The aim of this Masters thesis is, partly, to examine the information needs of lesbians: what discernable information needs they have, how they seek information and which information sources they use. The purpose is also to examine what part fiction plays regarding the information needs mentioned above and how fiction indexing could improve retrieval. The study is conducted through ten qualitative interviews with lesbians as well as through textual analysis. The theoretical framework includes queer theory and theory concerning information needs and uses. The results indicate that lesbians have evident information needs that mostly concern identity.

The purpose of this study is to examine the usage of IT technology within preschool and study how IT tools are used by preschool staff for administrative as well as pedagogical assignments. Several aspects affects the work preschool staff do with IT which concerns availability to technology, how technology is used and how technology is made available for the children. There are a number of questions linked to these aspects where some examples this study examines are which advantages, disadvantages, obstacles or other limitations that comes with introducing IT? This study also examines how, when and in what contexts IT is being used? Other questions examined are the pedagogue?s general views of IT, competence development and eventual needs of investment? Further on this study examines to some part how children interact with IT during pedagogical activities? The overall objective is to shed light on problems that preschool staff encounter  in their daily work and on the basis of identifying important questions at issue that could constitute a basis for further research. The results of this study are based on both a literature review and a field study.

Weblogs, or blogs, are frequently modified web pages with a series of archived entries, generally in reverse chronological sequence. This thesis focuses on the rapid-growing phenomenon of weblogs and the fact that individuals with a background in library and information science are frequent users of weblogs. Since this is an explorative inductive study the ultimate purpose can be described as to find out what ?blogging? as activity is about. The research questions posed are: Why do individuals with a background in library and information science use weblogs? How does their professional identity affect their blogging? And finally; how do they use the weblog to create networks with other bloggers? The empirical material consists of audiotaped interviews with five informants who are all employed in knowledge work, either as librarians or information specialists.

The aim of this study is to analyze the change of Basque nationalism during the last ten years and discuss how the main nationalist party (PNV) tries to impose "we"- feelings and support for its cause. Theories of nationalism and national identity are used in the analysis.A textual analysis of PNV:s unofficial documents is discussed and compared with a discourse analysis of its official documents. Although the unofficial documents deal with similar view of basic political/territorial ambitions, language and identification, there are some differences in the latest documents regarding the view of who is defined as Basque and also to the detoriated relation to Spain. Although references are made to the regard that the Basque Country is for everyone, the persistence of emphasizing the uniqueness and myths of the Basque culture signals a different matter. The discourse analysis of the official documents supports this claim and although they contain an ambiguous relation to Spain it is clear that Basque nationalism has been radicalized.

Försvarsmaktens nya personalförsörjningssystem har medfört utmaningar och aktualiserat frågor kring de nya personalkategorierna. Utifrån att personalkategorin specialistofficer i framtiden ska utgöra kontinuiteten inom förbanden är syftet med studien att undersöka specialistofficerens relation till arbetsgivaren Försvarsmakten. Arbetets ansats är att ge en ökad förståelse för specialistofficerens relationship commitment, dvs. engagemanget för själva relationen till Försvarsmakten.Studiens teoretiska ram bygger på Meyer och Allens konceptuella trekomponentsmodell om organizational commitment. Studien genomförs som en attitydundersökning i form av en enkät, med framförallt slutna påståenden men även två öppna frågeställningar där resultatanalysen innehåller både en kvantitativ och en kvalitativ del.Resultatet visar att specialistofficeren tillmäter den känslomässiga komponenten störst betydelse för relationen vilket bekräftar tidigare forskning avseende kännetecken förprofessionsyrken.

This paper focuses on how young people use and are affected by Facebook. The study embodies students from the social work program in Sweden and their view on Facebook use. Earlier research has shown that Facebook use has increased among youths. At the same time research tells us that social interaction plays an important part in shaping our identity. It is from those stands that we base this paper on, and explore our interview persons answer after the theories of Erving Goffman and the people who have studied him, such as Bernie Hogan and Zeynep Tufekci.

Executive summary This master thesis was originally based on a specific assignment given to the authors from ABB Full Service, a unit specializing in providing maintenance outsourcing: ?How can ABB Full Service expand its offering of providing fundamental maintenance by seamlessly incorporating the business concept with competencies and solutions from other ABB divisions?? The academic issue was developed throughout the thesis, resulting in the following formulation: ?From an organizational perspective; how can service providers bring continuous added value to intra-organizational outsourcing partnerships?? Many of the key findings of this thesis are reflected in the issue. The term intra-organizational outsourcing is a proposed addition to the terminology in the academic discourse on outsourcing. The definition of the term is: ? Where an organization outsources a business process interlinked with the physical operations, requiring the service provider to take over a preexisting unit and its employees.This is an accurate description of the form of outsourcing that ABB Full Service is engaged in.

