This study examines the connection between social capital and involvement within voluntary associations; involvement is defined either as being a member in an association or a member who has some kind of assignment in an association. The study also examines if there is a difference between two social economic groups regarding the attainment and transformation of social capital through being involved in a voluntary association.Social capital is defined as social trust and the willingness of collective action.The result of the research shows there is a slight connection between the involvement in voluntary associations and social capital. It shows that people who are members of a voluntary association often have higher social capital than those who are not members of any voluntary association at all. The study also shows that there is a difference in attainment of social capital between those who have some kind of assignment in a voluntary association and general members.When studying social capital and involvement in voluntary associations it is also of interest to take social class into the analysis, because the study shows that people with a lower education had increased social capital when they were members in an association compared to the members with a higher education..

The aim of this Master thesis is, from a sociocultural perspective, to investigate the views the teaching librarians at Södertörn University Library (SHB) have on learning, information literacy, and their own pedagogical role, and how their views affect user education and their ideas about the future of user education.The research questions used were: How do the teaching librarians view learning? How is this view reflected in their work with user education? How do the teaching librarians envisage user education in the future, and how do they work to reach that goal?Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teaching librarians at SHB. The interviews were then analysed using qualitative content analysis.The results of the study show that the teaching librarians at SHB share a sociocultural view on learning, and take a communicative oriented approach to user education. They believe that communication and interaction support learning, and in the classroom they stimulate discussions both between librarian and student, and between the students themselves. In the future, they hope for improved collaboration between librarians and academic staff, and that user education will become a natural element of the curriculum..

Denna kandidatuppsats undersöker hur user experience kan främjas i ett adaptivt talbaserat system i en fordonskontext. Att undersöka och involvera user experiencei adaptiva talbaserade system är i synnerhet viktigt i denna kontext då den primära sysslan, att köra, bör störas så lite som möjligt. Ett adaptivt system ger möjlighet att effektivisera interaktion och ett talbaserat system låter föraren fokusera på trafiken.Genom att undersöka existerande teori och utföra empiriska undersökningar i form av användartester genom Wizard of Oz-tekniken och intervjuer har vi skapat designoch dialogexempel. Dessa förslag kan främja user experience och på så vis bidra till att den interaktion som sker är effektiv och behaglig. .

AbstractTitle: Communicating diversity ? A study about communication and involvement in The National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations.Number of pages: 58Author: Frida SamuelssonTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The general purpose of this essay is to analyse how the member organizations of LSU ? The National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations, see the communication,activities and their influence over the organization. I aim to do an analysis of the target group to find out if the lack of involvement in LSU is caused by communication problems.Material/Method: The method of this essay is quantitative and is based upon a web-survey.The chairmen of the member organizations have been asked to answer a survey about the communication in LSU. To get an idea of how widespread different opinions about LSU are the empirical data has been made into graphs to show the frequencies and also cross tabulations to find out if there are any correlations between the variables.Main result: This study has shown that the problem with involvement in LSU is only partly a communication problem. One important result is that many member organizations feel that LSU doesn?t listen to their opinions and they express a wish to have more influence over the organization.

The outset of this thesis is to raise questions on how we design for the mobile context and the capabilities of smartphones. Not only the presentation but also the use of input and interaction between a service and a user.This work evolves around sign up forms and answers the question: How does the sign up process affect the holistic perspective of a digital service regarding usability and user experience? This thesis consists of a case studies, and design experiments conducted on Twitter, Instagram and Randos sign up processes to explore if and how the usability, and the user experience could be affected and im- proved.This concluded some important aspects to be considered when designing sign up forms for a digital service.The usability, and the user experience is not only affected by user interaction, and the choice of input method but it?s also affected by which data the service is requesting, and more important; if that data is motivated to request by the service..

Begreppet brukarsamverkan lyftes fram i Sverige i samband med WHO ?s Sundsvalls-konferens 1991 som ?essensen i det demokratiska folkhälsoarbetet?. Samverkan, där handikapp- och patientorganisationer är delaktiga i planering av hälso- och sjukvård har varit aktuellt i mer än 35 år, man utvecklade former för handikappråd redan 1970. Ändå finns det mycket lite empirisk forskning på området. Syftet med uppsatsen är att få en fördjupad kunskap om brukarsamverkan samt att erhålla ett vidare perspektiv genom att jämföra utvecklingen i Sverige med Storbritannien utifrån frågeställningarna: Vilka motiv finns för samverkan, vilka faktorer påverkar och vilka former finns för samverkan och hur stämmer dessa med existerande teorier? Arbetet är upplagt i tre delar, en litteraturstudie med material från Storbritannien, en dokumentanalys av material från Stockholms läns landsting och en intervjuundersökning som gjordes 1999 med representanter för förvaltning, sjukhus och handikapporganisationer inom SLL.

