This dissertation addresses key questions raised in Human Geography and Economic Geography concerning scale and the production of space, alternative economic geographies and co-operative economic development. It is the product of a five year ethnographic investigation with co-operative enterprises in Western Massachusetts and the broader Connecticut River Valley of Western New England. It explores neglected questions about how subjects are producing co-operative economic identities, enterprises and development strategies amid capitalist cultural dominance; and how structural, financial and governmental aspects of their enterprises participate in cultivating the desire and capacity to expand co-operative space. In line with poststructuralist feminist perspectives within and outside the disciplines of Human and Economic Geography, each chapter challenges ontological presumptions often made about the economy, scale, power and size and offers theoretical contributions based upon empirical research with co-operative enterprises.The three chapters of this dissertation explore the co-production of co-operative space and subjects; the "practices of scale" in the Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives; and co-operative development in a regional context. They challenge the presumptions that space and economy are (and must be) structured by capitalism; power is constituted by hierarchy, size and "scale"; and subjects and subjectivity are insignificant to the project of constructive development. Contrary to structuralist critiques of worker co-operatives based upon size, political conservatism and vulnerability, I argue that worker owned enterprises empower workers despite capitalist cultural dominance and relative size.

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Yes / This paper examines the impact of state intervention in French-German inter-firm linkages and discusses the implications of conflicting national interests for the furthering of single market integration. It demonstrates that despite initial success in launching large-scale cross-border alliances in strategic sectors, France and Germany have remained divided by their own industrial nationalism. It argues that their respective attitudes towards industrial policy are less contradictory than would appear at first sight, but that transcending industrial nationalism by Europeanising the notion of economic patriotism would be an essential pre-condition for a more efficient EU-wide industrial policy within a better integrated internal market.

The diploma thesis focus on evaluation of co-operative housing construction as one of the way from current credit crisis of financing of housing construction. Specifies and evaluate individual types of financig of new housing construction and apply it on model example. Evaluation is based on analysis of present circumstances of housing construction and trend of mortgage loans. In this evaluation also looks at subvene of new housing construction. At the same time looks on an alternative of non-profit co-operative housing construction.

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Gurdip Singh / Vehicle Highway Automation has been studied for several years but a practical system has not been possible because of technology limitations. New advances in sensing and communication technology have now brought a realistic system within reach. This paper proposes a Co-Operative Vehicle Highway Automation System for automating traffic information gathering and decision making in a vehicle on a highway which is cost effective and near to real life implementation. Co-Operative Vehicle-Highway Automation System is the system which is implemented by technology on-board a vehicle and also on the intelligent infrastructure technology along a highway. Vehicle Automation, Collision Prevention and Avoidance, Route Guidance, Highway Information System, Vehicle tracking, and Traffic surveillance are some applications which can be implemented in the Co-Operative Vehicle-Highway Automation System. Implementing Vehicle Highway Automation System will provide an ameliorated level of road transportation. The possible benefits to society and individuals are many in terms of time, safety, comfort and overall travel quality.

