The media plays a key role in constructing identities and categories, as its messages influence the way we understand the world. In the debate on integration issues, categories such as ?Swede? and ?immigrant? are often treated as obvious and unproblematic. ?Swedish?, being the norm, is seldom defined   and   frequently appears   with   subtlety.   This   paper   set   out   to   study   what   characterizes Swedishness in newspaper articles on integration issues, and how it is represented in relations to immigrants.

The aim of this master thesis is to create an understanding of what it can be like to grow older as a homosexual man in Sweden today. The study has an intersectional and queer theoretical approach and is based on eight in depth interviews with men who are aged between 68 and 82 years old. In the analysis I deal with the problem of how sexuality can be inter- preted with the experience of aging. Central to the analysis is the criticism of Norms connected to age, sexuality, social- and family life and gay culture.The results show that the norm-breaking sexual orientation of the men affects their life path in terms of how to organize social life, where friends often replace the traditional family. New ways of forming relationships and living their lives imply other obligations rather than the traditional for significant others, which was shown to influence the expectations and outcome of old age in terms of care and support.

The aim of this study was to understand how social workers deal with honour-related violence, with special focus on the processing from sheltered housing. Our qualitative interviews with social workers that work with this kind of problems show that there are both obstacles and opportunities in the processing from sheltered housing. On the negative side are the loneliness, the shame and the guilt that the girls may experience when they need to leave their families. The social services can both be an obstacles and an opportunity. When the girls need to create a new life in a new city they have a lot of opportunities and in the same time it is hard to get to know new friends when you don´t know the city or have much money.

This thesis is a discourse theory analysis of two feminist anthologies - Det heter feminism! and F- ordet.  By analyzing these texts through the three categories feminism & feminists, gender equality & equality and sex/gender & sexuality I have raised questions about the feminist debate in Sweden in the 21st century.The discourse theory?s ideas of descriptions of reality and fixation of meaning lies as a foundation for this thesis. The concepts of social constructionism, post structuralism and essentialism/anti essentialism are central for the analysis as well as concepts connected to the three previously mentioned categories.The intention of this thesis is to describe and analyze a fraction of the Swedish feminist debate in the 21st century and discuss its meaning in a societal context. A number of conclusions were reached in the final discussion.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur tjejer på gymnasiet upplever könsnormativa förväntningar gällande skönhetsideal samt utbildnings- och yrkesval. Vidare vill vi undersöka om och hur dessa upplevelser är förbundna och relaterar till varandra.För att besvara vårt syfte har vi genomfört en kvalitativ intervjumetodik där vi har intervjuat sex tjejer som går tredje året på gymnasiet i ett studieförberedande program. Vi har även valt att presentera relevant forskning och litteratur inom ämnet.I studien fann vi att tjejerna inte upplevde de könsnormativa förväntningarna gällande både skönhetsideal samt utbildnings- och yrkesval som ett krav utan tjejerna valde att följa dessa förväntningar på grund av de medföljande förmånerna. Tjejerna upplevde även att de könsnormativa förväntningarna skapade en samhörighetskänsla bland tjejer. Upplevelser gällande skönhetsideal samt utbildnings- och yrkesval är förbundna genom att det finns könsnormativa förväntningar för båda som tjejerna följer.

This study aims to find more knowledge about preschool teachers? point of view on the situation of children living in economic hardship and how it affects them at the preschool. With economic hardship becoming more frequent and common amongst families with young children we find the subject important and in need of more attention. Studies have proven the negative effects of poverty on children?s development and health and since the preschool is a big part of children?s everyday life the study aims to see what perspectives practitioners have on the issue and how they plan activities and learning situations based on the needs of these children.

How do probation inspectors describe their female clients and female offenders? Are there any discrepancies in treatment between male and female clients? In what way is the social interaction between female clients and inspectors constructed and described?  These are the issues we have explored in this study. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with a total of nine probation inspectors; six women and three men, were used in order to examine the probation inspectors? constructions of clients and the construction of interaction between them. By applying Foucault?s theory of power relations, Hirdman?s gender theory and Olsson?s theory of preconceptions when analyzing the results five themes were identified; descriptions of the work of the female client, descriptions of the interaction with the female client, descriptions of the female offender, descriptions of backgrounds why women commit crimes and descriptions of society's view on the female offender.

