The present study sought to examine the collaborative role of the student organization Here 4 U and the impact of this collaboration on the organization and its partners. As a point of departure a questionnaire was distributed to supervisors, principals and other cooperation partners of Here 4 U, the most prominent quantitative results of which were related to previous research, new institutional theory and empowerment theory. It turned out that partners interacting with Here 4 U felt that the collaboration was necessary and wanted to continue with it. The respondents to the questionnaire were asked to define the concept of collaboration. Factors emphasized by respondents included feeling of community, security, and common goals.

In this study, we have considered the impact the organization`s implementation of its vision of the psychosocial work enviroment has been for the relations between the employees. We have primarily relied on a hermeneutic approach to understand our empirical data, and when we have interpreted and made a socialpsycological analysis on our collected empirical data. We have used Smith´s Institutional Ethnography, Sheff`s Social bonds and Asplund`s theory of Social responsivity. To collect the empirical data we have combined quantitative and qualtitative methods and a textanalysis at a visiondocument in the aim of capture both the depht and the breadth of our chosen fields of study. The results we have found shows that the psycosocial work environment within the organization can be seen as interplay between individual and enviroment and between individuals as well and that this interaction is influenced by the organizational culture that is created by the organization`s political vision.

In nature settings people often experience positive emotions. Litterature and theories about the positive effect of nature on humans are largely based upon visual impressions and aesthetic preference. The purpose of the present study is to examine how visually impaired individuals that lack visual impressions experience nature. The background is about what it means to be visually impaired and what it is like to be visually impaired in a nature setting, followed by a presentation of the five human senses and about stimulation of senses in healing gardens. That is followed by theories about the health promoting effect of nature, about why nature and therapeutic gardens make people feel good. After that theories about experiences and relations with settings are presented.

This study aims at examining the prospects for a policy transfer of a Swedish municipal environmental policy (that of Växjö) to the French urban commune Blois, for which an ambition of becoming a leading eco-city in France, was declared by the mayor in 2008.In the analysis, emphasis is laid on mechanisms to institutionalize the main environmental policy principles, such as political and institutional structures and processes. Other prospects for an institutionalization of a new environmental policy that are to be investigated are economic structures as well as visions of the different decision-makers concerned. Research methods used in the study are qualitative interviews, document studies and a questionnaire.The findings of the analysis show that today?s prospects for an environmental policy in Blois close to that of Växjö, are clearly limited. The limitations can partly be found in economic structures but these seem to be rather related to a lack of priority amongst actors.

Previous research on philosophy for children in schools has almost exclusively focused on how it is perceived by students. The aim of this study is to focus on how it is perceived by five teachers and other adults involved in implementing philosophy for children in schools, in total four teachers participated and one adult who worked with implementing took part in the study. The theoretical background is composed of Olga Dysthes view that knowledge is not only constructed but that the object that one intends to gain knowledge of has to be interacted with and how she applies this view dialogues in the classroom. The study was conducted by interviewing the participants. The results found that the teachers saw philosophy for children as something more than a tool to work with questions that were important to students, they were also viewed as a way to work with language and building solidarity within the class.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen ?r att bidra med kunskap om hur svenska kommuner styr och organiserar den offentliga m?ltiden med s?rskilt fokus p? skolm?ltidsverksamheter f?r att uppfylla Livsmedelsverkets nationella riktlinjer f?r m?ltider i skolan. Teori: Institutionell teori och f?ljande begrepp anv?nds normer och regler, isomorfism, legitimitet, institutionellt tryckt samt institutionella logiker (multiple institutional logics). Metod: Studien bygger p? en kvalitativ dokumentstudie d?r m?ltidsdokument fr?n 37 kommuner samt tre kartl?ggningar fr?n Livsmedelsverket analyserades.

Our understanding is that responsibility is shifting from the community towards the individual within the field of social work. This resulted in our essay, which aims to study how the representatives within social service assistance and churches in Helsingborg work with personal power. Our aim is also to illustrate how these representatives view the boundaries of responsibility between the individual and the community. Our questions are: How do the representatives work with personal power from a micro and macro perspective? How do the representatives look upon their position as representatives? What do the representatives consider as responsibility of the individual respective the community? And; Are there preventing factors from individual responsibility? We obtained our empirical material from a qualitative method consisting of interviews.

