Ekonomiska kriser genomgår i regel tre faser, en akut fas, en vårdfas samt en rehabili-teringsfas. Thailand befinner sig nu i efterdyningarna av den tredje fasen och frågan är hur återhämtningen från den ekonomiska krisen 1997 med facit i hand egentligen har gått och om man hade kunnat påverka utvecklingen genom att handla på ett annorlun-da sätt. Förtroendet för en ekonomi kan mätas på flera olika sätt, det mest konkreta är att titta på hur mycket utländska direktinvesteringar landet attraherar, och här kan man i Thailands fall tydligt se hur förtroendet försämrades för att sedan gradvis för-bättras. De inhemska invånarnas syn på den ekonomiska framtiden kan ses exempelvis i sparande, investeringar, löneläget och konsumtion medan statens förtroende för ekonomin återspeglas i offentliga investeringar i infrastruktur, utbildning etc. Det är exempel på de parametrar som uppsatsen kommer att behandla för att visa att förtro-endet för den thailändska ekonomin brast ordentligt på grund av den ekonomiska kri-sen i slutet på 1990-talet..

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine in what way library users are depicted on images at two academic libraries; the University College of Borås Library & Learning Resources (BLR) and the Gothenburg University Library (GUB). 62 images, from websites and information brochures, are analyzed and the main questions are: How are users represented on images? What activities are shown? What is the difference between BLR and GUB? How can the consequences of the representations be understood? Little is currently known in the LIS-field about how images work as constructors of the social reality. The theoretical and methodological point of departure of the study is discourse analysis, new institutional theory and picture analysis.

In recent years, the demands for effectiveness and evidence in social work have increased in all work areas, including that of healthcare. This has sparked the discussion on concepts such as practical- and theoretical knowledge and their respective roles in social work. In the light of this, the purpose of this candidate thesis is to investigate healthcare social workers understanding of practical- and theoretical knowledge in the working process as well as their respective influence and importance. This candidate thesis is based on three interviews with social workers from different departments in Norrlands Universitetssjukhus in Umeå, Sweden. To provide range to the thesis, the interviewees were chosen from a purposeful sampling.

Background: An evaluation of analysts´ forecasting ability is interesting since their estimates constitute an important part in stock valuation and investment decisions. The recent years´ development in the stock market has lead to criticism of analysts? deficient forecasts. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate analysts´ forecasting ability concerning companies quoted at Stockholmsbörsen between 1987 and 2002. We also intend to discuss possible explanations for analysts? behavior in case of deficient accuracy.

The study investigates the use of collection and treatment wagon for piglets in relation to castration. The importance of good and ergonomically designed tools in pig stables can probably reduce the risk of suffering from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). During the last 20 years the number of pig farms has decreased and at the same time the herd sizes and the number of pig keepers have increased (Statistic Sweden (SCB) 2007). As a consequence, the pig keepers have more pigs to take care of, treat and neuter and spend more of their daily work in these large confinements. This also means that the repetitive work e.g.

The purpose with this work is to describe the language that is built around the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in Sweden. Our questions are: What does the professional field look like; who writes, about what and for which kind of readers? How do they describe the expressions and the upcoming of CFS? For which reasons can CFS be considered as a medical diagnosis/illness? How can CFS be understood from a social perspective? Our theoretical starting point is a social constructive theory and also Karin Johannisson's theory about medicalization and Foucault?s theory about power. We have from a literature-exposition of Swedish articles from 1989 to 2006, done a social constructive discourse analysis with help from Laclau & Mouffe's discourse theory, and Fairclough's model of social practices. In our textual analysis we found three dominating discourses: A medical discourse, a social/cultural discourse and a general/popular discourse.

This thesis deals with the concept of soft balancing, traditionally defined as the diplomatic means of restraining a dominant state's ability to exercise its military power. As the dominant power in today's unipolar system, the United States, and other states? behaviour towards it, is the focus of analysis. The aim of this thesis is to explore the possibilities of developing the concept of soft balancing so as to include strategies to restrain also the political and economic capabilities of a dominant power. The thesis also considers the possibilities of soft balancing that small states ? to a large extent overlooked in existing theories on the subject - can possess.As a state with policies that aim to reduce the U.S.

