The aim of this thesis is to spread some light over the coming into being of the 2005 Pension Reform in Norway. The point of departure lies within an interest in Welfare State politics and the development in this field. Pensions constitute a cornerstone in the Welfare State. Making use of J. Kingdon´s Theory of the Agenda Setting Process, Discourse Theory and Institutional Theory the thesis seek to visualize the implications of structures, central actors and discourses on the reform processes.

Rural development in Southeast Sweden- three different views and their consequences for the agrarian landscapeThis paper deals with the future for the rural areas of the southeast province of Östergötland, Sweden. The aim is to unveil, analyse and compare different views on rural development and their consequences for the agrarian landscape. Three views are considered, namely that of the different levels of Governments and their departments, that of the farmers and landowners and, finaly, that of the inhabitants of the rural areas.Differences in the views upon rural development is reflected in differences in the ways of thinking of landscapes. Is the open, and actively cultivated, landscape the ideal for all? Who is to decide what needs or ought to be done to achieve certain desired values and/or goals ? and who pays for it? The one thing that is, and should be, clear from the beginning is that all development, whether positive or negative in an area, bears consequences for the landscape.

A recent trend in the technological evolution has been to increase the mobility of the end-user. A contributing factor is the fast rate of improvement in the smartphone area. This, in turn, has changed the expectations end-users have on the availability of services, which has allowed mobile applications, apps, to find their place in everyday life.This study has been conducted at Scania?s Fleet Management department that offers a web-based service where haulage contractors can administer, monitor and follow up on their vehicle fleets. The purpose of this study was to investigate if Scania?s existing web service should be extended into the mobile area, and if so, what organizational and technical challenges app development imposes.

The focus of this essay is Swedish bilateral development aid. With the help of organization theory I analyse the development aid strategies and policies of the 1990s, in order to examine how and why they were introduced. I investigate three different types of aid organization, namely structural adjustment programmes, political conditionality tied to aid co-operation, and equality policy as part of development co-operation. I analyze the introduction and subsequent use of these three co-operation forms to see whether they were applied and adopted into Swedish development aid because more efficient measures were required or because they were the most recent and modern ways of dealing with development co-operation.Organization theory presents these two ways of analyzing organization. They are occasionally competing and sometimes complementing each other in explaining organization.

If one looks at physical planning in Sweden today one can see that while talking about densification of existing development, reduced emissions and careful use of important land, urban sprawl is a fact with development of sheer residential districts in the urban edges and shopping malls in each and every municipality. As sustainable development is an essential goal for physical planning to strive towards, it is worth questioning if the direction of today?s planning will lead to the goal. A sustainable development can be seen as an obvious to goal aim at. In reality the aim means a hard and complex work.

The idea to create authentic learning situations where students are highly integrated made me want to try to develop a new method in the course Restaurant and Catering B MAKU 1208 (another field practicing cuisine). In my quest to do just the practical part as rewarding, stimulating and efficient as possible for the student, I planned for a training model with   focus on group interaction.The implementation of the model for learning was to strengthen students confidence both in themselves and in each other, stimulated to greater cooperation and it has also provided an incentive to the student's own development but not least, a growing self-confidence for many students. Several have also had an increased sense of knowing something, to have something to contribute and that their labour input actually was needed. While highlighting that further education to seek knowledge strengthens the individual's skills and consolidates and increases deeper knowledge in the professional field.In conclusion, training should be done in both individual and group basis for optimal learning process..

Abstract                - ?Mergers and acquisitions ? How does the integration process affect the result in mergers and acquisitions?Date:                              May 31st 2012Level:                             Master thesis in Business administration, 15 ECTSInstitution:                  School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, Mälardalen UniversityAuthors:                       Mikael Hansson              15th May 1984                                         Jani Timonen                   12th June 1983Title:                              Mergers and acquisitions ? How does the integration process affect the result in mergers and acquisitionsTutor:                             Staffan BoströmKeywords:                   Mergers, acquisitions, synergies, cultural, competitive advantage, integrating, stakeholder theory and institutional theoryResearch questions:                   How has the integration process affected the outcome of the acquisition of Jokab and what can ABB do differently in future acquisitions?Purpose:                       The purpose of this master thesis is to identify the factors that affect a merger or an acquisition and the factors that make the integration process a success or failure.Method:                       The method used in this study is based on systems theory, this means that reality is explained as objective and completely as possible. The study is qualitative in nature, in which a deeper understanding of the subject mergers and acquisitions wants to be achieved. The study uses an abductive approach and the data used was both from primary and secondary sources.Conclusion:     The result of the study shows that the integration process is influenced by several factors. The most important factors from the acquirer are to have a time schedule, clear communication and a person in charge of the integration process.

