AbstractIT can facilitate communication among individuals and connect people across geographical distances. On the contrary, citizens of the society who do not use communication technologies to some extent might feel excluded from the information society. As elderly citizens are already in a vulnerable position for the digital divide, communication technology becomes an important tool for interacting with friends and family. The social situation of elderly, 60 years of age and older, is a topic of current interest since they are the fastest growing age group in the world today. Further, social interaction becomes more important among elderly since it has a positive effect on well- being.

This thesis is an attempt to shed light on how the authors of the Swedish Government Official Report, SoU 1999:83, speak about how the globalization affects democracy. The method used is critical discourse analysis and ideological analysis, with the main emphasis on the former. The results of the analysis are then interpreted with central parts of Jürgen Habermas? The theory of communicative action. One of the main conclusions is that an absolute majority of the authors, talk about how the globalization affects democracy in terms of the economic market and the European union.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the different substrates that enter the digestion on Sundet wastewater treatment plant for production of biogas.This work have done an analysis of data about the biogasproduction from January 2012 to feburari 2013, this showed that the food substrates has a greater gas production than internal sludge.Through laboratory test the VS, TS and COD values for all the substrates used in the biogas production could be determinded. But the COD-method was less optimal for analysis of fat and food, therefore it optimized the method for fat but due to time constraints, this could not be done on the food substrates..

Our purpose is to analyse three different epistemological discourses that exist in the social practice, Library and Information Science LIS, using the strategy for interpretation from the mimesis model by Paul Ricoeur and the terms from the critical discourse analysis by Norman Fairclough. The aim is also to explore there different views of knowledge organisation. We review previous research involving epistemology, knowledge organisation and discourse analysis in LIS. These show that there are many different epistemological standpoints and that later research has shown a more critical and sceptical state of knowledge organisation than earlier traditional positivist ideals. Discourse analysis is described as an important theory and method in LIS.

Aim:The aim of the study was to describe the experience of working environment in open plan office within IT- sector.Background:Previously was the most common office model cell office, open plan office is now the most common. A good working environment in theise two office types needs different attributes. A theory to explain relationship between health and unhealth is Karasek and Theorells demand- control- supportmodel.Method:A qualitative interview study was performed to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of working in open plan office within IT- sector. Ten informants from two different organizations were chosen. The result has been analyzed with qualitative content analysis.Results:The analyses resulted in three themes and six sub-themes.

Society is characterized by patterns of behavior and interaction that is created and recreated inthe interplay between individuality/collectivity and freedom/constraint, thus represents avariety of social issues and social phenomena. One of these phenomena is social supportexchanges and social capital. In order to obtain views on how this might appear in a specificsociety and contribute to the knowledge about social support exchanges and social capital, thisstudy was done with seven families in a village in Nepal. The village and the families gave aview and an example of how it might look in a place where social support exchanges plays acrucial role in this way of living. Through observations and interviews I have tried to make thesocial support exchange areas and meanings visibile.

The aim of this two years master thesis in Library and information science is to study the foundation Centrum för lättläst and its work regarding information use with focus on information structures and information needs. The aim is also to examine how Centrum för lättläst cooperate with Swedish libraries to promote the work concerning people with reading disabilities. This master thesis applies a domain analytic theory and method inspired by Birger Hjørland. The domain analysis is confined to examine ontology, epistemology, sociology, empirical user studies, document and genre studies and studies of structures and institutions in scientific communication. The main source material consists of information from the homepage of Centrum för lättläst.

This thesis is based on the implementation of a bilateral rural development program in Burkina Faso. The main purpose of this study was to put the actual implementation process of a bilateral development program in view. This was done by investigating how two dominant perspectives in the implementation literature can explain what in fact happens during the realization of an aid program. A further aim of the thesis was to explore the limitations of these two dominant theories, in order to get a full understanding of the complexity of the realization of an aid program. Based on the implementation theory, this study shows that the realization of an aid program can be understood from three different angles.

