This thesis is a study of social alienation in two novels by Sara Lidman, Regnspiran (1958) and Bära mistel (1960). Taking the Swedish ?people?s home? and the normative view of people that it entailed as its point of departure, it examines the different kinds of alienation present in Lidman?s work. The analysis consists of three main parts. Part one examines geographical alienation in the novels, as well as the process of racialization of bodies that are considered out of place.

During the last years a discussion has emerged around problems with Swedish state boards trying to influence the public opinion and even political bodies through different kind of information efforts. Several observers inside and outside the academy have studied how state boards increasingly use information as an instrument and also how political bodies increasingly have given such instructions to state boards. This essay put those studies into the context of both information political history and previous theoretical interpretations in that field of research.The analytical tool consists of four ideal typical ways ('state opinions') to arrange relations between the state and the citizen. Some critics focus on problems with too much political steering and how political majorities uses state boards to spread ideological propaganda. Others highlight problems with autonomy and bureaucratic organizations taking initiatives by themselves to spread normative information.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how gender is constructed in presentence reports written by social workers? as mandated by 11§ LUL. Young offenders are often assigned normative masculine or feminine attributes by personnel at treatment centers, girls are considered emotional and in need of support while boys are considered disorderly and in need of structure. Young female delinquents are victimized which affects their culpability; they are less likely to be held responsible for the crimes they committed. Young male delinquents are viewed as aggressive and in control; they are more likely to be held accountable for their criminal actions.

The focus of this thesis is on what is considered to be a suitable foster home. For the study to be carried out an application had to be made to get access to the foster home assessments in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden. With the support of attachment theory and theory of standards different categories have been picked out and analyzed in foster home assessements that have been approved. The conclusion to what is considered to be a suitable foster home is a complex issue, as there are many factors that are interacting. Social workers seem to focus on the importance of a family?s ability to provide some kind of stability and security for a child who is considered to be placed within their home.

After recognizing a lack of children?s voices in the debate about the children?s book Kivi och monsterhund and the gender-neutral pronoun hen that occurred in the beginning of the year of 2012, I decided to interview pre-school children about the same book. My purpose with the study was, using semi-structured group interviews, to examine how 6-year olds talked about the main character Kivi. With the help of Judith Butler?s theory of performativity, I have studied how the children constructed Kivi?s gender in their speech.

The purpose of this thesis is to through the analysis of interviews with finance professionals in listed companies answer the question on what lies behind capital structure decisions, and to see how well the prevailing theories fit the answers. This article is an explorative and descriptive hypothesis creating study. We have used a qualitative method to analyse practice through theory. We have conducted telephone interviews with CFO:s and financial executives in Swedish listed companies on how they reason when they make capital structure decisions. We have then thoroughly reviewed the theory and empirical tests of the theories.

This is an essay about love and gender representation in Håkan Hellström?s and Veronica Maggio?s lyrics. The purpose of this essay is to investigate how lyrics of indie-pop music represent gender, sexuality and love. The lyrics used is from love songs performed by Håkan Hellström and Veronica Maggio. The method for examining the lyrics of the love songs is discourse- theory and analysis.

How schools handles threat and violence among pupils could have an effect on the surrounding world, since schools reflect society at large. This study attempts to explore how this is handled within two schools, one secondary school and one upper secondary school. How do the schools work with violence and threats amongst pupils? Who is responsible for what? Is this work based on school guidelines? Why/why not? The theoretical starting-points have been Lundquists implementation-based control-model and an organizational point-of-view using theories about open and closed systems, primarily Meyer and Rowans neo-institutionalism. To gain validity, the study has been carried out by way of triangulation, i.e.

The purpose of this study was to analyze how the key staff concept is used in residential care for children and young people and which role the key staff concept plays in the organization.The study was based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with six key staff and two managers from two different residential care facilities for children and young people. The theoretical perspective used was the neo-institutional theory and Hasenfeld´s term Human service organizations.One of the conclusions of the study was that the key staff describe that they have a central role when it comes to the treatment of the children. Another conclusion showed the variety of tasks that the key staff have, like the administrative work that they do. They also have an educational role, similar to the one that parents normally have which means that they are responsible of parenting the children. They also described themselves as a link between the children and their social network.

