsarkitektur - ett ämne som ännu inte diskuterats i nämnvärd utsträckning. Den riktar ett särskilt fokus mot humorteorin Benign violation theory och undersöker om teorin kan användas i landskapsarkitektur. Först introduceras de tre tidigaste humorteorierna för att ge en bild av tre huvudsakliga modeller som finns för att förklara humor. Därefter presenteras Benign violation theory och enkätundersökningen som prövar dess applicerbarhet på landskapsarkitektur. Undersökningens resultat verkar tyda på att bilder som stämmer överens med teorins villkor verkligen uppfattas som roliga, men det finns stora felmarginaler och det råder behov av fler undersökningar i ämnet..

This paper analyses what effect an application of a specific poststructural feminist theory has on the Swedish classification system SAB. The purpose is to study if it is possible to open up the current representation of gender towards a more multiple one. The study is both theoretical and empirical. The theoretical part include a short presentation of both classification theory and feminist theory. The study also presents the critic that poststructual feminists submit.