This is a sociological study of religion that examines how gender and female Muslim identity is expressed during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in the swedish paper Dagens Nyheter in the year 1951, 1989 and 2009. The aim is to see who creates the image of Islam and Muslims in general and in particular the image of the Muslim woman and whose Islam is given space in the article material. The picture has changed with the increase in immigration from Muslim countries and that we have gone from a modern to a late modern society in which other patterns shape our identity. The historical summary of the paper Dagens Nyheter illustrates how the Swedish society is formed in relation to Islam and Muslims. It provides a deeper understanding of the problems in the swedish multicultural society today..

The following essay aims at the interplay between regional och municipal growth work, and theway cultural heritage is used in growth work strategies. The main issue has been whether theregional strategies are followed up in the municipal strategies, which has been investigated bymeans of question which impact the region?s strategies has at the local level.The essay draws upon an instrumental perspective on cultural heritage and cultural environment,here defined as instruments in the national development and growth efforts. Three publicationsthat highlights potential roles of cultural heritage and cultural environment to act as instrumentsin the regional and municipal development and growth efforts has thereby been selected astheoretical models. These roles has further been summarized in a tabular form as a schematicdivision of main themes with sub-categories, used as a framework for deciphering the regionaland municipal strategies.A content analysis of available strategies at both regional and local levels have been used as amethod for investigating the issue, where the role of cultural heritage and cultural environment(as defined in the schematic table) has guided the reading.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka vilka historiska händelser och begrepp som är det samlande kittet för ungdomars svenska kulturella identitet idag. För att undersöka detta har vi genomfört en kvantitativ studie på Pauliskolan, en gymnasieskola i Malmö. Enkäten fokuserar på frågeställningar som berör den svenska efterkrigsidentiteten. Begrepp som vi har lyft fram är bl.a. den svenska neutraliteten och folkhemmet.

The purpose of this study was to illustrate how children of the "digital generation" used their computers in their everyday practice. The important in the study was children's perspective on computers interactions and communications in a digital arena.An essential item about understanding children's way to think about computers was to let children themselves speak by taking part in the study, because children's voices are seldom heard in public. The empirical material used was interviews with sex children between 13 and 15 years old. My method was qualitative.The main results showed that social relations are very important for children. The Internet gives children access to an arena where they are able to make new contacts with others as well as transcend their biological as their physical identity.An important accepts for the children in the study was the option to be anonymous.

The aim of this study is to analyze how individuals experience their eating disorder, the focus being if anorexia may be perceived as a secure safe zone in the new modern world. The aim is to examine if individuals affected with anorexia nervosa understand the disorder as a solution to the modern worlds changes and the new individual freedom that it entails. This will be analyzed with the help of terms in Erich Fromms theories about escape mechanisms and Catarina Kinnvalls theories about the modern worlds ontological insecurity.The study is based on data collected from four informants of different ages and gender. The interviews were conducted through email and informants were chosen based on a strategic selection and snowball sampling. For the analysis of the empirical material Fromms escape mechanisms (authoritarianism, destructiveness and automaton conformity) and Kinnvalls theories of identity in the modern world have been used.The results of the analysis show that the eating disorder has a great significance for the individual construction and maintenance of identity and that the eating disorder becomes a safe zone to retreat to in a world of performance anxiety.

This essay examines the Swedish missionary association Bible Faithful Friends? (Bibeltrogna Vänner, BV) ecclesiological development between the years 1911 ? 1986 and their relation to the Church of Sweden. This essay?s three main questions are:- How did the ecclesiology of BV develop during the years 1911 ? 1986, with certain focus on 1967-1986?- In what way was this ecclesiology imprinted bya) the structure of the missionary association?b) and the ecclesiological standpoint of the leader Axel B. Svensson?As regards the first question, the study shows that BV's ecclesiology, particularly in the years 1967 ? 1986, is characterized by a church debate between BV's board and the promoters and founders of the Lutheran Confessional Church (Lutherska Bekännelsekyrkan, LBK).

Undersökningen syftade till att beskriva upplevelsen av sitt eget och andras sätt att konsumera. I relation till faktorer baserade på ?social identity theory? (Tajfel & Turner. 1979, refererat i Myers, 2007) men också egna individuella upplevelser om påverkan på det egna konsumtionssättet hos kvinnor i åldern 20-24 år. Strävan efter att uppnå en positiv social identitet och undvika en negativ social identitet upplevs påverka sättet att konsumera.

