In this essay I have described ecocriticism as a theory with several different subfields that are inspired by a cross-disciplinary approach, such as green culture studies, ecofeminism, and postcolonial ecocriticism. After a short summary of the background of ecocritical studies I analyze the various subfields, take a closer look at their contents and present various examples of ecocritical thinking. A presentation of the commonly used concepts within the discipline and some reflections on these is followed by my final discussion, where I state that even though ecocriticism is a relatively new theory and the concept doesn?t have a clear definition as yet, it is in my view a useful tool for analysis and can with time make valuable contributions to literary studies, not least by introducing a number of new perspectives..

The national spatial planning guidelines and the subsequent legal regulation in the Natural Resources Act and the Environmental Code has been a part of the Swedish planning system for almost 40 years. In the recent years, critics have claimed that the regulations are outdated and does not work the way it was intended. This paper examines closer why it is perceived that the regulations does not work, with a focus on how the national interests are managed in the municipal planning. Why is the national interests not applied in the municipal planning as intended? Is the error in the system or in the implementation of it? The aim of this essay is to study the gap between theory and practice by studying how the land management provisions in the Environmental Code is applied in five selected municipalities. The aim is also to find interesting issues for futher studies of the topic.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how the image of the gambler is described by studying a report published by Folkhälsoinstituet [FHI] and a number of chosen articles from the Swedish Evening Press. Discourse theory has been used both as theory, together with social constructionism, and as a research method. The main conclusions of the study are that three different discourses can be identified: the normal gambler, the professional gambler and the problem gambler. The image of the problem gambler is described as a deviant and problematic minority characterized by loss of control, irrational thoughts and dissociative behaviour. The construction of the problem gambler fills three possible purposes for the state: As a solvable problem to handle criticism against negative consequences of gambling, as an argument to avoid competition on the market and as an individual characterized by loss of control in order to legitimize and make the construction of the normal gambler possible..

The study examines the meaning of having a dog in the workplace of personnel who work with therapy. The purpose was to examine the personnel?s view of dogs in their work envi-ronment. The study uses two theories. One is ?psychosocial work environment? and the other theory used is ?symbolic interactionism?.

In 2005 we made a research in a Swedish community board about their view on the political and ideological intentions of ?a school for all?. The results from that study were the background to this research.The aim with this research was to find out how principles in the same community were thinking about ? a school for all? and if they were leading a development towards ?a school for all?. In that context they were given the opportunity to explain their definition and reasoning about ?inclusion? and ?integration?.

Variations in fertility have caused a problematic situation in Sweden among other European countries. According to the Council of Europe we are facing an economic and demographic challenge, when the baby boomers of the 1940?s are retiring. Economists have for a long time studied the connection between economic factors and fertility, and several studies have found a correlation between business cycles and birth rates. This connection is again of current interest 2008, when a financial bubble bursts at the same time as a baby boom occurs.

This essay is about the massive Iranian aid to Hezbollah and the Saudi Arabian, likewise, towards the Taliban. The main view is that the two countries aid respective aid to Hezbollah and the Taliban is/were not a gesture of goodwill but rather an economic method of getting influence and controlling the receiver. This view that is based on a theory called; economic statecraft. The economic statecraft theory is used in this paper to investigate why Iran?s influence towards Hezbollah has been successful while the Saudis ambitions with the Taliban have failed.

This degree project has been done in parallel to the advertising agency Hera in Uppsala, and containsthe creating of a logotype and graphic profile for Aircall, a new big chain of shops dealing with telecommunication.Aircall was found 1 February 2004, when three smaller companies became one. Thisnew company were in need of a common brand and a uniform profile. The created graphic profile hasbeen applied to visiting cards, letterhead, envelopes, letter cards, bags, cars and advertisement. Thegraphic profile has also been used when designing the shop interior end exterior. Research has beendone on competitors graphic profiles and advertisement.

