Present development path is based on the Western ideas, with focus on market, competition, capitalism and individualism. It has shown to create unsustainable patterns in terms of a growing ecological footprint, decreased wellbeing and growing inequities. This calls for new, alternative development paths. The traditional African values are based on a holistic and humanistic ideology which focuses on health and safety of common citizens; meeting all peoples basic needs, sharing, social connectedness, living in harmony with other species and nature, a healthy environment, to experience satisfaction when your basic needs are met, not wanting more than you need (luxurious cravings), and the concern for health of future generations. In this sense, traditional values are sustainability bearing, and are also suggested to influence human wellbeing in a positive way.   This study have explored to what extent sustainability-bearing values from the traditional African lifestyle are considered to be important for the wellbeing of young, black individuals, and analyzed whether the values of means to achieve wellbeing differs or corresponds between people living a traditionally influenced lifestyle and a Western influenced lifestyle. Generally, the respondents found all these values more important for their wellbeing than luxurious consumption.     This suggests that values that are sustainability bearing are important for peoples wellbeing, and is thereby important to include in the development debate. 

Researchers claim that stress has become a word of fashion and is now frequently used. They also state that there is no accepted definition that can easily describe the concept. In this essay, I have examined children and stress. The aim of the diploma work is to illustrate stress more closely the stress concept, the underlying reasons that can influence children and how teachers and school staff support children in their stress handling. My three issues are: What is stress? What stressors put children, at home and at school, in a stress situation? How can teachers help children to manage their stress? The diploma work is based on a literature study in order to find out what has been written on the subject in earlier research. Moreover, the work is based on four interviews with three class teachers and a school nurse in order to illustrate their experiences of what stresses children at school. In order to get a good base for the work the children's participation was of utmost importance to get a good base for the work, therefore questionnaires were given to 89 children in class 4 and 5. The results of the questionnaires showed that children had little or no knowledge of the stress concept. They associate it most often with lack of time and having to hurry. Children can be stressed just like adults. In addition, stress levels differ greatly between them, which means that some children feel more stress-tolerant than others. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that the child's environment affects the child, school and home being the greatest stress factors.

Keywords: Children under stress, stress, stressor, stress handling.

There are theoretical and methodological difficulties in measuring the concepts of quality of care and patient satisfaction, and the conditions associated with these concepts. A theoretical framework of patient satisfaction and a theoretical model of quality of care have been used as the theoretical basis in this thesis.

Aim. The overall aim was to describe and explore relationships between person-related conditions, external objective care conditions, patients’ perceptions of quality of care, and patient satisfaction with care in hospital.

Methods. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used. In the quantitative study (I-III), 528 patients (83.7%) from eight medical, three surgical and one mixed medical/surgical ward in five hospitals in Norway agreed to participate (10% of total discharges). Data collection was conducted using a questionnaire comprising four instruments: Quality from Patients’ Perspective (QPP); Sense of Coherence scale (SOC); Big Five personality traits – the Single-Item Measures of Personality (SIMP); and Emotional Stress Reaction Questionnaire (ESRQ). In addition, questions regarding socio-demographic data and health conditions were asked, and data from ward statistics were included. Multivariate statistical analysis was carried out (I-III). In the qualitative study 22 informants were interviewed (IV). The interviews were analysed by conventional content analysis.

Main findings. Patients’ perceptions of quality of care and patient satisfaction ranged from lower to higher depending on whether all patients or groups of patients were studied. The combination of person-related and external objective care conditions explained 55% of patients’ perceptions of quality of care (I). 54.7% of the variance in patient satisfaction was explained, and the person-related conditions had the strongest impact, explaining 51.7% (II). Three clusters of patients were identified regarding their scores on patient satisfaction and patients’ perceptions of quality of care (III). One group consisted of patients who were most satisfied and had the best perceptions of quality of care, a second group of patients who were less satisfied and had better perceptions, and a third group of patients who were less satisfied and had the worst perceptions. The qualitative study revealed four categories of importance for patients’ satisfaction: desire to regain health, need to be met in a professional way as a unique person, perspective on life, and need to have balance between privacy and companionship (IV).

