The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how the gender system is described in fantasy novels. The theoretical framework is based on Yvonne Hirdman?s theory on gender system, primarily the two basic principles: the principle of dichotomy, of separation between the sexes, and the principle of hierarchy, of man as norm. The method used is idea analysis which is a form of textual analysis.

This essay examines through a sociological perspective how physical objects in Ted Kooser?s poetry collection "Delights & Shadows" can be used to depict the characters? social environment. This is done by examining the physical objects found in 25 poems, the relationships between subjects and objects, and how this relationship can describe the social environment. The essay also examines how the relationship between subjects, objects, and the presence of the social environment within the text affects the reader experience. The physical objects are examined with Bill Brown?s Thing Theory as "things" that stop working for humans, when their flow within the circuits of production and distribution, consumption and exhibition is arrested, however momentarily.

he purpose of this master thesis is to learn more about the ancient Alexandrian Library. The method used in this thesis is methodology of history, especially a critical attitude when it comes to evaluating the ancient texts. I put forward three questions to which I desire to find answers. First: What do the sources from Antiquity tell about the Alexandrian library? Second: How do modern writers of books on the subject use these sources? Thirdly: I look into the possible historical and cultural reasons that the first of the Ptolemaic kings could have had for establishing the Mouseion and the Library of Alexandria.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine how the gender system is described in chick lit. The analysis is based upon seven chick lit novels. The primary theoretical point of departure is Yvonne Hirdman?s theory about the gender system, the hierarchical order and the separation of the sexes.

This thesis is a case-study of an ongoing court case between the Swedish Competition Agency and Växjö Municipality about a set-up requirement to the long-distance heating system for newly built private houses on municipality owned land. This requirement was set up as part of the municipality?s long-term environmental goals; however the Competition Agency claims that the demand is damaging the free market in the municipality. The purpose of this thesis is to determine which normative assumptions the decision makers have based their actions and re-action on, and whether or not these assumptions are valid, thru theoretical ideal types. This is determined via method of textual analysis.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the descriptions of characters and settings in four autobiographies. The main question is: What picture of women and men, of the West and the Orient do these books provide? To answer this question we have formed three sub questions, which are: In what ways are main and minor characters described? In what ways are the key settings, and the Western and Oriental societies described? Which themes are dealt with, and from what points of departure? The theoretical framework is based on a postcolonial theoretical perspective, where the concept of binary opposites and Edward W. Said?s ideas about orientalism are crucial.

This is a report of a prestudy commissioned by a medium-sized Swedish company before an imminent major change in IT systems. The change aims to provide a simplified IT administration within the company through a cloud-based approach.The preliminary study provides an interpretation of the concept of cloud computing. It also covers a review of different models to use in order to achieve an internal cloud. Suggestions on how to proceed with the change process are also provided, and which models might be appropriate for the specific company..

The purpose of this study is to examine two educational materials from different decades, to see if they have a conscious gender and equality perspective, and to see if they have followed the development society made regarding gender and equality. Even the curricula have a part in my study as I will relate them to the educational materials. Equality as a concept means briefly that women and men should have the same conditions, and gender depicts our notions of femininity and masculinity.I have chosen to do textual analyses, focusing on multimodal discourse because I analyze both text and image. I also use both quantitative and qualitative methods.My questions are: In which way do the curricula and the educational materials express equality?; In which way do the curricula and the educational materials express gender?; Do the educational materials express the fundamental values written about equality and gender in the curricula? And, if this is the case, does it mean that educational materials have followed the development of the Swedish society?The conclusion of this work is that equality and gender are presented as goals in both curricula, but the new curricula have developed that section more.

This thesis is about the interaction between composition, notation and interpretation and what occurs between the fields with an extended notation.The purpose of my thesis is to examine the possibilities tothoroughly describe and map the sounding samples through composition prototypes.The thesis has a qualitative approach, and the empirical material consists of different documents about notation and from interviews with musicians and students about the instruments used in the thesis.It also consists of 17 compositions recorded at Örebro University School of Music as an appendix.The analysis shows that the context in which the symbols are found, play an important role in performing them. It also shows that the performers are rooted in a traditional way of performing..

This Masters thesis aims to study the reading habits of readers of romantic fiction, especially focusing on gender issues. The main areas studied are the function of reading romances compared with reading other genres, and how the readers value romantic and general literature. The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with seven readers of romances, five women and two men. The theoretical background is based on reader response theory and gender theory. Before I started interview the readers I asked them to read two romances; Sidney Sheldons - The best Laid Plans, and Rosamunde Pilchers - The End of Summer, which we later discussed during the interviews.

This study was conducted by using a qualitative textual analysis on UNICEF Sweden?s website with the purpose of problematizing the role of UNICEF Sweden in today?s globalised society. This was done in the context of how organisations of civil society have gained influence. Following questions were answered: How does UNICEF Sweden legitimise its operation? Which strategies does UNICEF Sweden use to encourage involvement and donations?The study shows how UNICEF Sweden legitimises its work by promoting a unique influence, their unique methods of work and by showing how the organisation helps the most disadvantaged children.

The survey takes its starting point in a critical evaluation of recent phenomenological approaches to rock art in landscape studies, foremost the works of Chris Tilley. The purpose is to present a phenomenological theory, based on the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, which includes both motives, places and landscapes in a holistic interpretation. Bronze age rock art around Motala ström and the city of Norrköping is used to exemplify the theoretical discussion. When presenting the framework, emphasis is being laid on the bodily experience of rock art and place through the process of phenomenological intersubjectivity..

This essay focus on the European Union and its democracy both from a national perspec­tive and from an international perspective. Furthermore, the essay center on the con­cept of democratic deficit, this in order to study the European Union´s status regarding the democratic legitimacy. This study intends to nuance the problems that previous research and previous researchers have de­fined as democratic deficits in the European Union and ends up in conducting a textual anal­ysis of the latest European Union treaty, the Lisbon Treaty.The aim is that by using previous research on the democratic deficit in the European Union examine whether the Lisbon Treaty has enhanced the EU's position regarding democratic legitimacy. In other words, my study aims to identify what the deficit is and if it exists.The results show that the Lisbon Treaty has been trying to improve the democratic legitimacy and that some practical adjustments have been made, but it also show that there is much that still can be improved before citizens have full democratic rights..

Umbrella organizations, organizations that have other organizations as members, are in previous research described as arenas of conflicts with problematic decision-making and contradictory parallel action towards political decision-makers. However, the research within this subject is limited, and therefore the aim of this paper is to add knowledge to how such organizations in fact work. After conducting a case study at the trade association ESTOC this thesis challenge previous statements about umbrella organizations and conclude that there, under certain circumstances, may exist harmony within an umbrella organizations. The main implication, thus, is that we have to readdress umbrella organizations in quite another way to be able to make a more realistic interpretation of collaborations in umbrella organizations..

This paper discusses the relationship between rhetoric and hermeneutics. It is a studyconducted through a generative method where two different rhetoric students haveanalyzed three rhetorical objects and afterwards have compared their results and theninterpreted the differences and similarities. The purpose is to find what makes aninterpretation legitimate and plausible and what binds rhetoric and hermeneuticstogether through meta analysis. The study shows that doxa is a fundamental elementthat connects rhetoric to hermeneutics and that it is more relevant to discussintersubjectivity than legitimacy, which is harder to define and achieve. An importantresult is also that the dialogue in the interpretation process has been found to be acatalyst for new research findings and of increased knowledge..