ABSTRACTThe EU as a normative power in Belarus ? a critical caseBy Anna JohnssonUniversity of VäxjöSchool of Social SciencesSpring semester 2007The European Union?s identity is a much debated topic. Some say it?s a unique actor in the international arena because of the different tools it has at its disposal. Ian Manners claims that the EU is what he calls a normative power.

I den här uppsatsen har faktorer för en ökad användaracceptans och diffusion av Video on demand(VOD)-tjänster identifierats med hjälp av en litteraturgenomgång av tidigare studier i acceptans och diffusion. Litteraturgenomgången ligger till grund för en lista av faktorer som gör en konsument mer villig att anamma en VOD-tjänst. Faktorerna har sedan utvärderas genom en kvantitativ undersökning med hjälp av en webbenkät. Resultatet blev i stor grad det som förväntat där det framgår att utbud och kostnad är de viktigaste faktorerna för en hög acceptans, men även andra faktorer kan spela in som användarvänlighet, kvalitet och sociala faktorer..

The aim of this study was to comprehend and explain the idea and function of Case Management and its diffusion in Swedish municipalities. More specifically its aim was to investigate factors for the diffusion of Case Management and its differences to similar professional roles. The study was based on interviews with four managers at various levels and two case managers representing two municipalities in Sweden. Five themes were identified that were especially interesting when discussing the function of Case Management, its differences to similar professional roles and its diffusion in Swedish municipalities. The themes were: shortcomings in the welfare system, the functions of Case Management, differences to similar professional roles, descriptions of Case Management and factors for the diffusion.

Public opinion has increasingly become a political force in the European integration process. At present, it appears that the people?s attitude towards the European integration is relatively skeptical. How can we expect that the attitude towards European integration will evolve in the future? This paper tests the extent to which diffusion theory can serve as a model to explain the development of attitudes to European integration policy in Sweden from 1999 until 2009.

Telemedicine is the use of information and communication technology to provide clinical health care at a distance. This approach is usually adopted to bridge the distance in rural settings, but it is also a method to meet demographical and economical challenges. Västerbotten, a sparsely populated county with an ageing population, is in leading edge when it comes to telemedicine. The purpose of this report was to examine the diffusion and the inventory of telemedicine in the county council of Västerbotten from a geographical perspective. To gain a deeper understanding of diffusion and inventory of telemedicine, my purpose was also to examine these processes from an international and national perspective.

Uppsatsen ämnar ge en indikation om diffusionen av den tjänsteorienterade arkitekturen SOA, idag och dess framtida diffusion. Genom att operationalisera begreppet SOA med hjälp av litteratur har vi kunnat sammanställa en enkät i syfte att utföra en enkätundersökning. Genom det empiriska material vi samlat in har vi kunnat applicera detta i en modell för teknologisk diffusion, i syfte att ge en indikation i form av en graf för diffusionen av SOA. Resultatet visade på en överraskande hög spridning av SOA då sannolikheten för spridningen blev väldigt hög. Vi misstänker att vissa system- och programutvecklingsföretag tror sig ha spridit SOA utan att de gjort det.

This thesis treats the normative power of the European Union and its affect on Macedonia. The main purpose has been to look closer with the use of the application of Ian Manners theory of normative power on the Macedonian case. The focus will be to answer the following questions: Does the European Union act as a normative power in relation to Macedonia, if so, how are these values diffused? Has there been any effect of the spreading of these values? Based on six interviews and the available material of European Union strategies for the Macedonian membership I have attempted to understand to what extent the European Union?s normative power has had an influence in Macedonia. The result of my analysis is confirmation of the European Union as a normative power in Macedonia and the understanding of the methods of application..

The world today is experiencing an AI summer, urging us to engage with its technologies on a daily basis. Recently, researchers have begun to voice concerns about the potential risks if we do not address the inherent biases in these systems. After all, AI is merely code based on mathematics produced by humans. This essay focuses on Stable Diffusion and Midjourney to examine biases in fashion representation and how fashion is visualized and reproduced concerning race, social class, and culture. A series of prompts were intentionally written in simple terms such as ?rich,? ?poor,? and ?race.? The results revealed troubling biases, as these programs consistently depicted poor individuals as people of color and portrayed wealthy, elegantly dressed individuals as exclusively white..

