Actors deliberately change their preferences, contrary to the assumptions of rational decision models. This study shows why, and to some extent how. Preferences are necessarily ambiguous and unstable. Rationality is a regulating myth which has had a profound influence on Western conceptions of what an actor is.The aim of this study is to help individual actors understand the theoretical grounds of their actions. The analysis provides tools for examining decision methods and preference changes.

After the orange revolution in Ukraine, hope was given to achieve fullydemocracy in the whole society. However, this has not been the outcome; theUkrainian public administration still has problems to deliver what the societydemands. By answering the question: ?Which problems have the publicadministration to become democratic and how can we explain them??, we analyzethe failures within the public administration to accomplish democratic procedures.The empirical material in this thesis is mainly obtained from interviews andresearch during a field study in Ukraine. The problems for the civil servants inUkraine to act as guardians of the society are strongly connected to an inadequateprofessional knowledge.

This thesis examines the Swedish Democrats relationship to an islamophobic worldview. The party developed from the racist party Bevara Sverige Svenskt (Keep Sweden Swedish) and is today the third largest party in Sweden, which gives them a powerful position in the society. It is therefore important to investigate their view on minorities, and in this case Muslims. In this thesis I examine the Swedish Democrat?s material during the election campaign the years of 2006, 2010 and 2014 using Ernesto Laclau?s and Chantal Mouffe?s discourse theory.

In 2002 the local council of Lund, Sweden, decides to implement the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. A number of actors, such as the state, the civil society, the political society and the bureaucracy, participate in the political process with different authority and points of departure. This thesis studies the actors´ interactions from an inside perspective by applying concepts such as political power, democracy and implementation. The methodological departure is action research from within, a local NGO, the local board of Save the Children Sweden. The results of the study indicate that governance and steering of the implementation process at the communal level is weak.

ABSTRACTThe purpose of the study was to examine, from the point of view of former research findings, what impact physical activity had on learning. I chose to make an explorative/inductive research, to get as much knowledge as possible from the studied presentation of problem, not to limit myself to a specific research theory. The result proved, that school personal and student experienced many positive effects from daily physical activities. The pupils were more pleased. There was more piece and quiet in the classroom.

The purpose with this research is to examine how the green marketing in retail trade can be developed in order to promote the eco-labeled products closer to the consumer.The method for the survey includes interviews with managers of a few retailers and their customers in the industrial sector. The purpose with the interviews was to produce the retailer and the customer?s perspective of products with eco-label on.The research is limited to the region of Västra Götaland.The results from this research indicate that there is a lack of communication between the retailer and the consumer. The consumers don?t think that the product is available.

The purpose of our essay is to study the institutional-, demographic and accounting theoretical factors that influence an organisations actuarial commitment.The research was performed through a web based survey, with complimentary telephone interviews, directed to companies listed on Stockholm Stock Exchange A- and O-list on the 30 of November, 2003.Our data was analysed with a Median test, Kolomogorov-Smirnov test, T-test and a Mann-Whitney test. The purpose of the Mann-Whitney test was the low number of respondents that took part in the research. The Kolomogorov-Smirnov test was done to determine whether the population variances was equal or not. The data showed that organisations with a majority of female employees assume a lower salary increase, and a higher average age than other companies with a male majority. Only 2 of 11 hypothesis can be accepted as temporary truths but several other visible relations are indicated in our research, but can not be statistically proved.We think that the major problem with our is the time it was performed.

The purpose of this study was to inquire how social workers perceive and describe financial abuse of older persons. Six qualitative interviews were carried out and the assembled data was then categorized and analyzed using a theory considering exercise of power and ageism as a theoretical frame. Previous research has shown that at least 10% of older persons have been exposed to some form of abuse or violence; however, there is a lack of research carried out in a Swedish context regarding financial abuse specifically. The six persons interviewed in this study all presented financial abuse as some kind of violence and as previous research has shown the study suggests that this is an increasing problem. Further research ought to be carried out to increase the awareness of this particular form of abuse and to facilitate discovery and development of measures to prevent financial abuse of older persons.

