High housing- and construction costs is a fact in Sweden today. Prices on building materials more rapidly than producer price index for industrial goods. Prices tend to rise during market boom but does not adapt during diminishing demand. The effects of fading demand can rather be deduced through discounts and quotations. During 1992-1998 when the Swedish construction sector found it self in severe crisis the prices of construction materials kept rising more rapidly than PPI for industrial merchandise.

The aim of the study was to examine which approach future social workers have regarding specific competence in the meeting with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer clients. Previous research shows that LGBTQ people have a low confidence towards social services, police and courts and say they face discrimination and degrading treatment to a greater extent than the heterosexual population. Research shows that education and better skills of LGBTQ culture among professionals can change the situation.The essay is based on a model of cultural competence in working with sexual minorities and people with a transgender expression. The model defines the meaning of an LGBTQ perspective and is designed to improve social work with LGBTQ clients.The study is quantitative and empirical data consists of 203 survey responses from students with a long experience of the social work education. The analysis of the results is based on the cultural competence three principles; attitudes, knowledge and skills.

The EU guarantees the free movement of persons. The citizens of the EU Member States have the right to move freely without barriers within the EU borders and this result in an integration of the peoples in Europe. The integration result in several international family relationships. It is not unusual in the present situation that families have international relations. For example, spouses in a married couple may have different nationality.

The purpose of this study was to examine effects of hearing aid use and to do a judgment of the provement. The investigation was a pilot study and may be used in the clinic.The international form ?International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids? (IOI-HA) was used for data collection. Four questions were chosen from the form. These questions were answered by hearing aid users and their significant others.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how academic librarians experience reference work aimed at international students. International students are a growing usergroup in Swedish academic libraries. The study?s main research question is:- How do academic librarians experience reference work aimed at international students?The study was performed with a phenomenographic methodological approach where seven qualitative interviews with academic librarians were conducted.

During the time of membership in The European Union Swedish domestic policy has gone through many changes. A lot more political areas are being influenced by the EU policy. Today every ministry has got some sort of EU office. Swedish politicians are functioning on two arenas, domestic and European. At the same time Swedish membership has gone from being highly discussed to being a state of normality.

International trade in services has increased over the past 30 years as a result of progress in information and communication technology, increased focus on services from the manufacturing sector and the establishment of trade associations.The international market for healthcare services, also referred to as medical tourism, is growing more and more. Patients increasingly seeking treatment at other countries healthcare systems because of long queues within their own country or because it exists better prices for the same care abroad. However, this type of service exports occurs at a limited extent in Sweden.The purpose of this study is to highlight and analyze the conditions for Swedish service companies to export healthcare services. This, includes the challenges and opportunities that exist to expand the exports of these services.The approach for this study has been in the form of interviews with two market actors and written responses, from the same interview guide, with three market actors. These market participants are the so-called Care companies which export healthcare services in various counties, and the membership organization Swecare who work with export promotion activities for its members in the Swedish healthcare sector.

Background: The relation between work motivation and well-being are relatively well theoretically entrenched, but few studies have been conducted on nurses within psychiatry. Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the differences in intrinsic work motivation (autonomy, competence, relatedness), mental health and burnout between young (?40 years) and older (>40 years) nurses employed in psychiatry. Method: The study was an observational study with a cross-sectional design and group comparisons, conducted as a survey. The sample constituted of 60 employed nurses.

We started out the study with a preconception of culture as something that creates difference between groups of people, which had been verified by our prior research. We also had a sense of culture as a polysemous term. Our assumption is also that there is an opinion within social work practice that Swedish social workers are faced with a cultural barrier when encountering immigrant clients.In this study our aim is to examine constructions of the terms cultural competence and culture. Constructions of the terms ethnicity and ethnic diversity are also observed, although the main reason for this is to show what relation these terms have to the terms cultural competence and culture, and how they may give each other meaning, according to the theory of social construction. In addition to constructions, we also aim to bring out discourses around the terms, upon which we will create a discussion about power and dominance informed by post-colonial theory and critical discourse analysis (CDA).

