This essay deals with the relationship between the mendicant movement and the urbanization during the thirteenth century. The aim has been to explore the significance of the Dominicansand the Franciscans for the creation of an urban landscape. This was made through the study of the urbanization process in southern Halland focusing on the town of Halmstad where the friars were established. The importance of the mendicants was also studied through their absence in the towns of Laholm and Falkenberg. To achieve this investigation in a contextual perspective material from different areas was used such as archaeology, history and history of science and ideas.

AbstractThis essay aims to problematize and illuminate the connection between special-education and nature-based activities. With a theoretical ground that is based upon a sociocultural perspective I consider the information from the field. Through a qualitative and critical perspective I performed individual interviews with five pupils from the sixth school-year in the Swedish elementary-school. I also performed Focus-group interviews with two educators and three teachers in the same school-form. By a Hermeneutical working-method I have found out that the informants in my survey have a common experience that activities performed in nature has a positive effect on learning.

This one-year master's thesis investigates the late part of the Middle Neolithic on the island of Gotland. This thesis has been written without the influence of a singular theoretical pespective, and has therefore seen input from the processual, and postprocessual theories. By using several perspectives, an attempt is made to view the material remains used in the most objective manner possible. The specific aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the Mid-Neolithic inhabitants of Gotland were a part of the Corded Ware culture (or as it is called in Sweden, the Battleaxe culture or the Boataxe culture). Most recent literature has concluded that Gotland was never a part of the Battlexe culture, though this thesis has discovered many parallels with the mainland culture, including the production of similar objects and ritual practices.

As collaboration between companies move beyond the single transaction into more long-term relationships the consequences of a company's control system become more complex. The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of how intra- and inter-organizational control and work practices interact through examining how a company's intra-organizational control influences its customer relationships. The empirical research is performed through a qualitative case study where interviews have been conducted with management and sales staff within the case company as well as with one of the customers. The empirical findings have been analyzed using frameworks and theories regarding management control and customer relationships. The study reveals that the intra-organizational control of the case company affects its relationships with customers in a number of ways.

This study is based on the will to understand the importance of a specific theory within social work. From the concept of neo-liberal governmentality, the aim is to critically examine and discuss how governance and self-governance is manifested in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). This will be accomplished through an analysis of:? How governance (and self-governance) is manifested in text through the advocacy of CBT and methods based on CBT.? How (governance and) self-governance is manifested in text through the contents of CBT and methods based on CBT. The study has a deductive approach including the hypothesis that the discourses inherent in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory of CBT and methods based on CBT, may be related to the West?s development of a neo-liberal concept of governance.

This essay aims to create an understanding of how leadership can be arranged in a company that embraces new technology and telework, and how it can be experienced from the employees' perspective. In order to make it possible to investigate this purpose are three questions formed; ?How is the leadership perceived??, ?How does telework into motivation?? and ?How does telework into communication??. A presentation of previous research is given, focusing mainly within different types of leadership, distance, and telework. Based on this, three interviews was made in which respondents? experience of telework was in focus.

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences and perceptions of children`s librarians regarding floating collections in public libraries in Gothenburg. In focus for the study are the experiences and perceptions that exist among children`s librarians when it comes to children as library users, the librarian`s working tasks and the professional role as a librarian. The empirical material has been collected through semistructured interviews with six children`s librarians. The material has been analyzed twice. The first analysis has been conducted through qualitative content analysis.

The aim of this thesis is to study preschool-teachers? experiences from using the computertablet as a tool for learning and teaching, in order to gain knowledge of how the integrationalprocess of information and communications technology (ICT) in preschool has progressedsince its instatement. The background that caused interest to make this study was the rapidprogression of the use of ICT-tools in childrens? everyday lives and the troubles that havesurrounded the process of integrating these tools into preschool-practices. The theoreticalbasis for the analysis of the research lies within the socio-cultural perspective.

