My thesis is an attempt to clarify the purpose and workings of art in relation to the artist, his/her fellows and society. Can art be considered as a uniting force? If so, where does its unifying quality lie? How does art connect with the individual, the community and society? My interpretation of the political climate regarding the arts has resulted in an exploration of the question: What role does art have in society today?The artistic ego as an altruism ? within the title of this thesis lies an absolute paradox ? a paradox that through this paper is tested, reviewed and demonstrated as a way of describing art and its workings. The thesis is problematized and studied from several angles: Through the inner artistic process, both reflective and empirical, and through philosophical studies..

Title: Silence please: Silent students' thoughts on shyness and nervousness in the classroom. This thesis deals with silent students' thoughts on shyness and nervousness in the classroom. During this study I have been talking to silent students about their experiences of being silent. After a look at the literature on the subject of shyness I have found that there the perspective of the students is lacking. My study deals with three main questions: How do silent students describe their experience of their shyness? How do silent students describe the possible training regarding oral presentation that they may be able to get? And finally, how do silent students describe their possible needs of pedagogical support? In my study I have adopted a qualitative method, which is a method that mainly concerns interpretation of people's thoughts.

The current planning philosophy is based on a political utopic modernism founded during the first part of the 20th century. The focus is, in planning a defined area, to maximize the internal efficiency and to create a competitivesociety. During the latter part of the former century globalization changed the context, thus creating the need for a new way of approaching physical planning. This paper shows that the historical and philosophicalmetaphor of flow can be applied to meet the demands in the global city. It also shows how the edge, as where interaction takes place, is an important part of the content that has to be defined.

Abstract: In this study, I have searched for answers to whether teachers use pictures in their teaching with the purpose of making education easier. Can we use the pictures with a pedagogic purpose? In this study, I have interviewed middle-school teachers concerning this subject.My results show that teachers actually use pictures in order to make the education easier for pupils but they do not do it very often. They think that they do not have the time to look for the good pictures that go with their subject and that they can show in the classroom. They also think that the pictures in the textbooks are good enough and they do not discuss the pictures very much.

All since Thomas Kuhn?s strongly influential The Structure of Scientific Revolutions the Philosophy of Science and ?even more so ?the Social Sciences have contained a greater amount of theories that could be described as more or less relativistic, meaning that the standards of justification or truth thereafter more often were said to be relative to language, culture, or biological makeup. One of the more elaborate ways of developing Thomas Kuhn?s theories in a more relativistic direction ismade by the philosopher Richard Rorty. Rorty, mainly a supporter of Thomas Kuhn, is also a philosopher who has been seen as a main exponent of a so called Postmodern philosophy.My intention in this thesis is to evaluate whether Kuhn's and Rorty's theories of science and knowledge could be regarded as relativism, in respects of their view of incommensurability, rational argumentation, and of their position vis-á-vis the more conventional picture of scientific knowledge and truth.

Abstract: In this study, I have searched for answers to whether teachers use pictures in their teaching with the purpose of making education easier. Can we use the pictures with a pedagogic purpose? In this study, I have interviewed middle-school teachers concerning this subject.My results show that teachers actually use pictures in order to make the education easier for pupils but they do not do it very often. They think that they do not have the time to look for the good pictures that go with their subject and that they can show in the classroom. They also think that the pictures in the textbooks are good enough and they do not discuss the pictures very much.

The main purpose of this study is to take a closer look at how teachers work with writing and to examine some theories on the teaching of writing. Five teachers in two schools are included in order to get an insight in teachers? practical work with EFL writing. This has been done through classroom observations and interviews. The results show that all teachers seem to use aspects from several theories.

The aim of this study is to examine if Kenneth, a character in the novel Nyår by Stig Larsson, takes his ethical responsibility for one of the characters that appears in one section of the book, Ann. Nyår has often been related to morality. This study shows that Levinas philosophy of ethics is a supplement to the discussion of morality. According to Levinas, a person that acts in a non-moral way still can act in a righteous ethical way. With this starting point, it is possible to be close to the text and to bring out new perspectives on the novel.

This report concentrates on why more people do not choose an environmentally friendly car instead of a conventional car. To find this answer we have used theories that include decision - behavior and environment - philosophy. We have also made four surveys, which includes several interviews. The results of these interviews, together with the secondary data we have found, have been analyzed against the theories made by our choice. We have found that the stimulus that we have today isn?t enough to make more people choose an environmentally friendly car instead of a conventional car.

In recent years, Lean has been implemented in a variety of companies with focus areas that differ from the conditions that characterizes manufacturing. This transfer has contributed to fairly superficial results because companies almost exclusively focus on Toyotas methodology and not on the goal of Lean. The effort of transforming Lean from manufacturing to any organization requires a definition on a general level and a view of Lean as a system. One of the core principles of Lean and the foundation of continuous improvements is standardized work. In product development there is a negative view on standardized work, where the engineers state that the principle is not applicable for knowledge processes that include non-repetitive and creative work.In the framework of this master thesis literature has been studied to find support that standardized work is applicable for product development and areas that include knowledge processes.

This essay discusses how popular literature in general and Stephanie Meyer?s Twilight-series in particular can be useful in the classroom, despite, or rather, thanks to, its inherent problems concerning gender roles, relationships and the power systems within them. The essay takes a reader and teacher centered approach in describing both the problems of Twilight and the ways these problems can be worked with in the context of the school subject Swedish in upper secondary school. It makes an inventory of Twilight?s problematic aspects, and attempts to use them in conjunction with the governing documents of the Swedish school system.

This essay describes the phases of funeral rituals between the Syrian/Assyrian, and compares the homeland with Sweden. It describes the stage of rituals according to Victor Turner schema of separation, margin or limin, and aggregation. The rituals religious significance agrees with Clifford Geertz?s theory about the importance of religious beliefs for the human being.

Sekularisering fortsätter att drabba kyrkan i både öst och väst. Uppsatsen behandlar sekulariseringsteorier utifrån ett bibliskt perspektiv. Hypotesen är att Jesus Kristus är kyrkan som kropp. Detta kyrkobegrepp har förändrats. Även budskapet och pedagogiken har påverkats.Fältarbete har genomförts i både Egypten och i Sverige.

Happiness is often considered our ultimate goal in life. This essay explores the political im- plications of this view, through the critique of happiness found in the works of Simone de Beauvoir and Sara Ahmed. Ahmed and Beauvoir consider happiness to be harmful as a po- litical goal, since it tends to diminish dimensions of power and conflict in favor of harmony, and is not compatible with a political philosophy based on freedom or liberation. Happiness is often confused with the ethical Good, but this essay argues that happiness does not ne- cessarily entail good things. Indeed, happiness can be used to justify oppression and unjust political systems..

Vilken grundläggande idé utgår vi ifrån när vi talar om förnuft och rationalitet och vilka konsekvenser får detta för synen på individen, individen i samhället samt individen i datasystemet? Uppsaten belyser problematik rörande den icke-situerade individen, vilken inte är en individ utan snarare en skenbar produkt utav homogena värderingar. .