The purpose of this essay is to examine the relationship between visual communication and female homosexuality within the field of magazine design. As the creative part of the project I have chosen to make a redesign of Lotus magazine, the very first Swedish magazine with lesbian and bisexual girls as the target audience. The questions of which the project is based on are: Which stereotypes, differences and similarities can be found in visual communication addressed to a heterosexual versus a homosexual target audience? What kind of design attracts non-heterosexual girls and how can I create a design for Lotus magazine that is appealing to lesbian and bisexual girls and yet still makes it possible to compete with traditional girls? magazines? In order to examine my research questions I have done literature studies within the field of gender and sexual identity in relation to visual communication. Additionally, I have analysed the design of competing magazines on the market and conducted a survey among representatives of the target audience of Lotus magazine..

The focus of this essay is to investigate if there lies a difference between graffiti art that is placed in the public spaces and graffiti art that is sited in an institutional art setting; in this essay exemplified in a gallery space. My thesis is that graffiti art derives a great deal of its meaning and substance from its situation consequently making a change of cultural context also a change of connotation and understanding of the graffiti art itself.  Meaning that graffiti art situated in a communal space is different from graffiti art situated in the gallery space. They share aesthetic expression but their connotations differ; i.e. one being illegal and the other permissible making their meanings dissimilar. I have used a comparison between site-specific art and graffiti art to further strengthen my thesis concerning the importance of understanding how a change of context critically changes the substance of graffiti art..

The aim of this study is to examine what social workers consider as ?challenging behaviour? among adolescents, but also to examine the connection between investigation and intervention in cases where such behaviour is being displayed. The questions of the study are to examine what social workers think of the instrument of assessment BBIC (Children?s Needs in Focus) and how the usage of BBIC affect social workers understanding of challenging behaviour. Moreover, it is a qualitative study and the respondents are all social workers with various length of professional experience who work with making decisions in juvenile welfare cases.

We want in this paper, by using participant observation and qualitative interviews, comecloser to an understanding of what meaning a language café might have for the peoplewho go there. Many of the visitors are people who recently moved to Sweden and are inthe middle of a process of learning Swedish. We want to get a further insight into howthey feel about their situation and what the social encounters on the language café mightmean to them. The purpose is to examine how this can have significance for the identitydevelopment of the visitors.The result shows that the language café is an important place for the visitors because itis the only place they can go to in order to practice speaking Swedish, which isimportant for them to find their place in Sweden. The language café also fulfils animportant function of a place where the visitors can receive an understanding of theSwedish society and reflect about it, but also a place for self-reflection to see theopportunities in the situations they find themselves in.

My essay, All animals were hurt during the making of this art ? En uppsats om döda djur i konsten med utgångspunkt i Nathalia Edenmont, Marco Evaristti och Guillermo Vargas verk, deals with dead animals in art. It is a comparative study with a starting point based on the work Star, 2002 by Nathalia Edenmont, Helena, 2000 by Marco Evaristti and Eres lo que lees, 2007 by Guillermo Vargas. I examine why dead animals in art upsets and provokes us, and why the artists choses to use dead animals as material in their artworks. I do this by the help och Steve Baker and Anthony Julius theories concerning animals in art and transgressive art.

The purpose of this essay is to examine whether and how labor consultants, job coaches, guidance counselors promote the possibility of self-realization of the clients they encounter in their work. By analyzing, based on the theoretical framework, six semi-structured interviews of people having the chosen professions answer the questions "Do counselors promote client's opportunities for self-realization in their work?" and "If so: how is this practiced?". In the theoretical framework three important concepts are addressed: "identity", "recognition" and "self-realization". These are explained with the help of works by including Emma Engdahl, Anthony Giddens, Axel Honneth and Allison Weir.

The purpose of this study is to, from the preschool teachers? point of view, deepen the knowledge about influential factors regarding a mandatory report from preschools to the Child Protective Agency (CPA) when suspecting child maltreatment and feeling uneasiness regarding the child. The purpose is also to furthermore investigate collaboration between preschools and the CPA in Hagfors municipality. The study has the following questions: How do preschools teachers handle their suspicions and uneasiness about a child being maltreated? Which factors can be influential on whether or not the suspicions are reported to the CPA? Which experiences do preschool teachers have of collaboration with the CPA?The study is based on qualitative methods in the formof individual interviews.

This paper examines possible applications of fuzzy logic on the field of artificial intelligence in digital games. It describes fuzzy logic in contrast to crisp logic. The paper will give several examples of possible applications of fuzzy logic-based decision making for game AI. These examples include the choosing of weapons for AI agents and the gas-break decision of an AI-controlled car. The paper will also analyze the impacts of game AI which makes decisions based on many factors.

