The aim of the study was to understand limitations and possibilities to the discretion of managers in order to fulfill wishes of users. The study is based on six interviews, three with managers and three with staff in common homes for mentally disabled people. The study took place in a municipality in Sweden in the spring of 2010. We used an interview guide with specific themes and questions. The theoretical framework was based on organizational theories as well as theories about management and discretion.

The aim for this master thesis is to create an understanding of the intersubjective processes of how individuals are experimenting with their identities in social media and the consequences for the identity and embodiment. The thesis is completed with the help of discourse analysis and a starting point in four complementary theories. Central to the implementation of the analysis is the concept of diffraction. Therefore the thesis is, which is reflected in the choice of theoretical approaches and methods, critical to many aspects of classical philosophy of science and method. The empirical material is based on interviews.

The point of this study is to present how youths today experience fellowship and deviancy in relation to the different themes that have been chosen to interpret the results. I have treated questions about family, friends, experience of fellowship and deviancy. I have chosen to interview five young adult women and men in order to be able to understand their experiences of fellowship and deviancy. The study has a qualitative approach.In order to be able to interpret the result I have used theories about symbolic interaction, normality and meaning of fellowship. The results show that family is an important part of fellowship and that fellowship means much to form a conception about oneself.

The goal with our research has been to describe how often and in what way female athletes are represented in the sport section in Sweden?s biggest evening newspaper Aftonbladet. The material we?ve used are the newspapers that we collected during two weeks in 2008, the 3rd of November to the 9th of November and the 11th of November to the 17th of November. We?ve conduced two qualitative researches ? a text analysis and an image analysis ? and one quantitative analysis on our material.

This Master thesis is about elderly visually impaired and their use of libraries. It poses the question how visually impaired elderly looks upon their local library. Their thoughts and opinions are mainly from two sides. One is what they think about the service that they get. The other is what they think about the information concerning this service.

The following is an assignment about the use of the word terrorism throughout history. This assignment contains a conceptual historical analysis of the term terrorism. The aim of this assignment is the following: To discern, through a conceptual historical analysis, how the term terrorism has been used and how the meanings of the term terrorism has changed in time.To provide an answer to this thesis is the assignment tries to answer the following questions:1) How can conceptual historical analysis be applied to the term terrorism?2) How can the term terrorism be defined?3) How has the term terrorism been used throughout history, with specific focus on the academic world and even some contemporary texts?4) Is it possible to point out some clear changes in the use of the term from the moment of its first use until current time?5) Which meanings has the term terrorism received and how are these meanings associated with the term terrorism?The assignment initially highlights different theories on conceptual historical research as well as links these theories to the actual term terrorism. After this some difficulties with defining terrorism as a term are pointed out and the impact this has on research within the field of terrorism.

This study was based on a quantitative method to examine gender-related attitudes towards leadership styles among employees in trade union organizations in Sweden. The aim of the research was to investigate and understand how gender relates to attitudes regarding leadership within these organizations. The study was based on research questions related to preferences for different leadership styles and the impact of gender on these attitudes. The study incorporated previous research and relevant theoretical frameworks such as leadership theories, gender theories, and theories on prejudice against female leaders to contextualize our findings. Data were collected through a survey using a convenience sampling method, targeting employees of trade union organizations in Sweden.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify and analyse the view and consciousness of history present in essays written by Swedish high school students in 1877 and 1929. A theoretical framework was established in order to accomplish this, based on the theories of Peter Aronsson and Jörn Rüsen (through Lars Andersson Hult) that defines consciousness of history through a matrix that expresses a progression as well as a scaling complexity. Furthermore, the theories of Knut Kjelstadli and Magnus Hermansson Adler were adopted to establish two different types of view of history: one adhering to a view of history where groups and individuals are seen as integral to the progression of history, and the other explains historical process through more functional explanations, such as dependant on cultural and social structures.This framework erects ideal-types of different types of view and consciousness of history, and the thesis at hand strives to categorise the different kinds of view and consciousness of history found in the studied essays in accordance with these ideal-types through two different models based on the above mentioned theories.The findings presented here largely point to a view of history that is largely centered on an actor-oriented view of history, where individuals such as kings and generals are given a central position when historical events are being narrated, and is present in both 1877 and 1929, with some shifting nuances. As for the consciousness of history the lion part of the analysed texts can be seen adhering to a more traditional type of consciousness in 1877, although a slight shift can be seen towards a more complex type of consciousness in the texts from 1929..

