In order for any society to exist there must be a sense of belonging. In other words "We" need to be made distinctive and differentiated from "the Others". The aim of this thesis is to examine the processes behind the making and upholding of collective identities and the consequences of doing so. Theories regarding stereotypes, enemy images, power over the discourse and glocalization have therefore been applied to an empirical example in the form of a case study.The study is made on the municipality of Laxå in Sweden. Representatives on assumed key positions have been interviewed on their and Laxå's inhabitants views on the asylum seekers in the community between the years 1986 and 2005.Yet another aim of the thesis is to examine the possible connection between the perceived collective identity and the Decision to close down the asylum facility in Laxå.

Previous research in the field of consumer marketing has confirmed the positive effects of divergence on advertising efficiency. Despite the coherent evidence, some industries lag in the adoption of these findings, one of which is the Swedish real estate market. Divergence has not been elaborately investigated within said context and this paper addresses the need of actionable insights for housing advertising. Starting with the proven success of housing firm Fantastic Frank who work with detail photos in contrast to the common wide angle, this paper examines theoretical implications of detail photos' characteristics. Besides being divergent, detail photos are also ambiguous which renders access to effects related to visual perception.

Sweden is dependent on secure sea transport. Shorter disruption of imports of fuel and crude oil can be managed with an emergency stock, but a prolonged halt in imports creates problems. For industry, the vulnerability is greater. Fragmented production chains in combination with expenditure reductions in inventory causes a dependency on proper transport of intermediate goods in the manufacturing industry. A lengthy disruption thus involves disruption of production for both domestic consumption and for export goods containing imported parts.In order to secure shipping routes with a limited number of vessels, Mine Counter Measures (MCM) capacity is required, and according to the Armed Forces, developed with new sensors and autonomous vehicles.

Research has concluded that meaningless differentiation with trivial attributes sometimes can be a successful strategy. However, the effect varies with respect to certain aspects such as the price of the product and the Decision context. How the characteristics of the consumer influence the effect of trivial attributes has until now been unknown. This thesis investigates how the consumer?s level of knowledge and personal involvement influence the effects of trivial attributes on product preferences and product attitudes.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to describe the development of the most important libraries in Skövde, starting from 1830. We conclude our examination about 1940, when the municipal library has been active for almost ten years, and the libraries started by the temperance and working-class movements have been deposited at the municipal library. In order to explain this process we describe the development of the Swedish public library and its predecessors, such as reading societies and the popular national movements? libraries, as a background and comparison to the early libraries in Skövde.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to describe in part the public library users?process when deciding which books to borrow. Focus is on the library users?experience of the process and how literature exposure can support them intheir choice of book. This study seeks to find out to what extent choices arespontaneously made at the library, which elements of exposure that the userfinds helpful in the process and which factors usually influence the user infinding new things to read.The data was gathered through 100 structured interviews with public libraryusers.

The aim of this study is to explain the paradox of the memberstates willingness to surrender power of important issues such as asylum and refugee policy and therefore partly abandon its sovereignty. We also discuss the relation between internationalization, regionalization and globalization since these processes form the context in which our research problem is found. A case study is used as a method in this paper.In our quest for answers we use a theory of internationalization that we place in its context by primarily discussing the relation between globalization and regionalization. The theory is used as an explanatory force and to give it a concrete form we operationalised its three processes; internationalization of problems, internationalization of the societies and internationalization of the descisionmaking.The result of the case study shows that the increase in asylumseekers leads to a higher risk of negative competition wich give rise to the memberstates need to coordinate their politics.We found that when societies and problems are being internationalized, the state finds it difficult to resolve problems on their own and this leads to the internationalization of the dedescisionmaking. The internationalization of the Decision-making process is therefore natural, which in this case means the Decisions are taken by the EU rather than by the member states..

Lund who has over 90 systems in 12 departments and now wants to streamline the management of these IT systems. Governance of IT systems is something that Lund would treat as it carried a large amount of changes in their practices, where the control is something missed in trying to standardize their systems. What's missing for Lund Municipality is routine to fall back on in order to streamline the management when they get into these complex situations.Given that Lund treat so many systems make it so that the situation quickly becomes very complex due of the organization's structure. The municipality is divided into twelve departments that have their own goals, it is an organization that is organized, which makes creating standards become complicated when all departments have different needs. Our study was based on a framework that deals with complex environments that lack a clear definition.An analysis was conducted where we started from the theory associated with the interviews conducted in which we aimed to understand their Decision and understand the processes that affect system development.

