This thesis examines why working time preferences differ between workers and nations, and explains the effect of working time regulation and working time flexibility on negotiating work-life balance. In five separate sections the following working time issues are examined: the number of hours worked by workers in Europe; factors affecting individual working time preferences; how working time preferences are negotiated in the national industrial relations systems of Sweden, France and the United Kingdom; how the institutions of the European Union have influenced working time negotiations through the Working Time Directive; and the benefits and practices available to organisations implementing working time flexibility. Broadly this paper views working time preferences as being a highly personal and influenced by factors such as wages, taxation, culture (national and workplace) and non-work responsibilities. It is argued that negotiating a preferred working time pattern is essential to achieving work-life balance and when such a balance is achieved, workers are more healthy, motivated and committed to their employer. Essentially this provides an incentive for businesses to voluntarily implement working time flexibility beyond the regulatory standards..

The European Union has been working to promote equality between women and men for a long time. Despite this, Sweden still have a gender segregated labor market where men generally has the leading positions. According to European law the member states shall promote gender equality and to take all appropriate measures. Statutory gender quotas for company boards is one such measure that some of the European member states have implemented in national law. The Swedish law has no provisions governing gender quotas and therefore the purpose of this study is to explain how gender quotas for company boards relate to current law, both of European law and national legislation.

AbstractJerfström, M. (2013). Mission overweight and obesity ? how do child-care centers operate? C-thesis in Public Health. Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies.

This study analyzes the discursive content of four history textbooks in order to demonstrate how national identities are formed and how they differ from each other. This was done through discourse analysis guided by social constructivism and John M. Hobson?s dichotomy of East and West. The study shows that textbooks mainly construct national identities in three ways; first by making a clear distinction between ?The Self? and ?The Other?, second by preserving a world order based on the notions of the invariant hegemony of the nation-state, and third by utilizing stereotype based dissimilarities in order to accentuate existing differences between nationalities. Implicit ideals and values in the historical discourse play an important part in the construction of identities; however sends a contradictory and ambiguous message.

No abstract.

The SAB-system (Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek) was created almost a hundred years ago and has often been viewed as insufficient among many academic libraries. KB (Kungliga Biblioteket) has therefore decided to change to DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification) which means that the Swedish libraries are now facing a challenge that involves a change to a new classification system. This is a comparable situation that occured when the SAB-system was created. The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine the Swedish library sector´s approach to a new classification system, first to the SAB-system and then to DDC.

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has lately gained popularity throughout the globalized world. Swedish retail industry is no exception. Though increased levels of explicitly claimed responsibilities of companies, a number of other facts points out a development that contradicts this trend. Labour conditions and forms of employment is substantially retrograding, with an increased level of insecurity characterizing the Swedish retail labour market. At the same time, almost all Swedish retail companies explicitly state claims on social responsibility.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the two thinning models: Bergvik Skog´s thinning model, which is based on total stems and dominant height, And Swedish forest agency´s thinning model which is based on basal area, habitat index, dominant height and recommended number of stems at final felling in Heureka´s StandWise and PlanWise. The data we chosen for our study were taken from the Swedish National Forest Inventory and we were creating a simulated stand based on a great number of sample plots in Region three from The Swedish National Forest Inventory. We had chosen to create one stand with low habitat index (T20) and one with high habitat index (T24). Our purpose were to come as close as possible to a natural stand in central Sweden. We performed the thinning in StandWise and analyzed the data I Excel files. Our thinning optimizing´s were performed and analyzed in PlanWise. There wasn´t any big differences between the thinning on the lower habitat index.

No abstract.

This thesis intends to examine the role of the city, Dublin, in the Irish economic growth during the 1990s. It is a case study where Dublin is compared with current theories on post modern cities as growth machines and increasingly prominent actors in the global context. The study has an interdisciplinary approach but focuses on political science issues such as power distribution, global-local governance and local political organisation. It is a theory driven study that also intends to add aspects to the understanding of the cities of our time. I argue that Dublin has faced a lot of changes during the last decades in accordance with the post modern city.

Bakgrund: Globaliseringen leder till att länder i allt högre utsträckning konkurrerar med varandra om uppmärksamhet, respekt och tillit från investerare, turister, konsumenter, donatorer, invandrare och media. Ett kraftfullt och positivt varumärke utgör därför en viktig konkurrensfördel. Varumärkesprofilering och branding, är de sätt på vilka en organisation kommunicerar, särskiljer och symboliserar sig själva gentemot sina kunder/klienter. National Branding är samma sak, men för ett land. Argumentet för National Branding är, i dagens globaliserade värld, att det finns en acceptans för konkurrens mellan länder för att erhålla uppmärksamhet av världen och dess tillgångar.

Examensarbetet syftar till att jämföra nya alternativ till olika system för användning i laborationer i reglerteknikkurser för olika studentkategorier. Det skall utredas vilket av ett antal alternativ till mjukvaruplattformar som är bäst lämpat att användas vid reglerteknikundervisningen i ITN:s reglerlaboratorium vid Linköpings universitet. Tidigare laborationer i berörda kurser skall även modifieras så att dessa kan genomföras i de nya systemen.Examensarbetet resulterade i en rad modifierade laborationer och system att tillämpa i dessa. De nya systemen medför att all reglering sköts direkt från en dator istället för tidigare variant med externa apparater som programmeras. På så sätt kan större fokus läggas på regleringen i sig och inte de system som tillämpas för att utföra den..

The works of an employee within an authority involves many laws and rules that have to be followed at the same time every case is unique and the resources are limited. This study wants to illustrate how national environmental goals are applied by länsstyrelserna in Sweden. How does the implementation of the environmental goals works by länsstyrelserna in Blekinge, Skåne and Örebro län? Which problems creates obstacles in the implementation of the environmental goals according to länsstyrelserna? What differs between länsstyrelserna in the implementation? Mainly it is the complexity of problems that will be illustrated here, which may result in different implementation sof the environmental goals by länsstyrelserna or that the environmentalgoals do not applys like intended. In this study sixteen national environmentalgoal are examined; ?fresh air?.

In order to facilitate trade between EU members, the European Committee has created regulations that will govern supervision of organic products. Every regulatory agency shall, according to the European Committees regulations, carry out a risk classification of each organic producer they regulate. This study for The National Food Administration compares regulation of Swedish organic products with other countries, and aims to produce a simplified model based on risk that can be the beginning of the risk classification model that Sweden in the current situation don?t have. The thesis is based on three questions: 1) What criteria should we use for assigning organic food producers? 2) How do selected European countries and frontrunners rate organic producers and what can Sweden learn from them? 3) How might a national classification model of organic production look in order to ensure an equivalent level of regulation and prevent competition among private inspection bodies? A review of information gathered from the different countries gave differing results.

The aim of this paper is to expand the debate on globalization and its consequences from a theoretical perspective emphasizing social processes of exclusion and inclusion. I explore these social processes in dialogue with the Spanish social movement for the rights of irregular immigrants. The paper also aims to explore new forms of resistance in the context of globalization."The declinist thesis" argues that globalization has lead to a declining importance of the nation-state and the national citizenship as guarantees of rights. "The anti-declinist thesis" oppose to this picture arguing that rights still depend on national policies. I also discuss the functions of exclusion and inclusion inherited in the concepts of citizenship and nation-state.I outline the historical and political context of the movement and explore the ideas and organizational dimensions of the movement's "knowledge praxis".I conclude that national citizenship - in a broader sense as a description of the relationship between the individual and the state - seems to play a crucial role in the life situation and the possibilities of irregular migrants to organize and protest.