There are numerous of ideas and theories around the present development in our global society, describing an ever changing era based and propelled by information and communication technology (ICT). How influential has this development been on political visions and intentions and on the business worlds views on important competencies? The purpose of this thesis is to describe the national and international visions of important competencies in the ?information society?. Through a case study, focused on how the training and consultancy industry apprehends and answer to this change and development, as they often act as agents for new trends in the business world both as accommodators and originators. The growth and speed of the universally available information demands knowhow in seeking, analyzing and managing information, and this competence is crucial today.

In recent years, agile software development methods have become increasingly popular throughout the world. Today there are a number of different agile methods and they all rest on the Agile Manifesto that was formulated in 2001 as a reaction to the traditional software processes.The aim of this thesis is to make a survey of some of the agile methods used today and to see how they are being used in practice. It consists of two parts: a literature study and an interview study with people working in the software business. First, a definition of agile methods is proposed and a number of different agile methods are described. Second, the interviews are being analysed with special focus on communication, collaboration, expectations and results.

What every theory of democracy has in common is a reference to ?a people? who are, in one way or another, collectively self-governing. Given that, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the so called boundary problem of democratic theory, or, in other words, the question of who should be included in the democratic community. Lately, the historically given boundaries have been questioned in favour of a cosmopolitan democracy. Still, little has been said about the boundary problem in general, especially from a theoretical point of view.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how out-pedagogy, drama and art can be used as means of promoting language development of bi-and multi-language learners, and to show what benefits these three methods offer to children of year three of an elementary school in Stockholm City. This is a small survey of work-style and the results are based on observations and interviews with five teachers which included three class teachers, one resource teacher and one other language teacher and it was carried out two full days of observations in both classroom and outdoor environment. In this work, I note how out-pedagogy, drama and art can help bi- and multilingual children develop language. My study shows, in accordance with the respondents interviewed, as well as research in general that out-pedagogy, drama and art is language development practices. They argue that out-pedagogy and the aesthetic elements promote language development of bi- and multilingual children in different ways and complements the traditional approach.

This essay analyzes three Swedish cartoon artists: Elias Ericson, Lisa Ewald and AmandaCasanellas. The aim is to examine how they construct feminist strategies through their workand how they convey this visually. The issue of whether these Swedish cartoons can be seenas a part of a bigger political platform is central. Through semiotics and post-colonial andqueer feminist theory, some answers to these questions are searched for.The result shows that all three of the artists can be seen in a bigger activist context, even ifthey work in and through different platforms. Casanellas questions the racism in Swedenand how we should prevent it.

The master thesis, conducted at Metrima AB, concerns the development of a non-intrusivedistribution meter as a basis for individual tap water billing in apartments.The project is conducted in response to the market interest in individual tap water billing inapartments as an answer to environmental concerns regarding water consumption. Due to thehigh installation cost of traditional water meters, a new method of determining waterconsumption, without having to cut water pipes, is proposed.The proposed method distributes the total water consumption for an apartment complex toindividual apartments according to distribution meters, measuring water run-time, in eachapartment. The water run-time is estimated by measuring the water pipe?s outward vibrationsand temperature changes.A test environment was established and a prototype built, using a tilt- and vibration sensor forvibration sensing and a precision temperature sensor to measure temperature changes. As bothsensors work well in the test environment, further testing was done in 3 apartments for aduration of 5 days.

The overall aim of the study was to take part of teachers' experiences and work force mother-tongue education and literacy development in the Sámi School. The study was conducted through interviews with twelve teachers who teach at two Sámi schools. The focus has been on looking how to work with native speakers teaching at the Sámi School, what factors promote / hinder students' development of their first or second language, and the importance of collaboration between the schools` various professions work with multilingual students reading and writing skills. Through interviews of various categories of teachers, I have tried to visibility problems of the education of minority language children and their reading and writing skills. I discuss the teaching, the importance and the lack / availability of communication and consensus between different categories of teachers.

The aim of this thesis is to practice the theoretical methods that are concerned during the product development process of two new products. The theoretical concepts that embody the two products are created out of a product specification which is given by a commissioner with a private interest. The primary tasks of the design of the concepts are aimed on the products shape, which is to be created as a flexible structure by using silicon rubber as material.The storage box is a further development of the already known food storage box, or lunch box, which is common used in consumer kitchens. The main idea is to design a flexible product by using silicone rubber. It will able the storage box to be compressed when it is not used, be storage friendly and not consume more space than necessary in a storage compartment.