This study indicates that research about men and masculinity does not appear to have advanced as far as research about women and femininity. Similarly to attitudes concerning women and femininity, clear norms and attitudes regarding men and masculinity pervade society. Hence, there is a clear need for further research within this field to be carried out. This study, with the support of previous research, looks at gender norms which exist in educational material and the impact it might have on students. Against this backdrop, the author has focused the analysis on one textbook as educational material at upper secondary level with particular emphasis on masculinity and its associated norms.

This Master Thesis has been carried out as a new product development project in collaborationwith G-Man Tools AB located in Edsbyn. The purpose of the project was to construct a newpruning saw there the blade is integrateble in the handle, thus a foldable pruning saw.The work has been performed on the occasion of G-Man Tools AB wanted to improve theirproduct range by creating a saw that complement their range of quality saws. They have a similarproduct today, but they do not manufacture this product by them selves and it is not directlytargeted against garden use, which is a disadvantage when it is one of their major markets.Even though almost the entire chain from the requirements of the users to drawings has beentaken into consideration, emphasizes has been put on generating ideas. However the first thingthat was carried out was to establish a productspecifikation from interviews with users and thecompany?s experience.

The Forthcoming Essay concerns the publicly protected employment (Offentligt skyddad anställning), it's content and what actually happens to its participants after they have retrieved it. We have also, during our research, discovered a great lack of background research concerning this subject. Beside statistics and publicly protected employment rulework there only exist a small amount of research. This is mainly focused on people with physical function disorders and socialmedicial function.Of that we believe there is an urgent need to undertake more research in this unexplored sector of the labour market. Our purpose with this essay was to examine what happened to publicly protected employment -participants after they had undergone the process.- In what ways has the participation in publicly protected employment altered their possibilities on the labour market?- What happens to the participants when they after the participation in publicly protected employment as judged qualified not for the labour market?In this essay we have chosen a qualitative method as an approach, mainly because we consider our material as being qualitative in its character.

This study was based on a quantitative method to examine gender-related attitudes towards leadership styles among employees in trade union organizations in Sweden. The aim of the research was to investigate and understand how gender relates to attitudes regarding leadership within these organizations. The study was based on research questions related to preferences for different leadership styles and the impact of gender on these attitudes. The study incorporated previous research and relevant theoretical frameworks such as leadership theories, gender theories, and theories on prejudice against female leaders to contextualize our findings. Data were collected through a survey using a convenience sampling method, targeting employees of trade union organizations in Sweden.

The main objective of this study is to divide a number of colorectal cancer cases into subgroups based on their molecular features using cluster analysis. The data used is supplied by a research group at Pathology, the Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, and consists, after some preparation, of 455 observations which is a larger data set than many similar studies. The molecular variables that the clustering is based on are CIMP (CpG Island Methylator Phenotype), MSI (Micro Satellite Instability), BRAF- and KRAS-mutations. These are categorical variables and consequently the clustering method used is PAM (Partitioning Around Medoids) which is particularly useful with data on diverse variable level. The final analysis results in four subgroups that are represented by different combinations of attributes on the aforementioned variables.

Many companies with expansion plans may eventually need to take a decision whether tomove parts of the organization abroad or not. One example is how Swedish companies? placesits production in Asia where labor is cheaper, but at the same time wants to use Swedishengineers. The communication possibilities today makes it no longer necessary to travelacross the world to have a meeting, and questions can be answered in a matter of minutes.This means that a company that is spread out over the world still can communicate betweentheir employees.When participants in a project are spread out over the world, and can?t meet in person, it iseasy for problems to appear.

This research aims to investigate the effects that dredging may have on benthic fauna. The dredging took place in the stream Ireån on northern Gotland during the early summer 2010. My area of research was taking place in a scenic area downstream in Ireån close to the Baltic Sea. I chose this area due to the dredging that started just upstream of this area and continued further upstream. Thus it is not the direct impact of the dredging that is the focus for this paper but the side-effect the dredging may have on the area downstream.