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.

Public opinion can be shaped as well as transformed in a number of ways. Government authorities occasionally make use of public information campaigns to educate and steer the public. In this thesis the balance between public and private, the individual and the society is analysed in terms of dimensions of individualism and communitarianism. These dissimilar theories on how the society ought to be constructed can be used when analysing many different policy areas, however, they also pinpoint the controversies seen in the public debate regarding Swedish information policy. Based on this analysis an empirical study identifies what kind of knowledge the state wants the citizens to possess and public information campaigns can be problematic.

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the ideological trends and positioning of the Swedish liberal party with the Danish social liberal party. This paper also aims to analyze the reasons behind the trends. By examine the development in these two Nordic liberal sisterparties, this paper contributes to our understanding of why and how party change is initiated. The paper commences with an intuitive notion that the Swedish party has in fact, made a lurch towards the right, during the past ten to fifteen years while the Danish party has retained their social-liberal position in the centre of the Danish political spectrum. The questions then asked are: can this hypothesis be verified empirically? If so, how can this phenomenon of divergence, be explained?The method used in this thesis is process-tracing and the empirical material does to a large extent rely on interviews with central agents as they are specified in the theory of each party.

The main purpose of this study was to study the heredity of osteochondrosis (OC) in fetlock-, hock- or stifle joints within the Swedish half-bred population, using data from the regional animal hospital in Helsingborg. A large number of horses with clinical symptoms, for example lameness, are radiographed every year at the regional animal hospital in Helsingborg. In addition, many clinically healthy horses are radiographed in order to be sold (inspection radiographed / export radiographed). This study is based on electronically stored data from horses in both of these groups of patients that underwent joint radiography at the regional hospital in Helsingborg during the years 1992-1999. The first file (inspection file) contained 1035 observations from 983 horses that had their fetlock-, hock - or stifle joints radiographed for inspection or export. The other file (clinical file) contained 6121 observations from 3800 horses that were radiographed due to clinical symptoms in the fetlock-, stifle or hock joints.

Att rida ut i naturen på sin häst är ett sätt att uppleva landskapet men det är också motion och rekreation. Målet med uppsatsen är att studera och beskriva det nuvarande intresset och arbetet på lokal, och även till viss del regional nivå, med att förbättra tillgängligheten för ryttare i utvalda delar av Skåne som består av intensivt brukad jordbruksmark. I de utvalda områdena finns det en problematik med ett ökat antal ryttare och hästar och få möjligheter att röra sig i landskapet. Uppsatsen undersöker hur tre kommuners processer, med tyngdpunkt på Ängelholms kommun, ser ut för att öka tillgängligheten för ryttare. Genom intervjuer med personer som är aktiva i ett ridslingeprojekt i Ängelholms kommun och erfarenheter från de andra kommunernas representanter skapas en bild av hur arbetet ser ut.

Föreliggande uppsats är en analys av Norrköpings kommuns, och till viss del regionen Östergötlands, strategier och åtgärder för minskat växtnäringsläckage från jordbruksektorn. Jag använder mig av en modifierad SWOT-analys (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats), för att ur ett kommunalt sammanhang ta fram styrkor och svagheter inom den kommunala organisationen och möjligheter och hot för densamma i en regional kontext. Analysen har belysts ur ett tvärvetenskapligt perspektiv i syfte att öka förståelsen för arbetet kring det nationella miljömålet"Ingen Övergödning"och de problem, implicit såväl som explicit, som kan dyka upp när naturvetenskap och samhällsvetenskap skall samordnas. Då en icke tvärvetenskaplig analys kan ha svårigheter att hantera de faktorer som inte kan eller innebär svårigheter att kvantifieras har denna tvärvetenskapliga analys stora möjligheter att hantera en sådan situation. Resultatet indikerar på att ett långsiktigt perspektiv måste antas och att detta kräver att den kommunala samordningen mellan rollerna som myndighet, verksamhetsutövare och organisation ökar.

