The way in which media discusses religion has changed over time. Due to the separation of state and church in 2000, the Swedish state to a lesser extent legitimizes its political ruling with references to religious concepts. As a result, a higher tolerance towards religious minorities can be said to have taken place. This is an ambiguous change however, where critique raised towards religious practices and expressions of minorities also occurs to a higher extent. The public debate is in large part conducted through the media, but is also seen to be produced and reproduced through the media?s discourse.

The purpose of this essay was to examine the role of religious beliefs, actions and practice in young people's own description of their identity. An additional goal was to examine how young people describe their identity in relation to their primary and secondary socialization. A qualitative method was used with semi - structured interviews and six young people between the ages of 18 and 23 were interviewed.            The interview results show that three out of the six young people think of themselves as religious while the remaining three emphasize that they are secularized Muslims. The results also show that the young people emphasize that the celebration of feasts in the family is the main focus.  Four out of the six young people point out that they are themselves among friends, their families and in the mosque, while the remaining two feel a communion with their Muslim friends and people in the mosque.       Three out of the six young people consume alcohol and eat pork, while the remaining three refrain from this. The young people emphasize that their beliefs are a personal matter between themselves and God, and that their actions don't define them as being Muslims or non-Muslims..

The study's aim was to increase knowledge about the resistance of the Muslim religious expressions in the public sphere and its emergence on the basis of the case around the opposition to call for prayer. The study was conducted through the use of the qualitative research approach through interviews with informants who have a pronounced aversion regarding the existence of the public call to prayer in Sweden. The study's questions have been answered by an analysis of the empirical material by using different theoretical points that illustrate how Western standards are valued higher than the other, in the various standard systems. The view of the Muslim religious practices depicted by informants through an interpretative framework that is characterized by Islamophobic arguments that are considered to be incompatible with Western culture and the principles of the secular state striving. Such discourses can create an uneven distribution of power between Muslims and non-Muslims on the basis of the West's representations of Orientalism explained based in ethnocentric knowledge.

This master thesis is an ethnological study focusing members of a young, urban Jewishdiaspora in Sweden. The study's aim is to problematize and describe the relation between theJewish minority that is regarded as religious, and the secular normative majority societyregarded as non-religious. The study explores questions regarding social positioning,belonging and memory and how Jewish traditions are practiced in contemporary Sweden. Themethodological approaches are interviews and participation observations with a specific focuson food; its symbolic value and how food can materialize identities and communicatememories. The empirical data comprises 24 interviews in total, of which 11 interviews havebeen chosen and thus constitute the material on which the study's analysis is made upon.

The fact that animals have feelings is something that is commonly agreed. Many authors showhow animals' views of their environment is quite similar with human views. Animals, whichare slaughtered without prior stunning, find the moment of slaughter unpleasant and stressing.This is shown in numerous of scientific studies. The cognitive ability of animals can becompared to how they experience feelings and scientists have shown how the structures in thebrain that involves feelings and cognitive behaviours in animals are very much the same asthe structures in human brains. Because of this, some scientists consider that behaviour inanimals can be directly interpreted into human feelings.Halal- and kosher slaughter comes from traditions.

Background: Many Swedish inhabitants origin from different countries with different cultures that may show pain in other ways than Swedes. The Swedish law stress that nursing care should be done individually according to the patient's capabilities and needs. Aim and Method: The aim of this study was to describe nurses´ experiences of encounters with patients from other cultures with pain, and also their next of kin. Qualitative interviews were carried out with seven nurses. The interviews were analysed with the starting point in Giger and Davidhizars Transcultural Assessment Model and the six phenomena: communication, space, social organisation, time, environmental control and biological diversity.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether religious behavior or religious identity changes when a person with Muslim background moves to a Christian country and also very secular such as Sweden. I have interviewed five people with Muslim background that have moved from Turkey to Sweden. In this study I have applied Anthony Giddens and Thomas Ziehe's theories about building up an identity but also Nader Ahmadis theory of migration and identity.The results of this study show that there is a change in the practice of religion but also that this differs between these five people who came from the same country. Nevertheless, a change in the practice of religion can on one hand be as a result of modernity and on the other hand, exclusion of family. It also proves that it is not possible to draw general conclusions on this issue instead it should be looked at from an individual perspective..