Είναι κοινά αποδεκτό ότι τα συστήματα παροχής υπηρεσιών υγείας αντιμετωπίζουν μια διαρκώς αυξανόμενη πίεση για βελτίωση της ποιότητας των υπηρεσιών τους προς τους ασθενείς. Αυτό συμβαίνει σε μια περίοδο όπου από τη μια πλευρά υπάρχει ανάγκη ορθολογικότερης διαχείρισης των εξόδων περίθαλψης λόγω της οικονομικής κρίσης, ενώ από την άλλη η διείσδυση της πληροφορικής τόσο στο χώρο της υγείας όσο και στην καθημερινότητα του ανθρώπου καθιστά ευμετάβλητη τη σχέση ιατρού και ασθενή. Στη διπλωματική αυτή δίνεται μια σύνθετη περιγραφή τόσο των ατόμων που χρησιμοποιούν το διαδίκτυο για θέματα υγείας, όσο και των υπηρεσιών που αναζητούν μέσα από αυτό. Περιγράφεται η δημιουργία διαδικτυακών τόπων για πληροφορίες, υπηρεσίες και δεδομένα στο χώρο της υγείας με τις ιδιαιτερότητές του καθώς και οι δυνητικοί κίνδυνοι που ελλοχεύουν για τον πολίτη. Στη συνέχεια αναλύονται τα μέτρα που προωθεί η Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση και οι προσπάθειες που γίνονται διεθνώς για τη διασφάλιση της ποιότητας των πληροφοριών και των υπηρεσιών που παρέχονται μέσα από τους διαδικτυακούς τόπους. Η εξέλιξη στον τρόπο αλληλεπίδρασης των παρόχων υπηρεσιών υγείας, αλλά και των ίδιων των ασθενών μεταξύ τους αποτελεί τη βάση για το συνεργατικό διαδίκτυο και πλαισιώνει τη μετάβαση από το Web 1.0 στο Web 2.0. Θα παρουσιαστούν οι κυριότερες προσπάθειες και οι τάσεις στο χώρο του Web 2.0. Παρουσιάζονται κυβερνητικές πολιτικές που θέτουν το πλαίσιο και ιδιωτικές πρωτοβουλίες που είναι πρωτοπόρες. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό ερευνάται κατά πόσο ιδρύματα τριτοβάθμιας φροντίδας υγείας τόσο στην Ελλάδα όσο και στην Η.Π.Α ενσωματώνουν Web 2.0 τεχνολογίες στους διαδικτυακούς τους τόπους. Αξιολογώντας αυτά τα δεδομένα προτείνουμε έναν πρότυπο διαδικτυακό τόπο που ενσωματώνει καινοτομίες προσφέροντας ασφαλή και ποιοτική πληροφόρηση στο χρήστη. Επιπλέον για την αξιολόγηση διαδικτυακών τόπων υγείας αναπτύξαμε ένα εργαλείο τόσο για τον ασθενή χρήστη που επιθυμεί να ελέγξει την εγκυρότητα ενός διαδικτυακού τόπου όσο και για το διαχειριστή που θέλει να βελτιώσει την ιστοσελίδα του. / It is commonly accepted that the health service systems face an increasing pressure to improve the quality of their services to patients. This happens at a time when there is a need for optimized management of health care costs due to the economic crisis, while the penetration of IT both in health and in everyday human life makes the relationship between doctor and patient becoming more mercurial. In this thesis we are giving a complex description for individuals who use the Internet for health issues and the services they are looking through it. Described as creating websites for information, services and data in health with its particularities as well as potential risks for the citizen. Then analyze the measures promoted by the European Union and the efforts being made internationally to ensure the quality of information and services provided through websites. The evolution in the way the interaction of health service providers, and patients themselves is the basis for collaborative internet and accompany the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. The paper will present the main efforts and trends in the field of Web 2.0. Featured government policies that set the framework and private innovative initiatives are been presented. In this context investigated whether higher health care both in Greece and in the USA incorporating Web 2.0 technologies in web sites. Evaluating these data suggest a model website that incorporates innovations offering safe and quality information to the user. In addition to evaluating health related websites we developed a tool for both the patient user who wants to check the validity of a website and for the manager who wants to improve his website.

Abstract The study aims to develop knowledge through Storytelling Dramas where teachers and students learn together. The ambition is to investigate if drama variation in teaching, can increase more students' motivation to learn and develop their writing skills concerning more content rich and imaginative lyrics. Theorists believe that learning occurs through interaction; that learning concerns relationships and that language and communication are fundamental elements. Interaction, motivation, curiosity and interest is needed for learning. With an action research approach through we have investigated how the content of the students' stories come to expression for dramatization in conversation and writing. The empirical material consists of log books, students 'written stories, group discussions, and focus group interviews. After that a qualitative analysis was made.The results are presented in two parts. Part 1: The dramatization of different perspectives and Part 2: Students' perspectives on writing qualities. During the analysis, we also discovered that our approach covers the entire Illeris educational triangle. We saw how Storytelling Dramas highlighted narratives content from different perspectives and to students' focus was on different qualitative levels. The conclusion is that Storytelling Dramas is a teaching method based on co-operative learning that provide different perspectives of learning objects, which helps broaden the teachers' and pupils' learning as to make visible the content of students' stories.  Keywords: action research, co-operative learning, , learning styles, writing skills and Storytelling Dramas. / Abstrakt: Studiens syfte är att utveckla kunskap genom Storytelling Dramas där pedagoger och elever lär tillsammans. Vår ambition med studien är att undersöka om vi genom drama som variation i undervisningen kan öka fler elevers motivation att lära och därmed utveckla deras skrivförmåga vad gäller att skriva mer innehållsrika och fantasifulla texter. Teoretiker menar att lärande sker genom samspel; att lärande har med relationer att göra och att språk och kommunikation är grundläggande element. Förutsättning för lärande är samspel, motivation, nyfikenhet och intresse.. Med aktionsforskning som ansats lät vi elevernas skrivna berättelser synliggöras genom dramatisering för att eleverna skulle få syn på det som ger kvalité i berättelseskrivningen och därmed ett bra innehåll. Efter våra aktioner gjordes en kvalitativ analys. Analysen av loggböcker, gruppsamtal samt elevernas skrivna berättelser, där vi undersökte hur innehållet i elevernas berättelser kom till utryck efter dramatisering i samtal och skrift, mynnade ut i två delar. Del 1: Dramatiseringens olika perspektiv och del 2: Elevernas perspektiv på skrivandets kvalitéer. Under analysarbetet upptäckte vi även att vårt arbetssätt täcker hela Illeris lärotriangel.  Vi såg hur Storytelling Dramas belyste berättelsers innehåll ur olika perspektiv och att elevernas fokus befann sig på olika kvalitativa nivåer. Den övergripande slutsatsen med vår studie är att Storytelling Dramas är en undervisningsmetod som bygger på samlärande som ger olika perspektiv av lärandets objekt, vilket bidrar till att bredda pedagogers och elevers lärande såsom att synliggöra innehållet i elevers berättelser. Nyckelord: aktionsforskning, samlärande, lärstilar, skrivutveckling och Storytelling Dramas.