Large-scale land investments is not a new phenomenon, but increasing prices on food and agrofuels have inflated prices on land and has led to an enhanced interest in landinvestments from a range of different actors. The ProSavana project in the Nacala corridor in the Nampula province, northern Mozambique is a large-scale land investment with the purpose of establishing intensive commercial agriculture and is planned to be implemented this year (2013). The project is financed by Brazil and Japan in collaboration with the government of Mozambique. It is not quite clear how large-scale land investments affect the areas they are implemented in and how they can affect the possibilities for sustainable development in these areas. Both opportunities and problems can be observed within the social, economic and ecological dimensions of sustainable development.

ABSTRACTA Qualitative Discursive Analysis of Eight Contemporary Geography BooksTeacher Training with an Intercultural Profile 2006Author: Susanne LjunglöfTutor: Jan-Eric MattsonThe aim of this paper is to describe which discourses concerning the different continents problems, future and development that I can find in the descriptions of the continents in a number of contemporary geography books.The aim has been divided in four questions:- Which aspects of the continents problems are expressed in these geography books?- Which impressions concerning the continents development and future are expressed in these geography books?- Which conceptions about the population in the different continents are expressed in these geography books?- Which cultural reference creates these discourses?The method used for conducting this study is a text analytical method called general discourse analysis.My conclusions:- The different continents problems, development and future are described through entirely diverse discourses.- The reviewed geography books take their origin i a western perspective in their description of the different continents.- As a reader it is always important to be aware of the ethnocentric perspective that could be expressed.

This thesis explores the position of book blogs in the literary system through Robert Escarpit's socio-literary model of the book market. Simultaneously the thesis serves as a test for Escarpit's theory: by actively applying his theory and model to a very new and contemporary actor on the book market I hoped to reach or confirm new insights into the usefulness and validity of Escarpit's work for contemporary socio-literary studies.Three book blogs were selected for the analysis and interviews were carried out with the authors. The interview questions were formulated specifically for the purpose of extracting the kind of information necessary for an analysis using Escarpit?s theory. As a complement to the interviews, statistics on the type of books reviewed on the blogs were also compiled.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the Chinese destination of Hainan, with background in a globalizing tourism destination development, for tourism from Finland and Sweden. The questions at issue are regarding what kind of an impact the status as a special economic zone have had upon Hainan, what kind of conditions there are for tourism on the island, in what form participants of the tourism industry want the development to proceed, what the prevailing trend is for distant destinations for Nordic markets and also regarding what kind of potential there is for organized tourism to Hainan from Finland and Sweden.As a foundation for the paper, I?ve composed a theoretical reference for knowledge of China, Hainan and the study of destinations. The sources of secondary kind are literature related to the subject. The primary sources are mainly interviews, field work done at Hainan has given a concrete and personal knowledge of the place.

This study investigates how Arabic-speaking students in Sweden use syntax and prepositions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and how their writing is influenced by Swedish grammar and Arabic dialects. The focus is on identifying systematic patterns of cross-linguistic influence and variation between different groups of learners. The data consists of written translations by 30 students in grades 7?9 who receive mother tongue instruction in Arabic. All students translated the same Swedish source text into MSA, and the translations were analysed with attention to syntactic structures and the use of prepositions. The theoretical framework draws on transfer theory, interlanguage theory, and the interdependence hypothesis, complemented by perspectives on multilingualism and diglossia. These frameworks make it possible to capture both external influences from Swedish and Arabic dialects, as well as internal processes of second language development.

There is an increased pressure for firms to provide the financial market with additional information. Such disclosure is attached with different kinds of costs. In spite of these costs, and in spite of increased mandatory disclosures, firms choose to voluntary disclosure financial information to analysts and others. This indicates that firms also benefit from providing additional information. The subjects of this study is 431 annual reports from firms listed at the Stockholm Stock Exchange for 2002 and 2005 and the objective is to survey factors that can explain variations in firms? voluntary disclosure.

Studiens syfte: Vårt syfte är att med hjälp av en enkätundersökning och etablerade motivationsteorier ta reda på vad som motiverar konsumenter inför ett bostadsköp.Metod: Vi har använt oss av en kvantitativ metod och informationen har samlats in med hjälp av en elektronisk enkätundersökning för att sedan kopplas till Self Determination Theory (SDT).Resultat & slutsats: Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av statistikprogrammet SPSS. Faktoranalysen resulterade i 13 faktorer, vilket slutligen gav en bild av 6 olika typer av konsumenter som alla motiveras på olika sätt.Förslag till fortsatt forskning: SDT skulle kunna användas på fler konsumentområden såsom upplevelser, resor eller för att ta reda på varför vi köper olika typer av varor.Uppsatsens bidrag: Vårt examensarbete har bidragit med att identifiera de motiv som driver oss till bostadsköp. Studien har visat att SDT kan vara ett lämpligt verktyg för framtidens fastighetsmäklare och att resultatet kan vara användbart i fastighetsmäklarrollen. .