One aim of this thesis has been to trace the driving forces among active members of the Swedish Pensioners? Interest Party (SPI), but also to render how party values and ideas are connected to the concepts of is-sue space, distrust, and New Party Politics (mainly populism). Since there are several pensioners? parties in other countries, my second aim has been to investigate whether the party is a result of a diffusion proc-ess of copying a successful equivalent party; in other words to find out whether a master frame has inspired the forming of a Swedish pension-ers? party. Through interviews and document analysis, I have found seven issue dimensions explaining the motives behind my respondents? engagement in the party.

Quick Response eller QR är en teknik som tillåter snabb och pålitlig optisk läsning av information som är kodad i ett rutmönster. Som läsverktyg kan man använda läsare som är speciellt tillverkade för ändamålet och numera också vanliga smartphones. Tekniken har i flera år varit framgångsrik i vissa industriella applikationer såsom lagerhållning, men det är fortfarande osäkert i vilken utsträckning den också kan vinna insteg i vardagligt användande av smartphones. Vi har genomfört en enkätundersökning bland universitetsstudenter för att uppskatta hur spridd användningen av QR-koder är och hur denna användning ser ut. För att analysera resultatet har vi använt oss av teorin om diffusion of innovations som tillhandahåller en modell för spridning av ny teknik inom ett sammanhang.

The purpose of our research was to examine whether the acceptance and diffusion of RFID technology among the employees at public libraries in Sweden, follow the classic diffusion of innovation model. RFID or Radio Frequency Identification, is a technology that uses radio frequency and microchip technology to track items, in our case, library books and other library materials. Diffusion is the process by which, in our case, the RFID technology is adopted by the library staff. The purpose of this study was to examine what factors influenced the acceptance and adoption of RFID among the library staff. We used Everett Rogers' Diffusion of innovation theory as our framework.

Do youths know what life values their parents have? Does this knowledge have a connection with the youth?s attachment to their parents? Do the youth?s life values differ from their parents? And could the youth?s life values affect how they estimate their parent?s life values? To answer these questions data from a survey were used. The respondents were 13-15 years old youths and their parents. The results show that youths do not know what life values their parents have, irrespective of if the attachment to them is good or bad. The results also show that the youth?s own life values to a high extend affect how they estimate their parent?s life values.

Based on last years events that have taken place, events on the school Lundbergs and the police values of work, has the meaning of having a set of values been questioned. This study aimed to investigate and answer the fundamental values based on the common value basis for the government employees within an organization and how it perceived by employees. The new institutional theory was the framework for this qualitative study conducted with semi-structured interviews. Respondents were employees within the organization. Ethnographic qualitative methodology was the basis for our methodology and we used a thematic model of theme interpretation, communication and knowledge in our analysis.

Crowdsourcing och den kollaborativa ekonomin är modeller för öppen innovation som blir allt mer centrala i ett samhälle som står inför morgondagens utmaningar. För att ta itu med globala problem krävs det ett globalt samarbete och ett gemensamt ansvar, där delningsekonomin kan bli avgörande. I denna kvantitativa undersökning svarar vi på frågeställningen om hur upptagandet av och beslutsfattandet kring kollaborativa tjänsteinnovationer kan se ut när vi låter 50 studenter ta del av en kollaborativ tjänsteinnovation. Vi undersöker några befintliga kollaborativa tjänster, redogör för relevanta begrepp och visar på hur Diffusion of innovations kan användas för att förstå något så komplext som hur innovationer kan upptas och spridas i sociala system. Vidare visar vi hur ramverk för konceptualisering av crowdsourcing kan användas för att förstå hur miljöaspekten och viljan att samarbeta kan driva en stor grupp människor till att dela på kompetens, resurser och kunskap.

This essay examines a presupposed correlation between the way one look upon values and the way one look upon the will of the people in a theoretical democratic context. The more specific purpose is to test the following hypothesis: There is a reversed connection between the way one look upon values and the way one look upon the will of the people in a theoretical democratic context, that is; a strong claim of values give reason to a limited conception of the will of the people and a weak claim of values gives reason for a more unlimited conception of the will of the people.In order to test the hypothesis I examine three different conceptions of democracy, these are: pluralist democracy, deliberative democracy and constitutional democracy. I analyze the way they look upon values, there view of the will of the people and finally if there is a connection between the way they look upon values and the will of the people. Values should be understood in a metaethical context. In other words it is not values in the ?common? meaning, instead its how val-ues in them selves should be understood, and even more relevant, what we mean when we ex-press values.My conclusions are, first and foremost, that there is a correlation between the will of the people and values, according to the formulation of the hypothesis.