The purpose of the thesis is to map the meaning of ?international competence? in Swedish company boards of directors. The study is divided in a qualitative part and a quantitative part. The qualitative study consists of a discourse analysis where variation in interpretative repertoires are identified to enhance the understanding of the nature of reasoning related to the meaning and importance of the issue at stake. The discourse analysis is conducted on an empirical material from 27 interviews with decision makers in recruitment processes to Swedish company boards of directors.

The aims of the practical work carried out for this thesis were to redesign a clinical decision support system for thoracic surgeons, called AssistMe, and to evaluate the concept behind this system. The main objective of the thesis is to give an account of the considerations that were found to be of key importance for designing a clinical decision support system for thoracic surgery. Another aim was to let future users test the system after it had been redesigned and evaluate the concept behind it. The thesis also investigates users? experience of the system and their views on whether it would be applicable in their daily work practice.

Information is essential in order for pharmaceutical companies to be successful. This essay focuses on the information provision of pre-clinical scientists at AstraZeneca R&D Lund, and the role of the company library in this process. In semi-structured interviews, four pre-clinical scientists were asked to describe their information provision regarding what type of information they need, how they find it and what sources of information they use. Four librarians from the company library were also interviewed to give their perspective on the information provision of pre-clinical scientist. The study also aimed at comparing the image of the process as described by the scientists themselves and the librarians.

In the late 1900s the Islamic feminist movement arose in a time of an Islamic renaissance in the Arab world. Even though it started as an Arabic movement it quickly spread to the international arena and became global. Today there are Islamic feminists all over the globe and this study is a discourse analysis with a focus on the Islamic feminist movement of today. The aim of the study is to investigate what the members of the movement have in common and on what viewpoints their opinions differ. The material used for the study is Internet blogs written by Islamic feminists and the timeframe of the blog posts stretches from the start of the Arab Spring until today.

The forest is characterized by many different values such as those related to forest productivity which are of a big importance for Swedish economy. History has proved that forest resources had helped the country in the transition from the agricultural to the industrial society. Today Swedish forest industry is among the strongest in Europe and significantly contributing to the Swedish export. The industry provides many direct and indirect job opportunities and is one of the biggest employers in the industry sector. It is also worth to notice that the forest can also generate an additional income for the owners, even if the forestry isn?t their primary income source.

Medier i Finland har skrivit mycket om vart pengarna går när det skänks till en välgörenhetsorganisation. Uppsatsen ämnar besvara frågor om hur välgörenhetsorganisationer arbetar för att öppna upp sin verksamhet för insyn för att på så vis synliggöra sitt ansvarstagande samt om det finns problem med att skapa transparens. Uppsatsens syfte är således att beskriva hur en välgörenhetsorganisation kan skapa legitimitet för sitt arbete genom transparens. Tre viktiga begrepp beskrivs: transparens, ansvarighet och legitimitet. Även olika kanaler beskrivs genom vilka välgörenhetsorganisationer kan öka öppenheten.

When Sweden acceded to the European Union in 1995 the term social economy was introduced to the Swedish context, gradually replacing the term civil society. This replacement can be seen as an indicator of a changing meaning of what the concept of civil society used to stand for.The aim of this essay is to study if it is possible to identify changing perceptions of the role of civil society for democracy in Sweden in government bills between 2002 and 2008, and, if so, what effect does this have on the delineation between the civil society and the government.An analytical model is proposed consisting of two dimensions which both capture the roles of civil society for democracy and the model examines how those roles relate to the government.The conclusion is that the government still sees the main function of civil society as a democratic school and a change agent for democracy. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the civil society is increasingly regarded as more of a welfare producer than a fosterer of democracy..

Establishing a reference interval for plasma fibrinogen in foals Fibrinogen concentrations were analysed in EDTA preserved blood plasma samples from 34 thoroughbred foals born in 2001 and 2002 at one stud farm. The foals were between 0 and 240 days old at the time of the sampling, and there were 19 fillies and 12 stallions in the group. The foals were examined for clinical symptoms of disease and their body temperature was measured before blood was sampled from the jugular vein. From totally 156 blood samples, 31 were selected as originating from clinically healthy foals, and used to determine a reference range for thoroughbred foals. Samples originating from foals showing clinical symptoms of disease or an abnormal body temperature at the time of sampling, were classified as coming from unhealthy animals.

