The aim of our study is to explore the empowerment process among micro-business owners in Kayamandi, a black township of Stellenbosch in South Africa. What are the positive and negative implications for the empowerment process? Another aim is to find out the role of local and international support in this process. The theoretical framework of this study revolves around the concepts of gender, power and empowerment. Our methods are qualitative interviews and observations.

AbstractThis study is a critical analysis of three different views on human dignity and its function in the discourse of human rights: that of Christopher McCrudden, Jürgen Habermas and Elena Namli. The three positions are interpreted, analyzed and compared in order to see which is most reasonable.The conclusion is that Habermas?s and McCrudden?s view of human rights as legal reduces human dignity to a legal concept. Namli?s perspective of human dignity as a moral principle generates a wider understanding of human dignity and its function.

SammanfattningSyftet med vår uppsats är att jämföra den traditionella personalavdelningens roll med den moderna Human Resource Management-funktionen. Vi söker en definition på begreppet HRM och hur utvecklingen gått från den traditionella funktionen Human Relations till Human Resource Management. Vi vill se på de likheter och olikheter som kan finnas mellan begreppen och hur de påverkat personalfrågor. Vi utgår från ett anglosaxiskt synsätt men tittar utifrån ett asiatiskt perspektiv, för att se hur kulturella infallsvinklar kan påverka HRM. För att få svar på våra frågor har vi använt oss av både empiriskt och vetenskapligt material för att få så korrekta svar som möjligt.

Several surveys indicate that corporate leaders still consider the aligning of IT and business functions as a top management issue. The aim of this thesis is to illustrate how coordination emerges between IT and business departments and how formal structures intended to coordinate are influenced by human action. To deepen the understanding of this phenomenon we seek to analyze IT/business coordination from a perspective based on practice theory. A field study was conducted where observations and informal interviews were carried out at the IT department of a global company. The empirical analysis indicate that coordination problems between IT and business departments is in part affected by embedded factors such as different goals and perspectives on how IT is to be used in the organization or how to design IT related processes.

There is a general conception among those who are involved in the school-sector that there is a relation between resources and results. Better qualified teachers, smaller classes and schools with more finacial funding are regarded as better learning and development conditions for pupils (Gustafsson 2008). In spite of these widespread understanding, educational and economic research studies at the beginning of the 20th century had reached the verdict that resources have no bearing on educational results (Gustafsson 2008). The Swedish board of education (Skolverket) have published several reports, studies and surveys regarding the relation between resources and student outcomes.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the message of six publications from the Swedish board of education around the relationship between resources and student outcomes on the basis of the decentralization of the Swedish school in the 1990´s. The central question at issue is whether the Swedish board of education has been consistent in their message about the relationship between resources and results in the six publications between 1994-2009? I have also attempted to answer the resulting questions of my conclusion.This study is based on a qualitative text analysis.

Non-compulsory schools in Sweden should make use of the knowledge and experience that is available in society according to the aims and objectives of the Curriculum for the Non-Compulsory School System - Lpf 94. There are however only a few studies which have focused on the contacts between non-compulsory schools and society as represented by the business world in Sweden.The purpose of this study is to examine in what ways and to what extent non-compulsory schools are following the Curriculum by using the knowledge and experience of the business world. The perspectives have been: Which contacts in the business world and which working practices from the business world are implemented in teaching in non-compulsory schools? In what way do these contacts and working practices affect the teaching and learning of business administration? The purpose of this study is also to examine if the teachers in non-compulsory schools use business information and different kinds of business knowledge and experiences in order to keep themselves up-to-date regarding the business world. The perspectives have been: Are the teachers using up-to-date business information or business experience? Are the teachers applying a multicultural perspective in teaching business studies? In what way does this kind of information or first-hand experience affect the teaching and learning of business administration?The method used in this study was to interview seven teachers from two non-compulsory schools in Stockholm.

The purpose of this study is to exam how two environmental organizations reason about the loss of biodiversity. The research questions are; what is the view in these organizations regarding biodiversity? What are the underlying environmental discourses behind their reasoning, and how do they reason about the risks associated with the loss of biodiversity? As a first part of this thesis a thorough review of existing literature and online resources about the actions of environmental organizations was conducted. Two organizations were interviewed, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Naturskyddsforeningen. The questions for the study were analyzed in light of Dryzek´s (1997) reasoning about environmental discourses and using the concept of risk by Beck (1998).

