This graduate thesis deals with the challenges facing us as we gradually make our urban environments withtheir many public buildings, such as shops, cafés and cinemas, more accessible for disabled people. Theperspective taken is that of the conservationist, who in her or his profession looks to the cultural andhistorical characteristics in buildings and building environments. In order to gain better accessibility, changesin the physical fabric need to be made, with consideration for the cultural and historical characteristics.The introduction presents the subject of considarate accessibility. The second chapter deals with the legalaspects concerning the protection of buildings as well as the accessibility for disabled people. Severalinterviews with different participants are presented here, aiming to tie the legislation to the reality of theconservationist, the disabled, the civil servant working with accessibility issues and the property owner,whose responsibility it is to make the adjustments necessary to improve accessibility.

Actors deliberately change their preferences, contrary to the assumptions of rational decision models. This study shows why, and to some extent how. Preferences are necessarily ambiguous and unstable. Rationality is a regulating myth which has had a profound influence on Western conceptions of what an actor is.The aim of this study is to help individual actors understand the theoretical grounds of their actions. The analysis provides tools for examining decision methods and preference changes.

ÖREBRO UNIVERSITY Department of behaviour, social and legal science Social works C-essay 41-60 p Autumn term 2006 Title: Obstacle to employment on the labour market. Grown-up people with mentally retardation. Authors: Hansen Mikael & Sjöberg Marita Instructor of study: Antonson Sivert ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to try tofind out how persons with mentally retardation, working in the municipally daily activities develop and participate in everyday life. We especially want to find explanations for why there are so few among the retarded persons who are taking part in the regularly labour market. What will the instructor within the municipally activities achieve with his/her work? In what way will a retarded person have a possibility to participate in society and to take part in daily activities? Trough observations and semi structured interviews havr information and experience been collected.

Title: Identity and self-staging in the blogosphere- A qualitative (text and semiotic) study of the fashionblog ?iMilk?Number of pages: 55 (excluding references and appendix)Author: Lea KaufmannTutor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media- and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring term 2013University: Uppsala UniversityPurpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to theoreticallyinterpret contemporary identity in the web by analyzingthree fashion blog posts created by Signe Siemsen.The analysis is based on theories regarding identity andself-staging in the network society. The work aims tohighlight the relatively fresh theme "Internet as anidentity-creating and identity-seeking platform" andexplores ways of using a blog in order to create a virtualidentity. The study calls for more in-depth research andfurther discussion.Material: The material consists of iMilk, a Swedish fashion blogwritten by a 21-year-old girl. The blog existed betweenSeptember 2007 and March 2010 and three posts,namely from September 2007, April 2008 and October32008, were analyzed based on theories regarding identityand internet by Manuel Castells and John Sulers.Method: The following thesis is based on a qualitative discourseanalysis and a semiotic image analysis.Main results: The thesis you are about to read shows clear signs ofhow the creator behind iMilk, Signe Siemsen, is using herblog to construct and highlight selected parts of herpersonality and to define the person she wants to be andbe seen as.

Goods that children come in contact with on a daily basis for example toys, electronics, textiles, household items, have attracted an increased attention in recent years because of a common occurrence of residues of potentially hazardous chemical substances. Some municipalities in Stockholm have developed plans for managing chemical risks and work systematically to phase out products containing hazardous substances. This thesis aims to contribute to an improved knowledge base for any future work with non-toxic nursery schools in Haninge. The study's focus is on the challenges encountered by conditions and problems of preschool personnel to manage chemical risks in early childhood environments. Primary data was collected through a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with both the preschool staff and practitioners working in the central organization of the municipality.

The subject of this two year Master's thesis in Library and Information Science is the information practices of illiterate immigrants in everyday life. The purpose is to examine how immigrants seek, identify, understand and value information sources and information, and how the practices have changed with their arrival in Sweden. It furthermore focuses on the barriers that illiterate immigrants meet in accessing and understanding information. It moreover investigates the strategies they use to overcome them.For this purpose twelve qualitative research interviews were carried out, with illiterate immigrants as well as with service providers. The theoretical concepts of the essay is information practices, which means that the information process is within a context, and information poverty, that people in different context do not have adequate and equal access to information and information sources.Using McKenzie's model of information practices, the essay concludes that illiterate immigrants are active in their information process, especially when they interact with information.

In order to increase the independence in everyday life of the elderly population, we have developed a lifting aid for loading in the private car trunk. Independence from outside assistance affects self-esteem in a positive direction and can help increase the quality of life for a large group of individuals. As people age and experience changes in performance, it is important that aids and support is available, particularly to reduce the experience of aging and it?s increasing physical limitations. The aim was to develop a function prototype characterized by simplicity, which facilitates loading of the private cartrunk.The project was conducted at the request of Autoadapt AB, which is one of the leadingactors in car adaptations for individuals with disablilities.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka samband det finns mellan värderingar, föreställningar och normer kring miljön till agerande för ekologisk hållbarhet i det vardagliga livet. Vår hypotes var att det finns samband mellan affekter kring miljöns framtid och agerande till hållbar utveckling. För att söka svar på syftet och bekräfta hypotesen har enkäter med frågor gällande individens värderingar, föreställningar och normer om miljön samt frågor om miljömässigt agerande skickats ut via e-post till 119 deltagare i åldern 23-65 år. Svarsfrekvensen var på 59 procent. Resultatet visade att det fanns ett flertal starka samband mellan miljömässiga värderingar, föreställningar och normer till individens agerande och hypotesen om att det fanns samband mellan affekter och agerande för hållbar utveckling verifierades.