In this paper we take a look at digital applications to help the user with public transportation. The main goal was to evaluate the problem a user can face when aiming to use the public transportation system, and to create a application for Apple Iphone that can enhance and help the user, no matter if he is familiar with the local public transportation system, or if he is less familiar with it. The aim was that the user wouldnt need any previous knowledge to be able to use our application. We combined Location-Based Services with Realtime-travelinformation and trip planning to examine if this combination could make both of the two different user-groups satisfied. To understand the problematics a user faces when approaching the public transportation-scene, Scenario-Based Design is evaluated as a method to grasp this problem.

 Abstract  Interest in Lean grows and spreads to the public from industrial and service sectors. Lean is currently used in administrative processes and it is called Administration but can administration be Lean? The aim of our study is to develop a useful model for a successful implementation of Lean Administration by using various scientific articles, books and information from the case study.The part of the purpose is to: ? Identify critical success factors that arise? Identify the challenges arising from the implementation of Lean Administration.We have studied a Division within Distribution at GE Healthcare in Uppsala. The model that we have developed provides challenges and success factors for a successful implementation.In order to succeed in implementation, a culture that promotes continuous improvement must exist in the organization. A key success factor is to understand Lean Administrations structure and principles.

THE CONSTANT IMPROVAL AND REFINEMENT OF THE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLEto use video in settings where such use couldn't be motivated before, due to economicaland practical reasons. The purpose of the study was to identify and explore possiblechallenges in interorganizational use of video during emergency response work. Thiswas done by a case study of a system designed for the use of video in such situations.The study focused on operational challenges for the fire and rescue services and thehealthcare organisations, where the main challenges identified were intended to beanalysed and discussed in terms of design. The empirical results were gathered throughqualitative interviews with representatives from the fire and rescue services and thehealthcare organisations in Göteborg. This material made it clear that contextual aspectsof emergency response work lead to a couple of challenges connected to the use of videoin such situations.

AbstractPurpose ? The purpose of this study is to examine the challenges that exist within thematerial handling process, to and from a department for service and maintenance at a hospital, and how the challenges can be managed to achieve a more efficient material handling process. In order to fulfill the purpose the following two questions where formulated:1. What challenges exist within the material handling process, to and from adepartment for service and maintenance at a hospital?2.

User comments:Availability and Utilization in Online News Affiliated with Local Daily PressAuthor: Susanne AlmgrenSupervisor: Mats EkströmConstituent: Dagspresskollegiet (Annika Bergström/Ingela Wadbring)Course: Term Paper in Media and Communication StudiesTerm: Spring Term 2012Pages/word count: 91 pages / 38 334 wordsObjective: To examine the users availability to the user comment feature and how theusers utilizes the user comment feature in the context of an online news site affiliatedwith local daily press.Method: Mixed methods approach, content analysis and discourse analysisMain result: In this context, three out of four news stories (76.5 percent) has beenallocated with the user comments feature. The highest availability to the user comment feature was found in news themes covering sports and entertainment, followed by financial news. News stories lacking the user comment feature weremainly found in news themes concerning crimes and accidents. The user comment frequencies are not normally distributed along news stories. On the contrary, 62 percent of the news stories did not get any user comments at all.

The web sites of Swedish public libraries display a high level of heterogeneity when it comes to design and graphical user interface. The thesis is based on the opinion that the visuals of a public library web site have implications for the user as well as for the library. The design of the graphical user interface influences the attention of the user and his/her ability to absorb information. Furthermore, there is a connection between the visuals and the users opinion about the credibility of the content of the web site, as well as of the organisation itself. The research question is: Which factors may have an impact on the design of the graphical user interfaces of a public library web site? The purpose is to create an understanding for these factors and emphasize them.

This report is a part of a diploma work, conducted as a part of a Master of Science degree. The diploma work consists of a preliminary study, two case studies, a user study, a paper and this report. It was created at the Linköping University for the department of Science and Technology, in cooperation with Unilever Research in the UK, and partly with the EC founded project, Smartdoc IST-2000-28137. Hand-held, mobile devices like Personal Digital Assistances (PDAs) are becoming increasingly popular in today?s wireless world.

This study will focus on the role of social services and their experiences regarding why youth become involved in criminal activities, as well as the preventive measures social services offer to address this issue. The paper employs the theories of territorial stigmatization, systems theory, and labeling theory (of deviant behavior). The study is based on a qualitative method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers who have experience working with youth involved in criminal activities or at risk of involvement. The results indicate that a lack of social cohesion can be a contributing factor to youth involvement in crime, and various factors can lead individuals to such situations.

This thesis examines and evaluates user boards in Swedish public schools from a democratic perspective. In order to evaluate whether the democratic values are fulfilled five different democratic ideals are selected to serve as a theoretical fundament. These ideals derive from the Swedish Government Official Reports that preceded the reform of user boards in schools, and are identified as the following: participation, dialogue, trust, democratic schooling and influence. The study is based on cases and involves two schools with user boards and two comparative schools with informal parental influence, so called school advisory boards. The study concludes that the main difference between the two types of parental influence is the level of formality.