Crystal use has existed throughout human history and is a phenomenon that has become more popular globally like the other phenomena that are a part of the new age movement. There is still a great deal of skepticism towards crystals by people who are not familiar with them due to its unusuality to the stuff that people deem as normal. This paper is based on an anthropological fieldwork consisting of interviews with people that are affiliated with crystals such as staff at crystal shops, crystal healers & generally people who are interested in crystals and participant observations in places were crystals can be located. The material was gathered in a period of 9 weeks in the beginning of 2024. I aim to give insight into the relationships between crystals and humans but also the effects crystals have on the users.

This study has investigated what makes a business relation satisfactory. The purpose is to distinguish the factors that are relevant to a functioning cooperation relationship between sawmills and DIY-stores. The theoretical framework is primarily based on long-term business relationships. The study is based on two case companies and their relations with wood-suppliers. - Case company 1 is a relatively new established and still growing company.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Swedish municipal welfare system, in their capacity as discourse makers, construct Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in the relationships of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people. A discourse analysis of their official plans of action regarding IPV and the information directed towards their citizens through their webpages showed that the discourse surrounding IPV revealed a gender dichotomy, where the victim was mainly constructed as being female and the perpetrator as male. As a consequence of this, gay and bisexual men were rendered invisible from the discourse surrounding victims of IPV, although they could be included in the construction of perpetrators of it. Lesbian and bisexual women were often included in the understanding of victims of IPV, but in the discourse surrounding perpetrators of it they were made invisible. The discourse about IPV also excluded the experiences and vulnerability of people who identify as being transgendered.

This study focuses on romantic friendship between women in three Swedish novels written between 1836 and 1857: Sophie von Knorring?s (1797?1848) Illusionerna (1836), Fredrika Bremer?s (1801?1865) En dagbok (1843) and Marie Sophie Schwartz? (1819?1894) En fåfäng mans hustru (1857). Also, the connection between women and passion as well as the interesting occurrence of step- and foster mothers is looked upon in the study.The romantic friendship is freely expressed in these novels; love between women is neither presented as unnatural or unchaste. It both challenges the heterosexual matrix? claim on intelligibility and its rules for how desire should be expressed.

The aim of the study is to analyse the stories of four homosexual women with Muslim backgrounds about coming out as homosexuals, from an intersectional perspective. The experience of coming out as lesbian and the intersectionality are related to different social contexts. The homosexuality becomes a problem in connection to family and countrymen while the Muslim background becomes more of a problem in relationships. Heteronormativity and gender system appear to be cooperating systems of oppression.These women don?t describe themselves as oppressed, but potential oppression is still something that influences their lives.

The purpose of the thesis Masculinities ? Gender and its Impact on the Social conditions of individuals is to perform a critical study of how gendered norms influence the social conditions of individuals. This has been done by a problematization and the attempt to answer the question of how the hegemonical masculinity can be analyzed as a discourse, and how the structural aspects of this discourse inflict on the social conditions of masculinities.The question was divided into the analytical themes: the boarders of the discourse, the institutionalization of the discourse, the actuation of the discourse and the agents of the discourse. The theoretical frame is constituted by the theory of discourse by Michel Foucault, the theory of the hegemonical masculinity by R.W. Connell and a subversive identity theory by Judith Butler.

This is a qualitative case study about tourists and boat migrants in movement to and in place on the Canary Islands, Spain. The aim is to study how these two groups of guests are treated differently, either as guests or strangers, based on how they move, illegally or legally, where they come from and where they have rights to go. To analyze the case I use theories of how differences in ethnicity, culture and religion etc. are created and recreated in society in interactions among humans and in the politics - the politics of difference. The politics of difference creates and recreates categories of mobility such as tourists and boat migrants.