In the government's bill on infrastructure for 2010-2021, the government presents that road investments should be prioritized before investments in the railway. The grants for operation and maintenance of the railways are much higher then in the last government's bill. Furthermore the current founding of investment in railways is higher then for road investment which is in opposite of the bill on infrastructure's directives. Therefore the purpose with my thesis is to find which factors that can explain how come the government has chosen to take these actions. As a model to help me achieve my purpose I have been using a modified version of the DBO-theory, where the basic factors to explain an action is Desire, Belief and Opportunities.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) har under modern tid växt fram att bli ettstandardförfarande bland företag och en strategi för att eftersträva legitimitet. Grundati ökade krav och förväntningar från omgivande aktörer, åtar sig organisationer ettsamhällsansvar utifrån ett miljömässigt, socialt och ekonomiskt perspektiv. Parallelltmed det stegrade ansvarstagandet inom organisationer öppnar det upp för fråganhuruvida detta fenomen är direkt applicerbart på alla branscher, så som kontroversiellaindustrier. Av den anledningen utreds i denna studie huruvida konsumenter anser attPhilip Morris International, ett företag verksamt inom tobaksindustrin, uppnårlegitimitet genom deras CSR- engagemang. Genom fokusgrupper och djupintervjuerhar konsumenters uppfattning om Philip Morris International CSR- engagemangkunnat fastställas och slutsatser har kunnat erhållas.

Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) is about women, peace and security. Since the resolution was adopted several countries has made their own National Action Plan for implementation of the resolution.Sweden and Denmark are two of these countries. Resolution 1325 is one of the documents that each countries armed force has to relate to in international work.These countries can get to work together in international operations within the framework of the Nordic Defense Cooperation, NORDEFCO. This study is done by looking at similarities and differences in the action plans and whether they can be an obstacle for the countries to cooperate in an international operation.In this paper a comparative analysis of Sweden and Denmark's plans for the Security Council resolution 1325 will be done. The comparison is made based on the clauses of the resolution relating to the member states actions.In this paper, a qualitative text analysis to be carried out with sections of Resolution 1325 as a model for the comparison..

The aim of the study was to analyse relations between the school and the surrounding world and how these relations affects the schools? work for sustainable development. This was mainly an interview study but teachers? self-valuations have also been used. Totally six teachers at two primary schools has been interwied.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore and analyze the processes and efforts involved in rebuilding the war-torn state of Afghanistan. The examined period span from the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, to the elections in 2005. This period, commonly known as the Bonn-process, sets out the initial time for the reconstruction of the state.A theoretical framework, which considers the necessary mechanisms for successful state-building, will be used to analyze Afghanistan's re-building process. The mechanisms include the prerequisite of a stable security environment, emerging from a cease-fire, together with the development of a well-functioning economy, re-introduction of rule of law and rejuvenating civil society.The failure to establish a secure environment has had a devastating impact on all analyzed aspects of the re-building process. It is therefore crucial that the international society continuing to assists the Afghan government in its efforts to strengthen its capacity, in order to improve the security situation.

Based on an analytical overview of post-Communist civil society development in Russia, the present thesis attempts a critical discussion of general civil society theory from the perspective of its relevance for the case study in question. The text consists of three closely interconnected, mutually reinforcing parts. In the first part, major issues of current civil society research are being thematically presented and discussed. The second part concerns itself with the case study as such. It is divided into two parts, one dealing with the relations between state and civil society in Russia, the other with civil society and the individual.

The aim of this thesis is to clarify the affect that preferential and regional trade agreements have on the World Trade Organization (WTO), as being establisher of the international trading regime. The essay is an explanatory literature study, which strives to answer the following questions:Are regional and preferential trade agreements a threat or a complement to the WTO?Is an undermining of the MFN principle weakening the WTO?How do regional trade agreements made by the EU affect the future of the WTO?The empirical material is to be analyzed using an explanatory framework, which is based on neo-liberal instutionalism, theories on regime changes and a game theoretical approach, using prisoner?s dilemma. I will employ the EU-ACP relation, the Cotonou agreement to exemplify how an agreement of this kind can have an influence on multilateral trade. The result shows that preferential agreements do have an impact on the WTO, one that is fairly negative in scope.