IKEA is probably one of the most well known Swedish companies in the world. During thepast decades millions of people all across the globe have decorated their homes according tothe style of IKEA. But just exactly how big and influential are they? Many, if not to say all,municipalities in Sweden wants IKEA to establish and build their famous stores in one oftheir towns. But at what cost? When deciding on a municipality to establish in, IKEAnormally tends to have an advantage when it comes to controlling the conditions and terms ofthe establishment.To undertake this dissertation I use a theory based upon the inter-organizational theoriescalled resource dependency theory.

During Sweden's economic crisis in the early 1990s a governmental committe of prominent economic and political experts were gathered to produce an analysis of and suggestions to the solution of that crisis. The committe produced a report that became widely commented in the media and in parliment. The report anc the reception of it gives us insights in how the boundaries between social science and politics are created an how new fields of expertise is added to a science. This thesis uses a constructivist approach to explore how the techniques of the economic science were made into credible means of knowöedge production outside of the field where it traditionally holds epistemological authority. Working from the assumption that language does things to the objects that it describes I claim that the episode investigated in this thesis was shaped by the committee's ability to define the economic crissi and thus making it into a knowable object.

There are several competing views on how to best utilize air power. Following his quantitative study of air power, Robert Pape developed a theory which focuses on undermining the target state's military strategy. According to Pape it is possible to explain the outcome as a result of military vulnerability. This essay seeks to determine if Pape's theory can predict the outcome of Operation Unified Protector. By using a mixed methods approach on four hypotheses, it will be determined if the operation was a successful case of coercion, if NATO acted according to Pape's model and whether this achieved the desired effects or not. The results reveal that the theory could not successfully predict the outcome of the conflict.

När det offentliga väljer att upphandla välfärden och köpa in tjänsteutförandet från fristående vårdbolag följer ett behov av nya verktyg för att driva välfärden i önskad riktning. Den här uppsatsen söker beskriva hur kommunala tjänstemän bemöter konsekvenserna av trenden att omvandla de byråkratiska välfärdssystemen till marknader för välfärdstjänster och utvecklar nya verktyg för styrning. Utgångspunkten för undersökningen är de förfrågningsunderlag tjänstemännen formulerar och som utgör grunden för upphandlingsprocessen. Fördjupad kunskap om hur upphandlingsprocessen utformas i praktiken samlas genom intervjuer med ansvariga tjänstemän vid Uppsala Kommun samt marknadschefen vid ett av kommunens utförarbolag.Undersökningen visar att tjänstemännen lägger stor vikt vid formuleringen av obligatoriska krav som utförarna måste leva upp till för att maximera de boendes välmående. Dessa krav utformas för att stärka tydlighet, uppföljningsbarhet och standardisering.

It has now passed a few months since the events in Soth East Asia during Christmas 2004. The purpose of our essay is to analyze factors that may influence the Government?s managment of catastrophes.In connection with the Tsunami disaster in South east Asia, the Swedish contingency system was the center of attraction. The criticism against the Government have not eluded many people. Not to mention the fact that the Government didn?t act rapidly and appropriately.

The purpose of this article is to describe the discourse in which public-private partnership (PPP) resides, within the Swedish parliament, in the field of infrastructure. I have chosen to look at the latest three years deliberation where PPP appears in parliament bills.This case study is based upon discourse as a qualitative method. Five indicator signs which is history, comparison, geographic location, vision of growth potential and solution controls the context of PPPThe result of the analysis was that a clear discourse was unravelled. A first rather surprising conclusion shows that it is possible to disconnect the discourse from PPP. PPP is not important by itself, the result shows that it only play the part of possible solution to the problems related to the discourse and does not have any value in its own.This result lead the conclusion that PPP is no more than a tool for politicians to get as much out of their infrastructural aims as possible, as rational vote-maximizing actors.

AbstractTitle: The Construction of Science in Television Crime Shows ? a Critical Discourse Analysis of CSI and Bones (Om konstruktionen av vetenskap i kriminalserier på TV ? en kritisk diskursanalys av CSI och Bones).Number of pages: 45 (50 including enclosures)Author: Lovisa SandbergTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communications Studies DPeriod: Spring 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim was to explore the construction of science in the television crime shows CSI and Bones.Material/Method: The method used is critical discourse analysis based on the thoughts of Norman Fairclough. The analysis includes three episodes of CSI and three episodes of Bones,broadcast from between the 10th and 25th of April, in 2006 on Swedish television.Main results: The scientists in CSI and Bones are constructed as rational and calm; they are mainly concerned with finding the truth. On the surface, the truth is objective and reachable, although, in these TV-shows all observations are theory laden.Keywords: CSI, Bones, crime shows, television, science, discourse analysis..

