With emphasis on women's magazines and men, this essay will revolve around the image of the ideal woman. Our purpose was to examine whether men have a distinct image regarding the appearance and behaviour of the ideal woman. Next step was to establish whether the women's magazines also presented a specific image to their readers.The answers were found through a qualitative study that included ten men, and through an extensive analysis by women's magazines. The result indicated that both the men questioned and the women's magazines presented a clear view of an ideal woman. The views held by the men, were then compared to the images presented by the women's magazines and were found to be very similar.We used Erving Goffmans sociological theory to describe the actual woman and the ideal images of women that the men questioned and the women's magazines presented.

In 2009, the estimated number of residents in China was 1.331 billion, representing approximately 22% of the total world population. China is the world's most populous state and is in constant growth. This is also a market that offers huge opportunities. The major cultural differences between China and the rest of the world can often cause problems for companies that choose to expand in China. A major problem with the cultural differences is that Chinese employees feel that foreign managers do not understand the Chinese culture which is said to be the reason why Chinese people tend to change jobs often.

The main purpose of this study is to examine if variations in voter turnout for the European Parliament elections in each member state is affected by the rate of national party polarization on the EU-dimension of party politics. The theoretical background assumes that a high level of polarization generates higher voter turnout since more alternatives are presented to the electorate. This makes it easier for the electorate to find a party that represents their preferences. This will, in turn, increase the likelihood that they will participate in the election.This study uses a research design based on a quantitative analysis with data from each member state, except those with compulsory voting, in the European Parliament elections of 2004 and 2009. The results of the analysis indicate a relationship between high levels of party polarization and lower turnout in the European Parliament election.

In recent years, the right-wing extremist site Avpixlat (?Unveiled?) and the anti-racist blog Inte rasist, men... (?Not a racist, but??, IRM) have established themselves as political actors and platforms for political discussion in Sweden. However, we know very little about them and their impact on democracy.

To introduce a standardized component assortment takes a lot of effort in order to make real cost savings. The rationalization effect itself is important, but perhaps even more important is to state the aim of the standardization efforts in a well-defined way. How can an organization assure that they are working in a proper way? How do they know that their efforts are being interpreted into the whole organization? And, how do they know that the standardization efforts actually save money? Different components differ heavily e.g. in technical complexity and quality issues.

In our world, more than two billion people are living under insecure food conditions and more than eight hundred million people are estimated to be starving. The majority of these people live in developing counties which are poor and often subject of civil war. The past fifty years the main subject of security analysis has been the sovereign and rational state and the threats have been viewed in terms of military and weapons of mass destruction. This has come to change over the last decades and security as a concept has broadened, which better represents the reality of today. Within this broader conceptualization of security the main referent of security is the individual, rather than the state, and threats are not only analyzed from a military point of view, but also seen as threats against human rights and freedoms.

The current trend towards globalisation and democratisation has made the theories of politics in pluralistic societies, and how to make them work, of particular interest and concern. Lijphart's theory of consociational democracy is an important influence in this field. At the same time the importance of civil society in transition studies and democratisation processes has been reinforced over the last thirty years. However, the complex political situation that plural societies face, creates obstacles for a healthy civil society. This thesis is based on a case study of Lebanon, a country with deep ethnic divisions and a government that resembles a consociational democracy.

Bortom historien slut ? Beyond the end of historyAccording to Robert Dahl there are seven criteria that have to be fulfilled in order for a state to be democratic. Dahl also states that there are several factors that effect the development of democracy. In today?s world it is mostly developing countries that have failed to bring about democratic changes.

How can the object based art help us, as viewers and as makers, to access a supplanted emotional state?One way of positioning yourself within the corpus-field is to step outside the traditional borders of the field and aim for other values within the objects, such as a visible working process, a storytelling or an emotional relationship to the object.  It is a way of taking a step from the traditional silversmithing towards some kind of free undefined corpus-art.  To reach for suppressed feelings is one way to find an importance within the artistic work, to give it a purpose.By investigating the concept of the sublime and the surrealist movement I try to find examples on how you, both as a viewer and as a maker, can put yourself in an emotional/intuitive state.  Through interviews with Jewellery and corpus artists I get a maker?s perspective which I compare with my own reactions to their work.Works of art can be used as a catalyst to reach, and maybe also to process, unattended feelings. This creates a strong emotional connection to the work.  As a maker you can, for example, do this by working with it as a theme, or by using an intuitive working method.

