The aim of this study was to examine why young females develop self-harm behaviour. We also wanted to look at the differences between young females born in foreign countries and young females born in Sweden and investigate if there were any differences regarding the reasons for developing self-harm behaviour and the actual extent of the self-harm behaviour within the group. We used a qualitative method and performed interviews with nine professionals that work with young females with self-harm behaviour. To be able to analyse our qualitative interviews we used concepts such as Modernity, anomie, safety and cultural differences in the bringing up of children. The results of this study shows that self-harm behaviour is a symptom of excessive anxiety, which can be caused by a number of reasons, such as childhood trauma or great demands in modern society.

The aim of this essay is to analyze the discursive production of Food, within the Slow food movement, by its members. Through a discourse analysis inspired, theoretically and methodically, by Michel Foucault, this essay examines how the idea of food ? that is ?what should be eaten? ? in opposite to what can be eaten, is constructed within by Slow Food members in the Gothenburg area. The essay analysis how Slow Food?s food discourse is structured and what results this formation has on food within this discourse.

Sara Lidman?s second novel Hjortronlandet (1955) unfolds in the north of Sweden in the early 20th century. It describes the progress of Modernity and the conflicting interests of an old local culture and a new more ?civilised? one. The two cultures are constituted by different value systems and in the novel they are represented by two neighbour communities.

SammanfattningI dagens samhälle har förändringstakten och ökad individualism inneburit att individen måste ompröva tankar och värderingar utifrån de för tillfället rådande förutsättningarna. En vägledning för att ändå skapa en stabil bild av identiteten är genom personliga varumärken. Det innebär att en individ framhäver sina unika egenskaper på arbetsmarknaden.Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka faktorer som bidragit till fenomenet personliga varumärkens framväxt, vilka likheter som finns mellan en individs personliga varumärke och identitet, samt hur framtiden för personliga varumärken kan tänkas se ut.Teorierna som används är Giddens teorier om modernitetens följder, samt Stiers teorier om identitet. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och datainsamling har skett genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Informanterna har bestått av tre personer som arbetar inom Human Resources, och som dagligen kommer i kontakt med personliga varumärken.Resultatet visar på att framväxten av personliga varumärken kan bero på utvecklingen av individualismen och globaliseringen.

The concept of a Sharia compliant financial system has been a frequently discussed topic among scholars, bankers and media since the 1960th. It origins from the prohibition of interest, riba, which is stated in the Quran. Islamic banking is spread across the Muslim world and also exists in some western countries. This paper will try to create an image of what Islamic banking is in theory and in practice. This will be done by looking into the different methods of interest free banking, the Quran and the annual reports of four Islamic banks in different countries.

The concept of a Sharia compliant financial system has been a frequently discussed topic among scholars, bankers and media since the 1960th. It origins from the prohibition of interest, riba, which is stated in the Quran. Islamic banking is spread across the Muslim world and also exists in some western countries. This paper will try to create an image of what Islamic banking is in theory and in practice. This will be done by looking into the different methods of interest free banking, the Quran and the annual reports of four Islamic banks in different countries.

The theologian Sarah Coakley has developed a theological method, which she calls théologie totale.This essay examines the methodological criteria for this method. To understand how its anthropology, epistemology and theology are shaped, the criteria are analyzed within a theoretical framework, in which mainly David F. Ford's theological typology and Stephen Bevans models of contextual theology play parts. The material consists of Coakleys texts, essentially the first part of Coakley?s projected systematic theological work.

The present MA thesis analyzes how body and blood functions as historical and narrative elements in Yu Hua's novel Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995). In the novel, the story and the plot can not be regarded as disparate items; the two levels of the text are tightly interwoven by what the thesis introduces as a sangvinolent narration. The term conceptualizes the use of blood as a structural element and the thrust of the text, in this case how the ability to sell blood is a prerequisite for the story and the plot.Close readings reveal the structural correlations between the blood-selling main-character Xu Sanguan in the plot on the one hand, and in the story on the other, which can be detected to have, inter alia, an effect on the temporality of the narrative. Themes linked to identity, belonging and survival (performativity, mimicry, reification and alienation) permeate the text. In the novel the body and bodily fluids are sacrificed in order to form and enforce perceptions of identity and societal roles.The rhetorical use of ?blood and tears? (Ch.

The aim of this bachelor thesis has been to investigate what affected the body ideals of teenage girls attending the Swedish upper secondary school and thus, the questions for the investigation were: Who/what ?gives? teenage girls their body ideals today and what is considered as an influence of these young teenage girls today with regard to their perception of their own body? The theoretical perspective on the thesis were symbolic interactionism, Gidden's theory on "late"-Modernity as well as Ziehe's theory on reflexivity. A quantitative survey were conducted where questionnaires were the starting point. For convenience and simplicity , the author chose to perform the survey on a number of high schools in her vicinity. The headmasters in these schools were contacted and she got the contact infomation for the concerned teachers or the school social pedagogue.

