Cittaslow is an international organization founded in Italy in 1999 by a few towns in Northern Italy, in order to stop the trend of people moving to bigger cities. The aim was to show the advantages of small towns and to strengthen their identities. Falköping is, since the certification in the summer 2008, the first Cittaslow in Sweden. Cittaslow is an international organization founded in Italy in 1999 by a few towns in Northern Italy, in order to stop the trend of people moving to bigger cities. The aim was to show the advantages of small towns and to strengthen their identities.

The aim for this master thesis is to create an understanding of the intersubjective processes of how individuals are experimenting with their identities in social media and the consequences for the identity and embodiment. The thesis is completed with the help of discourse analysis and a starting point in four complementary theories. Central to the implementation of the analysis is the concept of diffraction. Therefore the thesis is, which is reflected in the choice of theoretical approaches and methods, critical to many aspects of classical philosophy of science and method. The empirical material is based on interviews.

In this thesis the author has through a discourse analysis examined how the concept of culture has been used in the discourse of integration during the late twentieth century in Sweden. The author argues that the integration of immigrating people has been the fundamental method in creating Swedish citizens within the immigrant communities. In this discourse the concept ?culture? has been a constant recurring way of explaining differences among the immigrants towards ?ethnic swedes? and Swedish way of life and establishing difficulties in performing integration outside of governmental policies. When looked upon in terms of discourse the integration process is the possibilities, intents and interests and the actual creation i.e.

This study examines how the Swedish newspaper G?teborgs-Posten presented Swedish identity in relation to the country?s referendum and EU-membership. By investigating the usage of the Swedish identity, related to EU-membership, the ambition is to conclude whether the newspaper was positive towards EU-membership. The empirical base consists of articles produced by G?teborgs-Posten from the first of October 1994 to the last day of January 1995.

Media affects our views of the world and plays a large part in creation and dissemination of social representations. Through media?s increasing importance, people and organizations need to work harder to stand out among the large amounts of brands that exists today.In 2013, Umea? Energi launched a commercial concept about Dolf and Ja?rven, two characters living in Lill-Grobban, a fictional village outside of Umea?. The aim of this qualitative study is to examine how Umea? Energi uses stereotypes in the commercial concept Dolf and Ja?rven and how this affects the respondents, and in the long run the stereotypification of norrlandians.

The purpose of this study is to find, understand and discuss the experiences of former employees at SAAB, and present how this can be understood according to my core theoretical concepts, which are participation and identity. The questions asked in the study are based on how the labor is described, characterized and what comes forth as valuable, which is compared to absence of labor work.First, labor is described in an historical and social context, and at the same time related to the core theoretical concept. Second, the methodology chapter is presented, which mainly consists of 11 observations and 10 interviews. Third, the chapter regarding former theory leads to an analysis model, which is used on the empirical material of the study.The result shows that labor work at SAAB primarily is described as important for socializing, security and the possibility to be independent. The tasks at SAAB are described as backbreaking and monotonous, while the lack of labor work influences the physical and mental wellbeing.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to analyse the construction of European identity in three ofcontemporary EU initiated projects for the digitisation of collections from museums, archives, andlibraries. The source material consists of the web pages of the projects Minerva, MICHAEL, andEuropeana, as well as some other policy documents on digitisation and access from EU authorities.Theories on nationalism and construction of heritage are used as an overall context to the problem.After a brief description of the mentioned projects, the author undertakes an analysis of theways that the concept of ?European heritage? is depicted in the source material. The result is thefollowing: normally, the true European heritage is considered being united even though it isdiveded culturally, historically and linguistically.

This study aims to draw attention to the discourse of Swedish language teachers and their literary repertoires from a didactic perspective. This leeds to the following inquiries: ?how to define and delineate a broader concept of text;? ?how realized is this concept in Swedish upper secondary schools;? and ?how does the use of the broader concept of text effect the ability to learn.? The empirical data comprise group interviews with six teachers who work at two different schools, in different towns, located in southern Sweden. The data are transcribed and carefully analysed by tools consistent with methodological approaches. The theoretical framework consists of discursive psychology.

