Human existence and welfare depend on functional ecosystems. Ecosystems are critical to sustain life-support services for human well-being. One method that visualizes that humanity requires ecosystem services for resource consumption and assimilation of produced waste is ecological footprints. This study focuses on the ecosystem service carbon sequestering. A quantification of this ecosystem service showed the potential for accumulation of carbon in different ecosystems in Stockholm and Norrbotten County for the years of 1995 and 2004.

The purpose of the study is to see differences and development of two institutions for social care (work science) in two countries - the University of Lodz, Polen, and the University of Lund, Sweden.The central question is, if there is any convergence between these Institutions for Social care.The method has been to use both earlier research and to have two interviews. I did interviews with two professors working at two Universities, one with professor Ewa Marynowicz-Hetka at Lodz University and the other with professor Hans Swärd at the University of Lund. I started to study relevant literature and took part of secondary material in both countries.The main result of this study is that some convergence tendencies between those two trainings exist. All of them have connection with international cooperation. There are also same forces that stopped those tendencies; one of them is tradition on institutions..

The purpose of this essay was to see how the construction of elderly immigrants as a problem in healthcare and elderly care has been described in the relevant literature. In the course of doing so I tried to answer the following questions; What is said to be the expected problems or difficulties in work with eldely immigrants? How are the expected members of the problemgroup defined and identified? Whos perspective dominates the description of the problem, the users or the investigators? These questions were hard to answer and I had to conclude that the problem was not clearly defined; there was only an assumption of a problem. This, however, has not been a hindrance in the category of elderly immigrants being claimed to be a group with problems that need research and further investigation. The dominating perspective is that of the investigators as they are the ones who define and identify who is a part of the problemgroup..

A large part of the interactions between horse and rider during horseback riding takes place through the reins and the bit and devices for measuring the tension on the reins, rein tension meters, has fairly recently been developed. To safeguard the welfare of the ridden horse riders need to be aware of the rein tension they apply and actively work to decrease it. Furthermore, there is a need to develop the study of rein tension through new techniques and refined analysis procedures. A good-quality rein tension meter should be small in size, sensitive, durable and as accurate for light rein tension as for strong forces. Rein tension meters used in research on horse and rider interaction commonly depend on strain gauge technique for generating rein tension data.

The purpose of this essay was to describe the opinions of different religious and non-religious ideologies and aspects of treatment, concerning use of drugs and drugsaddiction, and with a special focus at Narconon. We also wanted to try to understand the connection between professionalism and ideology in their treatment.Our central questions where;· How does the treatment Narconon's provides, look like?· What is Narconon's opinion on use of drugs and drugaddiction?· What is Narconon's connection to the Scientology?· Is there any scientific proof that Narconon's treatment is functioning?· How can we understand the connection between professionalism and ideology in treatment?We made intervjues with six social workers and six intervjues with staff at Narconon. Added to the intervjues, we studied articles and Internet research.From our work and through information we have got from Narconon, we have discovered the need of further research concerning their treatment. Narconon does continuous following-ups when the treatment is finished.

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore which inner conceptions about the abused older women the professional social workers had and how they experienced the enconter of an abused old woman in an intimate partner relation. The theoretical background is social construction by Berger and Luckmann. This theory was uset to analyze the transcribed interviews. This study is based on nine interviews with five professionals in social services, three volunteers from the voluntary sector and one social worker who worked in a community based support group for abused older women. The result of this study shows that older women were often abused, by a relative they were dependent on, in their home.

This paper examines the film distribution and exhibition sector in Europe. The general analysis of these sectors? situation was made. Moreover, the comparative and more in depth analysis of three countries by the Porter?s five forces model was made; These were United Kingdom, France and Denmark.

The object of this study is the female user of amphetamines and the characteristica which she is often described by. Many of these descriptions regard the female amphetamine user's sexuality which also have come to form the assumption that these women make a living from having sexual relations with men in exchange of drugs.In order to be able to draw any kind of conclusions regarding this, we found it necessary to investigate how the stereotypical female user of amphetamines makes a living and also whether it is possible for a female drug user to decide for her self how to support her habit.The disposition is a qualitative study of literature and the perspectives that we focused on in this study are gender roles, relationships and sexuality, criminality and finally the drug using woman as a victim. The theories used deal with social constructivism, respectability and shame.The main discussion of our study has been how women amphetamine users are moulded to become victims through interaction with other people but also with the society as a whole..

