This thesis aims to develop a theory in the under researched field of international comparative cultural policy studies. lt does so by combining theories from the fields of political scienceand cultural studies, researching how and to what extent the concepts of culture of different states have an impact on the way cultural policies are constructed.The thesis uses this theoretical development in order to research a specific problem, namely the perceived possibility that Swedish and German cultural structures are slowly converging. Two recent official policy documents from each country are the objects of study. Through comparative idea analysis and with Michiel S. D Vries theories on decentralization, the thesis explains the convergence between the countries by differing cultural views between them.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyze how Bolaget, a paper published by the Swedish alcohol monopoly retailer Systembolaget, constructs issues of alcohol in 18 preventive articles published between 2009 and 2012. More specifically the essay focuses on the consequences of alcohol, as well as its consumers and functions. Systembolaget is a distributor of alcohol and at the same time has an assignment by the state to reduce alcohol-related harm. This double role makes the alcohol prevention of Systembolaget, and their perspective on consequences, consumers and functions of alcohol, an interesting object of study. The theoretical and methodological basis is Fairclough?s critical discourse analysis.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Swedish municipal welfare system, in their capacity as discourse makers, construct Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in the relationships of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people. A discourse analysis of their official plans of action regarding IPV and the information directed towards their citizens through their webpages showed that the discourse surrounding IPV revealed a gender dichotomy, where the victim was mainly constructed as being female and the perpetrator as male. As a consequence of this, gay and bisexual men were rendered invisible from the discourse surrounding victims of IPV, although they could be included in the construction of perpetrators of it. Lesbian and bisexual women were often included in the understanding of victims of IPV, but in the discourse surrounding perpetrators of it they were made invisible. The discourse about IPV also excluded the experiences and vulnerability of people who identify as being transgendered.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

The main project Dry preservation of source-separated organic household wastes involves a new technique for treatment of biowaste through drying. Investigations are going on to determine how the dried biowaste best can be used to close the natural circular flow of nutrients. The objective of this degree project is to determine if the dried biowaste can be used as a soil conditioner. By restoring the nutrients in the material to the ground, the natural circular flow is closed. A declaration of contents, including the nutrient levels, C/N ratio, pH and the electrical conductivity of the dried biowaste, was constructed and a germination test was done to make sure that the material did not inhibit sprouting.

This master thesis deals with the theme of memory, it is through an artistic process I have investigated and peeled off to a specific memory, the hut. It is in the work of the personal memory through a craft process it transforms into something public. The hut is constructed out of corrugated boxes, corrugated boxes casted in clay. To cast an object differs according to me from sculpting the object; it is the function rather than the sensual feeling that is sought after. It is about the clarity and accuracy through the casted object that suggest something vague and indeterminate.

Noise music is created around sounds not often welcome in a musical context. Since the birth of electronic music in the 1950s a new perspective on composing has emerged. In electronic music, sounds and their timbre are as much important as melody, harmony and rhythm. This composing perspective is not often observed. Therefore I have examined a musical genre that stretches the boundaries of what we consider music, sound, noise, beautiful and terrible.

Research on Stone Age hunters and gatherers in Norrland has been lively since the 1960s. Central to this research are questions about the organization of society, sedentariness, continuity and resource management. One central part of life in the taiga is the need for fire and fuel. This aspect has been little discussed in conjunction with the mentioned research questions. My goal is to show that the matter of fire and fuel is an important one that needs to be taken in to consideration when discussing Stone Age Norrland and hunter/gatherers.

The purpose with this paper is to examine if tertiary education and democracy have an impact on economic growth. In order to decide how democratic the examined countries are the democracy index constructed by The Economist is used. Besides the two central theories the purpose is also to explain why these variables could affect growth and to examine direct and indirect effects. Indirect effects mean that one variable affects another variable which thereafter has an impact on economic growth.34 OECD countries are compared in order to investigate whether education and democracy are strongly correlated with BNP per capita. Therefore a statistical design is used as method.The empirical results suggest that there is significant correlation between democracy and economic growth.

The aim of this master's thesis is to investigate and to explain the concept of folksonomy in the perspective of knowledge organisation. By creating a conceptual explanation and defining what folksonomy as a concept consists of, the intent is to establish a basis for evaluating folksonomy and to discuss what relevance folksonomy may have in the field of knowledge organisation. By applying a qualitative content analysis a review is performed on how folksonomy is perceived and discussed in a selection of articles written on the subject. Employing the theory of classification, subject indexing and bibliographic retrieval, folksonomy as a method for knowledge organisation is analysed. The practice of tagging in existing systems is also studied.

It is important to identify the consequences of alcohol consumption among university students since over-consumption can lead to health problems and poorer academic performance. The following personality factors, neuroticism, conscientiousness and extraversion, have in previous studies shown to be related to alcohol consumption  and shown to be associated with the university students' alcohol use and living arrangements. This study examines the following question; Is there a link between university students' alcohol consumption, and;1) the personality factors neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion?2) their living situation?3) personality factors and living situation together?Participating in this survey was one hundred university students with a mean age of 23.4 years (SD = 2.6). To examine participants' personality, alcohol consumption and living arrangements, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (Costa, McCrae, 2003) questionnaire was used and the questionnaire also contained self-constructed questions about drinking habits, living arrangements and demographic questions. This study's results indicate that neuroticism, conscientiousness, living situation and extraversion predicts alcohol consumption (R2 = .354, p <.001). Thus, students who have these personality traits and circumstances one by one or together have a increased risk for alcohol over-consumption..

The purpose of this thesis was to study the origin of the local news in local newspapers. Do the news originate mostly from the police, the municipality, from press releases or from the reporters own ideas? We also wanted to find out what kind of content predominated in texts with its origin in press releases respectively the reporters own ideas. Of course we also wanted to find out if there were any similarities or differences between the two studied newspapers.We used a type of constructed week, but with non random selection instead of random. We chose one of each weekday the newspapers were published and studied the news covered in the papers that specific day.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to investigate how Paul Feyerabend?s anarchistic theory of knowledge can help our understanding of bibliographical classification and to analyse how epistemological assumptions are manifested in bibliographic classification. Paul Feyerabend?s anarchistic theory of knowledge and science is the theoretical approach of this thesis. The first part of the thesis consists of an introduction to bibliographical classification and epistemology.

This study examines which socially constructed threats and subjects of security existed during the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Stockholm 2010. With ideas of identity and difference as a starting point the theoretical framework is then developed with ideas from the new critical security studies including key subjects such as attributes, risk, imaging and visualisation. The study will be executed with the use of a discourse analysis approach using newspaper articles and chronicles as the principal empirical material. The analysis will then follow two separate themes. Firstly, the different threats and subjects of security will be deduced, and also, how these social constructions inevitably create each other and require each other to continue existing.

The purpose with this paper is to examine if tertiary education and democracy have an impact on economic growth. In order to decide how democratic the examined countries are the democracy index constructed by The Economist is used. Besides the two central theories the purpose is also to explain why these variables could affect growth and to examine direct and indirect effects. Indirect effects mean that one variable affects another variable which thereafter has an impact on economic growth.34 OECD countries are compared in order to investigate whether education and democracy are strongly correlated with BNP per capita. Therefore a statistical design is used as method.The empirical results suggest that there is significant correlation between democracy and economic growth.