On November 8, 2001, the Government of Manitoba announced that the number of school divisions and districts in the province would be reduced from 54 to 37. With that policy announcement, Manitoba embarked upon the most significant restructuring of school board governance arrangements since the late 1950s. The purpose of the research was to examine the school division amalgamation initiative as a case study in policy-making by the Government of Manitoba. The study investigated the nature of this initiative, including its origin, development, eventual conclusion and implementation. The fundamental question addressed by the study was this: Why was school division amalgamation an idea whose time had come in Manitoba? Discussion of amalgamation had been active within the Progressive Conservative administration of Gary Filmon since the early 1990s, but despite the recommendation in 1995 of a provincially established Boundaries Review Commission to move forward with government directed amalgamation, the idea languished until a newly-elected provincial government under Gary Doer, leader of the New Democratic Party, assumed power in 1999. The theoretical framework used in addressing the question posed relied primarily upon the work of John Kingdon (Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies) who contends that there must be a timely convergence of three key aspects of policy formation: problems, solutions and politics. Therefore, the study examined the key role of elected officials in promoting certain policy ideas and their impact on the decisions of government at specific times. It also compared and contrasted the differing policy approaches taken by the Filmon and Doer regimes on this question, and assesses the opportunities and constraints which explain the differences found. The study relied on extant public documents and other primary sources, and especially the expressed view or position of certain elected officials and supporting staff gained through one-on-one in-depth interviews. The focus of the analysis was an attempt to assess the interplay of problem, solution, and politics, and whether or not it reveals what Kingdon has called a “window of opportunity” for decisive action by government. The study showed that, indeed, the window of opportunity for amalgamation occurred with the convergence of three forces by 2001: pervasive indicators of a problem; promotion of amalgamation as a policy solution previously tried in Manitoba and elsewhere; and the election of a new government in 1999 which was receptive to pursuing some degree of change with respect to school division governance and organization. / May 2008

La presente tesis doctoral realiza un estudio sobre la acción de la opinión pública en el proceso de construcción de políticas criminales (penal policy-making). Concretamente, analiza el impacto, en el proceso legislativo penal, de los discursos en circulación en algunas de las manifestaciones de la opinión pública, especialmente en la prensa, tanto en la activación de la agenda política como en la adopción de determinadas soluciones políticas. Para tal, analiza cuatro casos concretos de reformas penales realizadas en España durante la VII Legislatura (2000-2004), periodo con mayor actividad legislativa en materia penal. Tomando por base tanto las teorías sobre el agenda-setting como los estudios de policy making, a partir del análisis tanto de la relación entre las agendas de los medios de comunicación, pública y política como también de la deconstrucción de los discursos presentes en cada una de ellas, se verifica el papel de la opinión pública (de algunos de los actores que la da forma) en la construcción de un proceso de populismo punitivo. Palabras-clavesAgenda-setting, opinión pública, política criminal, populismo punitivo / The present thesis aims to research the public opinion's action on the penal policy-making process. In fact, we analyze the effects off several discourses in circulations on some public opinion manifestations - with special interest in the press - on the legislative process, both setting the political agenda as in the acceptance of some policy alternatives as well. For that, it has been analyzed four specific cases of penal reforms passed during the 7th Spanish Legislature, the period with the highest legislative activity concerning penal issues. Appling the agenda-setting theory as well the policy-making research studies, from the analysis of the relationship between the media, the public, and the political agendas and the deconstruction of some discourses presents in each agenda, we had verified the role of public opinion - specific, the role of some social actors that shape it - in the construction of a penal populism process. Keywords Agenda-setting, public opinion, criminal policy, penal populism.

Lack of motivation is a substantial productivity cost for organisations and business in generally work under the assumption that pay predicts performance. Satisfaction of the basic psychological needs has in research demonstrated a positive relationship with a better performance (i.e. Baard et al., 2004). If this is the case in the complex nature of sales work, with its primary focus on goals set (sales target) is yet to be decided. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the basic psychological needs, health and sales performance. The results emanating from this study on 252 sales people goes against previous research on performance as no significant relationships were found between the basic psychological needs and sales performance. However the study provides a strong empirical confirmation of the proposition that the basic psychological needs play an important role for health. Overall the results suggest that goal-setting (i.e. sales target) has significant consequences in shaping salespeople's cognitive aspect of motivation, putting the basic psychological needs behind and may result in impaired health.

