This study is based on the notion of "the postsecular society". I have identified both similar and dissimilar values within current and official publications regarding human rights and gender equality authored by the Swedish Feminist Party and the Church of Sweden. The aim of this study is to identify and review similarities and differences in values, as expressed in definitions and standpoints, and also to try to explain how it is that the actors have similar and dissimilar values. In this context I have chosen the sociologist Jürgen Habermas's theory about "the postsecular society" to increase the understanding how and why similar values within religious and secular actors are presented in, what Habermas calls, "the postsecular society". I have used a qualitative and comparative content analysis for this study. The result shows that the Swedish Feminist Party has a more humanistic view.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the view of market-led culture, focusing on literature, within Swedish governmental cultural policy. The main issue is to discover changes in attitude towards cooperation between culture and business by comparing the attitudes and ideas expressed in the governmental policy documents from the 1970s with the governmental policy documents from the 1990s. To illuminate, and with an effort to explain, these attitudes and ideas expressed in the documents their political and social context has been studied as well. The theoretical starting point is two political ideologies, and Danish cultural policy researcher Dorte Skot-Hansens theories of cultural policy in the Nordic countries. The methodological starting point is two variants of analyses that are textual ones.

This master?s thesis focus on Dewey Decimal Classification during the period 1932 to 2011, where the classification of the psychological knowledge domain is analyzed and discussed. In the light of the recent swedish switch from the swedish classification system SAB to DDC, this research area deserves prominence. The aim of this study is to investigate how DDC represents the historical development of the psychology subject with its underlying epistemology, to identify and analyze values and prejudice, and to analyze problems with DDC?s classification of psychology in relation to three other classification systems.

With the introduction of IFRS, the IASB left the previously used method of amortization and instead introduced fair value. Studies show that firms manipulate the value of goodwill based on agency related incentives and opportunities, such as bonus payment, management tenure and acquisition of firms. The responsibility of checking the quality of financial reports, and give other market participants reasons to trust them, is primarily on accountants. The transition to fair value thus creates a problem for accountants to actually check the fair values produces by firms. Our purpose is to investigate whether the working method of accountants is purposeful in order to maintain the credibility of goodwill values.

The purpose of this study is to describe how expatriates at Handelsbanken in France, Hong Kong, China, Russia and Singapore have adapted to the host culture. To illustrate how well they acculturated following seven factors have been chosen: Time, previous international experience, cultural distance, language, work environment, spouse acculturation and met expectations. The study was conducted through interviews with six expatriates and surveys answered by nine expatriates. Our study shows that the expatriates have experienced different lengths for cultural adaptation. The majority of the respondents indicated that it took up to six months before they adapted culturally.

The purpose of this essay is to examine whether the descriptions of Stalin's terror in history textbooks for high school changed from the 1950s until the 2010s. Since previous research shows that textbook content is influenced from different directions and that it dominates in teaching, therefore I want to find out what similarities and differences that exist in the textbooks. The survey is based on a qualitative approach because I want to have a profound picture of the descriptions of Stalin's terror. The results of the survey show that the number of casualties and the descriptions on the famine has changed over time. Furthermore, textbooks also found it difficult to distinguish between terror, politics and ideology.

This study investigates how the host community of Tenerife perceives the socio-cultural effects of tourism on the island. The method chosen for the study was qualitative interviews which were performed with six respondents, each born in Spain, living permanently in Tenerife and employed within service-related occupations. The interview material was interpreted and handled according to a hermeneutic approach. The results of the study showed that the respondents had an over-all positive perception of tourism. Perceived positive socio-cultural effects were related to cultural and linguistic influences.