The aim of this thesis is to study different aspects of the public libraries' investment in public access computers connected to the Internet. What level of accessibility can be found at the surveyed libraries concerning the number of computers open to the public, as well as chat and email services? What activities have been taking place with the computers in focus, and what have the goals of these activities been? Is there any control of content, and what aspects of the Internet are, if that is the case, subject to censorship. And how do the governmental policies relate to the surveyed libraries' intentions and activities regarding the Internet? In order to answer these questions, each main library in the 42 largest towns of Sweden was surveyed response rate: 100 %.

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.

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.

Sverige har alltid uttalat ett starkt stöd till Förenta Nationerna, FN. I den allmänna debatten har det på senare tid dock handlat om att Sveriges och i-ländernas allt mindre deltagande i FN-ledda missioner gör att FN:s insatser tappar i trovärdighet och legitimitet. För att se om det finns fog för kritik om minskat deltagande i FN-ledda insatser i Sveriges internationella freds- och säkerhetsfrämjande arbete, så undersöks i denna uppsats om Polisens utlandsstyrkas deltagande i internationella insatser har förändrats över tiden 2001-2011. I uppsatsen undersöks även hur Sveriges uttalade policy om stöd för FN samspelar med vad som sedan implementeras i praktiken genom regeringens uppdrag till den svenska polisen. De som förvaltar och genomför regeringens beslut på området är Polisens Utlandssektion och dess utlandsstyrka.

Kinas säkerhet - En studie av hur Kina hanterar regionala utmaningarDen regionala stabiliteten i Sydostasien präglas av Kinas tydliga dominans. Kinas strävan att bibehålla regional stabilitet kännetecknar den kinesiska utrikes- och säkerhetspolitiken. För Kina är ett stabilt närområde en viktig grundpelare i sin strävan mot att fortsätta sin ekonomiska tillväxt och öka sitt regionala och på sikt även globala inflytande. Ett stabilt närområde är dessutom en förutsättning för att Kina ska kunna öka sitt engagemang i områden bortom sitt närområde.Denna uppsats analyserar Kinas syn på sin säkerhet i sitt närområde, och hur denna uppnås och bibehålls. Genom en jämförande studie där Burma och Nordkorea tjänar som tämligen olika referensstater används ett realistiskt teoretiskt perspektiv för att förklara Kinas ageranden och val av strategi.Resultatet visar ett Kina som tydligt strävar efter att påverka sin omgivning på ett sätt som säkerställer säkerhet och ekonomisk tillväxt.

Addressing increasing global environmental problems requires greater resource efficiency, and one way of working towards this is through industrial symbiosis. Industrial symbiosis means that companies collaborate through sharing of resources for collective benefits. The documented benefits of working with industrial symbiosis indicate that there is potential for companies to operate commercially with facilitation of industrial symbiosis. An interesting company to study within this context is Econova. Econova operates within the recycling and gardening industry and has been identified as a possible catalyst for industrial symbiosis.

The employment structure consists of different sectors, whose share of the total employment rate is all part of an economic structural conversion according to this thesis applied theoretical approach. A structural conversion, which consist of recurring crises, such as the financial crises in the early 1990s. This crisis and its effect on the Swedish economy is well-documented, while the shortage regarding the effect on a smaller scale, in a local and regional context, provides this thesis purpose. More specifically, a comparison between the two neighbouring towns of Malm? and Lund, will constitute the local contexts in this research.

Stockholms stadsteater (Stockholm?s city theatre) is a public theatre in Stockholm, Sweden. During the last ten years, the theatre has increased its audience by 40 percent, has been called a ?success story? by culture politicians in Stockholm as well as others in the cultural field, and is today the largest theatre in the Nordic countries. At the same time, there is a recurring debate, primarily in the national morning papers? culture sections, concerning Stockholms stadsteater.

The aim of this thesis is to study how Denmark and the Danish people has been represented in the Swedish press and which images of them that appears. For this purpose I make use of discourse analysis and discourse theory. By analysing three cases were the debate about the Danish migration policy has been scrutinized in Swedish newspapers I seek to discover different ways of looking at the world. The study concentrates on the descriptions made by journalists and others who contribute to the debate in the media. The results show an image of the Danes as a people reluctant to foreigners and restrictive in their politics.