The workplace has a direct impact on the physical, psychological, economic and social well-being of the workers. A healthy workplace leads to increased health among the employees which also makes the employees more productive (Källestål, 2004). A poor working environment can have negative consequences for individuals, companies and society (SOU, 2009:47).This is a qualitative study that investigates companies? view of health promotion and how they practice health promotion in working life. Five private and five public companies, with representatives from the management were interviewed.

The purpose of this study is to examine in what way a strong corporate culture can have an effect on the ways that individuals perceive their own identity based on different social aspects, thereby meaning the influence of personalities in relation to the environment. In this essay I have used the theory of employer branding in an analysis of the corporate culture at Ikea Barkarby, with the purpose to answer the following questions: How does the relation between the employee and the corporate culture appear from an identity perspective, i.e can an individual?s identity be affected by the influence of a strong corporate culture? If the corporate culture has an influence on the individual?s identity, what rhetorical tools are part of this? How can the surrounding corporate cultures possibly influence the employee?s process of becoming a part of the corporate culture? The method of research that was used in this study is a framing analysis and a semistructured interview method. In the discussion of the influence of social environment on identity I have used the rhetorical term doxa. The material that was examined was an advertisement for employment from the Ikea Barkarby website as well as the response from my interviews of some of the employees.The result of the analysis shows that it is possible for an individual to negotiate with himself about his identity in relation to the actual situation and environment, meaning a possible transformation of the individual?s behavior in different social contexts, in this example the corporate culture at work.

Diskriminerande offentlig upphandling har länge utgjort ett problem inom EU något man försökt åtgärda genom fullbordandet av den inre marknaden i början på 1990-talet. Detta icke-tariffära handelshinder kan jämföras med en subvention och innebär högre inhemska priser och minskad import och därmed snedvridningar på marknaden. De förväntade effekterna av liberalisering av marknaden för offentlig upphandling är därför att priserna ska sjunka och handeln mellan medlemsländerna öka. Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka just vilka effekter den inre marknaden har haft på den offentliga upphandlingen inom EU. Rapporten presenterar förändringar som kan skönjas i handel, importandelen i den offentliga sektorn och priser drygt 10 år efter den inre marknadens skapande och fastställer att den inre marknaden till viss del har medfört att marknaden för offentlig upphandling blivit mer öppen, att offentlig upphandling nu till större del sker över nationsgränserna.

This thesis aims to evaluate the concept of Uncovered Interest Parity. The parity states that the logarithmic difference between domestic and foreign interest rate equals the logarithmic difference between expected future spot exchange rate and the spot exchange rate, . In defining the exchange rate it is often presumed that the parity relation prevails even though several studies suggest the opposite. Numerous economists maintain that the theory?s shortcomings can be explained through the existence of a Risk Premium.

In the global and rapidly changing society Environmental scanning is becoming a more and more important tool. Today it is not the availability of information that controls an organizations behavior, but the information that the organization chooses to absorb. This is the case for a multinational cooperation as well as for the local golf club. Swedish golf clubs have during the last 100 years had an amazing development and today there are almost 600 000 registered Swedish golf players. The development has however stopped and even declined some during the last couple of years.

Introduction: The National Board of Health and Welfares conclusion was that today there was a low awareness about children who act sexually toward others and how their problems can be handled. This requires extensive work by school personnel and social workers to give the children the support they need. Aim: The aim was to investigate social workers perception in cases concerning children and adolescents who committed sexual assault. Method: A qualitative method was utilized with semi-structured interviews to describe social workers perceptions in cases concerning children and adolescents who committed sexual assault. Four social workers from different communities were interviewed in southern Sweden.

The aim of this report is to examine the possibilities to use network theories to perform vulnerability analysis on complex networks. The scoop of this work is also to improve the possibilities to chart, analyze and present the vulnerability in a power grid. In this report it has been, using power outage statistics, possible to verify, that network theories can be used to evaluate the vulnerability of an infrastructure network. However further studies to establish values on how vulnerable a network is are needed..

This report focuses on work schedules in the retail sector, where work schedules are dynamic and change according to the needs and work schedule is a requirement for an effective structure of the work. This structure is important for maintaining a good order and all this is a requirement for a profitable business for both long and short term future. Work schedule also contributes to safety at the workplace. The purpose of this study was to investigate the transfer of knowledge by work schedules. The HRM employee we interviewed worked in Reitan Servicehandel Sverige AB which includes 7-Eleven, Pressbyrån and Shell.