The main purpose of this study is to show how narrative can be understood as cultural practice, how it can be said to function both internally and externally, and to ask questions about how the narrating subject, through the organizing of narrative, positions it self and mediates between the different discoursive contexts of which it is a part. This is done by an analisys of how six swedish soldiers tells the tale of how they came to choose a military carrer and why they have served or want to serve in peace-keeping missions abroad. The source material is primarily collected through unstructured interviews with theese soldiers, but also through textual analysis of a soldier blog. Theoretically the study draws on a combination of the discourse theory of Michel Foucault, narrative theory, Richard Jenkins theory of the internal-external dialectic of identifikation and intersectionality to construct a framework that allows the narratives to be deconstructed and understood as discoursive products of both the military contexts as such and the larger cultrual context that surrounds it. The conclusions of this study suggests that the organizing of soldier narratives are a complex and multifaceted process, in which the soliders must balance between the ideals, values and norms of the military context while also taking into account how society at large views and interprets the practices and forms of military life.

The body that is? You have to take care of the body is an ethnological study of how children look at body and health from their own perspective. During five weeks I did a field work in a school in Uppsala, Sweden. Ten fifth grade students and two teachers were interviewed. They were also participants in observations and did paintings.

The purpose of this work has been to understand the reading group from the perspective of the society. The studyhas taken place in the city of Västerås and the results can thus not be used in a more generalized sence. Byfocusstudies conducted with members from four different reading groups connected in different ways to the libraryin Västerås I have reached the following conclusions.According to Jürgen Habermas theories the reading groups, with their ideals regarding education and meetingswhere everybody are equals, belong in the part of the public sphere that he calls literary. There are someconnections to the political sphere, for exempel the down to earth quality of the literature that is the choice ofthe groups and their way of discussing it.One problem that occures when one tries to apply Habermas idéas regarding the public sphere on readinggroups is that the criteria Habermas considers as vital to sphere for it to work properly does not seem to workon the reading groups. Inclusion, eqality and freedom of subjects are necessary to create a public sphere.

Equality between the sexes has been discussed in Sweden for more than 50 years. In the 60´s and during the 70´s the discourse that dominated the debate was based on the assumption that both men and women needed to liberate themselves from their traditional gender roles. In this approach information and education was perceived as the key to equality. During the 80´s however, power and subordination became the main focal point of concern within this debate, and focus upon changing the patriarchal power structures dominating society were perceived as the principal key for establishing equality between the sexes. Today, the latter discourse still dominates both the scientific and the political perspective upon equality.

Den här studien undersöker egna resurser och ideal som fyra studerande på den grundläggande utbildningen i psykoterapi vid Sankt Lukas utbildningsinstitut ger uttryck för. Vidare intresserar sig studien för hur de fyra studerandes uttryckta resurser och ideal överensstämmer med CER-modellen av Skovholt och Rønnestad. CER-modellen beskriver vad som gör en psykoterapeut framgångsrik, en så kallad master therapist. Undersökningsmaterialet består av åtta intervjuer som ingår i ett forskningsprojekt som är ett samarbete mellan Sankt Lukas utbildningsinstitut och Psykologiska institutionen vid Stockholms universitet och som fokuserar på frågan: Vad händer med studenter under en psykoterapi- och psykoterapeututbildning? Materialet har bearbetats enligt en deskriptiv metod och har sedan prövats mot CER-modellens kriterier.

A large part of the Iranian population resented the west, in particular USA and Great Britain, during the Islamic revolution in Iran 1979. The people were also resenting the adverse effects of the trumped up frame made in Iran. The last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was detested by many in Iran for its west-oriented regime. The resentment among many Iranians is a consequence of the violations of e.g. the lack of political and civil rights, there were no existing legal security in the society, there were no economic distribution and the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah violated the human rights.The resolution from an Iranian perspective for riot is not new, during the last centuries the abomination against the despotic kings have been existing varyingly and big riots have been raised.  The Islamic revolution in 1979 was new because the revolution added adverse effects of west, the population detested west and expressed it by protesting through demonstration.  The significance of the revolution in 1979 was also attributable to Islam.

This thesis is about the idea of public transport and the discussions stirred in the media during changes in ownership. More specifically it is a study of the historical situation of Stockholm, Sweden, where the periods chosen are the 1910s, 1960s and 1990s.During the 1910s Stockholm?s first and largest tram company was taken over by thecity, and a period of public ownership began, which in the 1960s changed form whenthe county council took over the city?s principal authority and formed the politicallyadministered company SL (Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, Greater Stockholm LocalTransit Company). Between these periods the word kollektivtrafik (public transport)was established in the Swedish language. This study describes and compares the ideasconcerning the phenomenon of public transport.The aim of the study is to analyse the ideas, values and ideals concerning public transport in the media, defined as newspapers.

ABSTRACTTitle: Elle & Café ? a study of fashion magazines cover pages.Number of pages: 38Author: Greta SimonssonTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring Semester 2008University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityAim: The purpose of this essay is to:? Analyze the cover images from the 2007 editions of the magazines Elles and Café, using semiotic analysis.? Analyzes eventual resemblances or differences between the two magazine's cover images based upon the result of the semiotic analysis.Material and methods: The study of Elles's and Café's cover pages has been done using a model built upon semiotic analysis, developed with the purpose of suiting observation and examination of cover pages of fashion magazines. The cover pages were analyzed from the categories character, context, and environment.Main results: The main results include the observation that both Elles and Café chooses well-known figures from women's fashion industry as prime characters on their covers. In Elles, all main characters are famous women emerging from the music, television and fashion industries. The women in Café are known for similar professions.

