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.

AbstractOur purpose was to understand how social workers experience the possible complexities that working with economical aid can entail. As an example we chose to focus on long-term economical aid work. We aimed to address the question of which factors could affect their work. In a prior study, done by Dellgran & Höjer (2003) the conclusion was drawn  that  the combination of economical aid, healthcare and schools makeup a third of  practical social work in the terms of the proportion of the amount of social workers, but only 8 percent of the research is done in those areas. Other studies (Stranz, 2007) demonstrate that the research that is done on working with economical aid is deficient.

Systems development methods has always been an important part of the systems development process. It affects not only the product, but also the organization itself. Today more and more companies are abandoning the more rigid traditional methods for the more flexible agile ones. A transition like this is bound to affect the product and the organization, but in what ways? Is it a difficult transition to make, and how does it affect social environment and dynamics? Does it change how people communicate information to each other? This study was conducted at a local branch of a larger international IT-company.

Social media has meant that organizations can engage in dialogue with their audience without journalistic intermediaries. PR 2.0 is a term that defines the new way for organizations to work with public relations in the new media landscape. The aim of our study is to examine how IKEA uses social media to create, maintain and develop their relationships. Furthermore, great interest is directed to the concept profile. This essay will examine how the stated profile IKEA has pervades the work on social media.

National and international studies, such as PISA and TIMSS, which are part of the national evaluation system, are carried out continuosly. Skolverket, in collaboration with researchers, are responsible for the implementation, evaluation, and analysis of the studies. National results show an increasing percentage of pupils who do not reach the goals in mathematics. The last completed international studies PISA 2009 and TIMSS 2007 show an impaired trend of knowledge, in international comparison. Moreover, studies also show that the differences between schools and also within the same school in Sweden have increased.

The purpose of this study has been to describe and analyze how seven Swedish preschool teachers and two special education teachers think and work with children who show a lack of social skills. The study method has been semi-structured interviews with the educators which have been analyzed and sorted under different themes/categories. The theoretical framework used in this study is sociocultural, relational and categorical perspectives. These perspectives have been chosen in order to better understand how teachers see their role in supporting children in need of special support. The environment in the preschool is found to be of great help and the teachers? approach is of great importance.The research emphasizes the importance of integrating thinking, feeling and behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the employers? responsibilities for rehabilitation ofemployees in Sweden, who due to illness or injury are unable to work. The process of therehabilitation will be analyzed in a gender perspective. A minor comparative study aboutrehabilitation in Denmark will also be carried out. The purpose is to see how the process ofthe rehabilitation is designed for those who due to illness or injury are unable to work, whichfactors that affects the rehabilitation and which differences there are between Denmark andSweden regarding the employers responibility for rehabilitation.

The purpose of this study was to get a client perspective of the different ways to exit from a different role as a drugabuser, and furthermore, how to maintain a drugfree life.The questions of issue were:- What kind of social-psychological conceptions rules the process?- Which motive powers are essential to maintain drug-independence?- Are there any difficulties on the path to social adaptation?Our research was based on interviews with eight persons; five men and three women, from a treatment home in the south of Sweden. The method we used was semi-structured and with a thematic questionnaire. We chose this form due to the fact that we did not want to influence the interviews, as we wanted to know the persons opinions.The result of our study showed that the interviewed persons have some difficulties to adjust in the society and to find new friends especially the interviewed persons with maintenance treatment. Marginal problems as, for example, the lack of not having a work or a home can complicate a further development for the group with maintenance treatment.

The research work performed in this thesis has been carried out at the Production Tech-nology Centre where the Thermal Spray research group of University West has its work-shop and labs.This research work has been performed in collaboration with the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, India.First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to my supervisors Dr. Nicolaie Markocsan and Dr. Nicholas Curry for their guidance, great support and valuable suggestions without which this work could not have been possible. I would also like to thanks Prof. Per Nylén for keeping faith in me and providing me an opportunity to work at PTC, which is a great place to perform research.

