The public sector is a major purchaser of goods and services. By setting requirements for environmental and social considerations in public procurement, an authority has the possibility to use consumer power to influence the actors in a market. The purpose of this paper is to investigate public procurement of textile products in a municipality, in order to gain knowledge about factors that may be important for the use of environmental and social criteria. Håkan Hydén´s (professor in sociology of law) norm model was used as the basis of the analysis, where the conduct was investigated along three dimensions of the norm ? willingness, knowledge and system conditions ? in order to identify underlying factors that can influence the process.The results ? analyzed by using interviews and documents ? show that the procurer's willingness, motivation and knowledge are important factors in this context, as well as the political priority of the municipality.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att undersöka hur musikvideor producerade för barn i åldrarna mellan 4-12 år förmedlar skillnaden mellan det som betraktas som ?norm? och ?den andre? utifrån ett postkolonialt perspektiv. Utifrån detta övergripande syfte utgår studien utifrån följande frågeställningar: På vilket sätt upprätthåller musikvideor vars målgrupp är barn från 4-12 år den koloniala distinktionen mellan de som utgör ?norm? och de som utgör ?den andre?? Hur gestaltas ?den svarte andre? och ?den orientale andre? i musikvideorna? Vilka typer av konflikter och maktförhållanden produceras i materialet, vilka intentioner tycks framställningen ha? En kvalitativ text- och tolkningsanalys har tillämpats på undersökningens material där jag använt semiotikens teckenlära som analysmetod. I samverkan med semiotiken som metodologisk utgångspunkt ställde jag följande analysfrågor till texterna: Vad berättas uttryckligen i videorna? Hur framställs maktförhållanden och konflikter? Vilka stereotyper porträtteras? Vilka framstår som auktoriteter? Vilka kläder eller kroppsattribut förmedlas? Vilka beteenden syns? Vilka miljöer skildras? Till grund för undersökningen ligger det postkoloniala fältet där jag bland annat använt mig av teorier gällande västvärldens kunskapsproduktion om ?den andre?.

The purpose of this essay is to find out how gender upholds in a classroom, both by students as well as the teacher. The procedure has been to observe the relationship between students and also the teachers. The observations is analysed according to theories of gender and a discussion about why gender is maintained follows. The conclusion of the result is that gender is being preserved in different ways, but also the contrary ? students and the teacher oppose it.

This study aims to examine how performance management is compatible with the operations at Sida, Sweden?s International Development Cooperation Agency, by performing interviews with representatives from Sida. The public sector is facing increased demands on accounting, which has emerged as an institutionalized social norm in society. The nature of Sida?s operations, however, proves to be highly complex, rendering results based management difficult to implement.

This study intends to examine teacher´s thoughts and perception of esthetic activities at preschools. I have chosen to restrict the esthetic area to the significance and function of clay to the teachers and children. On the basis of the belief that children can, and need access to a variety of ways to express themselves, we used the interviews to take part of teachers work and thoughts concerning clay, and the esthetic work. I have in this qualitative study addressed four questions: How do the teachers use clay in preschool activities? What do the teachers think about clay as a tool in the educational work at the preschool? Are the teachers working from the perception of children?s rights to express themselves in different ways and with the help of different tools? What function does clay fill for the children?I have interviewed eight teachers and taken part of both older and more recent theories around children and the creativity in esthetic contexts.

This Master?s Thesis examines the subject indexing of all Swedish gay fiction published from year 2000 until 2007. This is done from a queer theoretical- and domain analytical perspective. The study is conducted in the catalogue BURKsök created by BTJ which is the largest library media company in Sweden. The purpose of the study is to examine the heterosexual norm in fiction indexing and to study to what extent gay fiction is to be found by subject.

The connection between rune stones and churches is a known phenomenon. Unfortunately, very little is known about the previous function of the church sites, and consequently very little is known about what the connection between rune stones and churches means. The purpose of this study is to examine the rune stones connected to churches in the administrative province of Jönköping, in an effort to ascertain their purpose, symbolism and function. The aim is to find out if the rune stones connected to churches were primarily or secondarily placed on the site where the church was later built, and why some rune stones were built into the churches. Further, the inscriptions and iconography of rune stones have been analysed, and also their relation to their immediate surroundings.

