The aim of the thesis was to provide further understanding on how Swedish consumers use the Internet as an information source in their purchase decision process. The subject was investigated from different perspectives: gender, product type and information type. The authors used a quantitative approach, and a survey (n=120) was conducted. It was concluded that men and women are equally influenced by traditional word-of-mouth, but more men than women search for product information online and they are more likely to let their purchase decision to be influenced by it. Women tend more to trust commercial sources.

In this thesis I analyse civilizations in South America. I construct civilizationalnarratives through the method of emplotment, to build a historic continuity, whichI subsequently connect to the theoretical framework. The theory emphasise that,when confronted with globalization and free market capitalism, civilizationsembark on different strategies to challenge the power of transnational marketforces. I find that South America is a polarised continent, and is divergingconcerning the relationship towards the USA and free trade agreements. On thesame time the issues that concern the social movements are not being reproducedin a significant matter at state level.

This thesis examines the ongoing European political debate on the links between livestock production and climate change. In the end of 2006 the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released their report Livestock?s long shadow, showing that livestock production represents some 18 % of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the European Commission?s position and response to this question since the release of the report.Using Arne Naess? argumentation analysis, statements made by the Commission will be systematically organized and broken apart.

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of resource schools 1 as a human services organization and institution, based on teachers and principals? perspectives. The purpose of resource schools is to provide the students tools and resources to enable them to return to the regular school within two years. The study also aims to examine more closely how this objective applies to the studied resource schools in the studied municipality, as well as highlighting the success factors and barriers that exist to achieve the goal. Previous studies show that this kind of differential practice tends to become a permanent solution.

In this essay, I explore the history of the ideas that have shaped the profession of landscape architecture, in a Swedish context. To this purpose, I have sampled the professional debate on landscape architecture at four points in time. These are the years around 1890, 1930, 1970 and 2010. Drawing on G N Brandt (1920), I make the distinction between two arguably crucial approaches, i . e., naturalism and formalism. By identifying these perspectives, and by dividing the arguments of each time period according to this classification, I am able to compare the course of the debate over time. I take on the task through hermeneutics.

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze youth community service in the Kalmar municipality. Our focus was on juvenile offenders and predecessor of public authorities. The juvenile offenders in our study have completed youth community service. A qualitative study was undertaken which include seven interviews. Our empirical data were compared and analyzed with previous research data.

This thesis deals with the theories of ecological and environmental justice and applies them onto Swedish politics. Confronting the divide in the literature between anthropocentric and ecocentric perspectives, its aim is to seek points of agreement within this important field of environmental politics. In the theoretical discussion, definitions are made of the concepts sustainability, justice and responsibility. These definitions try to link ecological and environmental justice arguments with a focus on the global level.The object of analysis is the former Swedish governments? bill ?Common responsibility: Swedish politics for global development? which was accepted in 2003.

A central question is what view of communication is dominating in a municipality in the southern part of Sweden. The study deals with communication theory from two different perspectives; the view of transmission and the view of creation of meaning. Falkheimer and Heide (2003) claim that the view of transmission is one-way communication where the receivers apprehend passivly. In the view of creation of meaning the goal is to develop and strengthen the common notion that exists in a group. Empirical studies were done, that consisted of qualitative interviews with politicians, directors of the municipality, and principals from three childcare and school areas, and also from one upper secondary school.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and to increase the understanding of the negotiation process between the public- and the private sector in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). I have chosen to explore the first ?real? PPP project in Denmark, the construction of Vildbjerg compulsory school in the municipality of Trehøje.This case study is based upon a qualitative method consisting of interviews with the leading negotiators from both sectors. Two different theoretical perspectives are used to construct the basis of the analysis - The Theory of Public-Private Partnership and Negotiation theory - and serve as a concept instrument.The result of the analysis indicates that the negotiators from the different sectors have problems to get out of their traditional roles as purchaser and contractor ? in PPP they should act like partners.

Purpose: The purpose with this study is to analyze if the Swedish authorities and media had different ways of discussing the new influenza, in connection with the pandemic classification June 11, 2009. This is the first time an influenza has been classified as a pandemic since the Hongkong-influenza in1968. Methodology: The method used for the study is discourse analysis, aqualitative method that gives the opportunity to study not only what is said, but how things are said. In this thesis, the aim is to study how the image ofthe new influenza is transmitted via the texts. The texts have been analysed based on:- General and underlying themes- Words and concepts used- Persons/sources quoted or referred to- Historical connections/historical backgroundTheoretical perspectives: The study is based on theories about socialconstructionism and discourse analysis.

The purpose of this paper was to look into how the individual has been portrayed in the different curriculums for Swedish compulsory school from the 60?s to the 90?s. This was done in order to see what type of discourse ?monocultural- multicultural- or intercultural- the understanding of the individual has led to.The purpose was divided into five questions: Who is the individual in the curriculums? How is the individual portrayed in relation to education in the curriculums? How is the individual portrayed in relation to society in the curriculums? What type of discourse - monocultural- multicultural- or intercultural- is mirrored in the different curriculums? Is it possible to see tendencies in the discourses that lead closer to, or farther away from, an intercultural perspective? The material that was analysed consists of four different curriculums: Lgr 62, Lgr 69, Lgr 80, and Lpo 94.The method used was a discourse analytic approach based on the theory of social constructionism. The answers to the questions asked were structured with the support from definitions of monocultural discourse, multicultural discourse, and intercultural discourse, derived from Pirjo Lahdenperäs (2008) descriptions of different organizational cultures.The main conclusion drawn from this analysis was the fact that the intercultural discourse about the individual has not been obtained.

This essay investigates how the author Oline Stig creates identities for her main characters in three short stories; Midsommar, Polly Maggoo and Den längsta dagen from the collection Den andra himlen (2007).My investigation is based on concepts chosen from psychology and narratology: First, Jonas Stier?s definition of human identity. In his definition he focuses on a person?s social context. He also considers identity formation as an ongoing, ever- changing process.

The purpose of our thesis has been to study Social Workers view of children?s needs and how they work with children?s needs when they are orphaned because of HIV/Aids in South Africa. The question formulations we used to answer our purpose are:? What needs do the Social Workers consider the children to have?? How do the Social Workers work with children?s needs?We have a qualitative methodological approach in the thesis, where we have performed four interviews with four Social Workers on different organizations in and around Cape Town, South Africa. The presentation of the empirics is made as a summary with representative quotations, which we have interweaved with earlier research and theoretical conceptions.

This paper begins to observe two non-socialist parties in Sweden,Kristdemokraterna and Moderaterna, before and after they won an election. Thetwo parties formed an alliance with other parties and manifested a politicalprogram. The main focus lies on their campaign promises and their premierpolitical area as a single party before the election and what results that has beenproduced a year after. The method is a comparative analysis between the twocampaign programs and the result, parliamentary decision etc. The largest partyModeraterna has completed or started on their main political issue, butKristdemokraternas development has not been that successful.

The following is an examination of work and gender and how they interlocked in a Swedishbrewery between 1923 and 1939. Leaning on labor process theory and Marxist feminist theory,this paper examines what constituted women?s work in the brewery industry in this era, how women?s work changed with rationalization and economic recess, and how the all-femaleunion locale reacted to these changes. The events portrayed are related to earlier research ongender on the labor process, to the history of the Swedish labor movement in large, and to theevolution of the so-called ?Swedish model? with its relatively low level of conflicts on thelabor market.