International organizations are important actors on the stage of world politics, and how these actors securitize the climate change issue is of importance for how it will be tackled by actors on global and national levels. The purpose of this study is to contribute to research on climate security discourses and how climate change is defined as a security concern amongst different actors. This study, in contrast to previous research, focuses on systematically mapping the definitions made by different international organizations by asking: whose security is at stake; who is responsible for responding to the threat; how is the nature of the threat defined; and what responses are suggested? By analyzing material consisting of a variety of documents and statements from five international organizations, I aim to identify differences between these actors ? in how the climate change issue is conceptualized from a security perspective. The result of the study shows that only one of the organizations shows clear elements of the national/geopolitical security discourse, while all of the other actors primarily use the human security discourse.

This essay describes social workers view on the action contact person. The study was qualitative and six social workers were interviewed on the topic. The effort contact person were chosen as the object for this study since it is the most common action given to young people, despite the lack of research about this subject. The result was analyzed out of conduct action theory and the theory of street level bureaucrats as well as scientific research in this area. The result of this study shows that most of the social workers consider the action as positive.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how social workers within different areas of work in Malmö, who comes in contact with persons who have been subject to honour-related violence, sees the problem, if they have any special view on the cause of the violence and investigate the efforts which are offered to individuals who have been or are subject to honour-related violence. I wanted to investigate if there exists a universal view among social workers in Malmö of the definition of and way of working with persons affected by honour-related violence. Various reports show that there exists great disagreement among debaters as well as social workers regarding the definition of honour-related violence. There are also different sentiments about the cause of honour-related violence within research. I conducted four interviews on five individuals employed within different areas of work in Malmö which comes in contact with girls and women who have been subject to honour-related violence. My study shows that there exists great dissent among social workers regarding the term honour-related violence, the cause of the problem and the concerned areas of work works with different ways with persons which they come in contact with..

This thesis is a qualitative study in which 12 award-winning printed adverts, awarded with either a Swedish ?Guldägg? or an international Clio Award, have been analyzed from a rhetorical perspective. Visual rhetorics were used to analyze the adverts in order to expose the rhetorical concepts and to find out whether the rhetorical concepts represented in the Swedish adverts are the same concepts represented in the international adverts. One of the conclusions drawn is that pathos-arguments, a rhetorical concept where the senders allude to the emotions of the receivers, are the most prominent in both Swedish and international adverts, but are used in different ways. Another conclusion drawn is that the adverts are overall characterized by their messages not being explicit.

The world is getting smaller. Global markets, political processes and communication technology bring people together. Even though many of these processes are dynamic and constructive, they have also resulted in a need for better and more effective ways of international conflict resolution. This thesis investigates central issues connected to the concept of humanitarian interventions in relation to current and future legislation of the European Union. The overall question is whether the rapid globalization process has resulted in a change of international law towards more liberal view where authorization of the security council is not always needed? And, if there has actually been such a liberalization, how does that affect the legal possibilities for the European Union to carry out armed operations without the consent of the global community?The conclusion of the thesis is that international law has been modified mainly in two aspects: First, the concept of sovereignty is no longer seen merely as a right of the nation, but also as a responsibility.

AbstractTitle: Cooperation between social enterprisesLevel: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor: Anna HammarbergSupervisor: Maria Fregidou-MalamaDate: 2012 - JanuaryAim: The aim of the study is to investigate social enterprises and the Glada Hudik-model to understand how social enterprises cooperate and how they can develop the cooperation through Social Enterprises in Co-operation (SAK). Method: I have done a qualitative research study. I have studied literature to get theoretical background. I visited a seminar to get information and inspiration. Interviews have been done with six persons to get empirical information.      Result and conclusions: Through this study I have seen that social enterprises can co-operate to strengthen their position in the community. Together they can run issues they have in common, undertake major assignments and purchase material to get better deals.