This master thesis is written at the Royal Institute of Technology during the spring and summer of 2008.The assignment was to investigate what factors on a broadband market determine how well it performsin terms of how many people have access to broadband. These are the factors that determine whetheror not a country or market will be able to achieve a high broadband penetration. The purpose of thisthesis was to establish a better understanding for what a market should look like or how a strugglingone can be complemented in order to succeed.As a foundation for this investigation, a group of benchmark countries were chosen and evaluated. Inaddition to this, a group of, developing MENA2-countries were chosen and evaluated. Finally, interviewswere performed with some of Sweden?s leading internet service providers, the regulatory agency andinfrastructure company, Skanova.Among the benchmark countries were Sweden, France, Canada, South Korea and Japan.

The purpose of this essay was to analyze the management and steering of the social welfare service. The objective was specifically to examine how the leaders approach their position as managers of the social welfare service, and also how they approach their way of steering. The social welfare service acts under political decisions, but the management interpret and transform these decisions into actions. The managers of the social welfare service are therefore important from a democratic perspective. The study was based on five qualitative interviews with two managers of the unity, two departmental managers and the head manager of the social welfare service.

In this essay I have tried to come close to a probable answer to the following question: Is there a risk that the trust between the Swedish public and the Swedish medical services staff, including the doctors, will be severely damaged if euthanasia is legalized in Sweden.In order to try to answer that question, and some other relevant questions that has corresponding interest in the context that euthanasia marks, I have done like this: I have investigated experiences from the Netherlands and from Oregon. Since euthanasia is legalized - though partly in different forms - in both these sites. I have then tried to relate the most relevant parts of these experiences to a theoretical frame. This frame had been set up by three concepts: the sanctity of life, autonomy and trust.I have also tried to come close to understanding the impact that demands for autonomy has in this context. And I have tried to understand if the trust that the public has for a country´s medical services staff and the actual doctors is a form of trust that ought to be understood as a form of trust incorporated in social capital.I have come to the conclusion that there is no great risk that the trust between the Swedish public and the Swedish medical services staff, including the doctors, will be severely damaged if euthanasia is legalized in Sweden.

The object of the thesis is to propose a new lighting plan for the square Fyristorg in Uppsala, and to describe the process which have led to it. It all started when I choosed the place together with the municipality of Uppsala. I have been doing research and analyzed how the place and it´s existing lighting works both during different times of the day and also in the evening. After researching the place and it´s existing lighting I´ve decided to put up the following goals fot the new lighting design. 1. The general light level of the place shall be experienced as higher than today. 2. The light level of the place shall be adapted to the light levels of surrounding places. 3. The lighting shall be free from glare. 4. The lighting shall be adapted to people passing by. 5.The lighting shall be adapted to the surrounding architecture. 6.

One of the main tasks of the Swedish Armed Forces over the past few years has been International assignments, which increased the importance of the Lessons Learned process. Methods of simulator training with computers have become more frequent and the technical ability to collect digital data from sensors has been developed as well. This work demonstrates how the experience of Lessons Learned can be communicated with the computer simulator StriSimPC and how modern technology in future support experiences from the Lessons Learned process at the tactical level in the Army.Currently knowledge sharing consists of several processes and strategies in the Swedish Armed Forces. This is done by written reports, oral presentations and different practical exercises.This case study shows the functions of the simulator StriSimPC, methods of training and how it is used today. The study also describes the future opportunities, where digital metadata acquired from the modern combat vehicles could contribute sharing of experience in the Lessons Learned process.The summarized conclusions indicate that StriSimPC can combine the two strategies for personalization and codification of knowledge transfer to reach a higher level of learning.

Producing a building is a long and complex process. It consists of several parts, from the feasibility study and design stage onto the construction and finally the management of the building. The design process is a critical part of the process where construction plans are made. The quality of the plans affect the production phase in great extent and faulty plans can pose a risk for extra costs for all parts in the process. The cost of producing dwellings has increased the last years and the detail design process is one of many phases where improvements can mean cost savings within the whole building process.This report aims to point at parts within the detail design process which could be more efficient, regarding communication, follow-up and time planning, and to give suggestions for improvements.

The aim of this paper is to investigate dominant beliefs and approaches to the "cultural entrepreneur" both within a public context, and also among business owners within the cultural field. What happens when ideas and attitudes in the public sector towards culture driven businesses meets the perspective of individual cultural entrepreneurs?This study is based on analysis of political documents about the cultural and creative industries (CCI) from the European union, national level and regional level. Interviews with six business owners in the field of culture and one representative of the Swedish region with the fictive name ?Alma? has been conducted.

