AbstractTurkey has emerged as a major actor in the Middle East over the last decade, since the ruling party AKP came to power in 2002. Turkey is now playing a mediation role in regional conflicts and has been speaking out loudly on sensitive issues such as the Iranian nuclear program and the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. Furthermore, Turkey has established close ties with the Arab world which has suffered the relationship with its long-time ally Israel. This new presence in Middle East has been criticized by Turkey's allies in west. Critics argue that the country is about to abandon its former western relationship and strengthen their ties with the Arab world instead.This thesis has two main purposes.

The thesis aims to examine the occurrence of Earnings Management (EM) preceding Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEOs) on the Swedish capital market. EM refers to activities and adjustments carried out by managers. The underlying purpose of these actions is to adjust net income. The procedure is typically done by borrowing income from future periods. Evidence of EM around SEOs has been documented on capital markets around the world, and the effects on firms' post-offering performance are severe.

This essay is about the Swedish working woman in the early 1930s. The empirical data consists mainly of Arbetarkvinnornas Tidning (AKT), a Swedish Communist magazine which was launched in December 1929. A qualitative discourse method has been used. Texts, articles, letters to the editor and reports about social conditions in Sweden and Soviet during the years 1929-1932 has been examined. Soviet women models and ideal types are compared with the image of the Swedish working woman.

This is a two year master's thesis in the field of museum and cultural heritage studies. The purpose of the thesis is to examine different opinions among museum employees about the role of museums. The thesis also aims to find out to what extent and in what way these opinions are influenced by the museum's own policy documents, the national cultural policy and the academic field of museum studies. I have conducted qualitative research interviews with six employees from three different cultural history museums. The theoretical framework of the thesis is based on Laruajane Smith's term authorized heritage discourse.

The EU has for a long time had a special relationship with its former colonies in Africa Caribbean and the Pacific, called the ACP?countries. This relationship is about to change radically with the new partnership agreement signed in June 2000 in Cotonou. This essay aims to study the EU ?ACP Partnership Agreement from the perspectives of two different theories: The liberalist, free-trade policy theory and the nationalist/regionalist, protectionist theory.

Background: Theoretical, it?s been questioned why dividends exists in companies based upon the fact that there is a separation between ownership and control. According to the agency theoretical perception, dividends is used as a manner to unify the interest of this separation, which in turn lower the agency cost, and increase the efficiency of companies.Purpose: The aim of this master thesis is to scrutinize and analyse the association between Swedish firms? owner structure and owner types and their inclination to dividend.Method: We attack the problem with a hypothetical-deductive research method by using the existence of a universal theory, the agency theory. From our theoretical framework we propose a set of hypotheses.

It today's global world we live in the media have started to examine businesses more and more. In addition consumers are expecting more from products, because they are well informed. This means that companies need to market themselves effectively, to convince and get across their message to their customers. Marketing is an extensive process in which different factors must be taken into account. A company must know what the coustomer needs in order to get through to them.

Open access (OA) is a publishing model aimed at increasingthe access to academic research results. The object of thisstudy was to contrast nine colleges and four fundingorganizations in Scandinavia with mandatory OA-policies,and to study how they put OA into practice.Inspired by the Open Access Spectrum (OAS), a tool used toappreciate the OA of academic journals, the aim was tograde the policy documents of the colleges using the OASmodel.The study also compares how the colleges implementtheir OA-policies as well as how, and if, the demands fromthe funding organizations are reflected in the policies of thecolleges.The findings show that the OAS is not a tool designed forgreen OA and that all the information needed for the scale tofunction was not found in the policy documents we studied.A selection of the colleges has some demands in theirpolicies, although most of them allow exceptions to be madefrom the mandatory policy. This is shown to be mainly aquestion of academic freedom, and copyright, or rather thanthe degree to which the scientist and the publisher can cometo an agreement on allowing the information to be accessiblethrough OA.The study proposes that the way to change this may be toincrease the demands on OA in the policies, and that the bestsolution might be in stipulations within the employmentcontracts between the individual colleges and scientist..