The Stockholm Bypass is an infrastructural project planned to be located west of Stockholm. This study investigates the argumentation concerning the project from different perspectives. The theoretical starting point is within Decision Theory. The main theories include Bounded Rationality, Kingdon's study of the political agenda and theory regarding venue shopping, framing and lobbying. The method chosen for this qualitative case study consists of both gathering data through semi-structured interviews and through documents provided by stakeholders and information available publically through archives and media.

The purpose of this thesis is to construct a marketing model to be used both theoretically and practically when working with marketing in Swedish public libraries. This objective is achieved by first making a literature review of the written works on the marketing of libraries, and then studying the marketing activities at the public library in Bollebygd, Sweden. The theory is based on the marketing mix model the 7 ps, which serves as a framework for the presentation of the empirical result and the analysis. One of the questions posed in the beginning of the paper is how the library has worked with marketing over the past ten years. Through a combination of methods observation, textual studies and interviews the marketing activities employed at Bollebygds library are noted.

This essay concerns the notion of how immigration politics, defined as a political discursive structure that explains and justifies how and why the movement of people into a state's territory is restricted and controlled, has come to present its purpose not as solidarity with the 'immigrants' wanting to enter the state but as a protective measure for the state's citizens. By using discourse theory combined with theories from the International Relations field I attempt to explain why and how such a discourse positions 'immigrants' as a threat to the state.First, I concentrate on why an immigration politics discourse would position 'immigrants' as a threat. I argue that in order for people to construct their identity, the 'outside' what they "are not" has to be repressed. In the same way, the state has to dislocate the "outside" and create threats to uphold its supremacy. These boundaries are set to create a feeling of predictability and security, and ultimately they are a way of making peoples' "world" coherent.

The aim of this study is to examine reading on the MobileReadforums. The term ?to read? is extended to also cover bookcollection and usage of new technology such as mobile readerunits.A catalyst for reading on mobile reader units seem to be the needto always have access to the personal e-book collection. Apartfrom being a source for reading the collection of e-books alsoserves the purpose of extending the members self-esteem.A large portion of the activities on the MobileRead forum isaimed at making new technology comprehensible with the help ofprotocols to determine the usage of that technology. The processof making protocols also seem to be another way for the membersto extend their self-esteem.Traditional libraries are mainly seen as one of many sources for ebooks.Librarians are mostly perceived as being service mindedbut lacking in e-book knowledge.There is also a risk for miscommunication as the library hasdeveloped other protocols that defines an e-book and how itshould be used.This study is a qualitative analysis based on forum posts collectedfrom the MobileRead forum..

This thesis is part of the evaluation of a development project in Serbia, where cooperativeshave been formed in order to make the members support themselves trough organic farming.The purpose of the paper has been to find out if the goal of making the current members andpotential new members able to support themselves on what the cooperatives produce, hasbeen reached. The goal is to be considered as partly fulfilled; according to the last annualreport from Odraz, ?the registered cooperatives have become fully functional and stable andthey have started making some modest profit.???the majority of the beneficiaries think thatthey are self-reliant??. In order to find out what is required in order to fulfil the establishedgoal entirely, (for example there are no reports of that new members have been recruited, andthe fact that most, not all, current members of the cooperatives (the beneficiaries) say thatthey are supplied from what the cooperatives produce), I have tried to identify the conditionswhich the cooperatives operate under. The basis of the paper consists of a literature review,interviews with the directors of the cooperatives, a questionnaire dealing with the businessenvironment and various external sources in Serbia..

The purpose of this study is to analyze how the blog as an arena is being used by youngpeople to discuss and reflect on reading and literature, and what purpose the blog as an arenahas for them in the forming of identity. The method used in this study is qualitative contentanalysis. Prior research is divided into two themes: young people?s reading, and young peoplein group constellations in and outside of the blogosphere. The theoretical framework is madeup of Louise M.

ABSTRACTPurpose/aim: The aim of this essay is to make a comprehensive study of the phenomenon of net dating, both among those who have dated on the internet and among those who haven?t tried it at all. Key questions to be answered are what attitudes are associated with net dating? How do the attitudes differ between those who have tried compared to those who haven?t? What kind of positive and negative aspects is there with net dating? Are there any prejudices against net dating and ? if so, what kind of prejudices? How does the future look for net dating?Material/method: Qualitative method with eight interviews divided into two groups depending weather the person has tried net dating or not.Main results: The study shows that net dating is a phenomenon that will continue to grow and attract more users. The most significant result from the interviews are the different prejudices that are articulated.