The name of the study means ?The short arm - a study in diversity and arm?s length in the cultural collaboration model?. Right now there is a reform in the Swedish cultural administration where the responsibility for handing out state funds and grants to cultural organizations is changing from the state government to the local regional governments. The purpose of this study is to map the organisational changes caused by the reform and investigate how this affects the regional policies concerning cultural diversity and the arm?s length principle.

Social enterprises are increasingly gaining ground as an organisational form in Sweden, however the institutional structures for financing these types of organisations are yet to be established. With its usual origin within the civic society, social enterprises prioritise a higher goal than to maximise economic profit, which often causes these organisations to be dependent upon resources from external constituents within its institutional environment. The aim of this study was to examine how a social enterprise, which derives from the civic society, acts to mobilise resources from constituents in its institutional environment. This was executed through a case study of Jordbro Världsorkester (JVO) - a typical organisation in the civic society which takes the form of a social enterprise - by identifying how assets were used to gain resources in strategic responses to institutional processes and examining how institutional processes affects how JVO acts. Throughout the study, qualitative interviews were conducted with JVO and constituents in its institutional environment and a theoretical framework was developed which explains how capital is used to gain more capital in an emergent strategy of strategic responses as the organisation gets in contact with institutional processes from its institutional environment.

Klimatförändringar och andra miljöproblem kan i framtiden komma att innebära stora påfrestningar på städer. Socio-ekologisk resiliens är ett sätt att förstå motståndskraft och förändring hos sociala och ekologiska system. För att göra städer mer motståndskraftiga för yttre och inre störningar har ett socio-ekologiskt resiliensförhållningssätt till planering ansetts givande. Konceptet socio-ekologisk resiliens kan också betraktas som en brygga mellan social hållbarhet och ekologisk hållbarhet.Denna uppsats undersöker ifall det finns uttryck för socio-ekologisk resiliens i svenska kommuners strategiska planering och om det finns strategier i kommunerna för att binda ihop social hållbarhet med ekologisk hållbarhet. Genom studier av teoretisk litteratur kring socio-ekologisk resiliens har fyra utgångspunkter för en planering för socio-ekologisk resiliens tagits fram och med hjälp av dessa fyra utgångspunkter analyseras nio kommunala översiktsplaner.Planerna har valts ut för att spegla ett genomsnitt av svenska kommuner.

The purpose of this study is to describe how expatriates at Handelsbanken in France, Hong Kong, China, Russia and Singapore have adapted to the host culture. To illustrate how well they acculturated following seven factors have been chosen: Time, previous international experience, cultural distance, language, work environment, spouse acculturation and met expectations. The study was conducted through interviews with six expatriates and surveys answered by nine expatriates. Our study shows that the expatriates have experienced different lengths for cultural adaptation. The majority of the respondents indicated that it took up to six months before they adapted culturally.

The aim of this paper is exploring questions regarding the problem of absenteeism among high-school students in Sweden. Fifteen students attending an urban high-school have been interviewed about their views and experiences of absenteeism. The author analyzes the students? answers by taking into account two different sociological approaches which give two different explanations about the way young people experience and estimate education. The French sociologist Bourdieu theorized that differences in cultural capital influence the permanent internalization of patterns of thought and behavior.

The background of the study consists of the fact that knowledge about how eating disorders are developed and maintained is extensive. Socio-cultural factors and media influence when developing an eating disorder is of significance. When reviewing literature and previous research, knowledge about practical attainments when treating eating disorders are insufficient. The aim of the study was therefore to examine how staff who treats eating disordered patients think about body ideals, strive for success and media influence in treatment and rehabilitation. The theory consists of Foucault?s theory of power, how beauty ideals are dependent of the cultural context in which we live and what qualities are associated with beauty and body ideals.

This master thesis is about art activity in the public library. The essay takes its starting point from Government cultural political directives and my purpose has been to study how these are followed up in the municipal level. My survey takes place at the main library of Flen in the county of Södermanland. What I am looking for is, what the art activity looks like, what is decided regarding it and what the strategies are. Furthermore I look into how library visitors understand and participate in the art activity.

