In a society where adults set the conditions for children?s play and generate modern and at times technically advanced products, fundamental characteristics like simplicity, opportunities for motor skills training and learning tend to be neglected. Owing to this, the Linköping-based company Time In wants to introduce a new multifunctional product, which differs from other products in shape and function and lives up to the often overlooked, basic characteristics in a toy.With Time In as the assigner, the purpose of this master thesis has been to use simple means to produce a "learning by playing" concept. Since Time In sells toys and products suitable for children in nurseries and preschools, the development of the products has therefore included a study of nursery and preschool environments.The thesis has been carried out within the Product Design subject area at the Department of Management and Engineering at Linköping University. Concept development has been done in three phases: the Preparation phase, the Design phase and the Presentation phase.

This work represents a first attempt to articulate my practice as a composer. Through a phenomenological perspective and with the support of the philosophical concept 'Weak Thought', I approach the idea of music as meaning in itself, beyond language. My exploration of these ideas is developed through three perspectives: partly through analysis of my own work, partly through a brief presentation of the concept of 'Weak Thought', and lastly through a series of subject-specific reflections..

AbstractThis thesis was conducted by Jenny Jansson and Maria Madsen, students at the Faculty ofTechnology and Science and the Innovation and Design Engineer programme at KarlstadUniversity, during the spring 2008. The thesis covers 22,5hp for each student. AnnaHolmquist and Chandra Ahlsell at the company FOLKFORM were the ones who requestedthe theis, their company are located at Stora Skuggan in Stockholm. Tutor for this thesis wasLennar Wihk and the examiner was Monika Jakobsson of Karlstad University.The given assignment came from FOLKFORM and the aim for the thesis was to create afurther development of two already existing lamps from an earlier collection at FOLKFORM,?Jaipur? and ?Modern Times?.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how six fantasynovels reflects or breaks the heteronormativity in society bylooking at how gender roles and sexuality are described.The theoretical framework is based on Judith Butler's theoryabout the heterosexual matrix which requires two separategenders and a compulsory heterosexuality and YvonneHirdman's two principles about dichotomy and hierarchy.The method used was idea analysis where dimensions basedon the theoretical framework were constructed. Thesedimensions were: behaviour, tasks, relationships and roles.The result shows that all of the books both breaks andreflects the society's values on gender and sexuality. Thereare some stereotypes present, for example that intuition isassociated with femininity and physical strength withmasculinity. However, the books also offer characters ofboth sexes that break the gender stereotypes, such asstrong women and emotional men.

Music has always been an important form of communication and it can be found in many different contexts including aesthetical, cultural and emotional forms. In the globalized society of today music can be distributed fast through radio, TV, CD: s and the Internet. For many people consumption of music is an important part of the daily life and it can contribute to shape an individual?s attitudes and personality.The main purpose of this study is to find out whether there are any differences between men and women?s musical preferences. I will apply an explorative approach using qualitative interviews to describe what causes the differences.

In all equestrian sports except for individual voltige, men and women compete on equal terms, which otherwise is very rare in sports. This study examines from a gender perspective how female and male riders are reffered to by expert commentators in competitions. The aim is to see if there are differences in how the riders are depicted and mentioned based on gender. The material consists of comments about eight rides, four performed by female riders and four by male riders, from two large international world cup competitions in dressage, broadcasted on SVT in 2012 and 2013. The material has been transcribed and then analyzed using content analytic method with a quantitative and a qualitative part.

Democracy is said to uphold the dearest values and be the most moral system. But it cannot be characterized as a rigid "syste" but a continuously changing political framework, under which aims and values can be fulfilled - and replaced.The increasingly diverse and ever-changing environment of contemporary democracies forces change upon the systems' natural evolution, which makes their future features uncertain and unforeseeable. A powerful change-force doctrine does however claim change is mainly (or merely) caused by the power of ideas; the elite power over ideas can thus provide a natural foundation for the analysis of the direction of development for democracy. This study aims to provide such a foundation by reconstructing empirical and normative descriptions of democracy at two certain points in time, following extensive government studies.As a tool for analysis, this study identifies values of substantial and procedural character central to democracy theory and discourse. It further creates ideal types of democracy based on these values, to which the nature of democracy is measured.

