AbstractPolitical Science, level III thesisSpring semester 2010Author: Emelie AlfredssonSupervisor: Tomas Mitander"A Changed Leadership? - A study of the EU leadership from a institutional standpoint, related to multilateral environmental negotiations"The EU has for a relatively long time considered itself a leader in the environmental policy area as a whole as well as in multilateral environmental negotiations. This study attempts to classify and identify the European leadership with the purpose of relating it to the institutional framework of the Union. The treaties of the European Union decide its ability to act and its institutions the right to engage in different policy areas, the environmental area being the focus of this study. With the recent ratification of the Lisbon treaty this study aims to make out if the type of leadership the Union showed during the Kyoto negotiations has changed with the new treaty, into a new type during the COP-15 meeting in Copenhagen.

The purpose of this study was to examine how small-scale private forest ownersmake decisions regarding pre-commercial thinning. In 2015 it is ten years agosince the storm Gudrun hit the southern parts of Sweden and now large areas arein need of pre-commercial thinning. This study is built upon qualitativeinterviews with seven small-scale private forest owners with forest properties inthe county Kronoberg. The respondents were chosen by the modelSKOGSÄGARPROFILENTM (forest owner profile).The results of the interviews showed that five categories: ownership, the stormGudrun´s impact, silviculture, forestry contacts and driving force was important.How will their purpose and aim affect the pre-commercial thinning? Personalinterests, and expectations of the next generation to take over, are purposes thisstudy has found.

Utvecklingen på kapitalmarknaden de senaste åren har gjort att fondbolag blir allt större ägare på den svenska börsen. Att de blivit stora aktörer medför ett ansvar att agera som ägare. Undersökningen ämnar beskriva hur och varför bankägda fondbolag utövar sin ägarstyrning idag samt, beskriva ett möjligt framtidsscenario vad gäller ägarstyrningens utveckling. Resultaten i studien bygger på personliga intervjuer med tre bankägda fondbolag samt olika intresseorganisationer. Undersökningen har kommit fram till att fondbolagen engagerat sig i ägarstyrning av tre anledningar: storlek, avkastning och samhällsutveckling.

Swedish family companies are facing a tremendous change in the form of generation changes because of the large part of owners that are about to retire. If all 45 000 to 50 000 family companies ceases to exist, Sweden looses a significant part of business trade.There are numbers of different methods for an older generation of owners to transfer their companies to a younger generation such as inheritance, gift, will, internal stock transfer, division?s etc., where inheritance is the most complex area. That an owner of a company dies without any plan for the future of the company is not preferable because the rules of legal successions occur. The law system regarding inheritance is usually not a good method since the surviving wife, who has the primary right to the inheritance, may not be interested in the company.

This thesis examines the ways in which adaptation and vulnerability are framed in national and sectorial policy-documents dealing with expected societal impacts of climate change. By using theories of discourse and ideology, the analysis aims to find and understand important ideas and presuppositions that are explicitly or implicitly expressed in these documents in order to make possible and tangible the institutional production of policy within the potentially far-reaching problematique of climate change adaptation and vulnerability. The analysis shows that there are two main perspectives through which vulnerability and adaptation are framed; one focusing limits to societal robustness; and one contesting the institutional capacity to implement adaptations. The author understands these framings as complementarily optimizing preconceived social and economic relations, something that might, in fact, reduce the response capacity of people..

Älvdalens Savings Forest was formed in the late 1800's. During this time the country was conducting the first major land reform in Sweden, namely the redistribution of arable land through government action. In Älvdalen people saw an opportunity to form Savings Forest, that is jointly owned forests, where everyone would get part of the proceeds. The yield in the first place would cover were costs to manage and monitor the forest and to the measures to ensure regrowth and improve the forests. You could also use the proceeds to develop the area and make it easier for the population to manage their forest. In early summer, a survey was sent to all the members of Älvdalens Savings Forest.

This thesis aimed to describe how the ideological dividing line concerning the welfare state has changed between the two largest governmental parties in Sweden, the Social Democrats and the Moderaterna, during 1990 to 2010. The scientist Mark Blyth points out that ideas are important instruments for structural and institutional change by identifying ideas as weapons, blueprints and cognitive locks, which were being used in the theoretical framework. The empirical data was made by a qualitative analysis of the parliamentary speeches and debates from both parties held every year. The results shows that the budgetary law passed in 1997 became a new institutional blueprint, which changed the political conditions for the Social Democrats. Furthermore, the results point to a change in the Moderaterna?s rhetoric concerning the welfare state to a more pragmatic view. .

