This master's thesis analyses the concept of equality between men and women in parts ofRegion Västra Götaland's area of operation. With critical policy analysis I analyse how theproblem of inequality is represented in the European charter for equality of women and men inlocal life (CEMR) and the Region Västra Götaland's plan of action for the charter. Throughinterviews with people responsible for gender equality in different areas I analyse, withdiscourse theory, the ways in which the concept of gender equality is articulated in differentareas of Region Västra Götaland, and what kind of politics these articulations enables.In the analysis I show that a discursive struggle of how equality is to be defined canbetter be understood as a discursive negotiation. Equality between men and women isunderstood in several ways at the same time, as antidiscrimination and basic human rights, asbalance between the sexes, and as an approach critical of norms and stereotypes. Within thesenegotiations certain understandings of gender are made possible or impossible.

Background: The meeting industry has had undergone a extensive changes due to a number of factors. The globalization has meant that supply increases and congress organizers have more options to choose from. Development in communications, for instance internet, means that meetings can take place without a physical presence. Congress organizers as clients have also changes. Stockholm as position as a leading city to hold congresses in has also changed for the worse, in 2006 Stockholm dropped of the top-10 list.

Background: A majority of strategic alliances do not create value for the participants. One of the main reasons for the high failure rate is an inadequate process for partner selection. If the correct partner is not selected, it can have serious effects on the management of the partnership. This is a serious problem since failed alliances usually are very expensive for the involved companies. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which theoretical factors are important when selecting a partner for a strategic alliance.

The purpose of our study has been to examine the methods of validation and reminiscences from an employee point of view. To answer our aim a qualitative disquisition with four assistant nurses and one pedagogue in craft was conducted. The result was divided into three different themes: the view on people with dementia, merits and demerits with the methods and to work with people with dementia. The analysis of the result was made from selected parts of the system theory and symbolic interaction theory.The result of our disquisition can be summarized in that all our interviewed persons above all only can see advantages with the methods and several express that they are good tools to use in their work with people with dementia. The majority of our interviewed persons make use of the methods in everyday, spontaneous, meetings with the elderly.

Because of the large economic growth in China there are many companies who have economic interests in the Chinese market. Also in the forest market companies have started to invest in China and the interest for the market is growing. The question is how the Chinese forest market will develop in the years to come? How will China?s entry on the market of forest products affect the global forest market? The purposes of this study are to describe production, consumption and trade of forest products, and China?s possible competitive advantage in the forest industry. The purpose of this study is also to describe how China?s entry on the forest market affects the world market of forest products.

The case study we conducted describes market for transmission of terrestrial digital TV. The purpose of this study is to find out what hinders potential entrants from entering the market as well as to discuss possible competitive strategies for potential entrants. Our conclusion is that even though the market for transmission of terrestrial digital TV can be viewed as attractive due to its fast growth, there are barriers to entry that block companies we identified as potential entrants from entering the market. The industry experience of the current market players (Teracom and Boxer) along with their knowledge of the consumers and the fact that Teracom is a multi-business company are some of the factors to be taken into consideration. Switching costs is the most important barrier to entry for the industry.

This thesis examines if commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) systems meet the needs in different types of organizations. This was investigated through a case study of a COTS system. The system is built for contact centers and used in different types of organizations. Contextual inquiries with users from six different organizations were held together with interviews with stakeholders of the system. This gave an understanding for how the system is used and the needs to be met in the different organizations were recognized.

The Swedish e-commerce has been established for about 25 years, with strong growth from the millennium onwards. The companies that are active within it has many different backgrounds. Mail order companies were some of the early adaptors but today it is also common for companies to first create the e-commerce part of the business, before opening a store. A long list of companies has over the years come and gone, the rotation of the e-shops that are popular have constantly changed. We asked ourselves why.We wanted to get an understanding of the Swedish e-commerce, both from a business perspective and from a customer perspective.

This paper examines and compares several different sites in Sweden in addition to one in Mexico regarding whether the ecological requirements theses sites have had during planning and construction has affected the design in any way. Is it possible that, for different reasons, one thinks ?like nature? when one thinks of ecology and, if true, how does this reflect on the spatial and structural design? This paper tries to identify if some sort of general design expression is used in projects with requirements on ecological sustainability. In total, five projects have been compared in different areas such as choice of materials and their composition. These projects have an ecologically sustainable processing of water in common, although most also have ecological consideration in other areas as well.

Automated Guided Vehicles, AGV:er, används i huvudsak som monteringsplattform inom tung fordonsindustri. En AGV kan användas vid montering av motorer, växellådor och chas-sin. AGV:n transporterar produkten genom en slinga i fabriken, där produkten monteras. Idag säljs AGV:n med ett löfte om femfaldig säkerhet mot brott för alla de ingående komponenter-na. AGV:n är konstruerad för att bära upp en last på maximalt 1800 kg, med säkerhetsfaktorn inkluderad.

Stabilization of subgrade is an internationally common technique to improve the characteristics of a soft soil. Improving the stiffness and bearing capacity of the subgrade enables the pavement to be designed with reduced depths of subbase and basecourse aggregates. This makes the stabilization technique both economically and environmentally interesting. Both natural and stabilized soils have high inherent property variability that should be considered when the characteristic value is derived. By analyzing the spatial variability in stabilized and natural subgrades it is possible get the parameters needed for reliability?based modeling of soil properties.

Large areas have been ditched in Sweden during the past 100 years to improve the forest production. Ditching and also maintenance of old ditches are operations having mainly negative effects on water quality, flora and fauna and changing characteristics of soil. The purpose of this study was to suggest a method for inventory of the need for ditching maintenance in old forest ditches that takes biodiversity, water protection and forest production into consideration. Inventory methods from five Swedish and Finnish forest companies, agencies and organisations were compared. Their employees were interviewed about their handling with ditches, forest production and nature conservation.

The female labour is still a rather unexploited resource in many parts of the world. Unleashing women?s potential, giving them the possibility to start their own enterprises would increase the economic growth. Not only does women's entrepreneurship foster greater equality in the world but it also creates a more versatile economy. Sweden is considered to be one of the most equal countries in the world; still, entrepreneurship is an area with sharp gender differences, especially in some industries.

Studies in Sweden have shown that about 80% of all youth in Sweden have participated in organized sport during their upbringing but at the age of 20 only 50% of these continue. There have been several attempts to understand why youth stop participating in sports but few aimed to understand why they continue. The objective of this study was to examine if there is a difference in motivation between youth (in the ages of 16-20 years) who participate in recreational and elite sports. The study was carried out as a quantitative survey where both recreational (n=35) and elite athletes (n=33) particpated. The study used a Sport Motivation Scale questionnaire translated into Swedish.

The aim of the study is to investigate reasoning about variation in learning, made by Waldorf, Freinet- and Bifrost pedagogues. The focal points are how the pedagogues reason about variation in learning and why they want to use variation. It is a qualitative study, and it is done through interviews with one Waldorf pedagogue, one Freinet pedagogue and one Bifrost pedagogue. The conversation with each pedagogue is complemented by literature that describes and discusses each pedagogue?s specific teaching method. The results of the study are linked to different theories and reasoning by scientists and professors.