This paper is a Master thesis for the Master?s program in International and European Relations in the Department of Management and Economics at Linköping University. As the title indicates, the aim of this thesis is to make a comparative analysis of the conflict resolution initiatives that were employed in the Sierra Leonean and Liberian conflicts. The research questions are: ? What were the root causes and trajectories of the Sierra Leonean and Liberian conflicts? ? What were the conflict resolution initiatives employed in resolving both conflicts? ? Why did the Lome Peace Accord succeed in the case of Sierra Leone whilst the Abuja Peace Accord failed in bringing peace to Liberia? In order to answer the afore-mentioned questions and fulfil the aim of this paper, a qualitative research method has been chosen.

The formation of sovereign states in regional blocks has become an essential feature in the world system. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate which motives and driving forces that affect the creation of projects of regional integration outside Europe and the Western World. By choosing the Latin American project of integration ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas) as a case of regional integration outside Europe and the Western World, the study investigates the motives expressed by the most prominent actors of the project, Venezuela and Cuba. ALBA is chosen as a representative and a unique case and through the consumption of the gramscian and the realist approaches, the essay defines two motives that affect the creation of projects of regional integration. As a way of investigating the actors? motives, the paper studies political statements, especially those of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, and official positions expressed in central documents and declarations.

The purpose with our study is to investigate in which way a public field of action has succeeded to make the economic management more effective and also find out which factors/activities that have contributed to get the result of the budget in balance. We also want to find out in which degree the balanced scorecard (BSC) has contributed to the positive result of the budget. Method: We had started out from the qualitative method theory which is based on the hermeneutic theory, because we will interpret and understand. With this starting point we have chosen to use a case study with semi-standardised interviews supplemented with information from different documents, and to get the theoretic connection we have studied literature in the subject field. The analyse and even the theoretic connection have then started from, for this study, a special analyse model. Results: Througt systematic and target-concentrated management and through cooperated factors, with stress on a leadership that is both professional, visionary and un-combined, and there the staff´s is seen as a important resource, and there it is a clear strategy and objective to keep the cost of the activity within assigned budgetframe, has a public field of action, as the clinic of hab./rehab.

The post-modern western city is going through two central changes in the organization of paid labour. One is the switch from production of goods to production of services, and the other is the increasing rift between well-paid labour with permanent jobs, and temporarily employed workers with low wages. Both of these processes are rasified and gendered, and strike harder against women, young persons and people of emigrant background. The flexible capitalism creates an informalization of the economy, breaking with earlier regulations of the labour markets, in which workers also need to find informal strategies in their individual and collective struggles. In this paper, I search for these ?new? experiences of living and working in late capitalist society, by doing open interviews with three women of Latin-American origin, working without official permission (without documents) in the informal economy of Stockholm.

My thesis is based on a qualitative study. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the educationalist at an especially chosen school in Stockholm promotes the students multicultural background in the education or not.This is due to the fact that the Swedish school to a considerable degree reflects the multicultural Swedish society. The socio-cultural starting point is when people come together and meet. The language is the tool of the socio-culture and it is the dialogue, discussion and sympathetic understanding that makes people meet.The cultural concept is diffuse and very wide. Everyone has their own definition of it.

This study investigated a local aspect of theSwedish elementary school modernization process between the years 1871-1882.Previous studies have been drawn from the school inspectors own reports andshow that the schoolboards housed a negative and resentful attitude towardsreforms and the school inspectors often felt that the parish priests were moreinclined to changes than the schoolboards themselves.  Other research on elementary schoolmodernization has stressed the matching grants as a major cause of developmentand further establishment. In this study, however, a schoolboards own notes inthe form of meeting protocols during an eleven year period as well as a letterby a priest Erik Lundberg, Redogörelseför skolhusfrågan i Tierp dated 6 October 1880 were analyzed to see if theprevious explanation of school modernization, in particular with regard to thereluctance to change by the schoolboards goes to demonstrate and confirm. Theresults of this study have shown that even if the schoolboards do notimmediately follow the school inspectors instructions, it seems not primarilybeen due to resentment. Reforms within the school world are well known forbeing time-consuming but for the current period, as this study concerns andwithin this specific parish there were conflicts of interest which are notshown when only the inspector?s accounts and reports are examined.

