Sweden is usually seen as a role model when it comes to integration and diversity, but at the top of the pyramid there is little ethnical diversity to be found. This paper investigates how existing economical and sociological theory explain the lack of swedes with foreign background in leading positions in large Swedish companies. Our findings show that none of the theories applied in this paper can explain the phenomenon in isolation. Thus it is not only taken for granted norms, contacts in one's network or cost minimizing under asymmetric information that lie behind the phenomenon, but an interaction of these aspects. Conflicting demands lead the recruiters to separate talk from decision, the search frame is narrow and no or small efforts are made to increase the diversity.

This paper aims to investigate how human beings uses food to found an identity, with regards to how social class affects their choice of food and if trends play a part when it comes to cooking and purchasing food. The paper applies theorist Pierre Bourdieu's concepts such as habitus, capital and field.The main part of the material is composed of four interviews with seven informants; all of which is middle class. The paper also looks at how lifestyle, taste and attitudes to consumption are used when the informants build identity. The empirical part is split into three main subjects, where I first seek to find each informants food habits. What do they eat, and what do they not eat?It showed that a large part was due to their varied lifestyles, however generally speaking the day to day meals should be quick while meals during the weekends could take longer and also cost more.

This thesis examines the National Heritage Board in Sweden and the way they look upon themselves, the surrounding world and their mission. Methodologically it?s a discourse analysis based on poststructuralist and social constructionist thoughts. This means, simplified, that nothing is taken for granted and that power relations and ideology always matters. There is no true or distinct heritage.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the retrieval effectiveness on the European Unions official website EUROPA, depending on which language is used to formulate the search question. Our main concern were if you get access to the same information depending on which language is used to search information The European Union has so far eleven official languages, and with the forthcoming expansion with negotiations with thirteen new countries to affiliate to the union by May 1:st 2004, the official languages will be even more. We have made a comparison between Swedish and English, using 29 different topics from which we formulated 2x29 queries. The topics used were found at the Swedish Governments FAQ about the European Union, EUsvar. We wanted the topics to be as authentic as possible to avoid bias.

The purpose with this essay is to examine and create an understanding for what meaning graffiti and street art has for those who practice it. Furthermore, the practice of graffiti and street art is seen in relation to how urban space is produced. Five semi-structured interviews and one group interview has been made to answer the questions "What meaning does graffiti and street art has for those who practice it? Can it be seen as a way to construct identity?" "How do the artists relate to existing ideals about public space?" and "Does the artists see graffiti and street art as a resistance against the normative representation of the city, in that case, how?" The theoretical framework consists of Mitchell's ideas about public space, Tonkiss' definition of social order, Lefebvre's spatial triad, de Certeau's concept of strategy and tactics, the concept of appropriation and Castell's theory about collective identity. The results showed that the practice of graffiti and street art can be understood as a more complex practice than earlier research has shown.

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors affecting an individual's working life mobility and how this mobility is perceived by the individual. The study has a qualitative approach and the theoretical part is based on Castells', Giddens' and Bauman's theories of modern society and employment in relation to the individual. The study concludes that external circumstances in combination with internal driving forces are the reasons behind changing careers. The process is predominantly perceived as positive, especially education tends to strengthen self-identity. Work in general is regarded as important for a person's identity and new career changes are expected in the future..

The aim of this study was to examine how adoptive parents related to parenting and how they related to their children?s biological origin. Issues that were used were how adoptive parents described their own parenting, how they described their own thoughts about their children eventually wanting to search their biological origin and how adoptive parents described the child´s country of birth attitudes towards adoptees wishes to search their biological origin. The method used was qualitative research interviews. The theory that was used for analyzing the collected data was attachment theory.

Title: Facebook girls, a qualitative study of social medias and Facebooks impact on young girlsNumber of pages: 32Author: Mirja LarssonTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communication studies CPeriod: Autumn 2010University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information and Media,Uppsala UniversityPurpose/aim: To discover any possible difference between young girls and older girls in their wayof using Facebook.Material/method: Personal interviews, literature, electronic sources, Internet sources.Main results: The younger girls are not as aware as the older girls of their exposure on Facebookand the possible down-sides of their frequent Facebook-usage. Young girls in general use Facebookas a source to form their identity.Keywords: Facebook, identity, young girls, Cooley, Elza Dunkels, Altman and Taylor.

This thesis in social anthropology is based on a field study on the Internet exploring Tibetan identity. With a post-modern approach the thesis explores the possibility fora non-tibetan to create a Tibetan Internet identity and become a part of the Tibetan community that exist on the Internet..

I have been using qualitative interviews to explore music's influence in school from a learning perspective, community perspective and identity-building perspective. I have visited two classes at two different schools to do these interviews with ten informants, both students and teachers. My interview questions were almost the same for both students and teachers, but differed in wording. My research is based on the informants? answers and relevant sources such as literary books, curricula and the Internet.After fieldwork was completed, I transcribed the interviews to further analyze them according to relevant theories, such as Bergman (2009) and Antal Lundström (1996).

This study concerns unaccompanied refugee children and their experiences of living in Sweden and also their thoughts about identity and security. The aim of this study was to find a deeper understanding of these children?s situation. We formulated three research questions in order to obtain this deeper understanding:? What experiences do the informants have of living in Sweden?? What are the informants? views of their identity in their new life situation?? What is security to the informants?This is a qualitative study based on six semi-structured interviews with six youths whom have come to Sweden as unaccompanied refugee children.

Background: Men that have gone through treatment for prostate cancer may lose their sexuality as result of treatment. The sexual ability might symbolize manliness, despite age and sexual activities. Aim: The aim of the literature study was to describe; Influence on sexuality and the daily life for men with prostatecancer and their experience of informationneeds. Method: The material for the literature study was searched through databases; 13 scientific articles were selected and two articles through manual search, all 15 articles were examined. Result: Five categories were found in the result of the literature study; physical dimension, emotional/mental dimension, social/practical dimension and informationneeds.

  This is a qualitative study aiming to illuminate and gain better understanding of deliberate self-harm. The study has a narrative perspective and is based on three women?s life stories, focusing on a period when they had an active self-harming behaviour. The study examines what the participants experienced as important to the initiation and the cessation of the deliberate self-harm. It is also examining identity performances and turning points which can be discerned in the life stories.

Japan's foreign and security policy has seen some substantial changes as a result of events like the first Gulf war and 9/11th. This has been taken as proof, by some, that Japan is abandoning its antimilitaristic stance and pursuing a more traditional hard power role through military means. This essay aims to explore if these shifts have coincided with any substantial shifts away from antimilitarism, which has had a strong influence on the country's security policy since the end of WW2.To do this I use constructivist theory, specifically regarding the impact of norms and identities on states security policy and briefly look into the problem of actor designation. The thematic focus is on security policy, from a narrow perspective, and thus I examine areas like the input and output to the Japanese military and the actual applications of this force. State identity is used to explore the prevalence of nationalistic sentiments and support for anti militarism in the public opinion and the political elite.The result of this study points to the further relevance of constructivist theory and especially the application of norms and identity.

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors affecting an individual's working life mobility and how this mobility is perceived by the individual. The study has a qualitative approach and the theoretical part is based on Castells', Giddens' and Bauman's theories of modern society and employment in relation to the individual. The study concludes that external circumstances in combination with internal driving forces are the reasons behind changing careers. The process is predominantly perceived as positive, especially education tends to strengthen self-identity. Work in general is regarded as important for a person's identity and new career changes are expected in the future..