The aim of this master thesis is to analyze how and why Scandinavian-American history has been used in exhibitions in both Scandinavia and the United States after the end of the Great Migration. More specifically, the thesis deals with the Swedish and American exhibitions of the controversial Kensington Rune Stone, discovered in Minnesota in 1898. Despite the fact that its authenticity has been disputed by academic expertise, it has been displayed by many prominent actors. The Rune Stone is one of many purportedly pre-Columbian artifacts found in the United States. Moreover, it is an identity marker, harboring many kinds of identity constructions. The thesis therefore focuses on the meanings that the Rune Stone has been charged with since its discovery, as historical culture and in specific exhibits, on how it has been displayed, and on why it has been exhibited at  national museums in both Sweden and the United States. The principal source materials are five exhibitions of the Kensington Rune Stone.

The purpose of this study was to examine what previous research says about children?s experiences living in a low-income family. Its aim was to found out what children themselves say about their life living in a low-income family and what consequences, practical and emotional, low-income environment has on children. More specifically our aim was to find out how children themselves experienced their situation compared with their peer?s economical situation.

In this thesis I discuss about economical and political transition in countries that is consecutively being induced by influential external actors. Looking closer on the role of the EU as a dynamic transitional force, with the intention of examining to what extent the EU can pursuit its interest and modify the economical as well as the political structures of transition countries. With relations to four transition states on the Western Balkans, more precise Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro and Macedonia (FYROM), I have examined the influential position of the EU. Another feature that is discussed is the approach of the EU and the cause of it in respect to the Western Balkans. Since the end of the crises in Kosovo the EU was given the leading roll in stabilizing and reconstructing the Western Balkans.

The purpose of this paper is to study how the TV program Border Security: Australia?s FrontLine (Gränsbevakarna Australien) can be seen to reproduce networks of human and non-human actors. The aim is thus to investigate how boundaries between nations are upheld and how people, as a consequence, are discoursively categorized and what preconditions this create for people?sidentity- and meaning-making practices.The theoretical and methodical framework is built upon Bruno Latour?s work on Actor-Network-Theory, and discourse analysis inspired by Michel Foucault. The empirical material consists of two episodes of the TV program.

The difference between the public sector and the private sector in Sweden was once very small. These sectors have been united as well for the people, the organizations as for the finances. During the 1960´s and 1970´s the public sector in Sweden was expanding and after the 1980´s the people started talking more about an expanding private sector instead. The year of 2007 Hökarängen Hemtjänst Ekonomisk Förening submitted a tender to Äldreförvaltningen about a purchase of the home- help service in Hökarängen and they accept there tender.Exposing public organization for competition can be a good way to make sure that most value for the money is created and that it generates the most cost- effective organizations. The motivation factor is used to describewhat makes people perform more than what is expected of them.The purpose of this study is to describe and explain similarities and differences in working- motivation between those how are members of Hökarängen Hemtjänst Ekonomisk Förening and those how are not.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine why graduates in librarian- and information science are employed by private companies. An initial explanation could be the influence of information technology and its impact on the librarian. A second factor relates to how employers regard the librarian outside the confines of the traditional labour market. The study is primarily based upon qualitative interviews with representatives of Swedish companies who have employed librarians since 1993, the year that the education achieved third level academic recognition. Theoretically we relied upon Manuel Castells discussion on the rise of the information society and its influence on companies and the labour market.

BackgroundAccording to the Swedish Statistics Central Office (SCB) there were 2 064 000 detached houses in Sweden in 2009. The same year Nordea Bank released a report which described an increased interest in private finances among 2,4 million Swedes. Within the area of private finances lies that which concerns real estate. We argue that a house (detached house) is one of the most financially valuable assets a person will ever own and thus the increased interest in private finance is justified.In regard to this, the financial valuation of the property becomes an issue. When discussed, people mostly refer to the market value, which is the estimated value of the property on the open market.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine ideas used to legitimate Swedish digital libraries, with a focus on the cultural heritage, their relation to cultural policy and an eventual crisis within the latter. Which ideas are linked to digitalisation? How do the arguments for creating digital libraries differ between central actors? How do the digital libraries relate to cultural policy and an eventual legitimacy crisis? These are the questions this thesis seeks to answer. The theoretical starting-point consists of a legitimacy discussion and its connection to Swedish cultural policy. The method used is idea analysis.

