The focus of this thesis is on what is considered to be a suitable foster home. For the study to be carried out an application had to be made to get access to the foster home assessments in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden. With the support of attachment theory and theory of standards different categories have been picked out and analyzed in foster home assessements that have been approved. The conclusion to what is considered to be a suitable foster home is a complex issue, as there are many factors that are interacting. Social workers seem to focus on the importance of a family?s ability to provide some kind of stability and security for a child who is considered to be placed within their home.

This paper is part of the research programme ViSuCity, a programme with the goal of creating more sustainable urban planning through the development of better visual tools, which ultimately means better communication between various parties of public planning. The paper concerns the implementation of MCE into a 3D program for visualization. Multi criteria evaluation (MCE) is a technique that has been developed during the last 20 years. It merges GIS with AHP, forming a decision making tool for localization of, for example, new buildings.The result is an automated tool that enables advanced analysis of geographic areas.The tool has a very high potential due to the completely automated MCE and it is adapted for people without a technical background, let alone formal training in MCE. It provides great opportunities to test different scenarios, something that should be an important advantage.

The aim of the study is to investigate conflicts in working lifefrom an individual and a relational perspective, as well as to illustrate how a conflict ishandled as part of a work organisation and a working environment.When a person experiences a conflict at work what do these experiences involve and how dothey affect the well-being of the person involved and the picture he or she has of him orherself?How does a workplace conflict develop over time and how can we understand its origin andcourse?How do individuals experience the way a conflict is handled in a workplace in relation to thestructure of the organisation and leadership?The study is based on a qualitative interview method with threeindividuals who have experienced workplace conflict. Through our study we endeavoured tofind an in-depth understanding conveyed through the life world perspective of theinterviewees, which is our empirical data. The analysis is related to the study?s background ofearlier research and theory within the field of workplace conflict.On the basis of our study can we illustrate that in order to prevent and handleworkplace conflict, clear communication and individual resources are required; these include:a reflexive ability to work out issues independently.

This essay discusses the issue of the role of women and also whether they could obtain a strong social position during the Viking Age. Moreover, it does discuss the question of how frequent women were present in Viking Age scriptures, art and archaeological artefacts in comparison to our view of women and her position in the modern society. The archaeological material used is in majority that found in Birka, such as burial and habitational findings. These objects, as well as other comparable and similar findings from other places, when put together with written sources, show that women had different roles in the society. She was able to have a strong social role during the Viking Age not only becauseof the status her family had but also because of her own merit depending of her skills and ability.The archaeological findings found in female graves and other findings in the area, suggest a specializing within both textile production and trade for the women.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate the factors that contribute to childrens feelings of enjoyment and wellbeing while reading pleasure reading. The research is founded on qualitative interviews with eight children aged between 9 and 12 years. In the review of the literature different theories of reading experiences are examined and the theory of flow is used to analyse and interpret childrens statements of reading experiences. The theory of flow has not been developed to investigate reading but aims to describe and explain when and how people experience happiness and joy. The results of this study reveal that many different factors influence childrens reading.

Background: The oral health is a problem for many people with psychical disabilities. The reason for that is among other things that the psychical disabilities could do it hard to handle fundamental routines in the everyday life. Aim: The aim of the literature review was to describe how the nursing staff experienced their situation about their work with oral health in persons with psychical disabilities. Method: The study has been done as an overview and the data has been analysed with content analysis. Result: Two head categories were identified; barrier that influence the ability to perform the work with oral health and barrier that influence the performance of the work with oral health.

We have studied the effects that blogs have on the society through interviews with influential bloggers, a news director and the founder of Sweden?s largest blogprovider.Existing theoretical work by other researchers have been used as a starting point to our thesis. Via a deductive method we then proceeded to test these existing models and viewpoints on the reality.Through our research we have concluded that blogs, if they co-operate, have an agenda-setting function, and that they can affect newspapers to write about certain topics.We have also discussed blogs role as media watch dogs. Gunilla Sax, news director, questions the blog world?s ability to fully cover all media, and to deliver a systematic and just review of the media.