Conclusions. Patients’ perceptions of quality of care and patient satisfaction are two different concepts. The person-related conditions seem to be the strongest predictors of patients’ perceptions of quality of care and patient satisfaction. Registered nurses need to be aware of this when planning and conducting nursing care. There is a need of guidelines for handling over‑occupancy, and of procedures for emergency admissions on the wards. The number of registered nurses on the wards needs to be considered. Healthcare personnel must do their utmost to provide the patients with person‑centred care.

Aims and objectives. To describe patients' perceptions of quality of care and to explore combinations of person-related and external objective care conditions as potential predictors of these perceptions. Background. Several studies have examined various single factors of person-related and external objective care conditions in relation to quality of care. None of these has included the effect of over-occupancy on patients' perception of quality of care. Furthermore, little is known about how combinations of different factors are related to each other and to the perception of quality of care using multivariate analysis. Design. A cross-sectional design. Method. A total of 528 patients (83·7%) from 12 medical, surgical or medical-surgical wards in five hospitals in Norway participated. Perceptions of quality of care and person-related conditions were measured with the 'Quality from Patient's Perspective' instrument. Data on external objective care conditions was collected from ward statistics provided by head nurses. Multivariate general linear modelling was used ( p < 0·05). Results. The combination of person-related and external objective care conditions revealed five factors that predict patients' perception of quality of care. Three of these are person-related conditions: sex, age and self-reported psychological well-being and two of them are external objective care conditions: RNs (headcount) on the wards and frequency of over-occupancy. These five factors explained 55% of the model. Patients rated the quality of care high. Conclusions. Sex, age, psychological well-being, frequency of over-occupancy and the number of RNs are important factors that must be emphasised if patients are to perceive the quality of care as high. Relevance to clinical practice. Head nurses and healthcare authorities must continually prepare the wards for over-occupancy and they must consider the number of RNs working on the wards.

Rationale, aim and objectives: Patients experiencing high care quality and satisfied patients are more likely to follow treatments. Patient satisfaction is an important contributor to physical and mental health-related quality of life. Research emphasises the need to further study satisfaction from the patients’ perspective. The aim was to describe patients’ experiences of care quality and the relation to their satisfaction during hospital stay. 

Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used. Interviews were conducted with 22 patients discharged from hospital. Data was analysed by conventional content analysis.

Results: Four categories and seven subcategories describing patients’ experiences of care quality and the relation to their satisfaction emerged. Desire to regain health comprised waiting for treatment, being cured, having hopes of being cured and described the treatment and health outcome of hospitalisation. Need to be met in a professional way as a unique person comprised receiving personalized knowledge, receiving healthcare by competent healthcare personnel and described the way patients need to be met by healthcare personnel. Need to be involved comprised taking responsibility for own health, leaving responsibility for own health and concerned the patients’ way of handling hospitalisation. Need to have balance between privacy and companionship concerned the relationship to fellow patients.

Conclusions: Health condition is of great importance to patients’ experiences of quality of care and their satisfaction in relation to hospital stay. The healthcare personnel need to be aware that seriously ill patients may never be completely satisfied. Furthermore, healthcare personnel must do their utmost to provide the patients with person-centered care.  Hospital managers must consider the design of wards with respect to such matters as multiple-bed versus single-bed rooms and heads of nursing must carefully plan each patient’s accommodation.

This study is about the project Sharaf’s heroes, which aims to change - the attitudes of young men with roots in honour culture. A qualitative method has been used, with four interviews with men who work within the organization. The aim of the study has been to increase the understanding of how work against honour related violence and oppressions can be dealt with, in order to decrease it. The focus in this study lies on the young men's own view on and experiences of honour culture and their work with the project Sharaf’s heroes. Our issues are as follows: What are Sharaf’s heroes and what is the purpose of the project? Which methods are used in their work? Which problems and obstacles will it be with the work in the project and which result has the project given so far? What does an honour culture consist of and what kinds of problems does it cause? Which role has young men living in honour culture and how can they work in order to change it?

Our result shows that the project’s purpose of the project is that it will work as an aid organization in order to prevent and to change attitudes. Additionally, it will function as a knowledge bank for different authorities when it comes to honour related violence. The main method in the project is the dialogue group, where the work starts from underneath through the young generation's men. The result that the project has given so far shows that when the dialogue between children and parents start, a process begins which leads to change the current prevailing attitudes. The problems with the work in the project are above all that there is a lack of cooperation within the authorities, and that authority’s knowledge about honour related problems is inadequate.

Keywords; Honour, Young men’s role, Sharaf’s heroes, Honour related violence and oppression, Socialization, Familystructure.

