Earth?s resources have been exploited unsustainably. If an entire conception of exploitationof natural resources does not change now, this will entail enormous costs in the future.This insight has lead to a recently increased interest in clean technologies among privateequity capitalists. In the fourth quarter of 2006 about 10 percent of all private equityinvestments made in the US market were placed in the cleantech industry. Despite a goodinvesting climate in Sweden, Swedish capitalists have shown little interest in cleantechinvestments.

This thesis examines the establishment of auditors as third party assurers of sustainability reports in Sweden. This is done through a qualitative case study that examines the subject from both a preparer?s and an assurer?s perspective. Empirical data was analyzed using a combination of agency- and legitimacy theory. The study reaches the conclusion that sustainability reporting companies in the study demand a verification service for reported sustainability data in order to increase creditability, meet increased stakeholder demand and increased accounting complexity.

The report describes an ecodesign thesis performed by the author at the ÅF EcoDesign Center. The basic idea of ecodesign is to develop products with a minimized environmental load, without neglecting other significant product aspects such as function and price. During the last couple of years the public interest in environmental friendly products has increased, which has made it possible for companies to make a profit from their investments in ecodesign. To meet the increasing market for ecodesign services ÅF started the ÅF EcoDesign Center, where the company has gathered all of their competence in ecodesign in order to help companies to become greener. The task was to develop a tool for an Eco Screening.

SammanfattningArbetets art: Uppsats i pedagogik, 41?60 poängTitel: Betydelsen av pedagogisk grundsyn i olika verksamheters kompetensutvecklingsarbete inom tre branscher.Title in English: The significance of pedagogical basic view in different organizations? competence development within three branches.Författare: Jane JohanssonPernilla RidalEva-Britt StrandHandledare: Linda Reneland-ForsmanAntal sidor: 38 sidorProblem: På vilket sätt uttrycks pedagogisk grundsyn i verksamheternas dokumentation? På vilket sätt speglas pedagogisk grundsyn i verksamheternas arbetssätt och kompetensutvecklingsinsatser? Vad finns det för likheter och/eller skillnader i verksamheternas uttryckta pedagogiska grundsyn och deras val av kompetensutvecklingsinsatser?Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att belysa hur arbetsgivares pedagogiskagrundsyn påverkar valet av kompetensutvecklingsinsatser inom tre olika branscher.Vi har i uppsatsarbetet valt att göra kvalitativt semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Två representanter från varje bransch har intervjuats. Branscherna utgörs av kommunal verksamhet, tjänste- och producerande företag. I analysarbetet har vi låtit oss inspireras av en hermeneutisk ansats när dokument och intervjutexter har tolkats.

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to do a benchmarking study of the marketing activities at the public library of Valdemarsvik. The purpose is also to describe and get a deeper understanding of benchmarking as a method for improving library activity. Four major problem areas are addressed: How can one use benchmarking as a tool to achieve change? How can one learn with benchmarking? What similarities and differences are there between benchmarking and other similar methods for competence development? Is benchmarking better than other similar methods for competence development? The empirical approach was qualitative and the method chosen was action research.

It was the purpose of the present study to explore thoughts and lines of reasonings concerning body perspectives in school. Based on students at a secondary school and on analyses of the curricula of the school, I reason about how we see the human being and the importance of it in school. In the introduction I start out from observations and highlight the body as a communicative channel leading up to the issue of students? basic view of man as integrated or devided in body and soul. A study of twelve interviews of students shows that thoughts about the two perspectives had not been identified until now but that a great deal of interest existed for discussion on this subject.

The application of the LSS law and how the public organization (Municipality of Hudiksvall) later had to reform their organization to fit the new demands is the foundation to this master's thesis. An internal evaluation was performed due to this reorganisation process within the social care department (LSS unit). The aim was to investigate and evaluate if the reorganization resulted in a better working environment and if the work load (distribution of work) became more evenly divided between the different unit managing directors. The primary empirical information to this master's thesis is collected from that evaluation report. The main aim of this master?s thesis is to answer if the organisational choice between specialised or de-specialised working tasks has an effect (experienced and measured) on the level of stress among the unit managing directors.

