The purpose of the thesis was to analyse three action films; Collateral Damage from 2002; Clear and Present Danger from 1994; and Scarface from 1983, in order to see how Colombians are represented in these movies.The action genre comprises of different stereotypes where the hero and the villain are represented in conjunction to each other. The analysis is about the way the films content and form are used to uphold the representation of Colombians, but also the villain and the hero more generally.Critical Discourse Analysis was used, as main method, and the concepts of denotation and connotation guided the analysis. The main conclusion is that the three movies reproduced an already established collective stereotype of Latin Americans, stereotype that includes both Colombia and Colombians..

The Afghan war post 9/11 has become the source of multiple case studies. Recent studies suggest that variations in domestic support for deployment of troops in Afghanistan can be explained by means of the strategic narratives provided by the policymakers of the contributing state; a strong consistent narrative increases public support. Scholars recognize a Swedish catch-all narrative, which suggests weakens the narrative, thus raising the uncertainty among the public. This thesis investigates the projection of Swedish strategic narrative through elite Swedish newspapers. The content analysis reveals an inconsistency between the policymaker?s formation of the strategic narrative and the narrative projected by individual newspapers.

The foremost objective of business organizations is to generate value for shareholders and to opt for strategies which optimize it. Hence it is of key concern for business leaders to appreciate how operations best are run to maximize value creation. This study explores how financial theory can reveal the link between one particular business strategy and the corresponding effect on shareholder wealth. The question in focus is whether construction companies can enhance their value creation by implementing shift-work to increase the weekly production rate. The thesis particularly targets apartment block projects in Sweden and has the construction company Peab AB as primary object of study.

Detta kandidatarbete undersöker problemet med konvergeringen av narrativ och interaktion och varför en konvergering mellan dessa hämmar deltagarens inlevelse i ett spel. Utifrån spelet Traverser redovisas i detta kandidatarbete processen och resultatet av hur ett interaktivt narrativ kan väcka inlevelse hos deltagaren genom att låta berättandet ske subtilt och icke-linjärt, där spelaren uppmanas till att vilja utforska narrativet på egen hand i form av en miljö i Traverser. This bachelor?s thesis discusses the problem of converging narrative and interaction and why the convergence between the two tends to arrest the participants immersion within a game. Through an interactive narrative by letting the narration take place subtly and nonlinearly, this bachelor?s thesis reports the process and result of how an interactive narrative could provoke immersion within the game Traverser, where the actor is urged to explore the narrative independently in the shape of an environment.

With ever-increasing environmental problems in the world, I have with this thesis aimed at studying how the Inuit people of the Arctic organize themselves around the issue of environmental degradation. In focus for this thesis is the organization Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), an NGO that focuses on saving and protecting the social and cultural rights of the Inuit people, along with the environment in the four arctic regions. This aboriginal population has a strong connection to the environment they dwell in, as the area serves as a source of income and nutrition as well as an historically important place for their culture.I will in this thesis primarily investigate the methods of operation amongst NGOs, as well as their ability to influence and interact with the UN. These are three concepts that I, as a hypothesis, considered to distinguish ICC from other NGOs. With help from three theories about NGOs, I conclude that certain central elements of ICC differ from the average NGO, making ICC a new kind of actor in global politics..

The municipality of Olofström is intensifying the co-operation with Sölvesborg and Karlshamn, the two other municipalities in the west of Blekinge. They co-operate in two local federations and for the moment negotiations are going on about a third local federation in continuation school, but the municipalities do not agree. The aim of this thesis is to examine why Olofström co-operate with Sölvesborg and Karlshamn, if there are any problems and where the limit of this co-operation is. The method in the thesis is qualitative interviews with local politicians and officials and an actor-structure-perspective is used. The result shows that Olofström is a municipality where the population is decreasing, and it has lost state subsidy during the last decade.

In December 2004 an earthquake coursed waves that hit Thailand. Over 5000 people died, and Sweden was the tourist country that has been effected the worst. The catastrophe precipitated Sweden in crises and the demand became high for Swedish government to act. Swedes followed the development via media, why media became the crucial element for how the public perceived politicians? acting.