We set out to assess the processes by which a personal empowerment-oriented intervention based on learning spaces and the Rahyab problem-solving model can help newly married women in Iran to gain more control over their life situations. Learning to use the problem-solving model independently was an important component of this seven months’ educational program. A descriptive field study design based on qualitative methods was employed for data collection and analysis. The analysis of these processes showed how, through group and individual interventions, these women could influence their intimate relationships by altering their thoughts, their management of emotions, and their overt behavior. We invite more research on how empowerment-oriented interventions can be used to support newly married women as a part of family educational programs.

Since 2000, a problem-solving model has been taught to the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child, and teachers and  students of social work in two universities in Iran. Since 2006, with the initiation of UNICEF, social workers, psychologists  and even some psychiatrists in Iran have been learning this model. In 2008, a group of researchers created an empowerment-oriented  psycho-social group and private intervention project to assess whether a group of Iranian single mothers could use this model, which was traditionally used by professionals only, to effectively and independently meet challenges in their own lives. Our results show that all women used the model effectively and, consequently, made more deliberate decisions to improve their life situations. Some of the women succeeded in finding a job and many improved their family relationships. This study suggests that empowerment-oriented social work can help many clients to achieve their goals, and that this psycho-social intervention project can be a useful model for social work in Iran and many other societies.

Rapporten handlar om samhällsentreprenörskap med värmländska förtecken. Idén om samhällsentreprenörer ges i rapporten sammanhang och perspektiv i en diskussion om tidsandan. Rapporten handlar både om teori och praktik. Den bygger på litteraturstudier och på samtal och dialoger med forskare, regionala aktörer och inte minst värmländska samhällsentreprenörer.

Rapportens rubrik har hämtas från ett återberättande av ett möte om vad regeringen tänkte göra för näringslivet. Det förlösande svaret på en avslutande fråga om vad regeringen borde göra blev ”Gör vågen!”. Anekdoten berättades vid en av de två workshopar med värmländska samhällsentreprenörer som genomfördes under arbetet med rapporten.

Tankar om samhällsentreprenörskapet syfte och sammanhang eller dess själ och djupare mening kan möjligen sammanfattas i två dikter av Tage Danielsson, nämligen;

För den trötta samhällskroppen, vore kanske bästa boten, ifall tankarna från toppen kom från roten

Och

En droppe i livets älv har ingen kraft att flyta själv. Det ställs ett krav på varenda droppe. Hjälp till att hålla de andra oppe!

The purpose of this thesis was to find out how teachers can develop the psychological ability of their pupils within the subject of physical education. To find an answer to this, two researchers were interviewed in a qualitative way and four teachers in physical education were interviewed structurally. Current literature was also red. I tried to answer if there are any differences, or similarities, between two scientists’ and four teachers’ in physical education perspectives regarding methods to develop pupils’ psychological ability. The thesis also tries to answer which practical exercises in mental training that could be used in the teaching of physical education and how teachers in physical education can use mental training to motivate the pupils to strive for high grades.

This study shows that the pupils’ psychological ability can be developed through different mental exercises. To develop the pupils’ self-confidence by giving theme suitable exercises with a degree of difficulty that are on a slightly higher level than what the pupils think they can manage is one way. A similarity between the opinions of the scientists and the teachers in physical education is the importance of good communication with the pupils. Further, the two scientists emphasized the importance of making the pupils involved in the planning and contents of the lessons. The teachers in physical education did not share this opinion.

To develop the pupils’ self-knowledge and make theme strive for a grade, reasonable for their personal abilities, may increase motivation. In my thesis I have realised that a teacher’s behaviour is also important. The teacher needs to have a sensitive ear, use constructive feedback to the pupils and, to a reasonable extent, get the pupils involved in the planning and the contents of the lessons.

