This bachelor thesis explores the conditions for a harmonized EU gender equality policy. Recently the maternity leave directive has been introduced by the European commission and seeks to improve the conditions for pregnant workers. The controversial subject of this maternity leave has illustrated many of the problems connected to the development of a social dimension in EU. First of all, the debate concerning the maternity leave directive in the European Parliament has shown that both sides in the parliament seem positive towards creating legislation in this matter on EU level. However, parties at the right tend to disagree to many of the amendments in the proposal, such as the maximum entitlement.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how the Swedish daily press portraits librarians and the profession. I have used a discourse analytic study in my purpose to examine the image of librarians and the profession. I have analysed 34 articles between January 1, 2009 until January 1, 2010 from Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter, which are the two daily newspapers with the largest circulation in Sweden. I have used three major questions to answer the aim of my study: In what context do librarians and the profession appear in the daily press?What qualities are librarians assigned in the daily press?What views and attitudes about librarians and the profession appear in the articles?My analysis resulted in three discourses; discourse about librarians? relation to literature, discourse about librarians and the labour market and discourse about librarians and information.

The purpose of this study was to highlight the type of actions that can facilitate people with Asperger syndrome to get and keep a job in the regular labour market. Four interviews were done with people who have been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and who got a job in the regular labour market. The study shows that efforts from society and friends at work have played a role when they had got their jobs and when they managed to keep it. The study shows that these efforts have strengthened their self-image and confidence. The study also shows that adaptations in the work, the ability to control over social contacts and the importance of having a job may have contributed to the respondents stayed in the workplace.

The aim of this study has been to examine how a few members of the Finnish and non- Scandinavian Romani subgroups experience their own, and their groups, situation on the Housing- and Labour Market. We´ve studied our respondents? experiences of discrimination, which difficulties they think there are, what strategies can be used to deal with these difficulties and also their own ideas on how to improve the situation for the Romani people in the Swedish society. This has been done by six individual structured interviews which have been analyzed with concepts from Symbolic Interactionism, including Goffman?s Dramaturgical Role Theory, definition of Stigma and Kelly?s theory of Personal Constructions.

The aim of this study was to describe, analyze and compare the Left Party?s, the Social Democratic Party?s, the Liberal People?s Party?s and the Moderate Party?s ideas on immigration policy from 1960-2010. In this study the immigration policy program or party program was analyzed through idea analysis to find out what immigration policy interventions they have come with, and if they want to assimilate or integrate immigrants. Materials used for the study are the immigration policy programs and party programs. Even scientific journals and articles have been used, in both national and international level.

Abstract The purpose of this essay is to compare the integration policy between Socialdemokraterna, Moderaterna and Sverigedemokraterna with focus on labor-market integration, housing segregation and language knowledge. The international immigration has in recent years increased significantly and this has also enriched the receiving countries and still the numbers of extreme right parties have increased. In Sweden a racist populist party, Sverigedemokraterna, are only a few steps away from entering the parliament. The question in focus is: What differences or similarities are there between the integration politics between Moderaterna, Socialdemokraterna and Sverigedemokraterna with focus on the areas housing, work and language?  By applying the theoretical framework to the data, I have been able to present answers and build up an analysis. The study concludes that there are more similarities than differences in the integration policy between Moderaterna and Socialdemokraterna.

The aim of this thesis is to discuss and analyse the American cotton subsidies? effect on the world market in general and developing countries in particular. The amount of U.S. subsidies is substantial compared to most other countries, but a great deal of the effect is due to the USA?s significant share of the market.

The situation on the Swedish labour market is different in opportunities whether you are a native Swede or someone who has a foreign background. People with foreign backgrounds tend to have lower wages, higher rate of unemployment and often have temporary employment contracts. There is a conception that the Swedish culture is the standard and other foreign cultures are abnormal and different. The purpose of this study has been to investigate why there is discrimination on the labour market against ethnic minorities and how the Swedish history has contributed to the structural ethnic discrimination that we are struggling with. I have been using the right dogmatic method and a social science perspective as complement in order to answer the purpose.

