Abstract Title: When the cat is away… A study of pedagogical leadership at a distance Level: Final assignment for Degree of Master of science (one year) in Educational Management Author: Evelyn Joelsson Supervisor: Ulla Sebrant Date: 2013 may Leadership is a subject that has been discussed for many generations. Today’s leadership is something completely different than what has been practiced before, in the more hierarchical companies, when leadership was something you were born to do and the workers had no choice but to follow. In the globalised world that we live in today there are demands of a different kind than before and physical distance between leaders and their followers gets more and more common. Communication is the focus and the catchwords are patency, trust and availability. In our information society it is important to have an open dialog and to aim for continuous development. Often this is built with close and supportive leadership. My question is; how can you be a close and supportive leader when you are physically somewhere else? To find the answer to my questions I began with studying some previous work that has been done in this area, Maria Nordengren & Bengt Olsen (2006) among others. I interviewed ten people who all have some kind of experience with working at a distance and the professional leadership from afar. Two of them were leaders, four were employees that worked at a distance from the leader and four were employees working physically close to the leader. I asked them about communication, trust, patency and availability and found out that educational leadership is possible at a distance but also at a price. If you are a leader placed at a distance from your employees you need to be clearer in your communication than the leader close at hand and give the right information at the right time. Trust is very important as well as the physical meetings they have twice a year. Availability is important and many claimed that it was working satisfactory. The physical contact proved to be irreplaceable even if there are many technical tools available in today’s businesses. Employees at a physical distance from their leaders automatically need to take more decisions on their own and learn to take initiative faster than the ones who can just walk over to the leader and ask. For future research I suggest that you could look at the different kinds of distance between leaders and their followers, not just de physical, and maybe also the gender aspect of leadership at a distance. One could conduct a comparative study between different kinds of companies and see if IT-businesses differ from producing- or service companies. The communication strategies that were used was something I found interesting and is probably something you can look more into, for example when you use what tool for communication. I think my thesis has contributed to the understanding of the complexity of leadership at a physical distance and what it takes to be an educational leader in a scattered company today concerning communication, patency, trust and availability. Keywords: leadership, educational leadership, leadership at a distance, communication, distance, development opportunity, trust, patency and availability.

A global land rush developed during the last decade, spared primiarly by the sharp rise inglobal food prices between 2007 and 2008. The inceased international food prices resulted inincreased interest from foreign actors to invest in agricultural land in developing countries inthe global south. The “global land rush” or “land grabs” is driven by the increased demandfor primarily food and biofuels. The phenomenon refers to foreign direct investment inagricultural land in developing countries that has escalated in recent years, with Sub-SaharanAfrica as the most targeted. This study examines foreign land investment in Ghana focusingon the regions of Brong-Ahafo, Ashanti and Volta through a qualitative literature study. Thepurpose of the study is to analyze to what extent these investments can be explained asneo-colonial or as development opportunities. Based on analyzing economic, political,cultural and power relations, the study concludes that all cases are in line with neo-colonialtheory according to Nkrumah. The economic effects show temporary job creation and loss oflivelihood, which indicates economic exploitation. The cultural effects include disruption oftraditional practices and loss of cultural identity, suggesting cultural imperialism. The aspectof political power shows the marginalization of local interests and political dominance. Noneof the three cases fulfills the principles of a win-win situation and therefore can't beconsidered development opportunities either. The legal frameworks in the regions prioritizeforeign actors over the rights and welfare of affected communities, leading to an unbalanceddistribution of power. The job opportunities that the projects bring often hide the long-termeffects and loss of livelihoods for the local population. In conclusion, this study contributes tothe understanding of Land Grabbing in Ghana as a neo-colonial phenomenon rather than adevelopment opportunity.