Social kompetens är ett relativt modernt uttryck som allt oftare förekommer i olika sammanhang i arbetslivet. Den offentliga sektorn har genomgått stora förändringar de senaste 20- 30 åren, och detta har bidragit till att arbetssökande nu bedöms på ett annat sätt av arbetsgivare. Numera är det mycket vanligare att en arbetssökande värderas mer efter sina personliga egenskaper än sina formella kvalifikationer. Studiens syfte är att undersöka samt ge exempel på hur förändringen inom den offentliga sektorn under de senaste decennierna har påverkat rekryteringsprocessen samt vilken roll social kompetens spelar i dagens rekryteringsförfarande inom statliga myndigheter. Undersökningens ambition är att till viss del öka förståelsen för ett av samhällsforskare redan identifierat problem, och kanske även synliggöra några av de möjliga ?dolda? funktioner som begreppet i praktiken skulle kunna fylla.

Overall aim of this master?s thesis is to describe and identify perceived barriers in Swedish businesses within solar energy field and analyze, based on four theoretical viewpoints, how these barriers can be handled. In other words how can the barriers be overcome or eliminated to better succeed in the commercialization process? The method applied is qualitative in which data has been collected through phone interviews originated from seven Cleantech businesses which operate within solar energy. Furthermore this thesis has a descriptive- and an explorative purpose.

The aim of this study is to illuminate social worker?s perception of social class within the Swedish social service system. This study therefor examine if social class contributes to the production and reproduction of the client and what impact social class has on the interaction between client and social workers. The study was conducted with qualitative semi-structured interviews with social workers from three different departments of social service. The theoretical approach is Yeheskel Hasenfeld?s theory about moral practices in welfare organisations, Michael Lipsky and Roine Johansson?s theories about client construction and Pierre Bourdieu?s class theory.

Our surroundings are currently vulnerable. People can not know when or how to expect nor prepare for a disaster or an accident. The purpose of this essay was to perform a study of the organization and accessibility of psychological and social support in a crisis situation within the community of Lund.To be able to carry out this study we put up a couple of questions that we hoped would guide us, for example; how do the community prepare and set up the service for people in need of support in connection to a crisis situation? As a method we have used qualitative interviews and literature.The results of our study have shown a discrepancy between the ways the community organizes their service for people in a crisis situation caused either by a catastrophe or an untimely death. In case of an untimely death, ordinary resources are estimated to be sufficient while in case of a catastrophe, extraordinary resources are required.

This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using different benchmarking models to measure and compare the efficiency of Swedish gas distributors. It also discusses to which extent the results of a benchmarking study should influence the revenue-cap which will be implemented in the gas distribution sector in Sweden from year 2011. The discussion is based on arguments from both theory and practical applications of benchmarking. The results suggest that benchmarking Swedish gas distributors against distributors in another country using a parametric model is most favorable, but the reliability will be increased if non-parametric models are used also. Partial and total productivity measures could be used to confirm results of other benchmarking analyses.

We have seen a revolution in the area of communication on a worldwide scale. We begin talking about terms as globalisation, integration and deregulation of the financial market. Companies have been tax planning for decades, the questions is if Internet has made an increase of companies than uses tax planning and which roll Internet plays. It is hard to really pinpoint all the effects of the Internet because of the relatively new area of research. This thesis will take various factors under study such as globalisation, development of the offshore industry and the fight against harmful taxation by the OECD and other organisations in order to describe the effects of Internet.

Water related problems are highlighted as a challenge to sustainable development and the topic of forests and water is gaining increased attention worldwide. Governing forest and water is a complex issue, as the interactions are affected by policies and actors from multiple levels and sectors. In Sweden, forests cover much of the land and forestry is an important land-use, inevitably impacting the water in the landscape. This study aims to understand and explain the existing governance framework around forestry and water in Sweden. Based on the Policy Arrangement Approach, the study?s research questions focused on the actors involved, the formal and informal rules, the resources and power structures and the discourses related to forestry and water in Sweden.