Uppsatsens syfte ämnar undersöka svenskars benägenhet att välja en utrikes född partner utifrån individers bostadsort samt deras egen och föräldrars utbildning. Valet av partner analyseras utifrån ett perspektiv där valet inte sker slumpmässigt utan styrs av faktorer som påverkar möjligheterna till vilken partner svenskar träffar. Tidigare forskning har främst studerat parförhållanden mellan olika minoritetsgrupper och minoriteters tendens att ha en inrikes född partner. Eftersom parförhållanden mellan majoriteten och minoriteterna anses vara en indikator på hur starka gränserna är mellan olika grupper i samhället, är det av sociologiskt intresse att också studera hur majoritetsgruppen väljer en partner från minoritetsgrupper. Teoriavsnittet beskriver inledningsvis begreppen endogami, homogami och exogami som olika former av parförhållanden för att sedan diskutera hur svenskars partnermarknad påverkas av deras socioekonomiska resurser och sociala kontext.

Increasing attention has been given to men?s experiences as victims of intimate partner violence in the Western world, mostly in quantitative research, within different research fields. The aim of this research paper is to explore men?sspecific experiences of intimate partner violence in heterosexual relationships in a Swedish context, through a gender perspective and with a qualitative research approach. The paper begins by briefly mentioning key findings in existing quantitative and qualitative research, focusing on Sweden.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine the information needs of reporters at a Swedish daily newspaper, and see if they are met by the information resources provided by the newspaper. It examines if there are resources which are not used and why. The examination is based on Henczel?s model for information auditing.

We are living in network society, where information and communication together with the technical development stands in the centre. Characteristic for network society is quick changes, new meaning of time and space, convergence and new possibilities of communication. Network society contains new technical developments, several with thepurpose to improve the possibilities of communication between human beings, which in some ways creates new social demands and expectations. In this study, I focus on the Internet, which is an important channel for the information, communication and marketing in network society. As whole network society, the Internet is constantly developing.This study, implemented with qualitative interviews, has the purpose to give new, deep and interesting knowledge about business to business companies? communication and marketing on the Internet.

Men abuse women every day. It has become a Health Problem which we affects all of us. Help is available for those women who have the strength to seek it. Health care personnel are often these women?s only contact with the surrounding world.

The aim of this study was to examine the aspect of power in the relationship between the personal assistant and the disabled person he or she works with (the user). The study was based on interviews with five personal assistants who worked for private companies that provided personal assistance. Seven themes were identified and discussed. These were: the users amount of control over the assistance given, the workplace environment, the working conditions, the organization of personal assistance by private companies, the assistants recourses and usage of power and the users participation in chores. To analyze these themes I used Foucault's theory of power and the perspective of Human Resource.

The Methodology used to gather empirical materials for this thesis has been different types of interviews. The interviews have been mainly unstructured personal interviews directly with our respondents, due to limiting factors some of the interviews have been carried out via phone or email.The theoretical framework consists of literature from well-recognised authors and is divided into four different parts: Insourcing & Outsourcing, Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management, China & Intercultural understanding. The empirical foundation has been gathered from a great variety of different sources in an attempt to cover the many complex angels in which this subject can be looked upon. Chinese students, managers in international companies with experience from China, Chinese employees in Swedish companies and different people with good knowledge of different areas of China are all among our respondents.In our conclusion we have reached the three following conclusions for why one should start a ?bridge building? enterprise in between qualified Chinese human capital and Swedish structure capital: 1.

This thesis is about university spin-offs and the competition in high technology industries. In the light of efforts to increase the competitiveness of the European Union, an effective transfer of cutting edge technology from universities to the industry plays an important role. University spin-offs, start-ups founded to exploit academic inventions, are likely to face considerable market entry barriers. This is among other reasons due to high capital requirements for further technology development and lack of complementary resources. With a combination of relevant literature and empirical investigation, commercialisation of technologies within spin-offs is investigated and analysed.