This study is mostly based on previous research, which includes Sub-national actor?s attitudes and regional action towards the European Union. The purpose of the study is to investigate if four Swedish municipalities in Värmland operate internationally towards the European Union and deepen an understanding of their actions. The main research question is: - How can we increase our understanding of municipal action against the European Union? The research questions of this study are answered through qualitative method and semi-structured interviews were conducted.

AbstractThis report was undertaken at the request of the Management and maintenancedepartment of Swedish National Road Authority (Vägverket Region Sydöst) inJönköping.In 1992, the management and maintenance of Swedish roads were laid out onexternal contractors. When putting out a tender for the work, the foundation isfrom a national set of rules which are in constant change. This report is limited towinter road upkeep.The trend in the invitation for tenders is that it is moving from the moreconventional executional demands towards the less controlling demands. Thedownside of functional, less controlling demands is that it is difficult to articulatehow to measure them. The order authority therefore has to find ways to makesure to get what has been paid for.In connection to the invitation for tender of winter road upkeep for 2005, the newset of rules, ATB Vinter 2003 was deployed.The main purpose of this thesis is to see which the big changes in the set of rulesare and how these changes affect the organisation and activities of the contractor.It is also studied how the changes in execution is perceived by road users and howit affects the possibilities of the contractor to come as a newcomer to a new areaof administration.Interviews and examination of sets of rules has led to a list of a number ofchanges that the contractors feel affect their work in any sense.Views from road users that have come in to the order authority have beenscrutinized to see how they have experienced the change.

The Swedish rules for marrying in Sweden are different for swedish citizens and foreigners. A swedish citizen has to have permission from"Länsstyrelsen"to marry before the age of 18 but a foreigner may marry without permission at an age of 15, unless a higher age is required by the foreign law. The main question in this essay is if the swedish international law concerning the age of marriage is compatible with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and/or the Swedish Constitution. The comparison is based on mainly two questions: Primarily the Swedish international law is discussed concerning which marrying age is good for the child. Thereafter it is discussed whether it is discriminating to have different marrying ages for swedish and foreign citizens.

The Catalan movement of Independence is a well debated subject in Spanish news for the last decade. This thesis aims to examine what kind of identityarguments that spanish versus catalan newspapers make about the independence movement, in relation to nationalism and national identity. This is to deeper the understanding about the current complex situation in the Iberian Peninsula. The research shows that identityarguments about the independence movement presented by catalonian newspapers clearly put focus on identifying the ethnic and cultural reasons for the growing nationalism in the region, as well as discussing the political possibilities and obstacles of a sovereign Catalonia. In comparison, the identityarguments presented by spanish newspapers has another view of the situation, where the political aspect of the nationalistic catalan movement, identify the process as defying the Spanish Constitution and challenging the traditional historic unity of Spain.

Preschools are nowadays a big part of almost every childhood in Swedish society and the relationships that are built there are important for the child and the child?s future integration in the world of knowledge and education. The preschool teachers are therefore the first persons the child links to beyond the parent. That?s why the relations between the parent and the preschool teacher are an important and interesting aspect in the cooperation between them.

This essay attempts to examine the discourse of the Sweden democrats in relation to thevalue system of the Swedish national school.To analyse the political texts I use discourse analysis and especially the method and approachconducted by Judith Lee Bacchi. Bacchi focuses on the construction of a problem in variouspolitical discourses. When performing this kind of analysis the main question is (accordingto Bacchi): ?What is the problem represented to be??I find that the Sweden democrats construct the ?migration politics? and the ?multiculturalpolitics? that is guiding the society as the cause of most problems in our society. To solvethe ?problems? they promote a nationalistic and a cultural racist discourse especiallypinpointing the ?Muslims? as being a problem.Since the Sweden democrats are striving to implement their discourse in the society andschool, and since their discourse already are reproduced by solar students in the classroom,I find it important to examine the essence of their particular discourse and contrast it withthe current value system of the Swedish schools.I don´t find the nationalistic and racist discourse of the Sweden democrats to correspond tothe value system of the Swedish school, mainly due to their strive to create alienation, andby labeling individuals in a reductive manner, instead of using apparent differences as asource for democratic discussions in the classroom.

