The relationship between fandoms and religion has become an increasingly popular topic to study within the field of the sociology of religion. In previous studies, there have been different views concerning whether or not fandoms should be regarded as religious from a functional perspective. This issue is especially interesting considering the decreasing popularity of traditional religion in some aspects. The aim of this essay is to study how Harry Potter fandoms are described in previous studies. The study aims at discerning both the empirical data and how the data is interpreted. The material in this study consists of three previous studies about the communities centered around Harry Potter fandoms.

This essay concerns the issue of democracy and judicial review. The main focus is on the justification of both a positive and a negative attitude towards judicial review, and the values these justifications are based on. The analysis is made by textual analysis of four authors with different opinions of the subject matter: Robert Dahl and Jeremy Waldron who has a negative attitude towards judicial review, and Erwin Chemerinsky and Ronald Dworkin who are positive about it. In the analysis an analytic frame is used which consists of different dimensions and aspects of the problem of democracy and judicial review. The study shows that there are important differences in democratic values between a positive and a negative justification of judicial review.

This report has a purpose to identify the payment methods available for e-commerce, tosee if they fulfill certain requirements. By investigating thirty of the most popular webshops, a few primary services have been found and revised. Security requirements fore-payment systems include authentication, non-repudiation, integrity and confidentiality.Other requirements considered to be important are usability, flexibility, affordability,reliability, availability, speed of transaction and interoperability. Advantages and disadvantageshave been identified to see if the services fulfill the requirements. Also surveysof consumer payment habits have been investigated to identify the factors of decisive importanceto the usage of payment services.

Should libraries first and foremost be a source of free informationwhere the citizens can find whatever information they want, or dothe librarians have a responsibility for what kind of works theypresent to people on their shelves? A wild debate broke out inSwedish media in September 2012, after the artistic leader ofKulturhuset in Stockholm; Behrang Miri decided to weed out allthe Tintin albums from the children´s library Tiotretton. Hewanted to start a debate on stereotypes in children´s fiction, andwhat damage they do to children who face them. The purpose ofthe thesis is to carry out a discourse analysis of this media debate,and to identify the different views that are expressed on thedemocratic mission of the libraries, what media they shouldpresent. The method and theory is based on the discourse theory ofErnesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and their concepts are used toarrange the analysis around certain themes that build up twodifferent discourses; ?Freedom of information discourse? and the?Weeding out discourse?.The two main questions are: What views of the public librariesselection of works are expressed in the Tintin debate in Tiotretton,and how do the views relate to each other? What concepts arespecific for the debate, and what meanings do they get in thesedifferent views?In the concluding chapter I discuss which consequences theseopposing opinions can have for the future selection processes ofthe library..

In this Master's Thesis a rhetorical analysis is applied to reading suggestions in the database Boktips.net. Boktips.net utilize the Internet for readers advisory by offering public libraries in Sweden to use and participate to its contents. The aim is to examine how library staff writes about literature in Boktips.net. The empirical material is delimited to reading suggestions on fiction for adults. Areas in focus of the analysis are rhetorical context, disposition, style and components from the point of view of content: summary, evaluation on portrayal of characters and setting, narrative, language use, genre and themes, entertainment, insights and external information.

In the urban planning debate of today, two strategies for city development stand out as each other's opposites, urban sprawl and smart growth. This thesis concerns a development project of the latter kind and aims to give an alternative proposal to new buildings and a park in a Swedish city block. The term sprawl is used for new developments on virgin soil on the outskirts of cities leading to a city spreading, while smart growth stand for increased city density through development on re-used land within the city boundaries. The latter are often seen as more sustainable in many levels and are also shown to have positive effects on a number of city functions. At the same time smart growth has negative consequences on other aspects of the city such as public open spaces.

This Masters thesis is a study of the truck-driver profession and their use of libraries located in gas-stations and restaurants along the highways in Sweden. The reason for this interest is the positive trend that has occurred concerning men without any university education and their reading-habits, that is due to their increased interest in listening to audio books. This challenges the general opinion that this group is not particularly interested in reading literature. Questions posed in this study are: How do the truck-drivers relate to the activity of reading literature, what part does the road-libraries play, and how can the services that the road-libraries offer be improved according to the truck-drivers. The method used in the study is interviews made by telephone.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the religious testimony in the following works of the Swedish poet Majken Johansson (1930-1993): Liksom överlämnad (1965), Omtal (1969) and Från Magdala. Fragment ur en självbiografi (1972). A part of the purpose is also to investigate how Johansson phrases this testimony using a contemporary aesthetics. The thesis also studies how her works were received by the contemporary critics. The result shows that they tended to deprecate Johansson?s religiosity but were generally appreciative when it came to her poems.

