The purpose of this essay is to explore the actor network of a high technology company in the textile industry called F.O.V. Fabrics. The background for doing this is a recent project, which we choose to call the Salt & Paper Battery Group, aiming to commercialize a newly discovered technology ? a battery based on cellulose from an alga. We start by examining a range of network theories in order to eventually shape a framework of our own.

Uppsatsen omfattar en analys och jämförelse av EU:s och Sveriges målsättningar,strategier och faktiska bistånd för de tre baltiska staterna i tidsperioden 1998/99. Somteoretiskt ramverk har det vidgade säkerhetsbegreppet med Barry Buzans tolkning frånboken People, States and Fear: an agenda for international security in the post- coldwar era. Ur teorin så används de fem sektorerna politiska, ekonomiska, sociala, miljöoch militära detta som ett analytiskt sorteringsverktyg för att sedan överskådligt kunnajämföra och prioritera sektorerna och dess innehåll med varandra. Genom detta så skaett resultat vara möjligheten att se om Sverige koordinerar sitt bistånd med EU:s..

This is a theoretical study of changing relations between men and women in the context of modernisation. Ideas derived from a general theoretical discussion will be illustrated by examples from countries that are going through societal changes affecting the lives of men and women; Uganda, Morocco and Mexico. Focus will be on connections between changes in the public sphere and interpersonal relations in the private sphere. One part examines certain effects of women?s increased participation in politics and in the workforce, concluding that these changes may cause conflicts with traditional values and consequently tensions in inter-gender relations.

From a time where employees often remained at one company until retirement, globalization and changed employment patterns have created a more mobile labor market in the last years. In an effort to expand the connection between organization and employee a rising interest in corporate alumni networks has emerged. Previous research has shown that conditions for such networks are formed through employees social identification, perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship and can be shaped by company's HR practices.This paper aims to examine two case companies' perceived benefits through alumni relations as well as their HR prac-tices, in order to increase understanding surrounding the relationship between the two areas. Further the study intends to draw conclusions about the role of corporate alumni networks in the creation of the received benefits.The study indicates that HR practices, through the creation of an organizational citizenship behavior, can influence the conditions for beneficial alumni relations. Results show that some expected benefits of alumni relations can be re-ceived through strong citizenship.

The focus of this study has been to plumb social workers experiences regarding their work methods in two institutions regarding unaccompanied children through a perspective of gender. In this study, four semi-structured qualitative interviews has been contrived in purpose to gather in material which has been presented in five themes to ease an analyse focusing of gender. In all the interviews both authors participated with one in charge and one taking notes. One of the main focuses has been the relations between both social workers and their clients and between colleges in the institutions. The other main focus has been the activities, both planed and spontaneous, which the clients been offered, for example football, bowling and boxing.

Purpose:The purpose of this study is to describe and explain the international music company reports of its intangible assets to examine whether similar methods can be applied to the Swedish market.Method:The study was based on a qualitative and abductive research approach. Collected data is mainly from secondary sources in the form of auditor approved consolidated financial statements.Conclusion:The Swedish music companies activate their intangible assets only partially or not at all, despite the fact that assets in the form of music catalogs, rights, contracts and advances are those that generate revenue for the companies. The study has resulted in a description of how the companies are doing on an international level with the IASB and FASB's regulation. With this report, we have found flaws in the way the Swedish companies prepare their accounts according to the current regulations. In the analysis, these shortcomings are highlighted and to what extent these international standards can be applied in the Swedish companies to take a step towards a more accurate picture and a harmonized and comparable accounting..

The Brussels I-Regulation, often referred to as the Jurisdiction Regulation, is said to be the matrix of the European judicial cooperation system within the area of international private law. The Regulation states how jurisdiction is to be determined in an international dispute. The aim of the Regulation is to ensure that parties in a dispute within the EU have access to justice.The Regulation is considered to be working well in general, and have been since it came in-to force in 2007. Although it is held to be well functioning it does not exclude that some improvements might be needed. The commission ordered a review of the Regulation and the result was that some deficiencies were identified.

