Background: Competence development has become more important since the pressure on effectiveness is increasing and organisations are expected to constantly improvement. The design of the competence development activities is governed by the strategy which in turn will affect the outcome of the same. A knowledge intense business in which changes recently have taken place is healthcare, a business in which competition also has increased as a result from globalization. Due to this, it is highly important to take care of and improve the competence of individuals. According to this, we have found that healthcare is an interesting business to study with regard to competence development.

The aim with my research is to illuminate the meaning of IKEAs settle in Haparanda, for the region Haparanda-Tornio, its economic growth and its inhabitants. The research has been carried out only through qualitative methods. Some interviews with a range of people from varying companies have been conducted.Haparanda is a smaller Swedish city situated in the north, on the border to Finland and to a city called Tornio. These two cities, Haparanda and Tornio, has realised they are stronger in pairs, so they initiated cooperation across the border. Haparanda-Tornio is not a region of historically welfare and well-being.

This essay presents and discusses a study that was performed in a multicultural school, where the teachers, since August 2004, have obtained internal training in how to work with language development. The objective with this essay is to investigate how the connection between language development and the development of knowledge can be understood and apprehended by teachers working in this school, and furthermore, to show how a language developing way of work can be accomplished in the teachers daily work.Moreover, I have studied which objectives and strategies, the three language developers in charge of the training of the teachers, have concerning this work, furthermore I have looked into if these objectives and strategies differ from what the teachers understand and practically perform.Pauline Gibbons book, Stärk språket, stärk lärandet (2006), has become a base for this school?s work when it comes to language development. Gibbons presents theories and practical exercises which have their origin from Vygotskij, Halliday and Cummins. Their theories have also become my theoretical base in this study.I have made qualitative interviews with four teachers working in this school, and with one of the language developers.

The state of Israel is known as the only democracy in the Middle East. The purpose of this study was to examine if there is aspects in the Israelis society that can be questioned in terms of liberal democracy.Areas of concerns in the study are the Israeli official policy's concerning inclusion and exclusion of their citizens in areas of property owning, personal status and the duty of military service.The results show that the Israeli society distinguishes their citizens in these areas by their ethnic origin, in favour for the Jewish population. The law prohibits changes in the states Jewish character. One clear example how this is presented is that a Jew is prohibited to marry a non-Jew. The results show also that this official policy by the Israeli state violates important principles of liberal democracy.

AbstractThe overall purpose of this thesis was to investigate to what extent new research findings, in neuroscience and learning, may be useful in a school improvement context. In a qualitative interview study combined with questionnaire, we have investigated the approach to school improvement that exists in a municipality. Informants have been head teachers in preschool and primary school, special education teachers in a student health team and a development manager. The outcome of the study showed that all of the study participants, all of which have a formal mandated to work for school improvement occurs. It also shows that informants, according to their professional position, express different goals when relating to school improvement.

The concept of vulnerability is the capacity or the sensitivity to become damaged. Vulnerability are characterized by one or more of the following terms; a system´s sensitivity to exposure to shock, stress or interference, the state of the system in relations to a threshold of damages, and the system´s ability to adapt to the changing circumstances. Vulnerability in this study is referring to the sensitivity of the circumstances that lead to sustainable livelihood that can´t be maintain and that there is an inability to cope with and manage stress. The choice of making a study in this area is based on that action needs to be taken to moderate the vulnerable aspects of society, in this respect in relations to storms. Analyzes of the social vulnerability to climate change or natural events is needed for effective actions.

This essay is a philosophical investigation of the relation between children and their play. My aim is to see if children are autonomous when it comes to their play. Is there a moral boundary between those who take part in the play and those who do not? This topic is especially important when it comes to the moral status of a child in the Swedish pre-school. How should educationists act when it comes to children?s play?  Through an analysis of the notions of play and autonomy I show that play can be understood as something of a moral value to the child and if children should be seen as autonomous when it comes to their play.

