The purpose of this master`s thesis is to examine how the contemporary changes in society display itself in the network Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women EFECW and to increase the understanding of networks. My main questions are: What does the networks structure look like? What does the networks relationships look like? How is identity created in the network and what types of identities is created? The objectives are reached by using two methods, qualitative inquiries and document analysis. The inquiries were carried out to nine members in the network of different countries. The theoretical framework of the thesis is Manuel Castells theories of the network society, and the study is also placed in context by a presentation of previous research on the field.

This thesis focuses on immigrant fathers and the specific situation they face arriving in Sweden. The purpose of this study is to examine various systemic obstacles and eventual possibilities these fathers may encounter in the new country and how they affect their fatherhood. The paper is based on four interviews, with three men and one woman, who work with immigrant fathers partly in parenting educational programs. The informants? professional background varies.

Communicative recycling, to repeat utterances uttered by oneself or others, is a common phenomenon in all societies and languages. The talk of persons with autism often features recycling. The aim of this study was to identify different forms of recycling in communication involving a boy with autism and to describe its functions. Communication between the boy with autism, who used Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to communicate, and his parents and teachers was videotaped. The conversations took place in familiar settings, in the boy?s home and at his pre-school.

This study focused on how local politicians in Kalmar perceive journalists and their intertwined relationship. We based our study on the theoretical understanding of today?s media-centric democratic society. The ?adversary model? offered an understanding of the intricate relations between politicians and journalists.

This essay focuses on the implementation of the strategy gender mainstreaming in the European Union and the member states. It starts to identify problems connected to the implementation process and recognizes significant prerequisites for an efficient implementation of the strategy. The main problems and prerequisites are: political will, governance and structure and knowledge about gender equality. The empirical material consists of reports from the EU that touches upon gender mainstreaming and gender equality. The problems and prerequisites will be analysed in relation to the governance perspectives top-down and bottom-up and expert bureaucratic and participative democratic and gender and feminism.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate whether accounting quality is a priced factor by investors. The event studied is the release of year-end result and the release of the annual report. To assess accounting quality a sample of 30 companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during 2003 to 2007 are studied. We assess accounting quality by the absolute size of discretionary accruals using the modified Jones model developed by Dechow et al. (1995).

Syftet med den här undersökningen var att beskriva hur anhöriga upplever och hanterar sin livssituation, med fokus på familjen och deras egen hälsa, under den akuta fasen vid allogen stamcellstransplantation. Undersökningen ägde rum på Centrum för Allogen Stamcellstransplantation vid Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset Huddinge. Sju anhöriga till patienter som genomgick en allogen stamcellstransplantation deltog. Metoden som användes var att genom semistrukturerade intervjuer låta anhöriga själva berätta om sin livssituation. Dessa intervjuer analyserades sedan med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys vilket resulterade i att temat den nuvarande situationen formulerades.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine whether companies listed at Nasdaq OMX Stockholm (Stockholmsbörsen) sanctioned by the legal unit Nasdaq OMX Disciplinary Committee (Disciplinnämnden), could be distinguished from the remaining companies that have not been sanctioned. As Stockholmsbörsen is the most influential unit when trading shares in Sweden, listed companies need to behave in legal aspects. Actions and decisions that affect investors do also influence the listed companies and their performance. Some companies might be tempted to manipulate financial statements and public information to retain stakeholders; other miss to report properly without being fraudulent. To control this, the legal unit Disciplinnämden is introduced.

The aim of this thesis is to examine librarians' view on the knowledge and competence required at a small public library and how they look upon their education in retrospect. Library education in the 1970's and 1980's was mainly practical, a vocational training, but since 1995 the education results in an academic degree in Library & Information Science. Due to this, we focus on the ongoing generation shift in Swedish libraries as an aspect of knowledge and education. The empirical study is based on interviews with librarians working in minor public libraries. The informants form two groups, based on their education; ?old? ones and ?new? ones.

A prerequisite of an international exchange of information is multilingual tools for information retrieval, such as the multilingual thesaurus. There is an ongoing discussion about the construction of, and the guidelines for, multilingual thesauri. In recent years the praxis as defined in ISO 5964 Guidelines for the establishment and development of multilingual thesauri 1985 has been the topic of a scientific discussion. It has been about how equivalence across languages is to be established when it comes to concepts, terms and relational structures. This masters thesis treats the praxis and practice of multilingual thesaurus construction.

The aim of this study is to describe how Swedish research librarians feel that their work has been affected by electronic journals. The study focuses on medical electronic journals accessed through consortia agreements via Bibsam, the Royal Librarys Department for National Co-ordination and Development. This thesis includes two main parts: a literature survey and an empirical study. The literature survey shows that since the 1990´s most research libraries are hybrid libraries including both printed and electronic information sources and that librarians tasks to seek and organize information have remained but the tools have changed. Qualitative interviews were performed with four librarians at two university libraries and one university college library on how their work with electronic journals differed from their work with printed journals, which new tasks the electronic journals have brought and which have disappeared and how the librarians professional role has been affected.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate what young behavioral science students, born in the 1980s, think is important in their future work life. The purpose has also been to investigate what attitudes the behavioral science students have towards their future work life, and what place work has in the young behavioral science students lives. After clarification of above, the aim has also been to compare the results with former research. Thereafter the purpose has been to investigate whether traditional work motivation and job satisfaction theories are applicable for young people today. The empirical material is based on interviews with six women who study behavioral science at various levels.

Debate over Intellectual Property Rights ?IPRs? particularly patent and copyrights is mainly on forward-looking industries in computer software. As part of a trade deal reached in 1994, the member nations of the World Trade Organisation must adhere to a global agreement known as TRIPS, for the Trade- Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights.This study is to analyse the ethical conception of Intellectual Property Rights and in particular its implications on the developing countries in relation to TRIPS. The approach will be to analyse a broad philosophical theories of property to see if there is any justification for a software program to be treated as private property and also argue base on John Rawls two principles of justice in relation to TRIPS Agreement. Some reflections will be put on the use of open-source software by less developing countries.From the study it was asserted that, strong IPRs protection would hinder technological transfer and indigenous learning activities in the early stage of industrialisation when learning takes place through reverse engineering.

After the formation of the European Union internal market in 1992, member state specific obstacles and barriers were largely removed. This was especially the case in harmonised industries where standardisation and technical regulation have led to legal certainty. Despite this, a large range of trade regulation continues to remain distortional to trade, in addition to the ongoing tariffs and subsidies. The key trade regulations relate to a number of areas involving technical regulations such as production labelling and the protection of intellectual property rights. Whilst policy makers claim justification based around the need to correct market failure in delivering desired outcomes, the question is whether these regulations are appropriate responses to market failures or if they have simply been imposed in an attempt to protect domestic markets.

This study was based on a quantitative method to examine gender-related attitudes towards leadership styles among employees in trade union organizations in Sweden. The aim of the research was to investigate and understand how gender relates to attitudes regarding leadership within these organizations. The study was based on research questions related to preferences for different leadership styles and the impact of gender on these attitudes. The study incorporated previous research and relevant theoretical frameworks such as leadership theories, gender theories, and theories on prejudice against female leaders to contextualize our findings. Data were collected through a survey using a convenience sampling method, targeting employees of trade union organizations in Sweden.