This study concerns digital stories told by five young Romani students and one teacher from Roma Culture Class in Stockholm, Sweden. The theoretical framework draws from theories concerning identity, culture,Romanipe, the Romani value system and social semiotics. The material for the study is the digital stories that were analyzed qualitatively. The results show that the young Roma in the study demonstrate pride in their Romani background and culture, but also signs of changes and development in their culture. Some of the participants do not show external signs of Romani traditions, for example in the ways of dressing.

This master?s thesis has the intent of showing that the tattoo can be regarded as an individuals document according to prevailing notions in archival science. Suzanne Briets definition of the concept of document is used in this thesis as a widening definition, a document does not have to presented in a defined form, it is only required to represent an object or intellectual phenomenon and to be informative.Tattoos are presented in this thesis as informative with regard to the status and position of russian/soviet convicts and as such presenting an individuals identity within a specific context. As documents they also provide the individual with the essential evidence of his or her endeavours in a criminal environment. Also, they have the ability to function as an individuals memories of relationships, hardships and comradeships.

In previous studies there has been indications that multilingualism has a delaying effect of the onset of dementia and damage on cognitive abilities (Bialystok et al., 2007; De Bot & Makoni, 2005, s. 58). Cognitive abilities refers to memory, attention, language, abstract thinking and understandings among other things (Läkemedelsverket). Other studies have seen that individuals with Alzheimer's disease (Swedish abbreviation AS from here on) have difficulties with managing a conversation (Hyltenstam & Stroud 1989). This study aims to describe the topic treatment in bilingual individuals with AS and compare their different languages.

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.

This essay aims to investigate young people's vision of clothes as a means of communication. Focus lies on what message the clothing we have on sends out and how they are interpreted by our surroundings. Do other people interpret us the way we intend to through our clothes? The theoretical frame of reference that applies is Thomas Ziehe?s theories about Clothing and Identity, Anthony Giddens? Reflexive Identity Processes and the Uses and Gratification?s theory. The researches were carried out with a comprehensive questionnaire survey among high school students, at Lars Kaggskolan in Kalmar, with an associated image, and two personal interviews.

In the process of globalization, identity has become one of the central factors.An understanding of the difference that makes up our society has made thequestion of weather is it possible to envision a society where difference is thecommon ground, one that has been up for contest. To answer this we need to seeif this kind of democracy is possible at all. For this I?m turning to the socialmovments who while they are working close to the reality also can give us somereal answers. Therefore I have looked at how social movements adress identity,difference and conflict and concluded that three things are crucial in organizing ongrounds of difference.

The purpose of this study is to gain insight of four preschool teacher?s perspectives and reasoning in two different local if they working to counteract exclusion. The questions this study assumes are: How does the teachers in preschool reason about how they working against exclusion of children with diagnosis in the free game, if there are? How does the teachers reasoning about their methods and personal strategies they uses to include children with diagnosis in the free game, if they are excluded? How does the teachers reasoning about the diagnosis effect of these children?s social interaction with other children if the diagnosis became their identity? The method in this study to collect material about the teacher´s perspective on the subject is semi-structured interviews. The collected material has been analyzed and interpreted from a socio-cultural perspective.

The purpose with this thesis was to describe the importance of the creative industries for a town. We thought that towns could design a strategy to attract creative industries and creative people to establish their business in the town. During the study some important topics, such as a town brand, a town image and a town identity has been identified as factors that can influence and attract people and creative industries. Towns can use these topics in their marketing of the town. The method that we used was a case study: we conducted interviews to collect information about the chosen case study, the town of Skellefteå.

The focus of our dissertation is masculinity which is often a topic of debate in today?s society concerning areas such as violence, sport and paternal leave. Male studies are a relatively new field which means there is a lot remaining to be explored. We have chosen to explore how social class reflects on male identity. The reason we have chosen social class as a variable is due to a focus in the general debate of identity amongst the social sciences towards identities formed through consumption in the world of global mass-media.