The subject of this thesis is studying how physical libraryenvironments express ideas on the function of the library, asstated in guiding documents. The ?physical library? isdefined as everything inside the library building, andexcludes the library architecture, focusing on things likefurniture, furnishing and the arrangement of physical media.The two questions asked in this thesis are: What aspects ofthe idea of a public library?s function, as expressed in theguiding documents of the library, are possible to study in thephysical library environment? In what ways can theseaspects be studied in the physical library environment?The study of the thesis is divided into two parts, a ?prestudy?and a ?main study?. In the pre-study aspects areidentified by reading guiding documents from differentpublic libraries, and analysing the result together withprevious studies on physical library environments. In themain study three Swedish public libraries (located inHelsingborg, Åstorp and Klippan) are visited, and theirenvironments are studied based on theory on what items andmeans of expression can influence the experience of thelibrary function.The four aspects that are identified in the pre-study areculture, education, accessibility, and development.According to the results of the main study, culture isexpressed in the library environment through aesthetics,education through the environment being inviting andstimulating for studies, accessibility by the environmentbeing inviting, functional and democratic, and developmentby Modernity.

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.

Uppsatsen utforskar några omständigheter kring vilka de omfattande förändringarna i Stockholms centrala delar vid mitten av 1900-talet dokumenterats, i första hand genom fotografiska bilder. I de "minnesböcker" där dessa bilder står i förgrunden får "Klarakvarteren" i en viss mening stå som symbol för det moderna Stockholm i och med anläggandet av den nya centralstationen på 1870-talet, samt genom att utgöra den självklara platsen för otaliga tidningsredaktioner, hotell och kaféer. Som sinnebilden för det moderna stadslivet i Stockholm är "Klarakvarteren" förbundna med en annan viktig aspekt av moderniteten: den fotografiska bilden. "Klarakvarteren" finns idag, i spåren efter den omfattande omdaningen av stadskärnan, i allt väsentligt enbart kvar som minnesbilder i form av text och fotografier. Genom att undersöka en i sammanhanget central fotografisk bok, med en längre essä av Per Wästberg tillika fotografier av Lennart af Petersens, som i många år arbetat som fotograf för Stockholms stad, hoppas föreliggande uppsats kunna väcka frågor kring hur minnen, fotografier och tillvaron i den moderna staden kan sägas gå samman i dessa "minnesböcker" som publicerats under, liksom efter, dessa storskaliga arkitektoniska förändringar..

The persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority population in southwestern Burma has come to the fore in recent years. The aim of this study is to first analyse the degree and respects of biopolitical control in the case of political oppression. Secondly, the aim is to compare the similarities and differences when it comes to the causes, mechanisms and expressions of the two theoretical starting points in the case.Giorgio Agamben´s biopolitical theory, which tries to reconnect state control over life and death with Modernity, forms the basis of the analysis. Will Kymlicka´s liberal theory on minority rights serves as a theoretical comparison tool. Methodological starting points to the specific bilateral purpose will be both of the textual and discursive analytical tradition.

Aim of this work was to determine teachers' ideas about how to encourage lifelong learning in primary school in year 3, so that students can continue learning throughout life. To get answers to my purpose, I used the following questions: What are the teachers' perceptions of the concept of lifelong learning? What are the main aspects teachers emerged as important in education, to encourage students to lifelong learning? Is there potential barriers to teachers for the promotion by the term of lifelong learning?The method used, is qualitative interviews and as a starting point I used the hermeneutic approach. Theoretical part included Ziehes Modernity theory of learning and Vygotsky socio-cultural perspective.The results revealed that lifelong learning is interpreted on the basis of active teachers in many varied ways. Teachers' perceptions of the concept of lifelong learning have been very varied.

Few studies enlighten the problem associated with the dialectical relationship between adults and adolescents and how that affects the construction of identity for adolescent?s, in relation to two areas that are closely bordering to each other but differs socioeconomically whereas one area is much weaker on resources than the other. These two areas is Högberget and Haganäs, which are situated in a larger city in Sweden.For us to be able to enlighten this problem we have chosen to use an inductive research approach so that we can explain how adolescents construct their identity and how the organized spare time, in addition with the influence of adults, impacts on adolescents construction of their identity.Therefore we have used interviews as method, both group and individual, so it can regulate which theories that influence our study. The two theories that wires through the entire study are firstly Peter L. Bergman and Thomas Luckmanns theory on social construction where the idea is that the human being is an active social being that constructs its own reality.