This essay is a study which is intended to explore how a well-known makeup company, M.A.C., uses semiotics and pragmatics in their advertisements and how the consumer’s reaction corresponds with what is proposed in the theories. Three printed advertisements were analyzed by the author and six qualitative interviews were conducted with Swedish women of different ages. The analysis of the advertisements identified semiotic and pragmatic features including linguistic and non-linguistic signs, cultural myths, metaphors, similes, pronouns, deixis, visual parallelism as well as the use of Relevance Theory such as enrichment. The results revealed that M.A.C. Cosmetics marketing strategies correlate to, or can be explained by, key theories within pragmatics and semiotics. The results of the interviews show that the majority of the interviewees react correspondingly with what is proposed in the Theoretical Background chapter and the research has validated the theories and confirmed them as useful and effective analytical tools for examining advertising texts. It was also established that the ​advertiser appears to be aware, consciously or not, of​ the cognitive processes involved​ ​in the interpretation of advertisements which Relevance Theory explains, such as enrichment.

In 2015, 70% of the asylum-seekers in Sweden were men. This skewed ratio combined with the image of the threatful male immigrant have raised a topical question within the most gender equal country and self-proclaimed feminist state. Through a gender perspective that has never been researched and which gives voice to Swedish women, this issue is investigated. In particular, it is relevant to consider how socially engaged Swedish women reflect on male newcomers who have arrived in Sweden since the 2015 refugee crisis. Alongside it is pertinent to investigate how those Swedish women assess the impact of the new arrivals on their lives and the society they live in. Using qualitative research,fifteen women are interviewed on account of their relevant opinion on the topic, their experience with refugees, their political stance and their work. The informants reminisce about the refugee crisis in Sweden and examine the characteristics of male newcomers,their empathy and support towards male newcomers, gender (in)equality and the impact of the arrival of male newcomers in Sweden. Results display a dense and complex picture of the viewpoints of Swedish women on the refugee crisis and the arrival of male newcomers to Sweden, between enthusiasm and prudence on the issue.

Sweden has been celebrated in public discourse for being a major proponent of social justice and anti-racist policies, but the country’s ambiguous history with racism has been replaced by colour-evasive discourses permeating contemporary organisations today. Management and organisation studies have focused on the individual identity work of employees, without further attention to the intersecting social positionings of Black Afro-Swedish women. By the works of Black feminism, intersectionality and a phenomenology of embodiment, this study focused on how Afro-Swedish women experience and manage their embodied identities in working life. With a qualitative research methodology and an embodied research design, data was gathered from 17 unstructured interviews with Afro-Swedish women who are professionals, managers, and executives in the public, private, as well as the third sector. The participant group consisted of 2 Deaf women and 15 hearing women. Through an inductive thematic analysis process 3 main themes were generated: Reactions and Responses, Negotiation Practices and Survival Strategies. The findings also point to a sectoral segregation of race and gender, specific for the third sector, as well as diversity exploitation that renders Black women more vulnerable by naturalising unpaid diversity labour. The concluding chapter calls for a more focused analysis about Deaf racialised women’s experiences in working life and Afro-Swedish women across a broader range of professions.

Title: Motivations of females to play poker online. (Business study of Swedish women) Authors: Anastasiya Bochkareva - 870208 Engelbrektsgatan 8A 72216 Västerås, Sweden aba07001@student.mdh.se Karina Petrova - 880613 Södergatan 22 19547 Märsta, Sweden kpa07001@student.mdh.se Supervisor: Mikael Holmgren Examiner: Ole Liljetors Key Words: Online gambling; Online poker; Swedish women; Motivation; Emotional motivations; Material motivations, Atmosphere; Accessibility; Hypotheses; Regression analysis Institution: Mälardalen University Sweden, School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, Box 883, 721 23 Västerås Course: Master Thesis in Business Administration, 15 ECTS-points, spring semester 2011 Problem: What motivates Swedish women to play poker online for money? Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the main motives behind Swedish females’ propensity to play poker online by means of hypotheses testing through regression analysis. Method: Method includes collection of the information on definitions, theories and modelsabout gambling, online gambling (precisely online poker) and motivations togamble. Five hypotheses have been constructed based on the collected informationand the survey have been created and conducted among 397 Swedish female onlinepoker players. Further, based on gathered data, hypotheses have been tested bymeans of simple linear and multiple regressions.. Results: Regression analysis revealed that emotional and material motivations together withaccessibility of the game and surrounding atmosphere play a significant role in thereason why Swedish females play online poker for money. It was also found thatemotional motivation was a fundamental factor that triggers Swedish women togamble. Furthermore, research revealed the hypothetical target segment of femaleSwedish online poker players. Average Swedish woman is between 30-40 years oldsingle woman without children, who live high speed, active life (either studying orworking) and who spends around 30.3 hours per months on playing online poker.

This study will explore the role of female authors and their female protagonists in contemporary Scottish and Nordic crime fiction. Authors including Val McDermid, Denise Mina, Lin Anderson and Liza Marklund are just a few of the women who have challenged the expectation of gender in the crime fiction genre. By setting their novels in contemporary society, they reflect a range of social and political issues through the lens of a female protagonist. By closely examining the female characters, all journalists, in Val McDermid’s Lindsay Gordon series; Denise Mina’s Paddy Meehan series; Anna Smith’s books about Rosie Gilmour; and Liza Marklund’s books about Annika Bengzton, I explore the issue of gender through these writers’ perspectives and also draw parallels between their societies. I document the influence of these writers on my own practice-based research, a novel, The Invisible Chains, set in post-Referendum Scotland. The thesis will examine and define the role of the female protagonist, offer a feminist reading of contemporary crime fiction, and investigate how the rise of human trafficking, the problem of domestic abuse in Scotland and society’s changing attitudes and values are reflected in contemporary crime novels, before discussing the narrative structures and techniques employed in the writing of The Invisible Chains. This novel allows us to consider the role of women in a contemporary and progressive society where women hold many senior positions in public life and examine whether they manage successfully to challenge traditional patriarchal hierarchies. The narrative is split between journalist Megan Ross, The Girl, a victim of human trafficking, and Trudy, who is being domestically abused, thus pulling together the themes of the critical genesis in the creative work. By focusing on the protagonist, the victims and raising awareness of human trafficking and domestic abuse, The Invisible Chains, an original creative work, reflects a contemporary society’s changing attitudes, problems and values.