Denna uppsats handlar om en debatt, som fördes i en brytningstid, då den gifta kvinnans rätt till yrkesarbete ifrågasattes. Ett funktionalistiskt förslag om kollektivhus, där hushållsarbetet och en del av barnavården skulle skötas av kollektivt anställd personal, avsåg att underlätta kvinnans yrkesarbete. Den gällande normen förutsatte, att den gifta kvinnan var hemarbetande och mannen försörjare. Debatten kom att kretsa kring hustruns plikter mot familjen och barnens liv i det kollektiva huset. Här stod bevarare av traditionen mot anhängare av ett nytt familjemönster.Syftet har varit att fokusera anhängare och motståndare och analysera deras argument och strategier.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the phenomenon called bookcrossing. To fulfill this I have asked the following research questions: Why do people participate in bookcrossing?What functions do books have for bookcrossers? The method used is qualitative, semi structured interviews. Four active bookcrossers have been interviewed. These interviews revealed that bookcrossing as an activity in a medium sized town is very small.

Faith is a phenomenon that engages the individual into emotional, social and daily manners.Religion tends to engage the individual in different levels in the daily life. In the church communion, there is a belief to the traditional and the repeteated behaviour. This shared group is strength by ceremonies and rituals and people in this collective somehow experience another type of reality. This study has a social - psychological perspective and the purpose is to study people?s know-how of faith and why they seek religion in today´s secularized society.

Finns det ett samband mellan den individuella självkänslan och den kollektiva självkänslan? Har kön och studieinriktning betydelse för självkänsla, såväl som den individuella som den kollektiva? Studien är gjord som en kvantitativ undersökning med hjälp av enkäter, bestående av Som Jag Ser Mig Själv (Irhammar & Birgerstam) som mäter självkänsla på individnivå med fem delskalor, och Collective Self Esteem Scale (Luhtanen & Crocker) som mäter den kollektiva självkänslan med fyra delskalor. Det ena testet innehöll 67 frågor, medan det andra innehöll 16 frågor. Totalt deltog 60 försökspersoner hämtade från ett gymnasium i Kristianstad, och dessa var i sin tur uppdelade i två samhällsklasser med olika inriktningar ? IT och Ekonomi.

Syftet var att undersöka handbollsspelares generella efficacy, individuella - och kollektiva efficacy inom handbollssituationer samt nivån av utövandet. Studien bestod av två delar. Den första var kvantitativ med två frågeformulär; Schwarzers och Jerusalems Generell Self-Efficacy Scale samt Chase, Feltz och Lirggs Team Efficacy Questionnaire. Två lag från elitnivå (n=36) och två från lägre nivå (n=37) representerades. Resultatet visade att handbollsspelare på högre nivå har en högre grad av self-efficacy och kollektivt efficacy än de på lägre nivån.

Denna studie belyser svårigheten för teknik och virtuell geografi att nå ut till mottagaren genom en kartläggning av e-postens geografi. För att skapa förståelse och fånga den osynliga processen bakom e-postens geografi  utgår uppsatsen dels från teorin Actor Network Theory (ANT) och dels från intervjuer.Under studiens gång uppstod ny förståelse för e-postens komplexitet och ledde fram till en reviderad syn. I början av uppsatsarbetet betraktades e-posten enbart utifrån sin funktion som aktant och intermediarie men i takt med att undersökningen fortgick framkom att den samtidigt, utöver dessa funktioner, fungerar e-posten som ett heterogent nätverk med betydelsefulla komponenter såsom aktörer och aktanter. Enligt uppsatsens konklusioner är e-postens trajektoria beroende av den strategi som producenten använder under skapandet av elektroniska meddelanden. Ett kontinuerligt arbete mellan producent och konsument krävs för att e-postens trajektoria ska upprätthållas och leda fram till att det elektroniska meddelande som löper igenom det virtuella nätverket når sitt syfte..

The purpose of this essay is to give the reader an insight in the subject of torture. This is done through both an historical perspective and by showing how torture methods are used today, even though torture is prohibited by law. Many refugees who come to Sweden today have survived torture, and the trauma can cause multiple illnesses related to the tragic memories. In addition to physical damage many also suffer from depression and post traumatic stress, due to the experiences of torture.Together with the Swedish Red Cross we designed a questionnaire which was sent to politicians and elected officials. In the questionnaire we asked questions concerning knowledge of injuries due to torture and what treatment options these people have in Sweden.

We have been able to draw some conclusions based on our research. First we haveconsidered that the publisher is dependent on a large network and to work closelywith their customers. We can see that the competition in the music industry hasgenerally increased, the technological progress has created new opportunities, and asa result of this, new players have joined the music industry. We have been able todraw conclusions in the fact that more companies and songwriters start up their ownpublishing company, resulting in an increased competition for the individualpublisher.We can also see as a final result that music is used in lots of different contexts andthat the publishers thereby are offered a wide range of business opportunities, but thatthe solvency of the customers has become lower. With this knowledge, we canconclude that the publisher?s power and revenues will increase, and that the publisheras an actor has been given a more important role in the industry.