In subsequent to Post-colonialism the African nations have dilated into different political directions. While some nations have established well-functioning democracies, others are still under authoritarian regimes. The aim of this thesis is to examine if civil society has an impact on democratic development in West Africa. Therefore the theoretical starting point is Putnam?s theory of social capital, but this study will also examine other possible causal explanations for democratic transition.This study will be based on a comparative analysis of Ghana and Guinea.

The purpose of the thesis was to analyse three action films; Collateral Damage from 2002; Clear and Present Danger from 1994; and Scarface from 1983, in order to see how Colombians are represented in these movies.The action genre comprises of different stereotypes where the hero and the villain are represented in conjunction to each other. The analysis is about the way the films content and form are used to uphold the representation of Colombians, but also the villain and the hero more generally.Critical Discourse Analysis was used, as main method, and the concepts of denotation and Connotation guided the analysis. The main conclusion is that the three movies reproduced an already established collective stereotype of Latin Americans, stereotype that includes both Colombia and Colombians..

The focus of this essay is to investigate if there lies a difference between graffiti art that is placed in the public spaces and graffiti art that is sited in an institutional art setting; in this essay exemplified in a gallery space. My thesis is that graffiti art derives a great deal of its meaning and substance from its situation consequently making a change of cultural context also a change of Connotation and understanding of the graffiti art itself.  Meaning that graffiti art situated in a communal space is different from graffiti art situated in the gallery space. They share aesthetic expression but their Connotations differ; i.e. one being illegal and the other permissible making their meanings dissimilar. I have used a comparison between site-specific art and graffiti art to further strengthen my thesis concerning the importance of understanding how a change of context critically changes the substance of graffiti art..

Men and women in advertising - a study of the ads in the magazines Café and Elle is an essay in media and communication studies covering 15hp. The author examines what is considered masculinity and femininity in a variety of advertisements, and which products are linked to masculinity and femininity. Besides this, the author also examines the production of happiness, and how this may differ between men and women. Although stereotypes, myths and metaphors are examined. The essay is examined on the basis of gender theory, and theories about stereotypes and myths.

The purpose of this study is to see how men, women and children are made ??in the Ikea 2014 catalog, this from a gender perspective. It will also examine if gender stereotypes are seen and how equal the people in the images is produced.This essay is studied on the basis of gender theory and theories about stereotypes and how men, women and children are prepared in advertising and commercials. The method that was used during the analysis process was a qualitative semiotic method. The analysis tool that was used from the semiotic method was denotation, Connotation and metonymy.The result of the study shows that the major part of the pictures that was analyzed was gender stereotypical and that a few of the pictures showed some kind of equality between men and women, both between grow ups and children.

Since the care for the elderly is a low priority there are shortcomings. One of these shortcomings are that the elderly living in nursing homes do not feel that they have a meaningful existence. The aim of this study was to identify which factors could give the elderly residing in nursing homes a meaningful existence. The study was conducted through a review of existing literature with a systematic literature study. Scientific articles were found, read, analyzed and condensed.

The aim of this essay is to examine how educated immigrants from former Yugoslavia are experiencing the Swedish labor market and if they feel that there are factors that complicate their ability to establish themselves in the Swedish labor market. We have also examined whether and if so, how their status has changed in Connotation with the move to Sweden. The method we have used is a qualitative interview study where we asked questions from a semi-structured interview guide. We chose to make use of both previous research and a number of analytical tools for using these to interpret inequality and discrimination that exist in the Swedish labor against educated immigrants. The results presented four factors that our respondents perceive contribute to difficulty in establishing themselves in the Swedish labor market, these are: contacts, name, validation and trainee post.

According to law all Swedish authorities must express themselves using correct, plain and comprehensible language whenever they communicate with the citizens in order to make it easy to understand what needs to be known to participate in the Swedish democratic society. I would like to explore if there are more tools than the language that could be used to make their communication easier to comprehend, in this case images and stories. In this essay I will investigate the relationship between the written words and the visual components ? images and illustrations ? in brochures from Swedish authorities. I will also try to identify possible narratives in the brochures, and examine the functions of these narratives.