Problem: The Swedish wage-setting has changed since the time for the breakthrough of the industrialism until today. Before that, wages often consisted of perquisites or goods that could be exchanged against other goods. Rural people were often self-sufficient. In some cases the farmer owned the land, in other cases they where tenants. At the time for the breakthrough of industrialism the demand for similar labour were increased. This situation in combination with urbanization leads to an increasing demand for money as means of payment. The wage-setting runs all through the story and is important for the development of a society. The cooperation between employers and employees is important and the institutions is a great part in these game. The question is how the wage-setting has developed from the middle of 19th century until today, and what the most important elements for development are. Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to describe the Swedish wagesetting between 1850-2009, from an institutional point of view, and analyse important factors for these changings. Results: The Swedish wage-setting between 1850-2009 has gone from a situation with pure theory in the middle of the 1900 century, to a more complicated system for wage-setting in the middle of 20th century. After 1970 we can see a development towards the pure theory for wage-setting that is presented by Olivier Blanchard. Some reasons for that is the change from industrial society to service society, women are introduced on the labourmarket, globalization and an increasing competition from other countries outside Europe, and an increased public sector.

Environmental challenges do not exist around by themselves. They are constructed andput in our mind by the key stakeholders, who draw public attention to certain issues. People experience the world through the words of others. Construction of environmental concerns is an ever ongoing process, and we need to be aware about things that can change. In the 60s the world was concerned about limited number of issues, whilst today the planet seems to shout from pain, though in fact amount of problems have hardly raised. It is environmental organizations’ desert that people managed to raise their awareness about the world. This study exposes social constructs of environmental challenges created and narrated through social media by two leading environmental organizations, Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature. For this purpose, theories of social constructionism and agenda setting serve as the main theoretical framework. Therefore, most actively social media used by ENGOs was identified to be Facebook. The insight to the topic was provided by the content analysis of status updates from both organizations’ fan pages for the period from September 2009 to May 2012. It showed that social constructs of environmental challenges are not equally distributed in the world and number of concerns is disregarded. ENGOs do hope that regular citizens can contribute to sustainability, by giving real support to the projects which aim to have impact on policy makers. Our awareness let changes on the governmental level happen, as ‘when ENGOs speak, people debate, and policy makershear’. Thereby, through media construction of challenges solutions to them are articulated as well.

The deployment of advanced metering infrastructure, most notably in the residential electricity sector, and the development of energy monitoring technology, has enabled and justified the exploration of more sophisticated systems to energy management in the home. Previously, energy usage feedback has been shown to help householders to learn and to adapt usage behaviour. However, these systems are still in their infancy and exploration of householder interest in them, and their designs, is needed to assist in the diffusion of this innovation. The effectiveness of feedback has been found to be enhanced when it is shown relative to a conservation goal. Additionally, disaggregated feedback has been found desirable to householders and has helped them to learn. However, little is understood about how disaggregated home energy feedback relative to a goal can be designed to help householders to conserve. This study explored interest in home energy goal-setting through a web-based survey of Ontario householders. Inferential statistics showed, with 95% confidence, that 35% to 37% of urban Ontario homeowners with post-secondary education would be strongly interested in setting home energy goals – and 29% to 31% would be willing-to-pay at least $6 per month for home energy goal-setting technology. Both financial and environmental reasons were often cited by respondents for their interest. Interest in home energy goal-setting did not relate to experience or interest in setting ‘non-energy’ goals but was significantly and positively associated with: (1) awareness in the environmental impact of energy usage, (2) pro-sustainability attitudes and behaviours, (3) desire to reduce usage, (4) desire to learn, and (5) motivations to help society. Householders preferred web-based feedback to other mediums such as in-home displays or bills. They also identified goal-based appliance-specific feedback as desirable but found the graphical presentation of multiple appliances on one page confusing, and instead preferred numerical presentations. Both extrinsic and intrinsic benefits to home energy goal-setting were supported by respondents and the most cited barrier to goal-setting was that it takes a lot of time. However, it is expected that a home energy monitoring system would help mitigate this potential barrier since progress would be tracked and reported automatically.