Perch (Perca fluviatilis) is a very popular fish in Sweden and it is common in Swedish waters. In some areas along the Swedish coast the perch population has decreased. It is therefore important to get a view at the health status of perch. During April, July and August of 2008, a total of 346 perches were caught in the Gump Bay in the Botnian Sea. The fish were mainly caught by net but also by rod.

Title: Festivalernas Intåg ? Korröfestivalen- en bordunstämmas resa genom festivaliseringenThe Korrö festival- The establishment of a Swedish Folk Music Festival.This thesis describes how folk music festivals have been escalating during the past few and how they have influenced Swedish folk music. To reach my results I have been studying one festival in particular which is the Korrö Folk Music Festival. This event started in the mid-eighties as a small happening that attracted almost exclusively musicians that were a part of the bordooon movement. The bordoon movement gathered a couple of days in the summer at what they called the ?Korrö bordunstämma? to build instruments and play folk music.

This essay is about why and how the media is integrated with Swedish as a subject. The purpose of the study is to investigate if the teachers who use different media when teaching Swedish consider that this pedagogy develops the students? learning. I also aim to find out if there are any differences and/or similarities between the teachers.To fulfil the purpose I have done a qualitative study with three teachers who work at a school. I have focused on following issues: How, when, where and why do the teachers use media when teaching Swedish?The investigation shows that media is popular today and it is becoming more so all the time.

The aim of this study has been to investigate how the death of a close relative is described in pictures and texts through the eyes of a child character in three picture books. The analysis has also considered how the child character copes with the tragedy and how he or she finds support in the grief process. The books analysed here are Resan till Ugri-La-Brek (1987), Farväl, Rune (1986), and Jättebra Olga! (2010). Since these are works of fiction, this study does not assume that they are an accurate reflection of reality, but the way the child characters act and cope with their grief has been compared with the findings of empirical research on how children react in real situations.The material has been examined by means of a qualitative literary analysis comparing the books according to the research questions. The study finds that the child characters receive evasive explanations from people around them concerning what death means, for instance that the person is sleeping.

As social interactions migrate to the ubiquitous Internet we are facing a change in theway we relate to each other, which presents interesting new opportunities foranonymity to create identities. An aspect of this radically evolving technology thatexhibits strong possibilities for altering or producing identities is the rapidly growingonline game genre MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) which isentertainment that millions of people all over the globe engage in daily. Thisrelatively new platform for socialising has become of cultural and social significance,which is why it calls for examination and research. Thus, the main research questionsasked in this thesis are as following: How does players of MMOGs utilise the nighcomplete anonymity to present or modify their identities online? In which ways areMMOGs used as a platform for socialising and development of social groupdynamics? After observing a large group of players in a popular MMOG, as well asconducting several interviews with key identities within the group, I discovered three fundamental parts of identity creation, and created a model for use and applicationin different social situations and constellations..

Abstract:Perennials in public areas have during the latest decades been more and more popular. This group of plants has become a more accepted komponent when creating pleasant public places, and people begin to see the functional aspects. Perennials do also give a colour- and senceexperience in a more detailed way than can be achieved with only trees and shrubs. One of the ojects of this essay is to give more examples of motives for using perennials in urban areas.Having in mind the increasing use of perennials, you can expect a growing need for better understading of how to create successfull perennial plantings. In spite of the increasing interest it is hard to find any written information in this subject.

Title: Festivalernas Intåg ? Korröfestivalen- en bordunstämmas resa genom festivaliseringenThe Korrö festival- The establishment of a Swedish Folk Music Festival.This thesis describes how folk music festivals have been escalating during the past few and how they have influenced Swedish folk music. To reach my results I have been studying one festival in particular which is the Korrö Folk Music Festival. This event started in the mid-eighties as a small happening that attracted almost exclusively musicians that were a part of the bordooon movement. The bordoon movement gathered a couple of days in the summer at what they called the ?Korrö bordunstämma? to build instruments and play folk music.