The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the implications and challenges of intercultural communication. An in-depth study was performed of the perspectives from people who work within an international organization. How they experience cultural differences and how they handle them, in particular when it comes to communication. Also, their perceptions of communicative competence were explored. The study was carried out at Svalorna India Bangladesh, at the Swedish office in Lund.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the communication between exchange students and their host student trough Facebook. The study shows the importance of social cues and self-disclosure to maintain a relationship. The students? everyday use of Facebook helps them to remain connected to their social life locally and create new friendships. Cultural differences were shown in the way the students formed their expressions trough their messages to each other.

All over the world the urbanisation increases at the expense of green areas. Many plants and animals are endangered today because their habitats gets smaller or disappear. The green areas that are left in city centres and suburbs are often small and surrounded by roads and buildings. Despite this, several studies have shown that these small green areas may house large biological diversity.This project aims to study the biological diversity in small green patches in residential areas. The study has been carried out in Råsunda in Solna municipality (Stockholm county) during the period May?July 2006.Three equivalent areas (5000?10 000 m2) with quite many old oaks were chosen for the study and inventoried for birds and saproxylic insects.

All over the world the urbanisation increases at the expense of green areas. Many plants and animals are endangered today because their habitats gets smaller or disappear. The green areas that are left in city centres and suburbs are often small and surrounded by roads and buildings. Despite this, several studies have shown that these small green areas may house large biological diversity.This project aims to study the biological diversity in small green patches in residential areas. The study has been carried out in Råsunda in Solna municipality (Stockholm county) during the period May?July 2006.Three equivalent areas (5000?10 000 m2) with quite many old oaks were chosen for the study and inventoried for birds and saproxylic insects.

AbstractThe Swedish society has always been monolingual, but has for the past decades transformed into a multicultural and multilingual society. The aim of this study is to investigate if and in that case how preschool teachers work with language development in bilingual and multicultural preschools. The concept of linguistic and Cultural diversity includes several different components, not least the social interactions that are of great importance to every individual's development, learning and participation in the world. By understanding the importance of language, language development and the role of mother tongue in second language acquisition, we look into various researches done concerning the effects of the preschool teachers? opinions, methods used to language developmental primarily for children who are multilingual and how the physical environment is shaped to promote language in multicultural and multilingual preschools.The method used in this study is semi-structured interviews with preschool teacher working in multicultural or bilingual preschool settings.

This study was carried out at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Dept. of Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden. The aim of the study was to determine how plant species richness and diversity influence the nitrogen pools and nitrogen fluxes in the soil. Plant and soil samples from a biodiversity experiment in grasslands were used. Thirty plots with 12 grassland plant species (legumes, grasses, and non-legume herbs), combined from 1-12 species were investigated.

Syfte: Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att problematisera mångfaldshanteringen genom att studera mångfald där den praktiseras, bland de anställda. Med hjälp av anställdas perspektiv vill vi undersöka hur ett företag i Sverige praktiskt jobbar med diversity management. För att detta ska bli möjligt är det samtidigt viktigt att förstå ledningens perspektiv, därför kommer vi att ta med även denna. Vi vill bidra till att utveckla teoriernas möjligheter att tillämpas praktiskt genom att ta större hänsyn till medarbetarnas förväntningar och åsikter i arbetet med mångfald. Metod: Vi har valt att använda en kvalitativ och deduktiv ansats i vår studie då vi har valt att utgå ifrån tidigare forskning om mångfald för att sedan kunna identifiera om det finns något perspektiv som saknades eller som skulle kunna fördjupas.

Body image is a term that refers to a person?s feelings and attitudes toward his or her body. There are many different factors that influence a person?s body image: historical, cultural, social, biological and individual. The purpose of this study was to investigate young Indian women?s body image in India from a cultural perspective.

To create fair conditions between the majority and minorities in a cultural diverse society poses a challenge for both the makers of government policy and the political theorist. The aim of this thesis is to examine the Swedish government official reports concerning integration and minority rights, with a special interest in values and cultural rights. As a methodological tool a theoretical model that classifies cultural rights is developed and the three normative doctrines lockean libertarianism, comprehensive liberalism and multiculturalism are distinguished from the discussion about how politics ought to be in a multicultural society. Through this perspective rights and values in the official reports are identified and analyzed. The result shows three different standpoints in the reports concerning which cultural minority group they are discussing.

This essay, with the title: Among children, laser swords and lions. ? How do we approach and utilize the cultural experiences of children? is an approach to participate in a scientific discussion in the field of cultural experiences. This text is an attempt to show the importance of paying attention to, how children express themselves, and place their activities in social and cultural contexts. By doing so and approaching children and their activities with an intercultural point of view, I can use my new found knowledge and use it to stimulate their future learning progresses in different fields.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyze the history and the current situation of the Church of Sweden. The renovation of Skalljö church in Lerum municipality has been used as an example to enlighten the common changes in the church buildings. The long history of the Church of Sweden as the state church has resulted in the fact that it carries a remarkable part of the Swedish cultural heritage. The reason why the Heritage Conservation Act (1988:950) was altered in January 2000 was due to the change of relations between the State and the Church of Sweden. According to the Act, all church sites owned or managed by the Church of Sweden shall be maintained in such a way that their cultural historic value is not diminished and their appearance and character are not violated.Sweden is today considered to be a secularised country where religion is an individuals? private matter.

This thesis presents a study aiming to identify the selection criteria for the digitization of posters at the National Library of Sweden (Kungl. biblioteket). The theory is that cultural heritage institutions are empowered to decide how our cultural heritage is presented as they select what items (or, as in this study, posters) will be digitized. The poster is studied as it is an interesting media form which historically was an important means of communication. The poster can represent and reflect historical events and opinions in society.

This thesis highlights the importance of social relationships for high school adolescents? identity in a multicultural school in Stockholm?s suburb. The second purpose of this thesis is to shed light on, if the school sees the students? cultural background as an asset and how teachers can take advantage and implement it to the way they teach .The theories in the study were developed by Urie Bronnfenbrenner; The ecological theory, Pierre Bourdeau; The three forms of capital and George H. Mead; The significant other, The generalized other and "I" and "Me".

The aim of this study is, using the Swedish expression ?kulturtant? (cultured lady) as starting point, to understand how and why women consume the products of the culture industry more eagerly than men. The study is using the concepts put forward by Pierre Bourdieu; fields, capital and habitus. It is a qualitative study based on discussions in focus groups, interviews and material gathered through Google Alerts. In the literature this gap between the sexes with regard to the higher consumption on behalf of women has been referred to as the ?puzzle? of women´s cultural consumption.The empirical results show that the women in the study are well aware of what they want to gain by participating in cultural activities like reading, going to concerts, watching plays or going to the movies.

The study?s purpose is to find out how important cultural competence is for the guidance of people with multicultural backgrounds. I also want to illustrate that what is seen as normal in one culture may mean something different in another culture. The study will also in some extent explore culture clashes and its problems in the guidance context. The method used in the study is qualitative and the five respondents were all practicing Muslims.