This report focuses on the upper slit. The upper slit is located between the impeller andthe drive unit. The slit design depends on pump type and application. However it isuncertain why the design varies, The purpose of this report is to clarify why the designvaries and to recommend an improved slit design.A research has been done; information was gathered from interviews, but also fromsearching of databases and studies of drawings, reports and documents. The originalpurpose of the slit was to prevent twining around the driveshaft, and prevent dirt fromentering the cooling system.

This thesis has focused on digital born personal archives; how they are different from analog paper archives and possible ways to overbridge these differences. It is also studied how archivists and librarians are dealing with digital archives, what they think about new proactive solutions when collecting private papers and collections and positive and negative effects with this way to work. The thesis is delimitated to only private collections and digital created material. It do not concern digitized material or electronic documents in government or business organizations.The challenges in digital curation and administration are discussed in aspect of the Records Continuum Model. The empirical material is also put in relation to research in Personal Information Management and identity theory.

In this thesis I have discussed about conflict management in school, from a teacher´s perspective. Focus has been on Swedish schools, especially on the teachers who are active in primary school. Several perspectives have been given, including an intercultural approach which has been the most recurrent. The importance of teachers? emotional maturity, knowledge about democracy and values, as well as teacher?s impact by being a sharp leader in different ways are other subjects the essay has touched.

The Working Hours Act regulates the working time conditions and together with the Working Time Directive of EU both acts aim to protect the workers. However, with The Swedish Model it is possible to diverge from the law-regulations by collective agreement by the parts of the Swedish labor market. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the national and international law regulations and further on study a few selected Swedish central collective agreements to discover in which extension deviation from the law occur. The sections of the Working Hours Act?s that has been investigated is ordinary working time, daily rest, weekly rest periods, breaks and maximum weekly working time.

In light of the massive property bubbles that have been bursting in the USA, Spain and Ireland during the last decade, the aim of this thesis is to clarify whether ? or to what degree - the municipality of Stockholm might experience a property bubble in the near future. The municipality of Stockholm is undergoing a housing shortage and house prices have risen during the last few years. Neoliberalism and property bubbles are used as a theoretical framework in this paper. The methodology consist of semi structured interviews, analysis of documents and statistical data from Eurostat, Valueguard and the Swedish administrative authority; Statistiska centralbyrån (SCB).

Since the 1970`s the Non Governmental Organisations, NGO:s, have taken an increasing responsibility in the development cooperation work. Apart from an increase in resources delivered through the NGO:s it is also obvious in various official documents that the idea of NGO:s in regards to; reaching and involving poor people in the work and as capable of delivering aid resources to a low cost, is very widely spread and commonly accepted among political decision makers and aid agencies. In addition it?s very seldom that those positive statements about the NGO:s abilities, are backed by any kind of scientific study. This study argues that the ascribed abilities are more the rhetoric of a political idea than an empirical reality.

The purpose of this study has been to examine reading habits and the use of the library by pre­school teachers in a mainly multicultural community, and also explore to what extent activities in the local library are aimed at preschoolers.The study used a sociocultural approach based on Vygotsky?s theories of learning and development and Söderbergh?s theory of early childhood language development, and was carried out during the summer 2009. The methodology used was both quantitative and qualitative, with a combination of questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were sent out to each section of the municipal pre­schools within the catchments area of the local public library in a multicultural suburb of Uppsala. Three short interviews were carried out with staff at the local and main library branches, as well as library staff at the County Council.The results show that, although preschool teachers find reading important in their work, many teachers read spontaneously and/or sporadically.

Fornföreningen Fibula on the Aland Islands contacts the author because its members want to create a museum.The purpose of this two years master?s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies is to shed light on what a museum really is. The research question I have answered is ?what is a museum and is this what Fibula really wants in their reconstructed Viking village??. Based on interview material, ethnographic field studies, relevant research in the subject and documents from Fibula, I have answered the research question.

I have for my one year master's thesis worked on arranging and cataloging the archives from the missions stations of Musana, Congo-Brazzaville and Sundi-Lutete, Congo-Kinshasa, belonging to the Swedish Missions Church (Svenska Missionskyrkan). The archives contained records written in Swedish, French and Kikongo, from primarily the years 1910 until 1961. Records have though been found that adhere from both prior to and after these years. These archives are deposited at the Swedish National Archive and it was therefore important to take the opinions and regulations of both parties into consideration, as well as relying onto archival theory.The archives were initially scattered and had in some parts been organized by an archivist without formal schooling. The major difficulties in this work has therefore been to establish the provenance ? to which creator the documents belonged to, and also to decide to which degree the principle of the original order should play a part.