The purpose of this essay was to compare the Swedish and the Japanese pension system and see if there were any big differences or similarities. I was looking for answers to such questions as if the systems were modelled with the problematic demographic situation in mind and also how these two countries had tried to manage the problems. Path dependency was also a central conception when I studied the reforms of the two pension systems. I mainly used literature and Internet sources in my study. There were many books on the Swedish pension system and the debates that had been going on since the 80's.

Det övergripande syftet med studien är att undersöka och analysera socialsekreterares erfarenheter av att arbeta inom sektionen för myndighetsutövning inom barn- och ungdomsverksamheten för att få en inblick i hur de själva upplever och påverkas av eventuella hinder respektive möjligheter i arbetsmiljön. Studien bygger på kvalitativ metod och består av enskilda forskningsintervjuer. Samtliga socialsekreterare i studien beskriver sin arbetssituation som väldigt tuff med ett högt ärendeinflöde som är svårt att påverka. Många menar att det är svårt att hinna med arbetsuppgifterna inom de tidsramar som finns reglerade i socialtjänstlagen. Av resultaten i studien framgår det att socialsekreterarnas arbetsmiljö präglas av olika kulturer som inverkar på varandra, begränsar socialsekreterarnas handlingsutrymme och genererar stress.

The purpose of the essay was to discover how homeless persons want to live. Does it matter what it looks like? The method used was a qualitative study including literature and 10 interviews with ten homeless persons, of which seven lived outdoors and three in temporarily residences. The central questions were the following:How do homeless people want to live?In what sort of houses do they want to live and where?How do they look upon their situation and their future?What obstacles can occur if they for example got an apartment to live in?Are there any proposals to solve the problems?Most of them had been living outdoors for five to ten years, perhaps more, and they were worried and sad about their future.

An interview study of horsemanship has been conducted in the community of Ängelholm. The study is part of a larger project, where a further four students who are writing their thesis? have conducted interviews in Lerum, Hässleholm, Nyköping and Enköping, a total of 52 horse holders in 5 different communities. The collective results are summarised in "Hur hålls hästarna i Sverige och vilka är motiven" by Catharina Svala. The purpose of this larger report has been to examine why Swedish horsemanship is the way it is today through communication with the various horse holders.

AbstractBruzelius, E. (2010). Adolescents and sexuality ? Attitudes among employees at Juvenile receptions in Gävleborgs län. Högskolan i Gävle, Akademin för hälsa och arbetsliv.The aim of the current study was to examine and describe what perceptions and values of em-ployees at Juvenile receptions in the county of Gävleborg have about adolescents? sexual and general health.

Occupational stress and the use of alcohol to reduce stress are both separately common in our society. A few researchers have combined the two factors.The aim of this essay was to obtain an increased understanding of how male and female managers estimate their alcohol habits in relation to their occupational stress.We have interviewed nine managers who work at a social services department in Scania. Our main theories were the theory of psychosocial work environment of Lazarus, Karaseks demand/control model, epidemiology- and cultural perspective.Our results were;· Psychosocial work environment contributes to if the interviewed people experienced stress at work.· The grade of control has great influence if the interviewed people experience stress.· There weren't any correlation between stress and increased consumption of alcohol..

The purpose of this essay was to examine pupils who leave the Swedish nine-year compulsory school system without reaching the requirements for the Swedish senior high school, and then to compare with those who reach the requirements. I used the following questions to help me reach this purpose:- Where in life are those pupils who reached the requirements for the Swedish senior high school?- Where in life are those pupils who did not reach the requirements for the Swedish senior high school?- What differences are noticeable between these two groups?The method that I used to examine these questions was to send out a questionnaire to the pupils. I also tried to make an explanation to the results with the help of Erwin Goffmanns theories.The result of this essay shows that there is not a big difference between the two groups. They both did equally well after they finished the Swedish nine-year compulsory school..

The power of the meeting is a qualitative study primarily examining how homeless men and women and social workers experience the meeting between them. The homeless are the more vulnerable part in these meetings so their experience of these meetings is my focus in this study. I have in this paper also examined and analyzed how and whether homeless women and men tends to be treated and ad-dressed differently with basis on their gender. The main results I have found is that the homeless but also social welfare officers actually feel that there is com-municative problems when the parts meet and cooperates which often results in conflicts and lack of trust. I have chosen to highlight a number of factors that have been claimed as the main reasons for the experience of a poor meeting.

