We set out to compare two different categories of workers: the, so called, white- and blue collar workers. The studies aim was to measure if there were any observable differences between the two in means of optimism and sense of coherence. There are two tools created for measuring optimism and sense of coherence, the Life Orientation Test ? Revised (LOT-R) measures an individual?s level of optimism and Aaron Antonovsky devised a test for measuring an individual?s level of sense of coherence (SOC). Optimism is best explained like a way to measure anticipation, how an individual expect future events to fall out.

Social enterprises make up one of the groups of participants that provide welfare services financed by public funding. The object of this study is to describe and analyze from a theoretical point of view which conditions, in what fields, by which division of responsibility and finally through what decisions these social enterprises are allocated a place in the market for social welfare services. The company that has been the object of study offers services in the field of social welfare and in employment. In the study a triangulation of qualitative methods has been used: studies of literature on the subject, recurrent interviews and observations and also reviews of documents. The results have been analyzed from theories on the space available on the market for social services, on social economy and on social capital in the form of strong, weak and bridging bonds.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to describe in part the public library users?process when deciding which books to borrow. Focus is on the library users?experience of the process and how literature exposure can support them intheir choice of book. This study seeks to find out to what extent choices arespontaneously made at the library, which elements of exposure that the userfinds helpful in the process and which factors usually influence the user infinding new things to read.The data was gathered through 100 structured interviews with public libraryusers.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine the retrieval performance of two search engines, Yahoo! News and Sesam, specialized on indexing news articles in Swedish. Thirty search questions were used in this study, divided into three different categories: domestic news, amusement and sport. Precision has been calculated both for the 30 search questions as a total and for the three categories as well. Precision was calculated at every DCV-level and then divided with the number of search questions used, in an attempt to reach an average measure.

By conducting a text analysis this study analyzes possible similarities in the portrayal of story characters between historical Norse myths and contemporary film productions. The chosen historical texts are two stories from Norse mythology which render a myth about Thor and a giant named Hrunge as well as the myth Trymskvädet. The selected movies are two of the comic company Marvel?s productions about super heroes ? Thor and The Avengers. Different categories that this study compares are how the characters are defined by their possessions or artefacts, the actions and the choices which the characters make, and also how their relations, roles and origins are being portrayed.

The aim of this study is to research images of the academic world that is presented, incorporated and reproduced within the frames of the mentorship in the basic level. Can these images derive to the view upon science as a traditionally male area? Is mentorship gendered? Can the mentorship on the basic level be viewed upon as a milestone of a academic career where men and women have different opportunities to succeed?By interviewing seven mentors, working in a social sciences institution in a larger Swedish university, I have come to the conclusion that knowledge is coded male and that this affect mentors mental images of what male and female students are expected to do. The male student represent the scientist, while the female student represent what the scientist is not.Depending on the work of, among others, Kerstin Norlander, Dorothy Smith and Eva Erson I have come to view upon the university as a patriarchal organisation witch produces knowledge based upon male values, experiences and concepts. This precludes the female within this organisation from relating to the knowledge she is supposed to incorporate.

AbstractMI stands for Motivational Interviewing, the Swedish translation of MI is Motiverande Samtal. Adolescence is a period in life when challenges are encountered and pivotal choices are being made. It is during this period adolescents form their lifestyle, which have an impact for their health for the rest of their life. MI has shown to be an effective and appropriate method for school nurses within school health care, to utilize in approaching by adolescents with risk behavior. This is because it gives adolescence to take responsibility and empowers them to make decisions regarding lifestyle-changes.

AbstractMI stands for Motivational Interviewing, the Swedish translation of MI is Motiverande Samtal. Adolescence is a period in life when challenges are encountered and pivotal choices are being made. It is during this period adolescents form their lifestyle, which have an impact for their health for the rest of their life. MI has shown to be an effective and appropriate method for school nurses within school health care, to utilize in approaching by adolescents with risk behavior. This is because it gives adolescence to take responsibility and empowers them to make decisions regarding lifestyle-changes.

Introduction: In the past years children in primary school age has become increasingly sedentary. One of the school nurses' main task is to provide tools for students to make healthy choices. During the health visit, the school nurse gets the opportunity to inform and talk about health and physical activity with the students.Aim: To describe how shool nurses? work to motivate students to physical activity.Methods: The authors have conducted a pilot study that will form the basis for a large-scale study. Four nurses were interviewed using an interview guide based on open-ended questions and a qualitative content analysis was used when the interviews were analyzed.Results: The analysis revealed two categories and four subcategories.

The objective of this study was to explore the mechanisms controlling elderly people's choice of staying in there own home.The main questions were: What makes some people move to retirement homes while some people stay in their own home? What is the emotional relation to housing for people in general and elderly people in particular? How does the assessment of aid and application of the law affect elderly people's possibility to choose their way of living? What mechanisms during the twentieth century have controlled the society's way of looking on elderly people's housing? What future scenarios can we expect concerning elderly people's housing?Our method consisted of a literature study combined with qualitative interviews.The authors found a complex picture concerning elderly people's relationship to their housing and the will, wishes and possibilities to move to a retirement home or stay in their own home. One factor that affects elderly people's will to move is a deteriorated health. Another is the increased need of a safe living and access to personnel at all time. Also the assessment of aid and application of the law affect elderly people's possibility to stay at home or to move to a retirement home.

The process of European Integration and creation of the single market revealed many questions and boundaries on the development and improvement of the European Social Policy. Pension?s sustainability has become the priority issue especially during the EU enlargement processes. Different policy instruments and institutions available to governments of Member States in realization of social objectives resulted in a growing diversity of pension polices which produced different combinations of public and private provisions - ?private-public hybrids? , with the state exercising different degrees of influence in their development.

The aim of this study is to gain knowledge about the internalcommunication at a public library in Sweden, focusing on the flow of information and the library employee?s role as a source and receiver. This is an important subject because internal communication affects not only the internal work, but also the users. Despite this there are few studies about internal communication in libraries. The research questions used are: How do the employees perceive the role as source of information, and what choices do they make before they spread information? How do the employees perceive the role as receiver of information? How do the employees feel that the information flow works in the organization as a whole?The research is founded on five qualitative semi-structured interviews with the library employees.

Social workers ideas about what domestic violence is influence their ability to recognize vio-lence in cases where this occurs. Social workers awareness and understanding of domestic violence can also influence the handling of these cases. Education on the subject domestic violence can increase social workers knowledge about, awareness and handling of violence. The present study aims to investigate how social workers in child protection investigations understand, recognize and interpret domestic violence and which interventions the social workers suggest. This is a qualitative vignette study in which semi-structured interviews was carried out with social workers working with child protection investigations.

This thesis presents a method of making repairs in log houses. The purpose of the thesis is to use this method to exemplify crafters practical intellect. The method is based on the use of a template board to transfer the measurements onto the new log. There is a dearth of literature dealing with timber repairs, and the literature regarding using a template board for this is non-existent. The description of this method has therefore been compiled from interviews with active timber crafters.

Studie- och yrkesvägledning är en profession vilken samtliga, som gått i skolan i Sverige, har en relation till. Vi har samtliga någon gång under skoltiden mött en vägledare. Lika många möten verkar generera lika många historier och de är inte alltid av god karaktär. Det hänger förhoppningsvis ihop med att det idag inte finns något krav på behörighet för att få arbeta som studie- och yrkesvägledare. Det gör att många möten med vägledare har skett utan de kunskaper, förförståelse och professionalism som en utbildad vägledare med behörighet medför.