The purpose of this thesis has been to explore in what ways Franz Kafka?s ?The Metamorphosis? can be read as a story of gender. By bringing together Judith Butler?s theory of materialization and Lennard J. Davis?s crip theory I have spoken of Dismodernity as the domain of abject bodies that have been repudiated by (post)modern societies as untintelligible and dysfunctional.

This study has investigated what makes a business relation satisfactory. The purpose is to distinguish the factors that are relevant to a functioning cooperation relationship between sawmills and DIY-stores. The theoretical framework is primarily based on long-term business relationships. The study is based on two case companies and their relations with wood-suppliers. - Case company 1 is a relatively new established and still growing company.

For many companies, the Internet has revolutionized the relationship they have with their customers concerning costumer service. The use of Information Technology in regard to Internet as a media has provided companies with the opportunity to build customer databases in order to target their customers individually. The airline industry was one of the first pioneers to use the full potential of Internet to improve customer relations and its profits which we aim to investigate in greater detail in our thesis.Our thesis answers the question on how Scandinavian Airlines' (SAS) Eurobonus department uses their website to create valuable and profitable relationships with SAS loyalty club members through direct marketing. In order to answer our research question, three key informants have been interviewed - each representing different sub departments at Eurobonus; service and support, IT and marketing. Our results were that the Eurobonus department use direct marketing methods by sending customized e-mail offerings to target specific customer, using their customer databases.

Due to globalization, decentralization and the capitalist system's need to physical location cities have become increasingly important economic spheres during thee last decades. City mayors are seen as increasingly important actors, who can shape the future economic development of their cities through networking with businesses and strategic policy development. Therefore several European countries have introduced mayor reforms to enable mayors to take a bigger responsibility for the local development. These reforms raise interesting questions concerning what leadership changes they produce at the local level and if there is a difference between local leaders and leadership in different countries. This paper further explores the connection between the local leader and the locality since this relationship often has been neglect in studies concerning mayor reforms.

This study is inspired by research about alliance as a common factor. The purpose is to explore the positive experiences among community-based social support workers when breaking the rules with their clients. The study questions in which situations they broke the rules and how they handled these situations related to their clients and colleges. Qualitative, individual interviews were made with four community-based social support workers who had such experiences. The results were analysed through an hermeneutic approach using Johan Asplund's theory of social responsiveness.

AbstractHerbivores can be classified into either hiders or followers depending on their postpartum behaviour. The two behaviour types affect the spatial relationship between the mother and her infant. Goats are seen as hiders, although the environment plays a central role when it comes to the behaviour. Therefore, in the first part of this study the aim was to investigate how the goat kids? spatial relationship changed in the transition from indoor housing to pasture.

The aim of this master thesis is to create an understanding of what it can be like to grow older as a homosexual man in Sweden today. The study has an intersectional and queer theoretical approach and is based on eight in depth interviews with men who are aged between 68 and 82 years old. In the analysis I deal with the problem of how sexuality can be inter- preted with the experience of aging. Central to the analysis is the criticism of norms connected to age, sexuality, social- and family life and gay culture.The results show that the norm-breaking sexual orientation of the men affects their life path in terms of how to organize social life, where friends often replace the traditional family. New ways of forming relationships and living their lives imply other obligations rather than the traditional for significant others, which was shown to influence the expectations and outcome of old age in terms of care and support.

Background: Research shows that the nurse?s presence has a great significance for the relationship between patient and nurse. By this, the nurse can gain a greater understanding for the patient?s situation and thus have an opportunity to influence the patient?s health processes.Problem: Today?s focus on the technology and lack of time in healthcare can create a stress which can make it more difficult for the nurse to prove presence to the patient.Aim: To describe patients? experiences of the nurse?s presence in healthcare.Method: A qualitative approach, where Evans descriptive synthesis has been used. Eleven previously published qualitative, caring science, articles has been used in the synthesis.Results: The synthesis revealed two themes.