Bakgrund: Tidigare forskning har till viss del visat att psykologi och känslor influerar människors finansiella beslut och att dagens bostadspriser kan påverkas av beteendefinansens fallgropar. Tidigare empiriska studier har utgått från en kvantitativ- eller experimentell ansats och det saknas därför forskning med en kvalitativ utgångspunkt gällande bostadsköpares beteende samt bostadsprisernas bakomliggande faktorer på bostadsrättsmarknaden i Linköping. Med tanke på att fastighetsmäklare indirekt har möjlighet att observera hur bostadsrättsköpare agerar på bostadsrättsmarknaden, finns intresse att undersöka vad de har noterat. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att, utifrån fastighetsmäklares erfarenheter, identifiera eventuella psykologiska bias vid köp av bostadsrätter och analysera effekter av bostadsköpares beteende vid bostadsrättsköp. Genomförande: I denna kvalitativa studie har åtta intervjuer genomförts med fastighetsmäklare från Linköpings marknadsledande byråer. Samtliga fastighetsmäklare besitter erfarenheter kring huruvida bostadsrättsköpare beter sig på bostadsrättsmarknaden i Linköping. Den insamlade empirin har analyserats utifrån tidigare empirisk forskning inom forskningsområdet, i syfte att analysera effekterna av bostadrättsköpares beteende. Slutsats: Studiens resultat har till viss del kunnat konfirmera att fastighetsmäklare kan utnyttja psykologiska bias, på grund av att människor inte agerar rationellt, med förhoppning om att höja slutpriset på en bostadsrätt i Linköping. Resultatet indikerar även att den befintliga teorin om kalendereffekter går att ifrågasätta. / Background: Previous research has shown, partially, that psychology and emotions can influence peoples’ financial decisions and that current housing prices are a result of biases. Previous empirical studies have taken a quantitative- or experimental approach and there is therefore no research with a qualitative perspective regarding homebuyers’ behavior and house prices underlying factors at the co-operative apartment market in Linköping. Given that real estate agents’ indirectly, are able to identify and interpret how homebuyers act on the co-operative apartment market we find it interesting to scrutinize what they have observed. Aim: The aim of this thesis is to, according to real estate agents’ experiences, identify biases on the co-operative apartment market and analyze the effects of homebuyers’ behavior when buying co-operative apartments. Completion: In this qualitative study, eight interviews where conducted with real estate agents from real estate agencies in Linköping. All real estate agents possess experience about how homebuyers behave at the co-operative apartment market in Linköping. The collected empirical data have been analyzed on the basis of previous empirical research in the field of this research area, in order to analyze the effects of homebuyers’ behavior. Conclusion: This paper can partially verify that real estate agents can use biases, because of the fact that homebuyers don’t act according to the rational model, with the intension to raise the closing price. The study also indicated that the theory about calendar effects can be questioned.

The thesis explores the formation and development of agricultural production co-operativesin the context of market socialist transition. It examines how changes in the organisation ofproduction and reproduction affected gender relations. At the same time, it explores the waysin which the prevailing relationships between men and women provided incentives andcreated patterns for economic development. State socialist emancipatory rhetoric aimed atdeveloping a 'humanised' society. Humanisation was to come about through participation insocialist wage labour, while the functions of the family household were to shrink and giveway to the all-pervasive expansion of the state. These two principles were common in thestate socialist projects of agricultural collectivisation and of women's emancipation. However, the proletarianisation of the peasantry could not be accomplished due to the stubbornresistance of the peasantry. They kept alive the institution of household-based production.,Meanwhile, the state placed dual demands on women's creative forces: they were to reachparity with men in the labour force while, at the same time, they were also to nurture thecoming generations. The economy's demands for more workers mobilised the female labourreserves, but women's integration presupposed a reduction of women's reproductive responsibilities. However, rather than balancing out the burdens between men and women, reproductive rights were constructed as women's rights. Consequently, women were integrated as a 'deviant' labour force. The evolving gender segregation of labour in the collective and household sphere was explained by the changing constructions of 'masculinities' and 'femininities'. The evolving economic differentiation served as the basis for the materialisation of gender relations yet could not by itself determine the gender specific outcome of the changes in economic cycles.