This study concerns ways in which Muslims in Sweden construct their identities. The theoretical approach of the study is based on the assumption that people construct their identities through narratives. Circumstances such as time, place, and relationships affect how narratives are told and therefore how we perceive ourselves and the world around us.In the wake of 11th of September 2001, the old colonial narrative of ?the West vs. the East? has become powerful, and makes many question the possibility of successfully integrating Muslims immigrants in Western countries.

Den här uppsatsen behandlar kopplingen mellan female empowerment och demokratisering. Med utgångspunkt i en maximalistisk definition av demokrati, hävdas att female empowerment är en nödvändig förutsättning för att en demokratiseringsprocess ska kunna lyckas.I uppsatsen analyseras den kenyanska miljöorganisationen Green Belt Movement:s arbete utifrån teorier om female empowerment. Kvinnor i Kenya är traditionellt underordnade männen och saknar inflytande och möjligheter att styra över sina egna liv. Inom Green Belt Movement har kvinnor fått en ledande roll och givits möjligheten att påverka sin situation. Analysen slår fast att organisationen har lyckats skapa female empowerment i flera aspekter bland de kvinnor som är aktiva i dess verksamhet.

I have investigated the political culture of post-communist Russia. For a long time it has been assumed that, the history is of great importance in shaping the political culture. I wanted to find out if this was true, I chose to study the political culture of Russia. How great effects had the autocratically legacy of Soviet Union in the democratisation of Russia? My thesis show that the role of history isn't of such great importance, instead it's the Russian state that has had the greatest possibility of shaping the political culture of Russia but it failed.

No abstract.

The aim of this study is to explain and analyse political steering of public libraries in Swedish municipalities and the roles of politicians and administrators in this process. To fulfil this purpose five municipalities have been studied. It is argued that both politicians and administration have to be included in a study of steering and that the relation between politicians and administrators should be seen as an interplay. Planning and evaluation are discerned as the two main activities in the steering process. The material in this study consists mainly of information collected through interviews with library responsible politicians and library managers in all five municipalities.The results show that libraries are considered politically uncontroversial and that politicians see little need for political interference and steering.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att mot bakgrund av en analys av befintlig forskning kring empowerment föra en kritisk diskussion med fokus på makt och människosyn. Litteraturstudie är vår valda metod, och utgångspunkten är en kritisk analys i granskningen av litteraturen. Vi har rekonstruerat tidigare forskning för att undersöka vilken syn som finns på empowerment som framförs i litteraturen. I litteraturgenomgången framkom att makt är en grundläggande beståndsdel i empowerment. Detta medförde att vi valde att hädanefter studera empowerment ur ett maktperspektiv.

This study has dealt with a phenomena that is regarded as new in the Swedish context of social work called honour related violence because of sexual orientation. The purpose was to critically examine a project that offers a variation of assistance for individuals between 13 and 25 years of age who suffers from the above. The project mentioned is run by an organisation called RFSL Rådgivningen Skåne. The aim was to examine the practice and to gain knowledge concerning the target group and relate it to that described by the project. Another aim for the study was to look into how the employees and the author of a report that is commonly used as background material in the practice used the complicated terms involved in the field and how that may effect the individuals that are the target for the resources.

Normativa studier om ledarskap är begränsade när det kommer till utövandet av ledarskap. Denna uppsats undersöker vad en ledare i offentlig förvaltning gör i praktiken och inriktar sig på vad själva utövandet av ledarskap kan bestå utav. I studien deltar två kommunchefer som studeras på nära håll i deras vardagliga arbete genom observationer, intervjuer och samtal. Ur materialet konstrueras två idealtyper, praktikern och visionären, som ett sätt att förstå utövandet av ledarskap. Praktikern ägnar sig åt konkret problemlösning medan visionären ägnar sig åt utvecklingsarbete.