The aim of this study is to find out in which way the education about climate in school is taught and how the students experience the world situation today. There are various theories about the greenhouse effect and its origin and these theories should be addressed to ensure that students get a broader understanding of how climate change occurs. This includes the natural phenomena and also the human impact on climate change. Students in school are a source of concern that only human are the cause of global warming, and know little or almost nothing about the natural phenomena of global warming.  I will mention what has emphasized in the national steering documents in the case of environmental education at school.I have used a qualitative method, where interviews and document analysis were used as techniques. The interviews took place with five students in ninth grade and with three science teachers in the same school..

After World War II a rapid expansion of the Swedish health care took place. Theexpansion was realised chiefly as a development of the hospitals and was bothproduced and financed mainly within the public sector. The financing consisted to ahigh degree of government grants from the state to the county councils.During the period for this examination (1945-1955) the public responsibility for thehealth care was expanded. This was expressed in the publicly financed system forhealth insurance and the cut down in the charges that the patients had to pay for thehospital care. These changes led to some discussions on the national level but reformscould on the whole, with exception for the suggested reform of the open health care,be implemented.This case-study performed on the county council in Värmland shows that the degreeof consensus was enhanced on the regional level.

I dagens samhälle pratas det alltmer om förtätning av städer. Tätare städer ger allt mindre mellanrum mellan bebyggelsestruktur och infrastruktur. Grönstrukturen är ett begrepp som får allt mer utrymme i planeringen och ett mål är att grönstrukturplanering ska få samma självklara plats som till exempel planering av infrastruktur. Denna kandidatuppsats behandlar grönstrukturplanering på regional och kommunal nivå med Landskrona kommun som exempel. I arbetet undersöks begreppet grönstruktur och planeringen av grönstruktur.

The purpose of this study is to contribute with new knowledge of  how Talent Management can be seen as a an opportunity or threat for organizational development, concerning competence, on the basis of HR. The research questions asked are: Out of wich aspects can Talent Management be seen as an opportunity or threat on the basis of HR-employees? How can it affect the work of HR? To answer these questions qualitative interviews with five employees within HR from four different companies has been executed. The essay has been investigated on the basis of an explorative aim and with a qualitative method. The empirical results has indicated common themes such as director support, HRs view of Talent Management, HRs development and shifts of generations.

The design of buildings is today considered to be crucial for obtaining sustainable development. Research concerning sustainable building is considered to be a Swedish area of strength and development projects as Hammarby Sjöstad and Bo01 are often pointed out as Swedish prime examples of sustainable building. Some still argue though, that that these projects should not be presented as sustainable, due to its incompetence to meet their objectives. This contradiction has attracted my curiosity. By doing this study I hope to gain understanding about the difficulties Bo01 and Hammarby Sjöstad are surrounded with and its significance for sustainable development.

Background: Knowledge of customer needs is a key factor in companies? struggle to develop successful products. Several studies illustrate that the main reason for failure in product development is lack of customer understanding. Lately considerable changes have occurred. Large-scale mass production is continuously being replaced by customer orientation, especially in the high technological market.

The aim of this study was to examine how social policy is created in a local context on the basis of the situation regarding the begging EU migrants in Kalmar, Sweden. The last few years the number of begging EU migrants has increased in Sweden. Most of them are Roma with a history of exclusion and discrimination. To reach our goal we interviewed three managers from the social Services representing the local authorities. We also did four interviews with people from three non-profit organizations in Kalmar.

Uppsatsen syftar till att studera regional omsorg om vatten i området Roxen och Glan i Östergötland. Det görs ur olika perspektiv, där det första är ett historiskt bakgrundsperspektiv. Förutom den historiska tillbakablicken berör frågorna i studien, samhälleliga och nutida förhållanden som kan knytas till framtida regional förvaltning. Syftet är just att, i ett historiskt och nutida perspektiv, lyfta fram aspekter på vattenmiljöfrågor i området Roxen och Glan som grund för bedömning av en framtida regional omsorg om vatten. I arbetet har metod och teori samverkat och uppsatsen är i första hand en samhällsvetenskaplig kvalitativ studie.