Nation building is vital in post-war states to bring the people that have been at war together. To restore peace in a state, many different actors need to work together to bring stability, safety, and advancement to a new nation. There are several methods of nation building, and this thesis evolves around three of them. This is a qualitative study where three theories on nation building are used to analyze the development of nation building, and the obstacles Bosnia and Herzegovina still has to reach a national identity. Several studies are used in this thesis to show how the development has evolved in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In order for any society to exist there must be a sense of belonging. In other words "We" need to be made distinctive and differentiated from "the Others". The aim of this thesis is to examine the processes behind the making and upholding of collective identities and the consequences of doing so. Theories regarding stereotypes, enemy images, power over the discourse and glocalization have therefore been applied to an empirical example in the form of a case study.The study is made on the municipality of Laxå in Sweden. Representatives on assumed key positions have been interviewed on their and Laxå's inhabitants views on the asylum seekers in the community between the years 1986 and 2005.Yet another aim of the thesis is to examine the possible connection between the perceived collective identity and the decision to close down the asylum facility in Laxå.

Allocation of funds to public libraries is uneven and this study will try to explain the reasons and clarify why the allocations of funds are distributed like they are and what calculations influenced the financial apportionment. This master thesis accounts for allocation in seven public libraries in Uppsala. The study shows that one reason for uneven allocations is demographic. Another reason is that the library has come into a good or bad circle. There are no models for allocation of funds to public libraries in Uppsala, thats why their allocations are given after a percentage increase of earlier years allocations, and that leads to a good or bad circle.

A great fire seized a suburb in a small town in Sweden in the autumn of 2011. Parts of a shopping mall were burnt to the ground by youngsters. Due to the suburb's earlier problems, the event was a tough ethical dilemma for the town's journalists.The purpose of this thesis was to study and examine the local newspapers ethical treatment of this event. How do they motivate their decisions on what to publish and what not to publish? How do the articles treat ethical dilemmas? What do the journalists think about ethical journalism?This study is based on a survey of the articles published about the fire in the two local newspapers seven days after the fire.

The aim with this essay has been to see how students use drinking-songs and what function they have. I have also wanted to see how the traditions are carried on between the students. In order to do this, I have been observing three parties organised by three different student associations at Växjö University: Västkustens nation, Föreningarnas Festeri and Isterbandet. I have interviewed five people that have been attending the dinners. I have used Alan Merriam?s theory of use/function and made interpretations of his theory.

The newspaper industry changes with the society. New trends and developments affect how layout and design are perceived. Therefore it is important for the survival of a news­paper to catch up with trends and retain contemporaneity. This demands that a daily paper frequently updates its appearance and sometimes even redesign the whole newspaper. Folkbladet, a newspaper in Norrköping, is currently in need of a new layout. The employees often deviate from the graphic guidelines that exist at the company today, due to that it doesn?t feel contemporary, but also because they don?t appreciate the appearance as it is today. This thesis is based on a study of the layout of Folkbladet and analyse: which tools can be used to create a distinct identity regarding layout, which tools you can use to create a clear structure and readability in a newspaper, and how Folkbladet can make use of these tools. To find out about the company?s situation today and their identity, interviews have been made with employees.

In recent years, the Internet has exploded with different kinds of social media, where a significant function is to share your life in text and images. This changes how we form our identity, our religious identity included. The aim of this paper was to study how Instagram forms a space for the creation and development of religious and spiritual beliefs. For this purpose, Instagram updates from five women with yoga oriented Instagram accounts have been analyzed in relation to two theories: Paul Heelas? och Linda Woodhead?s theory of a spiritual revolution and Heidi Campbell?s theory of networked religion.The aim of the study was to explore how these women presented themselves in their Instagram flow and what part religion and spirituality had in their presentations.

Muslims and islam are unquestionably a part of European social life. In recent times, however, different events, such as the enlargement of the EU and the fact that muslims to a higher extent demand their rights, have brought a number of questions to the fore concerning muslims and islam in Europe. Moreover, we can see an increasing level of islamophobia in contemporary Europe, but also that the EU has launched several programs to increase both the diversity and the unity throughout the Union and to combat islamophobia. However, most of these programs focus on islam as religion and muslims in general, and such a narrow viewpoint runs the risk of missing important issues.In this new context it would be interesting to widen the scope and ask what place not only the muslim community and islam, but also sharia (an important element in islam), may have in future Europe ? especially when it comes to muslim identity?My main objects are to see how the concept of sharia is constructed in the debates in the European Parliament, how that discourse relates to a social practice ? the increasing islamophobic ideas in Europe ? and what effect this may have on muslim identity in a European context.The results shows that the Parliament constructs sharia as, for example, something archaic, threatening, inhuman and misogynistic.