AbstractUniversity of Växjö, School of Social SciencesCourse: PO 5363, Political Science 41-60Title: US and UN, cooperation or conflict?Author: Charlotta BjuvlingSupervisor: Lennart BergfeldtDate: Autumn 2007The international society changed a great deal after the end of the cold war. It gave the United Nations a new oppertunity to act after the deadlock during the war, and it gave the United States a new hegemone role in the world politics. The aim of this paper is to investigate wheter the United States foreign policy action have been accordence to a realistic way of thinking since the end of the cold war. I will do this with the help of my research questions:? Have the United States followed the guidelines of the United Nations in their foreign policy?? Are there signs that show of a change, either towards more or less cooperation between United Nations and the United States?To answer these questions I will use the theories realism and Hedley Bulls concepts of fairness and his ideas of an international system in his book ?An Anarchical Society?.

The thesis has two purposes. First, to give a practical insight into the challenges that Swedish companies might face, and how these challenges are tackled, when implementing strategy in a local area. Second, to develop a general applicable model as a conceptual contribution to the field of international strategy implementation in local areas. This empirical-driven thesis is written in a qualitative and explorative approach, where abduction is adopted in order to find mysteries and contribute to the forming of new theories. The empirical foundation is twenty-two interviews and observations of three large Swedish companies.

In his recent article Professor of International Affairs Charles Kupchan claims that Party Politics has become increasingly important for American Foreign Policy since the end of the Cold War. This assertion makes it valuable to assess how the substance of the Foreign Policy differs between the two American parties in various cases and if this difference is characterized by consistency or by change. In this thesis I examine these Party positions in relation to the European Security Policy.In order to examine this I compare the positions of the Democratic and Republican Parties? policy concerning both the European Defence Community (EDC) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The purpose of this thesis is to examine the hypothesis that the Democratic Party to a higher extent than the Republican Party is more concerned to maintain good relations to Europe respectively EU.The results show that there are small indications that my hypothesis concerning the two parties is valid.

The National Libraries task to save and preserve the national cultural heritage has turned to a new challenge in a digital world. The preservation of born-digital material for future use requires not only saving the digital object itself but also information about the object, preservation metadata. This is a relatively new issue and the library community has very little experience in this area. It has become evident that international cooperation is necessary to solve the task and that the development of international standards is of fundamental significance. This thesis investigates what has been done to meet the problems with the fast obsolescence of digital material with the focus on metadata.

Since drinking habits are created in social environments the workplace has an important role in alcohol prevention. This study has investigated employees (N=216) in a Swedish municipality work organisation with the purpose to describe the alcohol culture in workplace and how it influences on the workers attitudes towards alcohol. The theoretical baseline for the study has been Ames and Janes framework that explains the relation between workplace culture and drinking habits among workers. The study showed significant relations between restrictive attitude towards alcohol and not drinking with co-workers (POR: 2.5) and feeling low pressure in the work situation (POR: 2.2). Therefore it should be of interest for employers to adopt a cultural perspective and a primary prevention strategy in their alcohol policies that focuses on social relations and the workplace conditions.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the ways in which the constructions of heterosexuality and gender in three Disney movies about princesses affect the power relations between men and women in the movies, and how discourses on gender and heterosexuality have changed over time. Research questions were:How do characters in the movies talk about gender and heterosexuality?How does the interplay between gender and heterosexuality affect the power relations between men and women in the movies?What are the likenesses and differences between movies from different time periods?Discourses were mapped out using a model based on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe?s political theories. These discourses were then analyzed with a theoretical framework consisting of Yvonne Hirdman?s concept of gender system and gender contracts, Judith Butler?s view on the heterosexual matrix and an understanding of power relations based on Michel Foucault.

The topic of this thesis is immigration policy in the European Union with focus on the Schengen cooperation and illegal immigration. Immigration policies and other policy areas such as asylum and refugee policies have become hot topics on the EU agenda in recent years. Partly because of cooperations like Schengen, but also because a need of a common immigration and asylum policy has emerged.The purpose of the thesis is to give a better understanding of the relations that might be found between illegal immigration to the EU and the Schengen cooperation. Schengen plays an important role in dealing with international migration in the EU and will probably continue to do so in the future.The thesis is a comparative case study with Spain and Germany as the two specific cases. Their national immigration policies are examined and put in relation to the Schengen cooperation.

The conflict over Western Sahara is primarily a conflict over sovereignty, with Morocco on one side claiming territorial rights, and the Polisario Front on the other side claiming popular sovereignty. The conflict has till this day not been resolved and is in a dire need of a solution. In order to determine which solution is the most appropriate, an understanding of all the complex aspects of the conflict is required. In this context, the study aims to examine the conflict in a globalized setting by analyzing how the American news agency AP News portrays the conflict. The US media conglomerate was specifically chosen due to its dominance over international information flows.