In Italy in 1528 the famous author Baldassare Castiglione published the book Il Cortegiano. In words Castiglione portraits the ideal courtiers and provides a lot of advice on how to achieve the ultimate courtier manner. For example he introduces and explains the words sprezzatura and grazia. His advice spread from Italy and influenced the courts around Europe. My purpose with this study has been two folded. Firstly, I have analysed Castigliones Il Cortegiano in order to examine his vision of virtues and ideals.

This thesis aims at analysing conflicts between different ideals of democracy, using the example of a newly implemented citizen´s initiative reform. This reform gives citizens the right to make policy proposals to Swedish municipal councils. The proposals are to be handled in the same way as proposals from the municipal council members. An ideology analysis of various government documents as well as of an official state study (SOU) is carried out to identify and discuss the ideals of democracy that underpin the reform. The analysis is based on participatory democracy and electoral democracy theory and Arnstein's Eight Rungs on the Ladder of Citizen Participation is used to discuss different types of participation by the citizens.

The purpose of this study is to compare students (both male and female), from the Linnaeus University in Kalmar, about their perceptions with a particular focus on identity and self-esteem. In regards to the current societal problem concerning obesity and beauty ideals, this paper aimed to study the student?s opinions concerning health and diets in order to fully answer the purpose of the study. The theory used in this paper is in particular regards to identity and self-esteem. In order to answer the study questions, a qualitative approach was conducted in the form of various focus groups.

Urination is a biological need but the routines surrounding urination are culturally specific and ever changing. This makes the organization of public space an important part in deciding what actions are made possible for the people in it. This paper considers women?s public urination and the possibilities to merge the need to urinate and the construction of the female body as feminine.A number of texts that describe the construction of the female body and identity as both gendered and socially produced are analysed in relation to women?s experiences of incontinence. Incontinence as a medical diagnosis is by this becoming possible to question, and may be seen as one of several strategies used to manage both the organization of the public space and the expectations of the female body to be a docile body.The conclusion is that a woman who wants to enter public space has the following options when it comes to the need to urinate:To strive for the feminine ideal.

Urination is a biological need but the routines surrounding urination are culturally specific and ever changing. This makes the organization of public space an important part in deciding what actions are made possible for the people in it. This paper considers women?s public urination and the possibilities to merge the need to urinate and the construction of the female body as feminine.A number of texts that describe the construction of the female body and identity as both gendered and socially produced are analysed in relation to women?s experiences of incontinence. Incontinence as a medical diagnosis is by this becoming possible to question, and may be seen as one of several strategies used to manage both the organization of the public space and the expectations of the female body to be a docile body.The conclusion is that a woman who wants to enter public space has the following options when it comes to the need to urinate:To strive for the feminine ideal.

The purpose of this study was to compare the body posture among a group of women who recently have given birth (subjects) and a group of women who never have been pregnant (controls). The comparison was done between the two groups using the Comprehensive Body Examination (CBE) according to Bunkan. In the study participated 24 women, 12 who recently have given birth and 12 who never have been pregnant. The results showed that the body posture differed between the two groups. The subjects differed more from satisfactory jointpositions than the controls.

Body image in women with breastcancerBreast cancer is the second most common form of cancer in Sweden today. To get a breast cancer diagnose can be a traumatic experience for many women. It´s difficult to forsee how these women are going to control their situation. When a breast has to be removed because of cancer, the women has to adjust to changes in both physical and phychological aspects. The aim of this study was to elucidate body image in women with breast cancer after a mastectomy.

Kandidatarbetet undersöker och diskuterar frågeställningen "Vilket socialt ansvar har jag som grafisk formgivare i skapandet av skönhetsidealen?". Kandidatarbetet fokuserar på att skapa en diskussion kring ämnet skönhetsideal, hur dessa påverkar unga kvinnor samt vilka möjligheter det finns för att bryta samhällsnormer och göra en förändring, en större skillnad. Utifrån mitt forskringsresultatet kring skönhetshistorian och dess utveckling under åren, har jag skapat en produktion i form av modeillustrationer. Jag tycker inte att samhället inser hur kraftfullt påverkade vi har blivit av media och modebranschen under de senaste åren. Även de som inte är intresserade av mode och skönhet. Vi som jobbar inom medie- och reklambranschen är den tredje statsmakten.