Purpose of the study was to illustrate how emotional competence can be important for leadership and to explore the possibility of improving emotion perception ability after training. Participants in this study were 40 managers, divided into control and experimental group, within public administration. The participants implemented a data-based emotion perception test, which were done twice at every occasion, with intervention consisting of information or education between test- and retest. The result showed a clear improvement after intervention, in which no difference was found between control and experimental group, which has been discussed on the basis of the likelihood of a training effect occurred between test-retest. Conclusions about emotional competence or leadership ability could not be drawn from the results of the emotion perception test.

AbstractEssay in political science, C-level, by Julia Leonsson, spring semester 2007Tutor: Susan MartonFreedom ? The political philosophy of our time?An analysis of the ideas of the international debate aboutChávez socialistic politicSince more than 2000 years there has been an ongoing discussion about whether state interference is a good thing or not. Most international organisations on the international political arena are today founded on neoliberal values, and it has developed in to the hegemonic ideology of the world. The socialistic politics of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez is thereby a somewhat unusual strategy. The purpose of this essay is to examine to what extent the international debate about Chávez socialistic politic can be understood through a neoliberal perspective.

Background: The increasing globalization of business and research has led to an increased demand for international meetings. This is a market that a number of countries wish to access and the competition is fierce to get the chance to host major conferences. Stockholm has a pronounced good position in the international meeting market and this essay will examine what it takes to be a successful meeting destination for international congresses.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the fundamental factors that must be met for a meeting destination to be successful in the international market for conventions.Question at issue: How can a city develop into a more attractive meeting destination for international congresses?Method: Persons with key positions in the Stockholm meeting industry have been approached by qualitative interviews by the authors.Theory: As a theoretical framework the authors used the value of the physical meeting, generally on the congresses, the planning process for site selection for the meeting, the meeting platform and image.Conclusion: The authors' findings are based on the empirical material gathered during the study interviews. The results from these interviews show the importance of facilities and hotels, availability, and the image..

The purpose of this study is to contribute with new knowledge of  how Talent Management can be seen as a an opportunity or threat for organizational development, concerning competence, on the basis of HR. The research questions asked are: Out of wich aspects can Talent Management be seen as an opportunity or threat on the basis of HR-employees? How can it affect the work of HR? To answer these questions qualitative interviews with five employees within HR from four different companies has been executed. The essay has been investigated on the basis of an explorative aim and with a qualitative method. The empirical results has indicated common themes such as director support, HRs view of Talent Management, HRs development and shifts of generations.

The aim of the study was to examine the competence of dental hygienists among Clinic Director´s within the Public Dental Service and Private dentists in the county of Skåne . The study was quantitative and consisted of an electronic questionnaire sent out to all Clinic Directors in the county of Skåne. A total of five hundred and thirty eight questionnaires were sent out. The inclusion criteria were the Clinic directors who employed dental hygienists who had obtained their professional degree during the last four years. Twenty nine Clinic directors responded to the study.The results showed that in general clinic directors are pleased and feel that dental hygienists are proficient in periodontology and dental caries diagnostics.

This paper emphasizes that the analyzing and the intepretation of images, involves anholistic view, including intention, content, message, and the influence on the observer.The paper focuses on daily produced images. The starting point of this paper is ´image´in the concept of ´the written image´. The theory- and method textcritical perspective.used in this paper is close connected to Paul Feyerabends, Against Method, and toRobert Farrells work Feyerabend and Scientific Values. This papers specific ques-tionsare, 1) is analyzing and intepretation of images, subjective ?, 2) needs the subjectivityto be handled to limit arbitrariness and distortion ?, 3) is it appropriate to use a filterof awarerness as an aid to handle the subjectivity ? The answear to the threequestions, is short and clear: ?Yes?.