The aim of this research is to examine how the homes of children, in cooperation with the schools, are offered opportunities to communicate and discuss mathematics together with the children in relevant situations. The overall intent of the study is manifest in scientific questions with focus on how parents view the subject and the opportunities to support their children with math homework as well as possibilities to actively support their child´s mathematics progress. The paper has a pfenomenographic approach, which means that it in a qualitative way describes similarities and differences in the ways the homes perceive this issue. The examination is implemented through a survey in which responds from 73 parents in four classes have been studied. Within this study six semi constructed interviews have been conducted.

This thesis analyses the 2005 UK presidency of the Council, and more particularly the negotiations on the future financing of the European Union. The purpose of the study is to discuss whether the holding of the presidency implies political influence for the member state. To analyse the power of the country holding the chair the thesis focuses on the presidency functions of brokering and leadership. The theory suggests that the influence of the presidency is derived from informational and procedural power resources, as well as some leadership resources, such as coercion and reward. A case study was used to analyse whether these power resources were used by the British presidency.

Creativity and innovation have become two very important concepts in today?s society where the demand for these abilities are sought after. At the same time, the school system of today follows a more traditional outlook on what learning and knowledge means.The extend students ability to understand and elevate their motivation is possible through creative methods of working. In order to create a school system which can withstand the demands of the future by including creative methods in its model, a study was carried out to examine how teachers? thoughts on creativity could mean for its development.This study took place in an elementary school in Sweden where Entreprenöriellt Lärande (EL) has been in use for the last two years.

The purpose of this study is to examine if digital public libraries are serendipitous environments. Serendipity in this instance is defined as finding something unexpected and valuable, while searching for something else.A survey was conducted at two Swedish digital public libraries, where the patrons were asked to fill in a questionnaire online. The questions were based on the work on serendipitous digital environments by Lori McCay-Peet, as well as considerations of human factors that could possibly influence serendipity.The result indicate that a majority of patrons experience serendipity at the digital library, although it?s still more common to do so at the physical library or on other web sites. The result also confirms the importance of taking human factors into account when studying serendipity.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate reading habits among parents of preschool children who do not use the public library. Another aim has been to investigate why these parents don?t use the library and if there is anything the library can do to change this. Little research had earlier been done on this subject. The theoretical framework consists of two different models.

In today?s society more and more activities are digitalized. This means that everyone has to be able to use information and communication tools (ICT) in order to take part in the digital world, otherwise they will be left out of the digital community. There is a so called digital gap between for instance elderly and young people, where elderly do not know how to use the tools and there for cannot gain access to the digital society. What happens when people, not only grow old, but also have a communication disorder, such as aphasia? How are they included? The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not surf pads are good tools for bridging the digital gap for people with aphasia, and which activities and situations that encourages people with aphasia to work with the surf pad.

This thesis aims to examine how the quality of data that is entered into and retrieved from a corporate group's ERP and Data Warehouse systems can be improved. The corporate group has already taken several measures that will improve the quality of data. For instance the corporate group has updated and merged the previous ERP systems into one. At the same time the corporate group adjusted the settings in the updated ERP system, so that it will be harder to register incorrect data in the ERP system. With regards to the processes and routines, the studied department has efficient written routines and processes.

A current debate is going on in Sweden about the health-care organization, how it is structured today and how it should be structured in the future. Despite major changes in the county council structures, they still got problems with for instance economy and the providing of staff. As an answer to these problems new solutions are being developed.In this thesis I examine such a solution consisting of cooperation between county councils. The aim of the thesis is to examine how and why the county councils in Sörmland and Västmanland have made a decision regarding cooperation over the administrative border.My contribution is to construct a model over change and decision processes that can be used in other cases as well. The conclusion is partly that the decision to cooperate is built on changing structural factors, such as economy, demography and medical development.

Breaking through the clutter and getting consumers? attention is a constant battle for marketers. Could consumer magazines be the solution to the problem? It is not a new marketing method but consumer magazines do not look like traditional marketing and they offer consumers value. Since these are qualities that could increase consumers? will to take part of commercial messages, it might be a method that deserves more attention.