Kandidatarbetet undersöker och diskuterar frågeställningen "Vilket socialt ansvar har jag som grafisk formgivare i skapandet av skönhetsidealen?". Kandidatarbetet fokuserar på att skapa en diskussion kring ämnet skönhetsideal, hur dessa påverkar unga kvinnor samt vilka möjligheter det finns för att bryta samhällsnormer och göra en förändring, en större skillnad. Utifrån mitt forskringsresultatet kring skönhetshistorian och dess utveckling under åren, har jag skapat en produktion i form av modeillustrationer. Jag tycker inte att samhället inser hur kraftfullt påverkade vi har blivit av media och modebranschen under de senaste åren.

I am a glassblower and I am a woman. In this project I've been working with alternative representations of the female body, muscles and technology. Mouthblown objects contains traces of body and form representations.I've been using muscle sensors to collect data from my arms while I blow glass. A special has made 3D-models from the collected data and I've blown these viritual objects in glass.My work is based around issues like: What happens when I measure my muscles? Am I (and my process) affected by the data gathering? How can I create alternative representations of the female body? What is the relation between glassblowing, the objects, body and gender?.

Det kulturella smalhetsidealet innebär negativa konsekvenser för individens psykologiska välbefinnande. Individen upplever en diskrepans mellan den ideala kroppsformen och hur de själva ser ut. Den sociala konstruktionen av den kvinnliga och manliga kroppen skapar olika villkor för kvinnor och män att förhålla sig till sin kropp som ett subjekt eller objekt. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att med hjälp av självskattningsskalor mäta upplevelse av objektifiering, body-esteem, restriktivt ätande och motionsvanor hos kvinnor (n= 61) och män (n= 53). Kvinnor upplever större objektifiering, har lägre body-esteem, äter oftare restriktivt samt motionerar oftare för att kontrollera vikten jämfört med män.

This study will focus on how patients that suffer from self-injurious behaviours experience the relation between their self and body according to some professionals. The purpose is to enlighten why a person who has mental problems chooses to injure his or her body. We believe that the reason behind this is based on the early attachment between the parent and child. We also believe that a person only continues with this behaviour if he or she gains from it. The research questions this study raises are:· How does a person with self-injurious behaviour experience the relationship between their body and their self?· What is the effect of self-injurious behaviour on the body and what is the effect on the relationship between their body and their self.· How did the relationship between body and self evolve?This study is qualitative and is based on interviews from our respondents of whom all work or have worked with self-injurious behavioural patients.

AbstractThis report aims, through interviews, observations and literature review to examine what some of the youngest children know about the heart, blood and bloodstream. The sample size was twenty children, half of them are at the age of three and the other half is at the age of six.The interviews showed that children at the age of six had better knowledge than children at the age of three, but one child knew that we have the blood corpuscle in the body. He was also the only one who mentioned the blood corpuscle of all children who participated in the research. Children at the age of three could not see the functional relationship between the blood and heart. One child who was six years told that the air we breathe goes directly in the heart from where the blood is circulating to the rest of the body, together with the food.Keywords: heart, blood, bloodstream, the body.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact that idealised body images found in media have on the body-image and wellbeing of young men and women. The study was carried out using questionnaires based on the BAQ and HAD scales to examine the participants' views of themselves as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression. Time spent by the participants using different kinds of media, as well as their degree of social support, was used with the purpose of examining relations and differences in body-image between men and women. The questionnaire contained advertising images to examine whether short time exposure had any impact on the participants. In order to determine this, one half of the questionnaires contained idealised body-images, whilst the other half contained images without human objects.

The visual representation of management (board of directors, chief executive officer and executive management) in annual reports is an area of scholarship that has not been explored much. In the present study a sample of 87 annual reports from business enterprises within a Swedish context, comprising about 300 photographs, was analyzed using an explorative method of analysis based on semiotics and grounded theory. The influence of the context on images raises a question discussed in the study: Should the photographs in the annual report be categorized as portraits, advertisements and others or should the annual report be regarded as a genre of its own? The photographs showed patterns of homogeneity regarding gender, dress, gestures, colours, pictorial compositions et cetera. The position of the (male) CEO is privileged, but he is also connected to the group through various means like dress and style, thereby further underscoring management as a male enterprise and demonstrating the importance of the suit and necktie in creating homosocial bonds.