Aim. This study aimed at evaluating the outcome of implemented evidence-based clinical guidelines by means of surveying the frequency of thrombophlebitis, nurses’ care, handling and documentation of peripheral intravenous cannulae. Background. Peripheral intravenous cannulae are frequently used for vascular access and, thereby, the patients will be exposed to local and systemic infectious complications. Evidence-based knowledge of how to prevent these complications and how to care for patients with peripheral intravenous cannula is therefore of great importance. Deficient care, handling and documentation of peripheral intravenous cannulae have previously been reported. Design. A cross-sectional survey was conducted by a group of nurses at three wards at a university hospital before and after the implementation of the evidence-based guidelines. Method. A structured observation protocol was used to review the frequency of thrombophlebitis, the nurses’ care, handling and the documentation of peripheral intravenous cannulae in the patient's record. Results. A total of 107 and 99 cannulae respectively were observed before and after the implementation of the guidelines. The frequency of peripheral intravenous cannulae without signs of thrombophlebitis increased by 21% ( P < 0·01) and the use of cannula size 0·8 mm increased by 22% ( P < 0·001). Nurses’ documentation of peripheral intravenous cannula improved significantly ( P < 0·001). Conclusion. We conclude that implementation of the guidelines resulted in significant improvements by means of decreased frequency of signs of thrombophlebitis, increased application of smaller cannula size (0·8 mm), as well as of the nurses’ documentation in the patient's record. Relevance to clinical practice. Further efforts to ameliorate care and handling of peripheral intravenous cannulae are needed. This can be done by means of increasing nurses’ knowledge and recurrent quality reviews. Well-informed patients can also be more involved in the care than is common today.

This qualitative study is done with the purpose of creating understanding for the theoretical democratic content in educational materials for Civic Education courses 1a1 and 1b during GY-11, so teachers create an intentional approach when using educational materials in their democratic education. This was motivated as important considering the reduction in obligatory Civic Education for the vocational programs. The study was conducted using a hermeneutic qualitative reading method where the educational materials, more specifically two series with one book for each course, was read with purpose of creating understanding for the democratic content according to ideal democratic models: deliberative democracy, participatory democracy and electoral democracy. A text voice analysis was also conducted using Bakhtins theory of dialogic and monologue text that contributed to the general result concerning the democratic content. The results show that the electoral democracy ideal is dominant in all educational materials, there is hence no striking difference between the democratic content in 1a1 and 1b educational materials. Though the study shows intention in the 1a1 educational materials towards a more participatory democracy ideal, the electoral ideal are still clearly dominant.

Scientific medicine has been successful by ways of an ever more detailed understanding and mastering of bodily functions and dysfunctions. Biomedical research promises new triumphs, but discontent with medical practice is all around. Since several decades this has been acknowledged and discussed. The philosophical traditions of phenomenology and hermeneutics have been proposed as promising ways to approach medical practice, by ways of a richer understanding of the meaning structures of health and illness. In 2000, Swedish philosopher Fredrik Svenaeus published a book where he proposes that the phenomenological hermeneutics of Martin Heidegger and also the reflections on health and illness of Hans-Georg Gadamer offer important ways to approach the nature of medicine. In particular, Svenaeus argues that the goal of medicine is to promote and restore health, and that health ought to be seen as "homelike being-in-the-world". Unhealth, illness, consequently should be understood as a situation where a person's "being-in-the-world" in characterized by that lack of the rhythm, balance and "tune" of everyday living that characterizes not "being at home". In this article, Svenaeus' position is briefly outlined. Questions are raised whether "unhomelikeness" is to be seen as a metaphor, and, if so, if it is a fruitful such. Furthermore, I discuss whether or not a discourse on health and illness in these terms may be misleading in a situation where the ontological presuppositions of Heidegger are lost out of sight and the popular understanding of health psychology predominates. I also approach the question whether Svenaeus' assumptions may inadvertently lead us to an unjustifiably broad understanding of the tasks of medicine. It is finally concluded that Svenaeus phenomenological and hermeneutical approach is both interesting and promising. There are, however, several questions that ought to be pursued further, and the step from philosophical analysis to everyday clinical discourse may be unexpectedly long and risky.

The nature and scope of medical humanities are under debate. Some regard this field as consisting of those parts of the humanistic sciences that enhance our understanding of clinical practice and of medicine as historical phenomenon. In this article it is argued that aesthetic experience is as crucial to this project as are humanistic studies. To rightly understand what medicine is about we need to acknowledge the equal importance of two modes of understanding, intertwined and mutually reinforcing: the mode of aesthetic imagination and the mode of analytical reflection.

