The aim of this paper is to get a deeper understanding if research about international relations has any practical meaning. The main focal point is about the importance of the scholar idea soft power, and its meaning on foreign policy actions through expressions. A quantity and quality method is used. The point of the main theory that concerns international relations takes a rationalistic perspective, and expands it to the notion that ides can have an impact on policy outcomes. Three different types of research utilization can be traced to determine in which way an idea is getting implemented.

The investigation aims to clarify to what extent non-conscious thought has efficacy in e.g. decision making and also examine some aspects of the question whether decisions are caused by free will. This will be conducted through an analysis of new research pertaining to neuroscience, economics, the combination of the two within neuroeconomics; evolutionary theory and especially the new theory of Unconscious thought (Nordgren & Dijksterhuis 2006) which will enjoy special scrutiny due to its recentness in the scientific field. A decision strategy ought to put high-level conscious cognition to use where it's most effective and this is on a different level than the canonized one. Meta decision making is decision making pertaining to which decisions ought to be made consciously.

The problem of separating a non-rectangular foreground image from a background image is a classical problem in image processing and analysis, known as matting or keying. A common example is a film frame where an actor is extracted from the background to later be placed on a different background. Compositing of these objects against a new background is one of the most common operations in the creation of visual effects. When the original background is of non-constant color the matting becomes an under determined problem, for which a unique solution cannot be found. This thesis describes a framework for computing mattes from images with backgrounds of non-constant color, using Bayesian statistics.

Denna studie belyser behovet av alternativa synsätt och alternativa lösningar på hur bilismen och transportsektorn medverkar till miljöproblemen i samhället. Studien undersöker bilens roll för bilisten genom att lyfta fram förbindelsen bil-människa och hur denna förbindelse påverkar valet mellan bilen och kollektiva färdsätt i tre bostadsområden i Stockholmsregion. För att nå förståelse för förbindelsen bil-människa utgår studien från ett aktör-nätverksperspektiv. Metoden utgår från dels kvalitativa intervjuer och litteraturstudier.Under studiens gång uppstod ny förståelse för förbindelsen bil-människa. Denna cyborg är djupt förankrad i informanternas livssfär på grund av de starka skripts som är inskrivna i bilen vilka styr informanternas transportbeteende och överskuggar alternativa transportmedel.

In family firms altruistic effects can arise in order to preserve the ownership of the firm within the family. The family firm may chose to carry or take measures against these effects. Regardless, it will lead to different agent costs. Therefore, the aims of the study were to explain how altruistic effects in family firms exert an influence on the administrative systems and possible counter measures.In order to explain the origin of altruistic effects, we built a theory which showed that the altruistic effects were followed by agent costs. The family can take measures to counteract these original effects.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the Swedish model with attention to core values over time, as well as, explain recent changes. It examines changes of the social insurance system, with focus on political reforms in the unemployment insurance, health insurance and family policy, during the last two decades. The thesis is empirical but although a discourse amount political theories and normative conceptions.Conclusions are that the normative basis in the Swedish model contains general equally and uni-versally designed rights and consensus on growth and development as well as a strict focus on an employment oriented society. Important values have also been dialogue between actors as well as accountability, even if these facts appear to have declined in recent years.Relating to three leading theories in political philosophy - utilitarianism, Rawlsian communitarian-ism - explores the directions in later year political reforms. The results show that later years changes seem to go in relative strongly utilitarian direction.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify and analyse the view and consciousness of history present in essays written by Swedish high school students in 1877 and 1929. A theoretical framework was established in order to accomplish this, based on the theories of Peter Aronsson and Jörn Rüsen (through Lars Andersson Hult) that defines consciousness of history through a matrix that expresses a progression as well as a scaling complexity. Furthermore, the theories of Knut Kjelstadli and Magnus Hermansson Adler were adopted to establish two different types of view of history: one adhering to a view of history where groups and individuals are seen as integral to the progression of history, and the other explains historical process through more functional explanations, such as dependant on cultural and social structures.This framework erects ideal-types of different types of view and consciousness of history, and the thesis at hand strives to categorise the different kinds of view and consciousness of history found in the studied essays in accordance with these ideal-types through two different models based on the above mentioned theories.The findings presented here largely point to a view of history that is largely centered on an actor-oriented view of history, where individuals such as kings and generals are given a central position when historical events are being narrated, and is present in both 1877 and 1929, with some shifting nuances. As for the consciousness of history the lion part of the analysed texts can be seen adhering to a more traditional type of consciousness in 1877, although a slight shift can be seen towards a more complex type of consciousness in the texts from 1929..

