The aim of this Master's thesis is to study what place public libraries have in local politics, particularly from the point of view of the politicians. To answer this, I have interviewed politicians, participated as a silent observer of a public debate, and studied articles on library politics in newspapers and other press. The results show that politicians in general have a positive view of libraries and good co-operation with library professionals, and that they have a fairly up-to-date view of libraries. They are, however, less interested in library issues in general, and are often complacent with the way things are already running. The newspaper studies show that library issues are usually only discussed when a specific library is somehow in danger.

Gender politics in Sweden is considered unique because gender policies (jämställdhet) are integrated into national politics and politicised both in the public and the private sphere. The Swedish case is therefore considered a role model by many feminist scholars.This view has been criticised by both post modern feminists and public administration scholars. Critics imply that the increased immigration and more heterogeneous population have led to a new challenge for state institutions. The Swedish model, with its universal welfare solutions, lacks the ability to recognise differences within groups. Universal solutions that treat everyone the same is no longer the most just way to treat people.The growing use of goal orientation in Swedish public administration has increased the civil servants discretion in the implementation process, and thereby the space for differentiated treatment.

This study has a focus on brand building and brand identity. The overall idea of the study is to examine the Swedish clothing company WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracys brand building tactics and activities. WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracys, or WeSC, is a company that produces and sells streetfashion in over 20 countries and has over 1600 distributors. The company has in the recent years grown to become one of the largest in its segment. The interesting factor in WeSC´s brand building activities is the use of Weactivists.

The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the social identity of students at upper secondary school for physically disabled students. The youths I drew my attention to suffered from severe physical disabilities and therefore received specially adapted education in small classes, but integrated at an ordinary upper secondary school.By "social identity" I mean how the students view themselves as a group, how they value their membership of the group and how they relate to non-disabled students at school. I wanted to investigate the connections between these students' social identity and the problems of marginalization of disabled people in society.According to qualitative methods I interviewed five physically disabled students, aged 18-19, at upper secondary school level taking part of especially adapted education. The study showed that these students regarded themselves as a segregated group at school. None of them associated with non-disabled students at school.

During the 1920?s the town of Bollnäs had the ambition to expand. The expansion included a merger with Björkhamre and the colonization of unused areas, e.g. the area around Onbacken. The archaeologist Gustaf Hallström came to Bollnäs to investigate an ancient tomb located on Onbacken.

The purpose of this study was to investigate youth?s experiences of what meaning the nonprofit youth project Husby Marathon had on their social capital and self-identity. In order to answer the purpose a qualitative methodology was used based on interviews with four of the participant youths. Two teories were used, Social capital by Robert D. Putnam and Selfidentity by Anthony Giddens.

This thesis is based on a conversation about gender identity and the pronoun hen in an episode of the radio programme Tendens on Swedish public radio, P1. The participants of the conversation are a scholar and a journalist/show-host. The goal of the research has been to analyse how the conversation is constructed from its context and which topics that occur. The goal of the research has also been to analyse how the participants of the conversation position themselves and how the conversation composes and re-composes norms and values regarding gender identity in society. Critical discourse analysis, completed by Conversation analysis has been the theoretical and methodological approach.

This paper examines constructions of identities in Swedish news paper articles concerning the European Unions?s Tobacco Products Directive. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) supported by theories of discourse, semiotics and identity formation, this paper argues that constructions of a Swedish ?Us? are distinguished from a non-Swedish ?Them?. These constructions depends on categories such as use of tobacco, science, history and war, which are frequently used in the discourse to separate ?Us?, ?the good? from ?Them?, ?the bad?.

Berättelser har sedan urminnes tider fängslat och fascinerat människor men idag är berättelsen inte bara ett sätt att förmedla sagor och fabler utan sker även inom företag och organisationer. Kraften i berättelser har under de senaste decennierna börjat användas inom företagsvärlden för att förmedla berättelser om företag och varumärken. Detta sätt att använda berättelser har kommit att kallas storytelling och är en populär strategi inom marknadsföring idag. Storytelling har blivit ett allt viktigare inslag i marknadsföring hos företag inom livsmedelsbranschen då konkurrensen från inhemska och utländska varumärken har ökat i samband med Sveriges inträde i EU. Syftet med uppsatsen är att ur ett företagsperspektiv undersöka hur företag använder storytelling i sin marknadsföring för att stärka sitt varumärke.

The aim of this essay is to examine which of the two approaches within the field of conflicts that best explains the conflict between Georgia and Russia using negotiations, dialogue and conciliation. According to the first approach negotiations are used to handle a conflict, according to the second approach negotiations are used to solve a problem.  The focus will be on how the two states acted and how the dialogue from the European Union as a conciliator was brought before the war escalated in 2008. The EU is today an important actor within the international politics and has established close relations to the two states. The conflict goes back in history and is still not solved. In the fields of international studies, there is a realistic view that claims the international politics to be shaped by suspicions between states as main actors. War is never far away, what is claimed to be solved through diplomacy.

This thesis studies the subject on how disabilities are written about in Swedish politics, the programs of the seven parties in the parliament are studied. The thesis is divided into two parts; where the first part is a content analysis to see how often disability are mention in each programme. It differs between one (the Left Party) and 33 times (the Christian Democrates). This first part also works as a backround to the second part of the study. This part of the thesis is built upon a discourse analysis.

The Stockholm Bypass is an infrastructural project planned to be located west of Stockholm. This study investigates the argumentation concerning the project from different perspectives. The theoretical starting point is within Decision Theory. The main theories include Bounded Rationality, Kingdon's study of the political agenda and theory regarding venue shopping, framing and lobbying. The method chosen for this qualitative case study consists of both gathering data through semi-structured interviews and through documents provided by stakeholders and information available publically through archives and media.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the problems of building a new region in the Southeast part of Sweden. The idea of a big south Swedish region is brand new; no former studies in this area have been done before. The main analytical focus of this study is legitimacy, identity and democratic credentials. The study has been carried out by interviews with several leaders in organizations working with the collaborations of the smaller regions in to the big region. The method of this study has been a single-case study and dialogue interviews.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the ideology behind Sida's cultural aid by using postcolonial theory. We want to analyse the discourse on cultural aid that is found mainly in Sida's publications. The interpretation of the sources is made with a hermeneutic base and by using postcolonial theory in combination with Paul Ricoeur's theories on the function of ideology: 1. ideology as distortion, 2. ideology as legitimation, and 3.

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors affecting an individual's working life mobility and how this mobility is perceived by the individual. The study has a qualitative approach and the theoretical part is based on Castells', Giddens' and Bauman's theories of modern society and employment in relation to the individual. The study concludes that external circumstances in combination with internal driving forces are the reasons behind changing careers. The process is predominantly perceived as positive, especially education tends to strengthen self-identity. Work in general is regarded as important for a person's identity and new career changes are expected in the future..