Abstract Title:                       Grades at Primary School ? A study of local politicians' arguments in                       connection with the division into grades at Swedish primary schools.Author:                       Annie LinderUniversity of KalmarC-essay in Social StudiesAutumn 2011 The study aims to investigate local politicians' decisions since municipalities took overSwedish primary education in 1990/91. The arguments put forward in support of how stages are organised have been studied, likewise whether municipalities have acted rationally when making their decisions.Six municipalities are included in the survey. They were divided into three educational categories: lower, middle and high level schools; previous and recent schools and F9 schools with pre-schools and primary schools integrated.Minutes from politicians' and civil servants' meetings have been studied and categorised according to arguments for and against. The most common supportive arguments are about economy and organisation, others concern school premises, trends and the wish for a comprehensive compulsory school.

Att köra eller inte köra is a qualitative study aiming to show how environmentally conscious people who utilizes cars deal with their dissonant behavior, but at the sametime maintain an identity as environmentally conscious. The study is based on the fact that a third of those who drive cars in the municipality of Växjö would like to decrease their use of cars while at the same time having the infrastructural conditions to utilize other means of transportation. The study investigates inner obstacles in the form of habits and lifestyle, but also the different strategies the motorists use to reduce their cognitive dissonance and maintain a green identity. The indicators show that the reason the majority of the motorists continue to utilize cars is part due to inner obstacles (it's adeeply rooted habit, but also a big part of their lifestyles), part due to that the individuals have defenses for their use of their cars, defenses designed to have a dissonance reducing effect. The indicators also show that the motorists value their family higher than the environment, and in this way they can legitimize many of their car uses.

Introduction:Corporate limits becoming more diffuse due to the globalization taking place and requirements for analytical strategies are becoming more fundamental parts of organizations. Business Intelligence systems are hot and not without reason, today's world is spinning faster and with a flow of information that is constantly increasing Business Intelligence promises to introduce a support that will render a better decision-making, something that everyone wants.Problem Discussion:The local government business has today demands from the Swedish School-inspection to analyze and create adequate target images to the school and students meet curriculum goals and guidelines. Therefore, local government activities has increasingly begun to implement Business Intelligence tools, with the purpose to facilitate strategic and operational decisions were the result plays an increasing role in today's society.Purpose:This study evaluates how the analysis tool Qlikview fulfills the function of monitoring and controlling the improved student achievement in public schools.Method:The evaluation has been conducted qualitative interviews with staffs that have leadership positions in each municipality and management and possess a deep knowledge of the analysis tool and its processes.Conclusion:The evaluation has shown positive effects on the monitoring and control of student performance through better control of school operations..

A central discussion within society and businesses today, is the change of generations in the business market which occurs within the upcoming years. A change of generations is unavoidable and a natural step in business. The challenge of the forthcoming reform is the large number of people leaving the labour market and the grand entrance of new labour; Generation Y. The characteristics of Generation Y differ from the older generation which enhances the challenges for the businesses to attract a new workforce. It may also be necessary for the organisations to adapt to the younger generation.

This Master thesis focuses on change conditions and change ambitions in Swedish public libraries. I have chosen to focus on three libraries that participated in a much-debated developmental project sponsored by the Swedish Arts Council almost twenty years ago. The aim of the project was to enhance service-quality, increase user-influence over media acquisition and library routines, and to redefine the concept of quality in the library context. I have made comparisons of the conditions and change ambitions between the project period 1991-1994 and present day 2009. To do this I have analyzed the evaluations of the above-mentioned project and the developmental plans that every municipality in Sweden is required to write according the library-law of 2004.

The aim of this work is to understand the recruitment of candidates to the local representative assembly in the municipality of Täby. The method used is qualitative interviewing, of a total of eight local politicians in Täby. The theory in which this work rest upon is based on a new-institutionalist perspective. Of great importance is the thoughts of the politicians involved in the recrution process, what do they think were the reasons that controlled the order of priority in the party list among the pool of candidates? Were there any obstacles for minorities in the politics like for example foreigners, women or young people? The study is taking it?s departure from the politicians who candidated in the election of 2002-2006 and the ones which are candidating to the election this coming autumn.In conclusion the aim is to understand the reasons that gives some of the candidates electable places to the assembly, and what the actors themselves think are the conclusive qualities that matters the most.

