The purpose of this study is to find out why the EU has not yet implemented the EuropeanCivil Peace Corps (ECPC), which the EU Parliament took a resolution about in 1999. Themore specific questions posed are whether the concept of ECPC has been redefined, whetherthe issue of ECPC has been prevented from coming up for discussion and decision-making,and what this has meant for the non-implementation. Steven Lukes' theory about the threedimensions of power is used in combination with a discourse analysis method. The materialused is documents from the EU Parliament's decisions and debate about ECPC, and ECPCfeasibility studies. In the analysis I find one "law and order"-discourse and one "peaceknowledge"-discourse.

The question about how the unemployment insurance should be designed is today a veryinteresting topic. In 2007 the Swedish government introduced an increased financial fee formembers in the unemployment benefit societies. Since this the number of members in thesesocieties has decreased dramatically. At the same time Sören Öman was appointed head of acommission whose obligation was to investigate the initiation of compulsory unemploymentinsurance. In May 2008 Öman delivered a separate report describing how the initiation of theinsurance should be dealt with.

This study was carried out in Ronneby municipality during May 2006. I chose to compare three senior schools with regards to the implementation of objective orientated directives based on the teachers understanding of the task, motivation, resources allocated and their significance for the disparity between boys? and girls? grades.I carried out nine in-depth interviews: three at each senior school. From the interviews it emerged that teachers perceive objectives differently from parents and students. Teachers claim that they understand the directives but say that they lack the resources.

Increased competition in the IT industry has sparked a need for developing faster innovation processes with more predictable output. One of the biggest issues when it comes to achieving a faster flow through the innovation process lies in managing its high degree of variation. Proposing a solution to this problem, Lean Software Development (LSD), was developed to provide a framework for how IT companies should organize its software development process to achieve increased speed and quality. This study examines to which extent LSD, as a set of values, principles, methods and tools, can be used to improve flow efficiency in the innovation process. A case study of a multinational IT company was made by conducting ten semi-structured interviews with current employees.

Detta arbete utgör specifikation, implementation och utvärdering av ett läroverktyg sett till hur man säkerställer att en ensam utvecklare lyckas i varje enskild problemdomän. Detta nås genom en metodik för kravinsamling och specificering grundad i Co-Creation, designmönster och kodstrukturering som stöd i själva utvecklingen samt agil utvecklingsmetod sett ur perspektivet av en ensam utvecklare..

Lean has been studied intensely since the 1980s and it has been tested and successfully implemented in a wide variety of businesses. This thesis aims to examine the potential effects of a Lean implementation on meeting efficiency, a topic that has gotten little attention in the research community. First, a number of meeting problems are introduced, as they are perceived from the company that is the subject of the study. Second, the potential of introducing Lean in a meeting process is evaluated using the Lean Thinking principles. Third, the wastes that are generated from the meeting problems are identified.

The aim of this paper is to explain and compare non-compliance of two EU-directives, ?the quality of bathing water? and ?the working time directive?. This study answers the questions: Why didn?t Sweden implement the directive on bathing water quality and the working time directive correctly? Are the reasons for non-compliance the same or different in the two cases? The paper is designed as a case study and with an explanatory attempt we explain why the two directives weren?t implemented correctly in Sweden. The theoretical approach is based on both general- and EU-specific implementation theories.

Credits are considered as a natural financing form for all types of companies. The financial market in Sweden is dominated by four banks and the credit appraisals that are done by these banks are partly based on credit reports from external companies. This thesis? purpose is to increase the knowledge of which the consequences of payment remarks can imply for companies in relation to the banks. A qualitative study has been done to relay to the purpose, through the means of interviews with four companies, four banks, one rating institute and a collecting agency.

Light has always fascinated humans but ever since the invention of the first light bulb, the use of artificial lighting has accelerated dramatically. Darkness has never been as rare as today and the overuse of lighting has created a new phenomenon called light pollution. Most living beings are biologically dependent on the recurrent twenty-four-hour rhythm of light and darkness, called the circadian cycle. Human beings are evolutionary developed after this circadian rhythm and the effects of constant artificial light is yet unknown. Scientists fear the consequences of constant lighting and what it means physically, mentally and philosophically for the human species.

