The purpose of this study is using McDonald?s in China and Sweden as a case to find out how fast food restaurant retailers combine adaptation and standardization with symbolic attributes of store atmospherics under different cultural background, and find out possible reasons. The study used McDonald?s in a case format to study in-store atmospheres. Further, the research has an investigating and explanatory qualitative approach, collecting the empirical data through observation with photos.

Politicians attract their voters by promising more jobs and investment in education, health and social care. Against this background, I wonder how the situation of artists will be affected by the followingquestions:? What political views on the artist's position in society appeared in propositions of Socialdemokraterna and Moderaterna?? In what way did these propositions influence the conditions of artists?? How have the artists of Värmland been affected by different (Socialdemokraterna and Moderaterna) cultural policies? With my investigation I find out more about the artists' conditions on a national level, but I also investigate the situation in Värmland. By examining policy proposals and reports, I learn more about the issues. I also conduct a survey and three in-depth interviews to obtain opinions from various sources.The respondents are the cultural departments of Värmland and representatives from cultural organizations.What is clear from my research is that politicians differ on some issues, especially those relating to commercialism and artist salaries.

The aim of this master?s study is to examine the function of the public library in the local community at present. I have searched for the answers to the following questions: Which position has the public library in the local cultural policy? What characterizes each library and which are the priorities? What is the local profile of the public library? What cooperation partners does the public library have and what do they mean to the library? Does the public library intensify the local community in any way? To answer this, I have made three qualitative case studies. Interviews and collection of documents were carried out in three different communities.

Fashion creates reactions. It is a type of art form that constantly needs to be updated. This is the thrilling part about fashion, but it is also the part that can create unintentional reactions.In this essay I will examine two garments that have achieved a great amount of media coverage, both in Sweden and abroad. One of them is a jumpsuit from H&M that was criticized because of the resemblance to the uniform worn by the Peshmerga-soldiers in Kurdistan. The other garment is a children?s sweater launched by Zara.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to examine the fanzine, a form of amateur publication, in Sweden, both in the traditional paper form and the more recent electronic form. It deals with what is distinctive about the fanzine as a publication and also as a social and cultural product. It also looks upon how the fanzine uses the Internet and the new possibilities it brings. The people behind 18 fanzines, 10 electronic and 8 in paper, have answered a questionnaire about how they produce, publish, distribute and promote their fanzines, what they think about the fanzine as a mode of expression, and how they use the Internet. The masters thesis uses theories within cultural studies as a theoretical approach to the fanzine.

Education systems face a number of challenges regarding social justice, diversity, difference, and inclusion and membership for all students in the groups that schools create. This invokes questions of how well these challenges are met in curricula and teaching materials. Through discourse analysis of eight Swedish geographical textbooks, this essay aims to seek out the perspectives surrounding difference within the subject of geography. It concludes that the idea of fixed homogenous cultures as meaningfull in differentiating among people dominates throughout the latter half of the 20th century and during the last decade. In addition, it concludes that the discourse surrounding diversity in Swedish geographical teaching materials mainly has a binary liberal view of plurality focused around tolerance.

Questions concerning the Cultural Heritage must be integrated in social planning.Therefore there is a need for adequate methods for cultural environmental analysis, toreceive knowledge that is relevant in an integrated conservation. The thesis is a review ofmethods for cultural environmental analysis and discusses the qualifications necessary fora method in order to receive adequate information as well as it discusses what kind ofinformation to be considered relevant. The thesis also analyzes a specific method forcultural environmental analysis in order to exam if it has got the qualifications concludedas necessary if it is to be used in an integrated conservation. The conclusion is that amethod for cultural environmental analysis should collect information about the entireenvironment (integrated information about nature and culture, in a historical perspectiveand how it is today), about social structures, physical remains (buildings etc) and what thecollected information tell about the history of the studied area, as well as what is importantin the landscape of today. Information about how the environment should be treated in thefuture is also of importance.