Our aim was to explore employees' experiences of exposure to violence, threats of violence as well as their experiences of encountering victims of violence and to relate their experiences to Sense of coherence (SOC) and Maslach's burnout inventory (MBI).We sent out a questionnaire to employees at three different workplaces. Our questionnaire included previously validated SOC and MBI questionnaires as well as six additional questions regarding violence. We sought to explore the relationships between experience of exposure to violence and encounters of victims of violence and SOC and MBI. We found that employees with a higher level of SOC exposed to violence or threats felt a higher level of security. In encountering victims of violence we found that employees with a lower level of SOC more frequently experienced indifference, fear and anger.

By tradition horses are weaned at an age of 5-6 months. This study illuminates weaned foals misdirected suckling behaviour, which means that they try to suckle another foal. Since no information about this issue is presented, we decided to perform a behaviour study on weaned foals. The misdirected suckling behaviour was studied on a group with 7 foals, with both fillies and colts. In the group the weaning age varied between 147 days and 215 days, and the first time we observed them, they had been separated from the mares for 12 days.

AbstractThe purpose of this essay was to study the parental education for adoptive parents. It´s provided by law since 1/1-2005 that parents have to participate in this education-program before they adopt. We wanted to look at what caused the change and made the education compulsory and to find out where the initiative came from, what purpose the education is supposed to fulfil, if it can facilitate for adopted children during their growth and whether the parental education can support the idea of what is best for a certain child always has to come first, according to the UN convention on the Rights of the child and the Haag-convention.The study was based on eight qualitative interviews, four with social workers, three with representatives of adoption-organisations and one with a representative of the public authority of international adoption (MIA). The conclusions of our study are that there is a risk that the education can not fulfil its purpose to prepare parents for their task, that it looses the idea of what´s best for the child and focuses on the parent instead. It seems to be more of a try out to not violate conventions signed and thereby fulfil a symbolic purpose..

The purpose of this essay has been to investigate how newly arrived asylum seekers experience their first month in Sweden. The focus has been on the introduction week that is given within the first month of their arrival, although the study aims to treat the reception that is given in general. This is important because the refugees are in a sensitive state, leaving their country for different reasons, and coming to a new place wich they know nothing or little about. The questions at issue has been the following; * What are the refugees´ views of the information and the treatment they´ve been given during their first month in Sweden? * Which are the possible reasons for the refugees experiencing the reception the way they do? The methods I´ve used have been observation studies during the introduction week, plus interviews with participants of this introduction.

Human existence and welfare depend on functional ecosystems. Ecosystems are critical to sustain life-support services for human well-being. One method that visualizes that humanity requires ecosystem services for resource consumption and assimilation of produced waste is ecological footprints. This study focuses on the ecosystem service carbon sequestering. A quantification of this ecosystem service showed the potential for accumulation of carbon in different ecosystems in Stockholm and Norrbotten County for the years of 1995 and 2004.

The purpose of the study is to see differences and development of two institutions for social care (work science) in two countries - the University of Lodz, Polen, and the University of Lund, Sweden.The central question is, if there is any convergence between these Institutions for Social care.The method has been to use both earlier research and to have two interviews. I did interviews with two professors working at two Universities, one with professor Ewa Marynowicz-Hetka at Lodz University and the other with professor Hans Swärd at the University of Lund. I started to study relevant literature and took part of secondary material in both countries.The main result of this study is that some convergence tendencies between those two trainings exist. All of them have connection with international cooperation. There are also same forces that stopped those tendencies; one of them is tradition on institutions..

The purpose of this essay was to see how the construction of elderly immigrants as a problem in healthcare and elderly care has been described in the relevant literature. In the course of doing so I tried to answer the following questions; What is said to be the expected problems or difficulties in work with eldely immigrants? How are the expected members of the problemgroup defined and identified? Whos perspective dominates the description of the problem, the users or the investigators? These questions were hard to answer and I had to conclude that the problem was not clearly defined; there was only an assumption of a problem. This, however, has not been a hindrance in the category of elderly immigrants being claimed to be a group with problems that need research and further investigation. The dominating perspective is that of the investigators as they are the ones who define and identify who is a part of the problemgroup..