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.

The purpose of the study is to investigate methods and work procedures that aim to motivate people to leave a cult and/or supporting them after a cult exit. The study was limited to investigate how Sweden?s, within the area, three premier voluntary organizations Föreningen Rädda Individen, Rådgivning Om Sekter and Hjälpkällan work with present -, ex ? and relatives to cult members. In addition to the mentioned organizations we have also investigated the work procedures and methods used by Åke Wiman. The study has got a qualitative approach and includes semi-structured interviews.

När Energimyndigheten 2008 frågade ungdomar om förnybar energi kunde 40 % av de tillfrågade inte namnge en enda förnybar energikälla. Användandet av förnybar energi är en del av den strategi som Förenta Nationerna [FN] har lagt fram för att nå en hållbar utveckling i framtiden. FN framhäver även vikten och behovet av att undervisa om hållbar utveckling och förnybar energi.Vi ville studera vilka förnybara energikällor som förekom i läroböcker för grundskolans senare år och gymnasiet. Detta för att få en uppfattning om hur lärare kan använda läroböckerna i framtida undervisning om förnybar energi.Vi har gjort en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av energikapitlet i olika läroböcker där vi har studerat hur området förnybar energi presenterades, bland annat utifrån perspektivet scientific literacy.Våra resultat visar signifikanta skillnader mellan läroböckerna för gymnasiet och grundskolans senare år. Bland annat presenteras många fler energikällor i läroböckerna på gymnasiet, och de presenteras även på ett sådant sätt att de ingriper flera områden av perspektivet scientific literacy.

This essay analyse the relationships between scientific paradigms and different logics of power in the field of psychiatry, primarily in the fields of attention disorders of children and schizophrenia. In these two fields of psychiatric research and treatment, there exist two scientific paradigms, a biological/neuropsychiatric and a socialpsychological, working from different standpoints regarding questions of ontology, epistemology and theories of value. Drawing from Thomas Kuhns paradigmatic theory of science, and Michel Foucaults concept of power, this essay proposes that different paradigmatic standpoints gives rise to different logics of power. Relying on the concept of power/knowledge and different paradigmatic standpoints, the essay states that the biological/neuropsychiatric paradigm produces a biological individualising logic of power that fixes the individual to his/hers biological condition. This in contrast to the socialpsychological paradigm, which on the basis of its paradigmatic standpoints produces a social-group related logic of power.

The aim of this study is to investigate how and in which form students come in contact with practical applications in the upper secondary school course Chemistry B. The study is based upon the assumption that all learning is situated in a social environment. The theoretical framework is the design theory perspective, which entails an assumption that the pedagogical tools affect the knowledge content.The empiric materials in the study are collected through three methods: textbook analysis, classroom observations and questionnaires. Two groups of students and their teachers were observed during a section of the relevant course. The textbook analysis focuses upon the same course section in the textbooks of the two groups and compares these books with the relevant section in a third textbook.

This thesis aims to explore how medical social workers/counselors perform their workwith people during crisis and how they accumulate and practice scientific crisisknowledge. This study is an empirical research paper based on qualitative interviewsconducted with eight medical social workers. The data was analysed with Kvalesmodel for categorization, which constitutes the basis of the research. The results ofthe research was then analysed with the use of Cullbergs crisis theory and a model ofevidence based practice which is described by Topor and Denhov. The results showthat the medical social workers practice the evidence based practice model, describedby Topor and Denhov, in combination with Cullbergs crisis theory.

Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary scientific subject which connects biology, biomedicine and information science. Bioinformatics generates new biological knowledge by using computer methods and biological databases and can thereby play an important role for the understanding of diseases and be used for development of new medicines. The appearance of bioinformatics has thereby had a big impact on biomedical research.In this study, I have examined bioscientists' use of bibliographical databases, bioinformatic databases/web sites and bioinformatic tools and their needs of support concerning these resources. I have also examined which support the scientific libraries offer their users concerning bibliographical databases, bioinformatic databases/web sites and bioinformatic tools and have compared it with the needs the libraries think that the users have and the needs the users state that they have.The results from the study show that there is a wish for library support concerning bibliographical databases, bioinformatic databases/web sites and bioinformatic tools. The wishes of the respondents are in contrast to the libraries' view about bioscientists interest concerning bioinformatic databases/web sites and bioinformatic tools.