This study is based on the will to understand the importance of a specific theory within social work. From the concept of neo-liberal governmentality, the aim is to critically examine and discuss how governance and self-governance is manifested in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). This will be accomplished through an analysis of:? How governance (and self-governance) is manifested in text through the advocacy of CBT and methods based on CBT.? How (governance and) self-governance is manifested in text through the contents of CBT and methods based on CBT. The study has a deductive approach including the hypothesis that the discourses inherent in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory of CBT and methods based on CBT, may be related to the West?s development of a neo-liberal concept of governance.

Within literature, politics and science, there is a claim that ?tree avenues are important?. But the question and the goal for this essay are to explore the pretext to how and why. Planting tree avenues is a 4000 year old tradition and they are a common element in the Swedish and Scanian landscape since the 18th century. They were first mainly planted by aristocratic land-owners or on their initiative, but since the 19th century also by farmers.

Our increasingly globalized world has contributed to that more Swedish companies has expanded their business to more distant areas. One of these Swedish companies that now stands before their first international expansion is the Swedish fast-food chain Max AB. Max has chosen to start their expansion in Saudi Arabia, a country far away from Sweden, not only in terms of geographical distance but also in cultural. The cultural differences that Max will encounter may affect the business and result in to various adaptations that must be done in order to establish successfully. The thesis investigates the existing circumstances for the fastfood business in Saudi Arabia and shows which adaptations international fast-food chains should or must do as a result of the cultural distances they encounter.

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 aim of this essay is to investigate how the author JT LeRoy (a. i. Laura Albert) questions and broadens the concept of authenticity in literature and authorship. My study is based on LeRoy?s novel Sarah [2000] and the collection of short stories The heart is deceitful above all things [2001], as well as articles written about the construction of Laura Albert?s alter ego JT LeRoy.

Recent studies show that the knowledge in and understanding of science, technology andmathematics of Swedish junior high school and high school students is decreasing. As a resultof this the Swedish government has initialized several studies, research and reforms. One ofthe theories for teaching that today is seen as effective is the socio-cultural perspective and itsdescendants, including scientific inquiry. Using the pedagogy of the socio-cultural perspectivefour assignments regarding the human body was constructed for junior high school studentsattending summer research school in the summer of 2008, hosted by AstraZeneca. Theassignments follow a structure (goal of assignment, preparations, experiment and follow-up)inspired by the concept of NTA ? Naturvetenskap och Teknik för Alla (Science andTechnology for everyone).

A lot of habitats have declined or disappeared as the old cultural landscape changed to the modern agricultural landscape of today. Places such as power line corridors, racing tracks, gravel pits and military training sites have become refuges for many species associated with the old cultural landscape. These sites have been exposed to ecological disturbances that create the same type of habitats that were found in the old cultural landscape.The military training sites in Sweden has an impressive diversity of species. Disturbances from the military exercises have created habitats that are important for a wide range of species.The purpose of this thesis is to study some of the ecological disturbances occurring in the military training sites of the Swedish Armed Forces and examine how they affect different types of habitats. The thesis explains through litterateur and field studies the reason to the rich biodiversity often found at military training sites.

Local politicians are key actors in the democratic system and their ideas concerning democracy plays a central role in local democratic politics. The study's point of departure is the notion that local politicians are dependent of coherence between practice and theory concerning democracy and in the study of their ideas we acquire knowledge about the democratic practice.This study examines the local politicians? view of Swedish democracy and explores the logic of the discourse that makes statements concerning democracy possible. Twenty local politicians have been interviewed and from the material a discourse have been established through the use of formulation of problems and cause, nodal points and chains of analogy which is compared with democratic ideals.The study comes to the conclusion that a hegemonic discourse exists, in which central nodal points are representative and listening. The idea of the representative system is hegemonic and is based in the liberal democratic ideal although the view of the citizens rather can be traced to the radical, communitarian and deliberative ideal.