The means to political participation at the local level in Sweden are changing and this change is analyzed through a case study. The first aim is to explore the forms of public political participation in Swedish municipal Älvkarleby, namely public question time in local government, citizen motions and open meetings. A part of this is also to analyze he every day contact between citizens and representatives. The second aim concerns the reasons why politicians decide to support these means to participationThe empirical material consists mainly of semi structured interviews with local politicians, civil servants, participating citizens and local press. Official documents such as public minutes are also used in the process of creating an image of local participation.Local political participation is found to be limited but yet having the potential to strengthen democracy, provided that public decision-makers are open to a dialogue with the participants.Using Kjell Arne Røvik's theories of organisational change, the changes in local democracy can be explained as being partly rational, partly symbolic and partly identity shaping political decisions..

Most of my 16 students show a negative attitude towards mathematics and have difficulty understanding why they need mathematics to work as cooks. Their lack of knowledge has a negative effect on their work in the kitchen because they cannot master relatively simple mathematical solutions. The purpose of this study is to examine if an integrated working method of the subjects mathematics and cooking can change students? attitude towards mathematics and increase their understanding of the value of it in restaurant work. An integrated working method means to integrate the core subjects with programme specific subjects and that teaching is directed towards the main features of the vocational programme in order to create a holistic view.A theory of action research has been applied in this study, aiming to change something perceived as problematic through combining theory and practice in the cooking subject.

Development of morphs within European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus), might be considered as a beginning of a sympatric speciation process. Unpublished data suggests that presence of the keystone piscivore northern pike (Esox lucius) is the main driver of sympatric divergence in European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus). Using introduced whitefish populations as controlled experiments, it is possible to determine when different characters diverge in the speciation process. In this study, I analysed age and growth within European whitefish populations of different age to assess if these characters change over time in absence of pike. With using otoliths from whitefish populations of different age, I was possible to determine individual age, and by measuring the length of the fish, growth was calculated.

The bank market for farmers in Sweden is dominated by Swedbank and Landshypotek. One of the most aggressive challengers is Länsförsäkringar Bank, which in 2009 had seven per cent of the Swedish bank market for farmers, but 57 per cent of all new lending. This paper deals with the problem of new banks to break into the bank market where farmers are slow in terms of change in their attitudes and loyal to their banks. The study has been carried out in cooperation with Länsförsäkringar Gävleborg which is a new actor in the banking market and thus eager to take part in the outcome of the study. This essay thus seeks to examine the attitudes farmers have against bank switching and the factors that influence their choice of bank.

Ericsson develops a new stripline directional coupler. Its design is described in appendix B and differs from the directional couplers Ericsson uses in current products. The new directional coupler will be used for transmission power measurement in future UMTS 3G base stations.The most important parts of directional coupler theory are presented. It is necessary to study this theory to understand how the coupler works and how it should be designed to get good performance.Optimal directional coupler termination component values to get high directivity and broad directivity bandwidth have been investigated.The trim screws trim ranges have been studied.A simple analysis of serial production performance when termination component tolerances are taken into consideration has been done.The resistance components reactive (inductive/capacitive) characteristics at 2.14 GHz have been analyzed.The directivity performance limitations of the directional coupler, when Ericsson?s band pass filter is connected, are investigated.Design changes leading to better performance are proposed.

In an international perspective the Russian children s library is a unique institution, being solely committed to children up to 14 years of age. In Russia of today it is, however, being exposed to hard pressure as the economical and social conditions have changed dramatically since the collapse of the USSR. My interest lies in examining this change of living conditions for the children s libraries and how this in turn affect their work and role in the present state. In order to view this change in a longer perspective, I compare the situation for children s libraries during the time of communist regime with that of today using documents about and from children s libraries. I have studied its legal position and conditions, financial and political state, and how the modern society affects children and youth, especially their daily cultural life.

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to shed light to what extent a financier have learnt about sustainableorganizational change, through development projects taking part in the Swedish knowledgeFoundations program, ICT in Teacher?s training. Some questions asked were: Has theSwedish Knowledge Foundation learnt by researchers? and self evaluation?s ?stirring up? ofongoing projects? What type of learning process has been going on? Has new, mutual,knowledge been constructed or has already existing knowledge been transferred?The study consists of one participating observation and three interviews. They showhow the financed projects have been ?stirred up? so that a developmental learning process hasstarted within their organization.