The environmental debate is more intensive than ever before and the demands on companies increase. There are a number of methods to make it easier for the companies to fulfil the demands. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) end ecodesign are some of the methods that can be used. Syntronic AB has the possibility to reduce the products´ environmental impact in the design phase. Therefore it is important for the company to make it possible to visualize the negative environmental impacts a product can cause in an easy way. It is also important to visualize for there clients if any improvement is possible. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a simplified model.

Uppsatsens syfte är att förklara drivkrafterna som påverkade utvecklingen av den svenska marinen under åren 1999 - 2004. För att ta reda på svaret studeras utvecklingen och det politiska beslutsfattandet genom två olika perspektiv, avsikten är att ta reda på vilket perspektiv som har bäst förklaringskraft. Perspektiven baseras på två olika statsvetenskapliga förklaringsmodeller, som är hämtade från Graham Allisons Essence of Decision, Förklaringsmodellerna i denna uppsats kallas, det rationella aktörsperspektivet och det interna maktkampsperspektivet.Sammanfattningsvis kan konstateras att försvarsbeslut 2000 resulterade i en omfattande reducering av marinens organisation och har även haft stor påverkan på hur marinen ser ut idag. I undersökning framgår det hur komplex processen runt politisk beslutsfattning är. Flera olika påverkansfaktorer som ekonomi, försvarsgrensrivalitet och det politiska spelet har betydelse för slutresultatet.

There are widespread discussions about the use of retouched models in media, ranging from bloggers to legal Decision-makers. Research shows that there are negative psychological effects on especially females being exposed to idealized, retouched model images. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of using retouched models in advertising from a marketing perspective, based on attitudes, perceived quality and purchase intentions.Based on theories about attractiveness, halo-effects and social comparison, an experimental study was done, investigating the different responses on above mentioned parameters to advertisements showing either retouched model images or non-retouched model images. Initially it was also tested if the retouched models were seen as more attractive than the non-retouched models. The results showed almost no differences between the reactions to the advertisements with retouched models compared to the advertisements with non-retouched models, when all respondent groups were analyzed together.

The aim of this thesis is to map the current internal information flow at Volvo Uddevalla, to detect obstacles in the flow and to find out how these obstacles can be avoided. The aim is also to describe how a corporation, in this particular case Volvo Uddevalla, creates knowledge and use information. The study is performed in order to create a base for the coming implementation of a new information standard. The method used is conducting an information audit investigating the current management of documentation according to the changes that have to be made to carry out the claims from the standard. The investigation is made by way of interviews with 16 of the employees at Volvo Uddevalla.

The conflict over Western Sahara is primarily a conflict over sovereignty, with Morocco on one side claiming territorial rights, and the Polisario Front on the other side claiming popular sovereignty. The conflict has till this day not been resolved and is in a dire need of a solution. In order to determine which solution is the most appropriate, an understanding of all the complex aspects of the conflict is required. In this context, the study aims to examine the conflict in a globalized setting by analyzing how the American news agency AP News portrays the conflict. The US media conglomerate was specifically chosen due to its dominance over international information flows.

What role should science play in democracy? Political scientists often assume that it is possible to demarcate between ?instrumental? and ?moral? knowledge, and argue that citizens and/or politicians should use their moral knowledge to agree upon political goals and then apply the instrumental knowledge of scientists to achieve them. This straightforward view is challenged by writers in science studies, who identify three major problems in the use of science in democracy: uncertainty, risk and hidden values. They suggest that these problems could be solved through citizen participation.In this essay I perform an analysis of the internal logic of their suggestion. Is it likely that citizen participation enhances the democratic Decision making process so as to reduce the problems? The internal analysis shows that it is rational to advocate citizen participation by reasons of legitimacy.

Chefers värdering av medbestämmande på arbetsplatsen- Hur viktigt är det och varför?Emelie SkälhammarMedbestämmande är en väsentlig del av dagens organisationer, vars syfte äratt engagera personalen i arbetsprocesserna. Chefer står ständigt mellan atttillfredsställa anställdas behov och organisationens krav. Tidigare forskninghar främst fokuserat på medbestämmande ur anställdas perspektiv (Knoop,1991). Syftet med föreliggande studie var därför att öka förståelsen förmedbestämmande ur chefers synvinkel, hur de jobbar med detta samteventuella hinder i arbete.