Background: The construction industry is Sweden?s single most important industry branch with a significant influence on Sweden?s wealth. The political restrictions that once controlled the industry are today almost gone. This combined with an unbalanced supply and demand situation on the Swedish constructions market, caused by urbanisation, has led to increased pressure on the Swedish construction companies who now are forced to find new methods in their struggle to contain or increase their competitive advantage. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to survey: which strategic variables are of great importance in today?s Swedish construction industry with focus on the four main actors, JM, NCC, PEAB and Skanska.

BackgroundThis paper is based on an issue raised by the organization Energigas Sverige, which together with the Ministry of Finance has posed the question about the fiscal impact of an increase in biogas production. Since the fiscal effects of an increased biogas production are both positive and negative, due to reduced use of fossil fuels, we want to investigate this further.PurposeThe purpose is to describe and explain the obtained fiscal impacts of an increased biogas production and based on our problem: ?What are the obtained fiscal effects caused by an increase in biogas production?? we could see the following fiscal effects: positive impact on employment, increased revenues of social security contributions and income taxes, reduced unemployment costs and reduced tax revenues on fossil fuels. These effects are summarized in a negative tax revenue of 2,6 billion SEK. Along the summarized negative effect we also accepted one of the two prepared hypotheses, which stated that an increase in biogas production leads to a negative fiscal impact. Design/Methodology/ApproachWe have chosen to work from an Anglo-Saxon scientific tradition and furthermore, we have a positivistic approach when we want to explain the relationship between cause and effect of an increase in biogas production and the following fiscal impacts.

In part this paper is a contribution to the ongoing Swedish discussion about our public structures. The discussion has picked up speed in the last years thanks to a government backed committee trying to come up with a suggestion to make our public sector more efficient. A big part of the debate is about the independence and work of our municipalities, what they should do, what they shouldn?t do and when the state should step in and take over. I make a theoretical investigation into one of these issues, the one about job creation.

Background and problem: Corporate Governance is a well-known phenomenon which has been the focus of plenty of research where the board of directors and the CEO have been regarded as important actors. What's affecting decisions regarding these actors has been debated whereas media has been pointed out of having an impact. To decide whether or not media can affect Corporate Governance have shown to be problematic whereas it exists divergent views regarding this. At the same time this relationship is more explored in other contexts than the swedish one, although this one is considered suitable for this. Consequently there is a motive for examining medias impact on Corporate Governance in Sweden. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to explain if media has an impact on Corporate Governance at an overall level.

The public sector is a major purchaser of goods and services. By setting requirements for environmental and social considerations in public procurement, an authority has the possibility to use consumer power to influence the actors in a market. The purpose of this paper is to investigate public procurement of textile products in a municipality, in order to gain knowledge about factors that may be important for the use of environmental and social criteria. Håkan Hydén´s (professor in sociology of law) norm model was used as the basis of the analysis, where the conduct was investigated along three dimensions of the norm ? willingness, knowledge and system conditions ? in order to identify underlying factors that can influence the process.The results ? analyzed by using interviews and documents ? show that the procurer's willingness, motivation and knowledge are important factors in this context, as well as the political priority of the municipality.

Information Technology (IT) makes it possible to electronically distribute data between actorswho are in geographically diverse areas. Nowadays, information is sent less frequently throughtraditional correspondence in favor of faster electronic equivalents via the internet.Despite effective IT environmentand secure encryption techniques choose some actors to sendinformation through physical delivery. This phenomenon occurs in those working withconfidential information as it is handled by a number of rules and safety regulations.Based on a set of rules and requirements, we have looked over the possibility of sending sensitiveinformation electronically over the internet. The aim was to find general guidelines for howcompanies and organizations should manage and send sensitive information over insecurenetworks. This led us to our research question: How can information be exchanged betweenactors in geographically diverse areas be categorized and encrypted so that it can be transportedover the internet without security or integrity deficiencies?To answer the question, there was a case study at a defense company.