Japan's foreign and security policy has seen some substantial changes as a result of events like the first Gulf war and 9/11th. This has been taken as proof, by some, that Japan is abandoning its antimilitaristic stance and pursuing a more traditional hard power role through military means. This essay aims to explore if these shifts have coincided with any substantial shifts away from antimilitarism, which has had a strong influence on the country's security policy since the end of WW2.To do this I use constructivist theory, specifically regarding the impact of norms and identities on states security policy and briefly look into the problem of actor designation. The thematic focus is on security policy, from a narrow perspective, and thus I examine areas like the input and output to the Japanese military and the actual applications of this force. State identity is used to explore the prevalence of nationalistic sentiments and support for anti militarism in the public opinion and the political elite.The result of this study points to the further relevance of constructivist theory and especially the application of norms and identity.

The aim with this study was to gain an understanding for teaching as an profession, and get a bigger knowledge about the certification of teaching and what it means for the teaching occupations status. To get an answer for this study two methods were used. The first method was a survey with questions that were sent out to working high school teachers in the North of Sweden. The second method was a document analysis of articales from three Swedish dailynewspapers. To analyse the results from this study a theory about professions is used troughout the whole paper.This studies resluts shows that profession as an definition is hard to undestand.

This case study has been conducted within the Swedish fitness chain World Class to explore the opportunities for knowledge development and transfers within franchise networks. We have interviewed the product manager at the World Class headquarter, the owner of a franchise club and a local product manager from the same facility. Our finding indicates that various forms of knowledge transfer occur within the World Class network, particularly in product development and sales. The transfer occurs within the framework set by World Class with regularly scheduled meetings. In addition informal networks provide other means of knowledge exchange between some units.

The aim of this Bachelor?s thesis is to investigate the public librarian?s professional identity and its relation to the public library as an experience centre. The development of the library as an experience centre raises questions about how public librarians understand their professional identity, and about their motives for working with activities like workshops and qigong, activities that have no significant connection with the librarian?s traditional tasks. The data was collected via semi-structured interviews exploring the perspectives and points of view of four public librarians.

The aim of the study was to examine if and how the social service and the social welfare secretary provides against threat and violence in the encounter with clients. The study is qualitative and carried out with six semi-structured interviews with social welfare secretaries and participation observations at the social welfare offices in three municipalities. The theoretical starting points used were symbolic interactionism and strange loops. The result shows that social service and social welfare secretaries both use measures to prevent threat and violence to occur. The precautionary measures mainly used by social services are ; looked doors, alarm device, loose objects removes and interview rooms are furnish in purpose for the social welfare secretary to flee the room at urgent need.

The aim of this inquiry was to investigate the most appropriate measures to reduce noise impacts from road traffic on the Nydala recreational area in Umeå municipality due to the planned re-routing of the E4 motorway to an existing road along this area. The sound environment is an important part in the experience when we are visiting recreational areas. Noise is not only disturbing; the liberty from unwanted sounds also allows us to perceive natural sounds that are a benefit for the cultural experience. Therefore it is important to take actions to protect this well used area from traffic noise. The reasonable options to avoid noise impact in this case are to lower the speed limit, using a noise reducing coating or use noise protection screens and walls.

 AbstractDate:                                  2009-06-03Level:                                 Master thesis in Business Administration, 15 pointsAuthors:                            Branka Milencovici            Deniz SolmazTutor:                                Ulla PetterssonTitle:                                  The Swedish code of Corporate Governance - How the code administers in larger stock firms.Problem:                           The Swedish code follows the value of "comply or explain" when firms depart one or several rules, the reasons should be explained in the corporate report. The code does not include reasons for differences, it's up to the management themselves to take action. Is it possible to see if the code has been administered? Do differences prevent? Which are the most common? Is there any motivation?  Purpose:                           The main purpose with this essay is to study how Swedish firms administer the rules of the code in their corporate reports.Method:                            The method for this study is a deductive and qualitative approach. First we studied theory to understand the subject.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine and question the use of mindfulness in the workplace. Mindfulness in the workplace can be understood as an organization recipe and is now a so called trend. We believe that there may be an issue of how mindfulness at work is advertised when it is described in such a way that it could be the solution to many organizational problems, such as reducing stress, increasing efficiency, creativity and productivity. To get a better understanding of what mindfulness is and what it can bring to a stressful work, we conducted semi-structured interviews with four mindfulness instructors. We analyzed the interviews from a theoretical analytical framework consisting of both a constructivist perspective and a power perspective.

