The Swedish government has declared the year of 2006 a special Year ofMulitculture. This has inspired me to look for similarities and differences allover the world, especially the use of rug carpets.During travelling to Indonesia and a visit to the sister of the Sultan ofYogyakarta, I experienced a pleasant moment drinking chilled lemonade. Wewere all sitting on carpets on the floor. To sit on, and get together around acarpet, is an excellent function which we don?t do in the western world.

Service branding is a subject that has been excluded from the traditional branding theory. Our main purpose with this paper is to distinguish what characterizes service branding. To do this, we have looked in to both service marketing theory as well as branding theory. We have also looked at the existing theory concerning service branding. Six qualitative interviews have been performed to explain what characterizes service branding.

Inspired by a trip to Guatemala, Honduras and New York, I have done illustrations that I have translated into rugs and sculpture..

This thesis investigates how inventory management is practiced at a Swedish sawmill company, how practice differs from theory in this field and how the company could make more use of this theory. To do this we have performed a study on relevant literature and compared our findings with a field study on Moelven Valåsen AB. Our analysis shows that a large gap between theory and practice exists. We identify several reasons to this, including some sector specific problems when calculating cost rate for timber inventories. Suggestions on solutions to these problems and an example of how a cost rate can be estimated with relatively simple means are presented.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate which the main determinants of capital structure in Swedish listed firms are and to identify which incentives lies behind managers choice of capital structure determinants. Further, the study investigates whether the Post Keynesian theory and theories which incorporate behavioral aspects can be used to explain the capital structure decisions or if the traditional Neoclassical theory give an better explanation. We have used a qualitative method to analyze the determinants of capital structure and the managers incentives behind capital structure decision. We conducted a survey which was sent to 83 Chief Financial Managers and financial executives in Swedish firms listed on Mid Cap or Large Cap. The questionnaire was on-line which enabled for the respondents to quickly and convenient respond.

This thesis paper is based on Ian Manners Normative Power Europe-theory with a focus on EU?s military operation in Somalia. By examining documents from EU institutions in the form of reports concerning EU NAVFOR ? Operation ATALANTA ? EUTM Somalia ? EUCAP NESTOR. This study shows that the Normative Power Europe-theory can get expressed and that the EU continues its normative statements in Somalia. This result is an interesting contribution to the theory of Normative Power Europe witch have gotten a lot of critic about how a military operation should effect and diminish the theory..

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how women who have incurred ACL injury for more than 10 years ago, feel that the injury affects them today.Method: A qualitative semi-structured interview survey with five women who 10- 28 years ago incurred the anterior cruciate ligament injuries when playing handball or soccer has been performed. The study has been inspired by a phenomenological concept of science, mainly by life-world concept. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.Main result: Some informants have experienced severe loss of physical ability in both daily living situations and in training, while others did not appreciably felt impacted in daily living and experienced great opportunities for physical activity. Limitations which emerged were restrictions in movement, joint stiffness, pain, swelling, and crepitations that led to the loss of physical ability. One respondent had been diagnosed with advanced osteoarthritis.

This essay examines how art could be used to bring forth and clarify the Catholic doctrines of purgatory. The research questions are: ? How are the Catholic Church?s doctrines of purgatory illustrated in art? ? How can the paintings affect the viewer and his/her notion on how to shorten the time in purgatory? How can art itself be used as a tool to achieve that goal? The timeframe of the chosen paintings is mainly 14th to 16th century but an overview of how the purgatory has been illustrated after that time until the present is also given. In order to answer the first research question, a painting from the 14th century has been analysed, using a method inspired by Patterns of Intention - a theoretical framework formulated by Michel Baxandall. A reception theoretic perspective according to Kemp, is used on a painting from the 15th century to answer the second research question. The results show that purgatory is illustrated as fire and the souls are depicted as living people, despite that a spiritual condition is visualized. The viewers at that time found the descriptions frightening, but the paintings also revealed ways of being granted indulgences, that is shorten-ing the time in purgatory. These ways were praying, making pilgrimages and giving alms.

The study is a case study of an activity, called the Oliven, that provides practice for people who are in the Arbetsförmedlingens Job- and development guarantee. The purpose of this study was to examine what it is in the Olivens activities, for people who are part of Phase 2 and 3 of the Job- and development guarantee, which, according to the participants, are working well and what works less well. We wanted to study how the participants perceive their work situation during the time that they participate in the activities. That is to gain knowledge of how the activities for people who are looking for work can be designed so that the participants can, from a salutogenic perspective, create a sense of coherence while they are participating.We have collected the empirical data through participant-observation and semi-structured interviews during two days. The analysis was made using the concepts ofcomprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to identify discourses within the school library field and to analyse which professional identities the discourses result in for school librarians. The empirical data consist of 71 articles from Swedish journals concerning school libraries and school librarians, between the years 2000-2003. The theory and method used is a discourse analysis which is inspired by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. This form of discourse analysis was chosen since it was useful when identity was the focus of study. The analysis is accomplished in three steps.

Policy documents in the public library field, such as the library legislation, local political goals and intra-library plan documents, often include ambitious but ambiguous formulations. This two years master?s thesis examines the relationship between four policy documents and library practice in a local context. The theoretical framework is inspired by a sociocultural theory developed by the Swedish professor of pedagogical psychology Roger Säljö. The theory emphasizes the importance of context to learning and development.The thesis? method is a case study.

Over the last decade the conversation on entrepreneurship has been both worldwide and intense. In Sweden, as in many other countries, this conversation has also concerned women?s entrepreneurship. Parallel with this conversation has been the debate on women in leading position in large corporations. This thesis aims to find out why and how women use entrepreneurship to handle existing conditions in life (such as the hardship of combining a traditional career with a traditional family life) and to create new conditions that suit them better.

In this essay I evaluate the legality of Karl Popper?s criticism against psychoanalysis, regarding this theory of Freud?s being pseudoscientific. Popper?s criticism is based on his theory of demarcation in which he states that an empirical theory must be possible to test by observations in order to be, as most important is, hypothetically possible to falsify based on other empirical statements ? often in the form of new found facts that contradict the original statement/theory. In purpose of assessing Popper?s criticism I perform a modified idea analysis, based on a book by Evert Vedung (1977).

The aim of this thesis was to study elderly people?s experiences of and approach to their usage of home care services with tax deduction. The aim was also to describe how elderly people reason about their underlying motives of using home care service with tax deduction. The study is based on six qualitative interviews with people between the ages of 65 and 80, living in Nacka, Sweden. This thesis is a collaboration with Stiftelsen Stockholms la?ns A?ldrecentrum/ Stockholm Gerontology Center and part of their follow up study concerning simplified administration for elderly people applying for home care services in Nacka.

The following essay is a study of the theatre-play Min Arm, a translation and performance by Per Lasson for Fria Teatern in Stockholm 2009-2010. Actor, director and playwright Tim Crouch wrote the original script My Arm in English in 2003.With basis in intermedial theory, as defined by Jörgen Bruhn, as well as Hans-Thies Lehmann?s theory on post-dramatic theatre this study investigates the meaning-building processes in Min Arm as a theatrical performance. Concepts of the difference between stage play and performance text are borrowed from and inspired mainly by Eli Rozik?s Generating Theatre Meaning.