The Public vs. private movement has over the past decades identified numerous significant differences between public and private organizations. The observed differences covers almost every field in administrative economics ranging from organizational structure, management accounting, goal-setting and in the past few years even leadership. Strangely, in the majority of these studies little or no regards are given to organizational characteristics or fundamental differences between compared organizations and if these organizations really are comparable when studying the effect of sector.The aim of this study is to compare leadership in relatively similar organizations from both the public and private sector and so clarify if earlier identified differences in leadership styles still surface when leaders working with approximately the same thing in a similar work context are studied.A sample of 348 Swedish principals was drawn from both municipal and private elementary schools. The respondents answered a web-based survey based on the CPE-model resulting in leadership styles mapped according to three orientations: change, production and employee.

This is a study that aims to investigate what is being spoken about on an internet forum created for people who suffer from extreme loneliness. The study aims to answer questions regarding the users identity and general opinions regarding live a life of more intense solitude. The basic scientific approach of the study is centered around two terms, taken from Howard S. Beckers book "outsiders" (1997). These two terms are "outsiders" and "deviant careers", both dealing with the subject of deviant behavior.

The aim of this study is to create understanding of why companies should collaborate with artists and how artists and businesses build strong partnerships. We also want to understand the development of relations between the music industry and companies, together with the problems, possibilities and implications it has for both artists and corporate identity and brand. The music industry has been changing rapidly during the digital revolution and new problems and opportunities have emerged which the music industry can choose to either embrace or renounce. This study is made with a qualitative approach based on interviews with relevant individuals from the music industry. We have carefully chosen these individuals to counterpart different segments of the music industry and to execute our purpose from various perspectives.

Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka hur fyra sexuellt dominanta kvinnor uppfattar sin sexualitet. Särskilt inriktar den sig på hur kvinnorna definierar sig som sexuellt dominanta och vad dominans innebär för dem sexuellt men också till vardags och generellt. Vidare undersöks hur informanterna uppfattar sin sexuella dominans i relation till sin identitet och sitt identitetsskapande överlag. För att kunna verkställa syftet har fyra kvinnor intervjuats som alla definierar sig som sexuellt dominanta på ett eller annat vis. Fortsättningsvis inriktar sig uppsatsen på kvinnor som utövar sin sexuella dominans via aktiviteter och uttryck för dominans vanliga inom bdsm..

The research of this Bachelor?s thesis examines classifieds for librarians, and makes use of Ørom?s theory of sixlibrarian identities plus Schreiber?s complementary seventh identity. The main focus of the thesis was to examine what qualities and skills are presented and what identities are manifested in the classifieds. A third issue was to explore how relevant Ørom?s theory is to examine and understand the profession today.The data was analysed by the use of content analysisand a hermeneutics approach was taken.

The purpose of this study is to explore how different discourses about risk linked to HIV prevention is likely to affect the decisions on the distribution of state funding for preventive activities aimed at 'men who have sex with men' (MSM). This by making qualitative interviews with principals that have an impact on this decision. Using a discourse analytic approach, based on both theoretical and methodological foundations, I investigate the discursive constructions of risk of HIV linked to certain groups and behaviors. MSM is found in the material placed into two different formations of groups, on one hand by the behavior on the other hand on the basis of identity. The identity position is organized discursively from a ?victim? position while MSM provides an "operator" position.

This study sets out to investigate how the roll of the teacher is constructed in the Swedish Teachers? Unions trade publication. Based on the theory of social constructionism we have used the method of critical discourse analysis to establish dominant trends and patterns in how the roll of teacher is constructed in editorials in Swedish Lärarnas Tidning. We have established that the conflict between a modernist school tradition and a postmodern society has resulted in a dominant, traditional teacher discourse which is being simultaneously challenged by both a market-orientated discourse and a professionalization discourse. Furthermore, we attempt to highlight how these ?ideal? constructions can create problems in terms of identity construction for teachers.

This paper examines a popular music song (Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez) as a sign system in television advertising. The study was conducted through qualitative questionnaires in connection to an audio-visual method of analysis called Masking. The method facilitates the analysis of isolated parts in the audio-visual spectrum by masking/hiding parts of the audio-visual totality.The survey had seven respondents where a hermeneutic epistemological approach was used. For the analysis Cooper's theory of brand identity (Practical and Symbolic Attitudes to Buying Brands) was used together with an interaction model for music in audio-visual advertising called "Modes of music-image interaction?.