In the social sciences, geopolitical theory is used in order to analyze states actions and commitments when it comes to foreign policy. This thesis develops a new understanding of geopolitical theory. Firstly, the development and application of geopolitical theory, from its foundations in the early twentieth century to contemporary geopolitical studies is discussed. Secondly a revised understanding of the variables integrated in the concept and how it can be operationalized as an analytical tool is presented and tested empirically.The critical assessment of the research field of geopolitical theory tells us that six different geopolitical perspectives have been considered the most influential (room, strategy, power projection, identity, affiliation and governance) when it comes to analyzing state action. This model is applied as an analytical tool and thus tested on a single case.

This essay focuses on the elderly and their religious beliefs and is based on the origin idea of a secular Sweden, but where immigration has been the source of additional various religious affiliations. This study intends to nuance the problems that previous researchers focused on when doing research on immigration, by interviewing staff members of nursing homes in immigrant dense areas, especially Malmoe, Gothenburg and Stockholm.The aim is to investigate how the allocation of residents, with different religious than Protestant Christians, is distributed at nursing homes and to see if there is a need for adjustments. Additionally, the thesis about immigrants and immigrants' identity and attitudes to Swedish society is discussed with John Berry´s acculturation theories and strategies.The results show that the majority of the nursing homes have residents with different religious affiliations and that some practical adjustments have been done, but it also shows that nursing homes have changed to the extent that they have adapted to a secular society. Ignorance and prejudice contribute to the problem in terms of seeing all residents as individuals and at the same time ensuring adaption according to all their needs, which is exemplified in the solutions made by using multi-cultural staff members and specialized departments. The relationship between nursing homes and the Swedish church continues but the role of the church service has changed.

Title: I saw it on Facebook ? Youth presentation of self on FacebookAuthors: Nicole Dreher & Anders SkoglundPresented: 01.06.2010Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to examine how the, in the study, participating youths make their presentation of self on their Facebook profiles.Methodology: The method used in the thesis was a social semiotic analysis focusing on the social semiotic concepts: semiotic resource, semiotic potential, affordance, denotation and connotation. A social semiotic analysis of composition was also used with the purpose to gain a deeper knowledge of the social semiotic affordances of Facebook?s composition.Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical base of this thesis consists mainly of Erving Goffman?s theory on presentation of self in everyday life as well as relevant theories to youth culture in sociology and identity in social psychology.Conclusions: The results show that the youth?s presentations of selves mostly takes place in their profile picture, status updates, groups, fan pages and through their communication with other users on their wall. The borders between front and back stage on Facebook entirely depends on the norms that the reader expects the profile owner to uphold.

The purpose of this study was to examine how Swedish newspapers framed the campaign Earth Hour. Did media encourage their audience to join in and how did they create a sense of togetherness regarding the campaign?The theories connected to the study are media logic, media events, identity and the media, collective togetherness, symbolic interactionism and discourse. The method used was a qualitative discourse analysis. We analysed three Swedish newspapers: Aftonbladet, Barometern and Svenska Dagbladet.

Title: The decisive opinion - A qualitative study of consumers opinions of eight Swedish fashion companies.Seminar date: 2008-01-14Course: Candidate thesis media and communication, 15 ECTS,Authors: Micela Danielsson, Frida ÅhsAdvisor: Larsåke LarssonFive keywords: Profile, Image, Brand, Fashion and AdvertisingPurpose: The purpose with this study is to evaluate and discuss the connection between profile and the companies? image in the eye of the consumer.Methodology: A qualitative method has been used in the paper, focusgruops interview with respondents from Örebro.Theoretical perspectives: The overall theory of the paper is describing fashion theory. profile, identity and image and advertising.Empirical foundation: Consumers from Örebro have made a contribution to the basis of our empirical study.Conclusions: The results show that fashion and clothes play a big part for the consumers and they ascribe it the part as a way to show their identity, image and express them selves. For none of the companies profile and image did not have a full connection, but a lot of times there were parts of the profile and image that had a connection. The questioned states that they get their opinions from merchandise, stores, store employees and different kinds of advertising.

Med utgångspunkt i de senaste årens uppmärksamhet kring den svenska Polisen och de konflikter som uppstått mellan arbetsgivare och arbetstagare väcktes ett intresse att studera vad som låg bakom dessa problem. Det visade sig att merparten av de problem som uppstått grundade sig i att anställda uppträtt på sätt som inte ansågs gynnande för organisationen och dess förtroende hos allmänheten. Studien ämnar besvara frågor kring hur Polisen som organisation formar sina anställda med utgångspunkt i teorier om identitetsarbete.En kvalitativ undersökning genomfördes med studier av organisatoriska dokument och genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. De intervjuade består av personer verksamma inom den svenska Polisen. Dessutom intervjuades personer från svenska Polisförbundet, det fackförbund som organiserar närmast alla Sveriges yrkesverksamma poliser.I resultatet framkom indikationer på, utifrån de teoretiska begrepp som har valts för studien, att hur individerna formar sina identiteter är relativt individuellt.

