Postmodernism and neo-liberalism is often thought of as two opposite conceptions of the reality and the world. This thesis takes on a critical view of this assertion and the main purpose was to perform a correlation between postmodernism and neo-liberalism. With different theoretical assumptions about constructions of thoughts, agency and structure and the welfare-state a theoretical framework was created. According to this framework the two isms were correlated to each other and the welfare-state to see if there where similarities or dissimilarities between the isms. The assumptions of this thesis are that there are correlations between postmodernism and neo-liberalism in the constructions of thoughts, namely similar view on epistemology.

Values, where an organization describes the attitude its members should have towards their work, are being used to a larger extent than before. The neoinstitutional theory describes organizations? attempts to create legitimacy through activities that are not really connected to their core activities. On the basis of the aforementioned theory this study examines to what extent employees and store managers at Clas Ohlson use and relate to the values of the organization in their everyday work. The study covers these individuals awareness of the impact of values in their work as well as the way they relate to values.

The aim of this essay is to examine whether democracy in St Petersburg isconsolidated or not. Since studies of democratic transition have been rarelyconducted on post-communist cities, this study seems fruitful. Using the Linz andStepan theory, where democracy is considered consolidated when it has become?the only game in town? and Orttung's three criteria legitimacy, politicalpolarisation and policy effectiveness; this essay analyzes people's attitudes,political behaviour, the rule of law and civil society in St Petersburg. Theory isused to interpret the material mainly consisting of two interviews and newspaperarticles.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine ideas used to legitimate Swedish digital libraries, with a focus on the cultural heritage, their relation to cultural policy and an eventual crisis within the latter. Which ideas are linked to digitalisation? How do the arguments for creating digital libraries differ between central actors? How do the digital libraries relate to cultural policy and an eventual legitimacy crisis? These are the questions this thesis seeks to answer. The theoretical starting-point consists of a legitimacy discussion and its connection to Swedish cultural policy. The method used is idea analysis.

This study examines how temporary agency workers experience the working climate in client firms, i.e. how their psychological climate is affected. The study has a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with temporary agency workers. The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge about the triangular relationship between the temporary worker, the temporary employment agency and the client firm. Another purpose is to describe how the temporary workers experience the working climate and how this experience is influenced by a number of circumstances. The research question this study aims to answer is How do temporary agency workers experience the working climate in client organisations? And What factors influence this experience? The conclusion of this study shows that the volun- tariness of the psychological contract positively influence the psychological climate, and also whether the temporary workers? expectations correspond to those of the client firm or not.

Background: Theoretical, it?s been questioned why dividends exists in companies based upon the fact that there is a separation between ownership and control. According to the agency theoretical perception, dividends is used as a manner to unify the interest of this separation, which in turn lower the agency cost, and increase the efficiency of companies.Purpose: The aim of this master thesis is to scrutinize and analyse the association between Swedish firms? owner structure and owner types and their inclination to dividend.Method: We attack the problem with a hypothetical-deductive research method by using the existence of a universal theory, the agency theory. From our theoretical framework we propose a set of hypotheses.

Slopandet av revisionsplikten har lett till att små bolag står mellan valet att anlita revisor eller inte. Studiens syfte har varit att utforska hur den upplevda nyttan med revision påverkar valet att anlita revisor eller inte för etablerade och nyetablerade bolag. Undersökningen genomfördes genom en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod vars syfte var att få en djupgående förståelse för vilka faktorer som påverkar valet att anlita eller inte anlita en revisor i etablerade samt nyetablerade bolag. Genom intervjuer har studien undersökt vilka faktorer ägarna i både etablerade och nyetablerade anser påverkar valet att anlita revisor. Studiens teoretiska referensram är baserad på agentteorin, legitimitetsteorin, institutionellateorin samt intressentteorin. Referensramen ligger sedan till grund för insamlingen av empiri och genomförande av analysen.

