The aim of this thesis is to examine how four decision makers at a University College and a library director at the same University College perceive the profile, image and identity of their library. This University College library is used as our main example. We have evaluated the main example in relation to two other University College libraries, in order to obtain a deeper understanding of how these library directors view their own libraries and to attain a more multi-dimensional view of the main example of our study. Our intention is to analyse the current situation, not the past nor the future. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with decision makers and library directors have been conducted.

Integration policies have failed to make diversity into anything more than occupying the same physical space. People of different cultural background still do not share their lives to any real extent. Attempts made within planning and landscape architecture to catalyst the integration process have mainly been focused on structural measures, such as residential policies. As for outdoor environments, non-verbal casual encounters in the shape of crossing paths are assumed to lie at the heart of urban social integration.The aim of the thesis is to question this assumption and, as the thesis will show, there is literature supporting this aim. Looking at the works of Gordon Allport, Lewis Coser and some of their followers, I find intercultural contact to require more complex ways of interaction in order to reduce prejudice and to generate tolerance and understanding.

The aim of this study is to analyze how problems are represented within SOU 2008:27. Further more, the aim is to analyze how the new subject plan for history can bee seen as a product of this document. The method used, and the theoretical frame of the study, is based on Carol Lee Bacchi?s ?what´s the problem represented to be?? approach, which basic principle is that policies are filled with representations of problems and that these representations need to be examined. These problem representations are then themselves subject for scrutiny, the second step being an analysis of the texts presumptions and assumptions concerning view of man and perception of knowledge. The results show, among other things, that a problem representations can be found in the SOU; the school system is too vague and unclear.

AbstractThis paper is about the organisation of the special needs education in three nine-year compulsory schools in Stockholm and the pedagogical thoughts and theories that underlie these organisations. The main purpose of the paper was to investigate whether the special needs education of these schools should be interpreted in accordance with a segregating or an including view on integration as these perspectives are presented by the Norwegian professor Peder Haug. In addition to this I also wanted to investigate if there were any historical arguments in favour of one or another of these perspectives that were still being put forward in today?s debate.The methods that I used were a study of literature regarding special needs education and interviews of a qualitative character with three special educationalists and a special teacher that were working on three different nine-year compulsory schools in Stockholm.The result of the study shows that a big part of the special needs education of the schools that I visited can be interpreted in accordance with the segregating view on integration.The organisation of the special needs education of the three schools differed slightly from school to school but the common trait was that the largest part of this work took place outside of the student?s regular classroom and sometimes outside of the scheduled school day.Two of the schools had special groups where students that were believed to have a need of special education got some, or their entire schooling. That the schools chose to build a big part of their special needs education upon solutions that should be regarded as segregating was motivated on the basis of an effect oriented view on education.

Social movements have long been valuable components of the struggle for a world with true justice. Along with the changing and modernization of society these movements also change, both in their actions as well as in the goals they want to accomplish. Technology is taking a greater part in many aspects of social life, creating new dimensions but also new social divides. This thesis examines how new social movements make themselves visible and affect the world around them through different kinds of networks. For the purpose of this study, we have chosen to study two social movements; the Zapatistas in Mexico, who have become known worldwide for carrying out the first informational revolution, and MoveOn.org, an American grassroots organization that struggles for increased democracy in the US.

Integration policies have failed to make diversity into anything more than occupying the same physical space. People of different cultural background still do not share their lives to any real extent. Attempts made within planning and landscape architecture to catalyst the integration process have mainly been focused on structural measures, such as residential policies. As for outdoor environments, non-verbal casual encounters in the shape of crossing paths are assumed to lie at the heart of urban social integration.The aim of the thesis is to question this assumption and, as the thesis will show, there is literature supporting this aim. Looking at the works of Gordon Allport, Lewis Coser and some of their followers, I find intercultural contact to require more complex ways of interaction in order to reduce prejudice and to generate tolerance and understanding.

My purpose in this work was to find out how staff in a middle sized school uses its local Equal treatment plan in its work against bullying. But also to see how the use of a standardized anti-bullying program works to prevent bullying. I have interviewed the principal, teachers, and what we in Sweden call a ?fritidspedagog? and the members of the anti-bullying team to get answers to my questions.  The conclusion of this study is that the school follow and work according to what the Equal treatment plan states, both in terms of prevention, as in working with actual bullying cases. The school has also followed the National School Agency's recommendations on what should be the local Equality plan, but also to follow up and revise it each year. The interview shows that the staff at the school placed great emphasis on talking and discussing with students about how to behave towards each other, they also brought up things that happened at one time and talked about this. The staffs were very committed to work towards the prevention of bullying and the same was true with the school's headmaster.