The aim of this dissertation is to examine why smaller municipalities[1] in Sweden experience difficulties when implementing the 16 environmental objectives that are designed to solve Sweden's environmental problems.The theoretical framework used for this dissertation is implementation theory which provides three conditions that need to be met in order to have a successful implementation.  These three conditions have shaped the research questions that examine if Torsby municipality has the "understanding," "ability" and "will" needed to implement the decision correctly.  The dissertation employs a case study method to examine why Torsby municipality has experienced difficulties implementating the target: programmes and strategies for planning, which is an interim target to environmental objective number 15: A good built environment.  Qualitative text analysis and interviews with politicians and civil servants from Torsby municipality and the county administration board of Värmland have been conducted in order to answer the research questions.   The material used for this dissertation is mostly from the government bills that are the foundation of the Swedish environmental policy and the documents and reports about the environmental objectives that the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket), the Swedish Environmental protection agency (Naturvårdsverket), and the Environmental objectives council (Miljörådet) have released.The result of this dissertation supports previous research which has shown that smaller municipalities have problems implementating the environmental objectives due to a lack of financial resources. This dissertation also shows that the problems can be due to a lack of understanding the purpose of the objectives.  This leads to a lack of political will to implement the objectives.  Since the municipalities do not have the political will to implement the objectives the appropriate resources needed for a successful implementation are not appointed and therefore the municipalities are not able to fully implement the environmental objectives. [1] Municipalities with less than 20 000 inhabitants..

The aim with this study was to examine professional peoples' view on the reason why females, under the age of 18 years old, self-harm and the professionals view on their treatment. The study is qualitative and based on eight interviews with professional personnel who work with young females with self-harm behavior in the region of Skåne. To be able to analyze our qualitative interviews we used two theories; the attachment theory and trauma theory. The results of this study show that there are many different functions with the self-harm behavior and that the cause of the behavior can be different among the females. Most of the young females seem to self-harm to reduce anxiety but some also do it to punish themselves, to feel alive or to belong to a group of friends.

The purpose of this report is to illustrate potentials and problems with withdrawal of quality timber of birch. The purpose is also to describe possible ways to increase available quantities of quality timber. Former research is reviewed as introduction. The study begins with a prognosis of future volumes of birch timber based on consequence analyze by Swedish Forestry Agency. To illustrate the importance of active maintenance, two stands are estimated and simulated in the Heureka module StandWise.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate and analyze how widely and intensive genderequality issues are considered within Swedish companies. Qualitative interviews werearranged with personnel managers within each company, and complemented with aquestionnaire amongst the employees. The collected information was analysed on the basis ofgender theory, organization and change theory, theory of equal opportunities and historicalstatistics. The outcome of the analysis indicates that companies find gender equality of highinterest, and important to address within the daily work. However the analysis also shows thateven though the companies find gender equality important it is only adopted within few areas,and not across all departments.

AbstractAll headmasters want to lead teachers so that the students will achieve their own goals as well as the goals of the education. The salutogenic leadership is a way to lead in the right direction. This type of leadership depends on Antonovski?s (2005) theory of Sense of coherence. The theory of Sense of coherence is built on the concepts of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness.

AbstractOne aim of this thesis, has been to explore how discursive frames are constructed, frames to relate to, compare with, and therefore be part in shaping political subjects. The other aim has been connected with a more empirical platform, where I wanted to discover how these frames are established and structured discursively within a political organization, among its members; in this case with a foucs on the Swedish social democracy and its former leader Olof Palme. The thesis starts with a theoretical presentation and discussion, where focus is on the concepts of ideology, discourse theory in the form of Laclau and Mouffe, and narrative theory. The concepts will be presented and discussed, and also related to the other concepts to see their theoretical potential, both ontologically and epistemologically. Finally the theoretical rudiment is linked and analyzed with the empirical material.

This literature study aims to examine the existence of cancer stem cells in breast cancer. The cancer stem cell theory states that there is a hierarchical organization within a tumour, in which a small subpopulation of the cells can initiate new tumours and maintain tumour growth whilst the bulk of the tumour cannot. These tumour initiating cells have shown to possess many characteristics similar to those of adult stem cells, which is why they are often referred to as cancer stem cells. Both cell types have the capacity of asymmetric division and have shown to possess mechanisms of resistance to both apoptosis and cancer drugs. The cancer stem cell theory elucidates many biological aspects such as the heterogeneity of tumours and the relapse of many cancers after what appeared to be successful treatments.