Choir singing is one of the most popular national movements in Sweden but the knowledge of the meaning of this activity for health and well being from the choir singers? own experiences is limited. The purpose of this study was therefore to develop useful knowledge about the meaning of choir singing for participating persons from a health perspective. The data was collected through qualitative interviews with six different choir singers and went after that through a comprehensive analysis which resulted in four main categories: an oasis in the existence; possibilities of meetings and solidarity; goals and musical development; and physical and emotional well-being. The results showed that the choir activity represents a place where the singers can escape the demands and the stress factors of everyday life and where they get the opportunity of meaningful relations with other people.

The aim of this study was to get a deeper understanding of how employees at NCC Construction Sverige AB experience health promotion activities. The purpose was to identify and uncover the process of meaning constitution concerning health promotion within each subjective individual. To achieve this deeper understanding the participants were asked to answer a carefully formulated phenomenological question in a self-report. The received reports where analysed according to the method of Meaning Constitution Analysis. The result showed that both office workers and construction workers exclusively refer health promotion to Bodily functions even though there where some differences in type of activity they focused.

In this project the author made an attempt to, in a short film, visualizean experience of the organic materials that our bodies consist ofand what becomes of it when we die. The intention was to dissect thismatter, break it down to see it in a simpler form and to explore ourrelationship to it, being part of a constant exchange between organicmaterials and having so much power over the environment and otherliving animals. At the very start, the idea was to deal with the relationshipdifferent people have with their bodies. Later in the process, a decisionwas made that the product would be communicating the author?sown experiences of the body materials after studying it and trying torecreate fragments and feelings of them.

This thesis strives to demonstrate my increasingly phenomenological approach to musical composition in relation to the extensive body of musical works connected in different ways to the poetry collection ORDER by the Swedish author and play-wright Lars Norén. The hand, the touch, the voice, the space (environment) and its philosophical implications are scrutinised from a poetic perspective (my poetics). The question of language (the word), the sign (text), sound/noise/music and its immanent Bodily qualities are focused and questioned in my own work as well as in primarily two case studies of the music of Pierluigi Billone (1960-) and Morton Feldman (1926-1987).The text reflects the emancipatory process my music has undergone the last 4- 5 years: moving away from language and text (representation) to body and sound, although preserving and nurturing the extended idea of the sign (as signification of sound and body) as a possible embodied vehicle in my composing and artistic thinking.The reader is invited through the extensive use of sketches and work methods to witness and follow this process as a manifestation of the ?doing? rather than the presentation or construction of an analysis in an academic sense.The thesis offers no solution and it fails to encapsulate all of the so-called ORDER-MUSIC (the music that is connected with Norén's collection of poetry) Instead it proposes a possible way of ?opening? the process to a basically phenomenological methodology inside the musical field of score based chamber music..

Nordström är J, Waldesten, S. En studie om äldre kvinnor och hur de påverkas av samhällets ideal skönhet. Examensarbete i socialt arbete 15 poäng. Malmö högskola. Hälsa och samhälle 2011. ABSTRAKT Syftet med denna uppsats är att utforska och fördjupa förståelsen av äldre kvinnors relationer till kroppsliga utseende.

The progress of chronic disorders such as heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects various aspects of life. They have an deep impact on patients´experience of health and wellbeing and their functional qualities and quality of life. Several studies have in an extensive way described heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in its own domain but few qualitative studies consider coexistence of the disorders from a caring science perspective. The aim was to describe the meaning of living with heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from a lifeworld perspective. With a phenomenological and reflecting lifeworld approach it´s possible to describe eight patients daily experiences of living with severe and chronic disorders from their own narratives.

The present MA thesis analyzes how body and blood functions as historical and narrative elements in Yu Hua's novel Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995). In the novel, the story and the plot can not be regarded as disparate items; the two levels of the text are tightly interwoven by what the thesis introduces as a sangvinolent narration. The term conceptualizes the use of blood as a structural element and the thrust of the text, in this case how the ability to sell blood is a prerequisite for the story and the plot.Close readings reveal the structural correlations between the blood-selling main-character Xu Sanguan in the plot on the one hand, and in the story on the other, which can be detected to have, inter alia, an effect on the temporality of the narrative. Themes linked to identity, belonging and survival (performativity, mimicry, reification and alienation) permeate the text. In the novel the body and Bodily fluids are sacrificed in order to form and enforce perceptions of identity and societal roles.The rhetorical use of ?blood and tears? (Ch.

The focus of this study is on the nature of social support from the rape survivor's perspective. Research has shown that social support is essential to the survivor's ability to recover from rape and that it acts as a powerful tool for the survivor to effectively deal with the PTSD symptoms that follow rape. The research also shows that survivors often receive or interpret reactions after a rape as negative. Hence, these reactions can be detrimental tothe healing process.Qualitative interviews with six women on their experience of social support after rape form the base of this study and Anthony Giddens terms ontological security, fateful moments and Bodily self-management are a part of the analytical apparatus. Rape is commonly analyzed from a feminist perspective.

