This Master's thesis concerns the public library as a public meeting place. Our aim has been to find out why and how the library as a social meeting place has been discussed within the Swedish library community and if there has been a constant core in the discussions from the mid 70's and up to the present day. In order to do this we apply a place and space-perspective. The result of the study is that the core of the said discussions concerning the library as a meeting place is to create belongingness. This is the reason why the library community has an interest in the public library's function as a meeting place with the idea that people, by using the public library in that aspect, may experience a feeling of belonging to the society.

The thesis "Jaummuov?rrie Flower Meadow: An Assessment of Species Diversity and Cultural History," provides a detailed botanical examination of Jaummuov?rrie flower meadow in the Ammarn?s area, focusing on its biodiversity and cultural significance. The study aims to evaluate the species richness of the meadow and explore its role in the cultural heritage of the region. In addition to its ecological importance, the thesis delves into the cultural history of Jaummuov?rrie flower meadow, tracing its significance to the local community and traditional practices.

Natural monuments are natural objects with special protection due to their high natural value or cultural significance. The natural value is determined by the occurrence of signal species found on and near the natural monument. The law surrounding natural monuments has evolved a lot since the first ones were declared, and today the title natural monument can be replaced with the title tree with high conservation value. The title has come later and can sometimes overlap natural monument. Some natural monuments lack the qualities required to be classified as a natural monument or a tree with high conservation value, but have a cultural importance.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether intensive teaching of reading strategies at an individual level can affect reading comprehension for students in second grade. A quantitative method with quasi-experimental design is used. All students in the experimental class trained on reading comprehension strategies at their particular level five times each. Before and after training a reading comprehension test was made. The reference class did the same test.

AbstractIn this study, the conceptions of a number of teachers in the Swedish primary and lower-secondary school about cultural pluralism, the values connected to this pluralism by the Curriculum for the Compulsory School System, the Pre-School Class and the Leisure-time Centre, Lpo 94, and the possibilities for pupils to gain knowledge about these values, were studied. The conceptions of the teachers were regarded and interpreted as ideology, since the study was made from a point of departure containing an assumption about how the content of the curriculum is of importance for the development of relations of power and dominance between different groups in society. The purpose of the study was to interpret the statements of a limited number of teachers about cultural pluralism, values and knowledge, regarding the ontological, axiological and epistemological assumptions and conceptions expressed therein. The empirical data of the study was gathered through qualitative interviews with eleven teachers working in six different primary and lower-secondary schools in the Mid-Sweden region. The conceptions expressed in the statements given by the respondents were categorized.

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..

This study illuminates chosen parts of the present opportunities, in the Western World, for parents and children to choose which school the child will attend (freedom of choice), along with possible consequences that may follow. My research questions are: 1) Do tendencies show that freedom of choice leads to increased segregation, and if that is the case, how is it manifested and does it matter? 2) What relations between the student composition of schools and teachers' expectations and attitudes toward students are there? 3) Do the results from previous studies match with the result from my interviews? The methods used for answering the questions are literature studies and interviews made with six teachers who are working in two upper secondary schools in the northern part of Sweden, i.e. three from each school.The result shows that freedom of choice, regarding schools, seems to lead to student compositions that contribute to increased segregation in societies. It leads to more homogenous student compositions, in the form of ethnicity and social class, in schools in general, with consequences like different expectations and attitudes among teachers depending on the status of the composition.

The purpose with this essay is to contribute with knowledge on how pedagogues in Swedish schools can prevent cultural clashes between themselves and their pupils and between pupils from different cultural backgrounds.The survey is done with qualitative interviews with three pedagogues.The result shows the importance that the pedagogues are positive to cultural meetings and that they acquire intercultural competence. The result also shows that the interviewed pedagogues acquired competences through direct meeting with students and their parents, courses, lectures and literature.The conclusion of this essay is that if pedagogues obtain more knowledge about their own and other`s culture, it would prevent cultural clashes in school.I believe that if the pedagogue teaches his/her students that there are different ways to think in the world, fewer cultural clashes would occur between the students.Key words: culture clash, education, communication.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the ideology behind Sida's cultural aid by using postcolonial theory. We want to analyse the discourse on cultural aid that is found mainly in Sida's publications. The interpretation of the sources is made with a hermeneutic base and by using postcolonial theory in combination with Paul Ricoeur's theories on the function of ideology: 1. ideology as distortion, 2. ideology as legitimation, and 3.

There are currently 2160 buildings in Sweden that are protected by law with the designation as a cultural heritage building, which is the strongest protection that can be obtained for a building of cultural historic significance. The purpose of this thesis is to research how strong and sustainable the protection of such a designation is and how you can motivate a revocation. Furthermore, this thesis aims to give an overall insight into all cases where there has been a revocation.To achieve the protection of a designation as a cultural heritage building, the object has to be of outstanding interest on account of its cultural historic value. In the first part, this thesis gives a short historic background of the cultural heritage law and its terms, like outstanding interest and cultural historic value. The County Administrative Board's documents about revocation are the main source for this research.There have been 24 cases of revocation and the frequency of such cases has increased in the past ten years.

This essay examines the debate that arose in connection to the sale of Carl Larsson?s monumental painting Midvinterblot in 1987. My main purpose is to examine which meanings the debaters ascribed Midvinterblot and in which way the debate influenced the paintings significance as cultural heritage. I will therefore argue that the debate initiated a renegotitation of the paintings meaning as cultural heritage. In the debate the debaters emphasized the National Museum?s responsibility over cultural heritage, Midvinterblots aestethic, the paintings economic value and its national implications.

In the beginning of the twentieth century in Sweden the laboring class grew and became more established. This entailed both a change in housing conditions and the design of the social policies. The purpose of this study is to show how the Child Welfare Committee in Kalmar conducted its work during 1911-1918. The aim is to show on what grounds they made their decisions and how the interaction between the committee and the families functioned in practice. This will be accomplished by giving examples from the protocols written by Kalmar?s Child Welfare Committee.

Many children and adolescents up to the age eighteen come from other countries alone to Sweden to seek asylum. Sweden receives many unaccompanied children and the number of unaccompanied children is increasing every year. There are various reasons to why the unaccompanied children flee their homeland to come to Sweden. Many of the unaccompanied children come from countries such as Somalia, Afghanistan and Eritrea. The unaccompanied children?s families choose to send their children to Sweden to protect them from armed conflict and other social or political unrest going on in their homeland. This essay aims to explore how the integration of the newly arrived unaccompanied children works in schools.

The purpose with this essay is to analyze Adlerz writing within the context of the fiery debate in the 1880?s between the liberal so called ?cultural radical? members of the student organization called Verdandi, and the conservative, uniform oskarian culture named after the Swedish king of the period. I have applied a version of Quentin Skinner?s method, which focuses on the context of a specific writing in order to find out the authors intention, the effect the author hoped to achieve. My questions regard certain themes I discovered in the text and, more importantly, the relationship between these themes and the surrounding debate.

This is a study of the way power relationships change when women start to play candombe in Montevideo, Uruguay. Candombe is a type of music, which is traditionally played by men within the black minority in the country. This study has been done with an intersectional point of view, taking the social categories gender, class and ethnicity in account. The method used was participatory observation in a field study made in Montevideo between November 2008 and February 2009.This study?s main conclusions are that the power relationships change with the participation of women in candombe in several important ways: The women legitimize an alternative way to be a woman when they take the men?s role as a drum player.