Finnish-born writer Susanna Alakoski?s novel Svinalängorna became a big success after being published in Sweden in April 2006. Though the novel has many themes in common with earlier literature written by and about Finnish immigrants in Sweden, little attention has been brought to this fact by reviewers and journalists. This essay examines connections between Alakoski?s novel and Finnish migrant literature in Sweden, mainly from the 1970s, and how these connections have been recognised by reviewers in Sweden and Finland.

The purpose of this study was to illustrate how adult people think that, experiencing a war during their childhood has affected their lives. Questions at issue: 1. what does it mean to live in a war as a child? 2. How do the respondents think about possible significance of experiencing a war in their childhood and how their lives have turned out today?The study is performed with a qualitative method of research, based on studies of literature, two individual interviews and a group interview.

This paper examines how debt cancellation, given under the HIPC-initiative, has affected corruption over the period 2000-2006. The examination is foremost interesting due to earlier research showing that high corruption leads to unequal distribution of economic resources. This, combined with the objective of the HIPC initiative to reduce poverty, indicates that combating corruption must be successful in order to fulfill the goals of the initiative. A linear regression shows that countries that have benefited from the HIPC-initiative indeed have a lower corruption than other countries. A panel-data analysis shows on the other hand that no effect on corruption due to debt cancellation or reforms undertaken in the program can be confirmed..

Childhood as a social category is under strucural redefinition. In this thesis the child and childhood are understood as socially constructed phenomenons. Focus is laid upon the construction of the concept ?in the best interest of the child? wich in The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is defined as beeing the foremost important view to take into account when decisions wich affect children are made. As the thesis shows, a concrete and universall view of the best interest of the child is lacking in practice and would in many cases be unfortunate.

The purpose of this study is to examine how young people with experience of running away and/or getting thrown out look upon and understand the phenomenon. Another purpose of thestudy is to examine how the youth evaluate the help and support they did or did not receive at the time of their experience, as well as to examine what the ultimate help and support would be according to them. The study was done in a qualitative approach with the use of focus groups and individual interviews. The results were analyzed through the perspective of the ?sociology of childhood?.

In course of time the role of the individual being has become increasingly important in the fight against poverty. Through its microcredit programmes, the organization Grameen Bank offers ?aid to self-help? to poor women on the countryside in Bangladesh. The purpose of this essay is to investigate how participation in Grameen?s microcredit programmes can affect these women?s social situation and working situation.

AbstractThis is a story about the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme and his struggle against USA´s war in Vietnam in the late 60´s and the early 70´s. We follow the young Palme from his childhood to his travels to America and Asia, there he learns what true poverty means. Further we see Palme change side from his conservative background to a new social idealist. In Prag he learns to truly mistrust communism, an ideology he later in life paradoxical will be accused to stand for. Palme´s politic interests seems to take a great step forward when he starts to write articles in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, there he?s writings take more and more colour from Palme´s own politic stands.

Our purpose with this paper was to examine what effect a parent's drinking problem can have for the children in the family. A combination of literature study and qualitative interview analysis was used. The most important research questions were: How do the parent's problems affect the child? In what ways can the social network around the child help it to develop normally despite problems in the home environment? To what extent a parent's drinking problem affects a child depends on many different factors. Based on earlier research and interview data we drew the conclusion that growing up in a family where a parent has a drinking problem has a negative effect on all children.

The members of the OECD have agreed on giving aid assistance to developingcountries in a way of promoting their own capacity of handling the challengeof poverty and development. The members also cooperate and coordinate theiraid to recipient countries in the purpose of giving as effective assistance aspossible. The aid from these countries is often intended to human rights,democracy and has a humanitarian idea. This is the way from the OECDcountries. The Chinese way of giving aid mostly aimed at the industry of therecipient to promote the economic growth to lift the country out of poverty.The Chinese way do not aim or intend their aid at promoting human rights ordemocracy, often just industry and infrastructure.

The aim of this study was to describe and understand how individuals in adulthood experienced a childhood with neglect, and how they handled neglect. In order to reach the perspective of the individuals who grew up with neglect, we chose to use autobiographical books as our empirical material. The criteria the autobiographies had to meet in order to fall within the scope of this study was that the biographies had to display the experience of neglect during childhood, and thereto the books had to be written by individuals who themselves experienced neglect. Based on the aim of this study we sought answers to three questions: How do the individuals describe their upbringing with a mentally or socially disabled parent? How have the individuals coped with the neglect they?ve been exposed to? What consequences have the neglect supposedly led to? The findings of this study show that the extent to which the individuals experienced neglect were profound and comprising.

This essay deals with non-normative gender expressions during childhood. I?m using narrative theory and methods to analyze autobiographical narratives. My questions are:What strategies does the non-normative person use to deal with his otherness?Using the methodological analysis tool ?turning point?, where are the turning points in the narratives? Are their any common turning points in the various narratives?Where is the responsibility placed in the narratives for that someone does not fit in by the adults/ staff at the school/kindergarten- on the non-normative person or at the surroundings?The experiences are interpreted through theories and concepts from queer theory and gender theory.

This essay investigates the function of fictional space and thematics in Line Knutzon?s dramatic works.My main theoretical concept is thematic unity, factors that unite several plays by one author.I have found three major themes: the encounter, identity and childhood, which I study in five of Knutzon?s plays: The Splint In The Heart, The Latest Thing, First You?re Born, The Air Others Breathe and The Time Will Soon Come.I study three aspects of space: fictive space, where the play is set, the characters? inner space and exterior space, that which is outside fictive space: society. Fictive space is shown mainly via dialogue and context.It is evident that the themes, most clearly visible in the five chosen plays, are very important in Line Knutzon?s dramatic works. Most typical is the way she portrays childhood memories, in monologues showing that her characters exist in a ?hole?, in the void between childhood and adulthood.My investigation leads to the conclusion that Knutzon deals with existential matters: there is a kind of constant chaos, within her characters, expressed in actions and thoughts.

The purpose of this study was to find out what some young adults who have grown up in Husby themselves for perception of the area, what do they think they brought with them of their childhood there, and find out what they think others do not live in Husby has view of the area. In our study we also tried to find out what the young adults raised in Husby think about the media's influence on public perception of the area Husby, and what they think about the neighborhood's future. The main results that we believe we have come up with is that the media seems to have a big role in the creation of our beliefs. The respondents indicate that they think the media portrays an unfair picture of the suburb and its inhabitants. We believe it is very important that people meet to avoid the categories "us" and "them" to be formed.

Abstract Background: The World Health Organization has expressed a great concern about the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity. Region Västra Götaland (VGR) has developed a web based program to support school nurses in their work to promote health among children with obesity. Previous research on childhood obesity emphasizes the importance of support from nurses and how their work is organized. Aim: The aim of the study is, firstly, to explore school nurses experiences with health promotion work among obese children. Secondly, to investigate whether school nurses use the salutogenic theory of health.

The study's main purpose was to qualitatively investigate adult children's experiences of growing up in a family with parental abuse of alcohol and drugs, and how their childhood has influenced/influence life in adult age. In this interview study, four respondents in the age be-tween 25-60 years have participated. Social learning theory, attachment theory and risk and protective factors have been used as a theoretical frame.Overall, we can conclude that the study's respondents have, more or less, been adversely affected by the parent?s misuse of alcohol during their childhood. Despite these negative fac-tors, most respondents nevertheless received a functional living.