The aim of this study was to analyze the transtextual relationship between Hjalmar Söderberg's Jahves eld (The Fire of Yahweh, 1918) and the Book of Exodus. A limitation was set to just focus on the theme regarding the horned face of Moses, which Söderberg extensively discussed in his book, both through narrative and commentary. The methodological and theoretical approach could best be described as a qualitative text analysis where Gérard Genette's model of five types of transtextual relationships (intertextuality, paratextuality, metatextuality, architextuality and hypertextuality) was used in order to systematically classify the various relationships and in a thorough way relate the texts to each other.The analysis shows that the transtextual relationships are many and varied, and some appears to be more relevant to the study than others. Due to the composition of Jahves eld, its first part (?I österland, i fjärran tid?, most easily described as a paraphrase and pastiche of the Book of Exodus) can be identified as a hypertext to the Book of Exodus, while the second part (?Markels försvar?) is rather a metatext to both the first part and the Book of Exodus.

This paper is a critique of the hegemonic democracy ideal in France today, the myth of the Republic. Based on critical theory, the paper also contains a normative attempt giving the chance to subaltern groups to tell their, less often heard, version of the "truth".The theoretical foundation is the ontological narrative perspective, where identities and actions are understood as being constructed by the telling of stories. The interdependent relations of different narrative dimensions are analyzed. The power over who gets to tell the story of the "truth" is understood as decided in the interaction by dimensions of metanarrativity, public narratives, ontological narratives and conceptual narrativity. The author argues, inspired by Chantal Mouffe, that consensus is an illusion based on exclusion of those that differ.

This is a qualitative study which purpose is to examine the experiences of the recovery process after a treatment for eating disorders.                                                         The questions we have decided to examine are; how did the women adapt to a healthier life after treatment, what are the women's perceived experiences of the aspects related to identity and identity work, and what external social influence was seen as important for their adjustment process to a healthier life?Methods: We have used computer-supported and semi-structured interviews. There were a total of nine women who took part in the study.                                                                                                                    Results: Majority of these women have been recovered from their eating disorders, but some still have major or minor problems. They found it rather difficult to adjust their life's without an eating disorder.Conclusions: Increased self-awarness led to greater control over the eating disorder. The women could begin to confer the new features that they identified with.

At the turn of the year 2009/2010 there was a change in the regulations on sickness impact. This led to 328 persons in County of Kronoberg had an expired period of sickness benefit from the Social Insurance Office (Försäkringskassan) when they reached the maximum time for sickness or temporary disability compensation. These individuals were offered introductory programs with the employment services. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the population with expired period of sickness benefit from the Regional Social Insurance Office in the County of Kronoberg (Försäkringskassan Kronoberg) is described in the initial stage, and to explore how individuals who achieved expired period of sickness benefit from the Social Insurance Office (Försäkringskassan) talks about the meaning to get an expired period of sickness benefit regarding economic and social issues. The study was inspired by Grounded theory.

This study aims to investigate, describe and discuss the views of a group of adolescents on their identity and the process of second language acquisition. They all came to Sweden and started studying in Swedish schools in the last three years without any knowledge of the Swedish language.The study has been conducted with respect to the adolescents own perspectives and what they consider important.The methods used are group discussions/ interviews, observations in class and informal discussions with teachers and adolescents.Their voices are described and discussed in this paper. One must take into consideration that there is no objective of being neutral or to generalize the results to any other group or category. On the contrary the study has involved critical self- scrutiny and active reflexivity according to ethnographic tradition.Symbolic interaction has provided a theoretical framework for the study. Looking into how social identities may be constructed or communicated from the adolescents voices and looking in to their use of language the study reveals that several expectations and situations need? to be met by different identities.

The purpose of this essay is to do a narratological analysis of Utvandrarna by Vilhelm Moberg to see how the form affects the theme of freedom and liberation. I used narratology as the method of analysis and my questions for the text regards the significance of the narrator, the use of focalization, the powers, helpers and opponents, the locations and spaces, and how these aspects affect the theme. In my analysis of the novel I found that the narration took place in three levels. This gave the story different perspectives of the theme; an outer perspective, a semi-distant perspective and a more personal perspective. The focalization of the main characters creates sympathies, and the focalization of non-main characters gives the reader an outer perspective on the characters.