This essay is a part of a project called ?Young peoples representation of love and relationships? and was initialized in Barcelona in January 2006. The University of Barcelona cooperates with the University college of Södertörns Högskola to compare perception of love among youths in both countries. The project focuses on teenagers between 13-19 years of age. The project uses four types of questionnaires with questions about love, feelings, empathy and relationships witch were compiled by research workers at the University of Barcelona.?A Love-ly game? is a qualitative study that is based on a questionnaire-investigation made in a Gymnasium-school in a suburb south of Stockholm.

In recent years, the demands for effectiveness and evidence in social work have increased in all work areas, including that of healthcare. This has sparked the discussion on concepts such as practical- and theoretical knowledge and their respective roles in social work. In the light of this, the purpose of this candidate thesis is to investigate healthcare social workers understanding of practical- and theoretical knowledge in the working process as well as their respective influence and importance. This candidate thesis is based on three interviews with social workers from different departments in Norrlands Universitetssjukhus in Umeå, Sweden. To provide range to the thesis, the interviewees were chosen from a purposeful sampling.

There is a general conception among those who are involved in the school-sector that there is a relation between resources and results. Better qualified teachers, smaller classes and schools with more finacial funding are regarded as better learning and development conditions for pupils (Gustafsson 2008). In spite of these widespread understanding, educational and economic research studies at the beginning of the 20th century had reached the verdict that resources have no bearing on educational results (Gustafsson 2008). The Swedish board of education (Skolverket) have published several reports, studies and surveys regarding the relation between resources and student outcomes.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the message of six publications from the Swedish board of education around the relationship between resources and student outcomes on the basis of the decentralization of the Swedish school in the 1990´s. The central question at issue is whether the Swedish board of education has been consistent in their message about the relationship between resources and results in the six publications between 1994-2009? I have also attempted to answer the resulting questions of my conclusion.This study is based on a qualitative text analysis.

In this study we have explored and investigated how journalist experience the relationship with politicians/press secretaries in the making of political news. The study examines how journalists see the balance of power between them and their political sources in the setting of the news agenda. To do this we have used a qualitative interview analysis. Our theoretical starting points have been based on the social exchange model. The social exchange model has a social psychological and sociological perspective that explains the interaction, social exchange and stability as a process of negotiation exchanges between parties and operators.

The increased interest in relationship marketing and the potential of the Internet as a platform for relationship building activities have given rise to new ways for companies to interact with their customers, such as services based on a freemium pricing model. Based on the premise that relationships are processes consisting of interactive moments of value-creating activities, value is considered subjective, relative and dependent on the context in which the activity takes place. Value is therefore variable given its context and cannot be pre-defined without nuances being lost. Despite the Internet's given role in societal development, our understanding of what contributes to customers' intentions to build relationships with online services is yet to mature.As the music industry is well established on the Internet, alongside the change in how music is consumed, it is thus appropriate to examine activities in accordance with a freemium based service that distributes music online, since it still lacks in academic understanding.This study aims to provide insights about virtual relations and how online services that provide cultural content should relate to there users as well as contributing to the ongoing academic discussion regarding value and how it is manifested by highlighting contextual impact on relational activities. For a rapprochement of relations to online services in cultural industries, this study assumed a practice perspective.

Identity includes an individual´s self-image and the consciousness about their self. It is about being the same person despite changes in their life situation. The identity often get´s fragile because of the disease. Beacuse of the individual´s feeling of lost identity there may arise a conflict between the person and people in his or her surroundings. They may no longer see the sick person in the same way as they used to.

How capital structure influences corporate performance and value has been in the interest of researchers and scholars for more than half a century, but an answer is yet to be found. The main objective of the present paper is to contribute with data for this cause and hopefully help to clarify this mystery. The method that was used was by analyzing the impact of debt on profitability and market valuation through linear regression. The study examined 17 Swedish property companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Large Mid and Small Cap over a 6 year period (2007-2012). The authors found a slightly negative relationship between debt-to-equity and profitability measured by return on equity (ROE) as well as by return on assets (ROA).