The formation of sovereign states in regional blocks has become an essential feature in the world system. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate which motives and driving forces that affect the creation of projects of regional integration outside Europe and the Western World. By choosing the Latin American project of integration ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas) as a case of regional integration outside Europe and the Western World, the study investigates the motives expressed by the most prominent actors of the project, Venezuela and Cuba. ALBA is chosen as a representative and a unique case and through the consumption of the gramscian and the realist approaches, the essay defines two motives that affect the creation of projects of regional integration. As a way of investigating the actors? motives, the paper studies political statements, especially those of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, and official positions expressed in central documents and declarations.

This master?s thesis attends to a debate in the Swedish daily press concerning the public library which arose after the Swedish Moderate Party?s publication of their cultural political document Kulturen 2.0. This document contains a number of standpoints, of which three directly concern the public library: charges on book loans, libraries on contract and politically balanced purchase policy. In all, 28 articles are examined by means of an idea and ideological analysis. The purpose is to find out what is behind the conflicts surrounding attitudes about the public library's mission and activity in an era of needs for change.

The purpose of the thesis Masculinities ? Gender and its Impact on the Social conditions of individuals is to perform a critical study of how gendered norms influence the social conditions of individuals. This has been done by a problematization and the attempt to answer the question of how the hegemonical masculinity can be analyzed as a discourse, and how the structural aspects of this discourse inflict on the social conditions of masculinities.The question was divided into the analytical themes: the boarders of the discourse, the institutionalization of the discourse, the actuation of the discourse and the agents of the discourse. The theoretical frame is constituted by the theory of discourse by Michel Foucault, the theory of the hegemonical masculinity by R.W. Connell and a subversive identity theory by Judith Butler.

Aim: The purpose of the study was to investigate how the assessment and grading is designed and practiced in the practical courses of physical education at GIH - the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, along with how it could affect newly graduated physical education teachers? ability to assess and grade students. The study was based on Habermas?s system and life-world theory.What view occurs concerning proficiencies, basis for assessment and marking among teachers who are responsible for examinations within physical education at GIH?How is the examination structured within physical education at GIH?How are skills and proficiencies among assessment and marking further mediated to students in the teacher education at GIH?Method: The case study was realized by performing qualitative interviews with a total of four teachers at physical education at GIH. Additionally, syllabi were text-analyzed to improve the validity of the study.Results: From the results we found that the teachers experience marking as a complicated assignment, where particularly the didactic ability but also the practical ability form a formative and summative assessment.

Although women express a desire to be managers and although they constitute the majority of Sweden's newly graduated academics, they are still heavily underrepresented on senior management level in the Swedish private sector, where men hold as much as 95 % of the top positions. Considering the massive waste of resources that this implies, this thesis sets out to investigate the underlying reasons for the skewed gender distribution on senior management level in two Swedish professional services companies - an industry where the described problem has been palpable. Additionally, the thesis explores the effects of actively working for increased gender equality. With a basis in gender and organization theory, a broad theoretical framework has been compiled and applied to a qualitative case study design. The thesis reveals seven distinct impediments, which together create a parable of an obstacles course, that prevent women from advancing the corporate ladder in the same manner as their male colleagues.

SammanfattningDatum: 2008-06-04Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomiFörfattare: Kristina Andersson Anette TitzeEnköping VästeråsHandledare: Matti Skoog, universitetslektorTitel: Immateriella tillgångars värde i två företagsspecifika situationerkonkurs relaterat till företagsförvärvProblem: Intressenter som verkar kring ett företag måste kunna få enhelhetsuppfattning om dess värde. Redovisningsteoretiker har längeansett att immateriella tillgångar bör redovisas i större omfattning ibalansräkningen, både de som kan aktiveras enligt regelverket samtde osynliga så som personalen. Svårigheten med att värdera dessatillgångar är med andra ord ett problem, därav den fortgåendedebatten. Därför är det intressant att studera hur tillgångarna behållersitt värde i händelse av konkurs, sett i relation till företagsförvärv.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att diskutera problematiken kringvärderingen av de immateriella tillgångarna och studera i vilkenutsträckning värdet behålls i förvärvs- respektive konkurssituationer.Metod: Författarna har använt regelverk, relevant litteratur, samt artiklarinom området där värderingsproblematik har diskuterats. Vidare harprimärdata samlats in i form av handlingar från företag där konkurshar avslutats och intervjuer med sakkunniga inom området för attkunna studera praxis.

