The purpose of this study is to investigate a group of female converters and their subsequent experiences when transitioning to islam by bearing hijab. The study analyzes how this religious conversion has shaped and influenced the identity of mentioned women, as well as their attitude and relationship to the social environment prior to and after converting. This means that in accordance with the purpose of this study, an attempt to reveal the everyday life of these women will be performed. In order to make this study possible, three different methods will be put to use. A narrative method that touches upon the time leading up to and after the final converting and the impact of the conversion.

The main aim of this thesis is to examine what motivates people to become entrepreneurs and how they are motivated to continue being it. We have decided to focus on four elements: the driving force of being an entrepreneur, the environment, the individual background and important personal characteristics of the entrepreneur. Qualitative interviews were carried out with six information consultants. The theoretical background has its focus on entrepreneurial motivation. A model of entrepreneurial motivation by Naffziger, Hornsby and Kuratko 1994 is presented.

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine how the European Union through the Directorate- General (DG) of Education and Culture, are calling forth a constructed sense of European identity amongst the citizens of the Union.It is a discourse analysis, which can be described in twofold. Firstly, it is a mapping of the European discourse; i.e. how the European Union defines the identity it seeks to mobilise. Secondly, it examines whether or not there are similarities in the European discourse of identity and the traditional nation-building discourse of national identity.According to this thesis a European identity is articulated in cultural terms, whereby its members are said to share the same values and a common cultural heritage.To bring the people of Europe closer together and to deepen awareness of their "common" history, the European Union encourages all manner of meetings and exchange schemes between Europeans. Although its goal is to develop a feeling of belonging to a shared culture, the EU is also keen to preserve the specific aspects of Europe's many cultures.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how an organisation with several different cultural activities, such as a regional museum, works with anemphasis on participation. The essay focuses on Kulturparken Småland AB, which encourages the public to be more involved in its activities. Aqualitative approach is used, including nine interviews with employees at theorganisation. A number of theories form the basis of this study: institutionaltheory, which focuses on the context of the organisation, Bourdieu?s theoriesof different capital and Abbott?s theory regarding professionals.

The academic underachievement of looked after children is well known. By involving foster carers in a Paired Reading intervention a Swedish project tried to address this issue, replicating a successful British trial. The aim of my thesis was to study the variations in the foster carers? experiences of this literacy intervention. Reading reports from 100 children were collected and qualitative interviews with 15 foster parents were analyzed using concepts from motivational psychology.

In recent times statistical findings suggesting a deteriorating mental health among teenagers, have been published. Not only did I find the lack of an all-inclusive analysis problematic, but also the fact that the studies themselves where often insufficient. Thus my purpose has been to chart these statistical studies, and then scrutinize the results.My method has been inspired by critical theory, where an interpretive starting point, self-reflection, and the idea that man and society interacts as a whole, is of great importance. Aside from the above mentioned studies, I have also employed secondary empirical data from TV, newspapers and the Internet. My own experience as a social worker has also been an important resource for this paper.

Problem area of this Bachelor thesis is the mental illness of internationally adopted at the age of 16-26. Our study focuses on a compilation of previous results from positivistic researches in the first question formulation. In the second and third question formulations a narrative text analysis, through hermeneutically interpret risk and prevention factors, is carried out for the life of internationally adopted that can lead to mental health/illness and how they apprehend to be adoptees. The purpose is to get a comprehensive understanding at individual, group and society's view of their lives. Further intention is to interpret the material for possible approach angles on further research.

This dissertation examines how creativity can be of benefit for the school. It discusses if there is a need or demand for it and how the present situation is in Swedish schools. Defining creativity accurately is difficult but it is relevant to look at the environments that use creativity. There is a vast amount of literature that uses creativity and it varies to some extent. Creativity originates from meetings and combinations, both within and outside of the individual.

  The study aims to gain a better understanding and explore how a selected group (receivers) perceive two elected advertising images from Indiska and Vila and then compare their opinions to what Indiska and Vila themselves want to communicate. We base the study on theories of encoding / decoding, which deals with how the companies charge their advertising images with values and how recipients decodes these values.A qualitative study was carried out based on analytical induction (planning, collection and analysis). Through the analytical method of induction, we created categories based on the collected data and put them in relation to each other. The result showed that the overall impression of the images' and the context are of great importance for how our respondents perceive the advertising images. The overall impressions convey emotion that reinforces the expression and the message.

This master thesis aims to examine the methods of the conservation field and their visionabout maintenance and change, in terms of liturgical values. This is to be able todetermine if there is a need to develop the methods that the field of conservation has tosafeguard the intangible cultural heritage of the churches.This is mainly a literature review, focusing on different tutorials from the Swedish nationalheritage board, and different texts on liturgy aswell as Unesco's Convention for theSafeguarding of intagible Heritage (2003), ratified in Sweden in January 2011. A casestudy of the practical work has been carried out on three churches that have undergonechange. The application process and the results were important for this study.The conclusion is that the conservation field have ambitions to preserve the liturgicalvalues, but they do not have sufficiently developed methods to do so. Nevertheless, itappears that most cases of change in churches, increases the liturgical values..

Background: Different cultures meet to a greater extent than before as a result of the increasing globalisation. Therefore, international leaders have to count on greater differences in behaviour of their employees within organisations than they have experience from. It can consequently be difficult in an international environment to understand what motivate individuals of a different culture. Purpose: The purpose of this report is to make greater understanding for how national cultures influence leaders methods to motivate their employees in an international environment in Spain where two different cultures confront. Performance: The study has been made by 14 qualitative interviews with Spanish and Swedish leaders in Spain.

The purpose of this survey was to map out the health pf some of the 11 and 12 years old children in the city of Umeå, as well as to find out what factors intend to influense the children´s health. A questionnaire was distributed in four 6th grade classes whitin the municipality of Umeå. Two of the schools were located in the city while two were located in near villages. This selection was decided in order to map out diffrences in health related to the children´s home environment. 80 pupils took part of this study.

Background/aims: Extensive studies have found an association between parent - adolescent relationships and adolescents' alcohol use. However, only a few studies have been carried out in Sweden. Also, few studies have focused on 17-19 year olds or binge drinking. The aim of this study is to examine whether there is an association between perceived parent - youth relationship and binge drinking among 17-19 year olds in Stockholm, Sweden. Theory: Social Development Model is a risk-focused prevention strategy which emphasizes the importance of social units, such as the family.

This Master?s thesis examines library courses, a relatively new form of user education. Our focus is on the pedagogical point-of-views reflected in the text in these library courses. The primary purpose of the study is to analyze the pedagogical discourse displayed in the library courses to determine if the perspective is behavioural, cognitive, constructive or socio cultural. We are investigating if the pedagogical discourse differs from course to course, and if so, how are they different? In addition we aim to find out how the pedagogical discourse in the library courses relates to university websites and governmental and legal texts, at the discursive and social practice level.

Introduction: More and more children and young people get the diagnosis celiac disease established. Celiac is a life-long disease, which means that the child during the rest of its life has to be on a strictly gluten-free diet. There are few studies so far, which have examined how children having a life-long disease with food treatment and increasing prevalence really experience their health related quality of life (HRQoL).Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine how children (8 ? 18 years old) suffering from celiac valued their HRQoL and to illustrate as well whether the age of the child and its extent of disease when it was taken ill affected the child?s evaluation of HRQoL later in life. The purpose was also to compare whether the children?s parents valued the HRQoL of their children to the same extent as the children did.Method: 160 children, 54 boys and 102 girls were included in the study.