Previous research on philosophy for children in schools has almost exclusively focused on how it is perceived by students. The aim of this study is to focus on how it is perceived by five teachers and other adults involved in implementing philosophy for children in schools, in total four teachers participated and one adult who worked with implementing took part in the study. The theoretical background is composed of Olga Dysthes view that knowledge is not only constructed but that the object that one intends to gain knowledge of has to be interacted with and how she applies this view dialogues in the classroom. The study was conducted by interviewing the participants. The results found that the teachers saw philosophy for children as something more than a tool to work with questions that were important to students, they were also viewed as a way to work with language and building solidarity within the class.

Freshwater ecosystems have long been neglected as an important part of the global carbon cycle. However, research shows that most of the world?s lakes are net-heterotrophic and consequently emitters of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. In many boreal and north-temperate lakes, most of the yearly emissions usually occur in spring, shortly after ice-thaw. The aim of this study was to quantify the flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in three boreal lakes, during this annual event.

ABSTRACT Poverty, and in particular child poverty, is a serious social problem. Statistics show that the number of children living in poverty has increased over the last ten years. Earlier research shows that there are huge gaps in our knowledge of how the actors in civil society handle child poverty. With this study we hope to help fill this gap. The aim of our study is to look at how four different organisations working in the civil society in Uppsala perceive and handle child poverty.

Education systems face a number of challenges regarding social justice, diversity, difference, and inclusion and membership for all students in the groups that schools create. This invokes questions of how well these challenges are met in curricula and teaching materials. Through discourse analysis of eight Swedish geographical textbooks, this essay aims to seek out the perspectives surrounding difference within the subject of geography. It concludes that the idea of fixed homogenous cultures as meaningfull in differentiating among people dominates throughout the latter half of the 20th century and during the last decade. In addition, it concludes that the discourse surrounding diversity in Swedish geographical teaching materials mainly has a binary liberal view of plurality focused around tolerance.

Background: A company?s choice of capital structure is influenced by the access to internal and external capital but also by the opportunities and threats that the management perceives in the environment and the management?s attitude towards risk. How an individual perceives and interpret the environment depends on the cognitive structures, which are shaped by personality, background and earlier experiences. Accordingly cognitive structures can be expected to influence the choice of capital structure. Purpose: Out of a cognitive perspective we intend to study the relationship between the way a company views it?s environment and what capital structure it chooses to have, in order to contribute to an increased understanding about what lies behind a company?s capital structure policy.

Our starting point has been to use the football player Zlatan Ibrahimovic as a model person for individualism that seams to break the ordinary socialization pattern in Sweden. The purpose of this study is to examine how the team leaders handle the socialization of more individualistic focused individuals/young persons into groups, since the Swedish School Curriculum is designed to meet each individual on his or hers former experiences. Is the socialization of individuals within team sports affected by their cultural background? And, in that case, should those facts have consequences for the sport subject at school? Those are the questions we want to explore. Besides a survey of documents, we have been seeking answers to our questions through interviews with the team leaders Roland Nilsson and Peter Bergander, the pedagogues/teachers Karin Jutterström and Håkan Jensgård and the professional football player Abgar Barson.Our study shows that the leaders and teachers of today have begun to change their view about individualists.

In my essay, I will start with a story that represents my dilemma from my own experience. In the story, dealing with children that challenges teachers and other children in preschool, I wonder how I as a teacher can be fair and inclusive when I feel insufficient on several occasions. I reflect on my own approach because it can be difficult when we encounter children with different needs and abilities in preschool.I write the essay in experience-based essay form. The essays form makes it possible for me to reflect on my own experience and by using selected theoretical perspectives processing my dilemma. In my essay, I explore my own approach, what is meant by fairness and how the concept can be interpreted and how I can in the best way include all children in activities.I conclude that fairness from a perspective can be seen from the five criteria similarity, need, performance, compensation and rights.

Recent studies show that manufacturing companies to a larger extent use historical cost accounting in their internal accounts, at the expense of calculated costs. The explanation behind this is claimed to be that firms are subject to careful scrutiny by the stock market. Consequently, top management stresses the need of evaluating all parts of the firm from external accounting. However, lower management levels express a general concern that the incentive to invest in machines will decrease. This master thesis aims to investigate whether or not there is an objective reason behind this concern.