The purpose of this study is to examine to what extent there is a discrepancy between the formal guiding documents and the employees experiences of the activity at Kronobergshäktet. Furthermore, is it possible that any discrepancy could be explained by institutional imbalance? My main theories are normative institutionalism and a modified type of institutional analysis. The model consists of three parts ?values (a common value-system), rules and practice (the unpredictable reality) and it assumes a reciprocal relationship between them.

The aim of this study is to analyze the justification of a financial incentive that rewards students who rapidly finish their studies within the language education ?Swedish for immigrants? (sfi). Thereby, we want to see what assumptions are made about the students, and relate this to experiences of the education at a local level. We applied a text analysis on a government bill about the incentive, which showed that the deficiencies in the education are said to be caused by the students? lack of effort.

En majoritet av alla barn går i förskola. Vissa föräldrar väljer dock en annan lösning och stannar hemma en längre tid med sina barn.Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka reaktioner från omgivningen de föräldrar som stannar hemma med sina barn längre tid än normen fått.Frågeställningen är:? Vad gjorde att hemmaföräldern fattade beslutet om att stanna hemma längre än två år?? Vad innebär det för hemmaföräldern att bryta mot samhällets norm?? Hur ser hemmaföräldern på jämställdhet inom familjen?? Hur ser de på att deras ekonomiska medel och konsumtion påverkas av att arbeta mindre? Uppsatsen har en kvalitativ ansats med tre djupintervjuer samt surveyundersökning. Resultatet visade på skiftande reaktioner från omgivningen bland annat beroende på hur jämställt man fördelat hemmatiden mellan mamman och pappan samt hur gammalt barnet är. Vissa fattade beslutet att vänta med förskola genom att använda sig av rational choice teorin där man väger för- och nackdelar mot varandra medan andra utgick mer från sin magkänsla..

This study shows how city planners and politicians in Karlstad plans different parts of the city, what type of model/ city ideals they use when planning, and how it is expressed. The study was made using a qualitative method, were a discourse analysis was vital for the elected planning document and blog posts. Qualitative interviews were also made with five people with significant meaning, who hold different positions in the city planning of Karlstad. In the produced material, it appears that the city planners and politicians in Karlstad are planning for traditional city ideals as a foundation in the planning, with influence from new ideas as for example sustainable planning and economic growth. In some parts of the city a modern and rational planning remains.

This thesis is a comparative analysis of language policy in the Post-Soviet states Ukraine and Kazakhstan, wherein the states are seen as rational actors using language as an instrument in the nation-building process. With a take-off point in an underframe of theories on the nation, national identity, instrumentalism, power and the particular role of language in the nation-building process, this thesis shows that language is a key instrument used by the two states.The Ukrainian and Kazakhian language policies create and put across a certain image of the nation, by emphasising the titular languages as symbols of the new states. The line of argument in the language policy is a balance act between large-scale promotion of titular languages and a careful and inclusive attitude towards the Russian language. The biggest differences are that Ukraine, compared to Kazakhstan, has a more comprehensive and consequent language policy with a deeply rooted historic rhetoric. The most obvious instruments of the states in language policy is censuses, corpus-planning and the state choosing one official language..

This bachelor thesis, written as a part of the European Studies at Gothenburg University, is concerned with the European Unions? (EU) climate political governance in their both climate- and agricultural policy, and in particularly the question whether it is sustainable. This thesis intends to problematize if it is possible for the EU to continue to pursue its current agricultural policies, while at the sametime maintain its role as a sustainable actor on the global arena. The framework of theEUs? climate policy governance disciplines this analysis.

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how venture capitalists can use their network in order to reduce information asymmetries between themselves and the venture management team. A qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews, consisting of open questions, have been used to receive gradate information in order to reach our explorative purpose. Our theoretical framework consists of relevant studies made on the dynamics of networks and the problems that can arise in the complex relationship between a principal and an agent. We have been interviewing two venture capital firms and therepresentatives from two business angel networks. We also made an additional interview with an influential financial actor in order to try to verify our conclusions Our conclusions are that an extensive network can be used by venture capitalists in order to; verify ventures? technologies, complement the competences in the venture management team, and arrange co-investments, resulting in reduced information asymmetries between themselves and the venture management team.

This thesis studies the Swedish advertising business as an actor in the national formation of Sweden. It argues that earlier research has ignored to see advertising businesses as possible forces of these formations. The essay investigates how this appears historically through collaboration with an informational organisation that had risen due to the Second World War and that was a part of the national defence. I can, by investigating a discussion that focused on this informational organisation and the advertising businesses relation to it, show how the business as an effect of a civic engagement expressed an interest to participate in the informational work. The thesis will also, through the pamphlet Om kriget kommer.