The swedish national board of housing, Building and Planning,recommends that all stakeholders in the construction industryperform a moisture control design to make sure that the buildingachieves good moisture resistance. Since June 1, 2006 there are nospecific requirements or quantitative values for air leakage.Although the swedish national board of housing does presentrequirement that the building envelope must be sealed so that theclient?s requirements for specific energy consumption and installedelectric power for heating purposes are met. Despite this, studiesfrom SP shows that few buildings meet the client?s requirements inspecific energy, which increases the risk of occurrence ofcondensation-related moisture damage.This study aims to evaluate curtain walls connections from airsecurity and moisture safety.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to examine the fanzine, a form of amateur publication, in Sweden, both in the traditional paper form and the more recent electronic form. It deals with what is distinctive about the fanzine as a publication and also as a social and cultural product. It also looks upon how the fanzine uses the Internet and the new possibilities it brings. The people behind 18 fanzines, 10 electronic and 8 in paper, have answered a questionnaire about how they produce, publish, distribute and promote their fanzines, what they think about the fanzine as a mode of expression, and how they use the Internet. The masters thesis uses theories within cultural studies as a theoretical approach to the fanzine.

The SAB-system (Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek) was created almost a hundred years ago and has often been viewed as insufficient among many academic libraries. KB (Kungliga Biblioteket) has therefore decided to change to DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification) which means that the Swedish libraries are now facing a challenge that involves a change to a new classification system. This is a comparable situation that occured when the SAB-system was created. The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine the Swedish library sector´s approach to a new classification system, first to the SAB-system and then to DDC.

The papers purpose is to examine how the Botkyrka and Huddinge municipalities implement their juvenile law offenders' programs. The paper briefly and concisely outlines the history of juvenile offenders and the social services programs dealing with them. We focus on how two municipalities?, Huddinge and Botkyrka, implement these programs. The municipalities belong to the same judicial district,?Södertörns tingsrätt?.

During and after World War II Sweden was spying in the occupied Baltic countries which had been occupied, from 1943 by Nazi Germany and from 1944 by the Soviet Union. It began in 1943, with the Germans still occupying the Baltic countries, when Sweden and its intelligence service ?C-byrån? recruited volunteers among the Baltic refugees in Sweden and sent them back to the countries they had fled from. Many of the Baltic refugees to Sweden were men aged 25-45 so the Swedish intelligence service had a good recruiting source. This started the first period of intelligence operations in the three Baltic countries.

Title: Competition for small audit firms ? a qualitative study on possible competitive strategies and how the upcoming changes will influence competition on the audit market    Subject: Auditing Tutor: Margareta Paulsson  Authors: Per Dahlström and Martin Holmberg Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding how smaller auditing firms use competitive strategies and why. The result aims to work as a support for owners and leaders of audit firms as they make decisions of how to compete in the future. We would also like to explore how smaller audit firms view the change of the mandatory audit, that is, our intentions are also to examine how they think the consequences on the market will be and their view on its affect on the competition of the market.    Methodology: Our methodological approach was characterized by a hermeneutic approach in order to explain and understand why the smaller audit firms do what they do. Our approach is a combination of inductive and deductive as it allows us to develop an understanding of the subject, then gather our empirical data and from that draw valid conclusions.

Tillgång till sanitet är en mänsklig rättighet och en förutsättning för liv och hälsa. Trots det lever miljontals människor världen över med bristande sanitet. Den här uppsatsens syfte är att studera hur sanitetssituationen i informella bosättningar kan se ut och hur den upplevs av de boende, samt hur det är möjligt att förbättra den situationen. Genom att utföra en intervjustudie i den informella bosättningen Kibera i Kenyas huvudstad Nairobi, har de boende där fått ge sin bild av hur de upplever sanitetsproblemen och hur det gått till när sanitetslösningen Peepoo introducerades i området. I den här uppsatsen står själva förändringen i centrum och Kurt Lewins teori om förändringsprocessen används som teoretiskt verktyg.

This Master s thesis deals with the display of library media, whether it is conceivable and desirable to draw inspiration from the retail business when displaying articles. The questions asked are: are there, in the retail sector, well established display ideas and - if so - what do they look like? Are the similarities in conditions, between the branches, sufficient? In conveying the ideas to libraries, are the potential differences not obstructive? Is there, among librarians, a positive attitude towards further development of library display techniques? The results were achieved by interviewing shop window dressers and librarians. In addition, a survey was sent to the library managers of 65 public libraries in southern Sweden. The results show that there are established ideas and methods of displaying materials, and that the ideas are manifested in frequently used techniques.