Detta är en uppsats där normer och värderingar om vårdbiträdet i hemtjänst undersöks genom kritisk diskursanalys. Datamaterial omfattar SOU-rapporten I den äldres tjänst. Äldreassistenten ? ett framtidsyrke samt två fokusgruppsintervjuer med omsorgspersonal från en hemtjänstenhet. Diskursanalysen utförs i förhållande till och i samspel med sekundärlitteraturen.

Islamic masculinity which quite often associates with oppression of women has remained an underexaminated category despite its constant presence in the debate on honour related oppression. Honour has primarily been studied from a feminine point of view and theories of masculinity have taken insignificant interest in the issue of honour. The aim of this study is to understand what attitudes boys/young men from the Muslim world have toward native Swedish men and what these attitudes do imply for their own conceptions of masculinity and honour. The ambition of this study is also to make explicit the similarities, differences and connections between honour and masculinity.The empirical basis of this study consists of twelve interviews with boys/young men from the Muslim world about their notions of honour and masculinity. The theoretical platform arises from theories of masculinities and honour.Some prominent ?patterns? that I have found:- That religious Norms and rules appear to be significant in how the masculine manners of conduct should be adjusted.- That honour and women as carriers of men?s honour, play a crucial role for the constitution of proper masculinity.- That the Swedish context and its policy of equality seem to threaten the obviousness of the islamic masculinity.

The purpose of this essay is to examine Marjane Satrapi?s comic novel Persepolis from a gender and postcolonial perspective. To reach this I have used several theories from mainly three different fields of theory: gender studies, postcolonial theories and theoretical texts which focus on the form of comics.My analysis has shown that idols, heroes and other cultural symbols are important for the creation of the main character Marji?s identity, but that she at the same time has many Marxistic influences. These casts of mind do not stand in opposition, but become an expression for her hybridity.

This essay takes a closer look at femininity/masculinity, sexuality and queer time and place in Charlaine Harris? novel Dead Until Dark (2001). The essay?s theoretical framework consists of queer theory and skev theory. Skev is a Swedish word that translates loosely into strange or twisted.

?Boverket? the Design Regulations in Sweden, also called BKR has for a long timebeen the mandatory standard that has guided and regulated construction design. Butat the end of 2010 BKR was replaced with Eurocode. This report deals with thecomparison of these two standards when it comes to wood construction. Duringwinter 2009/2010 there were many roof collapses due to excessive loads on theroofs across Sweden.

Gender equality is a political issue that has gained a lot of support in the last decades. Researchers have however pointed out that gender equality has a wide variety of understandings.SKL (Sveriges kommuner och landsting) is an organization that looks after the interests of local authorities and county councils in Sweden. SKL has by the government been granted 145 million Swedish crowns to support gender mainstreaming at a local level. During a period of three years, 2008-2010, funding has been given to 89 projects for this purpose.The aim of this study is to examine what meanings are given to the term ?gender equality? in these projects.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between space and consumer interaction at WEEKDAY, a contemporary fashion retail store in Malmö, Sweden. The thesis is based on a qualitative case-study and has a social constructionist approach. In order to understand the interaction taking place between consumer and environment we conducted observations guided by Kenneth Burke?s Pentad.The retail servicescape at WEEKDAY is conceived as a metaphorical stage where drama unfolds, analysing and defining the retail space using Kenneth Burke?s pentad of dramatism. We concentrate on the use of two terms of Burke?s pentad, the scene and the act, almost exclusively as we investigate how the scene stimulates the act.

The aim of this paper is to study whether the way directioners (One Direction fans) on Twitter express self-understandings denote fandom as a sacred experience. For this purpose, the data was analyzed in relation to Nicholas Jay Demerath III typology of the varieties of the sacred experience. The method used was discursive psychology. The data was analyzed by how the fans draw the line between ?us? and ?them?, when expressing their self-understandings and their position in relation to others. Five themes were identified: (1) positioning and demarcation for membership, (2) group identity, (3) conflict, (4) the Norms for behavior, opinions and language and (5) the group?s role and function.