The study aims to illustrate how women victims of male violence in intimate relationships are treated during the legal process and with professional perspective describe what women?s experiences considered to be in the legal process. The study also aims to draw attention to the interventions for abused women during the legal process.The results are based on interviews with professionals in the justice system, and on observations in the courtroom. Overall our results show that abused women are in need of a great quantity of help and support before, during and after the negotiation. The legal process is very stressful for the women.

AbstractThis paper discusses how system development methods today support communication between system developers and their customers and end users. Today there are many system development methodologies with different aims and emphases. It is difficult, however, to find among these methods those who promote good and effective communication with customers because so many of these are very technically rooted and not as much directed towards the soft aspects of systems development - i.e. Human aspects. Our own experiences tells that a simple interview can be initialized without us having an idea what to ask the customer about or how to structure it up - nonetheless it?s done, but the outcome is just chance.

The purpose of this study is to investigate ethnic discrimination in the recruitment process. National and international law protect individuals from ethnic discrimination by potential employers during the recruitment process.Despite the laws in place to protect human rights, minorities in society do not have the same opportunities in the labor market as the rest of the population. Minorities continue to have difficulties compared to Swedish nationals in the recruiting process. Highly educated immigrants seeking employment in Sweden continue to report being treated unfairly based on their ethnic background.Ethnic discrimination in the recruiting process is based on prejudice and stereotypes that affect decisions whether it is visible or hidden, intentional or unintentional.Under the law, it is not legal to base a decision on prejudices or stereotypes. Therefore, it is important for the employer to highlight the job requirements to ensure the recruitment process is ethical.

The project in question is a joint effort between students at Karlstad University and Marcus Norström at the company Hovercraft solutions. The project is divided into two parts, one focusing on the purely technical aspects of engineering the product and one focusing on the design aspects of the product development. The project described in this report is the design of the product. The assignment from Hovercraft solutions is regarding design engineering of a cabin for the hovercraft 380TD from the manufacturer Griffon hovercraft. The product lacks a cabin and none is offered from Griffon at the time being. 380TD is a relatively small hovercraft with a length of 6.8 metres and a width of 3.8 metres.The surface available for the cabin is not much different from the body of a car.Because of this, research has been focused primarily on car bodies.The product development process used in the project is following a systematic approach.From a chosen concept, the project was finalized with a CAD-modell as well as a detailed prototype.The weight target of 80 kg was reached and the ergonomic aspects were considered developing the sight field, roof- and entrance height.    .

The objective for this Master?s thesis is to study literary programs for infants at six Swedish public libraries, their relevance and importance for infants and how the infant?s perspective in the program design and implementation is taken into consideration. The questions I pose are: In which way do the programs take the infants need for development and their literary prerequisites into consideration? Which functions can the programs have for infants? I have used a qualitative method, based on deep interviews with six library staff, working with literary programs. A model was developed based upon Daniel Stern?s theories of the interpersonal world of the infant together with Joseph Appleyard?s reading development theory.

Objective: The aim of this work is to find out how a number of educators work when giving children support and opportunities for language development.Questions:What have preschool for policy to monitor/assess the children?s language development?What experiences do teachers have of children who need support in language development?How do educator?s regard support from specialised educator?s? Do these efforts support the children to enhance language development?Methods: Qualitative methodology, Interviews with six teachers and two specialised educators from three kindergartens in the municipality.Summary of conclusions: The municipality in which the survey was conducted has a document that provides guide lines on how to work with children?s language development in school and preschool. Pedagogical documentation is a tool that teachers use in nursery school which educators and parents can follow, which shows children?s learning processes and learn strategies. Research shows that through play, music, creative activities, photos, etc.

The aim of this study was to analyze the assessment of the primary school, from the teacher?s perspective. There has been an ongoing discussion regarding assessment and about the purposes of assessment for a long time. But there is a paucity of research on what teachers believe about. This study examined primary teachers? beliefs on major purposes of assessment.Assessment is the process of gathering and interpreting information about students? learning.

This Master of Science thesis is conducted at the faculty Integrated Product Development at theRoyal Institute of Technology and in cooperation with EssNet Interactive AB, both situated inStockholm. In the report the final results and the road to get there is described as well as thedesign process and how the process is used to obtain the goal of this thesis.The author of this thesis has developed the design and the function of an interactive videoterminal (IVT) and by using semantics created an encouraging gaming design. The projectspurpose was to change the anonymous withheld shape and produce an experience of gamingmachine that has been absent. The work was aimed to answer the question: How does oneproceed to develop the IVT and by using semantics creating an understanding of gamingmachine?In general the author wants to show that small changes, with the help of design and its signals,can completely change the overall picture of a product.