Background:In Sweden and Northern Europe, cardiovascular disease mortality rates are high. The clinical picture in the Western world is dominated by lifestyle diseases in which individual behavior and attitudes have a significant impact on the health effect. In the society cardiovascular disease is seen as an illness factor and contribution to disability. Conditions for a good life are not only good health also factors such as intimate relationships and meaningful work which affect the person's quality of life.Aim:Lifestyle changes and quality of life for patients, regarding cardiovascular disease.Method:A literature review was made. Eight articles, quantitative and qualitative were analyzed.

Alla människor frågar sig någon gång vad som kan komma ske efter att vi dör. Tankar om döden och livet efter detta är alltid ett aktuellt samtalsämne, inte minst inom religionsvetenskapen. Att vara ovetande om framtiden kan vara skrämmande och religioner gör nästan uteslutande alltid försök till att svara på dessa frågor och ge ro till den oroliga människan. Något som fungerat som en lösning på människans rädsla för döden inom den judiska och kristna traditionen är tron på den kroppsliga uppståndelsen.Denna uppsats ger större kunskap om hur judiska och kristna teologer och traditioner sett på kroppen i samband med uppståndelsen inom båda religionerna. För att utkristallisera de olika kroppssyner som figurerar i denna diskussion har en kvalitativ litteraturanalys använts för att analysera utvalda teologers forskning.

The overarching purpose of the study was to examine the effects of infant massage and to put these effects incontext with mother ? child attachment. The intention was also to study whether these effects have any relevancefor social work. This was accomplished by studying earlier research, theory and laws but also through interviewswith mothers who have followed through a course in infant massage. The main questions of the study was: Afterthe completion of the course and after using the massage technique at home, does the mother experience that thebond with their child is influenced by the technique and are the mothers more apprehensive of their child?ssignals? Has the mothers observed any signals from their infants during the massage and if so what has beentheir reaction? Does the mothers experience that the massage has provided any physiological effects? Has thecompletion of the course provided the mothers with knowledge that?s had an effect in their ways of parenting? Inwhat way does the earlier research, reports and laws deal with the benefits and risks of a secure or insecureattachment, and can the quality of the attachment have any meaning in the social work? A qualitative approachwas chosen with respondent-interviews.

Background: Animals have been shown to have a positive effect on people. The nursing science approach says that a person can experience well-being despite illness. The positive attributes of animals can be used in health care to help ill people experience well-being. An animal-assisted intervention can be a form of activity or therapy involving pets (AAA / AAT) or horses (EAT).Aim: The purpose of this study was to elucidate how animals in health care promote well-being for people with long-term illness.Methods: Literature review based on fourteen original scientific articles, with both qualitative and quantitative approach.Results: The compilation of the results led to four main categories with two subcategories respectively. These were: Physical aspects with subcategories Physical well-being and Bodily functions; Psychic aspects with subcategories Psychic well-being and Reduced psychiatric symptoms; Existential aspects with subcategories Quality of Life and Safety; Social Aspects with subcategories Social behavior and Relationships.Discussions: Review and discussion of the selected method.

Religion is not only manifested in the more traditional forms such as church attendance, but also in various expressions on social media. Facebook is seen by many as creating a social platform where different opinions and more unconventional discussions may flourish unlike how the traditional media convey information. Internet is therefore an interesting platform for investigating how information about religion is spread by researching religious behavior and expression. The focus of this essay is to examine visible, which includes text as a social practice, forms of religious expression shown by the discursive struggle between the Facebook-group Christian Women Against Femen and its counterpart feminist movement Femen. The essay seeks to answer how notions of femininity on the Internet are formulated and reproduced based on the discourse between these two women's movements.The essay highlights how the women?s movements, with their Bodily manifestation and by their usage of words, construct and reproduce different images of gender and womanhood.

The purpose of this thesis is to, based on interviews and document studies, critically discuss how the introduction of kickboxing in Physical Education (PE) could affect gender equality in society. Based on a queer feminist and norm critical perspective on the prevailing teaching of PE, which, despite official efforts to challenge and modernize PE, persists in reproducing gender norms by e.g. spending 75% of class time on ball games. The hypothesis is that girls accessing violence (empowerment) through a Bodily awareness in the form of kickboxing, positively would challenge the power imbalance that gender norms create. Girls are brought up, even today, in accordance with gender norms arguing against girls/women wanting to use their bodies as powerful tools to set limits.

 The aim of this two-years master?s thesis is to examine the role of the body and the importance of nonverbal communication in the library workplace and to explore the possibility of becoming more nonverbally skilled. For this purpose a course was developed and presented to nine librarians in a public library in the vicinity of Stockholm in February, 2011. Qualitative interviews with the librarians were conducted after the course.Important theories for this work were Annemaree Lloyd?s thoughts on corporeality, Erving Goffman?s dramaturgical sociology and John Dewey?s learning by doing.