From a social perspective, I have been working on how to change current consumption patterns through a change in people's behavior and attitude towards their possessions. The concept is based on how we can value, care for, and preserve our belongings by using theories in the empathic design field. I have created a structure that allows people to become an active part of a creative process and create their own products. Through this commitment, an emotional relationship is built between the user and the product, and the product tends to gain a longer life. Based on a method to manufacture your own yarn by reusing old clothes, I want to provide the basic tools for an easy and playful way to build the knowledge needed to produce something useful..

The aim of this Masters thesis is, with an exploratory stand, to examine the thoughts regarding gender perspective at childrens library service that are expressed from childrens librarians as well as the staff in administrative management. The purpose of the study is to generate ideas for further research and discussion regarding a gender perspective on the childrens library service. A total of eight interviews have been carried out. Three persons at the administrative level and five childrens librarians were interviewed. We also have examined if a gender perspective is expressed in the control documents, from international level to a local level, which the libraries could use when developing and planning their work.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of bibliotherapy at hospitals and also what knowledge of and insights on bibliotherapy a few Swedish hospital librarians have. Questions investigated are: What role do the hospital librarians think literature has in the treatment of a patient? What is their view on their role as a hospital librarian and do they believe that they can have a part in the treatment of a patient? Is the concept bibliotherapy commonly used or is there another term in use? How important is the linkage between healing and literature? In this study, the view on bibliotherapy is limited to a hospital perspective. The purpose of the study is therefore to investigate bibliotherapy at the hospital. Six qualitative interviews with hospital librarians were performed at three general or combined general/medical hospital libraries.

Background: Since the coining of the phrase lean production by Womack, Jones and Roos in 1990, this mass production system of Japanese origin has been implemented in a multitude of organizations throughout the world, the results being predominantly positive from a financial point of view. The possibly negative effects of mass production on worker motivation have been discussed since quality of work life became an important political issue in Sweden in the 1970?s. As the popularity of lean service is now increasing, there are still unresolved issues regarding the transferability of a mass production system to the service industry, particularly with regards to the motivation of service employees.Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to study the lean system of a Swedish bank, SEB Way, from a management- as well as an employee perspective in order to describe how lean may affect the work motivation of service employees.Research procedure: The study is empirically based on observations and interviews on multiple hierarchical levels at SEB. We have conducted a total of 13 interviews with front line employees at SEB, with the central SEB Way team as well as two external lean specialists.Results: The study indicates that SEB Way has little direct influence on the intrinsic work motivation of the SEB front line employees, as work motivation was present prior to the implementation of lean.

The purpose of my study is to find out how preschool teachers reason concerning their work withgender equality from outside of the curriculum. I propose the following questions: If there is apositive view over the relevance of gender equality from outside of the curriculum? Does thepreschool teachers think themselves to work with gender equality from outside of the curriculum?Does the preschool teachers have any thoughts on whether working with gender equality will have apositive or negative effect on the children? In what way does the preschool teachers reason on theirown meetings with boys and girls? The method chose to use is a qualitative study that is based oninterviews. I have interviewed four preschool teachers in a small society called Katrineholm. Afterthe interviews I have analyzed the material and split it into themes that has been processed.

This thesis is about how ideology affects the way leadership literature measures good and bad leadership qualities. The paper argues that ideological influences in leadership literature, from a teacher perspective, complicate the understanding of leadership in its practice and theory. The methodological tool used in this thesis is an idea- and ideology analysis approach applied on leadership literature that is used in teacher education. A theoretical discussion about the definition of leadership and its possible ideological connotations sets a frame for measuring ideological influences in the texts. The analysis from the textbooks showed clear signs of ideological influences when talking about leadership.

Choir singing is one of the most popular national movements in Sweden but the knowledge of the meaning of this activity for health and well being from the choir singers? own experiences is limited. The purpose of this study was therefore to develop useful knowledge about the meaning of choir singing for participating persons from a health perspective. The data was collected through qualitative interviews with six different choir singers and went after that through a comprehensive analysis which resulted in four main categories: an oasis in the existence; possibilities of meetings and solidarity; goals and musical development; and physical and emotional well-being. The results showed that the choir activity represents a place where the singers can escape the demands and the stress factors of everyday life and where they get the opportunity of meaningful relations with other people.

