In a global context the traditional democratic process is facing new challenges. Scholars are talking about a transition from government to governance, where local and regional networks as well as international collaboration are an important part in how regional policy is produced and implemented. In this paper the processes in regional projects funded by the European Union are considered, and related to the traditional democratic process. The study has been fulfilled through informant interviews with representatives from four EU-projects. The interviews are supplemented by a qualitative text analysis of current statutes.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how students who study with Problem-based learning PBL in a distance learning course perceive the support from the university library. I first went into adult education, PBL and distance studies, one at a time, and then took a look at the combination of problem-based learning in distance studies. During the investigation, I conducted five interviews using a phenomenographic method to understand how the students perceived the support they received from the university library. The university library gives a lot of support but what I noticed while I was writing was that it is difficult to reach the students with the information regarding the help that is available to them. I give some example on how to develop the support and find that the students have a wide range of different needs for support from the library depending on their individual situation, social context, academic ability, location and course of study.

This paper deals primarily with the developmental potential and use of court -based mediation in Swedish law, and its relation to court-based conciliation and the judicial procedure as means to end a conflict.  In Chapter 42, Section 17 of the Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure, a judge, before the parties have their main hearing, can act as a mediator between the parties to settle the dispute. The judge should, according to the law, always try to make the parties come to an agreement before the main hearing. This obligation can be fulfilled either through the use of court-based conciliation, or court based mediation. Mediation as such is rarely used in Sweden, and one of the goals of this essay is to try to provide a tentative answer to why that might be the case.  The second goal is to try to find a consistent, yet Flexible notion, of the concept of ?jurisdiction?, and to provide an explanation for the relation between mediation as an alternative method for dispute resolution and the judicial procedure.                                                                                                                                            .

The Volvo Trucks plant in Umeå is a highy complex manufacturing facility where the same production line handles a variety of different models. This require Flexible and agile processes with high quality standards. This thesis studies the flow of material through a production line and how Volvo can use their existing manufacturing monitoring system to optimize the flow of materials.The goal with the thesis is to identify eventual problems with the flow of materials and to deliver a few proposals on how the production line can improve its productivity. The theory of LEAN, Just-In-Time and Supply Chain Management serves as the scientific reference to this project. By analyzing the flow of material, performing interviews and observing the processes a few problems are identified.

This is a thesis on the Intranet use in the European Parliament. We investigated the use from a multilingual point of view, but also from a communication perspective. What we wanted to know was how a multilingual group, with presumably different computer skills, in the organisation handle the Intranet information. What are the positive and negative effects of a multilingual information exchange over an Intranet? To find out, we sent a questionnaire as an e-mail attachment to all members of a chosen committee and their assistants.

The main purpose with this study is to describe teachers? use of textbooks and other teaching materials in upper secondary school (gymnasiet) in Sweden, and to discuss the use according to school subject and teacher style. Data was collected in two different ways. At first twenty classroom observations were made during lectures concerning the subjects Swedish (mothertounge), English (foreign language) and religion. Then four open interviews were carried out with the teaching teachers.

Introduction: The world is changing rapidly and the uncertainty that characterizes today´s society makes companies preparations for the future crucial. Purpose: To examine how CEO:s in small companies look at the future and what kind of preparations they make in order to meet it. Hereby, our ambition is to find out whether there is a difference between companies working in industries characterized by different degrees of stability. Mode of procedure: The purpose of this thesis has been fulfilled by interviews with four CEO:s from industries characterized by different degrees of stability. Result: The companies working in relatively unstable environments tended to be relatively more Flexible and have an emergent strategy formation process, whereas companies working in relatively stable environments displayed relatively less flexibility and tended to have a planning strategy formation process..

The maintenance phase within software projects is typically very expensive in terms of resources. The activities of this phase are largely focused around some form of modification of program code. This leads one to consider if there are alternative methods of code production that results in code that allows for less costly modifications. This thesis has its basis in a subset of those concepts which research has shown to provide more Flexible code. Once this subset is established, connections are made between the concepts within the subset and claims of benefits provided by the use of Test Driven Development (TDD) methodology.

