This thesis, drawing from several empirical investigations, reaches the conclusion that there seems to be a positive correlation between the level of democracy and the level of state capacity in Latin American countries. This correlation is explained by a hypothesis derived from Rational Choice theory. With some important caveats, this conclusion is then applied to the discussion about democracy as a form of government. Within democracy, the thesis also offers an insight into different electoral systems and its possible implications, mostly on a Theoretical level. The thesis only exists in swedish as of yet..

The title of the study is: "Stories about helpful conversations - a narrative study of active processes in therapy and treatment." The purpose of this study was to examine clients' stories of what has been helpful to them in therapy / treatment. The study has been made in light of the ongoing discussion in society about the requirements for empirical studies within welfare areas. The choice to make a narrative study comes from the desire to have clients' own stories at the centre of what has been helpful in the therapeutic process. The author has interviewed and talked with four people (clients) who told us about their experiences of therapy / treatment. Narrative research methodology is based on people's life stories.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to study how librarians at public libraries make the literature with state supported distribution available through marketing. By qualitative interviews with nine heads of libraries the thesis examines how the library staff in each library market the state supported distribution by the Swedish Art Council. My Theoretical framework is based on Philip Kotler's thesis on marketing. My conclusion is that the library staff rather market the library as whole, than focus on just one specific type of books. The attitudes toward the state supported distribution are a mixed one, but the library staff is glad for what is given..

In recent years coaching has become an increasingly popular phenomenon outside of the sports world. More and more people have found coaching to be a helpful tool for achieving greater performance and fulfillment in their lives. This thesis is a comparative literature study of three books about coaching where the authors use different Theoretical bases to explain and teach coaching. The aim of the thesis is to explain how coaching as a phenomenon is described and compare these descriptions as well as to look at the ideals and norms that are produced and reproduced in the use of coaching. The study compares the three books from six different themes and shows that, in the use of coaching, the ideal of a rational and action oriented individual is constructed and the aim for this individual is some form of success.

This study is an attempt to shed light on the importance of fiction as a bridge between different cultures and traditions. The objective of this essay is threefold. First it explores the potentiality of fiction as a communication channel between different cultures, societies and social groups. Secondly, it studies the availability of foreign fiction in Swedish language. And thirdly it tries to approach and analyze the structures and mechanisms behind that availability.

Executive summaryThe aim of this study is to examine how the favourability and brand exposure of Norwegian has been damage by their supplier, Boeing 787:s, problems concerning the aircraft Dreamliner. The Theoretical framework underlies the content analysis that has been used to operate the study. In total the empirical data rise up to 623 articles that has been collected and analysed from the media archive Retriever. Compares to before and after Boeing 787:s problem with the Dreamliner, the results indicates that the favourability of Norwegian in the Swedish media landscape during the problems was negatively affected. The results also show that there was no increase in brand exposure for Norwergian during the problems.

This thesis aimed to describe how the ideological dividing line concerning the welfare state has changed between the two largest governmental parties in Sweden, the Social Democrats and the Moderaterna, during 1990 to 2010. The scientist Mark Blyth points out that ideas are important instruments for structural and institutional change by identifying ideas as weapons, blueprints and cognitive locks, which were being used in the Theoretical framework. The empirical data was made by a qualitative analysis of the parliamentary speeches and debates from both parties held every year. The results shows that the budgetary law passed in 1997 became a new institutional blueprint, which changed the political conditions for the Social Democrats. Furthermore, the results point to a change in the Moderaterna?s rhetoric concerning the welfare state to a more pragmatic view. .

The purpose of this study is to get an idea of how active teachers in various stages are defining and working with values in their activities, and to highlight the similarities and differences in the way that they are working on this in the various stages. Qualitative interviews with teachers in preschool, primary education and recreational centres are the basis of the results.The study provides an overview of previous research in the area, and has a Theoretical basis in Vygotskys sociocultural theory. The results show that respondents believe that the definition of values lays in relational values, which show us how to behave against fellow human beings. The way to work with value education proves to be different among educators, and we can divide them into different camps based on their attitude to value education. These attitudes are shown to be of importance for how the value education is designed..

Problem areaAlfa Laval is a world leading company in the heat transfers area and have the vision to continue to be that in the future as well. The company has a lot of press lines where the utilization is high and also has started to become old. Prognosis shows that there is an increased demand of heat exchanger in the future. This increased demand is not something that existing lines will manage. To build new lines cost a lot of money and take time so it is essential that new lines are correct from the start and not need to be rebuilt or a lot of time spent to trim it.GoalThe goal is to achieve 100% Theoretical utilization of the press (the press shall press the amount of plates it is designed for).

Change is a natural state for both people and institutions, but as the surrounding world moves faster it becomes important to quickly be able to adjust to new conditions. Customers? force of negotiation increases as the global competition grows. One factor that becomes more vital to customers is the amount of quality standard a company can offer them. Several factors are essential if a work of change will be considered a successful investment, where the change can be perceived in both a positive and negative way for an employee.

The common literature about strategic alliances offers a very fragmented picture. This thesis gives a Theoretical overview on strategic alliances and builds the basis for the following examination of the different dimensions most strategic alliances have. The examination of the different dimensions is the crucial point of this thesis. Here the reader gets a detailed insight into the different dimensions and the implications they have on the design of a particular strategic alliance. This examination leads in the end to a more differentiated view on strategic alliances and the insight that no simple models exist, which give a sufficient basis for decision-making and understanding strategic alliances, today.

This is a qualitative and hermeneutic study where I describe, analyze and interpret four Swedish teachers' perceptions of the importance of writing as a way of acquiring knowledge. The purpose is to highlight attitudes to writing and their impact on the teaching practice. The Theoretical background discusses the autonomic aspects of scripture and pedagogical positions concerning writing instruction. Results show that the teachers teaching positions can be traced back to their approach to writing. However, in this study, it is difficult to tell exactly what these consequences are because the approaches of the teachers? are similar.

Caso Skanska is an incident that occurred in Argentina and regarded corruption and bribes to government officials. This study investigates how this incident could occur and how it can be explained. The Theoretical framework used is the dynamic interaction model, stakeholder theory, embeddedness theory, the political perspective and corruption theory. The method used is qualitative and it consists of data gathered through semi-structured interviews in Sweden and Argentina as well as other sources of written information of relevance for the study. The authors conclude that Caso Skanska could occur due to the lack of strong institutions as well as transparency.

The aim of this essay is to problematize the role of living support in a group home and to examine staff reflections about the users' opportunities for and possibly limits to self determination and, in addition to this, how they work towards supporting this right. The study is conducted through seven semi-structured qualitative interviews. The Theoretical points of departure are theories of empowerment and paternalism. We have analysed the study results from the vantage point of these theories. The results are consistent with earlier research showing lack of guidance for supporters and also a lack of common approach towards users..

The topic of our thesis is Packaging Design as a Brand Building Tool and we are presenting the Scandinavian perspective. We found the topic interesting because, from a Theoretical point of view, we identified a scarcity in research focusing on packaging design as a brand management tool, and from a practical point of view, we found out that businesses use packaging design at different levels in their communication efforts. Thus we wanted to provide both academia and business world with a clear picture to what extent and how businesses use packaging design in their brand-building process. Therefore the aim of our thesis is to provide practitioners and academicians alike with a better understanding of how packaging design can be used to create strong brands in the FMCG sector in the Scandinavian market. To reach the stated aim first we provided a solid Theoretical background of packaging, its elements and its role in the marketing mix.