I denna studie testas tio hypoteser som relaterar till finansiell teori för att se hur väl teorin kan förklara skuldsättningsgraden i små börsnoterade bolag. De teorier som testas är avvägningsteorin (trade-off theory), hackordningsteorin (pecking order theory) samt teorier relaterade till asymmetrisk information och agentkostnader. Testen genomförs med multipel linjär regressionsanalys och de undersökta bolagen är samtliga bolag med färre än 200 anställda på tre av de mindre börslistorna i Sverige. Resultatet visar stöd för åtta av de tio undersökta hypoteserna och är i flera avseenden tydligare än i tidigare studier som testar onoterade små bolag eller ett bredare urval av bolag..

The aim of this paper is to examine how the press describes the public and private role of the Swedish monarch in texts that report about the biography Carl XVI Gustaf ? den motvillige monarken (Sjöberg et al. 2010) when it is published in November 2010. The examined period ranges between the days just before the release and a fortnight after. The analysis is limited to standard Swedish papers: a daily, Svenska Dagbladet, and an evening paper, Expressen.Questions asked in the study are: In what ways do the analysed texts raise a discussion about the monarchy?s importance or function in the society of today, that is a public debate on the monarchy? To what extension are status symbols used in the constructing of royalty, that is what Jürgen Habermas (2003) describes as representative publicity? What similarities and differences are found when comparing the news articles in the daily and in the evening paper?The method used to answer the aim and questions is the critical discourse analysis, as Norman Fairclough (1995) describes it, and the theoretical perspective of the essay is Jürgen Habermas? (2003) theory about the bourgeois public sphere.The result shows that the news articles in the daily unsurprisingly construct only a public who wants to debate on the monarchy.

Several studies indicate that Swedish men consume more meat than women, more frequently appear in advertisements for meat and more often than women handle the grilling of meat. Production of meat is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse-gas emissions and thereby poses a challenge for ecological sustainability. Several Swedish politicians and authorities have argued that reduced meat consumption is necessary to prevent continued global climate change. To understand and change consumption patterns we need to understand the consumer. This essay uses textual analysis to examine how Swedish men through text and images in three cookbooks use preparation and consumption of meat to construct different masculinities.

This paper examines how remedial teachers and subject teachers in two secondary schools talk about pupils with special education needs (SEN) both in general, and more specifically about boys and girls who need special education. The study is based on 6 interviews with teachers in two secondary schools in the Stockholm area. In the analysis of the interviews, two different theories have been used. Firstly, the teachers´ speech has been analyzed based on three perspectives; a compensatory-, a critical- and a dilemma perspective (see Nilholm, 2007). Secondly, discourse analysis has been used to examine how the teachers in the study talk about boys and girls in the special education.

AbstractThe aim of this study is to analyze how the Swedish company VisitSweden and The Swedish institute creates an image of Sweden and what that image looks like? And also to compare their goals and their ways of present Sweden to find out how that contributes to the images of Sweden. The method for this analyze is chosen from the work and theories of Norman Fairclough called ?critical discourse analyze.? The analysis focuses on the text and how the text is created and if the author?s opinions are hidden in the words. The method can be applied in many ways.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att genom en kritisk diskursanalys av utvalda tidningsartiklar, redogöra för framställningen av Islamiska Staten (IS) i Irak och Syrien. Det avses genomföras i identifiering och analysering av framträdande diskurser i textmaterialet. Undersökningens kritiska ambitioner ligger i ett synliggörande av medias maktposition i samhället med fokus på diskursen om Islam och muslimer. Media tenderar att presentera en bild av IS och tillhörande diskurser utifrån ett västerländskt perspektiv, vilket ger upphov till ett skillnadskapande av ?vi och dom?.

This essay concerns graffiti, and in particular graffiti removal regarded as iconoclasm.Graffiti is described as a visual symbol laden with both negative and positive values, and sometimes as a meaningful expression in the urban public space. One problem with graffiti as a field of study is the diversity of both the meaning of the term as well as the diversity of the phenomenon itself. Therefore I have defined the term graffiti as follows: words and images painted on public walls by a person usually in an unauthorised manner. Specific examples of graffiti and related phenomena are presented. Within the Swedish anti-graffiti discourse the pejorative term klotter (scribbling) is used to describe what I above define as graffiti.