The purpose of this paper is to examine if there are any differences or similarities when it comes to teaching religion in a multicultural school versus teaching religion in a homogeneous school in Sweden. How do teachers describe religious education in schools and how do they justify their teaching strategies? What similarities or differences are there between teachers' approaches when teaching religion in homogeneous versus multicultural schools?The study is based on qualitative interviews which includes a total of four schools; two homogeneous and two multicultural. These schools have been selected with the help of the Migration Board's annual report from 2014 as well as from my own personal knowledge. One religious teacher from each of the schools was interviewed.The conclusion, among others, is that ethnic Swedish pupils do not have the same understanding of religion as students of different ethnicity.

Sweden is today a country with ethnic, cultural and Religious diversity. My aim in this study is to study what view of Islam and Muslims that students at a Catholic school in Stockholm have. The reason why Catholic schools are interesting to study is that previous research has showed that Muslim students around Europe often attend catholic schools as they are regarded as more tolerant towards religion. This study is based on a questionnaire and personal interviews with upper secondary students at the Catholic school in Stockholm. The result is compared with previous research on students of the same age group (12-15 years).

The purpose of this study has been to examine what approach and experience pedagogues at pre-schools, with a limited amount of nationalities, have regarding cultural promoting work in pre-schools. The concept ?cultural promoting? mainly regards the children's cultural backgrounds. The first question formulation focussed on the what the concepts ?cultural promoting? and ?cultural diversity? meant to the pedagogues.

Lichens are adapted to bright and sparse forests on oligotrophic ground. Due to a slow growth rate and high light demand lichens will suffer from competition in eutrophic environments. Therefore, lichens have disappeared from managed forests where the forest industry has increased the productivity. A reduced abundance of lichens will affect both biodiversity of the forest and the reindeer winter graze lands. It is important to understand how and for how long fertilization affects the abundance and diversity of lichens in order to protect lichen rich ecosystems. We have registered the biomass and number of lichen species in eight plots (four nitrogen rich and four nitrogen deficient) and compared fertilized Sami settlements with their oligotrophic surroundings in the nature reserves of Tjeggelvas.

The purpose of this study in the psychology of religion is to explore the process of an individual?s shift in orienting system, from a religious to an atheistic. The materials used are autobiographical accounts obtained from two books. One that has been used as a primary source and one as a secondary. By using Rambo?s process oriented theory of religious conversion relevant themes and categories were chosen and later subjected to further analysis using Pargament?s theory of religion and coping.

AbstractEmma Hjalmarsson, teacher studentMaria Talevska, teacher studentTitle: So different yet so alike â A comparative study focusing on the pedagogical leadership in two different cultures.Växjö University, Fall Semester 2005, Department of the HumanitiesGIX 192, Degree project/Religious Studies in Secondary EducationThis paper compares the pedagogical leadership in Thailand and Sweden. By performing interviews, handing out questionnaires and observing class rooms we wanted to compare the relationship between pupils and teachers from one school in Sweden and one school in Thailand.From the pupils we wanted information about their view on teachers; what characterizes the best teacher, what the worst teacher is like and how they would like a teacher to be.From the teachers on the other hand we wanted to know what kind of relationship they would like to have with their pupils and how they work to accomplish that purpose. We also wanted to find out if they put more emphasis on upbringing or knowledge and if there are any religious influences in the education.Finally, we also wanted to see if there was something from the pedagogical view in the Thai school that we could use in education in Sweden..

The purpose of this study was to investigate how elevated levels of heavy metals affect the faunal species composition, abundance and species-diversity. The bentic macroinvertebrate fauna in the highly polluted lake Tisken was compared with the bentic macroinvertebrate fauna in the unpolluted lake Varpan. Mine wastes account for most of the metal that is discharged into Tisken. The hypotheses was that the heavy metal pollutions in lake Tisken influenced the species composition, abundance and diversity of the macroinvertebrates. Twenty samples were taken in both sites.

Globally, coastal ecosystems like mangrove forests, sea grass meadows and salt marshes are well known for their ability to capture and store atmospheric carbon effectively. In Sweden, there is still limited knowledge about local coastal ecosystems with similar functions, with alder swamp forests being an interesting example. Therefore, this study aimed to increase knowledge of the factors that can contribute to the potential carbon sequestering ability of alder swamps. Vegetation data and sediment samples were collected from a total of 37 sampling plots across four alder swamps in Bohusl?n on the Swedish west coast.