The foundation of our study is five strategically selected printed advertisements which all contains signs that refer to digital medias. Through a quality content analysis, we are studying how advertisers may use a room with extended communication too enlarge the space given in a printed advertisement. The potential in these rooms are proposing a social connection and a Flexible interaction by providing content that is not possible to create in a printed advertisement. The form of communication is changing and there is a two-way communication created in an obvious way. The different kinds of roles in the communication process are here partially integrated with each other.

Upon marketing the system in Europe and the USA cost savings generated from reduced work force have been prevailing. Since the cost of labour is much lower in the Asia Pacific region other factors have to be stressed. The parameters of flexibility and quality assurance may however cover any initial investment in a production system. Our purpose is to value flexibility and quality in a manufacturing context, applied to DAS, in order to use it in investment calculations. In order to make an adequate estimation of different companies, due to problems associated with acquiring correct figures, the Key Success Factors needs to be examined so that the gathering of numbers can be conducted with more focus.

SMTP, the current protocol for sending electronic mail (e-mail) over the Internet, has for many years suffered from several problems and limitations. When it was designed, well over twenty years ago, the requirements for e-mail were very different from those of today. A message was a text message in English, and both user and machine were explicitly named in the address. The protocol was not designed to transfer other types of messages, and no mechanism was included to verify the identity of the sender.In order to solve these shortcomings, a new e-mail protocol needs to be defined. This report specifies a basis for what such a protocol may look like.

The purpose of this study is to examine how an organization communicates during a crisis and how a crisis can affect an organization's reputation/credibility in late modernity. The focus is on how the Swedish Red Cross handled crises from summer 2009 until spring 2010, and how the organization's reputation/credibility was affected by the fact that society has changed. The methodology used is a quantitative and qualitative text analysis. The results show that crises affect organizations, how much depends on how open they appear to be and how much credibility they have with them when the crisis begins. Getting to know the late modern society, to understand how it works, can bring benefits to an organization during a crisis.

In this study, five qualitative interviews were conducted, four of those with pupils and one with a teacher, in grade 9. Humans - a gregarious creature written in the context of status and hierarchy, aims to study how these students in grade 9 are grouped and how you look at each other in and between these groups and also in terms of status between and within the group. Using the concepts of identity, adaption, exclusion and the meaning of emotions with the chosen theoretical concepts by Goffman and, Elias and Scotson the purpose of this study has been answered. The results showed that the students were quite Flexible between the groups in their class; most of them were part of a small group that consisted of their ?close? friends.

The present work is a continuation of the ideas developed in previous projects during my Masters studies that explored the relation between pattern, form and space. Starting from the pattern multiplication for space construction the present project proposes textiles as an assortment of Flexible expressions. The purpose of the project is to explore aesthetic and functional potential of textiles for out door temporary structures. This is to create a pattern interface which filters sunlight through a textile surface to offer instant sheltering solutions for out door activities. The project combines research and analyses of outdoor temporary structures and scope of textile in the area.

This paper deals primarily with the developmental potential and use of court -based mediation in Swedish law, and its relation to court-based conciliation and the judicial procedure as means to end a conflict.  In Chapter 42, Section 17 of the Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure, a judge, before the parties have their main hearing, can act as a mediator between the parties to settle the dispute. The judge should, according to the law, always try to make the parties come to an agreement before the main hearing. This obligation can be fulfilled either through the use of court-based conciliation, or court based mediation. Mediation as such is rarely used in Sweden, and one of the goals of this essay is to try to provide a tentative answer to why that might be the case.  The second goal is to try to find a consistent, yet Flexible notion, of the concept of ?jurisdiction?, and to provide an explanation for the relation between mediation as an alternative method for dispute resolution and the judicial procedure.                                                                                                                                            .