The aim of this study is to analyze the construction of "Christian masculinity" during the modern era. This is made in opposition to earlier research that has claimed that masculinity could not be constructed religiously, that is, without at the same time being constructed as effeminate or anti-masculine.Using a wide variety of theoretical concepts - such as discourse analysis, class, secularisation, masculinity as constructed from countertypes, and finally masculinity as a homosocial construction - I analyze a free church in Sweden, the Scanian Missionary Society (Skånes Missionssällskap), during the period of ca 1939-1945 (the society was a district of the Swedish Covenant Church, or Svenska Missionsförbundet), in order to argue for the standpoint that masculinity, in fact, could be constructed religiously. The primary source is the society's weekly journal Sydposten.The main results in this study can be summarized as follows: 1) The leading men in the Scanian Missionary Society did, in fact, construct a Christian masculinity, i. e. a masculinity whose core values and ideals were Christian, e.g.

Within the subject of retouching there is an ongoing debate about whether fashion retailers should retouch their ads or not. There has been a large amount of criticism to the communication of stereotyped beauty ideals that is used by companies in their marketing. The stereotyped ideals also contribute to negative psychological effects among people. As a response to the criticism, or as a way to differentiate one-self from competitors, retailers are starting to use unretouched models in their advertising. How this affects the consumer's perception of CSR along with the attitudes and behaviors is still unknown.

Advertisements have become a regular part of our everyday lives. We walk past them on the street; we admire them on the subway and even invite them into our living room in between prime time showings. The reality is that in today's modern times there is no escaping the daily bombardment of advertisement. To distinguish themselves from the continuous noise of the industry, advertisers battle to find unique ways to capture the attention of consumers. But is it possible that some advertisers take their techniques to an extreme in the struggle to be remembered This thesis aims at investigating whether it is possible to offend a consumer through an advertisement due to its extreme simplicity.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union a lot of hope has been put on civil society to help develop Russia into a more democratic society. This study explores the constructive elements in the relationship between civil society and the state in Russia, and how this enables the work toward political development. By using Julie Fishers theory about political development and organisational autonomy I discuss the varying and often complex ways in which civil society and the state interacts. These are often not mentioned in the liberal tradition, which believes that civil society's most important democratic function is to act as a watchdog for the state.There is very limited political space for NGO's in authoritative Russia. The existing oppositional NGO's are important for the political development, but they are few and their impacts on society are limited.

This paper aims to examine how and to what extent, a transition of Sweden according to the principles of Omställning Sverige (Transition towns Sweden), have the potential to contribute to a society with increased happiness.The paper is based on a qualitative textual analysis of the key texts in the Swedish Transition towns movement, Omställning Sverige. In the first part of the study the most important transition principles of Omställning Sverige were identified. Four key principles emerged: An altered view of economics, a spiritual change, a stronger local community and increased awareness. These transition principles were then analyzed through the lens of the scientific fields position on happiness, followed by a summarizing conclusion.The altered view of economics which Omställning Sverige advocates, where sustainability and quality of life are priorities over economic growth, is even necessary to secure our basic physiological needs. Such an economy has also improved conditions for economic stability, high employment and higher efficiency in the sense of happiness promoted in relationship to how many natural resources are used.

This thesis aims to explore and investigate the use of the cliché ?68 in a contemporary Swedish debate. The sixties and especially 1968 is a historically significant year,and it is marked by political murders, protesting students and political energy. InSweden one of the most notable happenings was the occupation of the student union?s headquarters in Stockholm.

This thesis concerns the term contemporary history and its role in landscape architecture. Today?s contemporary history is defined as the planning and architecture connected to the 60s and 70s, in Sweden carried out as a large scale planning project called ?Miljonprogrammet?, which set out to build one million new residences in ten years. Initially, the term contemporary history and its complex of problem are examined. To deepen the picture of today?s situation, a historical review has been made, starting in early 1900s ending in 2000s concerning how different planning and architectural influences has varied through the years.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the contemporary educational tasks of the Swedish public library as they manifest in Swedish library journals. Our main question at issue is: Which educational discourses are there? And in relation to our main question: how do the concepts of information literacy, lifelong learning and adult education relate to each other? Is there an antagonism between the public library's duty to supply fiction as opposed to non-fiction? and: What are the consequences of these discourses in the service provided by the library?Our theoretical starting-point is the discourse theory as proposed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. We analyse 39 texts from four Swedish library journals: Ikoner, bis, DIK-forum and Biblioteksbladet. The analysis is done in two phases.