Abstract Title: We are equal. A study of cultural differences and professionalism in international projects.Level: Thesis for Master Degree in Business Administration.Author: Zahra AhmadiSupervisor: Lars EkstrandDate: 2012-05The purpose of my study is to analyze and examine it well-educated people can reduce the cultural differences in interaction with other actors around the world. Part of aims study surveys and analyzes to understand how educated people can communicate and facilitate communication in order to achieve the goals and motivation in international collaboration. Problems can arise from cultural differences in connection with that persons face in society and in international collaboration. In this study, I assume theoretical framework that exists in cultural and communication theme and professionalism to find common objectives within educated groups.Method: The purpose of this study, I have chosen to use a qualitative approach.

Corporations meet complex challenges as they operate on a global market. Global multidimensional problems are referred to wicked problems and which cannot be solved only managed. In this case, of certified palm oil, palm oil production can be seen as a wicked problem due to deforestation of rainforest, land grabbing and social conflicts. There are also conflicts regarding the value and interest of palm oil. This thesis investigates the Swedish transformation for certified palm oil and how actors in the Swedish food market address this transformation to have certified palm oil in their production. The aim of this thesis is to explain enabling factors to address the governance gap of ethical sourcing in the food industry.

I am in this essay to find out how to successfully combine new development with preservation of natural values, mainly large scale vegetation and ground formations.This is done by studies of three developments. The first development, Engeltofta backe, lies 7 km northeast of Gävle. The expectations of natural preservation were not fullfilled when this area, after the explotation, did not have any vegetation of value left. The second example, Östra Kvarnskogen in the community of Sollentuna, shows, as far as one can tell at the moment, a sucsessful combination of new development and preserved nature. The third example is a development in the community of Kullön. In this area the ambition of combining preservation and development was fullfilled. After studying vital documentation in each planning process, I made interviews with different actors in each of the three processes. I thereafter compared the different documents and answers from the interviewed persons to find out if there were any significant similarities or differences which could be of importence when natural values is to be preserved in new developments. My conclusion of this study is that it is of great importence to define key expressions often used in the process, such as natural values and preservation.

In this report listed buildings, according to the Swedish Heritage Conservation Act, have been studied with a focus on cases where economical compensation has been given to the owner of the building and cases where the listing of the building has been appealed by the owner. In order for a building to become listed it needs to be particularly valuable from a cultural and historical standpoint. The listed buildings are protected through a list of regulations that determines which parts of the building can or cannot be changed, what methods and materials should be used for changes and repairs, and how the building should be maintained. These regulations should as far as possible be formulated in agreement with the owner, but a building can become listed against the owners will. To decrease the damage this causes the owner he can in some cases have the right to economical compensation. There is also a possibility for the owner to appeal the listing of the building.

This report studies how the divergence between men and women is manifested in the physical space and how the representation of room recreates this divergence. Spaces are coded and women have traditionally been associated with private space and men with public space, leading to that the home is encoded as female space and public squares as male space. Thereby women lack a natural place in public space. The National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket) wants to change this situation by enforcing safety-creating measures based on gender equality theories.I have studied what potential risks the project initiated by Boverket as well as discuss the potential problems with representation. Can representation be used without freezing the space? I also search for methods for working with a gender perspective without reproducing gender stereotypes and roles and avoiding encoding the private as female and public as male? Also I use a public seminar with urban planners, artists and architects to retrieve how we work with these issues today.I conclude that city planning needs to incorporate new strategies of thought that does not divide space, e.g.

The construction and use of buildings in the EU accounts for half of the EU?s extracted materials and energy consumptions, and a third of greenhouse gas emissions. In the past decade, the construction sector has responded to such concerns by focusing on post production energy efficiency. However, new findings indicate that upstream construction processes influence emissions significantly ? necessitating a shift in focus to include material choices and building processes.

The overall aim is to examine how the European Union Water Framework Directive has affected the local water management in the catchment Märstaån situated in the eastern part of the lake Mälaren river basin, Sweden. The first part of the study gives an historical overview of the area with focus on how the old agricultural landscape was handling the nutrient load from farming activities by means of different kinds of wetlands. By using the concept of the procedural landscape, introduced by Torsten Hägerstrand , together with historical maps with dates starting from the 17th century, the pre-modern landscape is analyzed.  The second part is an investigation, based on qualitative data, on how the different actors in the catchment area work together to secure the water quality for the Märstaån river. The analysis shows that the Märstaån catchment river systems are mostly unchanged in the rural areas.  The exception is the mainstream section of the Märstaån river running partly underground today and the Halmsjöbäcken river that is heavily affected by the Arlanda airport situated within the catchment area.