The purpose is to explore and describe norms and values concerning emotions and emotional expression inSweden and Greece from an emotionsociological perspective. Do emotional regimes on a national level existand if they do, how do they differ? To answer this question qualitative interviews have been conducted withnine Greek/Swedes, men and women of different ages, who have lived in both countries and who speak bothlanguages. A quantitative survey study, employing a survey previously used in a Swedish study about emotions,has also been undertaken. Previous studies have shown that emotional regimes do differ historically and acrosscultures, but no study so far has focused on the differences between examples of North European and SouthEuropean cultures.The theoretical framework consists mainly of Hochschild´s theories about feeling/display rules and emotionwork, but the analysis also draws on Collin´s theory of interaction ritual chains and on Sociology of Emotionsmore broadly.The results suggest that different national regimes can be distinguished primarily in terms of display rules andin the skills of emotional alternations.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to examine the views of the elderly and the caregivers that appear in brochures for the elderly and the discourses that can be found within. The data that the study is based on was collected and analysed using content analysis and Faircloughs (1992) critical discourse analysis. The theoretical frameworks that have been used are social constructionism, critical discourse analysis, assortment and protest, and New Public Management. The results showed two images of older people (I) the elderly as active and autonomous and (II) the elderly as passive and in need of help. The results also showed two pictures of the caregiver (III) the caregiver and NPM, and (IV), the non-profit care provider as a complement.

Background: The Swedish fashion industry grows steadily, today it?s populated by many small and medium sized companies. Due to the big clothing chains dominant position small businesses risks to be ousted out of the fashion industry.Smaller companies may find it difficult to reach out to the customer by traditional advertising because their budgets are often smaller. It is therefore important for smaller companies to create loyal customers. If the smaller sized businesses in the fashion industry do not follow the rapid developments in society and focus on building strong brands and relationships, they will have problems with surviving in the long run.Problem definition: Which communicative factors are important in the choice of brand strategy to create a long-term survival for small and medium-sized companies in the fashion industry?Purpose: The purpose of the essay is to analyse and evaluate the brand as a communications tool for building a brand image.Method: The data which is being used in the essay is collected from interviews with companies and survey of each company's existing and potential customers.Theoretical perspective: Relationship Marketing Perspective and Transaction Marketing PerspectiveTheories: Brand Strategies, Total Communication, Brand Equity, Involvement Theory, Service Value Profit Chain.Empiric: The empirical data is primary data gathered from interviews with a representative for each company and from the questionnaires distributed to the customers of each company.Analysis: The analysis is an interpretation of the empirical material collected from interviews with each company and customers survey.

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.

Interaktion är det komplexa samspel mellan interaktörer där meningsskapande skerinom kommunikativa sekvenser. Föreliggande studie syftar till att översätta ettbedömningsinstrument till svenska för bedömning av interaktion mellan barn medkommunikativ funktionsnedsättning och deras föräldrar. Instrumentet Coding of Parent-Child Interaction and Communication Skills Assessment är hämtat från studier avPennington et al. (1999; 2009) och prövas på två interaktionsdyader (barn i interaktionmed en förälder) före och efter genomgången föräldrakurs för att utvärdera ominstrumentet är användbart vid bedömningen av interaktion. Den svenska versionen avbedömningsinstrumentet innehåller koder med definitioner för identifiering avinteraktionsmönster.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the narrative elements in three of the Swedish artist Karin Mamma Anderssons paintings and try to see what kind of stories that might be hidden in these paintings. I have chosen three different themes as tools for this study. They are: the meaning or the importance of the titles, painting as a medium and the narrative elements or components in the paintings. Furthermore I also use the semiotic method in my analysis based on the ideas of Roland Barthes combined with a feminist theoretical standpoint with a gender perspective. This means my study is based on the reception of these images and what kind of message they might carry.

One task of school is to counteract traditional gender patterns. Literature is an actor which can affect people?s perceptions of what is feminine and what is masculine. It can therefore be worth looking at the works of fiction that are available for pupils in school. A book that is popular among children and adolescents is Twilight (2007).