Popular culture is a phenomenon of growing importance in the society today. Children and teenagers are increasingly using popular culture in their everyday life to reflect and answer questions about their identities and the meaning of life. Swedish primary and upper secondary schools are expected to prepare their students for adulthood and to provide them with tools to explain understand and problematize contemporary society. From this perspective it is relevant to question whether the schools achieve this and whether the instruction given there represents the contemporary society. For the purpose of knowing more about how popular culture is perceived and dealt with in the Swedish education system, this study examines how eight textbooks in Religious Education (RE) and the national curriculum for upper secondary school discuss and treat popular culture.  The study focuses on when and in what ways the textbooks mention popular culture and if the curriculum provides any supportive base for including popular culture in religious education.

Companies in the apparel industry are becoming increasingly responsible with regards to the social and environmental issues related to textile production. Despite these tendencies, there are great insecurities surrounding the concept of CSR and the effects on consumers of CSR communication. There is currently no model for breaking the concept of CSR down into smaller elements, specific for the apparel industry. In the first part of this thesis, we create such a model, applicable in a consumer communication context. In the second part, we investigate the effects on consumer attitudes and intentions of communicating the different elements of CSR presented in the model.

This research looks into the modern revival of opera based on the study of two recent productions of Giuseppe Verdi?s Don Carlo; the first is the 2010 production at the Gothenburg Opera in Gothenburg, Sweden and the second is the 2013 production at Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg, Austria. The goal is to discover what aspects a contemporary audience can relate to and identify with and why opera is still relevant today. This has been done partly through a semiotic analysis of the visual image (e.g. set, costume and lightning) and partly through a hermeneutical analysis of the themes in Don Carlo.

This study examines the love and desire between Angela von Pahlen and Stanny Landborg in Agnes von Krusenstjerna?s Fröknarna von Pahlen series. I have studied the characters in Krusenstjerna?s texts using Judith Butler?s theory of the heterosexual matrix. My main focus has been the desire in Fröknarna von Pahlen.

The challenge that companies currently face in their attempts to break through the media clutter has resulted in an increased use of provocative advertising worldwide. History shows that this strategy can result in a brand crisis due to negative consumer sentiment. Despite this fact, advertisement generated crisis remain a relatively unexplored field in the academic world of marketing. The objective of this thesis is to further explore crisis creation from provocative advertising, evaluate the affiliated negative consumer consequences, and to examine the effects of two contrasting company strategies to remedy these types of crisis situations. An experiment was conducted on Swedish and Norwegian students in order to examine whether the communication and information sharing between the target consumers and others could explain the development and consequences of provocative advertisement crisis due to its psychological effects.

Swedish films are often based on the genres romance and comedy. The films dealing with relations and comedy can almost be seen as a genre of its own. The composition of the complex relation between the audience and the genre is the primary research focus of this thesis. With the teoretical ground in intertextuality, sociology and romances the thesis examines three relations in three different films. The films english titles are, Adam & Eva, Making Babies, and Double Shift.

This thesis explores the position of book blogs in the literary system through Robert Escarpit's socio-literary model of the book market. Simultaneously the thesis serves as a test for Escarpit's theory: by actively applying his theory and model to a very new and contemporary actor on the book market I hoped to reach or confirm new insights into the usefulness and validity of Escarpit's work for contemporary socio-literary studies.Three book blogs were selected for the analysis and interviews were carried out with the authors. The interview questions were formulated specifically for the purpose of extracting the kind of information necessary for an analysis using Escarpit?s theory. As a complement to the interviews, statistics on the type of books reviewed on the blogs were also compiled.