This master?s thesis aims to study the practice of separating popular genres of fiction from the rest of the fiction stock, often seen at public libraries. The method being used is critical discourse analysis according to Norman Fairclough?s three-dimensional conception of discourse. The textual dimension of this analysis is the book shelf itself and the sociocultural practice is the everyday practice at a public library of supplying and mediating books to the visitors.

New laws and recommendations within corporate governance during the last years have affected the way board of directors work. The board is said to have and fulfill three roles: a control role, a service role and a strategy role. These roles could be understood by three theoretical theories: the agency theory, the resource dependence theory and the stewardship theory. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, and if so how, the board work differs between two small firms based on these roles, given that one of the firms is a publicly listed firm and the other is a privately owned firm. Using a qualitative case study as research method we find that the board work differs between the two companies when it comes to these roles.

This master?s essay presents a study designed to investigate twelve police students?ability to handle academic writing conventions and to show critical-analyticalcompetence in their degree projects, which are written as part of the education atSweden?s three police academies. The education of police officers is not an academicone, and the students? main focus is therefore on writing texts in the field of policediscourse. At the same time, scientific principles and critical thinking are emphasized intheir syllabus, but the question of how students handle the encounter with academicdiscourse has so far not been investigated.

Theory of mind involves the ability to take another person?s perspective in thought, emotions and intentions.  There is today a lack of instruments to assess children?s development of Theory of Mind (ToM) in Swedish. ToM is considered by many scientists to be the basis for development of pragmatic competence. The relationship between these two abilities is complex and not fully resolved. Both abilities are important components for the development of social skills.    The purpose of this study was to compare 4 and 5-year olds ToM-ability measured with a Swedish version of Wellman and Liu?s ToM-scale, Sally Anne and Social Emotional Test with estimated pragmatic competence measured with the Children?s Communication Checklist (CCC).

The main aim of this study is to examine the political debate in Sweden around a potentionalcriminalization of buying sex abroad. A second additional aim is to analyze the debate from anintersectional feminist gender perspective, by bringing attention to ideas about gender, ethnicity andpower expressed in the empirical material.The questions at issue are:What are the arguments for and against the potentional criminalization of buying sex abroad andwhich central discursive battles can be discerned throughout the debate?What impact do ideas about gender and power have on the construction of a general advocatediscourse versus a general antagonist discourse?The methodological point of departure is Critical Discourse Analysis, drawing on the theories ofNorman Fairclough, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The empirical material consists of 27articles and editorials publicized in Swedish newspapers between January 2011 and November2014.The result shows that the polemics manifested in the debate are based on different ideas aboutgender, ethnicity and power. A crucial discursive battle stands between human rights andinternational law as a superior principle.

This thesis examines the relationship between OECD-DAC and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) within an aid efficiency context. The ability for these two actors to cooperate is highly important and determines the outcome for a major part of the development aid in the new millennium. The development agenda for the new millennium emphasizes aid efficiency as a key to a more successful aid, and this requires increased cooperation between all actors. The analysis made is a discourse analysis. The discourse of aid efficiency is analyzed, both its preconditions and results.The analyze finds out that there is a gap between OECD-DAC and CSOs in terms of how to handle aid efficiency.

In this paper I study the Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann?s novel Malina (1971) from the perspective of Gérard Genette?s narrative theory and his notions of tense, mood and voice. In dialogue with earlier research on Malina I reflect over the last scene in the novel, what really happens there and how it matters for the rest of the novel. I give an account of feminist theories with focus on the annihilation of the female voice, the memory as theatre and the folklore tale as flight. The result is a more distinct perception of Bachmann?s skill, closeness and awareness as a writer and her use of Malina as contribution to the feminist debate and as a tool to find a place in the patriarchal world of intellectual, postwar Vienna. .

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to examine the views of the elderly and the caregivers that appear in brochures for the elderly and the discourses that can be found within. The data that the study is based on was collected and analysed using content analysis and Faircloughs (1992) critical discourse analysis. The theoretical frameworks that have been used are social constructionism, critical discourse analysis, assortment and protest, and New Public Management. The results showed two images of older people (I) the elderly as active and autonomous and (II) the elderly as passive and in need of help. The results also showed two pictures of the caregiver (III) the caregiver and NPM, and (IV), the non-profit care provider as a complement.