BackgroundThis paper is based on an issue raised by the organization Energigas Sverige, which together with the Ministry of Finance has posed the question about the fiscal impact of an increase in biogas production. Since the fiscal effects of an increased biogas production are both positive and negative, due to reduced use of fossil fuels, we want to investigate this further.PurposeThe purpose is to describe and explain the obtained fiscal impacts of an increased biogas production and based on our problem: ?What are the obtained fiscal effects caused by an increase in biogas production?? we could see the following fiscal effects: positive impact on employment, increased revenues of social security contributions and income taxes, reduced unemployment costs and reduced tax revenues on fossil fuels. These effects are summarized in a negative tax revenue of 2,6 billion SEK. Along the summarized negative effect we also accepted one of the two prepared hypotheses, which stated that an increase in biogas production leads to a negative fiscal impact. Design/Methodology/ApproachWe have chosen to work from an Anglo-Saxon scientific tradition and furthermore, we have a positivistic approach when we want to explain the relationship between cause and effect of an increase in biogas production and the following fiscal impacts.

During the autumn of 2010 a group of parents met together with two therapist at Mini Maria Hisingen. These parents did have children who had experience of using drugs. This study purpose´s to describe, analyze and understand what has been effective in the work together with this group of parents.The interrogative sentence is; Did we use a narrative approach and what impact did this approach had on the groupprocess? What did the group sessions contribute to the parents and would they recommend other parents to participate in similar sessions? All the sessions were recorded in video. The work was highly inspired by Michael White and his book Maps (2007).

This master's thesis asks two main questions concerning the history of the City and UniversityLibrary of Gothenburg: what was the prevailing view of the library and its role? Whateconomic support did the library receive and from whom?By critically examining extensive source material mainly from the library archives and cityand state records, these conclusions are drawn: the City and University Library was regardedas a purely scientific library by all involved except the state as early as the 1920s. The state didnot express this view until 1946. The support came almost exclusively from the city ofGothenburg, the state not extending support on a larger scale until 1946 and then onlysporadically. The widely-held view of the library as a scientific one was ignored by the statein its repeated refusals to grant the library support both before and after 1946.

The idea of this study was to critically examine and account for the result found in scientific articles from databases. The aim of this literature review was to investi-gate how nurses can encounter a bereaved person in a crisis situation. Also the encounter of a person at risk of losing someone. Additionally, we investigated if the nursing staff fulfilled these needs. This literature review foremost addresses registered nurses.

The main aim in this thesis is to analyse the attitudes of fivearchaeologists at the Department of History, University ofGothenburg, on the subject of scholarly publishing injournals. The investigation has been led by a set of questionsconcerning the motives and conditions for submitting articlesto scholarly journals.The primary way of collecting emprical data is based onsemistructured qualitative interviews. To get a broaderpicture, the publishing patterns of the archaeologists at theDepartment of History were mapped using the databaseGöteborgs universitets publikationer (GUP). A documentstudy was also conducted.The analysis uses Björk & Holmström?s The net value ofsubmission model to highlight which factors are assumed toinfluence an author when submitting to a scientific journal.This model is reduced and developed to six aspects whichmore or less effect the decision making of the author whenpublishing an article in a scientific journal.

In today's social work there is an ambition to work evidence-based in order to improve quality and competency in business. This study is made in a disability administration which has introduced a common approach towards users for all employees. The approach is called low arousal approach. The purpose of the study is to investigate how a method takes hold and implements within an organization. The empirical data is analyzed by theories of professionalization, idea dissemination and translation.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how an organisation with several different cultural activities, such as a regional museum, works with anemphasis on participation. The essay focuses on Kulturparken Småland AB, which encourages the public to be more involved in its activities. Aqualitative approach is used, including nine interviews with employees at theorganisation. A number of theories form the basis of this study: institutionaltheory, which focuses on the context of the organisation, Bourdieu?s theoriesof different capital and Abbott?s theory regarding professionals.

The aim of this study was to increase the knowledge about and deepen our understanding for people who are treated with dialysis in aspects of quality of life and coping strategies. The research questions were: How does the scientific literature describe quality of life and coping strategies from people?s perspective who are treated with dialysis? How does dialysis affect patients and their lives? How/what can the nurses do for people who are treated with dialysis to keep or improve their quality of life. The result is based on eight scientific articles and after interpretation of the result we found six themes that describes how patients have to restructure their lives to a new normal life, how they adapt to a life with dialysis treatment, how dialysis affect their physical condition, witch meaning does the family and others have, how they keep their self-esteem in relation to the dependence of dialysis treatment and which factors are associated with a long life with dialysis..