This study focuses on aspects of cult experiences, given by deconverted formermembers of closed religious movements. Their testimonies were published inbooks or interviews. The aims of the study were to understand the interactionbetween the religious group and its members, living in high tension towardsmainstream society and their testimonies of altered self-esteem during attraction,membership, deconversion and defection. The purpose was to understand how aperson´s self-esteem is affected by inner mechanisms of closed religiousmovements and how these experiences affects a persons identity. Another aspectwas whether there might be differences in altered self-esteem, between those whoenlisted as adults, and those who were born into the closed religious contexts.Social Identity Theory, Sigmund Freud´s and Carl Rogers models of personal egowere used as models of interpretations.

Virtual Communities is an increasingly common phenomenon on the Internet. Most of the Virtual Communities are operated and maintained on a non-profit basis with a direction towards entertainment. However, as more state administrated and commercial services become web-based, we believe that the number of Virtual Communities with a community-based or commercial direction will increase in a near future. In this thesis, we describe our participation in, and studies of, a number of Virtual Communities with focus on the IRC-channel ?3dfxsweden?. On the basis of our experiences, we describe the social elements that form the foundation on which the Virtual Community rely on.

In the year of 2002 a new council regulation on community designs was implemented. In the beginning of the essay the legal situtation before the implementation is investigated and part of the purpose is to evaluate if it constitutes a solution to the problems with protection of fashion designs that existed then. Because fashion designs more or less were excluded from protection during the period before the implementation the fashion business developed a habit of unauthorized reproduction. This attitude among the market players is a central point of the essay. The essay starts off with a review of the earlier lack of possibilities regarding the protection of fashion designs.

The aim of this master?s study is to examine the function of the public library in the local community at present. I have searched for the answers to the following questions: Which position has the public library in the local cultural policy? What characterizes each library and which are the priorities? What is the local profile of the public library? What cooperation partners does the public library have and what do they mean to the library? Does the public library intensify the local community in any way? To answer this, I have made three qualitative case studies. Interviews and collection of documents were carried out in three different communities.

The purpose of this study was to create a deeper understanding for, and shine a light on the exit process for former criminal gang members. Which conditions appear to be important and what may constitute the enabling and inhibiting factors of an exit process? The study was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with respondents who themselves have experience of a criminal lifestyle and gang affiliation, and with professionals in social work. Our theoretical approach is based on Helen Ebaugh?s definition of an exit process, labeling theories, strain theory and control theory.

This essay presents a picture of swedish reggae listeners and how their love of music give meaning to their lives and unite them in a sub-culture. Based on interviews with six young men about their involvement in reggae, it also investigates the relationship between music and identity, or more clearly; how identity is expressed through music. Furthermore, I discuss the notion of taste according to Bourdieu, and argue against his statement that taste in music affirms the class and social background of an individual. Results from my empirical data have indicated that reggae music is difficult to associate to a distinct lifestyle, which inclines me to argue that it has managed to transcend phenomena such as ethnicity, class and cultural affiliation..

The object under investigation in this Master?s thesis is students? information use in connection to Bachelor thesis writing. The purpose of the study is to increase understanding of why nursing students and product engineering design students are using information in such different ways despite their comparable starting point. The empirical material consists of 18 student theses and a document comprising directives for thesis writing that are analysed from three different theoretical perspectives. A citation analysis of all 18 theses is carried out.

The aim was to examine whether measurements of creativity as a domain general trait can explain possible connections between a domain general creative performance and one of the creative domain specific areas, humor. Another aim was to examine whether the maladaptive humor styles can explain possible differences in creative performances. An Internet-based survey was used on 281 students from a Swedish university. The survey was composed of three parts consisting of three separate measuring instruments ? Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ-6) was used to measure the respondents? sense of humor, Humor Style Questionnaire (HSQ) measured the respondents? humor style and Alternate Uses Test (AUT) gave the respondents an opportunity to account for their creative performances.

The purpose of this essay is to show how ESN, IKEA and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (UD) mediated swedishness. This will be done by illustrate and analyse the methods the research fields use to create and spread pictures and message about Sweden, Swedes and Swedish cultures. The essay use the method of represented informants and show three field where the meeting between people and cultures is conspicuously. Hopefully, this essay can be seen as a contribution to the research of identity (identity research). I have chosen to focus on three fields of research, which do not belong to the classic field of research to show how swedishness is mediated..

Jag vill i den här uppsatsen lyfta fram olika berättartekniska aspekter i romanen, och visa hur dessa samverkar med varandra samt ger extra dimensioner till idéinnehållet. För att uppnå det vill jag använda mig av flera ingångar ? såväl narratologiska som retoriska ? för att på det viset framhäva flera olika effekter..

This thesis takes its starting point in the humanistic cultural-geographical concept of place, with the aim of achieving a greater understanding of what constitutes the place Mon today. Mon is located in the northwestern part of Dalsland. Until 1879, the area was described as outlying land, but with the extension of the railway between V?nern and the Norwegian border, Mon's station community emerged. In the mid-20th century, all activities in Mon were phased out, and since then, the place has been inhabited by only about 10 year-round residents.

Purpose: The purpose with this study is to clarify what importance a co-occurrence event can have on a smaller town, and also what positive and negative consequences it can have on the town seen from a social, economic and political aspect. I will also look at what magnitude the festival have on the local commercial and industrial life and how it affects those who live there. I will also determent how the moving of the festival might come and affect the local businesses, the local population and the community it-self.Method: I will thorough-out this study work with qualitative research methodology. I will there-for process the empirical data that will be collected and used for this study from a qualitative research methodology point of view. I will likewise go through with two deep-going interviews with people well familiar with the subject to increase and strengthen the validity of my study.

The aim of this master´s thesis is to explore how Stockholms new library´s identity is constructed, and further to relate the case study to a general discussion of the identity of public libraries in Sweden. This is done through analysis of the visions and plans that the planned library is based on. We feel that it is a relevant study since questions concerning the public library's identity are for library and information science as well as the institution. Questions posed in the study are: How is the roles and identity of the planned library described in the texts that form the basis of the project? What characterises the relationship between the present and the planned library? What discourses concerning the public library's identity can we see in the material?The theoretical framework of the thesis is a discourse oriented analysis based on the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough.

In this thesis we focus on the issue of crowdfunding and especially how a project relates to and embraces its community. While a lot of related research focus on what makes people give, our research instead delve into whether a creator looks upon the sponsors as something more than just a financial resource. To manage this task we used a triangular perspective consisting of a case study, a questionnaire and a netnographic study. The goal was to gain the perspectives of creators, crowdfunding platforms and sponsors on how the communication between the community and the project works and can be improved.       The three crowdfunding platforms we reviewed (Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, Rockethub) all had fairly similar models on how to attract sponsors and make them involved in the project, while the questionnaire and netnographic study demonstrated how a community could contribute in different ways.

This master's thesis reports on our investigation of how the public librarian's professional identity is formed and what it is formed of. We have considered factors such as: education, competence and daily tasks. In order to fulfil this aim we have used a literature study on concepts such as competence, education, professional identity and profession. We have also carried out an empirical study where we have interviewed nine librarians on public libraries. The method of analysis is qualitative.