Eskilstuna Folkhögskola is located in Munktellstaden in Eskilstuna. The school has two separate buildings with entrances that are difficult to find. By having two separate buildings, and to be in an area where there are rules and guidelines for the area's environment, makes it difficult to guide visitors to the school premises.The purpose of my research was to examine how to guide visitors to the school, and how to increase understanding that the school's various buildings are connected.Through practices such as site analysis, interviews, I found that the guidelines are not adapted to the current situation that is established in the district.Through theory and empirical material I have produced a design proposal to facilitate Wayfinding to Eskilstuna Folkhögskola. This is presented as a landmark and a clarification of the schools entrances and signage..

The empirical data used for this master thesis, consists of eight manuals with the main purpose to help students evaluate information resources found on the web or Internet. The purpose is to elucidate the discourses and investigate those textual characteristics, which figure in the investigated manuals. The method used is a discursive and linguistic approach, with a power/knowledge discussion applied to the results. The analysis identifies, among other things, the production and consumption of the investigated texts, and that the manuals function as a reflection of the relationship between the participants in the situation, the sociocultural practice of the institution and its identity..

The subject of this bachelor-level thesis in archaeology in the transition from archaic sapiens to anatomically modern humans, and what might have caused this transition. A part of the study aims to prove or disprove whether an increased consumption of shellfish might have caused this development. Another part of the essay deals with the connection of said evolution and the suggested emergence of cultural and ritual practices in South Africa circa 100 000 BP and an evaluation of the arguments concerning the aquatic ape hypothesis, and their usefulness for the subject.The result of investigation of the theory about the increased consumption of marine resources as a probable cause of the last biological step of creating our species points to the conclusion that it is a probable explanation. There is even some evidence that there could be a connection between consumption of marine resources and the "Out of Africa 2"-theory. It is harder to find a proven connection between the suggested emergence of cultural and ritual practices, even some evidence seems to strengthen the idea.

The study examines how belonging is produced in and through a Polish grocery store inSweden. Rather than approaching the store only as a place of consumption or as a simpleexpression of ethnic community, the study understands it as a relational, material, and sensoryspace where diasporic belonging is created through everyday practices. The analysis focuseson recurring shopping, small talk, customer recognition, language use, smells, tastes, music,rhythms, and seasonal goods. The main argument is that belonging is not fixed or self-evident,but is continuously produced, maintained, and negotiated through material, sensory, and socialpractices. The store functions as a diaspora space where Polish, Swedish, Slavic, and Balkanexperiences intersect in everyday life, while familiar products and routines create bothcontinuity and adaptation across geographical distance.

This thesis explores the narrow spaces between closely built houses in the over 300-year-old wooden town center of Mariestad, Sweden, and their potential as time capsules and sources of knowledge in cultural-historical building investigations. By interpreting well-preserved carpentry work on a facade in one of these spaces, the study aims to provide an example of how these preserved spaces can serve as a source of knowledge and understanding of craftsmanship and the history of the place. The thesis also addresses the municipality of Mariestad's work with cultural heritage, as well as maps out more of these potentially interesting interstitial spaces. Old Swedish wooden towns possess a high degree of uniqueness both nationally and internationally; nevertheless, they are subjected to relatively significant threats of demolitions and substantial changes, often in the form of many smaller restorations or changes over a long period of time. The focus of the case study is a window from the 16th or 17th century and the facade's old, hand planed wooden cladding.

This study investigates the difficulties that may arise for students as a consequence of differences that exist in mathematics education between different educational systems. The questions asked are when and why difficulties as a consequence of differences in writing or types of student problems may arise and in which way teachers and students attend to these difficulties. The focus is thus on the written parts of mathematics education and the questions are asked within the frame of general upper secondary education.In order to answer these questions, a sociocultural perspective based mainly on Sfard?s (2006) participationist theories together with Vygotsky?s (1999) general theories on development and learning is used. An important analytic tool is the discourse concept which in this context means a type of communication that brings some people together while excluding others from the communication.

The purpose of this paper is to study how the TV program Border Security: Australia?s FrontLine (Gränsbevakarna Australien) can be seen to reproduce networks of human and non-human actors. The aim is thus to investigate how boundaries between nations are upheld and how people, as a consequence, are discoursively categorized and what preconditions this create for people?sidentity- and meaning-making practices.The theoretical and methodical framework is built upon Bruno Latour?s work on Actor-Network-Theory, and discourse analysis inspired by Michel Foucault. The empirical material consists of two episodes of the TV program.