This essay focuses on strategies for acquisitions in Swedish publiclibraries. The topic has been occuring in the public debate off andon since the70s. The dominant view has been that librarians haveallowed demand direct the purchases of media and thus haveignored quality literature.This debate has caused me to reflect on the librarians constantdilemma when purchasing media. Are they supposed to chooseliterature that are in demand, or should an evaluation made bylibrarians be the decisive?The previous research has shown that the library profession istraditionally characterized by a non-judgmental approach.

Background: Mental health problems among children and adolescents have increased. The school is an important arena for prevention of mental health problems. There is a huge demand for successful interventions. SEL is a method that aims to increase the social and emotional competence among children and adolescents. The program SET applies this method.

The Production Manager at Atlas Copco AB Craelius wants to adopt a lean approach to become more competitive. This thesis is an exploratory study of the subject and what it means for the business activity and its implementation process.The objective is to provide a basic understanding of lean to the company, and what this means for Atlas Copco AB Craelius. The report describes the industrial revolution in brief. This is because the company itself must understand where certain ways of looking at production management is derived from. Furthermore, it provides an understanding of Lean's origins.

This is a case study of work for gender equality, performed by the Employment and Competence Centre (Arbets- och kompetenscenter) in the municipality of Botkyrka. The aim of the study is to explore how gender equality is understood in the context of a municipality, and what underlying assumptions this understanding is based upon. The questions raised are; How is gender equality understood by the personnel? How do they understand gender? To what extent are women and men seen as homogeneous groups and what differences are (un)visible? What other power hierarchies besides gender are seen as important when working for gender equality? The analysis show that gender equality is a blurry vision, mainly understood in terms of equal conditions and rights, equal results for male and female participants and equal amount of women and men employed. Gender is seen as a binary system and differences between the genders are highlighted.

The aim of this essay is to examine how people living in the Swedish countryside looked upon changes in the interiors through modernization in 1850-90. For the first time, there was an abundance of objects available in stores in the countryside that the majority of the population had money buy. Many novelties were introduced in the interior decoration of ordinary peoples´ homes. This study focuses on the introduction and use of wallpaper and is based on a questionnaire about wallpaper sent from the Nordiska museet, National museum of Culture history in Sweden, to people all over Sweden in 1948. 148 people responded to the questions about use and attitudes toward wallpaper during the second half of the 19th century.My theoretical perspective is cultural diffusion, the spread of cultural items, more specific the diffusion of innovations from larger to smaller places, often influenced by social elites, hierarchical diffusion, and between individuals, contagious diffusion.The analytical perspective used for the analysis is based on the concepts of basic and variable modernity, initiated by the historian Sven-Eric Liedman.

In recent years, the demands for effectiveness and evidence in social work have increased in all work areas, including that of healthcare. This has sparked the discussion on concepts such as practical- and theoretical knowledge and their respective roles in social work. In the light of this, the purpose of this candidate thesis is to investigate healthcare social workers understanding of practical- and theoretical knowledge in the working process as well as their respective influence and importance. This candidate thesis is based on three interviews with social workers from different departments in Norrlands Universitetssjukhus in Umeå, Sweden. To provide range to the thesis, the interviewees were chosen from a purposeful sampling.

Lundbergs Plåt AB is a small company situated in Jönköping. Their main task is to process different kinds of steel such as stainless steel. Lately, they have shown an interest in Lean production.On the basis of the situation mentioned above, we developed the purpose to find and decrease the non value-added wastes in the production at Lundbergs Plåt AB. Out of this, we also developed and answered two questions: Which wastes can be found with help from a value stream mapping (VSM)? In what way can these wastes be reduced and how can these reductions contribute to an improved production? VSM is the method used to find the non value-added wastes.

AbstractTo take the role of another is an important and a central part of human interaction. When we take the role of another we not only learn about them but also we learn about ourselves and how we interact with other people.  Social work in this form, working with directly with families in crises, is much about understanding other people?s perspective and feelings. It is important to know the strategy of one?s work and which perspective to work from.