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.

This examination project has been performed in collaboration with Husqvarna AB, one of the world?s leading manufacturers of both commercial and professional garden products such as chainsaws, trimmers and lawnmowers. Husqvarna AB always strive to develop and improve new and existing products and components to ensure an attractive product and a competitive position on today?s market One of these components is filled balances. This is a component unique to the company and is one of the parts in their fuel-powered chainsaws.

The aim of the study was to investigate how a community motivates and ensures the implementation of its values and how this document affected personnel of meaning, vision and daily operations. The study was based on semi-structured interviews, in which nine respondents were interviewed in a city in southern Sweden. Interviews dealt with three different themes, all concerned organization or set of values. The analysis was based partly on how organizations and institutions build up and maintain their legitimacy. The analysis was also explained by the new institutional theory and its concepts isomorphism.

The last few years have been characterised by increasing online communication and the emergence of social media, made possible by Web 2.0. In society as well as in research, social media is used for knowledge produc- tion and networking. One example of this is Mendeley, a social reference management tool. With answers from users all over the world, this study investigates the use of Mendeley, if the respondents use other social media and if all of this affects scientific communication. The aim is also to study what the respondents think about the future of scientific communication and if this can be related to current tendencies.The theoretic framework for this study is based on Leah Lievrouws research on the Cycle of Scientific Communication and the relationship between the ?Little Science 2.0?-scenario and the ?Big Science Retrench- ment?-scenario.A qualitative web based survey was conducted (41 answers) and complemented with an interview with a professor in environmental sciences.

The aim of this study was to examine why young females develop self-harm behaviour. We also wanted to look at the differences between young females born in foreign countries and young females born in Sweden and investigate if there were any differences regarding the reasons for developing self-harm behaviour and the actual extent of the self-harm behaviour within the group. We used a qualitative method and performed interviews with nine professionals that work with young females with self-harm behaviour. To be able to analyse our qualitative interviews we used concepts such as modernity, anomie, safety and cultural differences in the bringing up of children. The results of this study shows that self-harm behaviour is a symptom of excessive anxiety, which can be caused by a number of reasons, such as childhood trauma or great demands in modern society.

This report presents a thesis project conducted by two students at Mälardalens högskola. The project covers 15 points in industrial design and was conducted during April to June 2014. The principal of the thesis works at Plastic Produkter. The assignment was to develop equipment for an effective way to dose, mix silicon, fill a special designed plastic bag and then seal it. The bag is then formed into a breast model.When a customer for various reasons decides to do a breast augmentation or a breast reconstruction, there may be doubt or uncertainty about the result.

Rapporten huvudsyfte är att beskriva hur vi genom användning av språk och kommunikation har kunnat tillgodose våra användares krav på ett ärendehanteringssystem, samt på vilket sätt vi har använt artefakter för att kommunicera. Vi kommer att beskriva olika delar av projektet där språk och kommunikation har haft centrala "roller" och visat sig ha olika betydelse beroende på de personer som medverkar och i vilken miljö situationen har utspelat sig. Rapporten behandlar även hur resultatet av ovanstående har lett oss in i en utvecklingsprocess där vi försökt tillgodose användarens krav på bästa sätt. Vi kommer också att beskriva de kända och tidigare okända metoder som vi använt oss av för att uppnå vår målsättning, att överlämna en första prototyp av ett ärendehanteringssystem..

The aim of this study is to investigate into the use of discussions in the classroom to help the pupils develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and operations. The empirical data contain interviews with two teachers and observations from their lessons. The purpose of the interviews was to find out what importance the teachers ascribed to the ability of their pupils to talk about mathematics, and how they organised their classes to encourage mathematical discussions. With the observations, I was able to see the interaction in the classroom and hear discussions between the teacher and the pupils, as well as between the pupils themselves.The interviewed teachers proved to share my own belief in the results of researchers like Malmer (1999) and Löwing (2006) about the importance of verbal discussion, argumentation and reflection during mathematics classes. But convictions derived from the research of others are one thing, the practical application of the wisdom in the classroom another.