The purpose of this master thesis is to examine some information aspects of decision-making in Swedish municipal committees. Which are the information needs and how do they emerge? How is the needed information sought and received and which are the sources? How do the members of the committees use information when making decisions? To answer these questions qualitative interviews were conducted with four politicians (two chairpersons representing the political majority and two vice-chairpersons representing the opposition) and three officials in a municipality with a population of about 50 000. The politicians were interviewed in capacity of decision-makers, whereas the officials from the local administration are of interest through their decision-supportive role, which includes providing of reports and other information. The examination indicates that even if the conditions to some extent differ between the committees, the administration is highly influential: Notions and proposals about action may come from inhabitants, organizations, politicians etc., but are handled by the administration, which often is the problem formulating actor, through which the informational needs nearly always are canalized.

Research reports as PISA and PIRLS show that reading comprehension among Swedish students have deteriorated in recent years and that girls have better reading comprehension than boys. The basis for this study is Maj-Gun Johansson's reading comprehension test done during the four years between the years 2005-2008 in the seventh grade in a municipality in Sweden. The main purpose of this study is to examine reading literacy in terms of the influence of content and form of texts viewed from a gender perspective. The study is divided into two parts. The first part is a survey on local reading comprehension compared with results from a similar national text.

AbstractConsequence analysis ?worst case scenario? at Mälarhamnar AB VästeråsDavid DotzskyMälarhamnar AB is a company that handle large amounts of oil, diesel, biofuel and petrol. That result in a lot of work to prevent accidents. The risks with modern technology is very small but it can?t be eliminated.

Arbetet är ett examensarbete i högskoleingenjörsutbildningen, inriktning datateknik, på Linnéuniversitet. Växjö kommun är just nu mitt i ett nytt projekt för att sammanställa hela IT-organisationen för att göra servicen för anställda och medborgare bättre. Detta projekt kallas ?Ett IT? och ska sammaställa IT-organisationen till fyra huvudavdelningar. Dessa avdelningar är Servicedesk, Service, System och Utveckling.I samband med dessa förändringar har önskemålet om ett enklare sätt att söka efter personer inom IT-organisationen kommit upp.

Changes in swallowing function are common in elderly and chronically ill individuals. Therefore it is important to be aware of these changes and their prevalence. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of dysphagia in nursing homes in the municipality of Linköping, and to correlate dysphagia with variables that can be a cause or a consequence of dysphagia. These variables were gender, age, MMT-result, dentition, weight loss, medical diagnose or number of medications. The intention was also to examine the additional information regarding dysphagia supplied by pulse oximetry.Sixty nursing home residents aged 74-101 years were chosen to participate in the study.

Many Swedish urban neighborhoods have since they were constructed suffered from a bad reputation and have had a lack of strong socioeconomic groups settling there. This study is about a suburb in a medium-sized Swedish town and the purpose is to find out which social problems that exist there. The aim is also to explain the actors who work with adolescents in the area, which interventions and activities are offered, and whether they can be characterized as pro-social, as well as how the cooperation between the actors looks like. A qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews was carried out, involving nine respondents, who are active in the public and nonprofit sector. The interview guide used is designed and divided into different themes based on the survey questions.

Introduction: First line managers in the public sector, are under a great pressure from both senior management, leadership, politicians and often from a large group of employees. Few studies have been made on the first-linemanagers psychosocial work environment, even though in the studies found that the manager affects their employees work environment.Aim: How first line managers in municipal elderly describes the psychosocial work environment on the basis of demand-control - support model.Methods: The study was conducted through individual interviews with six first line managers. Respondents were recruited through a strategic selection in a medium-sized municipality in Västernorrland. The interviews were conducted using an interview guide. Qualitative content analysis with an deductive approach was used as a method of interpretation of the results.Results: First line managers point out the difficulty in balancing the requirements and several managers also mentioned the importance of having clear role descriptions and objectives.

This study is an intersectional analysis of how women who?ve immigrated to the bilingual municipality of Pajala, experience their current and future work life. The study is based on nine qualitative interviews with women of different class, age and origin. A number of constellations of relationships between these categories emerge in this study. What seems most central is that traditional notions of femininity and masculinity segregate labor vertically and horizontally.

In this master thesis we suggest a recreational directed forest management plan for the Skedalaskogen. The forest is situated 10 kilometres east of the city of Halmstad and is owned by the municipality. We have in literature and in research investigated what people like and want in the forest, how to manage the forest for recreation according to for example tree species, mixtures and density. We tried to adapt the forestry methods more to recreational thinking. We have also looked at issues like what is rare and not rare in this part of the country according to nature and forest, where people live and which connection they have to the Skedalaskogen. The Skedalaskogen is a quite big area, totally 830 hectares. The area have about 100 000 visitors a year.