Over the past few years the Åland islands have attracted growing internationalattention as an example of how to successfully secure the position of a minorityregion, and in the current situation the government of Åland has an intention toextend the efforts of spreading the example of Åland. The purpose of this essay isto shed light on the political discussion about the example of Åland, andinvestigate the underlying political reasons for emphasizing the example of Ålandinternationally. Through interviews with leading politicians on Åland I analyzeÅland as a norm entrepreneur. The research shows that besides altruism, selfinterestis a factor behind emphasizing the example of Åland. The essay showsthat the theory of norm entrepreneurship also can be applied on an autonomousarea, but instead of influencing international organizations themselves, theautonomous area use norm entrepreneurship as a tool for influencing domesticpolitics..

 ABSTRACTThis study focuses on immigrant women in Sweden and how their perceptions of resource loss may affect their motivation to learn Swedish. Focus group discussions were conducted with immigrant women who partake in a Swedish language learning project. Their Swedish language skills were very limited, and all of them had no or very few years of elementary level education. Results of the study suggest that the strongest motivator to learn Swedish is its potential role in facilitating everyday activities.    .

Entrepreneurship is said to be the missing link between knowledge and growth in the Swedish economy. New ventures run a high risk of failing and this holds true especially for technology ventures. Since company leaders have proven to exert an influence on organisations' survival possibilities, the selection of an appropriate CEO is important. The purpose of this study is to describe the importance of the CEO for ventures as well as to explain how knowledge and experience affect the opinion of who should be CEO. Using a qualitative case study research design including three life science companies, we show that there are three main factors crucial when selecting a CEO.

The way society categorize different people into groups is problematic in the sense that the categorization can seem stigmatizing and have social consequences for those being categorized. Immigrants are one of those problematic categories.The following essay studies this categorization of ?immigrants? based on a governmental investigation of structural discrimination that took place in 2002-2008. The aim is to study the use of the category ?immigrant? and the consequences that follows such a categorization.

The aim of this qualitative deep interview study was to gain deeper understanding of single immigrant mothers´life situation. Grounded Theory was the method of analysis. Repeated interviews with five immigrant women from different parts of the world showed that women were in need of wider and deeper social networks in order to reconstruct their identities. Social support and social networks benefit, not only reconstruction of identity, but also personal well-being. Yet it is difficult for them to create social networks in the new country, because of single motherhood.

KALMAR UNIVERSITYDepartment of Health andBehavioural Sciences.Education of Social Work 21-40 p.C-essay, 10 p.Title: The Accepted Adjustment ? How Twelve Children Belonging to Ethnic Minority Groups Experiences Everyday Life in School.Authors: Kristin Lundin & Karin SwartlingSupervisor: Jesper AndreassonExaminer: Ulf DruggeABSTRACTThe aim of this C-essay, using a qualitative method and from a child prospective, explore how children belonging to ethnic minority groups participating in the Swedish education system at an intermediate level, experience everyday life at school and the interactions with their teachers. We have interviewed twelve children between the age of eleven and thirteen years old. The children have either immigrated (adopted children are included) or are born in Sweden but have at least one parent who has immigrated.The outcome from our study is that immigrant children have a positive experience of their daily life in school and in their interactions with their teachers. The majority of children state that they view their teachers as good educationalists.

The purpose of the study is to examine and analyze the relation between the existence of global companies and given support to immigrant- owned companies with large cultural difference from public services. This helps answering the question "Which affect does the existence of local dominating companies have on the establishment of small companies owned by immigrants with large cultural differences?" This has been accomplished through a field study containing twelve interviews with small companies in two different cities and two interviews with the community officials in each city. The research was thereby narrowed to only treat the two cities in Sweden in order to examine the relation between public services support to small immigrant-owned companies and how the immigrants experience the support from them. The analyze was made due to a handful of theories such as the The network theory IP model, Hofstede's 4+1 model and the Product Life Cycle.

