Health and fitness are two controversial and not easily defined topics that affect people in our modern society every day. We believe that we can find a link between individualism, globalization and the stress concerning weight and appearance ideals. Our bodies have turned into a popular subject for the media, and there is no indication that the interest will decline. As the world gets more artificial, "natural" ideals are getting more attention, such as the concept of a strong and healthy body. But there is also a downside, for example with health issues such as cardiovascular disease increasing following the birth of high-fat diets.

Thesis purpose: The purpose of the master thesis is to analyse the battle of meaning creation regarding the notion of smoking and to reveal the production of unequal power relations. The battle is fought by different stakeholders through means of language and the study focuses on the tobacco industry in Germany. Methodology: A critical discourse analysis is applied with a qualitative research strategy. Our data collection was inspired by grounded theory and is limited in scope through a relevant case within the context of smoking in Germany. Empirical data is collected by means of an internet based document study of publicly available texts.

The purpose of this study was to examine how girls and boys are described by social workersin psycho-social assessments in child and adolescent psychiatry. The questions at issue wereif girls and boys are described in different ways and if gender related patterns could be found.The study was both qualitative and quantitative. I used textual analysis as a method anddiscourse analysis as theory.Results: Sexes were generally described differently. Girls are depicted from how they are andhow they look and boys are described by what they do and their behaviour. The mother isdescribed as the person who is most responsible for children of both sexes.

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..

I have conducted a study and examined the significance and extent of bullying. I will also examine whether any students in grade eight have been victims of bullying during the past year and where bullying was carried out in school X. The second objective is to explore what students think about the concept of "taunting". I have used various theories of researchers to get an understanding of what bullying is, where it occurs, causes, and suggestions for measures. To get an answer on the purpose and issue a quantitative method was used in the form of a survey. Target group for the survey consisted of students from grade eight schools in X which is located in a suburb of Stockholm. Two classes of grade eight in School X carried out the survey during the same day.Results showed that bullying occurs at X school, but that the proportion of boys has been more subjected to bullying than girls. The majority of the students in the both classes believed that most cases of bullying occur in school hallways, playground and cafeteria. It may be one reason why school X does not have guards or other members of staff. The majority of students also considered in the survey that the concept of "taunting" is to call each other by words of ?genitalia". I think that the use of foul language has become common in today's schools.  .

This essay is an analysis of mythologies in the Swedish women´s magazine VeckoRevyn. The magazine?s own explicit purpose is to break down the unhealthy opinion of what beauty is in their industry today. By content and linguistic analysis the results of this study are interconnected to the beauty myth as it was established by Naomi Wolf in 1991. The goal is to pinpoint how VeckoRevyn?s question and answer columns construct relationships to their readers, and the mythologies that they maintain.

Hunting ground graves were distinguished as a separate category during the 1930s.         There is however no clear definition of what a hunting ground grave is. They have been constructed over a large area over a long period of time (200 BC-1200 AD) and their morphology varies.This paper investigates how the archaeologists have discussed the hunting ground graves since they were distinguished as a separate category until today. It investigates what concepts that have been used to define and categorize the graves as a group. It also investigates if the choices of concepts are depending on a broader societal perspective.To find the answers to these questions two surveys have been done.

Background: Climate changes are a growing concern all over the world today. In June year 2006 the European Union accepted a new strategy for the Unions work against a sustainable development. The concept of taking consideration to all the aspects of an organisations/a company's activity is something that have been in focus during later years. Social and ethical aspects are in focus and questions regarding these aspects are more commonly included in the companies yearly reporting. A sustainability report is characterised by that it takes into account not only environmental aspects, like ordinary environmental reports, but also social and ethical aspects of a company's activity with it's surroundings.

The research of today shows that natural environments are importantfor children's physical and mental development. It alsoshows that children often opt out of the traditional equipmentplaygrounds have to offer. By breaking the boundary betweenthe playground and park, is it possible to create a new spacethat will encourage rather than demand play? Through gatheringinformation and talking to landscape architects, designers,and children, I realized that today's parks already have environmentsand objects that could be used for playing. But whatthey need is something that makes the environment even moreinviting for children to play.

The Master Thesis work this report is based upon has been conducted in cooperation with Svea Teknik AB. Svea Teknik is a consultant firm which is developing parts of a tunnel boring machine on behalf of Atlas Copco. The machine is being developed to mechanically excavate hard rock by fixating itself in the tunnel and then press a large rotating cutter-wheel equipped with disc-cutters against the tunnel wall. The disc-cutters are the tools that are in direct contact with the hard rock and are therefore exposed to extensive wear and needs to be replaced on a regular basis.The purpose of this Master Thesis has been to develop a service equipment that will enable time effective and safe changes of disc-cutters. The disc-cutters have a diameter of 17 inches and weigh about 130 kg.

This work examines how the aesthetics of Japanese actor and playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1346-1443) offers insight into the value of the unseen elements in art, specifically in the art of acting. What acting makes appear is likened to a vessel, which creates an empty space of what doesn?t appear. This non-appearing element is at the same time what gives the vessel its function. N? theater is described as an art of suggesting, giving a background to Zeami?s theories.

Today, we live in a consumption society. We buy products to soothe our needs and desires. Thru material things we can express our own personal identity and shopping is seen more as a pleasure than a need to survive. With the background media- and communication studies, the reason of this study was to explore how blogs as a social medium can influence the consumption ideal in society. With dialogical analysis and semiotic analysis we wanted to see if we could find a specific consumption culture in the content of six blogs we did our studies on. We found that the blogs showed us that there is normal to have everyday luxury and spoil oneself with expensive things.

The thesis was done in collaboration with EAB situated in Smålandsstenar. In the initial discussion faze on doing a thesis with them there was a need to analyze and ensure the strength of an existing product, cantilever racks. This included performing FEM calculations on a model and comparing the results with physical tests.EAB has two models of cantilever racks, a light duty and a heavy duty. Within the heavy duty model series there are five product variants that differ in both size and load capacity. We will be working with the product variant with a load capacity of 1000 kg/arm which is the variant that is in the middle of the series.When we started work on the thesis we did a literature study and couldn?t find any well defined methodology that integrates both product development and computer aided design analysis.

This study aims to compare two ethnographies of organizational culture ? one from the discipline of Social Anthropology and one from the discipline of Organizational Studies ? considering their purpose, their method, and their concept of culture. Despite big similarities, or perhaps thanks to the similarities, some fundamental differences are made visible. The discipline of Organizational Studies has, compared to that of Social Anthropology, regarding the research method being used, less focus on, and less participation in, the informal social life of the organizational culture of the study. Regarding the concept of culture the Organizational Studies consider culture containing more of unity, stability and clear boundaries, compared to Social Anthropology.

The thesis aims to increase our understanding about parents reasoning about the elementary school choice by studying which factors parents perceive as important during the decision making process and also by giving meaning to Pierre Bourdieu?s concept of capital through the parents perspective. The empirical material comes from seven BNIM-interviews made with parents, which has been analyzed according to the thematic field analysis.The results show that the parents are not especially concerned about making an active school choice. Stability, closeness, friends, rumors, development and adaptability to the reality are the factors that are perceived as the most important in the decision making process. The school choice has a limited meaning as an investment in social capital, from Bourdieu?s perspective.