The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine in what way library users are depicted on images at two academic libraries; the University College of Borås Library & Learning Resources (BLR) and the Gothenburg University Library (GUB). 62 images, from websites and information brochures, are analyzed and the main questions are: How are users represented on images? What activities are shown? What is the difference between BLR and GUB? How can the consequences of the representations be understood? Little is currently known in the LIS-field about how images work as constructors of the social reality. The theoretical and methodological point of departure of the study is discourse analysis, new institutional theory and picture analysis.

The purpose of this study is to perform a description of how parents experience their life in a stepfamily and to examine how the parents experience the involvement from their new partner in the children?s upbringing. The issues are: (i) which expectations do the parent has on their new partner in the role as stepparent to the child, (ii) how active does the parent experience their new partners? step parenting concerning the stepchild and (iii) how does the parent expect the new family to take shape? A qualitative study has been done through interviews. The participants were sex biological parents, of which four were fathers and two mothers.

Title: "In the verdict, reality is reconstructed" - a documentary study of how sex is reproduced in verdicts of LVU-cases.The aim in our study is to see how existing circumstances revolving power between the gender, are contained in court, through language and differences in the sentences and expressions that are used in the verdicts. In this study we have reviewed verdicts about young people who are taken in to custody care by Lag (1990:52) med särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga.We have reviewed verdicts from the county administrative court in Kalmar, from January in 2007 to October in 2008. Through the analysis we have taken into considerations and worked with earlier research and litterateur containing different theoretical approaches to feminism.The result of the study shows, that despite of a neutral law, girls and boys, women and men are judged and treated different, because of their sex. Depending on your sex, you are expected to behave according to norms and values. These norms and values are not the same for girls and boys.

In this thesis we have developed a framework of features associated with eCommerce platforms and then defined them. Thanks to our interviews with eCommerce-developers, we have been able to define multiple eCommerce features with the focus on an owner?s perspective. Much of the previous research in the area, takes a user perspective when the functionality of eCommerce-platforms have been assessed and evaluated. We have therefore taken an owner?s perspective in the evaluation of eCommerce platforms and therefore produced a suggested framework with key features associated with the owner's functions.

There is no doubt about the significance of nature on the health of human beings. Not only is the tree an element of nature that is of great value to our survival, it also serves as a valuable object and symbol of human beings? enjoyment and appreciation of the environment. The purpose of this study is to present the relationship that a person may have with a specific tree. Three women and two men are interviewed about their trees and the places where they are located.

Studies show that product placement is becoming a more and more common method for companies to use when communicating with consumers. The results of this study can?t confirm nor deny that claim, but instead we offered the observation that as a communication method, product placement and TV-commercials are more similar than revealed at first glance.Cars of the brand Ford appeared in seven out of the 50 motion pictures that made up the sample material in this study. In several instances the values that were communicated regarding the brand matched, completely or in large parts, the values communicated about the Ford brand in Ford?s own commercials.This doesn?t hold true for all companies.

The focus of this thesis is the conception of work and the relation between work, economic growth and welfare in today?s Sweden in the editorial of Dagens Nyheter (DN), which is the main morning paper in Sweden.As the theoretical foundation of this thesis is social constructionism and the method being used is critical discourse analysis, the language is considered as an important source for the construction of value and meaning of work. In that context it is important to investigate how DN, by certain ways of representing reality, preserves a certain view of the human being, the society and the economy. Which ideological ideas underlie the conception of work that emerges in DN? What social consequences will these ideas have?The thesis discusses the ?truths? that the editorialists mediate concerning for example the view of the human being as guided by rational choice and the view of economic growth as the main goal for social life.One of the conclusions is that DN considers work as a means for economic growth as economic growth is regarded fundamental for the survival of the welfare state..

 Denna uppsats undersöker vilket kulturell roll tatueringarna har haft historiskt genom en litteraturstudie. Tatueringskonsten har praktiserats av människor världen över i tusentals år och man har funnit bevis på att man använde sig av tatueringar i antika Grekland och Romarriket. Många kulturer har av olika anledningar använt sig av tatueringar och gett tatuering en stor social och kulturell mening. Tatueringar har använts för att markera brottslingar, slavar och andra stigmatiserade grupper men har också varit en statussymbol och en identitetsmarkör. Kan man se likheter i hur tatueringar blivit framställda i litteraturen trots skillnader i både tid och rum hos de som utövat tatueringskonsten? Uppsatsen undersöker även hur tatueringar framställs inom populärkulturen idag genom att analysera två realitytv-serier; Miami Ink och LA Ink.

I have investigated the interaction between man and environment, between my inner reality and a physical place, using a camera as my primary tool. What conceptions do I have and how do they affect how I relate to the outer world? I am not a passive receiver of the surrounding world. Instead I actively (but usually unconsciously) choose what to take in and how I experience it. If we as landscape architects do not reflect upon our conceptions, they will unconsciously affect our decisions. Only when we accept our experiences as subjective, can honest communication take place. By means of literature studies I have connected my own conceptions with different definitions of place: place as enclosure (location, space), place as inner meaning (genius loci) and place as action (the place-creating process).

Some MNEs encounter frustration or failures when they enter a new market. The main reason is due to a lack of adaptation. There is a lack of theoretical study about the local adaptation phenomenon of Swedish MNEs in China. Most studies are at the level of experience. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out the dimensions subject to local adaptation and their degree for the Swedish MNEs in China.

The purpose of this essay has been to study if all the districts in the city of Malmoe get to be seen in the city?s biggest newspaper, Sydsvenskan. Is the reporting proportional? What images is the newspaper offering the citizens? Do they match the reality? Or are some parts of Malmoe in the dark, in a media shadow?Research done in the past has shown that Stockholm in many ways is in a media shadow. The same pattern was shown in Gothenburg.

This paper seeks to explore how victims of crime and defendants are portrayed in sexual assault cases. Lately, more and more voices have been raised in appal against values demonstrated in court decisions and we?ve seen the implementation of a new sexual assault legislation in attempt to increase people?s sexual integrity. Yet, at the same time, there is still a tremendously low amount of reported sexual assaults that go to trial and even fewer result in conviction. This paper is not an attempt to scrutinize the legal system, but to draw attention to what values are portrayed in sexual assault cases.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the properties of the municipalities in Sweden that influence the choice of being a certified Fairtrade city. The independent variables which are used in the statistical analysis are municipal governance, local tax rate, whether there is an university and/or university college in the municipality, average income and higher education in the municipality. The variables are examined by logistic regression. Since there are no statistical data on ethical procurement, this exogenous variable isn?t included in the regression.

Each year 225 million pigs are transported within the European Union (EU) for slaughter, fattening and breeding. This results in poor animal welfare due to the fact that animals are exposed to several numbers of stress factors in the vehicle during loading, transit and unloading. Animal welfare can be defined as how well the animal attempts to cope with its environment and during transport there is often severe difficulty for the pigs to cope properly. There is a growing societal concern for animal welfare. This resulted in that the European Union enacted a law called the EU-regulation with certain directives of how to improve the welfare of the animals during transport.

Gyms are populated by more and more people and there is an increased interest in wellness and health. However, there is a downside to the culture that people choose to step into. Exercise can go too far and take unhealthy directions. The purpose of this study is to examine how norms are created in the gym culture and how unhealthy behaviour is reproduced inside the walls of the gym. We have also done research about how a local gym identifies and handles deviant behaviour such as the use of doping and eating disorders.