The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether or not capitalism, viewed here as the system that is currently the dominant economic system in the Western world, can be seen as a modern myth or not. An author, Brian Tracy, of several popular self-help books is the target of this investigation and the language he uses in his books have been scrutinized in order to see whether or not he uses a religiously influenced, and more importantly, myth-creating language. In order to do so, Bruce Lincolns theories of myth have been used in correlation with Stefan Arvidssons definition ov myths. Also of interest is whether or not Tracy in his books uses any of the instruments of power defined by Michel Foucault to support his claims.The investigation shows that capitalism indeed can be seen as a modern myth. This claim is supported by the facts that Tracy not only uses a language heavily influenced by Christian texts and belief but furthermore because he descirbes himself and the people he claims to have helped in a way that strongly resembles the narratives of myths.

As the field of marketing becomes increasingly competitive, creative tools to reach the intended consumer needs to be utilized. In order to break through the crowded airways and packed ad space, one can choose to direct the message through channels that relate to currenttrends in society, while using innovative artistic concepts. The fundamental purpose behind this report is to provide a roadmap for creating a successful and unique marketing campaign. In addition, we have attempted to identify how visual methods can add valuable attributes to the campaign, ensuring a more progressive and distinct impression. To illustrate our claims, we have chosen to analyze Wasabröd?s latest marketing effort, ?Change Bread,? by dividing it into three sections, including planning, execution, and the visual creation.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate issues concerning lifelong learning and the role of the public librarian. This is done by examining LärForum Forum for Learning, a project initiated at a public library located outside of Stockholm, with the aim of supporting adults lifelong learning. The major questions raised in this study are: How do the seven librarians interviewed define lifelong learning and how do they perceive their own role in relation to lifelong learning in the public library? Do they work with adult learners in a different way than they do with "ordinary" users of the library? Has their conception of their own role as a public librarian changed as a result of LärForum, and do they find it necessary to acquire new skills because of the project? Data was collected through interviews and observation, and the study is a qualitative case study. The main results are that the librarians see their role in lifelong learning in the public library as self-evident, and they see lifelong learning mostly as learning for an individuals personal development.

This paper aims to describe and discuss psychotherapy in rhetorical terms; in particular how psychotherapists can use their ethos, or person, as a means for convincing the patient, and subsequently discuss how these insights in turn can be useful for other rhetors.Classical rhetoric is commonly associated with one speaker exercising influence on an audience of many, but modern rhetoric is broader, and includes all situations where someone is attempting, by speech or in writing, to affect anyone, including the rhetor himself. With this broader definition, psychotherapy may also be considered a form of rhetoric. Psychotherapy does, however, highlight the aspect of power distribution, in that it is clear that it is up to the patient to determine whether the rhetoric will achieve its purpose or not, that is, if he will be influenced by it. In psychotherapy, it is also important to differentiate between persuading and convincing: for a permanent change to occur in the patient?s thoughts and actions, the deeper, "internal" form of conviction is necessary for change to take place.When attempting to convince an audience, it is important for the speaker to establish a credible ethos, that is, present a trustworthy persona.

The aim of this study is to analyze the justification of a financial incentive that rewards students who rapidly finish their studies within the language education ?Swedish for immigrants? (sfi). Thereby, we want to see what assumptions are made about the students, and relate this to experiences of the education at a local level. We applied a text analysis on a government bill about the incentive, which showed that the deficiencies in the education are said to be caused by the students? lack of effort.

The reason why this study has been made is the fact that a substantial part of students in the upper secondary school changes their field of study, during or after their first year. The aim of this study is to find out the reasons behind such changes as well as finding out the affecting factors. The study has been made in two steps, first quantitatively by a poll study and the second step is qualitative by interviews. This research has been made in both private schools and municipal schools, with the ambition to search for differences between these two separate school forms. The study shows that no general differences can be found in a comparison between them.

Hepatitis E virus, HEV, is a frequent causative agent behind, especially waterborne, infections in developing countries such as India. However, during the last years the number of non-travel-associated infections in industrialised countries, for example US, Germany and Sweden, has increased. The symptoms vary from mild with nausea to icterus and it can even be lethal. There are four different genotypes of HEV and many studies consider HEV infection to be a zoonosis. Scientists have by using phylogenetic analyses found great genetic similarity between strains isolated from humans, pigs and food, such as pork and liver, especially among viruses belonging to genotype 3.