The thoughts of a common school for all children have been around since the 1800?s but was something that was introduced in Sweden first in 1962. When the curriculum for primary school came in 1980 there was a new concept, a school for all. With a school for all it was aimed that all children should have the right to participation and a common education no matter what needs they could have.During my education I have come across the concept a school for all and that is something that interested me. Today?s curricula and school laws aim to ensure that all children have the right to equal education and inclusion whatever needs you have.The purpose of this study is to find out some pedagogues? thoughts and work around the concept a school for all.

Learning Resource Centre, or LRC, is an international phenomenon and a response to the changing society that came with the development of information technology. The LRC concept spread internationally during the 1990s and began to influence Swedish collage libraries at the end of the decade. The main purpose of this study is to analyze if and how Swedish college libraries have incorporated the LRC concept. Is there a Swedish LRC model? Is the LRC concept still interesting or was it a trend that is now out of date? Interviews with eleven people from six college libraries aim to show how they define the concept LRC and how it has been integrated in to their organisations.

Normal children acquire the necessary social habits without being consciously aware of this, they learn instinctively. (Author?s translation from Swedish to English) (Asperger & Frith, 1998, s. 21) This essay is about people who do not learn to socialize, the social habits, instinctively but through conscious learning. We have interviewed three adults with the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome with the aim to let them tell us about what it means to have a neuropsychiatric disability.

Library and information science (LIS), being a research area characterized by theoretical discord and definition disarray, provides an interesting field of inquiry. Its content, boundaries, scope and superior identity are not clearly stated. This Master s thesis focuses on a thus far unexplored perspective on the discipline: a conceivable statistic and causes- and- effect relationship between the LIS students appreciated identification with the superior identity of the discipline, and the chosen vocational direction within the field. This relationship is examined through testing a working hypothesis on the results of a major quantitative questionnaire survey. The theory behind our research derives mainly from Thomas Kuhn and Richard Whitley.

The purpose of this study was to highlight LGBT asylum-seekers experiences of expressing their sexual identity or gender identity in the country of origin and in the asylum process in Sweden. By interviewing people who got permanent residence in Sweden because of gender or sexual orientation in Utlänningslagen (2005:716) we have been able to explore their own experiences from expressing themselves. This study analyse these experiences from a social psychological perspective, from this analysis we aimed to obtain a deeper understanding of how the experiences from the country of origin affects on the experiences in the asylum process. This study shows that LGBT asylum-seekers often is facing negative reactions from the environment in the country of origin, these reactions can limit their possibilities to express their sexual identity or gender identity in the asylum process in Sweden. The negative reactions they experience in the country of origin have contributed to that many LGBT people internalize feelings of fear to express themselves, feelings that often stays when they come to Sweden to seek asylum.

This study focuses on aspects of cult experiences, given by deconverted formermembers of closed religious movements. Their testimonies were published inbooks or interviews. The aims of the study were to understand the interactionbetween the religious group and its members, living in high tension towardsmainstream society and their testimonies of altered self-esteem during attraction,membership, deconversion and defection. The purpose was to understand how aperson´s self-esteem is affected by inner mechanisms of closed religiousmovements and how these experiences affects a persons identity. Another aspectwas whether there might be differences in altered self-esteem, between those whoenlisted as adults, and those who were born into the closed religious contexts.Social Identity Theory, Sigmund Freud´s and Carl Rogers models of personal egowere used as models of interpretations.

This essay presents a picture of swedish reggae listeners and how their love of music give meaning to their lives and unite them in a sub-culture. Based on interviews with six young men about their involvement in reggae, it also investigates the relationship between music and identity, or more clearly; how identity is expressed through music. Furthermore, I discuss the notion of taste according to Bourdieu, and argue against his statement that taste in music affirms the class and social background of an individual. Results from my empirical data have indicated that reggae music is difficult to associate to a distinct lifestyle, which inclines me to argue that it has managed to transcend phenomena such as ethnicity, class and cultural affiliation..