Drawing from the theoretical foundations of the ?critical theory? of the Frankfurt School and the media ethnographic ?cultural studies? approach of the british Birmingham School, this study attempts to sketch out a media theoretical overview of the contemporary state of media culture. Using the term convergence culture as the foundation, this study offers a theoretical background to the two contemporary streams that are the significant and distinct tendencies of convergence culture: intermedial convergence, its contemporary state and historical tendencies that can be traced back using the past media theoretical approach of the Frankfurt School, and cultural convergence, its contemporary state and historical tendencies, which lineage in a media theoretical context can be traced back to the british ethographic ?cultural studies? field. Using contemporary drama serials to identify and pinpoint these two stream, this study shows how intermedial convergence expresses itself today through media conglomeration in terms of branding, product placement and marketing as the result of the ?completed? convergence between screen culture and popular music as the current defining state of commodity culture.

This essay is a qualitative study concerned with questions about disability. I set out from a definition of disability which highlights non-disabled peoples´ participation in making a disabled person ?the Other?. My aim is to contribute to an understanding of the experiences of disabled people as well as problemize the way that normality and disability is socially constructed. The empirical material of the essay consists of qualitative interviews with disabled men and women and the essay is written with a critical perspective.

Abstract Title: A study of in-store atmospherics impact on young consumers in fashion houses Date of the Seminar: June 4th 2008 Course: BUSM08. Master thesis in International Marketing & Brand Management Authors: Md. Abu Baker Siddique Masum Milan Filipovic Supervisor: Ulf Elg Keywords: In-store atmosphere, young generation, fashion houses. Thesis purpose: This thesis will find out the influences of the in-store environment in the fashion houses and it will be applicable for this sector. This research will provide information to develop a better in-store environment in fashion houses to attract more young people.

Mitt syfte är att undersöka de positioner som möjliggörs och utesluts för subjektspositionen tjej, genom beskrivningar av kön, kropp, genus och sexualitet. Med hjälp av diskursanalys och med en utgångspunkt i queerteori har jag analyserat mitt empiriska material, som består av semi-strukturerade intervjuer med fem tjejer som går på gymnasiet. Positionen tjej upplevs, beskrivs och omförhandlas på varierande sätt hos respondenterna. Jag har delat upp material i fyra teman; sexualitet, sammanhang och utrymme. I dessa kan man förstå omförhandlingar som sker utifrån makthierarkier såsom den heterosexuella matrisen, värdehierarkier inom heterosexualiteten och normalitet.

Companies today are exposed to a turbulent market with fierce competition and the ability toinnovate itself becomes increasingly important. But what innovation is and how it is managed is farfrom obvious. In this case study at EVRY the research questions are: ?What is innovation in ITconsultant companies?? and ?how can innovation be managed in IT consultant companies?? ITconsultancy is a complex type of business and their focus is often to innovate the customers businessrather than their own. The study is based on a literature review, field studies, unstructuredinterviews and an interpretive analysis.

This paper presents a study of educational materials used in Swedish language education. The aim of the study is to understand in which way multimodal resources can be used in texts, to benefit in the process of meaning making among pupils in the nine-year compulsory school. The theoretical framework used as a basis for understanding and analysing these educational materials is the social semiotic multimodal perspective and the design theoretical multimodal perspective. The study is a multimodal text analysis but it also involves analyses of the syllabi connected to the subject of Swedish language education. The extended concept of text was introduced in the year of 2000 in the syllabus and today multimodal texts are supposed to be part of the Swedish language education.

The present study deals with the usage of the school library for upper secondary school students. Is it a place for working or studying? The questions are:? What do the students say they use their school library for?? Are there any differences between students in theoretical programs and students in practical programs with regard to their use of the school library?? What are the features of the ideal library from a students? point of view? My study represents a user?s perspective. The investigation is both quantitative and qualitative. Eighty-two inquiries from four different classes, representing two theoretical and two practical programs were carried out.