The aim of this study was to describe and analyse the constructions andinterplay of gender, ethnicity and sexuality between female and male careworkersand residents in a nursing home. To explore this from a qualitativeeveryday life?s approach, material was collected through participating observations,interviews, and informal conversation with careworkers and residents.The result points out that historical patterns of gender and caring relatedto this context still matter and affect both careworkers and residents. Forexample, female careworkers talked about the concept of caring as a genuinefemale experience, while male careworkers, who were in a minority, insteadtalked about caring in more gender-neutral words. The result also indicatesthat a larger number of male careworkers not necessarily leads to a highergrade of gender equality.

Både internationellt och nationellt sett har elevers kunskaper i naturvetenskap försämrats enligt PISA-undersökningarna. Vi har även ute i verksamheten uppmärksammat en brist på kemiundervisning i de lägre åldrarna. Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om ett vardagsnära och experimentellt arbetssätt och synlig- göra det naturvetenskapliga språkets betydelse för yngre elevers kunskapsutveckling i kemi. Studien utfördes som en aktionsforskning vilket innebär att en kunskapsbas skapas om sin egen praktik för att sedan genomföra en forskning som leder till en förändring. Aktionerna vi utförde bestod av två experiment med tillhörande för- och efterarbete.

In May 2010 the plans for Malmö?s new Concert Hall, Conference Centre and Hotel were announced publically. The purpose of this thesis was to present strategy for communication in order to gain approval for the new concert and conference center from the inhabitants inMalmö and to incorporate the use of it in their everyday life.Material from the receiver?s as well as the sender?s perspective has been collected from qualitative interviews. Through group interviews we have investigated the general consensus of the inhabitants of Malmö regarding the investment, placing, offered events, expectations as well as how they collected information.

Food is widely consumed and in 2011 an average American devoured approximately one ton of food. The production of these goods requires large amounts of energy and contributes to 22-31 % of all greenhouse gas emissions occurring in Europe. More than one third of the produced food is discarded instead of consumed, and food waste make up about 30 % of the waste generated by households. 60 % of this food waste could be avoided if the eatables were handled in a better way.Avoidable food waste arises partly because residues from food are not taken care of, and because the food is not stored in a way that optimise its durability. Residues arises part- ly because of the contradictory and complex demands of everyday life and are, because of our busy lifestyle, difficult to avoid.

Title: Women's best beautiful will never be good enough: a rethoric and semiotic analysis of four advertisements for beauty products.Because of the medias central role in peoples lives in the modern society we today live in, they have become a reference in peoples processes of making sence of their subsistences and environments. Commercial companies also want to present an as good image as possible of them towards the recipients through their marketing. Both parts can lead to a distorted picture of the real och everyday and norms and ideals easily form, for example about the correct way a woman should act and be, as the media affect which references should be made available for society.The purpose of this thesis is to examine how four advertisements for beauty products produce ideals and norms of beauty as well as construct and reconstruct femininity through the ways women are represented. The study will also contain the question about how rethoric and semiotic tools are used to strengthen the messages and sell the products. The following questions will be answered within this study:How is femininity being represented in the advertisements?How can the advertisements contribute to the creation of ideals and norms of beauty? How do the companies use rethoric and semiotic tools in the four advertisements to sell their products and/or strengthen their brands?The study will be executed with a qualitative rethoric and semiotic analysis and the theories applied to it are Mediatization theory, Envisionment theory as well as a theory about gender and femininity.   The foremost results of this study has been that women are represented as constantly striving towards a better beauty to be able to also feel better about themselves, gain better self-esteem and to have more fulfilled and successful lives.

The aim of this study is to examine how young people look at and perceive drugs by studying how they discuss and reason about drugs. The essay's main interest is not whether young people use drugs or not. We are primarily interested in how young people talk about drugs. The questions that we want to get answered are:What are the beliefs that young people have about drugs, drug use and drug users? More specifically we seek answers to which images, symbols and attributes that young people links to drugs, drug use and drug users.What is important in young people's construction of beliefs about drugs and drug users? More specifically, which are the information sources and reference groups that young people assigns significance?We used focus group interviews as the research method.

Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva den upplevda aktivitetsbalansen hos heltidsanställda officerare i marinen inom den svenska Försvarsmakten. Åtta heltidsarbetande officerare, som högst uppnått graden kapten samt hade hemmaboende barn intervjuades utifrån en semistrukturerad intervjuguide. Materialet analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys och det resulterade i två domäner ?till sjöss? och ?i land? som sedan delades upp i fem kategorier; ?Obalans under perioderna till sjöss?, ?Intensiva perioder till sjöss kräver återhämtning?, ?Arbetet till sjöss påverkar familjens aktivitetsbalans?, ?Arbetet stannar på arbetet? och ?Stor mängd kvalitetstid i land kan väga upp obalansen till sjöss?. Officerarna beskrev sin vardag som uppdelade i två, till sjöss och i land.