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.

This paper discusses honour related crimes and the judicial process within the legal system in a Swedish context. The empirical base of the study is four cases, with an honour background, and we have used discourse analysis as our method. We have developed four tools for analysing the sentences with which we observed aspects such as; language, the roles of victim and perpetrator that the involved can undertake, the different identities that the sentence might create and finally how the stories change when they enter the legal context. We connect our results to our theoretic backgrounds such as Kolfjord who discusses the legalization of conflicts, the holistic and individual perspective, the legal system as a theoretic background and finally the UN:s definition of honour crimes. These four theoretic perspectives have helped analyse the empiric base.

The goals of this essay are to identify rituals and ritual behavior at the department of archaeology and ancient history at Lund University. To do this a series of empirical examinations was conducted. Observations, interviews and polls revealed that some ritual behavior is in fact present. Two types of rituals were identified; the interaction ritual, as presented by Erving Goffman in the book Interaction Ritual, Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior, in 1967. The second type of ritual is a ?problem solving? ritual, such as meetings.

Based on phenomenological hermeneutics and narrative theory the study explored how parents experience and create meaning when the child receives the diagnosis of autistic disorder. Interviews were conducted with eight parents and the analysis concerned both contents and form in their stories. The resulting aspects of the contents is presented in seven areas: stories about the time before the diagnosis, seeking help, receiving the diagnosis, the meaning of the diagnosis, coping, living with autism and stories about the future. The six resulting aspects of form included: chronology of the stories, creating order out of chaos, cultural Norms, rewriting the story about the child, aspects of metaphors and changing perspective. The conclusion of the study is that the diagnosis serves as a way for the parents to transform experiences into a meaningful whole.

The purpose of this thesis has been to explore in what ways Franz Kafka?s ?The Metamorphosis? can be read as a story of gender. By bringing together Judith Butler?s theory of materialization and Lennard J. Davis?s crip theory I have spoken of Dismodernity as the domain of abject bodies that have been repudiated by (post)modern societies as untintelligible and dysfunctional.

Using a feministic perspective and a critical approach, my purpose is to discuss bibliographic classification, a central aspect of Library and Information Science. More specifically, my aim is to demonstrate the Norms and the dominating thoughts regarding the organization and representation of knowledge, subjects, and social categories in classification systems. I review previous research involving critical approaches to classification. These show that classification systems are a reflection of the context in which they are created, with the result that universal assumptions can be questioned. Some studies also present problems inherent in hierarchical structures.

Abortion remains a contentious issue, which greatly raises ethical problems. This thesis examines the leading arguments in the Swedish abortion debate around the ? in terms of legislation ? critical years of 1938 and 1974. With Foucault's genealogical method, Butler's theories of gender as a social construction in relation to power and doxa, the study examines what the development of the argumentation says about the views on morality, the woman's body, life, individual and state? How has the arguments pro and against abortion changed over time and what does this say about the Norms that guide and orientate the arguments? The most obvious change in argumentation is seen in the shift from an absolute moral and conservative position into an increasingly relativistic and liberal position, and this study will argue that this shift has its prerequisites in the changing status of the citizen and state.

The aim of this study has been to analyze how society is constructed in the workbook Möte med människor från andra kulturer, a popular material within the ?cultural competency? industry. The analysis has largely been carried out from the perspective of a pedagogy against oppression as it has been outlined by Kevin Kumashiro. I have found that the material combines discursive movements, which in complex and hybrid ways deconstruct, decenter, recenter and reproduce stereotypes and Norms, through its normative language and pedagogy. A language constructing culture as cleanly demarcated, static and homogenous.

This Master?s thesis explores and describes the beliefs, values and Norms in a selection of five Swedish municipal cultural policy documents approved 2005-2007. The comprehensive question is: Which ideological traits characterize cultural policy in the chosen municipalities as communicated in their respective cultural policy vision document? The method used is ideology analysis. Ideal types based on a model by Dorte Skot-Hansen are used as a conceptual framework, illustrating three different rationalities in relation to cultural policy: the humanistic, the sociological and the market oriented.

Previous research within the field of advertising creativity has been based on the point of view of professional advertisers, deciding the Norms of creativity without wondering how consumers define creativity. Thus, the main purpose of our thesis has been to investigate which dimensions advertising creativity consists of and the driving forces behind them. All based on a consumers? point of view. The secondary purpose has been to show how creativity affects efficiency through purchase intentions and Word- of-Mouth.

This essay examines masculinity in the Swedish military paper Värnpliktsnytt during 1971-1991. The purpose is to study the masculine Norms and the hegemonic masculinity that Värnpliktsnytt conveys during these years. Värnpliktsnytt was handed out for free to all soldiers during 1971-2010.During the 1970?s the women were only allowed on non-combat posts and in the 1980?s they more and more were included and accepted as soldiers and staff in the military. In 1989 women were allowed to apply for active and non-combat duty in all military sectors.

The aim of this study is to examine social workers? experiences of how the ADHD-diagnosis affects their work with children and youths living in foster care and how it affects the individuals and families themselves. The study is built upon five qualitative interviews and the results are analyzed through a theoretical framework that constitutes ADHD as not only the symptoms and the medical disorder but also as a social phenomenon where the disorder is socially constructed by the current society, Norms, and knowledge. The study shows that the social workers? do not rely on the sole ADHD-diagnosis in the understanding and guidance of the children and their foster parents, but rather see the individual needs of each children.

This paper studies how the ?Swedish model? has influenced the Swedish community during the first half of the twentieth century and how living with this model was like in the 1960s. During the ?60s the laws and reforms created by the ruling socialistic party, SAP, dominated the Swedish society. Their goal was to build Per Albin Hansson?s vision of a welfare state.