AbstractBackground: Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide and accounted for 7.6 million deaths, about 13% of all deaths, in 2008. Several factors can affect patients' quality of life such as physical and psychological symptoms, relationship to people around and the environment. In palliative care professionals need to have good knowledge in order to improve patient quality of life and to give them as good a life as possible in the final stages of life.Aim: The purpose of this overview study is to describe the experiences of quality of life in patients with incurable cancer.Method: We conducted an overview study that was based on ten scientific articles. All articles are qualitative studies, from the year 1995 - 2011, and are from Sweden, Finland, UK, Canada and the USA. Qualitative analysis was used to group the various themes and subthemes for overview study purpose.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how a person?s library use and reading can change with time. It also examines how different factors in a person?s context or in the life situation can affect these activities. The analysis is based upon qualitative interviews with three persons, two women and one man between 67 and 69 years of age.

The thought behind this bachelor essay regarding gender and rhetorical feminist criticism developed years ago out of the fact that I read just a little too many dirty chick lit-pockets as a teen. Those chick lit-pockets were my first introduction to sex, to gender roles, to how men and women react and are supposed to react to each other and, in some sense, even to feminism. Those chick lit-pockets, later turning into hardcore Harlequin-books, became my benchmark when I started to contemplate the fact that this is a man?s world, produced and reproduced by a male gaze which influences everything from sex, porn, advertising, gender roles, jobs and payment to dirty pockets for teenage girls.The essays aims to show how the male gaze-phenomenon could be to use for the rhetoric discipline: first combined with other rhetorical theories as a way to analyze and understand gender and objectification. The main question asked; How to put the male gaze on a rhetorical leash? This bachelor essay consists of a qualitative literature study focusing on four articles and one book in which five different male gaze-perspective appears.

The conflict in Vaxholm was an important event since it influenced the view upon the Swedish labour market. The entire Swedish model was questioned and questions about what the concept of solidarity stands for and for whom it is meant arose.The Swedish union, Byggnads, was harshly criticised for having acted in a discriminating fashion towards den Latvian workers and the Latvian company Laval un Partneri. The debate in the media was intense.My intention with this essay was to scrutinise the arguments in one of the most prestigious newspapers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter, and to put the argumentation into a perspective of solidarity. I wanted to investigate how the different parties argued about solidarity. One of the conclusions I drew was that Byggnads needs to question their definition of solidarity and how they wish to express that in a new world more influenced by globalisation and immigrated labours..

Det här examensarbetet har sin utgångspunkt i elevernas intresse av att spela onlinespelet Word of Warcraft (WoW) vilket har lett fram till en undersökning om spelets eventuella påverkan på elevernas färdigheter i engelska, och hur den i så fall ser ut. Eftersom spelet inte finns på svenska är de flesta spelarna beroende av sina färdigheter i engelska för att kunna förstå och göra sig förstådd i spelet. Arbetet utgår från tre huvudfrågeställningar:1. Finns det ett samband mellan elevernas resultat i engelska och deras spelande av World of Warcraft? Om det finns ett samband, hur kan det beskrivas?2.

Every second woman in Sweden suffers in their lifetime of fracture that is related to osteoporosis. Osteoporosis and fractures affect the person´s everyday life. The aim of the study was to describe experiences of feeling well among women with osteoporosis. Six women were interviewed with semi- structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and the text was analyzed with thematic content analysis.

AimThe aim with the work is to investigate if outdoor life at an early age will contribute to a maintained interest as a grown-up, and what other reasons play a part in maintained/lost interest. Questions:? Are the people active within outdoor life/physical activity today?? How much time do the people devote to outdoor life/physical activity?? What factors during the growth, from preschool to grown-up, contribute to a maintained or lost interest in outdoor life?MethodSince we wanted to bring forth all eventual factors that may have effected the people in their physical activity today we chose to do a qualitative study using deep interviews. The investigated group consists of six former students, four girls and two boys, from the I Ur och Skur preschool Mulleborg. Today the respondents are between 20 and 24 years old.ResultsThe investigation shows that all respondents are active with some kind of outdoor life or physical activity today, but there is a difference in how much.

En undersökning av vinnarbilderna i World Press Photo of the Year mellan 1999-2008. World Press Photo är världens största fototävling och är prestigefylld att vinna för pressfotografer. Syftet var att undersöka vad de senaste årens bildjournalistik förmedlar till sina betraktare genom nyhetsbilderna som vunnit World Press Photo of the Year under 2000-talet. Syftet har förgrenat sig i frågeställningarna:Vilka teman har vinnarbilderna i World Press Photo of the Year mellan 1999-2008?Vad förmedlar innehållet i bilderna?Vad finns det för likheter och skillnader mellan bilderna?Studien är en kvalitativ undersökning där vi gjort bildanalyser av vinnarbilderna i World Press Photo of the Year mellan 1999-2008.