Corporate Social Responsibility has been defined as the responsibility towards stakeholders and the society in whole and the expression was founded in the 1950´s. Reporting in corporate social responsibility has been termed corporate social disclosure and has been divided into three areas: environment, ethics and human resources. The aim of this study is to explain variations in corporate social disclosure and the different media used by corporations to communicate these disclosures. A survey was conducted, which included all Swedish corporations listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and all public-owned corporations. The results show that corporate characteristics such as size, industry and profitability can explain some of the variation in social disclosures and also have an effect on the extent and variation of the media used.

A personality test is a useful tool in recruitment contexts. Studies have shown that participants distort their answers in a socially desirable manner. The purpose of this study was to investigate if people respond more or less socially desirable depending on how they rate themselves in a personality test, based on the "big five" personality dimensions.Eighty people, (40 women and 40 men), 19-42 years, (M= 24,1 SD= 3,76) rated themselves on a personality test. Group one, (20 women and 20 men) completed the test on paper. Group two, (20 women and 20 men) completed the test verbally.

The purpose of this essay was to examine what consequenses of alcohol and narcotics that youth magazines describe and how the user and addict is described. My porpose was also to examine what situations the magazines claim that alcohol and narcotics are related to.The questions for my studie was:1. How is an alcoholic/drug addict /user described in youth magazines?2. What situations are related to alcohol/narcotics in youth magazines?3.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the use of social media by the Swedish Police for democratic purposes. The idea of citizen empowerment is closely related to the development of new communication technologies such as social media. Yet many studies indicate that governmental institutions rarely make use of the assumed potentials of social media.In this study, the democratic potential of social media is derived from Habermas normative concept of deliberative participation. Operational definitions emphasize discursive equality, interactive reciprocity and external impact. The analytical framework is combined with qualitative text analysis to highlight the conditions of interaction between representatives of the Police and citizens.In conclusion: the democratic potential of social media, from a Habermasian point of view, is to a significant extent neglected at the expense of its strategic advantages.

Frågan om skatteavdrag för hushållsnära tjänster har under två decennier debatterats i Sverige. År 2007 genomförde den nytillträdda borgerliga regeringen en sådan reform, delvis med argumentationen att det skulle leda till ökad jämställdhet mellan kvinnor och män. Med hjälp av ideologikritisk metod undersöker uppsatsen vilka underliggande föreställningar om jämställdhet och vilka föreställningar om tänkta köpare och säljare av hushållstjänster som uttrycktes i denna argumentation, samt hur den statliga jämställdhetsmyndigheten JämO förhöll sig till förslaget. Med utgångspunkt i materialistisk feminism och ett intersektionellt perspektiv diskuteras vilka brister och inneboende motsättningar den svenska, hegemoniska jämställdhetsideologin innehar, när den ska appliceras på en verklighet där maktstrukturer baserade på klass, kön och etnicitet samspelar. Detta exemplifieras i uppsatsen genom reformen med skatteavdrag för hushållstjänster..

TO WORK WITH BIOLOGICAL MOTHERS IN LUND FROM AN ORGANIZATIONAL POINT OF VIEW ALEXANDRA BERTRAM Bertram, A. Degree project in social work 15 Credits. Malmö University: Faculty of health and society, Department of Social Work, 2014. This essay deals with biological mothers whose children are placed in foster care within the municipality of Lund. This essay aimed to describe how social workers in Lund deal with biological mothers from investigation, to treatment. In this essay social workers whom meets biological mothers on an everyday basis have been interviewed about their experience in the field, to gather information.

In this thesis I discuss how the western conception of reason is an aspect of power. I consider the western comprehension of rationality to be a masculine and ethnocentric understanding, though by itself acclaimed to be universal. My purpose with this thesis is to analyze how this western and masculine conceptualisation of reason follows a gramscian structure of power, which makes it reproduce itself in the postcolonial project of science.The theory of hegemony and ideology of Antonio Gramsci is central for analyzing the reproduction of the western subject of knowledge. The theoretical approach is also based on the understanding of the Other as essential for defining the identity of the self. My two main objects of study is one text of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, which discuss the problems of representation, and one of Chandra Talpade Mohanty, in which she examines the tendency to neocolonization in certain western postcolonial feminist research.