The subject-matter of the following essay is to investigate the relationship between what is commonly called Deep Ecology or Biocentric Philosophy, as articulated by the co-founder of the Deep Ecology Movement, Arne Naess, and later proponents of the biocentric school of environmentalist thought. I contrast Naess? concept of Self-realization as founded in his Ecosophy T to the ideas of american conservationist and co-founder of the radical green movement Earth First! Dave Foreman, and to the controversial finnish environmentalist and ecofascist Pentti Linkola?s ideological agenda of population-reduction respectively.According to some critics of the movement, especially the social ecologist Murray Bookchin and French liberal philosopher Luc Ferry, the Deep Ecology ideology is essentially misanthropic and totalitarian in structure. A central idea among deep ecologists is that ecosystems and natural entities have intrinsic value in themselves, even outside a human social context. This idea is thought of among deep ecologists to create a philosophically sound basis for counteracting the environmental global crisis.

The aim of this study is to gain an increased knowledge and deeper understanding of compulsive gambling and its consequences in today?s society. Gambling addiction will be described and analysed by a selection of experts, therapists and people with an addictive gambling background. The basis of the empirical research has been undertaken by a qualitative design with interviews consisting of three fundamental themes. The research group of eight participants included four gamblers, two therapists and two specialists.

I dagens överfyllda media flöde anser vi att det är svårt för organisationer att nå ut och behållakonsument relationer på grund av den stora konkurrensen. Många strategier bygger idag på attbygga unika konsumentrelationer eftersom detta är svårt för konkurrenter att efterlikna. Detsaknas kunskap i hur organisationer på bästa att kan utforma sina marknadsföringsutskick föratt uppmärksammas och att skapa konkurrensfördelar inom social media. Syftet med dennastudie var att ta få ökad kunskap om hur organisationer bättre kan skapa konsumentrelationeroch konsumentinteraktioner i sociala medier. Denna kunskap tog vi fram genom att utföra sexseparata semistrukturerade djup-intervjuer med social media användare som hölls på CampusVarberg.

In light of the massive property bubbles that have been bursting in the USA, Spain and Ireland during the last decade, the aim of this thesis is to clarify whether ? or to what degree - the municipality of Stockholm might experience a property bubble in the near future. The municipality of Stockholm is undergoing a housing shortage and house prices have risen during the last few years. Neoliberalism and property bubbles are used as a theoretical framework in this paper. The methodology consist of semi structured interviews, analysis of documents and statistical data from Eurostat, Valueguard and the Swedish administrative authority; Statistiska centralbyrån (SCB).

The aim of this study has been to discuss ideas of knowledge within classification theory and subject analysis in the light of theories of fundamental changes in the production of scientific knowledge. Guiding questions have been: How have the conditions of knowledge production changed? How has interdisciplinarity as part of this development evolved? What assumptions lie behind theories of classification and subject analysis? How do these stand in relation to the alleged changes in the production and understanding of science? Three works about the changing conditions for knowledge production and the growth of crossdisciplinarity have been presented and discussed. These works stress the loosening up of boundaries between traditional knowledge domains and open up for discussions about how to organize knowledge production in the light of these changes. In the study it is argued that their works also could open up for discussions about the way knowledge is organized for retrieval purposes.

Under hösten 2006 och våren 2007 följdes 20 st höstrapsfält. Bestånden studerades och graderades för att ge ett underlag till en inbördes jämförelse. Odlingsinsatserna har också analyserats och ett flertal intressanta resultat kan påvisas. Övervintringen har en fundamental betydelse i svensk höstrapsodling, dagens sortmaterial är dock mycket vinterhärdigt och i kombination med att höstarna blivit allt längre och varmare på senare tid ökar flexibiliteten vid val av tidpunkt för jordbearbetning och etablering. Daggradsberäkningar är en värdefull informationskälla som tas fram ur klimatdata.

?Claiming the right to space? is an argument frequently used by street artists for justifying illegal art in the public space. The public city space as a room of democracy and right to free speech is by some people considered threatened by commercial interests, and street art has become a way to demonstrate disapproval towards this. Street art is illegal and often anonymously performed in our cities. It developed in the late 1970s from the urban graffiti scene in America, and has therefore a lot in common with the graffiti movement.

In today?s hectic society more and more people experience stress and our lifestyle gives us a very limited chance to recover. For some it sometimes goes that far that they get burnt-out, they have pushed themselves to the ultimate limit. There are different methods and treatments to recover but one very efficient treatment is to spend time in a rehabilitation garden. There the patients get treated by therapeutics that uses the garden as the main tool.The fact that gardens and parks have a positive effect on humans have been used by people for a long time but it?s not until recently that the research has taken speed.

This report is part of a Bachelor?s degree corresponding to 15 creditsat the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. The work hasbeen carried out by Max Wikander, author of the report, supervisedby Lanie Gutierrez-Farewik and Erik Dijkstra.Gait analysis includes measurement, characterization and assessmentof human movement and is used to assess kinematic or otherabnormalities during gait. Center of rotation and the axis of rotationof a joint are fundamental parameters in motion analysis. However,the ability to create individualized analysis is limited by the lack ofaccuracy when these parameters are calculated.