Nordic Marine Sauna AB has, since 2005, designed, manufactured and sold floating saunas. Theproduct are characterised by a well thought thru and appealing design and its high quality. Thecompany is now intending to open a new business area by starting a subsidiary, NordicSubmarine Sauna AB, which will design submerged saunas. The expected customers are leisureand conference centres as well as customers that seek an experience out of the ordinary.Due to the products technical complexity a master thesis was adverted. The task was to do aninvestigation whether such a product is technically viable.The job involved research of existing products and constructions material as well as designingthe product with CAD and FEM-programs.

In this essay, the aim is to empirically and theoretically study the parliamentary debate of the child pornography law. The empirical part is an attempt to discover eventual underlying gender stereotypes in the debate. A text analysis is conducted with material consisting of motions from members of parliament and of protocols from the parliamentary debate. In this material we try to find latent and manifest expressions of gender stereotypes. There are several stereotypes, which effects the argumentation and prejudice of the debate, like stereotypes of the victims, the perpetrators and their characteristics.

Secondary schools have for decades debated whether they promote social reproduction which is considered to generate the homogeneous student compositions. The gap between the academic programs and vocational education programs is considered to increase. What in recent years has appeared in research is that the gap is increasing most tend to be in the specific academic program, particularly in science. This paper's intention is to describe the science program at a local level and the pupils who were admitted to the science program autumn 2009 on the basis of an educational sociological perspective. The survey consisted of a census in which all students were given the opportunity to answer a questionnaire.

Title: The perfect candidate ? the selection process in a global organization.Authors: Kariin Adolfsson and Simon LeetsaarIn today's society, it becomes increasingly current with correct person on correct place in theworking life. What requires knowledge about how to recruit in a professional manner andreliable ways. In many bigger organizations, there is today a human resources department thatonly works with recruitment of new employees. The purpose with our research is to describepersonnel selection process in a big swedish organization, how they work throughout theentire process.

The aim of this bachelor?s thesis is to investigate what role the public library in Sweden may have when it comes to gender equality issues. The questions at issue that were asked, in order to give an answer to the aim, was how the librarians defined and saw work with equality, how much the steering documents for the library impact and what they are doing in their practice to weaken the dichotomies between the sexes. The theoretical starting point used for this study is three concepts, the gender system, the stereotypes and the gender contract described by the Swedish historian Yvonne Hirdman. The purpose of the three concepts is that gender is a social construction which produces gender stereotypes and a gender order in society, which the library is a part of.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the library needs of fourteen-to-fifteen-year-olds. We have limited the investigation to the significance of libraries for the teenagers in their leisure time. Our focus is the public library with a particular reference to the plans for a new local public library with a youth profile in Malmö. With a departure point in the idea that young people?s use and view of libraries is to a large extent depending on factors such as social and cultural background and lifestyle, we chose to do a qualitative interview study with eight teenagers.

AbstractTitle: Interactive marketing and Internet - A study of Radi Medical Systems? educational site (Interaktiv marknadsföring och Internet - En studie utifrån Radi Medical Systems webbplats för kundutbildning)Number of pages: 43 (including enclosures 47)Author: Daniel PalmgrenTutor: Mats LindCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Spring 2008University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this thesis is to examine if Radi Medical Systems? educational site has the potential to create value for the company?s customers, and by that promote improved customer relations. Questions asked are: What kinds of visions does the company have for the site? Which services are offered to the customers through the site? How do the customers experience these sInervices?Material/Method: Information from interviews with representatives from Radi Medical Systems and their customers, observations of the webpage and information from an internal Radi document concerning the educational site has been collected and analyzed through the use of a theoretical framework, in order to provide an understanding for the questions asked. The visions were discussed and analyzed by general concepts of interactive marketing and Internet.