The overarching goal of this paper is to explain the intensive occurrence of partnerships ? regarded as a specific organizational structure ? in the formulation and implementation of Regional Growth Programs.By using theoretical concepts from new institutionalism, the paper tries to examine the explanatory capacity of this theory in the specific case of partnerships. The basis is a skeptical stance towards the conventional interpretation that views partnerships as rational organizational tools. Hence, the purpose of the paper is also to compare our own institutional explanation with the conventional.The paper finds that the occurrence of partnerships can be understood as the effect of an intensive institutional pressure. The government has, in what we regard as the institution for regional development, prescribed the partnership as a rational solution ? a rationalized myth - to the regional growth problem.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the institutional design of Participatory Budgeting (PB) in Sweden and how the design may contribute to realize central democratic goods. The study records the different PB experiences in Sweden and focuses on one particular case, which is the only case that successfully qualifies as a genuine PB-process according to international standards and definitions. To examine this, the following questions are asked: which municipalities in Sweden have implemented Participatory Budgeting? How can the institutional design of Participatory Budgeting be described and to what extent does it enable the realization of central democratic goods? To what extent does the institutional design enable the realization of the democratic goods inclusion, popular control, considered judgment and transparency? To what extent does the institutional design enable the realization of the institutional goods of efficiency and transferability?The study is based on an institutional theory of democracy. The method used is a mixed method ideal type analysis that combines document analysis, surveys and interviews.

Background: The global capital markets have enlarged investment opportunities and thus also the sources of funds for companies which increasingly face global markets for their services and products. Huge capital movements show that investors are constantly searching ways to minimise risk and maximise returns. In the light of the substantial growth of assets in institutional funds, an important question for international finance is the degree to which institutional investors have diversified their portfolios internationally. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the international diversification of portfolio investments of institutional investors in Japan, the US and the UK and deepen into international diversification in portfolios of Japanese institutional investors. Demarcations: Institutional investors can use their power directly in companies or indirectly through capital markets.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to study how libraries handle metadata in institutional repositories. The methodology of the study is semi-structured interviews with librarians from all Swedish libraries that currently use the institutional repository system DSpace. Metadata schemes from the different libraries have also been studied. As analytical tools the study uses the user tasks presented in Functional Requirement for Bibliographic Records, as well as a study of metadata quality made by Jung-Ran Park. The study shows a rather big difference between the ways the libraries use institutional repositories.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the established law and make researches into non-institutional compulsory care (?mellantvång?) paragraph 22 The Care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act (from now on called LVU) and examine whether the administration of the law is in harmony with the best interests of the child.This paper combines two methods : traditional judicial method and a social science method. In the juridical part the sources of law have been studied and in the social sciences part semi-structured interviews have been conducted with five respondents. The theoretical framework consists of ideas and theories about the best interests of the child, a concept which is one of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child's core principles.This study shows that the legislator has identified a problem and an existing need and found a solution to this by introducing a non-institutional compulsory care, paragraph 22 LVU. The problem is that Social Services do not make use of the restraint.

This thesis is based on the implementation of a bilateral rural development program in Burkina Faso. The main purpose of this study was to put the actual implementation process of a bilateral development program in view. This was done by investigating how two dominant perspectives in the implementation literature can explain what in fact happens during the realization of an aid program. A further aim of the thesis was to explore the limitations of these two dominant theories, in order to get a full understanding of the complexity of the realization of an aid program. Based on the implementation theory, this study shows that the realization of an aid program can be understood from three different angles.

Since the beginning of the 21st century the Open Access-movement, which advocates free online distribution of scholarly information, has gained momentum. Authors can provide Open Access to their work in two main ways: by depositing a copy of their research output in an e-print archive and by publishing in Open Access journals. During the past few years, universities and other research institutions throughout the world have established institutional repositories to manage, preserve and provide access to the intellectual output of the university/research institution. The purpose of this master?s thesis is to describe the implementation of an institutional repository at the Swedish University College of Borås.