Drawing on a Norwegian empirical study of girls’ and boys’ teacher-led classroom conversation participation, this paper focuses on how students attending an upper secondary school vocational programs, participate in classroom discussion when observed in homogenous groups. This quantitative study has shown that gender identities associated with heterogeneous conversational patterns as exaggerated when observing homogenous classroom participation. The discussion describes not only the influences of class and peer group pressure to explain this phenomenon, in addition clarifies the contextual difference in quality when girls take the floor in a homogenous classroom setting.

What attribute affects salience on a political agenda? How come some reforms are implemented while others are not? These are essential and central questions for our society. Our society, our democracy and our everyday life are dependent of these factors; communication is the condition. In the 2011 budget from the Swedish conservative government, the question of lowering the VAT on restaurant- and catering services was the single most debated reform. This was occasioned from 2009 when the European Union allowed, for the first time since Swedish entry in 2005, a lower VAT on restaurant services. Since then Finland, Belgium and France had lowered their VAT on restaurant services and now Sweden had decided to follow suit. On January 2012 the Swedish government halved the VAT on restaurant services from 25 per cent to 12 per cent. This essay deals with the processes that lead up to the implementation earlier this year, from a media- and communications perspective. For this purpose, central players of the VAT reform have been interviewed as well as a comprehensive study of the relevant documents on this subject. Agenda setting theory derived from John W. Kingdon and Maxwell McCombs makes up the theoretical framework for this essay in its endeavour to seek out answers to who, why and what lead up to the lowering of the Swedish VAT on restaurant services in 2012. In the beginning of the 1990s the question of a lowered VAT on restaurant service was raised when the VAT on groceries was lowered which created an unfair competition between restaurants and supermarkets. The restaurant enterprises have since lobbied for a lowering of the restaurant VAT. With the new conservative government coming to power in 2006 a change of political agenda followed which resulted in a new approach towards the issue. With regards to Kingdons agenda setting theory this essay conclude that the single most important issue for the reduction of VAT on restaurant services was to tackle the high levels of unemployment. In particular for those with a weak position in the labour market, such as adolescents, immigrants and uneducated citizens. While among the most important actors in the issue where the conservative coalition government as well as the socialist opposition, the restaurant enterprise organization SHR and the restaurant union HRF.

Abstract   Back ground: Home based care is a meaningful activity giving patients and their families a chance to live their lives as close to normal as possible. Advanced palliative care is today provided at home, although geography does play a role in shaping that care. A rural setting can mean that conditions for such care differ from those in urban areas. Purpose: To describe the experiences of district nurses in palliative home care settings in a rural community. Method: Semi structured interviews with seven district nurses. The interviews were recorded digitally and transcribed in a precise fashion. A method of qualitative analysis of the contents, inspired by Burnard, was used to analyze the material. Results: Palliative care places high demands on the competency and experience of district nurses. The conditions of a rural setting contribute to the structure of such care in so far as its organization and prioritization. The work of the district nurses involved was marked by cooperation and peer support. The fact that the care for patients varied between communities was however, seen as unfair. Conclusion: The study expands the body of knowledge of the experiences of district nurses. It also clarifies the conditions that influence palliative care in a rural community. Hopefully this study will contribute to further development of palliative home care, and enable those affected to receive care on more equal terms.

Syfte: Vårt syfte är att undersöka vad som sagts, skrivits och debatterats kring nyhetsvärdering och framförallt vad som utgör en nyhets värde. Genom vår egen kvantitativa undersökning av Dagens Nyheter och Expressens artiklar från år 2009 vill vi söka svaret om vad som utgör en stor respektive liten nyhet i dagspressen. Slutligen har vi med hjälp av vår matematiska formel baserat de orsaker som vår teoridel tar upp på variabler som gör det möjligt att räkna ut/förutse en nyhets värde på förhand. Formeln skall ses som ett alternativt sätt att hantera diskursen för nyhetsvärdering.   Metod: kvantitativa metoder som stöd för kvalitativa metoder Material: Studentlitteratur samt ett urval för Expressens respektive Dagens Nyheter upplagor under 2009.   Resultat: Vi har konstruerat samt testat en matematisk formel för nyhetsvärdering som tycks fungera med gott resultat över det vi avsåg att undersöka. Försök till en ny diskurs kring begreppet Nyhetsvärdering har även gjorts.