University of ÖrebroDepartment of social SciencesSociology, Contnuation Course, 61-90hp.Essay 15hp. Spring 2008Title: Who is resbonsible? A soceityscientific discussion about burnout.Author: Emilie FuchsAbstractThe purpose with this essay is to do a critical comparation between two different perspectives, burnout as an individual problem and burnout as a social problem. The first perspective states that the individual itself is responsible for her sickness while the second perspective states that the society and foremost the labour market should work in order to prevent people from beeing burned out. With that purpose in mind I want to enlighten and hopefully bring up the topic for discussion.The essay is based upon the following questions:? How can you sociologically understand the labour market of today?? How can you understand burnout in an individual context?? How can you understand burnout in a social context?By studying and reading four books, I have presented the two different perspectives of burnout.

Differences between groups or individuals in a society with regards to access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) are known as the digital divide. The digital divide pertains to differences in physical access to computers and the Internet as well as knowledgein using technology. Important factors affecting the digital divide are disabilities, age, gender, socioeconomical background, ethnicity and geography. The digital divide appears on several levels: internationally, nationally, regionally and locally. Individuals who, for some reason, have limited or no access to information and communication technologies risk, among other things, to experience social exclusion.

This essay focuses on psychoanalytic theory and its relevance for political studies. It especially draws attention to the conceptual toolkit developed by Jacques Lacan and the way that it serves as the starting point for Slavoj Zizek´s approach to the theory of ideology. One important point of this approach is that the power of an ideology is not primarily related to the ideas or worldview it expresses but rather to the enjoyment it provides the subject with. This enjoyment is obscene in the sense that it forms the necessary, but seldom acknowledged, supplement to public values. Fantasy is a major source for this kind of enjoyment.

Aim: The aim of this study is to understand why people have changed their preferred community over time. What are the main factors when changing to a new one?Method/material: The method has consisted of personal interviews with six different people in the ages between 20-22 and of different gender. The main material that has been used in this essay is the theory of Uses and Gratifications as explained by Denis McQuail, the theory of Convergence culture by Henry Jenkins and the theory about Communites of Practice by Etienne Wenger.Main results: This study shows a heavy affection that the use of communities often centers round the people around the community, rather than the functions that the communities themselves provides. Having people that you know on the community you choose is a vital part for people or at least having the support of other people and changing to another community at the same time.

The purpose of this study was to examine how professional workers understand the bullying problem among Swedish youth in the age of 13-15 years. The main focus was to examine the new phenomena electronic bullying, from a professional point of view.The biggest question to answer was: "How does the school and organizations understand the bullying situation among Swedish youth today?" Individual interviews with professional social workers within the school and nationwide organizations have been used to fulfill the purpose of this work. Two different respondent types were used in order to get a wide perspective and a dynamic view.Electronic bullying had increased, but the school yard was still the most common arena for bullying, according to the respondents. The schools tried to prevent bullying, but the social workers felt that they lacked some knowledge of electronic bullying, because it was relative new.

Over 40 miljon people in the world suffer from hiv/aids today. Africa is the continent that is worst affected by hiv/aids but how is the situation in Sweden? Why is it so quiet concerning hiv/aids in Sweden? Our aim with this work was to find out about the hiv/aids situation in Sweden and particulary in Malmö. The result of our research was that hiv/aids have increased since the year 2000 and most of the people had caught the infection in other countries than Sweden. This raised our curiosity concerning how immigrants/refugees are being treated when they arrive in Malmö and what are being done to stop hiv/aids from spreading further.We became very disappointed when we realised how little that is actually being done and how poorly the collaboration between the institutions are working.

Sweden has had laws protecting nature for about a hundred years. In this paper the views of nature and the values that serve as a rationale for protective measures are analyzed as results of a social process characterized by the dialectic relationship between institutions and discourse. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used to study this relationship and the discursive practices used by institutions, which reproduce or reshape views of nature that define the relationship between society and nature. Institutional design contributes to shaping discourse in the field of nature protection, while being originally shaped by discourse. In Sweden, the national park is an institution that reproduces a view of nature as the wild and untamed opposite of society, and the natural reserves reproduce a view of nature as holder of a multi-faceted set of values intertwined with society.

Given a considerable increase in knowledge-based companies, the interest for measuring and valuing intangible assets, particularly human capital, has increased accordingly. Human capital has climbed the management research agenda as human assets make substantial contribution to the value creation in knowledge-based companies. Neither internal nor external financial statements reflect the value of an organization?s human assets. Against this backdrop, we find it interesting to explore how counting and controlling for human capital is devised.

Given a considerable increase in knowledge-based companies, the interest for measuring and valuing intangible assets, particularly human capital, has increased accordingly. Human capital has climbed the management research agenda as human assets make substantial contribution to the value creation in knowledge-based companies. Neither internal nor external financial statements reflect the value of an organization?s human assets. Against this backdrop, we find it interesting to explore how counting and controlling for human capital is devised.

The purpose of this study was to examine how people experience being in debt, what they consider was the reason for being in debt and how they experienced economic counselling. The empirical data was based on five semi-structured interviews with people having experiences from being in debt and experiences of economic counselling. The data was analysed by using theoretical perspectives from a model called economic-shame created by Bengt Starrin. The model shows how being in debt and the feelings of shame influence health. The conclusion shows that the reasons for being in debt often is due to several sudden and tragic events happening at the same time or due to each other.

An important task for project managers in multi-project environments is to effectively choose the right people to the project team. For organizations, it means being able to prioritize and plan human resources among the various projects running in parallel. The purpose of this paper is to describe how a project manager in multi-project environments looks at the allocation of people in their projects. We did our research through literature reviews and interviews with seven project managers.The research shows that the studied organizations highlight both the expertise and the personal factors in an election. They do not use any specific personality test to identify their staff.

This study centres on the question of how interfaith dialogue can function as a meeting place for young people from different social and cultural backgrounds. The study is based on qualitative interviews with five young participants in an interfaith project taking place in Sweden in 2013 and 2014. For reading the material through a lens of late modern religiosity, Heelas and Woodheads thesis of a spiritual revolution was used. To be able to conclude whether the religiousness of the participants functions as a social resource, Hammack and Cohlers term narrative engagement is used. Lastly Knitters models of theologies of religions was used in the analysis of how the participants reads and understands their own and the others faiths.The study shows that the participants meet in the common aim of defining a religious identity in a late modern and pluralistic society.

Karlsson. A (2015). Importance of spirituality and social support for quitting narcotics - Experiences of the12 step program. Bachelor thesis in Public Health science. Department of work- and public health science.

This thesis rests on the theory and methodology of discourse theory. By viewing social reality as constituted by discourses, meanings that are taken for granted can be challenged.The events of September 11th 2001 resulted in the American war on terror. This thesis explores the impact of 9/11 and the war on terror on the Russian image of the conflict in Chechnya.Discourse theory is applied to shed light on how the conflict over Chechnya is discursively constructed by the Russian state and media. The discourse is organized in three thematic sections: Identity, Enemy Images and Islam. Russia establishes itself as a member of the Western civilisation.

The purpose of this study was set against the background that social media today are used as an platform for companies to communicate with their customers, as well as communicate their brand. Therefore it was interesting to examine this phenomenenon through a critical point of view and try to put light on the different forms of power that is produced on this arena.The overall aim of this study was to examine how PR-consultants talk about social media as a communication channel. The empirical data consisted of five interviews with PR-consultants on five different PR-agencies. The theoretical framework was based on a social constructional perspective and Foucault?s theory of power.