The Turkish accession to the European Union has been the most extended one that the Unionhas been dealing with so far. Turkey is now accepted as a candidate country but it is still in aproblematic situation. Most of the EU?s member states do not share the Union?s belief thatTurkey should become a full member of the Union, if they should even become a member atall. Europeanization constitutes a ground in this essay, and the ?top-down? perspective withinthis process can give an explanation to why most EU member states have such a hesitanceagainst Turkey..

The aim of this study was to investigate how counselors who work at youth clinics relate to the question of the integrity of adolescents who are under 18 years old in relation to the parents rights to information. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with eight counselors from youth clinics in the StockholmCounty. We have analyzed our empirical material by categorizing the statements from the counselors and by using two different theories. The first one is a consequential ethics theory and the second one is a cognitive theory. These two theories have helped us to understand the thoughts and actions of the counselors.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how Ranma ½, one of the most popular Japanese Manga series, reflects the gender system in society. We have chosen to make use of two different gender theorists to determine if Ranma ½ follows the gender norms of society or not. The theoretical framework is based primarily on Yvonne Hirdman's theory of the two basic principles: the principle of dichotomy and the principle of hierarchy. Judith Butler's theory of performative gender is used as a complement.

This thesis consists of a discourse and queer theoretical text and image analysis of school books in English used in the Swedish upper secondary school.  The whole content of two school books have been analysed from a norm critical perspective but one chapter in each of them has been analysed more thoroughly than the rest. These two chapters form the major part of the analysis.The thesis? problem formulation and objective derive from a personal experience of being a teacher student and part time teacher in Swedish schools. This experience shows the prevalence of a strong heteronormativity both in the schools? every day life and in the used school books.

Mo?ten som forum fo?r att tra?ffas, sprida information eller lo?sa problem har alltid funnits och det a?r en fo?reteelse som finns pa? alla arbetsplatser idag. Da?rfo?r a?r det ocksa? vanligt att alla har en a?sikt om just mo?ten och hur de fungerar pa? deras arbetsplats. Enligt tidigare studier a?r upplevelsen av effektivitet under mo?ten viktigt fo?r positiva jobbattityder och just attityder och emotionella upplevelser av ett mo?te pa?verkar deltagande och da?rmed hur mo?tets ma?l uppna?s.

Studien är en diskursanalys av jämlikhet i nordiska styrdokument för grundskolor. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten utgörs av Ernesto Laclaus och Chantal Mouffes diskursteori, kompletterad av Judith Butler teori kring könsdikotomin. Genom en kvalitativ textanalys urskiljs diskursiva processer av norm- och gruppbildning i styrdokumenten. Fram träder en bild där jämlikhet som begrepp och värde skiljer sig mellan de nordiska länderna men också stora likheter. Kön är en överordnad jämlikhetsfråga samtidigt som det råder en tydlig hierarki mellan de grupper som särskiljs från majoritetsgruppen utifrån föreställningar om språk och kultur.

This study finds that the Swedish Government has a process for purchasing financial advisory services that is more transaction-oriented than the corresponding process at a Swedish private equity firm. The conclusion is supported by previous research comparing public and private sector purchasing processes. However, the differences between the two purchasing processes are not as significant as one might believe given the fact that the Government, unlike the private equity firm, has to operate under the Public Procurement Act (LOU). The tendency of the Swedish Government to apply a more relationoriented purchasing approach than expected is most likely driven by the fact that this represents the established professional norm for purchasing of professional services in the private sector. As LOU and the professional norm impose contradictory influences on the Swedish Government?s purchasing of financial advisory services, the final outcome depends on which of the two forces that dominate..

Bakgrund: Representation av olika samhällsgrupper i skönlitteratur är ett förhållandevis stort forskningsområde. Dock fokuseras ungdomsromanen mer sällan. När ungdomsromanen förs in i klassrummet och helklassundervisning får den dessutom en läroboksliknande funktion vilket gör att forskningsbakgrunden smalnas av ytterligare. Denna studie undersöker därför hur ungdomsromaner som används i svenskundervisning framställer olika samhällsgrupper. Inom flera litteraturteorier behandlas synen på norm och avvikelse i förhållande till representation.