The primary purpose of this thesis is to investigate the operation of membership criteria, which are applied against countries that wish to join the European Union (EU). More specifically, the importance of some criteria in comparison to others is considered. To answer this proposal, three questions are posed: What are the EU membership criteria? Are some criteria more important than other criteria? Does the EU treat candidate countries differently in applying the membership criteria? Three countries are used in this analysis, each country representing one recent enlargement round: Poland (2004), Romania (2007), and current candidate country Turkey. Both official documents, such as EU treaties, and unofficial documents such as statements from EU leaders are used to analyze the application of membership criteria.

Eleven years after broking the Kyoto-protocol, the European Union still stands in the front line, combating climate change. How come the EU, with 27 diversified states, is able to integrate its members to what is widely considered the most progressive climate policy in the world? This thesis takes a closer look at the negotiations that have shaped EU climate policy. Using negotiation-models to categorize different aspects of EU climatenegotiations, several key-findings are presented. The thesis concludes that while EU entered the Kyoto-protocol with little to lose because of external factors like previous energy-reforms in key member countries, it had plenty to win in global influence and the satisfaction of an overwhelmingly Kyoto-positive public.

The law which makes the purchase, or the attempt to purchase, temporary sexual services a criminal offence has been implemented in Sweden for more than six years. It appears as if very few, possibly no, sex-selling women have used the law to report men who have bought their services during these years. How can this be understood? With this thesis I suggest a new way of thinking on agency. A way which questions the traditional view on action whereby agency equals to act in certain, predefined ways.

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.

The crucial factor for successful municipal climate work is that there are driving forces. Most importantly is that the senior officials and politicians in the municipality are dedicated to the cause considering that they have the power to influence and make a change. Besides proactive and committed individuals, it is necessary that the work is organized and anchored by clear and concrete documents and control systems. It is also important that the work is continuously monitored and evaluated. To collaborate with other municipalities, authorities or participate in various networks is another factor contributing to the improved climate work in the form of exchange of information, knowledge and experience.A major driving force for municipalities to improve themselves is the distribution of state aid and grants.

This thesis was conducted at SverigeGrepen in Vänge-Körlinge, Uppsala, Sweden.SverigeGrepen is a family business that develops and manufactures a few different parts of different kinds of products. My task is to come up with a good idea that facilitates the coupling of trailers, i.e. from an idea to a fully functioning prototype. The product is intended for use by all customers for all kinds of trailers. The actual goal of the work is to develop a full prototype that you can install and use in the easiest way possible, a prototype that follows the specifications.

Social networks have increased significantly during the latest decades, but what does the cooperation include and how does the network processes look like? Networks are not specific for communities in the 2000?s or for that matter human organisations, but the ability to build networks and introduce more actors to the organisation have become easier with today?s communication technology. The study is about the Norrköping Municipality membership in the transnational network Sweden Emilia Romagna Network (SERN). It gives an insight into how networking and cooperation can be seen by politicians and officials, based on mission statements and the reason why a municipality choose to participate in transnational networks. The study aims to examine how Norrköping Municipality uses the SERN network and what the network have resulted in since the beginning of the municipality membership in 2005. It is a qualitative study which involves interviews with officials and politicians from the Municipality of Norrköping and textual material from SERN?s strategy documents and policies.

?CSR and political consumption ? a study of Nike?s and Puma?s CSR-reports?The purpose of this dissertation is to examine if political consumption has influenced multinational corporations to improve their Corporate Social Responsibility reports and policies more, than a company who has not been a target for political consumption.This dissertation is a content analysis of Nike?s and Puma?s first (Nike 2001, Puma 2001) and latest (Nike 2007/09, Puma 2007/08) CSR- reports. Archie Carroll?s model of Corporate Social Responsibility is used as theoretical framework in this study. The model is used to focus on four areas within CSR; economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic.

The purpose of this study is to investigate childrens possibilities to retrieve information by searching in searching engines designed for children. Two such search engines are examined: Yahooligans and Kids Click, both of which index pages in English only. I have compared Yahooligans with its equivalence for adults; Yahoo, by evaluating the retrieval effectiveness. Some functions in Kids Click and in Yahooligan are investigated. Seven class room studies are described in the prior research chapter.

AbstractThe aim of the present study was to investigate if and how pre-school teachers reach the objectives in the national curriculum concerning the environmental issues.Another angle of this study is to find out if there are any involvement amongst the preschools regarding the environmental issues and if the teachers encourage the children to join in and make them a part of discussion.I have randomly chosen 10 preschools throughout Sweden and interviewed one staff-member from each school. Most of the preschools were well aware of the goals to follow according to the national curriculum.After comparing the answers my conclusion is that preschools act quite differently concerning environmental issues. Some worked almost exclusively with the children involved. Others occasionally involved the children whereas a few didn?t include the children at all.In every case the teachers would want to dedicate more time to environmental issues.

The main purpose of our paper is to reconstruct the intervention logic of the Swedish government's proposal to introduce a tax deduction for homework help. Furthermore, we also intend to outline the perceived impacts of this tax deduction in the municipality of Linköping. Our material consists of the government bill regarding the tax deduction, the parliamentary debate which preceded it as well as interviews with key people in the municipality of Linköping. In our study and in the light of Matthew Clarke?s theory of neo-liberalism within education policy, we also ask ourselves if the intervention logic behind the tax deduction and its perceived effects can be seen as a manifestation of neo-liberalism.

The aim of this thesis is to study perceptions around the freedom of movement of workers within the EU before and after its enlargement in 2004, both on a Swedish and a European level. I have chosen to conduct my study using a discourse analysis as a structure for my theory and method. Theories based on previous research have also been used. My material consists of Communications from the European Commission, Swedish Command Papers as well as a research report. One of the main findings is that at a Swedish level, there is concern about how the free movement of workers will affect the labour market and welfare system.

Rental rates and land prices have gone through substantial changes the last two decades. The prices have both gone up and down since 1990 but from 1995 to 2008 land prices increased with 272 percent and rental rates with 61 percent. What factors that have the largest impact on rental rates and land prices are hard to determine but factors that may affect the price are the desire to live in the countryside and the expected profitability in agriculture. Prices of products and inputs are factors that affect the profitability in agriculture, but the profitability is also affected by agricultural policies. The economic for Swedish agriculture have changed several times over the last 20 years as a result of changing agricultural policies.The agricultural policies largely affect farmers behavior and decisions.

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.

This study examines how Qatar and Russia utilize football as an instrument of foreign-policy. While previous reasearch has primarily focused on mega-events, such as the Olympic games and the FIFA World Cup, this thesis expands the scope by analyzing how footbal functions as a strategic tool for nation branding in both countries. The study employs a comparative qualitative case study appraoch, based on Simon Anholt?s nation branding framework, modified to include four dimensions instead of six. The analysis demonstrates that both Qatar and Russia leverage football to advance their foreign policy objectives, but in markedly different ways.