The appointing of Swedish governmental officials has gone through a dramatic change the last nine years. The tradition of officials appointed due to their political experience has been traded against the appointing of experts. In this study I ask questions about this new way of appointing representatives effects how these officials interpret their role. An official that who has never been in the party before appointed, obviously cannot consider the principal of party. With the theoretical approach of normative representation theory (representational style) I perform case studies that shows some change.

The purpose of the essay is to examine the views on sexuality that guide the Swedish Migration board and court?s judgments and decisions in asylum cases. The essay investigates seven cases from the Swedish Migration court regarding asylum seekers from seven different countries seeking protection in Sweden due to their sexuality and/or gender identity. By applying discourse analysis, along with the theoretical perspectives of Judith Butler and the postcolonial critique of Chandra Talpade Mohanty, the essay discuss what kind of criteria and/or practice is demanded of the asylum seekers to be rendered as trustworthy. The essay concludes that the asylum seekers are considered untrustworthy by the migration authorities when not acting according to a (hetero)normative sexuality.

This paper investigates how students in the humanities in four universities in Sweden reflect on their education and the current view on the humanities as an education and a science. I want to investigate what impact the past few years public debate about the humanities have had on the students. What kind of beliefs and identities do the students of the humanities form and how do they discuss the universities, the choices they made in life and how do they feel about the future.This study is based on interviews with seventeen students in Sweden from four different universities. The research is also based upon a report that The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) published in 2011 and the debate following that report. I have also made participant observations on the four universities to make a broader description for the reader.

Within the field of cinema studies, the question of visual representation is a fundamental pillar. An immense volume of theoretical work has been written on the subject, with various academic approaches such as feministic, postcolonial and gay/lesbian. Yet there is a large social group that seems to have been overlooked within the representational discourse: the elderly. This group of people appears to be a blind spot on the multicultural retina, too often neglected within the area of cultural studies. But as the baby boomer generation, who has always redefined the different stages of life (youth, adulthood, middle age), is entering old age, things are slowly changing.

The purpose of this study was to find out why the law that regulates downloading copyrighted material does not work and which of the most important main reasons lies behind downloading behaviour. The phenomenon being well investigated earlier has actualized a new demand for normative investigation in connection with the hot debated IPRED-law.Using qualitative method comprising of interviews with three typical file sharers and anchored in Max Webers action typology, rational choice theory and the norm model followed by two assessment models, we found that four important reasons lies behind downloading behaviour: 1) economical reasons was the most central and frequent determinant followed by 2) accessibility and comfort, and 3) social acceptance and moral and also 4) habits. Although the content of the law was correctly provided by the interviewees, it was clear that they did not perceive the impact of the law as meaningful or threatening.The results, being compatible with previous research, are discussed in terms of the named theories and assessment models. We suggest further research to take into account peoples norms as the new IPRED-law soon will be functional as well as studies from a perspective of the legal rights of the individual..

The purpose with this essay is to examine and create an understanding for what meaning graffiti and street art has for those who practice it. Furthermore, the practice of graffiti and street art is seen in relation to how urban space is produced. Five semi-structured interviews and one group interview has been made to answer the questions "What meaning does graffiti and street art has for those who practice it? Can it be seen as a way to construct identity?" "How do the artists relate to existing ideals about public space?" and "Does the artists see graffiti and street art as a resistance against the normative representation of the city, in that case, how?" The theoretical framework consists of Mitchell's ideas about public space, Tonkiss' definition of social order, Lefebvre's spatial triad, de Certeau's concept of strategy and tactics, the concept of appropriation and Castell's theory about collective identity. The results showed that the practice of graffiti and street art can be understood as a more complex practice than earlier research has shown.