What kind of international actor is the European Union and how shall we define it? These are questions that many have tried to answer often by addressing the apparent uniqueness of the EU itself. One of these theories is Normative power Europe. A theory whose main argument is that the EU is best perceived as a changer of norms. My aim with this thesis is to test this claim and to see if the Union should be regarded as a normative power.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) proposes vibration standards for the evaluation for machine damage due to vibration in rotational machines, where some vibration parameters are given to measure the vibrationgrade. This work evaluates the relevance of the vibration standards in hydro plants that are proposed by the ISO, and also investigates if there are methods used in other countries could have greater importance. Through statistical analysis of collected data we got a better understanding of relation among different vibration parameters, and also the importance of correct choice of the parameters for the evaluation of vibration. We have found that the vibration standards available today in hydro plants are not reliable for the judgment of vibration?s grade.

Organic food is produced in a way that strives towards maintaining and improving natural resources. The welfare of both producers and consumers is central, also taking both animals and the environment into account. The Swedish government finds this important and in 2006 they made a resolution that the consumption of organic food should be stimulated. The goal was that 25 % of the municipalities? consumption of food should be organic in 2010.The municipality of Ludvika reached the government's target in 2011 and is currently increasing their proportion of organic food by one new product every year.  Ludvika is a member of The National Association of Swedish Eco-municipalities and the town of Ludvika is also a Fairtrade city.

In this essay I seek to examine how the Principle of Provenance can be discerned in the new activity-based wayof establishing an archival description. In which terms do authors of reports and works about archival descriptionspeak about provenance. Do they at all?In order to do so I have studied the history of the Principle of Provenance and what is to be its future ? theregulation from the Swedish National Archives, RA-FS 2008:4. I have also read the referrel that was sent out toSwedish authorities, universities and other archival institutions.

This study investigates the difficulties that may arise for students as a consequence of differences that exist in mathematics education between different educational systems. The questions asked are when and why difficulties as a consequence of differences in writing or types of student problems may arise and in which way teachers and students attend to these difficulties. The focus is thus on the written parts of mathematics education and the questions are asked within the frame of general upper secondary education.In order to answer these questions, a sociocultural perspective based mainly on Sfard?s (2006) participationist theories together with Vygotsky?s (1999) general theories on development and learning is used. An important analytic tool is the discourse concept which in this context means a type of communication that brings some people together while excluding others from the communication.

The gambling industry goes from a national matter towards an international market. Since more and more members of EU does liberalise the gambling reforms and introduces a license system more participants will get an EU license for online gambling. With an EU license it is difficult for members of the EU to refuse a company to offer a gambling supply on the Internet if they don?t have an open license system. This paper tries to acknowledge the problem regarding the monopoly Sweden has today and calculate the effect if Sweden would move to a license system regarding online gambling by doing a cost benefit analysis.

Towards the end of the 1960s, the credit financed purchase was well established in Sweden. The Swedish households were able to purchase goods, which had been considered unnecessary, or even luxurious, in the past. On the other hand, effective means to handle the increasing amount of debt and potential debtors were introduced; credit rating was registered, trade with insecure claims increased and if debtors could not fulfil their obligations, the creditors often used harsh or undue methods. By introducing Inkassolagen (1974:182), the legislator hoped to regulate the debt recovery process and ensure the fair treatment of debtors. The legislator also introduced liability for damages caused by a creditor in the collection process.

The connection between accounting and taxation goes back to the 1920s laws of the named areas. A proposal has now been brought forward, the so-called SamRoB-investigation, which means that the connection between accounting and taxations should be decoupled.The authors? aim with the study is to investigate what a possible decoupling between accounting and taxation, i.e. the formal connection and the untaxed revenues, implicates for the auditor´s work.A research has been done by interviewing two authorized auditors and one authorized consultant of accounting to get a view in how the auditor?s works could be affected.

During Spring semester 2011, Linda Engstrom and Malin Heder performed ?Golden Ratio?, a thesis which included 22.5 hp. The thesis followed the syllabus for the Degree Project for degree of Bachelor of Science in Innovation and Design Engineering (MSGC12) which was a unit in the Innovation and Design Engineering program within the Faculty of Technology and Science at Karlstad University.The client was Crem International AB, a company located in Åmotfors that develops the design, manufactures and markets coffee machines. The supervisor at the company has been Peter Larsson and supervisor at Karlstad University has been Monica Jakobsson. Examiner for the thesis has been Professor Fredrik Thuvander at the Faculty of Technology and Science at Karlstad University.Crem International AB controls a patent, representing a new technology to streamline and minimize use of energy during the coffee preparation and results in a good coffee quality.

The thesis investigates how two of the world?s most powerful international actors, the US and the EU want to promote democracy and human rights. The aim is to compare how the US and the EU work in order to support a democratic development in the world. In order to fulfill the purpose of the thesis a qualitative text analysis was used. Since the aim is to compare the US and the EU I believe this method is beneficial.

Most pupils learn good reading strategies during their first years at school. Pupils who don´t do that will have difficulties understanding written data. As the pupils meet text filled with lots of data they will have difficulties understanding the written text. International studies show that the rusults of Swedish pupils are dropping. This issue got me thinking: What help is given to those pupils with difficulties so that their reading comprehension will increase? Are the teachers actively teaching reading comprehensions and in that case how and when? By observing two teahers of intermediate level, I wanted to find out how theachers help pupils with reading comprehension.

This essay investigates the statements of Växjö municipality?s motives for some of its many environmental projects. The aim of the essay is to be theory-testing as to see how a municipality/city which promotes itself as being ?green? motivates its efforts in the environmental area. Växjö city promotes itself as ?The greenest city in Europe?, an award appointed to the city by BBC and other international media.

This two years master´s thesis examines how books and literature can strengthen the contact between imprisoned fathers and their children, and the connection between the treatment of offenders and education in Sweden. The methods used are interviews and textual analysis. The theoretical starting points are influenced by Bernt Gustavssons works concerning the concept of education (the Swedish term ?bildning?) and Foucaults thoughts on the subject of power and its relation to knowledge and resistance.Through history many attempts have been made to ?cure? those who commit criminal acts by educating them, at first to enable them to get employed after serving their sentence, the education thus being for the greater good of the society in general, but since the 1940?s the aim has shifted towards education for the individuals own personal development and readjustment to society.The findings indicate that the service provided to prisons by public libraries play an important role for the inmates, as a source of books for amusement and diversion as well as providing the means for education. This thesis examines four reading programmes in prison, in order to establish their place in the tradition of education within the Swedish penal system.

In a global context the traditional democratic process is facing new challenges. Scholars are talking about a transition from government to governance, where local and regional networks as well as international collaboration are an important part in how regional policy is produced and implemented. In this paper the processes in regional projects funded by the European Union are considered, and related to the traditional democratic process. The study has been fulfilled through informant interviews with representatives from four EU-projects. The interviews are supplemented by a qualitative text analysis of current statutes.

This study investigates communication and data in information systems. The paper deals, more specificly, with communication in a CRM-system implemented in a Swedish-founded company in Beijing, China. It discusses cultural, political, linguistic and gender based dilemmas that can arise from the use of a CRM-system in an international and bilingual environment. Fifty-nine interviews were conducted in Sweden and in China, either in Swedish or English. The result of this study shows that communication in the information system is affected by factors, that are not originated in technical shortcomings of the system, but rather from cultural, political, linguistic and gender based pre-knowledge among individuals.