The disciplinary role of madness in the European society was major during the17th century rise of the national state.By studying the view on madness in Swedish governmental investigations duringthe modern years of the Swedish psychiatry, 1950 to today, it's possible to seehow madness function in society have changed. The study is based on a discourseanalysis and done in three important aspects of Michel Foucault's philosophy:terms of existence, control and knowledge.Based on Foucault's theories of self-discipline, exclusion mechanisms and adetailed investigation on the concept of power, the empirical survey shows howthe ?crazy? Swede changes from a disciplinary object of society into a drone toserve under the structures of capitalism. In a psychological condition previousscience has judged as animal..

Forskning hävdar att endast ett fåtal av styrelseledamöterna förstår vilka beslut som är värdeskapande för företaget. En av orsakerna är oförmågan att rekrytera rätt personer och flera röster har höjts för att en diversifierad rekrytering till bolagsstyrelser är en möjlig lösning på problemet. Diversifieringen kan ske utifrån olika demografiska faktorer som på en aggregerad nivå ska medföra att processen från beslut till genomförande blir effektiv. Vi finner stöd för en ökad diversifiering hos styrelsen i en rad teorier som alla är en del av tankegodset inom bolagsstyrning.Syftet är att konstruera och applicera en teoretisk modell för en lönsam styrelsesammansättning utifrån existerande forskning. Studien begränsar sig till svenska bolag på OMXS30 under tidsperioden 2003 -- 2014.Med stöd av vår modell visar vår analys att styrelsens storlek uppvisar en positiv korrelation med företagets förmåga att generera avkastning på eget kapital.

Taiwan has over the past thirty years experienced a substantial political transformation. Being ruled by Chinese nationalists since World War II, Taiwan started its democratic transition in the late eighties. The new democratic system did not only provide people with freedom to vote, it also marked the beginning of a search for a new national identity. Based on the international theory of constructivism, this paper defines and studies the Taiwanese people?s progression away from a dominant Chinese national identity towards a uniquely defined Taiwanese identity.

During the last decades the Swedish local party systems have gone through some considerable changes. The number of parties present in local party systems have increased and in some cases even doubled. This makes coalition building between parties complex and parties will be forced to rethink their coalition strategies and adjust to the new circumstances. Theoretically, coalition building has often been considered and applied to national data and there have been just a few attempts to develop and theoretically explain coalitions on a local level. Thus the aim of this paper is to use different theoretical approaches to local data to test the significance of traditional coalition theories.

The purpose of this work has been to investigate if there are any differences in the valuation process at infringements when highway and railway are built. The work has mainly been concentrated on the negotiation process in which The National Railway Department (Banverket) and The National Road Administration (Vägverket) try to get agreements with the land owners. The agreement includes compensation for infringement effects that affects the landowner?s property. The National Road Department uses the road law (Väglagen) when a highway shall be built.

The purpose of this study is to analyse how the local governments have implanted the new public health policy, which Sweden adopted in April 2003. The new health policy stakes out a new direction for national public health policy. Instead of focusing on diseases the new public health policy focus in factors that determine health.Important factors to study are the role of central steering from the central government. The method used is a case study of three Swedish local governments. The main material used is interviews and different policy documents within the area of public health.The conclusion of the study shows that the local governments are fairly satisfied with the steering of public health policy by the central government.

According to the arm?s length principle, transactions between associated multinational en-terprises (MNE) shall be based on the same conditions as transactions between unrelated parties. This means that intra-group prices on cross-boarding transactions must be at arm?s length range and consistent with conditions in the open market. The arm?s length principle is expressed in article 9.1 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and Chapter 14 section 19 of the Swedish Income Tax Act.When transfer pricing between associated MNEs is not reflecting the arm?s length princi-ple, states face the possibility of losing tax revenue.

In today?s Sweden there is great belief in entrepreneurship and the benefits it can bring to the country. The Swedish government has taken note of this growing enthusiasm and realized the contribution it can make to facilitate national growth. Successful efforts have been made in Sweden to support entrepreneurship and innovation, which has resulted in a relative ease for individuals to start their own businesses.The number of companies started today is higher than ever and there are signs of a common faith in growth among new entrepreneurs. Unfortunately only a small fraction of these new businesses succeed in growing big.

Abstract The use of electronic media plays an important part in the life of youth and especially Internet and mobile phones are important in the social and cultural networks of youth. The first step of this thesis is to examine the ICT-based activities of upper secondary school students through an online survey. The second step is to examine what didactic implications can be derived from the ICT-based activities in the subject of Swedish. Results from this survey and national and international research show that young people spend the majority of their leisure time on the Internet. The result also shows that media activities displace other school related activities such as traditional reading and writing.