Purpose: To examine the governance mechanisms and the competence PE-firms adds to theirholding companies through an active ownership in order to create growth.Methodology: A qualitative study with interviews as its main source of data.Theoretical perspectives: Corporate governance and relevant theories within that subjectsuch as agent theory, board of directors and management. Previous research within the subjectwill also be presented.Empirical foundation: The empirical foundation consists of three conducted interviews anddata collected from the chosen PE-firms as well as six different holding companies.Conclusions: The governance mechanisms used in the PE-firms we have chosen are stronglyrelated to both theories within corporate governance as well as previous research on thesubject. The governance mechanisms being used are an explicit owners agenda and strategy, athorough acquisition process, usage of external competence, active ownership through theboard of directors and the insertion of incentive systems..

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to do a benchmarking study of the marketing activities at the public library of Valdemarsvik. The purpose is also to describe and get a deeper understanding of benchmarking as a method for improving library activity. Four major problem areas are addressed: How can one use benchmarking as a tool to achieve change? How can one learn with benchmarking? What similarities and differences are there between benchmarking and other similar methods for competence development? Is benchmarking better than other similar methods for competence development? The empirical approach was qualitative and the method chosen was action research.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka möjlighetsvillkoren för barns karnevaliska lekar och subjektskapande i förskolan. Studien är kvalitativ med avseende på insamlingmetod och utgår från det postshumanistiska perspektivet agentisk realism. Studiens empiri har samlats in med hjälp av videoobservationer och fältanteckningar. Studiens resultat visar att karnevaliska lekar är vanligt förekommande i de förskolor där studien utförts och fokus i studien ligger främst på hur miljön i förskolan möjliggör för eller förhindrar de karnevaliska lekarna. Studiens resultat pekar vidare mot att de karnevaliska lekarna kontinuerligt sker i samverkan mellan mänskliga och icke-mänskliga aktörer.

The study was performed based on a qualitative method using a hermeneutical approach used to interpret the semi-structured interviews. The study aimed to investigate the Multisystemic therapy (MST) team in Halmstad municipality perceptions on the treatment method multisystemic therapy for youths from the ages of 12-18 years old.The questions were: Does the MST therapists experience that the MST is a method that leads to an improved situation for young people who receive the method? What do the MST therapists describe as opportunities and obstacles in the work with the method?The study builds on previous research on MST and empowerment based on MST. The study shows three therapists and an MST leader's experiences of the treatment and how it is aimed at influencing the parents and the youth for a change. From therapists statements it highlights how the MST method is designed for the young people?s motivation to change by means of the internal and external networks.

The first Debt Relief Act was introduced in 1994 into Swedish law. The old Debt Relief Act was replaced on 1 January 2007 by the current Debt Relief Act. The current law is in many ways similar to the older law. The main change is the debt settlement process.The Debt settlement Act's main purpose is to financially rehabilitate over-indebted individuals. This aim should be balanced against the creditors' interest in getting paid for their claims.

Uppsatsen har till syfte att beskriva och analysera vilken funktion förvaltningsrevisionen fyller i aktiemarknadsbolag som tillämpar Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning, samt ge förslag på hur förvaltningsrevisionen bör förändras i dessa bolag. Uppsatsen är till största del deduktiv då den tar sin utgångspunkt i teorier. Vidare grundas uppsatsen på en kvalitativ metod i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer med revisorer och institutionella ägare. Den teoretiska referensramen utgörs av en egen analysmodell som tar sin utgångspunkt i agent- och principalteorin samt förtroendeteori och institutionell teori. Revisorernas och de institutionella ägarnas svar har beskrivits och analyserats utifrån fyra områden, nämligen förvaltningsrevisionens innehåll, behovet av förvaltningsrevision, den svenska bolagskodens påverkan på förvaltningsrevisionen och förvaltningsrevisionens framtid.

Titel: Rockmusic preferences in the rock programme. Popular culture, music preferences and repertoire inside a teaching institution. This paper raises some questions about the popular music that exists outside as well as inside institutions. From the example of popular music and rockmusic the students of a music teacher education programme based on rock music are asked for their taste for music in a brief questionnaire. The answers are compared to those concerning the music they used to like before they entered the education as well as the music played on the ensemble lessons at the programme.

Media has power and impact. It is therefore important for managers to be able to handle media storms when they arise. If not, the brand can be affected negatively. It is managers who should learn to handle media storms because the managers constitute an important part of the external face of the company. Because it is managers who should learn to handle media storms it is interesting to study how media storms should be handled from a theoretical management-perspective.