ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It has finished and now I can take a deep breath, really deep! I have gained great experience from my first thesis work in terms of knowledge I acquired, new people I met, and new institutions and countries where I have been, therefore I will always remember this process mostly with nice memories. During my thesis research, I had an opportunity to meet many people who were willing to help me and they actually did. First, I would like to thank Burcu Tuncer at the Wuppertal Institute for helping me to decide the topic of my thesis even at the beginning and giving me advice, comments as well as support keeping me motivated even by the phone calls. I would like to thank my supervisor Carl Dalhammar for his advice and comments to help me to identify the main objectives of my thesis and specific issues I should mention. Also I would like to thank Kerem Okumus and the great staff of REC for helping me to find and meet with right persons for my research questions and advice and comments that gave me new ideas. In addition, thanks to my dear classmates and the great staff of LUMES. The time I spent with you was full of fun and happy memories, which I cannot forget for the rest of my life. We were all around the world with different personalities and cultural values, this was invaluable experience for me and I learnt a lot about things I have never known before. So keep in touch forever! Finally I would like to thank my family for their love, care, and support