This paper examines the concept of heritage and which factors that determines how we evaluate and select what should be considered cultural heritage. This has been examined using a qualitative study involving interviews with seven people working within different parts of the cultural heritage sector. The purpose was to get a picture of what the public sector?s cultural heritage consists of and why so. The research question was: What gives the status of cultural heritage? This was examined by looking at further questions: What defines the concept of cultural heritage? Who decides what should be considered cultural heritage? What is significant when discussing cultural heritage? One conclusion is that the concept itself is experienced as diffuse but that the meaning can be summarized as the traces we leave behind to be preserved by future generations.

The study seeks to clarify a cultural change in the armed forces (FM). The study is based on the hypothesis that repeated operations in war-like environment, where the FM sends professional combat units, develop a warrior culture. The empirical results indicate that there is an existing warrior culture at all three units surveyed.The subculture is verified by the constants of western warrior culture described in theory. The cultural change leads to ethical / moral and leadership challenges for FM..

Questions concerning the Cultural Heritage must be integrated in social planning.Therefore there is a need for adequate methods for cultural environmental analysis, toreceive knowledge that is relevant in an integrated conservation. The thesis is a review ofmethods for cultural environmental analysis and discusses the qualifications necessary fora method in order to receive adequate information as well as it discusses what kind ofinformation to be considered relevant. The thesis also analyzes a specific method forcultural environmental analysis in order to exam if it has got the qualifications concludedas necessary if it is to be used in an integrated conservation. The conclusion is that amethod for cultural environmental analysis should collect information about the entireenvironment (integrated information about nature and culture, in a historical perspectiveand how it is today), about social structures, physical remains (buildings etc) and what thecollected information tell about the history of the studied area, as well as what is importantin the landscape of today. Information about how the environment should be treated in thefuture is also of importance.

Questions concerning the Cultural Heritage must be integrated in social planning.Therefore there is a need for adequate methods for cultural environmental analysis, toreceive knowledge that is relevant in an integrated conservation. The thesis is a review ofmethods for cultural environmental analysis and discusses the qualifications necessary fora method in order to receive adequate information as well as it discusses what kind ofinformation to be considered relevant. The thesis also analyzes a specific method forcultural environmental analysis in order to exam if it has got the qualifications concludedas necessary if it is to be used in an integrated conservation. The conclusion is that amethod for cultural environmental analysis should collect information about the entireenvironment (integrated information about nature and culture, in a historical perspectiveand how it is today), about social structures, physical remains (buildings etc) and what thecollected information tell about the history of the studied area, as well as what is importantin the landscape of today. Information about how the environment should be treated in thefuture is also of importance.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether the teacher's background affect students' approach to mathematics teaching. Characteristically, in Sweden today is that mathematics is perceived as difficult subject and that the number of foreign teachers has increased. The study examines a phenomenon which the relationship between the teacher's language accent and substance difficulties.The method used for data collection is questionnaires, in order to investigate the phenomenon as the relationship between the teacher's accent and substance difficulties.The investigation has been carried out based on the students' point of view, both secondary and primary school pupils. What difficulties have arisen in teaching?  What is the biggest obstacle to achieve the goals of mathematics, to understand the teacher's language accent first in order to understand the subject, or that mathematics is difficult in itself to be understood as a substance.The result clearly shows that the teacher's accent does not affect teaching and students' view of mathematics as a subject.

Being a successful global business player depends on firm?s ability to mobilize its resources worldwide. For this reason getting the right people with the right skills, at the right time, at the right place is crucial and makes expatriation one of the most important issues of today?s business world agenda. In terms of expatriation; national culture provides the context for the whole process.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine the use of the concept cultural heritage in Swedish governmental cultural policy. Ten official reports, reaching over a time period of seven years (1997-2004) are examined in the following way: What is cultural heritage? What functions/ values does the cultural heritage have? Whose heritage is a cultural heritage? With some simplification you can say that there are two different views on cultural heritage in the documents. The most common way to refer to cultural heritage is a category of chosen historical objects whose preservation is motivated by their function as sources of information and knowledge about the history and development of the Swedish society.

?Childs pedagogic material ? A qualitative study of child?s use of pedagogic materials available at five nursery schools and about their teachers thoughts about the display of the pedagogic material?In the nursery preschool the environment and the educational materials have always had a central place. That's why it has been chosen to study and observe five preschools and interview sex teachers, in an attempt to understand the teachers thought about the choice of material and the choices of material that the children used. The reason I do this is to see what the underlying idea about the materials the children use is, and why educators choose to make certain materials visible. The purpose of this study is to examine the educational materials that are used to stimulate children´s learning and examine what determines the choice of educational materials.