           AbstractAims: To explore whether and in that case how nurses question women in the psychiatric care about violence in close relationships and how nurses respond to women who have been exposed to domestic violence.Method: A qualitative descriptive interview study with twelve nurses from four psychiatric wards was carried out in Uppsala. Informants were chosen from a convenient selection. The interviews with semi-structured interview questions were recorded on tape, transcribed and analyzed with content analysis.Results: There is no routine to ask all female patients if they are victims of violence. It happens only in cases where the suspicion arises or is confirmed. It is individually whether and how the nurse asks the woman if she is subjected to violence in a close relationship, depending on patient and nurse.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, China has opened itself to the outside world and in an enormous pace increased its contacts and relationships with other countries. The trigger to these dramatic changes of economic and foreign policies is the insight that China can no longer sustain its rapid economic growth, largely based on industrial production, on energy and raw materials from China alone.Good relations with African countries have been of highest priority in China?s strategy of ?Going global?. The new African policy is based on the two principles of mutual benefit and non-interference in internal affairs ? as opposite to the West?s strategy of structural adjustment programmes (SAP), which include massive interference in internal affairs.

The aim of this study was to in laboratory experiments investigate how addition of urea, ECOX and structural materials can optimize sanitization during composting of sewage sludge. Today we strive for a sustainable society and the importance of closing the nutrient loop increases. It has therefore become even more important to safely reuse plant nutrients from human excreta to agricultural land. Partly because it increases the sustainability of society as the world's supply of many nutrients are finite, partly because it promotes human health, both by reducing disease transmission and by increasing Agricultural production. An untapped resource such as sewage sludge that is rich in nutrients and humus-forming materials could replace parts of the commercial fertilizers used in Sweden today. owever, sewage sludge contains undesirable substances such as heavy metals and drug residues, and pathogenic microorganisms.

Background: Previous studies have shown that intuition occurs in decision making in small enterprises. However, these studies have not illuminated which decision attributes leads to intuitive decision making.Purpose:The purpose with this study is to contribute with an increased understanding of which decision attributes leads managers in small enterprises to use intuition in decision making and why these decisions attributes have an impact on the role of intuition. The follow-ing research question will be answered in our study: Which decision attributes leads to intui-tive decision making in small enterprises, and why?Method: To answer the research question we have conducted semi structural interviews with managers in small enterprises to achieve a deeper understanding of the role of intuition. We have also used a method called Visual Card Sorting as a complement to the semi structural interviews.Result/conclusion: The result of our study indicates that the relevance and the uncertainty of a decision have the greatest significance in the use of intuition in decision making in small enterprises.

Sexuality has an important role in human life and there are many opinions about how to handle questions about sexuality. The attitudes have change over time and differ between different cultures, gender and age. This study deals with the question about youth attitudes to sex and personal relationships and what impact the education in this filed have on the youth. We have also studied how the education is organized. To get answers to these questions we have performed a questionnaire study among 116 students in grade seven to nine in an elementary school in Western Sweden.

Children, who grow up in families, where their parents have decided to take care of a foster child on a commission of the social welfare services, are not often given the possibility to tell about their experience of having foster siblings, in research and other studies. The aim of this study was to give biological children, in these families, a chance to tell their narratives of growing up with foster siblings, creating opportunities for families, who might have plans to take care of foster children in the future. They can get a picture of how it could be for the family´s own children. The biological children got the opportunity to tell their narrative stories including the relationships in their families and how they were looking forward into their own future and family life. The used theory takes part in systemic thinking, looking at the family as an organization and how identities are created in relationships and in communication.

Young stands in urban forests often lack a shrub layer, though shrubs play an important structural and biological role in forests. All layers interact with one another to form a multilayered stand, in which shrubs have a vital role.In this diploma thesis, theoretical models for forest dynamics are compared with four reference stands to detect factors, and principals for introduction of shrubs in young stands. In these stands four different ways of introduction were found. In one trees and shrubs were planted together at the same time. Shrubs spontaneous spread under a canopy of mature forest, in another.

The purpose with this qualitative interview-study was to try, from the carer´s point of view, to describe the meaning and the essence of the good meeting. The participants were selectively chosen and were all women of varying life- and professional experience. They were interviewed with four interrogative forms that dealt with the experiences of the meaning and the essence of the good meeting. The analysis of the contents of the four interviews produced five themes: the meaning and the essence of aware presence in the good meeting, the meaning and the essence of the personal alliance, the carer's need of being seen and getting appreciation, the courage to bring up insulting behaviors while still preserving the relationship, personal qualities of the care. Aware presence was to be a main theme through out the meeting.