Is literary experience of any practical relevance to the clinician? This is the overall question addressed by this investigation, which starts by tracing the historical roots of scientific medicine. These are found to be intimately linked to a form of rationality associated with the scientific revolution of the 17th century and with “modernity”. Medical practice, however, is dependent also on another form of rationality associated with what Stephen Toulmin calls “the epistemology of the biographical”. The very core of clinical medicine is shown to be the clinical encounter, an interpretive meeting where the illness experience is at the centre of attention. The physician can reach the goals of medicine only by developing clinical judgement. Clinical judgement is subjected to close analysis and is assumed to be intimately connected to the form of knowledge Aristotle called phronesis.

In order to explore how literature – drama, novels, poetry – may be related to clinical judgement, a view of literature is presented that emphasizes literature as an invitation to the reader, to be met responsibly and responsively. Literature carries a potential for a widened experience, for a more nuanced perception of reality – and this potential is suggested to be ethically relevant to the practice of medicine. The “narrative rationality” of a literary text constitutes a complement to the rationality pervading scientific medicine.

The final step in my analysis is a closer exploration of the potential of the literary text to contribute to the growth of clinical judgement, in relation to the challenges of everyday clinical work. Some of the conditions that may facilitate such growth are outlined, but it is also shown that full empirical evidence for the beneficial effects of reading on the clinician reader is beyond reach.

When a person falls ill, their experience changes - sometimes in a very minor and transient way, sometimes in a decisive and lasting one. ‘Diagnosis’ is often seen as the process of scientifically and objectively identifying the causes of this subjective experience, but is the process and meaning of ‘diagnosis’ really as simple as this implies?

As this volume of The Medical Humanities Companion argues, diagnoses are an answer to complex human needs that spring from being ill, and are in turn a complex, culturally mediated interaction between individuals, scientific discoveries, social negotiation and historical change. This volume makes visible the complexities and ambiguities involved in giving and receiving diagnoses, and how they shape and are shaped by views on what is real and acceptable, and how people relate to the phenomena of illness.

A growing number of cities and municipalities in Sweden begin to work with city models in 3D. For the most part the models are used for visualizations of ongoing planning processes, but also for the analysis of noise, shadow studies and environmental disaster simulations.

Gothenburg continues to develop the use of 3D maps in municipal operations and is demanding a way to create building elements (walls), which generates in 3D buildings, from roof constructions that are mapped from the primary map. A method has been investigated in the present study. The results are then presented as a 3D model of buildings, along with a terrain map that will facilitate the localization of the area. The created 3D buildings are then compared with roof-data from the primary map to see how well they harmonize with each other. Then also the handling and storage of three-dimensional data with the information model CityGML is investigated. A specification of the requirements and characteristics that the customer, the City Planning in Gothenburg, looks are essential for building modeling in 3D has also been established.

The final result shows of 4% increase in the plane of 3D buildings compared to primary map. The increase would be slightly greater if the comparison is made on the volume instead. The results also revealed that the increase in plan is something that has occurred during the creation of the roof constructions, which was something that I couldn’t have affected during the work. The results also show that the CityGML is an appropriate information model for storage and handling of 3D. Gothenburg still have insufficient knowledge of CityGML, which is also one of the reasons why the information model hasn’t been implemented in the municipality work with 3D models.

This Swedish essay deals with a study of two tourist brochures of Värmland from two different years, 2005 and 2007. The purpose is to examine what their differences and similarities are through a comparison. My focus is put on what tourist categories the brochures mainly turn to. I want to se if they turn to all tourists or if they lean towards a special group of people.

To guide me I have used both textual and picture interpretation.

I have created my own tourist categorization as a tool for my study, named The matter tourist-related categorization. It contains six categories which all have some common denominator where tourists will fit in.

The result shows that all tourist categories are mentioned even if some are more frequently mentioned than others.

Key words: Tourism, brochures, categorization, interpretation, nature and culture.

Abstract

This project discusses various aspects of children's way to explore nature with their senses. Therefore I conducted a study in two preschools, one nature-oriented and another preschool. This study was carriedout usien the three metods, interviews, observations and surveys. Interview four children from each preschool, observations of each group outdoors during four different occasions and question forms to teachers.

The result of the study showed that both teachers and children have a great interest in being outdoors in nature, but it is not always possible to take out all children's groups. The reason is large groups and inadequate staff. When you are out in the forest according to teachers, it is important to be attentive, present, and meet the children’s interests. They need to be stimulated with questions and inspire them about what is happening and what might happen in nature plus take natural materials as help in the creative activities of the preschool.