As of today, securitization is an established product on the capital market. The first transaction was made in the US in the 1970s. Since then the product has been developed and today there are several different structures of the product. Internationally securitization has been used for two reasons. Originally securitization was used to gain capital relief, but since capital requirements such as Basel II were implemented, the usage of securitization changed to more of a funding source.

AbstractPurpose/Aim: My study aims to analyse, using Pierre Bourdieu´s theory, whether the social background plays a significant part in the attitudes and use of Apples mp3-player iPod. The study also aims to determine whether it is possible to group the focus groups used in my study and iPod into Bourdieu´s model.Material/Method: The reference material used in this paper is mainly gathered from books concerning Pierre Bourdieu´s theories. I have also had four focus groups of two different characters, to study their attitudes towards Apples mp3-player iPod. I have then applied the results of the focus groups to Bourdieu´s theories and models concerning habitus, social fields, capital and lifestyles, and studied whether there are any divergences in attitudes between the groups.Main results: My findings are that the focus groups as well as iPod can be put into Bourdieu´s model. According to the responses from the people in the focus groups, the attitude and usage of iPod do not mirror people?s social class or background, which goes against Bourdieu´s? theory.

Venture capital investerar via fonder i nya, små och medelstora onoterade företag under en tidsbestämd period. Genom ett aktivt ägarengagemang tillför de kompetens, nätverk, ägarstyrning och kreditabilitet. Därigenom skapar de tillväxt inom portföljbolaget samt förutsättningar för en positiv avkastning via exit. Inom dagens svenska ekonomi har det blivit allt vanligare att innovativa unga företag med utvecklingspotential finansieras via venture capital. I december 2008 visade Konjunkturinstitutet en rapport om konjunkturläget som skvallrade om fördjupad internationell finanskris med svagare BNP-tillväxt, ökad arbetslöshet och bekräftade att Sverige nu gick in i en lågkonjunktur.

The purpose of this study was to examine interpersonal problems and its relationship to the working alliance in psychotherapy. To examine this, data was used from Umeå and Lund University psychology practice client database, which clients responded to by using the self-assessment scales Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Circumplex Scales and the Working Alliance Inventory. The sample consisted of 201 participants that answered the questionnaires both before and after psychotherapy. A second sample consisted of 93 clients who specifically sought help for interpersonal problems. Results showed that the level of interpersonal problems before and after psychotherapy changes.

Entreprenörer på den svenska riskapitamarknaden har länge hävdat att det är problem för företag i tidig fas att locka till sig kapital från investerare. Detta brukar benämnas the eguity gap. På senare tid har problemet också försökt förklaras utifrån brister hos efterfrågan av kapitalet, dvs entreprenörerna. Med detta menas då att entreprenörerna och deras projekt inte är investment ready. Vi har haft för avsikt att utreda vad investerarna anser om den svenska riskkapitalmarknaden för sådinvesteringar och vilka de vanligaste bristerna i de investeringsförslag, som inkommer till Venture Capital-företag och Affärsänglar, är.

Smoking is a health problem with a negative impact on virtually all body organs. Smoking can cause, for example, lung cancer, cancers in other organs and cardiovascular disease. There is also a social aspect of smoking. If individuals have many smokers in their environment, the risk to start smoking is increased, and for those who already smoke the chance of quitting will be less. Many municipalities today face smoke-free working to reduce smoking and passive smoking adverse effects.

Urbanization and the flight of the creative class drains the countryside when it comes to creativity and talent. Especially the young leave sleepy societies. Richard Florida claims that the city attracts the creative class and enables for economic growth to flourish. Robert Putnam adds to the picture by saying social capital might be equally effective as nourishment for growth. In Uddebo, a rural village in the south of Sweden one combines the two creating a vivid society where creativity flies high and ideas fertilize each other?s.