The purpose of this essay is to examine if there is any difference in the style of conversation between a municipal politician and a politician in parliament? In order to answer this question I have created two sub-questions that are more precise. The first question is: Are the municipal politicians more open to cooperate with politicians from other parties than the politicians from parliament? And the second question is: Is the rhetoric between the politicians in parliament different than the rhetoric between the municipal politicians?My study is a comparative case study with two different groups of politicians. With the help of a survey I have tried to examine if there are differences in the use of language in the daily work for the politicians.

This study conducts a qualitative examination based on five interviews with children?s librarians. The aim is to bring up and analyse the attitudes of the librarians towards reading promotion activities for children outside of school and investigate their experiences of participation in a summer reading challenge project.The first theory used to analyse is Jofrid Karner Smidt?s thesis of five different roles that a librarian can have on literary preferences. The second is her theory of how librarians view their promotion of literature.My interviews shows that the librarians in the study have a common opinion and enthusiasm regarding children's pleasure reading.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine if the realistic youth novels of today can provide support and inspiration for its readers with the purpose of dealing with own difficulties. I have examined four Swedish novels from 2006 and studied in what way and from whom the young fictive women get advice and support. In the background section of the essay I have made studies of how it is to be a young woman in modern society. It also covers a historical perspective of the modern youth novel and presents studies based upon reading and reader-response theory of young people.

A tough working climate and the lack of extrinsic motivation at workplaces within health care raise the question of what instead drives employees within this industry. A possible answer to this is Public Service Motivation (PSM) - a type of motivation that is based on the desire to do good for society and its individuals. In order to investigate this further we have performed a qualitative study consisting of ten interviews with people working with institutional care, where the purpose has been to identify the sources of motivation and determine the impact of PSM. The results show that the compassion dimension of PSM appears to be one of the most salient motivational factors. While the rest of the PSM dimensions fail to explain the level of motivation to the same extent as compassion, other factors are recognized, such as relatedness and aspects of the nature of the work itself.

After recognizing a lack of children?s voices in the debate about the children?s book Kivi och monsterhund and the gender-neutral pronoun hen that occurred in the beginning of the year of 2012, I decided to interview pre-school children about the same book. My purpose with the study was, using semi-structured group interviews, to examine how 6-year olds talked about the main character Kivi. With the help of Judith Butler?s theory of performativity, I have studied how the children constructed Kivi?s gender in their speech.

Purpose: The purpose with this empirical study is to investigate how many companies have chosen to apply the K2 framework and see why the remaining companies have chosen not to.Methodology: A choice of a quantitative approach has been applied to collect information and create a foundation for the problem. Furthermore a qualitative approach has been selected to cover the remains.Theoretical perspective: This section contains a presentation of the agency theory, the institutional theory, the k-project and a comparison of K2 and the existing regulation.Results: Three out of 143 companies applies BFNAR 2008:1. 13 out of 143 companies use self-generated intangible fixed assets. Out of 29 contacted companies only three know about K2. The 29 companies are from various lines of business within an area.Conclusion: The conclusion of our research is that the majority of the companies did not reject to use the K2 regulations.

Within the political science research it is common to examine the effects on the national parliaments caused by European integration. In this Bachelor Thesis the aim is instead to show what involvement of the national parliaments in the European Union implicates to the European integration process.The object of examination is the introduction of the parliaments as supervisors of draft legislative acts, this is also known as ?the Early Warning Mechanism?, through the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. An analysis of answers from the national parliaments in the tests of three pilot cases, conducted by the COSAC, is made with help of Institutional theory and an Europeanization perspective.The main findings show that the mechanism of early warning probably will not become an obstacle for continued European integration, but it could slow down the process in some areas. Most probably though is that the mechanism forces the national parliaments to adapt and to be better equipped to react at events taking place at the European level.

Globalization is one of the most popular catchphrases in the international relations debate today. Globalization is a complex concept with as many definitions as authors. National borders or jurisdictions do not control the phenomenon, instead, it is moving without restraints from region to region. Is this a threat to the sovereignty of nation-state and an end of the system of Westphalia? Does the globalization undermine the nation-state by increased factor-mobility, less tax revenue and participations multilateral co-operations, as the globalists think? Or is it strengthens its importance by offering better allocation of resources through free and healthy competition, as the skeptics believe.The aim of this thesis is to analyze theories of globalization by applying them on Sweden and the Netherlands.