The purpose of the essay is to, in retrospect, take a closer look at how the young people experienced their placement for assessment at Albogården and what it resulted in. With this purpose I inadvertently came to look at other aspects, for instance their lives before and after the placement.The underlying questions were:* The young people social situations before the placement?* The experience of being locked up?* What was it like being analysed?* What are the young people's thoughts on the methods of working at Albogården - rules, procedures, methods etc.?* What were the results from the placement at Albogården? Did something change in the young people's social situations?To answer my questions I interviewed four persons that previously were placed for assessment. To ascertain information on how the assessment is done I also interviewed the director of Albogården. I also studied relevant literature.The investigation showed that a majority of the young people didn't understand the purpose or felt participant in the assessment, being restless and locked up felt extremely arduous and violating.

The aim of the study is to describe social workers discretion when it comes to the relation between children placed away from home and their biological parents.The study describes how the social worker designs the contacts with the biological parents, for instance the extension for the actual meeting. The results are based on six interviews conducted with social workers who work with foster children. They have responded to questions related to the contact between children and their biological parent. The questions are based on eight vignettes. The contents of the vignettes show different conditions that affect the contact, for example age and foster care attitudes The results of the study have been compared to other previous research in discretion of the social worker and contacts between children and their biological parents.In summary the study shows that there is  high degree of independence for the social workers designing their work and that their level of discretion.

Anonymous job applications as a method to further diversity on the labour market is widely discussed. The method aims to promote an equal selection procedure, where the employer can only judge on merits and experience. We are with this study on the other hand interested in seeing how this specific method of employment has been implemented. We have chosen to perform a small qualitative case study, of a limited attempt of this method in the government administration of Kortedala, a district in Gothenburg.Our intrests are to see whether we can, while studying a specific implementation procedure, show that any implementation problems have occurred. Furthermore explaining it by applying our implementation theory, that consists of Lennart Lundquists three criterias for explaining implementation problems experienced from the appliers' standpoint.

Background/aim: The purpose of this sociological study "Genus in the Child's Best Interest" was to, from the Administrative Court's decree about the child's own behavior, further clarify the concept of the child's best interest by studying how the concept is expressed in decrees with focus on genus.Theory: Three genus theories, to compare girls and boys, Mary John's power theory, the grown ups definition of what the reality is and what it should contain, and a labeling theory, where the people with power are the ones to define what's normal and what's not, have been used to analyze the result in this study.Method: A content analyses was used to analyze the decrees, with the focus on girls and boys between the ages of 12 to 19, where they have been forced into treatment by the law.Result: The concept of a child's best interest does make a difference between girls and boys in the decrees, and the girls have more power because they have more room to express themselves and are less responsible for their thoughts and actions. The concept is possible to use, but the definition is subjective and could be colored by the societies values and norms..

The purpose of this study is to find out, explore and see how children with neuropsychiatric problems like ADHD/DAMP are portrayed and treated in five fictional children?s books written by writers who all are related to ADHD issues, except for one writer.I have done a text analysis performed on five children?s books which can be found in libraries in most of the libraries in Sweden. The analysis shows varying results between the five books followed by a general conclusion about how children with concentration problems are being presented in these chosen children's literature. The main problematic of this study is to examine how these characters are being represented and treated within the scopes of school, family relations and how ADHD/DAMP symptoms are portrayed. This study focuses on analysing how the actual ADHD/DAMP behaviour is being reflected and better understanding for the reader to understand the symptoms of ADHD.Another fact is what kind of relations these children with neuropsychiatric dysfunctions are portrayed when facing with other persons, such as family and friends and how ADHD/DAMP is affecting them daily basis.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how theory and practice intertwines through theactivism of the feminist punk performance collective Pussy Riot. I have also focussed on the political tools with which the activism is performed. Within the academic context of gender studies, I believe there is a need for research that aims to reduce the gap between scholarly and activist feminism. The theoretical framework for the analysis in this essay consists of material feminist theory and postmodern theory. The empirical material is a diversified assemblage of images, court excerpts, newspaper columns, interviews, lyrics and videos.