The purpose of this thesis is to study how today?s consumer society can be understood from ananalysis of the phenomenon Every Day Carry (EDC). The aim is thus to problematize the daily useof the artifacts that surrounds us and investigate how these can be understood as networks of humanand non-human actors, aswell as identity- and meaning-making practices in today?s consumersociety.The theoretical and methodical framework is built upon an eclectic variety of consumptiontheories,Michel Callon?s, John Law?s and Bruno Latour?s work on Actor-Network-Theory,Discourse analysis inspired by Michel Foucault, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and anethnographic methodology specifically adapted for online research. The empirical material consistsof photographs and commentaries from two EDC blogs aswell as commentaries regarding EDCfrom a commentary field on Youtube.com.

The purpose of this essay was to examine the packaging design´s communications related to the colloquially brand's symbolic capital and how they became meaningful through experience and perceptions that led to the identification processes in the consumer society. There were eight interviews of snuff users who became my main collections materials. My theoretical framework was discourse psychology´s emphasis on language and Bourdieu´s concept provided important tools in the analysis of the material.I could highlight that packaging design and the brand had influenced the informants and given them symbolic beliefs and what it meant to sniff a certain brand. Color, brand awareness and price were crucial in choosing where the informants attributed themselves the cans symbolic values to their identity. It could be inferred high and low status perceptions based on stereotypes in the design itself..

AbstractBackground: Countries can be seen as brands (nation brands) with brand values that transmitto the country?s products. Country-of-origin (COO), the brands nationality, links the productto an associative network of cultural shared national stereotypes. Through associating thebrand with a country or a region, the credibility of the brand can increase and strengthen thebrand. Therefore COO is used in marketing to position a brand.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how luxury fashion brands communicatetheir national identity through analyzing their advertising.

The purpose of this study has been to analyze the relationship between commercial brands and a subculture, with a focus on a number of elements of success. These elements could be in the nature of sale stats as well as that of influence within the subculture. All of this within the context of the snowboard culture. In accossiation to this we have formulated a question of study:What marks brands which gains influence within a subculture in addittion to becoming an important factor in the self-expression process of the cultural members?In this study, we have practised a qualitative method based on six (6) independant interviews with participants, active within the snowboard culture as well as one outside marketing executive and one ethnological reseracher.

The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent  young adults use media to create the image of themselves. The questions we wanted to answer was as follows: what does the media use of young adults look like compared to their attitudes towards media content; what awareness do they have of other young adults attitudes concerning media content; and finally, how do these attitudes affect their own media use?Media consumption is a great part of  the daily lives of young adults living in Sweden: the national  average media consumption is seven hours a day, for 15-24 year olds. This provides a new way for young adults to express their identity - by showing their use of different media content, they can change other's perception of themselves.The method we used in our study was a combination between a quantitative and a qualitative method. We first made a survey in three classes with senior year high school-students, in a Swedish school.

Media and social media have been proved to occupy an increased amount of time in people's everyday lives and affect how individuals interpret reality. This phenomenon is referred to as the medialization and its implications on organizations and their members become important to understand. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine how members of an organization under intense scrutiny from the media are affected by this exposure in their everyday work. To gain knowledge about the area a qualitative case study was performed on the Swedish train operator SJ AB - one of the most media exposed organizations in the country. A theoretical framework is developed for the study and discusses organizational identity, stigmatization and motivation.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how collaborations between clothingcompanies and fashion designers can influence their brands. Our ambition has been todescribe this phenomenon by describing how collaborations can affect and influencethe clothing companies? brand identity, image and positioning. Furthermore, we wantto describe how these collaborations have changed the fashion industry and what thefuture holds for it. We find this topic relevant since collaborations are becoming anadvantage for companies in a competitive industry that is constantly in change.

This study aims to investigate, describe and discuss the views of group new arrived pupils from the preparatory training to the compulsory school level. They all came to Sweden and started in the preparatory training there they also started studying Swedish as a second language. This study aims to investigate the creation of identities and how the pupils socialize in the Swedish school. The study has been conducted with respect to the pupil´s own perspectives and what they consider important.The methods used are interviews together with an interpreter. Their voices are used and described in this paper.

This study is about the significance of dual citizenship and the feeling of belonging people experience. Descriptions about the problems with being a citizen in a state, but not being accepted as one, is also discussed in the thesis. The juristic aspects, what it means to be possessed of dual citizenship and the consequences when the negative aspects of dual citizenship arise, is also discribed. The reasons for having dual citizenship is very analogous but at the same time different. The common denominator is however pragmatics.

Ensåsengruvan is a mine situated within Ljusdals municipality in central Sweden. Themine was in use from 1984 to 1991 and has since been undergoing a remediation program. Mine tailings from sulfide rich ore is a potential environmental hazard due to its tendency to cause acid waters and heavy metal leakage. Lake Ensjön is situated one kilometer from the mine area. Due to the hydrological conditions it was not expected to receive inflowing water from the mining area.

In these days we can witness a growing number of combined school and public libraries in Sweden. It can be explained as an economy measure or as an attempt to develop the library work. The aim of this thesis is to picture how working in combined libraries affects high school librarians? own apprehensions of their professional identity. The results are based on in-depth interviews made with four high school librarians, working not only towards the students but also the public.

The aim for this study was to find out what strategies women use to not react against inequality and sexist prejudice. In the study I used a critical realistic approach through, primary, the social ontology presented by Margaret S. Archer. The study focus on both the women?s construction of femininity and their construction of masculinity and what directions it constitutes for the women?s social orientation.

The aim of this study has been to take part of six ex-alcohol addicts? narratives about their lives with starting-point in which factors that has been significant and/or determining to be able to leave a life in abuse and what change this process has implied for their identity. To achieve the purpose with this study has three questions been formulated. These are what in the person?s life have been important in the process of a life free from alcohol, what were specific and decisive that effected the decision to stop using alcohol and what is the attitude to them self and their new role as an ex-alcohol addict. Alcohol is a drug that is legal and accepted in the society and it´s hard to discover an addiction.

In Swedish shops today there are a lot of magazines aimed at teenagers, which fight for young girls? attention. These teenage-magazines are one of the most important sources for young girls to get information about sex and love-relationships; therefor it?s important how these magazines portray it. We have examined how the magazine Frida has portrayed sex and love-relationships from 1991 until today. The way sex and love-relationships are portrayed in Frida?s articles affect the young readers in their process of building an identity. Using a combined rhetoric- and discourse analysis we found that the main focus in Frida is for the reader to have a love-relationship with a guy, instead of a physical sex-relationship.

This study is concerned with the region of Öresund and the aspects of work commuting in particular. The purpose is to investigate attitudes and opinions towards the region among work commuters and then apply them to various theories relevant for the questioning, such as globalization, regionalization, ethnicity, nationalism, culture and identity. To investigate the attitudes towards the region we have done a number of interviews with commuters, using qualitative and semi-structured questions. The analysis is divided into three different parts; In Body and in Mind, Us and Them, the Future; and consists of a discussion of our informants? answers related to the theoretical aspects of the earlier mentioned theories.