The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether or not Capitalism, viewed here as the system that is currently the dominant economic system in the Western world, can be seen as a modern myth or not. An author, Brian Tracy, of several popular self-help books is the target of this investigation and the language he uses in his books have been scrutinized in order to see whether or not he uses a religiously influenced, and more importantly, myth-creating language. In order to do so, Bruce Lincolns theories of myth have been used in correlation with Stefan Arvidssons definition ov myths. Also of interest is whether or not Tracy in his books uses any of the instruments of power defined by Michel Foucault to support his claims.The investigation shows that Capitalism indeed can be seen as a modern myth. This claim is supported by the facts that Tracy not only uses a language heavily influenced by Christian texts and belief but furthermore because he descirbes himself and the people he claims to have helped in a way that strongly resembles the narratives of myths.

The thesis examined whether there is a distinct boundary between art and advertising. The collected data showed how art and advertising are linked to each other and also differ from each other, in particular through the latter half of the 1900?s. What was happening in society came to have great impact on what happened in art and advertising. In postwar Germany, Capitalism realism evolved from the German pop art where the art was removed from the art gallery and placed on the streets where the people were, in an era that was characterized by a gap between the rich and the poor.

Previous research regarding the European debt crisis has mostly focused on the purely economic aspects of the crisis. However, there is a strong ?Protestant-Catholic? dimension in Europe, where historically Protestant countries are more prosperous than their Catholic and Orthodox counterparts. This has especially been a fact since early 2010, when several countries within the European Union had their credit ratings downgraded. Is this phenomenon merely a coincidence? Or could the roots of the recent troubles in Europe have a basis in historic religions? To tackle this question, Max Webers ?s 110 year old study The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is brought back into light and used as a tool for analysis of the crisis.The results show that not only are Protestant countries in general more prosperous, but they also have lower corruption and their citizens have a higher level of trust towards the government.

[?If we zigzag in the middle, it?s OK?] The purpose of the following study is to examine the relationship between tourism and religion in a Balinese context. We look specifically at changes in religious practice, culture and mentality, as well as how religious philosophy is used as a tool for limiting the negative impact of tourism. The methods used are semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Central themes in the following essay are globalization in the form of tourism, westernization, subsystem theory and Capitalism, which also make up the theoretical framework.

This essay is a study of the portrayal of the theme of alienation in Eugene Ionesco's novel The hermit. In my study I examine the different ways in which the theme of alienation is portrayed and how the cause of the narrator's experience of alienation can be found in ideological, psychological and existential conflicts that the narrator has to face. The result is an experience of das unheimliche, a Freudian concept, which is a kind of uncanny detachment that the narrator experiences, when he is put up against an invisible force that lurks in the perifery of the world, which is portrayed in the story. The meaning of the ideological conflict is a portrayal of man's situation in a world that is ruled by Capitalism, with marxism as a positive leveler and the meaning of the psychological conflict is a conflict in the narrator's own inner reality. The meaning of the existential conflict is a portrayal of man's situation in a world absent of God.

The post-modern western city is going through two central changes in the organization of paid labour. One is the switch from production of goods to production of services, and the other is the increasing rift between well-paid labour with permanent jobs, and temporarily employed workers with low wages. Both of these processes are rasified and gendered, and strike harder against women, young persons and people of emigrant background. The flexible Capitalism creates an informalization of the economy, breaking with earlier regulations of the labour markets, in which workers also need to find informal strategies in their individual and collective struggles. In this paper, I search for these ?new? experiences of living and working in late capitalist society, by doing open interviews with three women of Latin-American origin, working without official permission (without documents) in the informal economy of Stockholm.

Authenticity and The Public Space, the paradoxical relationship between them. There focus is put on the need to create a new contextualization for my aesthetic practice, and to make be possible incorporating critical views, questioning both the format and the scenic heritage of the west. ! ! ! I do not believe in authenticity in terms of the more individualistic relations of power but in terms of vulnerability, interdependence and mutual care. Also a way to question how Capitalism has shaped and created the way of how we understand ?the? art or the value or the way that it is enjoyed..

The world around us is shrinking and globalization and Capitalism are processes affecting the world. Global trends, like outsourcing and relocation of firms to low-cost countries, have become more common. This creates a huge vulnerability in the municipalities that today are concentrated around a single large company. One of these is Olofström which today is one of the most vulnerable municipalities in Sweden and whose survival today lies in the hand of the company ?Volvo Cars Corporation?.