This thesis discusses the representation of bodies in todays non-fiction television in Sweden. I have chosen to focus on deviant bodies (sexual, deformed or unhealthy) on display in reality-shows and documentaries on SVT, TV4 but especially on the commercial channels TV3 and Kanal5. Also discussed are the viewers emotional and bodily reactions. Altough these shows are different from one another in many respects, I argue that there is also a common thread between them. From a sociological and cultural perspective, and with help of some historical examples, I try to illustrate how we view these shows and what their function is.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the implications and challenges of intercultural communication. An in-depth study was performed of the perspectives from people who work within an international organization. How they experience cultural differences and how they handle them, in particular when it comes to communication. Also, their perceptions of communicative competence were explored. The study was carried out at Svalorna India Bangladesh, at the Swedish office in Lund.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the communication between exchange students and their host student trough Facebook. The study shows the importance of social cues and self-disclosure to maintain a relationship. The students? everyday use of Facebook helps them to remain connected to their social life locally and create new friendships. Cultural differences were shown in the way the students formed their expressions trough their messages to each other.

The aim of this master´s thesis is to explore how Stockholms new library´s identity is constructed, and further to relate the case study to a general discussion of the identity of public libraries in Sweden. This is done through analysis of the visions and plans that the planned library is based on. We feel that it is a relevant study since questions concerning the public library's identity are for library and information science as well as the institution. Questions posed in the study are: How is the roles and identity of the planned library described in the texts that form the basis of the project? What characterises the relationship between the present and the planned library? What discourses concerning the public library's identity can we see in the material?The theoretical framework of the thesis is a discourse oriented analysis based on the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough.

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to a further understanding of the complexity in green consumer behaviour by examining how and why individuals priorities values, personal norms and identity in green consumer behaviour. The thesis employs a qualitative approach with an abductive strategy. The empirical data was produced through in-depth interviews with green consumers. Based upon the empirical findings and theoretical concepts, a conceptual model was introduced to illustrate how consumers prioritise between several values when assessing green products. The prioritisation is dependent on internalised values as well as the product function and the need that the consumer seeks fulfilled.

The values of the Swedish school system is said to be rooted in the ethics of Christianity and western humanism. Critics say that this expression can be seen as a sign of an obscured eurocentrism when world-wide accepted values is said to be cared for by Christianity and the west. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the politicians argue on this issue, why the values of the Swedish school system should be said to be cared for by the ethics of Christianity and the western humanism. I also want to examine if these arguments in fact corresponds with the worldview of eurocentrism. The examination consists of a discourse analysis review of, for example, journals of the Swedish parliament, which is later compared with the theories of eurocentrism.I believe the argumentation can be categorized in three main categories: first a conservative ideological perspective where they are driven by the notion that the Swedish culture could be defined by establishing and defending its foundations; a philosophical/religious perspective where they want to justify the indisputable values they believe should be maintained in the schools; a eurocentric/psychological perspective where they tend to express the Swedish identity by defining what is typically characteristic of ?us? and typically characteristic of ?the others?.

This thesis in Art History and Visual Science is about values to graffiti and graffiti artist Banksy. I have studied values relating to Banksy´s graffiti images through which context they are placed in and where they are located. I have selected two different images of Banksy as an example on the basis of a transnational phenomenon, where the images that circulate in the public arena by street art and other images and imported into the galleries and consumption market. My conclusion is that the values of the images are based on the context in which each room have its surroundings and that therefore the impression will increase. The public space context, signal availability and the white cube context indicates art, and the commercial context signals goods and items that can be bought.

Due to the forest industry downsizing, many communities in rural forest regions in Canada and Sweden are facing problems to survive. In order to create community sustainability, resilience and well-being in remote forest regions, the view on the forest resources has shifted towards multiple use, through the concept of sustainable forest management (SFM). Beside the economic and ecological elements of sustainability, the social forest values are needed, contributing to the human well-being, local participation, stakeholder collaboration, human rights and cultural connection. In this thesis the embodiment of the social component of SFM within Prince Albert Model Forest (Canada), and Vilhelmina Model Forest (Sweden) will be examined. Being partners and facing similar challenges as rural boreal forest regions, the two model forests are compared through analysis of projects and activities, conducted interviews and organization documents. Looking at projects mentioned as successful by the interviewees, they all have elements from the social values of SFM. The direction can be explained by the introduction of the Forest Communities Program in Canada, demanding the Model Forests to work towards community stability and resilience, the Model Forest organization concept itself and the way global focus are increasing around social forest values. In the future, it may be important that the role of the MFs enable some kind of political authorization and legitimacy in order to improve conflict solving and indigenous rights equality.