The subject of this bachelor-level thesis in archaeology in the transition from archaic sapiens to anatomically modern humans, and what might have caused this transition. A part of the study aims to prove or disprove whether an increased consumption of shellfish might have caused this development. Another part of the essay deals with the connection of said evolution and the suggested emergence of cultural and ritual practices in South Africa circa 100 000 BP and an evaluation of the arguments concerning the aquatic ape hypothesis, and their usefulness for the subject.The result of investigation of the theory about the increased consumption of marine resources as a probable cause of the last biological step of creating our species points to the conclusion that it is a probable explanation. There is even some evidence that there could be a connection between consumption of marine resources and the "Out of Africa 2"-theory. It is harder to find a proven connection between the suggested emergence of cultural and ritual practices, even some evidence seems to strengthen the idea.

View description: The purpose of this study is to investigate in what way the mother tongue language education integrates in a compulsory school activities and also which significance it has to the students who studies mother tongue language. My questions are following:How does the cooperation look like between mother tongue languages teacher, teacher and principal?How do students perceive the mother tongue language education?How does the mother tongue language education take place at the school?Method: This investigation is classified as a qualitative study and consists of theoretical points and empirical material such as interviews and observations.  Based on hermeneutic view of tradition which means that I interpret all my material.Results: My results of this study is that the mother tongue language education does not integrate with the other school activities and the mother tongue language teachers does not cooperate with other teachers or principal at this school. The reason for this is mainly because the mother tongue language teachers work situation. I´ve also seen that language has to do with the creation of a personal identity.

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to analyse the portrayals of working-class life in a selection of works by the Swedish authors Ragnar Järhult and Per Gunnar Evander. The research questions are: * How is the working conditions described?* What political messages can be found in the works?* What image of the class society is shown?The second aim of this Master?s thesis is to analyse the concept of working-class literature and to investigate if the works of Per Gunnar Evander could be seen as working-class literature. Methodologically, the study draws on established theories, concepts and methods from the sociology of literature and the history of ideas.

The aim of this study is to compare the modernist novels Astarte (1931) by the Swedish writer Karin Boye with Estación, Ida y vuelta (1930) by the Spanish author Rosa Chacel and the reception of these literary works in contemporary academic research. The theoretical ground of the study consists of feminist and critical theory, with traits of discourse analysis.Astarte and Estación were in large part forgotten and ignored by the Western Canon of literature during most of the 20th century, but have lately gained more attention as important modernist novels by researchers (from the feminist, poststructuralist or hermeneutic theoretical fields) who primarily examine the experimental forms figured by the texts in relation to the deconstruction and shattering of human homogenous ?essence?.The results found in the study show that the literary forms of both novels can be associated with a kind of illusion rapture, which relate to the modernist inclination to what Frederic Jameson calls artificial narrative; a form technique that points back at itself to emphasize its own characteristic of being a constructed and subjective illustration of reality. The contemporary interest in these artificial literary forms expressed by Astarte and Estación is therefore probably a consequence of the vibrant academic debates carried out during later decades concerning the conception of human gender and identity as construction and performance. .

Companies in the western world can no longer compete by using traditional means such as product and price since the commerce of services continually grows. To avoid similarity and increase competitive advantages modern companies have to be more specified. The competition between companies has increased and customers are harder to reach. Customers of today can afford luxury but trend indicates that originality, identity, and status are more important than factual needs. Products created and consumed at the same time within the service market are often very homogenous (similar).

The purpose of this Master?s thesis studies is to examine how information seeking is taught from a pedagogical and didactic perspective. The questions at issue are:? What is the content in information seeking education?? What aims are focused in information seeking education?? What methods are used in information seeking education? The methods being used are empirical studies and studies of literature, within the subject area. The study is inspired by phenomenographical learning theories.

Process standardization is a topic that has generated a lot of research and literature. At first, the focus was on production; today processes are used in all different kind of business areas.The aim of this study has been to analyze how processes can be applied on development businesses and how IT systems affect the result of the process. To accomplish this, we have asked questions such as what standardization is in a development process? Why are the processes standardized? What difficulties can appear with standardization? And how the IT-systems affect the result of the process?To answer these questions, we have preformed a case study on Saab. Saab is a well know Swedish company who are working with a project called the GMS-project, where they develop processes to cover the whole company´s business areas.The literature gives the reader an understanding of processes and standardization.