AbstractTitle: Environmental demand solutions - a study within real-estate business.Problem statement:Today, the society stands before a permanent accelerated environmental threat. Companiesbecome increasingly over the environmental problems and more companies look over theiractivity and how it influences the environment. Historical the environmental issue has been forgotten and it is first during the end of 1990 the environmental issue intensive has been noticed. Earlier the environmental work?s high costs was the cause, but now the companies realized the weight and the importance of imposing focus on environment commitments and sees it, as an investment.

In the present study, the institutional discourse in health care was examined, focusing onspeech therapists and occupational therapists in interaction with a common patient withaphasia. The purpose of the present study was to identify common communication strategiesused in the professional conversation between a speech therapist and a patient and between anoccupational therapist and the same patient. Specific research questions were: Whatcommunicative strategies are used in interaction between a speech therapist and a patient withaphasia and between the occupational therapist and the same patient? Are theredifferences/similarities between how speech therapists and occupational therapists interactwith patients with aphasia?Six people in total, two patients in interaction with a speech therapist and an occupationaltherapist respectively, were recorded during treatment sessions of each profession. Generaland specific aspects of the institutional interaction were then analysed according to principlesof conversation analysis.Similarities in the use of closed questions as a strategy to increase the effectiveness ininteraction could be seen between the two different professions studied.

This paper aims to give an insight into how venture capital work with their investments in the school sector. The purpose of the paper is to examine their work, regarding to goals of the company and the process of controlling the goals.  The study also aims to determine the way the companies work with value growth.This study uses a qualitative research method, where the theories license to operate, the relationship value management framework, agency-principal and new public management theory is tested in relation to the collected data. Eleven persons were interviewed in this paper. This paper also aims to give an overview to venture capital in the school sector, where it will examine whether financial goals could collide with social goals.What the study can tell is that venture capital does not have a license to operate in this sector, according to the theory.

The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of the phenomenon that there are so many young people placed in institutions in Sweden despite the valuable knowledge regarding the problems and risks of doing so. The questions that follow in the essay were what guided the social workers to choose institutional placement for youngsters. It went on to also ask if this knowledge could contribute to an increased understanding of why there were so many young people placed in institutions despite the criticism from scientists. To accomplish the goal of the essay, former science in the subject was reported and six social workers within social services were interviewed. The material of the interviews was analyzed with help from the theory of human service organizations, street-level bureaucrats work situation and the new institutionalism.The result of the investigation showed that the social workers choices to place young people in institutions is guided by specific work and organizational factors connected with a belief in the helping function of the surroundings.

This is a descriptive paper based on a questionnaire- and literature study regarding how dogs are trained, what type and frequency of injuries that occur as well as how the dogs are best prepared for work. Using the results from the questionnaire, an overview is given on how members of Working dog clubs train their dogs and what kind of injuries that occur most frequently. The average age among the dogs included in the study was only about three years. This could indicate that older dogs are not trained in the same extent as young dogs. The results show that only a third of the dog owners warmed up their dogs before training.

Environmental impact and management of energy is a highly topical issue in today's society. Climate impact must be reduced. The Government has set a target to reduce energy consumption in buildings by 20 % by 2020 and 50 % by 2050 compared to the energy use in 1995.With this in mind, we chose to examine how property owners can work on improving energy efficiency in existing apartment buildings. We also wanted to investigate profitability of different increasing energy efficiency measures and the calculation methods and the risk assessment performed by such investments. To tie in with government objectives, we also saw the possibilities of achieving these goals.20 companies were interviewed, of which 14 were property owners and 6 were consulting firms that works with energy efficiency.

This study focusses on how people in Sweden commemorate their dogs and handle their demise. By examining memorial texts for dogs that are presented by their owners on internet forums, memorial texts that are used on gravestones on an animal cemetery as well as an interview with an animal nurse, the study examines how dogs are humanized and treated in human-like ways. With theories about new animism, social acceptance (nomos) and ontology as the theoretical framework, the study provides an analysis of strategies by which people tend to humanize dogs in ways that are often similar to the handling and mourning of human deceased.                                               The empirical data illustrate how dog owners in Swedish society who have lost their beloved pet express themselves in terms of religious terminology. According to memorial texts, the dogs go to heaven, where they may be reunited with their owners, become free from their diseases, and in some cases they are buried in separate graves in animal cemeteries. The study also illustrates how dogs in Sweden today have almost equal opportunities and access to medical care as human beings.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the connection between store layout and how it affects us as shoppers. We formed our research questions based on literature. The study was based on observations of shoppers without their knowing they were observed. We didn?t tell shoppers since the science of shopping says that shoppers pattern of movement is something that?s subconscious and if the shoppers had known it would have affected the result of the study.