This joint study has researched the use of non-European history in a Swedish textbook for the High School course History 1a1 as well as internet based material regarding the same issue. The aim of this study was to clarify the use of non-European history in regards to the Eurocentric theory.As for the textbook analysis the purpose was to research what non-European history was mentioned in the material with regards to geographical location and the events that were mentioned, as well as to study how much non-European history was included in the material compared to European or Western history.The study of internet based material aimed to show what kind of teaching material could be found on internet based databases by and for teachers. The study aimed to show how well the material handled non-European history, as well as to what degree the material used European perspectives when dealing with non-European events and geographical areas.In our thesis we have created our own definition of the theory regarding eurocentrism. The method used was a combination of a quantitative and a qualitative discourse analysis of the texts.Our results showed that the textbook was overwhelmingly Eurocentric, not only giving vastly more focus to the European parts of world history, but also using European perspectives and ideals to describe non-European events and areas. The internet based material, on the other hand, proved more diverse and less biased, but also more difficult to find and less plentiful.Our conclusion, then, is that teachers have to choose between the risk of letting their students develop a severely limited and heavily Eurocentric view of the world, and the additional workload required to find and organize non-textbook material to broaden their students horizons.We hope our study will contribute to the discussion of the place of Eurocentrism in today?s global and multicultural society..

Feminist initiative ? an idea analysis.On the fourth of April in the year 2005 Feministic initiative (Fi) was created, it was an main response to the slow changes in the Swedish society, which claimed to establish an equal society. Equality has become one of the major indicators of a contemporary democratic society. The Swedish government has long proclaimed to reach this goal, but even though Sweden currently lies in the front among the democratic societies, while you consider equality issues, especially between the sexes, there is still a lot that need to be done in the Swedish society. Feministic initiative began as an organization and established a political party and participated in the election during the year 2006, but failed to reach a place in the parliament.

TitleThe profession of Children's Librarians. Identity and vocation.AbstractThe aim of this Master's thesis is to investigate the professional identity of Children's Librarians in order to contribute to a deeper understanding to the professions of librarians. This places the thesis in the field of Library and Information Science that studies the profession. The definition we use to understand profession suggests that all librarians take an active part in negotiating their professional role and library enterprise.Our empirical material consists of interviews with eight Children's Librarians. Using a qualitative method was the best way to gain an understanding for the participant's own experiences of their professional identity.

No one believes in Åkesson - a comparative study on the evening press and the publicservice reporting on the Swedish Democrats before the 2014 election.The purpose of this essay was to study how Aftonbladet and Ekot reports about the SwedishDemocrats before the election 2014, as well as comparing the two medias and reasoningabout their agendas towards the party. The tabloid, Aftonbladet, is one of the biggestnewspapers in Sweden, which depends on counter sales and commercials. Ekot, which is apart of public service, is state-funded and regulated by certain guidelines. Using aquantitative method we studied 80 articles, and through a qualitative method, six of thearticles were analyzed to reach a deeper understanding. The theories primary used in thisstudy were agenda-setting and framing, to stress the power of media.

The aim of this study is to analyse the Swedish state´s ambition in achieving equality among its citizens. By studying the new urban policy introduced by the government in 1998 from a theoretical perspective the purpose of this essay is to understand the ideational dimensions in this policy project, in regard to established understandings about equality.The theoretical framework on which this study is based consists of two different parts. The first presents dominating models on welfare states, mainly focusing on the socialdemocratic welfare state. The second introduces influential theoretical views on equality, primarily discussing universalism and a differentiated equality view. It also presents theoretical views on how to understand the relationship between the state an its citizens.

Wikileaks is using the new technical solutions to mount big leaks, consisting of secret or sensitive information from the government, institutions and business. This might profoundly change the media reality and it certainly means both new opportunities and new challenges for traditional media; the conditions for the journalists, the sources and the news reporting are changing. In this thesis the relationship between Swedish journalists and Wikileaks has been the focus; they both affect each other but the conditions for this relationship is not yet clear. Clearly there is an interdependence, but who really is dependent on the other and to which degree they are dependent on each other is still a question without a given answer.The aim of this thesis has been to discern a new journalism, and how this responds to the theories of Public Journalism and Journalistik 3.0. The main aim has been to examine what Swedish journalist thinks about Wikileaks, what their attitude towards Wikileaks are,  if and how they think that Wikileaks have affected the Swedish journalism.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate if there might be a possiblecorrelation between young women´s fascination with the vampire narrative andtheir search for identity in the late modern age. With the help of contemporarysociological studies in the field of the late modern man and today?s youth culture,I?ve chosen to do qualitative interviews with eight young women in order to examinehow today?s society affects their process of identification. Lately we?ve been ableto see an enormous interest for books that deal with the vampire saga, and while thereaders are mostly young females, it brought me to ask the question why the combinationof teenage drama and vampires seems to be such a winning concept.We live in a time where most young females experience a lot of pressure trying to addup to the demands of society, and as the media keep producing images of youngwomen being thin and looking like supermodels, most teenagers feel a lot of pressureand anxiety trying to live up to such unnatural ideals that in the long run might lead tovarious health issues and eating disorders.As a result of this thesis I?ve found that the vampire narrative answers to some ofthe existential needs we have as members of a late modern society.