The European Union is a self proclaimed leader in the field of climate change and has a common target for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. In spite of this, there are great differences between the member states capacity and dedication to the cause of implementing the Unions climate policy and reduce their emissions. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to an understanding of how different European states construct their identity in the context of climate change mitigation. By analyzing national documents from three European states and using tools deriving from discourse analysis, I aim to illuminate differences and similarities in their rhetoric. The result is that due to the states relationship to the European Union and the United Nations, there are great similarities in the way they construct mitigation and their identity.

In this thesis tests has been performed on the pull strength of screws glued into glulam beams.The experiment is based on the already approved method whereby the diameter of the drilled holes is the same as the screw outer diameter of 1 mm or bigger. The screws strength class shall not be less than 4.6 (EN ISO 898-1:1999, 1999).The difference in the experiments that were performed where that the drilled diameter were 1 mm smaller than the outer diameter of the screw so that the screw thread was worked into the wood.In the tests the gluing where made on M8 glulam beams. The screws where drilled at and angel of 90°tangental to the fiber direction with a diameter of 7 mm. The gluing of the screws where made in three different depths and where later exposed to pulling forces. The results showed both pulling breaks and screw breaks when they reached their maximum capacity.

The purpose of this Master Thesis has been to investigate the possibilities for a new type of noise reduction solution that could decrease the negative effects resulting from larger traffic roads. The idea has been to construct a noise barrier with a roof ? like a tunnel placed on a road. The choice of material has been focused on transparent materials in order to lower visual intrusion and barrier effects. This project idea is called the Noise tunnel.After having investigated the current offer of noise solutions, it has been concluded that these solutions rarely provide a sufficient level of noise reduction ? at least not when government regulations of acceptable noise levels are applied.

The aim of this theoretical study is to explain how the notion of the Other and Otherness affect individuals possibilities to form multiple, personal identities. This is done by the use of the theory of the Other and the construction of identities. In my analysis I will be using the power perspective presented by Lukes. The purpose of my study is also to investigate whether a focus on similarity over difference between groups can change the situation for individualsMy study shows that otherness affect individuals identity constructions through stereotyping and categorising. This is made possible by the use of power from outside and inside different groupings.

This study examined constructions of horses and means staff working with horses parallel to therapy in institutional care ascribes to horses. A narrative method was used and the theoretical framework was social constructionism. A question was asked to the narratives: How can practice in institutional care be understood through these stories? The result showed different pictures of institutional care. Horses seem to provide a multi-faceted therapeutic tool.

What is located on the bottom in the water outside of Birka? Remains of a water palisade or jetties and other constructions.Birka a Viking Age town that existed between AD 750 and 975 was located on the northwestern part of the small island of Björkö, in the Mälar archipelago of the Baltic Sea in Sweden. The Town was protected onshore by a hill fort and a town rampart. It is a widely spread assumption that Birka had a water palisade as a part of its defense. There are logs and other remnants on the bottom of the lake dating back to the Viking age.

We started out the study with a preconception of culture as something that creates difference between groups of people, which had been verified by our prior research. We also had a sense of culture as a polysemous term. Our assumption is also that there is an opinion within social work practice that Swedish social workers are faced with a cultural barrier when encountering immigrant clients.In this study our aim is to examine constructions of the terms cultural competence and culture. Constructions of the terms ethnicity and ethnic diversity are also observed, although the main reason for this is to show what relation these terms have to the terms cultural competence and culture, and how they may give each other meaning, according to the theory of social construction. In addition to constructions, we also aim to bring out discourses around the terms, upon which we will create a discussion about power and dominance informed by post-colonial theory and critical discourse analysis (CDA).

AbstractThe author Selma Lagerlöf was born in 1858 at Mårbacka, in Värmland and died in 1940. Fifty years after Selma´s death were her correspondence released and ten thousand of letters were found in the collection. But it was just the correspondence between Selma and Sofie Elkan who interested people because they wanted to know if Selma and Sofie have had a sexual relationship. Later, in time for Christmas 2008 the Swedish Television shows a film about Selma. "Selma Lagerlöf Society" was critical to the movie and thougt that the movie focused too much on Selma`s sexual orientation.