Numerous studies raise the topic of highly educated immigrants whose education and list of qualifications devalue in the context of the Swedish labour market. However, little is known of those with foreign background who enter into higher education in Sweden. Our study attempts to shed some light onto the value of higher education relative to that of a person?s ethnic background. The background material features nine in-depth interviews of foreign background academics, as well as data extracted from an extensive survey study previously carried out at Växjö University. Initially, the quantitative data showed that students with foreign background, including Swedish-born children of immigrants, had not managed to find qualified work upon completion of studies to the same extent as their Swedish background counterparts.

The foundations of the Swedish labour market have shifted due to a number of new circumstances affecting its framework. Employment is no longer a right taken for granted but rather something one should work hard to achieve. Given the new conditions, employers are not only trying to ensure their own businesses survival but also uphold the structures of our society. Competition between enterprises forces management to forge new boundaries to maintain profitability.Concerns have arisen whether or not these so called management strategies are within the limitations of the law. As a result and as a response to the design of the labour laws creativity is peaking to overrun the statutory regulations.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the view of funding and sponsorship of culture within Swedish governmental cultural policy. The main issue is to discover changes in attitude towards funding and sponsorship of culture by comparing the discourse of cultural policy in the 1970s with the discourse of cultural policy in the 1990s. The theoretical and methological starting point is Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory. Another theoretical starting point is Danish cultural policy reasearcher Dorte Skot-Hansens theories of the development of cultural policy in the Nordic countries, and Norman Faircloughs, of critical discourse analysis, theory of the marketization of discourse. Four governmental cultural policy documents, two from the 1970s and two from the 1990s, are analysed through a model loosely based on Laclaus and Mouffes idea of nodalpoints and elements constituting a discourse.

Section 25-27, i.e. the rights of priority of the Employment Protection Act, is a form of post-employment protection which exists to support those employed on a part-time basis and former employees. When a vacancy arises an employer should first and foremost offer part-time employees employment at a higher level of occupation or offer employment to former employees. The various types of employment contracts, other than those valid for an indefinite term, have increased during the last decades on the Swedish labour market. Labour hire has become more common and therefore we find it interesting to investigate how the rights of priority apply.The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the law with regards to labour hire when people with rights of priority are available.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera huruvida sfi (svenskundervisning för invandrare)-bransch har varit en lyckad socialpolitisk satsning från Linköpings kommuns sida. Med intervjuer som det största empiriska materialet behandlar uppsatsen ämnen som anses vara relevanta för eleven på sfi-bransch. Sfi-bransch framträder som en plats för lärdom men också som en del av en kedja av restriktioner som tillsammans motverkar syftet med sfi, det vill säga att berättiga sig ett arbete och i vidare mening integreras. Uppsatsen diskuterar även enheter som under studien framträtt som betydelsefulla för eleven, utifrån syftet med sfi. Med teoretisk utgångspunkt i Bourdieus symboliska kapital ger sig många intressanta aspekter inom sfi-utbildningen tillkänna..

After the last election Sweden has got a government that claims to be feminist. This thesis discusses whether the change of labels has also brought along policy formulated in a feminist way, arguing that the way policy is expressed affects how people see a certain problem. Three policy proposals are analysed, and in only one case the government seems to have been influenced by feminist ideas. The other proposals partly support claims made by new institutionalism that norms and routines in an organisation work to resist policy change, but also shows that feminist ideas are resisted more actively. The fact that so called policy entrepreneurs was present in the policy process at a certain period in time, probably counts for one explanation to the exceptional policy.

New Zealand is currently the third largest global producer of kiwifruit and thus plays an important role in the international market. Exports of kiwifruit are also of significant horticultural value for New Zealand and in 2007 the kiwifruit industry accounted for export values of NZ$790 million. The global kiwifruit market has experienced substantial changes in recent years and is likely to change significantly in the near future due to developments in production sources, adjustments to trade policy settings and shifts in consumer preferences. The New Zealand kiwifruit industry needs to consider what the impacts of these changes might be so that future strategies can be constructed effectively. Little quantitative modelling has been done in New Zealand to consider the impacts of changes to the global kiwifruit industry. The major contribution of this research was the development and calibration of a kiwifruit industry-specific partial equilibrium trade model. The model was then used to examine the impacts on New Zealand producers of these trade-related changes in the global kiwifruit market.