Animal-assisted therapy had its large breakthrough in the 1960-ties when a psychiatrist named Boris Levinson discovered the great advantages of involving animals in the treatment of patients. Therapy with animals involves that animals are used in a systematic way, in a person's process of treatment. The most distinguished companion animal used within this area is the dog, but horses, cats, rabbits, birds, dolphins and the most common farm animals are used in animal-assisted therapy. Most animals that are to be used for this specific purpose need to be trained in order to maintain their physical and mental health, but also to minimize the risks for the people that are involved. Most studies within this research area are focused on the positive effects on the patients and less on the effects on the animals.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the relationship between user education at high schools and the context in which it takes place. In order to accomplish this qualitative interviews have been executed with librarians at five Swedish high schools. The theoretical framework of this thesis is based on the sociocultural perspective and four approaches to user education developed by Olof Sundin. Based on the empirical material six themes have been identified. Each one represents a contextual factor which influences the user education.

The occupational therapist uses meaningful activities to promote health and accomplish functional progress. The professional role is to support and enable for the client to change his/her life. One way to accomplish this is to use the group as a tool. Knowledge is needed about how learning works and which teaching methods exist to promote learning, so it is adapted after the clients´ personal way of learning. The aim of this study was to investigate which pedagogical approaches occupational therapists use in group activities.

Swedish students' knowledge of both mathematics and reading comprehension has deteriorated in recent years. Scientists are discussing whether there is a connection between these areas and that the pupils deteriorating math skills may have something to do with their increasingly lower results in terms of reading comprehension. To investigate this possible connection, I conducted a survey among students in ninth grade and have come to the conclusion that the scientists are right: this connection absolutely exist. Students who received a high score on tasks designed to test students' mathematical problem-solving skills, also received high results on the reading comprehension test. And students who received a poor performance on the problem-solving tasks, were also low performers in the reading comprehension test.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how some teachers work with above-average pupils in mathematics. I have issued three questions based on the purpose of this study:How do teachers define an above-average pupil?In what way the teachers stimulate and challenge the above-average pupils?Has the school done something special for the above-average pupils?The method used to conduct this study was a semi-structured qualitative interview with four teachers in primary school. The method consists of interviews and observations.The study shows that the teachers make an effort to give these pupils extra attention and challenging tasks. A major focus is put on problems solving and to develop the pupil's ability to be able to explain how they think and if necessary, they should be able to explain even to their fellow- pupils.

The purpose with this final paper was to examine how the collaboration between parents and teachers can manifest itself. With collaboration, we mean the dialogue that has to exist between parents and teachers in regards to e.g. how well informed the parents are about the regulated principles on which the education plan is built on, and in which way they can take part in and influence the system. This is to empathize on the fact that a good collaboration between parents and teachers help create a good foundation for the pupil?s ability to learn.The method that we have used are questionnaires given to parents and teachers along with studies of literature both as means of furthering our studies as well as a basis for the design of the questionnaires.

User-centred acquisitions at three academic librariesA new way of developing collections has been adopted at a number of small academic libraries, user-centred acquisitions. The method implies that the main way of building the collection is by means of receiving suggestions of titles from library users. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate changes in acquisitions of monographs. At a more detailed level it seeks a deeper understanding of what user-centred acquisitions is and how the method effects the acquisitions process. Changes in stock management and the reason why the libraries have chosen the method is investigated as well.

This thesis studies two instruments within EC-law, affecting asylum issues, the Schengen Convention and the Dublin Regulation. These instruments are developed as a result of the free movement of persons in the European Union, and the development of the free internal market. The member states are afraid of losing control of who is residing within their borders, as their border controls has been removed, and these instruments are made to protect the member states now that their own means of control are gone. The thesis explains the relationship between the free movement and asylum issues and shows the connection between them. Its focus is aimed at the free movement of workers and how the European court of justice has interpreted article 39 to increase the workers ability to move within the union.