The name of the thesis is?Istheprintedbook?sdeaththeauthorsbread??Astudyinhowthepublishinghouses?andtheauthors?relationshipschangeduetotheintroductionofthee--?book?Thee--?book,whichisadigitalcopyoftheprintedbook,hasbeenonthemarketforovertwodecades.However,itisnotuntilnowthatchangesarehappeningwithintheindustry,whichaffectsthedifferentactors.Amazonhasforexamplelaunchedane--?readerbythenameKindleonthemarketandApplehaslaunchedasurfpadbythenameiPad,bothwhichyouareabletoreade--?bookson.Thetechnologicalchangesthatarehappeningaffecttheactorswithinthebookindustryaswellasthestructureoftheindustry.Theresearchquestionofthisthesisis?owdothepublishinghouses?andtheauthors?relationshipswithinthebookindustrychangeduetotheintroductionofthee--?book??Actor--?networktheoryisusedtoinvestigatethis.Thetheoryincludesbothhumanandnon--?humanactors,whichtogethercancreateanetwork.Theactorswithinthenetworkconnectthemselvestoeachotherandtherebyformthenetwork.Thepurposeofthisthesisistocreateanunderstandingforhowactorsandtheirrelationshipswithinanestablishedindustrystructureareaffectedbydigitalisation.Toachievethis,semi--?structuredinterviewswereconductedwithpublishinghousesandauthors.Theboomofthee--?bookinlargepartdependsuponthetechnicaldevelopmentthathasoccurredandwhichhasintroducedsmartphones,e--?readers,surfpadsetceteraonthemarket.Moreactorswillariseinthebookindustryduetothedigitalisation,whichinturnwillaffecttheexistingrelationshipsofthepublishinghousesandtheauthors.Thepublishinghouseswillkeeptheirroleinthenetworksasakeyplayer,butcomeintocontactwithmoreactors.Theauthorsaregiventhechancetoself--?publishtheirbooksase--?books,whichmakethemcomeintocontactwithmoreactorsaswell.Asmoreactorsarise,thestructurewithintheindustrybecomesrelaxed.Hence,thepublishinghousesneedtoenrolthenewactorsinorderforthemtokeeptheirpositioninthenetwork..

Uppsatsen handlar om hur religion kan användas samt komma till uttryck i hårdrockstexter. Undersökningen har skett genom analys av åtta olika låttexter, som belyser olika aspekter av religionen. Analysen tog fasta på texternas religiösa budskap, användandet av eventuella religiösa metaforer samt hur texterna kan ses som en del av en religiös mångfald. Metoden som har använts är en kvalitativ textanalys med en hermeneutisk utgångspunkt. Som teori valdes Rodney Starks ?fortlevnadsteori? som utgår från den ?rational choice?-teoretiska modellen.

As revenues from newspaper advertising plummet and their readers loyalty erode, the need to understand newspapers' changing environment and the actors involved in this change is growing in importance. Evidence is the entire industry is entering into a restructuring phase and that this restructuring is driven by the rapid consumer adaption of internet media.In this thesis I elaborate on "how the Internet is affecting the conditions for value creation in printed newspapers" and "how the Internet is affecting the conditions for other actors involved in the printed newspaper's value creation". These two questions land us in the bigger question of "Does the Internet act as a compliment or a substitute to the printed newspaper ".To answer these questions the printed newspaper is represented as the actor in the middle of content producers, advertisers and consumers. It is in its role as a means of distribution and as a co-ordinating force that we study the value creation of the printed newspaper. The empirical base of this thesis is a qualitative participant observation where the author during a period of time interacted and collected data from the open discussion in blogs by several of the industry's top influentials combined with material from seminars and reports on the current state of media.

The aim of the thesis is to examine how central collective actors in the Swedish subsystem of renewable fuels use their positions of power and influence to their own specific interests and needs. In particular the thesis looks at the problems of climate change and oil scarcity and how renewable fuels are described as a potential solution. Using agenda setting theory and Steven Lukes three dimensions of power as a framework, five actors are examined and analysed. The study has been done in two parts. In the first part policy documents are analysed concerning the actors general stance towards renewable fuels, and how this is communicated to the media, politicians and public.

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.

This report has been done in collaboration with SCA Skog, Norrbottens Forest Management Area. The purpose of the survey is to try to find out what the forest owners who either live in Norrbottens Forest Management area or outside but has their forest holdings in the administrative area has the vision of SCA Forest and their forest services offered by the administration. But also to find out the presences of other timber buying players who procures timber in the administrative area. This study seeks to determine if there are deficiencies that may need changes or improvements to the prevailing conditions in Norrbottens management area. The literature study is about how to design a questionnaire based on what you want to know and what to consider in order to eliminate the problem of constructing a questionnaire. A questionnaire was sent to 400 randomly selected forest owners who have their forest holdings within SCA Forest Norrbotten Management Area. And of the 400, it was 181 respondents with 39 women and 138 men.

Social networks have increased significantly during the latest decades, but what does the cooperation include and how does the network processes look like? Networks are not specific for communities in the 2000?s or for that matter human organisations, but the ability to build networks and introduce more actors to the organisation have become easier with today?s communication technology. The study is about the Norrköping Municipality membership in the transnational network Sweden Emilia Romagna Network (SERN). It gives an insight into how networking and cooperation can be seen by politicians and officials, based on mission statements and the reason why a municipality choose to participate in transnational networks. The study aims to examine how Norrköping Municipality uses the SERN network and what the network have resulted in since the beginning of the municipality membership in 2005. It is a qualitative study which involves interviews with officials and politicians from the Municipality of Norrköping and textual material from SERN?s strategy documents and policies.

The rates for teenage conception and motherhood in the UK are according to recent research, the highest in Wester Europe. The ongoing debate concerning these teenage pregnancies and teenage motherhood has therefore become political in a wide range. The government?s goal is to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies until the end of 2010 to prevent social exclusion among vulnerable young women. However, there is controversy in other research that describes teenage pregnancies more likely to be a result of social exclusion than its cause.The purpose of this study is to examine how young mothers in a borough of London, from their own point of view, experience their situation, their difficulties and possibilities in present and in future.