[?If we zigzag in the middle, it?s OK?] The purpose of the following study is to examine the relationship between tourism and religion in a Balinese context. We look specifically at changes in religious practice, culture and mentality, as well as how religious philosophy is used as a tool for limiting the negative impact of tourism. The methods used are semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Central themes in the following essay are globalization in the form of tourism, westernization, subsystem theory and Capitalism, which also make up the theoretical framework.

The secularization theses has over the last decade been a central issue within the sociology of religion. The two classic theses has been criticized for being one-sided and only focus on the change from traditional to modern society. The intention of this study is to evaluate this critique and to discuss what is defendable in the early secularization thesis in our contemporary world.This essay?s primary purpose is to compare the secularization theses Weber?s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Durkheim?s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. I use two analytical models, posing three levels and three categories of secularization, in order to make the comparison explicit.

My essay is an investigation of American Psychos Patrick Bateman. Why is Patrick Batemans identity one so easily described as shallow and superficial? I discuss theese questions from a marxists point of view putting Bateman in the context of Georg Lukács theories of reification. I compare the structure of Patrick Batemans identity with the idea of an reified identity to se how the mechanisms of reification creates the entity that is Patrick Bateman.My conclusion is that one answer to Batemans shallowness is the phenomenon of reification. To get a grasp of how shallowness might be understood I combine the theories of Lukács with Bakhtins idea of the aouthorative discourse.If one look upon reification as an aouthorative discourse and one also presume that human existence is social and verbal the conclusion is that Patrick Bateman cannot exist because of what he is an example of.

The disciplinary role of madness in the European society was major during the17th century rise of the national state.By studying the view on madness in Swedish governmental investigations duringthe modern years of the Swedish psychiatry, 1950 to today, it's possible to seehow madness function in society have changed. The study is based on a discourseanalysis and done in three important aspects of Michel Foucault's philosophy:terms of existence, control and knowledge.Based on Foucault's theories of self-discipline, exclusion mechanisms and adetailed investigation on the concept of power, the empirical survey shows howthe ?crazy? Swede changes from a disciplinary object of society into a drone toserve under the structures of Capitalism. In a psychological condition previousscience has judged as animal..

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om det finns någon relation mellan den starka företagarkulturen och de många frikyrkoförsamlingarna i Gnosjöregionen. Uppsatsen bygger främst på intervjuer med tre medlemmar ur Alliansmissionen.Informationen som kommer fram i intervjuerna har till stora delar analyserats mot Webers bok Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. I grunden bygger idén till uppsatsen på Webers teori om hur kalvinismen gynnade kapitalistisk framgång.Att det finns en relation mellan frikyrkorna och näringslivet i regionen framkom tydligt i intervjuerna. Bygdens historia har också haft stor betydelse för hur både religion och företag har utvecklats. Likheter med Webers teori finns men däremot har det under detta arbetes gång inte gått att se något direkt inflytande från kalvinismen i området.

The aim of this bachelor´s thesis ist to analyze the idea progress in the party programs in the swedish Centre-party during the time 1910-1959. The progress in the party program is compared with the evolution of society during the same period.The bachelor´s aim is also to analyze how each new program is described in newspapers, two newspapers were chosen to make the comparison; Arbetet (a social-democratic newspaper), and Skånska Dagbladet (a centre-party newspaper). The result shows that the party in the beginning was conservative and against both Capitalism and socialism. The start of the party was a reaction against the new electionsystem which was introduced in Sweden in 1909.The party took a clear standpoint for the Swedish farmers, but after 1933, they were standing for the whole countryside. In the 1940´s and the 1950´s the party became more like a social liberal party rather than an agrarian party only for the farmers.The party programs are not given much space in the two newspapers.

This thesis examines the way that subversivity is produced in relation to the name of the author, as understood by Foucault, and what potential for ressistance that can be glimpsed there. This from the reading of three text that in different ways relate to that theme.Firstly, throught the reading of "Isis mamma a?r genusvetare, skribent och konstna?r, min mamma a?r f.d. sta?derska, kokerska och dagisfro?ken, numera fo?rtidspensiona?r med diagnosen fibromyalgi" by Lidija Praizovic?, a text that actively work with the internal production of different exteriorities.