The development in electronics increases the demand for good design methods and design tools in the field of electrical engeneering. To improve their design methods Ericsson Microwave Systems AB is interested in using computer tools to create a link between the specification and the implementation of a digital system in a FPGA. Xilinx System Generator for DSP is a tool for implementing a model of a digital signalprocessing algorithm in a Xilinx FPGA. To evaluate Xilinx System Generator two testcases has been designed. The testcases are selected to represent the FPGA designs made at Ericsson Microwave Systems.

The eld of Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) concerns linking together an external device with the brain of a human or an animal. By doing this the conventional use of a mouse or keyboard can be circumvented, which can greatly benefit people with different types of diseases that cause paralysis or other loss of motor control, such as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A BCI can also be used for cognitive training of either healthy or mentally impaired subjects to increase cognitive capabilities.In this thesis an implementation of an interface is made against such a device, the Emotiv EPOC Headset. The result is meant to be a stable basis for further study using the device. An in-depth study of the history of EEG and its current use in clinical work and research in the topics of BCI as well as Human-computer interaction (HCI) is presented.

This thesis is a product of research about how implementation issues occur due to the relationbetween bureaucrats and politicians. Our study treats the democratic dilemma that occurs whenschools are to implement environmental certifications. Through a comparative study we comparetwo schools in Norra Hisingen, a district in Gothenburg municipal where one of the schools iscertificated and one is not. By using theories from top down and bottom up approaches toimplementation we develop key factors that will lead us to answer our research questions.Through text analysis of policy documents and through interviews with bureaucrats we analyzewhat may be the causes for only one of the two schools to be certificated though Gothenburgmunicipal wish all schools to be. Through our analytical tool we can establish that the policydocuments are well formed according to our top down-theory and that these documents does nothave a major impact on the fact that one school is certificated and one is not.

This thesis examines the approach for implementing strategy that has been applied by the study object, Svenska Spel. The specific approach originates from the theories of Elliot Jaques, whose key proposal is that individuals have different capability of carrying out tasks over different time-spans. The main purpose of the study is to analyze how the approach has influenced the management control systems in use, in order to ensure that the strategy is successfully implemented on corporate as well as operational level. Twenty in debt interviews conducted with employees, representing a vertical cross section throughout the organization, are the main source of the study?s empirical foundation.

Som ett kostnadsreducerande verktyg har förpackningslogistiken synnerligen blivit ett attraktivt område inom den svenska detaljhandeln. Hur organisationer inom branschen sedan anpassar sig till förpackningslogistik blir i sig fundamentalt för utfallet. Med grund till detta har tre välkända aktörer inom den svenska detaljhandeln djupgående studerats. Dels för att belysa de möjligheter och svårigheter ett förpackningslogistiskt styre medför, men också för att klargöra om hur ett företag bör förbereda sig organisatoriskt för att implementera ett förpackningslogistiskt förhållningssätt.Det teoretiska forskningsbidraget från studien inkluderar ett förpackningslogistiskt hjälpmedel/analysverktyg för företag att förhålla sig till inför en eventuell implementation av den. Utifrån analysverktyget exemplifierades fem fundamentala steg som ett företag inom detaljhandeln bör ta i hänsyn för en lyckad förpackningslogistisk implementering och fortsatt styrning av den..

In an effort to strengthen democracy in the union, the EU in 2005 took a new approach to communications policy to reach out to the citizens. The strategic document "Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate" was accompanied by two other documents, and the three of them were the core of this policy. Both democracy and communications work means at EU level a higher complexity than in the nation-state arena. Objective of this study is to examine how the implementation of Plan D has turned out in a democracy renewal perspective. To achieve that answers are sought to questions concerning the goals of Plan D, how they are still present today, what happened in practice regarding the efforts that are highlighted, and how the substance of the activities can be judged from a democratic theory perspective.