The Swedish public inquiries and most of the political science advocate reforms in the spirit of participatory democracy to strengthen the democracy. Although it is striking how limited and narrow the scientific documentation is in analysing the effects of participatory democratic reforms. Still, many of the local governments in Sweden are reshaping their organisations according to the participatory democracy model. Is it a trend and a symbolic action or a veritable action of good-will of the politicians?The paper argues that the idea of participatory democracy has become popular and widely spread.

According to Edward Said the Orient is a European construction that has arisen out of a need to describe the Western civilisation as culturally superior. This occurrence Said gives the label "Orientalism". Art historian Linda Nochlin takes Said?s theories further in The Imaginary Orient where she conveys the thesis that the pictorial Orientalism is an expression of an imperialistic ideology. John M.

Research establishes, that clothes constantly communicate something about its wearer. You send out different messages depending on what sort of clothes you are wearing. For example, a suit can project social status and power, while, a pair of jeans usually conveys a more casual impression. Either way, research state that clothes are symbolic expressions.This essay focuses on the theme clothes and pupils within the school world. Do pupils today experience clothes as symbolic values? By using qualitative interviews, I have examined how four senior high school pupils talk about clothes and its potential symbolic value in school.

Previous reaserch has indicated that the almoners position in the somatic hospital hierarchy is poor. The purpose of this study was to investigate the position of the almoner in the hospital hierarch today, together with what this position is based upon.The questions at issue were:- Has the almoners position in the hospital hierarchy changed, or is it still poor?- In what way can the almoners position in the hospital hierarchy be explained?In order to get answers to our questions at issue, we interviewed totally 13 persons from the three chosen professional categories, i e four almoners, five doctors and four nurses. Two of the doctors worked at care centres and the other doctors worked in hospitals within the Region Skåne. The interview material was analysed from the concepts of Pierre Bourdieus; field and symbolic capital and by means of ideas from the closing theory.

Title in original language: Föreställningar om stadsomvandlingens KirunaLanguage of text: swedishNumber of pages: 106.

Until recently, the art market has expanded for several consecutive years. The primary art market is characterized by an unclear pricing mechanism and an infinite as well as limited supply. Previous business studies have so far primarily focused either on art as an investment or on the gallery?s activities. This thesis takes an explorative approach and aims to shed a light on the art collector?s behavior on the Swedish market for contemporary art.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the melancholic, poetic language in Bübins unge (Bübin´s brat) by Mare Kandre (1962 ? 2005). In my opinion the novel, which is about a teenage ritual, also gives an imaginary arena for archaic and unmentionable experiences of the libido. It is therefore a witness to the truth of the subjects complex mind. To my assistance I have Julia Kristeva´s theory on the abjection, the successful melancholia and her concepts of the outsider and the catharsis.

The purpose of this study is using McDonald?s in China and Sweden as a case to find out how fast food restaurant retailers combine adaptation and standardization with symbolic attributes of store atmospherics under different cultural background, and find out possible reasons. The study used McDonald?s in a case format to study in-store atmospheres. Further, the research has an investigating and explanatory qualitative approach, collecting the empirical data through observation with photos.

This essay is called Imaginary non-community, How Swedish press portrayed the fight for freedom in Tunisia and Hungary 1955 and 1956 and it describes how two similar struggles for freedom are portrayed through the eyes of the most popular Swedish news papers Dagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet and Expressen. In 1955-56 Sweden is a country where the focus lies within the nation itself with economic growth and the building of folkhemmet. The Swedish social program for a more improved living condition. Outside of Sweden the cold war is reigning and the Swedish international politics is careful and passive. The fear of communism makes Sweden side with the western powers and therefore they (Swedish politicians and news papers) do not object to the French military effort to strike down the rebellions by force in North Africa.

This assignment is a venture into the use of the concept alchemy in the texts on analytical psychology written by Carl G. Jung. Originally the idea was to compare the blending of colours in art painting with the Jungian understanding of alchemy. In order to understand the many and it seems differentiated correlations to alchemy in the texts on analytical psychology written by C.G. Jung, I have found it necessary to investigate the history of alchemy in modern Europe and the Egyptian figure of Hermes Trismegistos.

Research on the power of customer involvement, and in particular recommendation is very resourceful. Many studies have mapped the reasons for why customers are willing to recommend, however they often ignore potential differences among brands and how that may affect these reasons. This study is built on a quantitative survey investigating how consumers interact with brands, depending on category affiliation. The categories used were Bhat and Reddy's symbolic and functional, consisting of three brands respectively where each brand represented a different product type.The evolvement of social media has also transformed the platform of recommendation from physical to virtual and changed the way people connect. Thus, taking the investigation further, potential differences between symbolic and functional brands was tested in different social media platforms.

AbstractBachelor Thesis, School of Economics at Vaxjo universityProgram: Enterprising and Business Development, EBD 362, Spring 2006Authors: Jens Asp, Vivianne Holmer, Carl-Marcus WahlstromExaminer: Stig G JohanssonKeywords: Services, cooperation, collaboration, customer offer, knowledgeTitle: Service firms in collaboration ? A study of the development of small service firms in collaborationNutek presented numbers during year 2005 witched show that the Swedish service sector, for the first time ever, was greater than the industrial sector. The kind of firms that develop most is small service firms without employees. The topic of interest in this bachelor thesis is to study how this kind of firms can develop. There is a great number of strategic options for firms to choose.

The aim of this study was to examine how individuals who have left a criminal lifestyle may experience their present life. A symbolic interaction approach was the theoretical framework for this research. Qualitative interviews were conducted with seven individuals who have stated having had and left a criminal lifestyle. The results showed that how individuals experience their present life is highly dependent on individuals? own view of themselves as well as on how others view them.

An analysis of Zolas Nana focusing on male desire. Through a study of the narrtive structure and the polemic relation between the concepts of ?Nature? and ?Culture? it is shown that opposing ideologies are imbedded in the text. Nana is a symbolic character, in large, a myth created by male desire that eventually becomes a manifestation of that desire. At the same time, however, the character Nana evolves from being a mirrored image of male desire into a more stable and real individual and this process is also an answer to when and why she dies,underlining the fact that she initially was a creation emanating from male desire and in losing those symbolic functions she loses her function in the novel..

Gender mainstreaming has been an internationally dominant policy since the mid 1990?s. In 2004, the Swedish government decided to implement gender mainstreaming within the Government Offices of Sweden. However, little research seems to have focused on the reasons for an organization's decision to implement gender mainstreaming. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to answer the question why the Government Offices of Sweden have decided to use gender mainstreaming.