The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine whether the term elasticity is relevant and functional to apply to public library organisations. Another aim of the thesis is to relate the term elasticity to public library organisations in a Network Society. Sociologist Manuel Castells provide the theoretical framework on the Network Society. Three investigations (meant to complement each other) in two Swedish public libraries seek to give answers to these questions.To be able to examine which areas of public library activity are elastic, I make a rough definition of what public library organisations consist of ? nine activity fields are identified using IFLA?s guidelines in combination with Swedish law of public libraries.

AbstractTitle: Network communication for equal opportunities (Nätverkskommunikation för jämställdhet)Number of pages: 47 (54 with enclosures)Author: Hillevi GoodTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse: Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring Semester 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityAim: The aim of this essay is to study the possibilities to bring about change by the means of communication in two networks, focusing on the implementation of the Swedish Equal Opportunities Act.Material and method: The study draws on data collected in an electronic survey among representatives of two networks consisting of representatives from trade unions and employer?s associations. The material is analyzed using descriptive tools, cross tables and correlation matrices in which general characteristics as well as individual understandings of the network communication are presented and discussed.Main results: The general results indicate that the network communication serves important purposes, such as providing support and motivation for the members and changing attitudes towards equal opportunities. The analysis suggests that the network members have good communicative possibilities to serve as agents of change within their organisations. Moreover, there is an observed relation between, on the one hand, organizational context and, on the other hand, the network members? own communicational behaviour and their experienced possibility to influence their organizations.Keywords: network communication, diffusion of innovations, behaviour change, Equal Opportunities Act.

This study intends to illuminate women?s experiences of their own self-harm. Self-harm is mostly associated with women and research shows that women mostly are over-represented. This study describes women?s experiences about their self-harm but also how they perceive the elements around them during their illness.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine literature on current media events. We see a close relationship between this literature and the media society where we relate Manuel Castells theory of the Network Society. In this thesis we have chosen books which give different views on three major media events in Sweden: 1 the assassination of Anna Lindh, the former Swedish Minister for foreign Affairs; 2 the Knutby murder and; 3 the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. These books combine fact and fiction in their writing which in media science is called faction. This form of writing has similarities to genres like new journalism and documentarism and can be problematic for the reader in terms of genre expectations because of the mix of fact and fiction.

In this paper, a small business network with around 30 users is analyzed with respect to security, performance and usability. Based on this analysis, two suggestions on how to solve the problems listed are given. The first suggestion focus on keeping a low budget, while the other tries to deal with the problems more thoroughly. One advantage of the first suggestion is, in addition to not straining the company's budget more than nessecary, it does not involve too great changes in the way the network is used and administered. On the other hand, the smaller budget leads to certain compromises, and there is a risk that similar problems occur again if, for example, the company would grow.

The intention with the research was to investigate the role of civil society in the Kenyan democratization process. The research intends thus to analyze (1) the role of civil society in Kenya's transition to democracy (1990- 2002), and (2) the role of civil society in the further democratization process (2002- 2013).The results of the research demonstrates that the role of civil society played a crucial role in Kenya?s transition to democracy given that civil society provided with a multiparty- system in 1991. In addition, civil society endowed with education for citizens in order to attain constitutional reforms. As a result, Kenya accomplished a transition to democracy in 2002.

Destination branding is becoming increasingly acknowledged by regions working with tourism. Underlying is the fragmented web of actors in the supply chain of which the tourism product consists of. The main purpose of our thesis was, from a management perspective, to gain an understanding and describing how a network and the actors within it can build a consistent brand. We therefore chose to make a case study research on The Kingdom of Chrystal, or Glasriket, which is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Sweden. Our research is based on theoretical and empirical data.

The aim of this study has been to examine the role of control mechanisms when it comes to building relationships in a small business network. In order to reach this goal, we have performed a case study of a Swedish supplier of machines to the engineering industry, which acts as the exclusive representative of a foreign manufacturer on the Swedish market. Main results: A number of control mechanisms, both formal and informal, could be identified in the network. Their specific use, as well as relative importance differ between different actors in the network. In general, the importance of formal control mechanisms decreases as the relationship evolves over time and the importance of informal ones, mainly trust, increases in a corresponding manner..

This thesis follows a qualitative method and aim to describe firms? international business at an emerging market seen from a network perspective. The purpose of the thesis is to study in what way business relations and networks influence the process of internationalization and describe the way in which companies handle the external network in relation to acquisitions. Further does our purpose include analyzing if a firm?s network may be the main factor for why international business occurs.

Sekretessbelagd.

The main ambition of this degree project is to illustrate the fundamental problems of today?s electric tariff regulation and the usage of the analyzing tool; The Network Tariff Model. There is a further discussion of potential problems and clear improvements of the 2012 years proposed network tariff regulation. Interviews have been conducted with specific network companies and Energimarknadsinspektionen. The proposed regulation of 2012 is discussed from the government?s proposition.This paper clearly shows that the authority´s work has been conducted in a very unprofessional manner during the period of The Network Tariff Model.

Moldova is one of Europe?s poorest countries with a struggling business environment and an unpredictable political situation. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the implications of corruptions and why networks have come to play a key role in the Moldovan culture and if the formations of network are due to heritage or an effect of functionalism. The focus of the study is also to explain how the networks develop and the formation and maintenance of loyalty and trust among the members of the network. The study is of a qualitative nature that uses a key informant sampling method to get access to members of different business networks.

Den här rapporten beskriver en experimentell studie av Microsoft Network Protection (NAP) och är ämnad för att utvärdera hur mogen tekniken är för att implementeras i en aktiv nätverksmiljö. För att göra studien tog vi hjälp av gymnasieskolan John Bauer i Kalmar. Tester har utförts med DHCP-framtvingning och 802. 1x-framtvingning, dessa är två av NAPs fyra olika framtvingande funktioner. En mindre analys av skolans switchkonfigurationer och interna säkerhet har även gjorts på John Bauers begäran.

Den klassiska approachen till navigering innefattar att agenten håller en intern representativ modell av omgivningen. Denna approach har emellertid många nackdelar, speciellt för dynamiska miljöer. En modernare approach är att förlita sig på den faktiska omgivningen istället för en modell av denna. Detta arbete presenterar en undersökning av navigeringsproblemet och hur väl det löses av agenter vars kontrollmekanismer utgörs artificiella neurala nätverk. Tillförlitligheten hos de två neurala arkitekturerna Extended sequential cascaded network och Self-organized recurrent network bestäms genom experiment.

AbstractTitel: Ur elden in i askan. En kvalitativ studie om det sociala nätverkets betydelse för ensamkommande barnKeywords: unaccompanied refugee children, social network, risk and resilience, social work.Authors: Karin Bodå och Leila Silva The main purpose of this study is to illuminate and describe the importance of having a social network for unaccompanied refugee children in Sweden. Using qualitative interviews this study looks at their possibilities to create a social network in Sweden and how their network helps them to solve problems. Knowledge of this subject is important for social workers, in order to be able to encourage and help unaccompanied refugee children to build a social network. The base for our analysis is attachment theory, coping theory, social network theory, KASAM theory, risk and resilience theory, system theory are used to give deeper insight into experiences of four unaccompanied refugee boys.