A question that is asked far to seldom is what it means to be a good leader. The answer is not all that simple. It is a comlex and multi-faceted question that varies between the values and what ethical perspective you choose to have. As the title indicates, this essay has one particular ethical-theoretical perspective in focus, virtue ethics. According to the virtue ethics perspective a good political leader is a virtuous leader.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate possible links between short selling and the stock market movements using econometric test models. Methodology: A quantitative study carried out on the time series stock lending and OMX Stockholm 30 index. Information is gathered through qualitative interviews with specialists in the field of stock lending, and studies of relevant newspaper articles and reports. Theoretical approach: The theoretical frame of reference is a further consideration of supply and demand theory. The empirical study is implemented by the simple linear regression model and a vector autoregressive model (VAR).

Purpose:The purpose of this study is to improve the knowledge regarding how entrepreneurial companies act and behave in relation to human capital, by studying their decision-making process for human capital investments. Furthermore this study shall enrich the understandings for how their way of handling human capital investments might change over time along with the development, growth and aging of the company.Methodology:For this case study the authors have chosen a qualitative approach. The authors have collected the empirical data by interviewing the CEO?s of six different entrepreneurial companies. To be able to process and analyze the empirical data the authors have used various theoretical frameworks and also previous studies.Theoretical framework:The theoretical framework brings up human capital and its importance, but also its role in the entrepreneurial company.

The Veiled Party: A Discourse Analysis of Sweden Democratic Texts aims to further the understanding of the underlying ideology of the Sweden Democratic party, by revealing whether or not there is any ideological content that include race, racialization, and racism in the party?s political texts. The study offers a background description of the discursive change in the social and political climate of debate in Sweden, which opened a policy window for xenophobic agenda setting. In addition, the study delivers a presentation of the public debate regarding the Sweden Democrats, as well as statements by party representatives.Through a social constructionist and discourse analytic framework, the study aims at understanding how the application of racial ideas are done and mapped. The core of the theoretical framework is a critical race and whiteness theoretical approach.

This Degree Project was about finding the best loudspeaker placement in a heavyweight truck and also the best suited loudspeaker for this task. The project took place in Södertälje, Sweden, on behalf of Scania CV AB. The goal was to create a new listening environment in a truck cabinet.The results were accomplished by the performance of a few different tasks. First a benchmark was made on Scanias top competitors. Second a listening test was made to get an apprehension of what people find lacking in the sound reproduction of the sound system.

This thesis aims to describe how a fashion designer should balance art and commerce in order to succeed in the fashion industry. We aim to define the Swedish term KRÄDD, and sort out how a designer or CEO in the fashion business should relate to the term, as well as the balance between cultural and economic capital. We present theories of the origins and fluctuations of fashion, as well as social studies on cultural capital, and brand building. The study is made in a qualitative manner where the empirics consist of interviews with 13 respondents that have different positions in, and experience from the fashion industry, including designers, journalists, buyers, a CEO and a PR-professional. In our conclusion, we emphasize the need for a balance between cultural and economic capital in order to succeed as a fashion designer.

The purpose of my study is to question the model service marketing triangle and propose an alternative ways of looking at service marketing. The study is based on a deep, qualitative research. In the research of the material an abductive approach has been used. The primary information sources are interviews with project workers, which are being analyzed together with the theoretical background in part argumentations in the course of the thesis. In the last chapter they are unified.

Author: Nina Ekberg and Therese LjungTitle - Within the social services approach: A qualitative interview study of the social services attitudes towards young offendersSupervisor: Melker LaboryAssessor: Ulf DruggeThe purpose of this study was to see the social workers attitude towards young offenders and how this can affect the teenagers. The theoretical perspectives have been the theory of street-Level Bureaucracy, social constructivism and Stages of change. The material has been collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews and email-interviews with the social workers. The aim of this study was to examine if the social workers uses their theoretical experiences about their attitudes in their practical work and if their response can raise or reduce the young offenders motivation to change their behaviour. To collect information it was chosen that this study would only concentrate on the social workers opinions.