A picture says more than thousand words - an analysis of GQ Magazine´s cover images and ninth grade student´s views of them is an essay in media and communication studies covering 15 hp. This essay examines how men and women are depicted on the cover of GQ Magazine and how ninth grade students perceive these images. Our research questions are: How is gender presented in cover images? How do the students interpret these images? What possible differencies or similarities are there? Our theoretical framework is based on gender theory. Methods used are a survey conducted at Tegs Central school and a semiotic analysis of the cover images.

Fashion creates reactions. It is a type of art form that constantly needs to be updated. This is the thrilling part about fashion, but it is also the part that can create unintentional reactions.In this essay I will examine two garments that have achieved a great amount of media coverage, both in Sweden and abroad. One of them is a jumpsuit from H&M that was criticized because of the resemblance to the uniform worn by the Peshmerga-soldiers in Kurdistan. The other garment is a children?s sweater launched by Zara.

External shopping malls in the context of urban sprawl have, according too much of the previous research, had a negative Connotation when it comes to urban planning and a sustainable society. In recent years, some of this research on the issue has changed course towards that it might be some positive opportunities and elements in this development, given that it follows certain patterns. This latter development is what we have chosen to look deeper into in our study, Sustainable urban sprawl.The shopping mall Allum in Partille center has been the subject of this case study, to explore how people's shopping habits and travels in connection with these purchases has been affected by the establishment of an external shopping mall from a sustainability perspective.The method we used was a questionnaire distributed at workplaces in Partille. The collected data were then analyzed by using some of the dominant urban planning theories, for thus underpin our analysis. We have supplemented the study with a collection of information on existing and planned shopping centers in Gothenburg region.Our study shows that external shopping centers located in already developed areas, with an existing social structure, can help to create a more compact city with fewer and shorter shopping trips, and more sustainable transport choices when purchasing goods and services..

AbstractMaster Thesis in business administration, School of Business and Economics at the Linneaus University, financial control, spring 2010Authors:Stefan Hellman and Ewa Warnquist Supervisor:Magnus Willesson Title: Reward systems - a study of public companies? variable compensation system Background:Our interest of the variable compensation system in public companies was brought by the recent extensive discussions of bonuses in the time of a financial crisis. This has led to that the word bonus has been given a negative Connotation and we wanted to find out how the system of variable compensation is structured in the companies at Stockholm Stock Exchange. Problem:How is the variable compensation system structured in public companies? Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to study how the variable compensation in public companies is structured.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to identify the relationship between color and semiotics and how a person?s opinon, regarding a game character?s different characteristics, can be affected by the use of various colors. Prior to this study people were asked, through an online survey, to write down words that they associated with different colors. The colors were then divided into four different groups depending on whether they had been associated with positive-strong words, positive-weak words, negative-strong words or negative-weak words. In order to further shed light on the effect of colors, the four palettes, consisting of the colors associated with the different words, were then used separately to give color to two characters: a man and a woman.

This study is about underlying discourses of two tv-series for children from opposite parts of the globe. Focus lays on which morals and values adults choose to teach children through popular culture, even on an unaware basis and how does differ, or not, between different societies.The theoretical framework chosen for this study are semiotics in combination with the concept of the gaze by Laura Mulvey. Semiotics is the study of signs and their underlying meanings constructed by society. By studying popular culture with the tools provided by semiotic analysis it is possible to discouver underlying myths, social constructions of society, that are reproduced over and over again to remain alive. Mulveys theory of the gaze is helpfull in the process of decoding those constructions to discover the dominant partys and norms represented.In this particular study underlying structures such as patriarcal power relations, unequality between the representation of different ethnicities and the consistent presents of the male gaze where discovered.

Posters had their breakthrough in 1830-1840?s all thanks to the lithographic printing technique. The poster was used as an advertising tool.In this essay, we have looked at which semiotic and rhetorical elements that are found in today?s Swedish movie posters. What kind of image and text elements does the poster use and with what function? With what and how do they persuade the audience that the movies are interesting and worth seeing?We have taken the most popular Swedish movies between 2001 and 2010, one for each year, going by the statistic found at the website of the Swedish Film Institute.