The aim of this essay is to study how the University Church is represented in student newspapers. By conducting an inductive thematic analysis on sixteen articles chosen from newspapers distributed by the student union at three Swedish universities, the main purpose of the study is to further understand the role and function of the University Church in a contemporary Swedish context. Three themes emerging from the initial step of the thematic analysis were chosen for further analysis: (1) a secularized church?, (2) provocation and (3) reasons to seek out the University Church. The themes were then highlighted by two theoretical perspectives: Mark Chaves? theory of internal secularization and a theoretical framework developed by Anders Bäckström with the aim to explain the role of the church as a welfare agent in Sweden.The study shows that the University Church is portrayed as both an ambiguous and complex organization.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent municipalities in Sweden use democratic innovations to include citizens in the decision making process. Along there are three research questions:? What different forms of democracy innovations are Swedish municipalities applying in order to increase the civic participation between elections and what forms are dominant?? What potential influence in decision-making are citizens getting through these democratic innovations based on the results?? Based on the results ? in what ways is the democracy innovations used in municipalities challenging representative democracy? The method used to fulfill the purpose and answer the research questions is a web survey including 287 of 290 (in total) municipal websites. The theoretic framework includes a model which is called ?Smith?s ladder of participation? and is influenced by the research of Graham Smith and Sherry Arnstein.

The overall purpose of this essay is to study in which degree the democratic model that is called participant democracy works in the Swedish municipalities. To achieve what I set out to do I will focus on a central political area in which the Swedish municipalities has sovereignty versus the state, in other words in an area where they rule themselves. That political area will then represent how well the participant democracy works in the Swedish municipalities. The research questions then becomes:Does the participant democracy at Swedish Municipality level work in a satisfying way?Does the participant democracy in a large Swedish Municipality in a central political area work?Does the participant democracy in a small Swedish Municipality in a central political area work?Are there similarities and differences between the municipalities?If so, how can that be explained?To answer these questions I will study documents regarding the planning and building area.

The purpose of our research was to examine whether the acceptance and diffusion of RFID technology among the employees at public libraries in Sweden, follow the classic diffusion of innovation model. RFID or Radio Frequency Identification, is a technology that uses radio frequency and microchip technology to track items, in our case, library books and other library materials. Diffusion is the process by which, in our case, the RFID technology is adopted by the library staff. The purpose of this study was to examine what factors influenced the acceptance and adoption of RFID among the library staff. We used Everett Rogers' Diffusion of innovation theory as our framework.

Advertisements have become a regular part of our everyday lives. We walk past them on the street; we admire them on the subway and even invite them into our living room in between prime time showings. The reality is that in today's modern times there is no escaping the daily bombardment of advertisement. To distinguish themselves from the continuous noise of the industry, advertisers battle to find unique ways to capture the attention of consumers. But is it possible that some advertisers take their techniques to an extreme in the struggle to be remembered This thesis aims at investigating whether it is possible to offend a consumer through an advertisement due to its extreme simplicity.

The gap between rich and poor is increasing. Economic inequality is widening on a global level but also in individual countries like the USA and Sweden. The consequences for individuals are great considering life chance, health, educational level and standard of living. The curriculum for social studies from 1994 as well as the curriculum coming in effect 2011 emphasize the importance of teaching social class as a tool to interpret development in Sweden as well as the world. Earlier studies have looked at how much and in what way textbooks discuss gender, sexuality and ethnicity but social class has been overlooked. This study examines if social class is described in textbooks written for high school. The study also analyzes in which way social class is described.

In line with Sloan (1996) but on European data (STOXX 600) we are investigating whether stock prices reflect information about future earnings contained in the accrual and cash flow components. The extent to which current earnings performance persists into the future earnings performance is shown to depend on the relative magnitudes of the cash and accrual components of current earnings. Moreover, we still find a significant positive excess return (Jensen?s alpha and size-adjusted return) by replicating Sloans (1996) hedge portfolio by taking a long position in the stock of firms reporting relatively low levels of accruals and a short position in the stock of firms reporting relatively high levels of accruals. However, we find no evidence of negative excess returns for companies with relatively high accruals, this somewhat lower the total excess returns for all the portfolios.

The southern part of Sweden, Skåne, is frequently exposed to storms causing great damage to Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.) stands. A storm during the winter 1999/2000 raised the attention of the problem. A lot of forest owners got large areas of spruce stands wind thrown during this storm. Can naturally regenerated birch (Betula sp.) be an alternative on these wind-exposed sites? This was the main question I was facing when discussilig the problems with Esben Möller Madsen, Söderåsens forest district. The aim of this master thesis was to present an economic analysis of Norway spruce versus birch.