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AbstractVarious factors have meant that employment in welfare states is much more insecure than just a few decades ago. Entrepreneurship has become an important alternative for many people, as a way to increase both security and flexibility. At the end of the 1990s and the start of the 2000s, an average of just over 10,000 people per year received grants in Sweden to start their own business. Of these, just under 10% had some type of 'work handicap'. This study surveyed a group of new entrepreneurs with disabilities about their entrepreneurial activities. Of those who answered the questionnaire 51% were women. The average age of respondents was 43 years. Only 31.2% reported at follow-up that they were 100% involved in their business. The vast majority of disabled entrepreneurs worked part-time in their firm, which is quite different to the work contribution of entrepreneurs without disabilities. However, the main finding is clear: entrepreneurs with disabilities succeed to roughly the same extent as other entrepreneurs. In terms of disability management programs, entrepreneurship should also be considered as an option for people with disabilities.

Argues that little attention has been devoted to charismatic or transformational leadership in the voluntary sector, although many socially‐oriented voluntary organizations, such as relatives' associations, clients' associations, crisis centres and environmental groups aim to change people's cognitive and emotional capacity and living conditions. The voluntary associations have a great power to bring about change because of the leaders' ability to link the goals of the organization to those of the members, so that the aspirations of the individual members coincide with the good of the organization. Analyses charismatic or transformational leadership in concrete
terms in a voluntary Swedish organization (Reningsborg), which combines changes in marginalized young people with practical relief work for the poor and needy of eastern Europe. In their work to create resources for international aid, the young outcasts are redefined as helpers and participants in a common project. This is the foundation for the production of identity, meaning and social belonging. Argues that the forms of organization and leadership in this analysed example give lost people access to a meaningful context which our de‐traditionalized postmodern society does not automatically give to the young generation. The new social movements that have arisen out of the need to create identity and meaning may possibly have the same role in transforming society in the postmodern era that the labour movement, the temperance movement and the free‐church movement had in the modern era. Concludes that leadership which enables the communication of messages in keeping with the times and the mobilization of forces for voluntary work are a common denominator of the two eras.

Background: The 'Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities' (CRPD) requires governments to meet the assistive technology needs of citizens. However, the access to assistive technology in developing countries is severely limited, which is aggravated by a lack of related services. Objectives: To summarize current knowledge on assistive technology for low- and lower-middle-income countries published in 1995 or later, and to provide recommendations that facilitate implementation of the CRPD. Study design: Literature review. Methods: Literature was searched in web-based databases and reference lists. Studies carried out in low- and lower-middle-income countries, or addressing assistive technology for such countries, were included. Results: The 52 included articles are dominated by product oriented research on leg prostheses and manual wheelchairs. Less has been published on hearing aids and virtually nothing on the broad range of other types of assistive technology. Conclusions: To support effective implementation of the CRPD in these countries, there is a need for actions and research related particularly to policies, service delivery, outcomes and international cooperation, but also to product development and production. Clinical relevance The article has a potential to contribute to CRPD compliant developments in the provision of assistive technology in developing countries by providing practitioners with an overview of published knowledge and researchers with identified research needs.

There is growing consensus about the need to develop sustainable use of forest resources, but no consensus about how to interpret and implement this goal. Political institutions, governmental agencies, forest companies, and environmental organizations have partly different views on what sustainable forestry means and what strategies to use to achieve it. Not least, the climate change issue has put higher and partly new demands on forests, both as providers of biomass and as carbon sinks, which may be in conflict with other services of the forest's ecosystem. This paper analyses how different Swedish stakeholders evaluate the possibilities for intensive forestry, that is, to increase the production of woody biomass through increased use of fertilizers, improved genetic material, the introduction of exotic tree species, and the use of fastgrowing deciduous tree species. The analysis shows that the pros and cons are evaluated differently, with some stakeholders assessing intensive forestry as a radical break from the current goal of sustainable forestry and others viewing it as according with it. It is concluded that this conflict should be understood as concerning not competing knowledge claims, but competing frames – schemes of interpretation through which the complexity of reality is reduced. This means that the solution is not to be found in improved knowledge but in increased awareness that the involved frames are the source of the conflict. ; Funding agency: Forestry Research Institute of Sweden (Skogforsk) Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) Umea University ; Future Forests

Abstract Background About half a billion people with disabilities in developing countries have limited access to assistive technology. The Convention on the Rights of persons with Disabilities requires governments to take measures to ensure provision of such technologies. To guide implementation of these measures there is a need for understanding health outcomes from a human rights perspective. The objective of this study was therefore to explore the relation between assistive technology use and enjoyment of human rights in a low-income country. Methods Data was collected in eight districts of Bangladesh through interviews of people with hearing impairments using and not using hearings aids, and people with ambulatory impairments using and not using manual wheelchairs (N = 583). Using logistic regression, self-reported outcomes on standard of living, health, education, work, receiving information and movement were analyzed. Results The adjusted likelihood of reporting greater enjoyment of human rights was significantly higher among people using hearing aids compared to non-users for all outcomes except working status. Compared to non-users, users of wheelchairs reported a significantly higher adjusted likelihood of good ambulatory performance and a significantly lower adjusted likelihood of reporting a positive working status. Further analyses indicated that physical accessibility to working places and duration of wheelchair use had a statistically significant impact on the likelihood of reporting positive work outcomes. Conclusions The findings support the notion that assistive technology use increases the likelihood of human rights enjoyment, particularly hearing aid use. Physical accessibility should always be addressed in wheelchair provision.

Purpose: About half of all people with disabilities in developing countries live in extreme poverty. Focusing on the ends rather than the economic means of human development, the capability approach offers an alternative view of poverty. The purpose of this study was to explore the relation between assistive technology use and capability poverty in a low-income country. Method: Self-reported data on food intake, health care, education, politics, self-determination, self-respect, family relationships and friendships were collected in Bangladesh through interviews of people with hearing impairments using and not using hearings aids, and people with ambulatory impairments using and not using manual wheelchairs (N = 583). Differences in outcomes between users and non-users of assistive technology were analyzed using logistic regression. Results: Assistive technology users were more likely than non-users to report enhanced capabilities, hearing aid users to a larger extent than wheelchair users. Synergistic effects between assistive technology use and education were found. Conclusion: The use of assistive technology is predictive of reduced capability poverty in Bangladesh. Lack of wheelchair accessibility and the nature of selected outcomes may explain the limited association in the ambulatory group. Enhancing the effects of the other, there is support for providing education in combination with hearing aids.