Keywords: Biology, children's perceptions, exploring, outdoor environment

This report describes the work with utilizing and adapting data from a visitor poll for use in a GIS. The poll was performed by the Municipality of Karlstad and the Swedish Forest Agency to survey peoples visit patterns in the I2-Forest, a former military training field which is now used as a recreation area. The poll consists of a number of questions about the visitor’s activities, age, opinions etc, and a map on which the visitor has drawn his or her path through the forest. Source data is a database containing poll answers, and the original maps with the drawn information. The task is partly to investigate if the maps can be batch-digitalized through scanning and vectorization, and partly to normalize the database.

A method for digitalizing has been developed and tested on a selection of the maps. The method consists of a number of steps, including image processing, classification and vectorization. According to lack of batch-possibilities in the used GIS software, macros have been created by programming in VBA. The method works well on the selected maps and the conclusion is that it is possible to digitalize the drawn lines automatically. However, there are some shortages regarding accuracy and usability. Furthermore, the selection is relatively small and some adjustments on the settings for classification and vectorization might be necessary when applying the method on a larger part of the data.

The database has been normalized as far as reasonable with consideration of performance and usability. To enable reliable searches, several attributes has been interpreted and modified through categorization and classification.

The result is a geodatabase consisting of all poll answers, and the selected data from the digitalization test. To show how the database can be used, two simple examples of analyses have been made.

My purpose with this study was partly to examine how some Swedish science teachers teach and their knowledge of the science curriculum, and how this affects their teaching. I also aimed to compare the Swedish and Irish science curriculum. The method I undertook to achieve this study was to carry out six interviews with science teachers in Sweden. I also completed a text analyse of both the Swedish & Irish science curriculum. The results of the interviews showed that the teachers think the curriculum is important but they do not always keep to it. They know that their pupils do not reach the standards for fifth grade but they are not concerned about this. They aim to teach science as outlined in the curriculum. However, they are satisfied with how they teach in relation to the curriculum today. The science curriculums in Sweden and in Ireland are composed in different ways but their didactic ways of thinking are quite similar. They want the pupils to think scientifically about nature and therefore reach a sustainable development.

Introduction: District nurses meet informal caregivers of different ages, family constellations and in diverse contexts such as health care centers, child health care centre, home care and school health care. In the home, informal caregivers care a large part of the care provider's nursing and healthcare. In addition to family members, there may also be friends who are close to the care recipient. The aim: To describe the district nurse's experiences of caring together with informal caregivers. Method: The method used was a literature study with manifest content analysis. 14 articles were included in the essay analysis. Results: Six categories emerged: building relationships (subcategory: trust and trust), good communication, cooperation (subcategory: involvement of close relatives), support and accessibility, lack of communication (subcategory: conflicts of interests), factors in the family. These categories are summarized in two themes: informal caregivers as resource and informal caregivers as a burden. Conclusion: The results of the study show that the district nurse's experience of caring with informal caregivers is that it can both be a resource and a burden. The district nurses experience is that informal caregivers are a resource if they are included. The results show that the relationship between the nurse and informal caregivers is important for the cooperation and planning of the patient's care in the absence of the district nurse. District nurses need to raise awareness for the encounter with informal caregivers and patients who have other cultural beliefs and lifestyles than their own.

Abstract

Political Science, level III thesis

Spring semester 2010

Author: Emelie Alfredsson

Supervisor: Tomas Mitander

"A Changed Leadership? - A study of the EU leadership from a institutional standpoint, related to multilateral environmental negotiations"

The EU has for a relatively long time considered itself a leader in the environmental policy area as a whole as well as in multilateral environmental negotiations. This study attempts to classify and identify the European leadership with the purpose of relating it to the institutional framework of the Union. The treaties of the European Union decide its ability to act and its institutions the right to engage in different policy areas, the environmental area being the focus of this study. With the recent ratification of the Lisbon treaty this study aims to make out if the type of leadership the Union showed during the Kyoto negotiations has changed with the new treaty, into a new type during the COP-15 meeting in Copenhagen. The results shows that the Union has kept the same type of leadership despite the change in treaties, though with great potential of changing leadership if or when the new reforms of the new treaty are better implemented. This result points to the fact that institutional changes have a small effect on the EU leadership and that other factors such as ability to unite the member countries may play a bigger role.

Keywords: EU, leadership, multilateral environmental negotiations, Copenhagen, Kyoto