The background to this study is built upon the results that emerged from our former study: Elever med svenska som andraspråk i mångkulturella skolor - Bakgrundsfaktorer Tester och Utredningar (Odén och Bagge, 2006). Those results made us aware of the lack of cooperation in the work around immigrant pupils with special needs. In this study we have therefore chosen to look at the cooperation processes. The aim that we agreed upon was to explore the intercultural cooperation process around a few immigrant pupils in school year F-5, before and in connection with the pupils possible registration in the special school. We also wanted to pay special attention to the roll that the special need teachers played.

line of business/industry and family, to more clearly discern how male and female norms are acquired among female entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of women's conditions regarding entrepreneurship, in relation to society's norms. The study is based on a textual thematic analyses, using two themes derived from Helene Ahls ?The Scientific Reproduction of Gender Inequality. A Discourse Analysis of Research Texts on Women`s Entrepreneurship?.

This essay focuses on the reception of Yahya Hassan?s debut YAHYA HASSAN in Swedish media, mainly daily newspapers. Following the work of Magnus Nilsson it analyzes the ?reading strategy of the politics of identity? in ?immigrant literature? and outlines structural racism in the literary scene. By bringing attention to the critics? use of this reading strategy, it is possible to unveil the ?ethnic filter? through which literature by Swedish authors with a ?non-Swedish identity? is being read in contemporary Swedish literary criticism.

Entrepreneurial failure is probably a subject that is not well understood. This might have to do with the methodological difficulties of screening out failed entrepreneurs. In this thesis a tool is developed for analyzing supposed entrepreneurial failure. In this model entrepreneurs are surrounded by different stake holders. By using the failure deconstruction model to analyze my own entrepreneurial effort I find that it has neither been a successful project nor a disastrous one.

The invisible entrepreneurship is a study of owners of businesses with foreign heritage. It describes the unexplored relationship between ethnicity and class within this group of entrepreneurs.The result of the study is a model which I have found to be suitable to use when depicting the relationship between the ethnic profile and class. The model indicates that the importance of ethnicity decreases as both the owner of, and the business reach a more prominent class. The method of collecting data has been interviews with owners of businesses and Grounded theory has been used to analyse this data. Theories on ethnicity, owners of businesses with foreign heritage, and class in relation to ethnicity have been discussed on the basis of social constructivism.

Entrepreneurship is a subject of growing attention, especially within public policy, media and research. Many studies have been done, but the subject of entrepreneurial exit has to a large extent been ignored. The aim of this study has been to investigate how entrepreneurs at an early stage in their career think about exit within a near future, and what factors influence their attitude towards exit. The study was conducted through a survey answered by 253 entrepreneurs active within business incubators in Sweden. Based on previous research on entrepreneurial intentions, a model of exit intentions was developed, and tested against several other factors.

Entrepreneurial firms face unique challenges in attracting and acquiring human resources due to difficulties associated with resource constraint and organization legitimacy, often described as liabilities of "smallness" and "newness". The aim of this paper is to examine the "smallness" and "newness" challenges met by small entrepreneurial firms, which strategies they apply to counter these challenges, and if these strategies can be explained by the firm's HR philosophy. Since few studies on Human Resource Management (HRM) in small entrepreneurial firms exist, a framework combining theory from the research fields of HRM, entrepreneurship and small firms has been developed. Employing a qualitative case study design of five small Swedish entrepreneurial firms, our findings demonstrate four "smallness" and "newness" challenges and seven strategies that either counteract or prevent them. Furthermore, results showed that the strategies applied seemed to have no significance with regards to the firm's HR philosophy.

This study is about the female entrepreneur in rural areas in Sweden. Five women were interviewed with the aim to examine their way of living (livsform), their motivation, what significance it is to be a woman in business and how female entrepreneurs can be encouraged to start their own business. The conclusions : ? The women in this study live an independent life , but the their way of life (livsform) has changed during their life ? Female entrepreneurship can be promoted trough greater knowledge of the female business, better advice to the entrepreneurs, more networking groups and reducing bureaucracy. ? The driving forces for the women is to do what they like and are interested in, at the same time as they have time for the family and children. They also like to work in the rural areas. ? Female entrepreneurship can be promoted through greater knowledge of female businesses in the community, by creating virtual meeting places such as networking groups and mentor groups on internet.