This work deals with verb inflections in a Finnish dialect spoken by descedants of Finnish-speaking settlers in northern Sweden. The dialect has been given the name Jukkasjärvi Finnish, as the main area where it is spoken lies within the parish of Jukkasjärvi. Jukkasjärvi Finnish belongs to the Vittangi Finnish dialect group within the principal Torne-Finnish dialect, the use of which extends along both sides of the Swedish-Finnish border. The documentation of the dialect is based on the language spoken by older people, as younger people are with increasing frequency using Swedish for their spoken language. The linguistic material has been collected by means of direct questioning, tape recordings and questionnaires. In the documentation, the principles for Keruuopas by Terho Itkonen and others have been used. In this study the dialect is compared with standard Finnish. The result of the investigation shows that Jukkasjärvi Finnish has the following characteristics: short vowels in endings, low frequency of gemination, syllable contraction, roots as the infinitive forms of contracted verbs, and to a certain extent analogical formations. An earlier influence from Saamish (Lappish) can also be discerned. Recently the dialect has also been influenced by those Finland-Finnish dialects that scarcely deviate from standard Finnish. / digitalisering@umu

Free Media is an essential part of democracy, a goal Sveriges Radio’s Development Program is aiming for. Existing since 1996 based on tax-financing, it offers its long experiences of public broadcasting and its ideal of serving democracy to other countries. The partaking Sveriges Radio journalists provide the countries with assistance for training in management, journalism and technical issues in both broadcasting, print and online media. The present research investigates based on the interviewees’ perceptions to what extent Swedish democracy and Swedish journalistic identity is transmitted during their media (radio) development projects, using post-colonial theory as a guiding theoretical approach. The study is based on interviews with Swedish and foreign journalists who have been involved in radio development projects. The study shows that despite common understandings of democracy and professional aims, differences occur based on the perception of the participants. These cannot be separated from the context and progress outcome of the projects. The study furthermore shows that there exists an ambivalence between the post- colonial awareness among participants.

In this paper, Swedish wolf population management was analyzed by two models. One is information index system to measure the positive and normative information held by the stakeholders. By using this system, the quantitative information indices can be measured to give people a clear understanding of the current situation of themselves and other stakeholders in order to enhance communication and engagement. By testing the current information shortage from the national survey, it was confirmed that the information shortage do exist in the society and the need for improving the information acquirement is significant. Besides, satisfaction functions of positive and negative stakeholders towards wolf population were used to test an agreeable wolf population. Stakeholder satisfaction was expressed as a function of wolf pupulation, either positively or negatively correlated, using economic and social features such as taxes, compensation, preventative payments, lupophobia, biphilia, etc. Weights were given to derive overall goal functions for pro- and anti-wolf stakeholders in order to find if there exist wolf population levels which might indicate include common preference. Whereas, current wolf pupulation is around 210 in Sweden, the results showed that all stakeholder groups could be satisfied with a population of around 500 wolves. Some major policy measures were studied for their influence on stakeholders' interests, in particular in how to increase wolf population in order to achieve this solution.

Much is known about childbirth fear in Sweden including its relationship to caesarean birth. Less is understood about this in Australia. Sweden has half the rate of caesarean birth compared to Australia. Little has been reported about women’s beliefs and attitudes to birth in either country. The contribution of psychosocial factors such as fear, attitudes and beliefs about childbirth to the global escalation of caesarean birth in high-income countries is an important topic of debate. The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the prevalence and impact of fear on birthing outcomes in two cohorts of pregnant women from Australia and Sweden and to explore the birth attitudes and beliefs of these women.   A prospective longitudinal cohort study from two towns in Australia and Sweden (N=509) was undertaken in the years 2007-2009. Pregnant women completed self-report questionnaires at mid-pregnancy, late pregnancy and two months after birth. Fear of birth was measured in mid-pregnancy with a tool developed in this study: the Fear of Birth Scale (FOBS). The FOBS showed promise as a clinically practical way to identify women with significant fear. A similar prevalence of fear of birth (30 percent) was found in the Australian and Swedish cohorts (Paper I).  The Swedish women had attitudes indicating a greater concern for the personal impacts of birth and a belief system that situated birth as a natural event when compared to the Australian women (Paper II). Finally, when women’s attitudes and levels of fear were combined, three profiles were identified: Self determiners, Take it as it comes and Fearful (Paper III). Belonging to the Fearful profile had the most negative outcomes for women including higher rates of elective caesarean, more negative feelings in pregnancy and post birth and poorer perceptions of the quality of their antenatal and intra-partum care (Paper IV).