The aim of this master thesis?s is to examine what functions writing activities can have in the public library. Some public libraries offer their visitors writing activities, for example courses and camps. The public library is an institution with a particular identity, with special norms and properties which participants within the institution construct and reproduce. The main question of this thesis is to investigate how writing activities can be a part of the public library?s institutional identity and what functions writing activities in the public library can have.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how young members of Free Churches relate to issues connected with lifestyle and identity, based on the changed conditions for the self in late modernity. More specifically, I want to examine how they deal with the increased degree of detraditionalisation and institutional individualization in late modernity.My research-question is:How do young members of Free Churches relate to issues connected with lifestyle and identity, with the increased degree of personal freedom and institutional individualization in late modernity as a starting point?The empiric part of the essay is carried out by qualitative in-depth interviews with five young members of Free Churches. These semi-structured interviews are focused on a number of different areas of the changed conditions for the self in late modernity.My theoretical perspective has been constructed from the theories of Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim. From these theories a focus on certain relevant areas of the condition of the self in late modernity, has developed.

Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) and Active Ownership have become increasingly important concepts when it comes to the corporate governance of investors today. Institutional owners highlight the importance of engaging in dialogue, in their pursuit to influence the companies to become sustainable. However, stakeholders and academia are requesting more insight into the workings of these dialogues, concerning their purpose, design and function. This study attempts to increase the existing knowledge of dialogue as a tool for active engagement, used by institutional investors in Sweden. The performed study is based on interviews with five public and private Swedish institutional investors, an SRI consultant firm as well as representatives from two NGOs.

This study is a semi-­structured, qualitative depth-­interview study investigating Swedish institutional investors' perception of the fact that companies purchase non-­audit services from its signing auditor and if they see this as a threat to auditor independence. The study focuses on independence in appearance rather than independence in fact. The study is based on the current media debate on auditor independence and aims to provide a deeper insight to enlighten legislators how users of audited financial information look at the problem. The study builds on agency theory's notion that there is an information asymmetry between management and shareholders, which the auditor is to reduce. The results show that Swedish institutional investors perceive that there is a threat to auditor independence when companies buy non­-audit services from its signing auditor.

Learning Resource Centre, or LRC, is an international phenomenon and a response to the changing society that came with the development of information technology. The LRC concept spread internationally during the 1990s and began to influence Swedish collage libraries at the end of the decade. The main purpose of this study is to analyze if and how Swedish college libraries have incorporated the LRC concept. Is there a Swedish LRC model? Is the LRC concept still interesting or was it a trend that is now out of date? Interviews with eleven people from six college libraries aim to show how they define the concept LRC and how it has been integrated in to their organisations.

Changes in the society engender changes in the practice of the auditor profession. Stricter laws, more detailed recommendations, and demands from the auditor?s clients have increased. The auditor constitutes a profession and therefore it is important that there is a trust since the auditor is the one that certifies the quality of the company?s economical information.

The following essay examines the conditions of whether a child perspective is recognised in the second authority of the new Swedish asylum process, the Migration Court of Law and inquire into the viewpoint of these decision makers as to what a child perspective in this context represents.The method used was a qualitative study that contained interviews with eight respondents, divided into four judges and four jurors. The material gained from the respondents was then analysed by using theories regarding a child perspective and theories that deal with interpretation of a text, ethics and court sociology.A few conditions of whether a child perspective is recognised has been revealed and we also found that the child perspective in theory is a wide perspective, that includes many aspects of how a child is recognised. In practice, however, the child perspective can be divided into two separate perspectives where one of them involves an adults view of a child?s perspective, and the other involves the perspective of a child, the child?s own view of its existence and perceived reality..

Changes in the society engender changes in the practice of the auditor profession. Stricter laws, more detailed recommendations, and demands from the auditor?s clients have increased. The auditor constitutes a profession and therefore it is important that there is a trust since the auditor is the one that certifies the quality of the company?s economical information.