This essay analyses the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) legitimacy. Theories on input- and output legitimacy are used in the examination. After analysing stakeholder representation, forum for deliberation, transparency, independence, and information sharing, input legitimacy in EFSA is assessed to be high. Output legitimacy was examined through the authority's outcome effectiveness, which was divided into compliance and effectiveness. Since food safety is an immense area, two important parts were chosen for the analysis of output legitimacy; transmissible/bovine spongiform encephalopathy (TSE/BSE) and genetically modified organisms (GMO).

The gap between practise and theory is often described in negative words in teachers? professional lives. Learning study is a model for teachers´ professional development where a theoretical framework is used to enhance practice. The theoretical framework used by teachers in learning study is variation theory. In this study the research object is variation theory and the aim is to present how variation theory becomes a guiding principle to understand teaching and learning processes.

In this paper the effect of capital structure on profitability has been investigated among Swedish companies. The essay intends to examine how the relationship between debt and profitability appear among Swedish companies and if the relationship differs between industries. The purpose is to find out how debt affects the profitability of Swedish companies.A quantitative approach has been applied. The selection was made among companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, which resulted in a sample of 207 companies. Several regression analyzes has been formed, based on the independent variable debt-ratio and the dependent variables profit margin, pre-tax profit margin, operating margin, return on assets and return on equity.

The so called democratic deficit and the lack of legitimacy have been at the core of the EU-debate in the last decades. Low turnouts in the elections for the European parliament and disapproval in the ratification processes of the latest changes of the treaties are examples of the citizens lack of confidence for the EU and continuous integration. In Nice 2000 the heads of the member states governments agreed to try to improve the democratic legitimacy in the EU and initiated a public debate aiming at proposals for changes in the decision making processes in the EU. In July 2001 the commission published a white paper with their view. A fundamental presumption in discourse theory is that language and language usage not just is a way to deliver information about ideas and behaviours.

This master thesis concerns whether Swedish non-financial listed firms act in accordance with the optimal capital structure theory and/or pecking order theory. The examined period is 1998-2004 and we discover that Swedish companies neither follow optimal capital structure theory nor pecking order theory. From our results we conclude that there exists no single point of the capital structure which is optimal. Rather it seems as if the optimal point lies in-between an interval from 0 to the industry average, where firms tend to be indifferent to their debt-ratios. Our results show that Swedish companies prefer internal financing followed by equity and as last choice debt issuance..

The purpose of this essay is to critically review Pierre Bourdieus contribution to agency ? structure debate. I will do this with help from the thinking of George Herbert Mead. My aim is to show that Mead can provide valuable knowledge to Bourdieus theory.Pierre Bourdieus notion of habitus is his solution to the dilemma between agency and structure. It is in the habitus that the objective structures meet the inner, subjective structures and this results in various actions.

This thesis rests on the theory and methodology of discourse theory. By viewing social reality as constituted by discourses, meanings that are taken for granted can be challenged.The events of September 11th 2001 resulted in the American war on terror. This thesis explores the impact of 9/11 and the war on terror on the Russian image of the conflict in Chechnya.Discourse theory is applied to shed light on how the conflict over Chechnya is discursively constructed by the Russian state and media. The discourse is organized in three thematic sections: Identity, Enemy Images and Islam. Russia establishes itself as a member of the Western civilisation.

This thesis will explore how the medium of film is treated in the recently published Swedish textbooks and how these textbooks take into account the four different aspects of Cineliteracy.Cineliteracy is a theory which advocates the necessity of students' increased cinematic knowledge by presenting the four skill areas that should be included when it comes to teaching film in school. The theory implies students´ analytical skills, contextual knowledge and knowledge of the film canon as well as the development of students' skills to produce films. Cineliteracy theory finds support both within Swedish National Agency for Education and in recent Swedish research.This study includes investigation of eight new textbooks, adapted to the criteria for the new Swedish curriculum 2011. The analysis will be limited to textbooks for the course Swedish 1, since it is mandatory regardless of the orientation of the student?s education..