One of the main goals in this study is to investigate how young children's identity formation and social relationships are depicted by today's consumer society.  In order to reach the goals of the study I also concentrated myself on questions regarding the reflection of symbolic aspects consumption in younger children's interaction and preschool-teachers' ideas about how and in what ways children's consumption patterns are created and developed nowadays. In order to answer the presented research questions I used the theoretical arguments of researchers in the field of pedagogy Gert Biesta in connection with the ideas and concepts of the consumer society characteristics developed by the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman.The thesis' methodological approach consists of a combination of semi-structured interviews with teachers and observations of children's interaction, which contributed to a systematic investigation of the thesis' problem area and served as a tool for obtaining answers to the research questions.The results demonstrate that consumption occupies a lot of space in young children's lives, which means that it greatly affects their social relationships today. Both consumption and knowledge of the known brands prove to be the child's path to the desired community on the one hand, and the children's way to the consumer world on the other (hand), which in turn points to an obvious dependence between children's consumption and their social relationships.The results also show that there is a tension between the perception of identity formation as preschool-policy-document on the one hand and the attitude of the identity prescribed by consumer society norms and regulations on the other..

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine how the gender structure appears in detective novels and in the society during the 1960s and 2000s. We have a pre-understanding that the gender structure is more distinct in the earlier books and we will investigate this by looking at the two aspects occupation and family role. We find this to be an important question to notice because society today isnt equal between the sexes. Our study is based on a theory of Yvonne Hirdmans, she claims that the man is the dominant part and the woman is in an inferior position. We apply a stereotype model she has conceived and we try to categorize the characters in the books we have analysed into this model.

A paranoid and shameful reading of Inger Christensens novel Azorno.The contagious feelings of paranoia and shame played a vital part in my first reading of the novel Azorno, written by the Danish poet Inger Christensen. In this essay, I?m letting those emotions direct the ?understanding? and analysis of the novel. In earlier research the focus has been to comprehend what the novel ?really is about?, and even though it has been mentioned that the form probably is a way to make the reader a visible constructer of  the novel?s ?meaning? the understanding has never been created by the affects that occurs during the reading.

Want to help making the world a better place? Do it with HypOCycle!HypOCycle is a bachelor thesis that started in September 2007. The project is owned byLars-Johan Hjertz and Erik Westerlund.HypOCycle is probably the only bike in the world that has a linear pedal movement. Themovement comes from a new engine technique that hasn?t even been brought to themarket yet.

The differences between the sexes when it comes to land and property ownership are enormous. This paper deals with issues concerning women's land and property rights. The aim of the study is to investigate what general factors are effecting women's access to and control of land. In addition, this paper aims to explore the effects of liberal formalism in relation to gender equality and the distribution of land. Formalism and formalization of women's land rights alone won't lead to equality in land distribution or women's emancipation.

The purpose of this essay was to examine, from a gender perspective, how biological children in foster families experience the situation of living with foster siblings. The material consists of ten interviews. We searched answers to the questions:1. In what way have the biological childrens relations to parents, biological siblings and foster siblings changed through the placement?2.

For several years has there been a leading line from the government and the municipalities in Sweden to invest in schools and school grounds. The outdoor environment of schools has been rediscovered and given a greater importance. Investments have been made both practically with reconstruction and in a research context. Although, my work started with an assumption that these investments were mainly made at primary schools, and that secondary schools were set aside. The thesis This is my schoolyard.

I detta examensarbete har jag främst försökt besvara två olika frågeställningar: Vad anser lärare på högstadiet om jämställdhet och jämställdhetsarbete i skolan? Och används några metoder för att jobba med jämställdhet och i så fall vilka?        För att besvara dessa frågor valde jag att skicka ut enkäter till 91 yrkesverksamma högstadielärare i Karlstads och Trollhättans kommun. Av dessa 91 enkäter fick jag in 30 svar vilka i sin tur utgör grunden för denna undersökning.  Av svaren framkom bland annat att 83% av pedagogerna ansåg sig dagligen eller flera gånger i veckan jobba medvetet med att främja jämställdheten i skolan och att 80% av lärarna har uppfattningen om att pedagoger på högstadiet i allmänhet tycker att jämställdhetsarbetet är viktigt. Men det framkom också att 85 % av pedagogerna tycker att skolan endast delvis uppfyller läroplanernas mål om jämställdhet och att 77.7 % anser att de har fått för lite utbildning inom området. 70% av pedagogerna i undersökningen kunde ge exempel på olika metoder som de använde sig av för att främja jämställdheten i skolan..