The objective of this thesis is to examine the capital structure of Swedish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Accounting data from Swedish game developers, combined with the result from a survey, is used to examine their financial conditions and capital structure decisions. We find that non-debt tax shield, firm size, growth opportunities and age are, to various extents, the determinants of capital structure in the game industry, while effective tax rate and asset structure have marginal effects. Our study also implicates that most of the existing capital structure theories can explain SMEs leverage decisions to some extent; however, some adaptation is needed to fit these theories into the SME context. Additionally, we find the existence of a financial gap in the game industry which might need efforts from both demand side and supply side to eliminate..

This thesis aims to explore the use of costumed interpreters at museums. Firstly the thesis examines how extensivethe use of historical costumes is in Sweden, along with some international comparisons. Later on the differentways that the clothes are used is examined, and the costume as a resource for learning is discussed. In the lastpart of the thesis the ?function? of the costume is examined.

ABSTRACTTitle: Cultural dimensions? and their relevance in the interpretation of TV commercialsThe purpose of this study has been to explain the cultural dimensions masculinity versus femininityand individualism versus collectivism and see what their impacts on interpreting commercials are.We also wanted to see if there are any other important aspects to consider when looking at theinterpretation of TV-commercials. To fulfill this purpose we also used this research question:?How are the cultural dimensions relevant when it comes to interpreting TV-commercials?We used a qualitative approach when conducting this study. We found that the dimensionindividualism versus collectivism seemed the most applicable, while the respondents? answers fittedthe best to the highlighted theories.

This essay focuses on how women and the woman emancipation are described in high school history textbooks from the years 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000, using the theories history consciousness and gender. Two textbooks are analyzed from each period. There are several gender theories, in this essay it is Yvonne Hirdman?s theory concerning woman- and gender history that is used. This means that the woman emancipation and women?s history are analyzed from the perspectives invisible, add, and-, how- and gender history.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the co-creation process and how value is created based on a service orientation using a network perspective. The thesis is studied from a social-constructionist philosophy, using a qualitative approach of data collection and the theoretical framework includes network theories, theories of service-orientation and co-creation. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with a small firm and its network, which consists of a customer, a supplier and a partner. We found that Håkansson?s ARA framework combined with Ballantyne and Varey?s triangulation of value-creating activities help to acquire an understanding of the actors? bonds, the resources? ties and the activity links that exist in a network.

The purpose of this article is to examine issues concerning quality assurance in the Swedish family counselling. To obtain the purpose following factors have been analysed: what kind of requirements/criteria are put on the companies/practitioners, what the respondents think about the lack of common standards and criteria and their opinions concerning ?Lagen om valfrihetssystemet?. Monitoring of criteria, privatisation and increased competition are other factors that have been analyzed. The material was obtained from the family counsellors own association and was analyzed in the light of previous research and theories regarding the quality of family counselling however we also considered theories about quality within social work in general.

This study´s focus was a group of participants of a social movement called The Zeitgeist Movement. The purpose of this study was to understand and convey what causes participants of this movement to engage despite that the prevailing culture teaches them otherwise.With qualitative methodology of participatory observation and semi-structured interviews with ten participants, our objective has been to answer the following questions: What are the driving forces that make these people act, which approach do they have to ?reality? and how do they relate to it, and what are the potential consequences with this approach?The study has shown that their critical and questioning attitude towards their perception of reality and their social constructivist view of it lead to conflicts between them and their fellowmen. The data was then analyzed with Alfred Schütz phenomenological theories in synthesis with Zygmunt Baumans critical societal analysis and theories.The study's focus was on the Gothenburg chapter of the Swedish Zeitgeist Movement. We did not make any comparisons with other national or international chapters of the movement..