In the contemporary critique of the welfare state a common target is taxation. The consequences of the high levels of taxes collected by the modern state, the critics argue, are slowdown in economic growth, high unemployment, and declining public legitimacy for taxes and state provided welfare. This thesis explores the political support for taxation in Sweden, the epitome of high-tax-society. The thesis consists of one introductory chapter and five journal articles. The first objective of the thesis is to examine whether a trend of increasing tax discontent has occurred in Sweden since the early 1980s up to present. The second objective is to study public attitudes to the 'Tax Reform of the Century' implemented in 1991. The third objective is to analyse whether public tax preferences and patterns of social conflict observed in Sweden tend to be unique in a cross-national context. Of particular interest is to analyse how relationships between structural locations and tax preferences are affected by the institutional context within which they are embedded. This is the fourth objective of the thesis. The following conclusions are drawn. First, no long-term trend of increasing discontent with taxes can be distinguished in Sweden, but there are some indications that discontent may have increased during the most recent years. Second, attitudes towards taxation are multidimensional and patterns of conflict vary across dimensions. Preferences regarding redistributive properties of taxation are primarily structured by social class. Generalised discontent with taxes tends to be associated with trust in political institutions. Third, the social bases of political support for progressive taxation appears to be different in Sweden compared to other countries examined. While class is the single most important determinant in Sweden, the lack of class divisions is evident in the United States and Britain. It is argued that patterns of tax policy conflict are strongly influenced by institutional configurations of organised social protection and government social spending priorities. / digitalisering@umu

In this day of age there is no clear definition of what leadership is and exactly what it means. Though something that all existing definitions of leadership have in common is that, it is a process of influence where the leader exerts influence over their subordinates. The concept of leadership can at first glance be seen as a clear substance that is easy to understand. However, this is not the case when one delves into the subject and begins to realize that leadership is a complex concept which includes a variety of things. How to best exercise leadership is a divided perception that may be completely different, depending on whom you ask the leader or the follower. In this paper the aim is to explore the leadership within the company Lycamobile located in Sweden, with respect to management. Further, we examine the relationship between managers and employees and examine their adaptation to the Swedish business culture. This paper is a case study, based on adductive triangulation. The study inhabits three personal interviews and a survey. The theoretical framework consists for instance of the path-goal theory and situational leadership. The result demonstrates that Lycamobiles leadership is very authoritarian and differs from the Swedish business cultures leadership in a hierarchal manner. The employees at Lycamobile find no major problems with this type of leadership and the majority is happy with their work. This is partly because most employees and managers can identify with each other. Nevertheless, there are some who wish for the leadership to be more transformative.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been widely talked about over decades. CSR is a concept proposed in Western Countries firstly and it asks for business to contribute sustainable economic development and to improve the quality of life by involving other stakeholders at the same time. The CSR among countries in Asia has beenspreadingin recent years. This thesis takes a closer comparison on the CSR between China and Sweden. As a case study with qualitative strategy, its main aims are to compare the driving forces, barriers, activities and deliverables in implementation of CSR in a Sweden-China context. Two Swedish enterprises and one Chinese enterprise are used as examples here in this study and both of their primary data by interview and secondary data by CSR or Sustainability Report are utilized. Theories refer to the implementation of CSR, the CSR in China and Sweden are used to establish the conceptual framework of this study. Empirical findings show that Chinese and Swedish enterprises both implement CSR in a similar way while the differences still exist. For instance, the Swedish enterprises stress the work on philanthropic responsibility to participate in local activities, while the Chinese enterprises contribute to the society by donation in natural disaster. Their activities, driving forces, barriers and deliverables are summarized in a model, respectively. Base on this fact, this thesis argues that the difference is due to the influence of cultural and political factors. Consequently, it leads to a situation that the Swedish enterprises have an advantage in implementation on caring of employees while the Chinese enterprises are good at making contributions to the larger society. This thesis can hopefully provide insightful comparison between the implementation of CSR in both Swedish and Chinese enterprises. As a conclusion, the study recommends that the future research should focus on CSR implementation of political influence.

Free Media is an essential part of democracy, a goal Sveriges Radio’s Development Program is aiming for. Existing since 1996 based on tax-financing, it offers its long experiences of public broadcasting and its ideal of serving democracy to other countries. The partaking Sveriges Radio journalists provide the countries with assistance for training in management, journalism and technical issues in both broadcasting, print and online media. The present research investigates based on the interviewees’ perceptions to what extent Swedish democracy and Swedish journalistic identity is transmitted during their media (radio) development projects, using post-colonial theory as a guiding theoretical approach. The study is based on interviews with Swedish and foreign journalists who have been involved in radio development projects. The study shows that despite common understandings of democracy and professional aims, differences occur based on the perception of the participants. These cannot be separated from the context and progress outcome of the projects. The study furthermore shows that there exists an ambivalence between the post-colonial awareness among participants.

Kulturarvet och komforten: Frågan om lämpligt inomhusklimat i kulturhistoriska byggnader under 1900-talet

<p>Översättning från engelska till italienska av Davide Ponzini.</p><p>Svensk titel i översättning: Återanvändningen av ett kasernområde i Sverige: Visborg, Gotland</p>