In this thesis I based on Fowler?s method of syntax analysis construct a flow scheme which I then use to make a syntax analysis of former State Secretary Lars Danielsson?s statements, in his autobiography, regarding his responsibility in the Swedish government?s management of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. The focus of the flow scheme is how grammatical constructions can be used in the interest of rhetoric?s to on the syntax (non-explicit) level of the text indicate and place responsibility with or outside of involved individuals. The main conclusion of the syntax analysis performed is that Danielsson in his autobiography in fact does not use very many of the constructions described in the flow scheme, whereby it can be concluded that the syntax analysis in this case wasn?t so ?revealing?.

This study examines which socially constructed threats and subjects of security existed during the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Stockholm 2010. With ideas of identity and difference as a starting point the theoretical framework is then developed with ideas from the new critical security studies including key subjects such as attributes, risk, imaging and visualisation. The study will be executed with the use of a discourse analysis approach using newspaper articles and chronicles as the principal empirical material. The analysis will then follow two separate themes. Firstly, the different threats and subjects of security will be deduced, and also, how these social constructions inevitably create each other and require each other to continue existing.

A lot of houses built during the Million Homes Programme are in need of major renovation. Today?s technology and materials are better than in the 60?s and 70?s. Both Swedish government and the European Union have set climate goals regarding energy consumption by 2020 and 2050. Achieving these goals would require better standards in buildings than the Building regulations demands, such as Umeå municipality?s construction requirements for new buildings.The report aims to investigate if a renovation of apartment buildings from the Million Homes Programme can reach Umeå municipality?s construction requirements.

This thesis aims at determining the heat losses in a property vent stack and its roof valve. Upon request of a company, the vent stack is analysed for possible heat recovering solutions to be implemented, while relining of the drain system is executed and with a suitable payback time for the economic investments. The heat loss calculations are based on data for properties that are located in the Stockholm region, but also easy to change depending on the situation. The calculations are done on pipes made out of cast iron, which still is the most common type of drain pipe in Sweden, and these are the pipes that relining is usually made on. The calculations that needed to take several variables into account have been done in MatlabR2014a and the thermos dynamical properties that were used in those calculations have been extracted from EES.Three different types of heat losses in the vent stack have been taken into consideration in this thesis.

How do probation inspectors describe their female clients and female offenders? Are there any discrepancies in treatment between male and female clients? In what way is the social interaction between female clients and inspectors constructed and described?  These are the issues we have explored in this study. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with a total of nine probation inspectors; six women and three men, were used in order to examine the probation inspectors? constructions of clients and the construction of interaction between them. By applying Foucault?s theory of power relations, Hirdman?s gender theory and Olsson?s theory of preconceptions when analyzing the results five themes were identified; descriptions of the work of the female client, descriptions of the interaction with the female client, descriptions of the female offender, descriptions of backgrounds why women commit crimes and descriptions of society's view on the female offender.

The aim of this study has been to examine how a few members of the Finnish and non- Scandinavian Romani subgroups experience their own, and their groups, situation on the Housing- and Labour Market. We´ve studied our respondents? experiences of discrimination, which difficulties they think there are, what strategies can be used to deal with these difficulties and also their own ideas on how to improve the situation for the Romani people in the Swedish society. This has been done by six individual structured interviews which have been analyzed with concepts from Symbolic Interactionism, including Goffman?s Dramaturgical Role Theory, definition of Stigma and Kelly?s theory of Personal Constructions.

Den här uppsatsen är en kvalitativ fallstudie där konstruktioner av unga lagöverträdare har undersökts utifrån socialkonstruktivistisk teori. De huvudsakliga frågeställningar var: Hur konstrueras bilden av den unge lagöverträdaren i domstolsprocessen? Hur konstrueras bilden av den manliga respektive kvinnliga unge lagöverträdaren i domstolsprocessen? Undersökningen består av litteraturstudier och observationer av rättegångar med unga lagöverträdare. Totalt 45 stycken observationer gjordes. I resultatet framkom att rätten i samtliga fall dömde objektivt och i enlighet med lagen men att ungdomars attityd och uppträdande i rätten bidrog till rättens konstruktion av honom eller henne.