According to international and national literacy studies (PISA, PIRLS) Swedish boys are inferior to Swedish girls when it comes to reading. There can be numerous reasons to that statement. One is that Swedish teachers require more knowledge about communication as an important component in literacy. In spite of this shortcoming, Swedish girls manage to gain sufficient literacy. Why is that? The aim of this survey was to examine if there were any differences between girls and boys regarding communication skills when they begin in school.The main questions taken in account were:Which differences and/or similarities in communication skills are discernible between boys and girls this particular preschool?How do boys and girls communicate with each other in different room contexts on this particular preschool?           To be able to answer the questions, I adopted observations and audio recordings from children aged five.

The purpose of this study has been to examine a few Swedish advertisment producers opinions on the subject of viral advertising and especially the ethical aspects of hidden viral advertising. The specified purpose of this paper is to:To clarify the underlying reasons for the use of viral advertising.To clarify the advertising producers ethical views on hidden viral advertising.The essay is based on a qualitive research metod of an abductive nature where the empirical data is derived from interviews with three advertisment producers. Through a stratified selection method we contacted agencies that in one way or another uses digital solutions as an advertisment method. All interviews were conducted via the digital chat room Skype, one of the interviews were conducted with both picture and sound and the other two with audio-only.The following points are the essential conclusions of our study:Hidden viral advertising is seen as a rare promotional method in Sweden today, however, the viral-spread effect is more commonly used.The economic factors together with the spreading capacity of the viral advertising is contributing to one of the biggest reasons behind the use of viral advertising. In addition to these, viral advertising is seen as an effective way to stand out from traditional advertising.Viral advertising where the sender is hidden or unclear is always seen as unethical.

The present study aims to investigate the phonological development of typically developing monolingual Swedish speaking children aged three to four years. The result could be used in the standardization of a new phonological test material for clinical speech and language pathology assessments. One-hundred and thirty four children aged three and four years (73 girls and 61 boys) were assessed with the new material. The children were tested in kindergartens in three communities in southeastern Sweden. Their assessments were audio recorded, transcribed phonetically and analyzed with Percentage Phonemes Correct (PPC) and Percentage of Words Correct (PWC).

Swedish municipals schools have been given an assignment to convey basic values to pupils. The assignment is to bring up the pupils through transmitting and developing a heritage such as values, traditions, language and knowledge. Together along with the lasting knowledge which constitutes the community frame of reference everybody needs. There by is the purpose of this study through a qualitative method to investigate how the schools assignment to create a community national identity of the pupils is interpreted by the teachers in introduction classes. Even how the teachers in this study response to ?Swedish? culture by presenting and educate the pupils in this.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the lunchtime from a language development perspective. It will compare two preschools with different ways of organizing mealtimes and observe the conversations between teachers and children. It will also study the ways in which a meal is served and how it affects the conversations. In one of the preschools the children eat in a proper dining room where the food is served as a buffet while in the other preschool the children eat in the preschoolarea and the food is served in bowls on the tables. I also want to investigate how two of these preschool teachers reflect on the mealtimes as part of the language development plan.

By tradition, archival sciences has emerged in a context with defined information processes, with explicit information producers and custodians to which consumers make requests for the information. In this process, the archival science has developed methods and strategies to preserve authentic and reliable records and by that providing trustworthy information. In an online society, people are using the internet to get information for different purposes. Even though there is no legal obligation to guarantee the authenticity, it is of societal importance that the end users get trustworthy information. In this online context, open data is a trend that is growing fast over the world and it is interesting because its conditions raises many questions regarding authenticity.Since open data is free to reuse, link and combine with other information, and it is preferably in primary format it raises questions about how to maintain the integrity and identity of the information, which is the constituents of authenticity as it is used in this work.

The purpose of this essay is to explore how social workers view a possible connection between exposure to honour violence and development of mental illness and/or substance abuse. We first heard of the possible connection from a voluntary organization who work in this field and who believe that this connection could be common. We therefore wanted to explore this from the perspective of social workers who come into contact with victims of honour violence: was this something they had noticed? How did they deal with it if it was noticed? We also asked how the possible connection could be interpreted and, supposing the social workers had failed to notice the connection, why this could be. We made five qualitative interviews with six social workers working in different contexts whom within their work come across honour-related issues.

According to international and national literacy studies (PISA, PIRLS) Swedish boys are inferior to Swedish girls when it comes to reading. There can be numerous reasons to that statement. One is that Swedish teachers require more knowledge about communication as an important component in literacy. In spite of this shortcoming, Swedish girls manage to gain sufficient literacy. Why is that? The aim of this survey was to examine if there were any differences between girls and boys regarding communication skills when they begin in school.The main questions taken in account were:Which differences and/or similarities in communication skills are discernible between boys and girls this particular preschool?How do boys and girls communicate with each other in different room contexts on this particular preschool?           To be able to answer the questions, I adopted observations and audio recordings from children aged five.

This essay discusses the students? thoughts about the teacher's response to their gender identity. The students discuss their right to have an intergender identity which means that they don?t identify themselves in the traditional sexes, man and woman, and the gender role each category has. They want to be called with a neutral pronoun and not be seen like boys or girls.