This study concerns ways in which Muslims in Sweden construct their identities. The theoretical approach of the study is based on the assumption that people construct their identities through narratives. Circumstances such as time, place, and relationships affect how narratives are told and therefore how we perceive ourselves and the world around us.In the wake of 11th of September 2001, the old colonial narrative of ?the West vs. the East? has become powerful, and makes many question the possibility of successfully integrating Muslims immigrants in Western countries.

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze youth community service in the Kalmar municipality. Our focus was on juvenile offenders and predecessor of public authorities. The juvenile offenders in our study have completed youth community service. A qualitative study was undertaken which include seven interviews. Our empirical data were compared and analyzed with previous research data.

I?ve chosen a subject that's close to my heart, as a student who has experiences the need of a change in the traditional student living.I've focused my theses on ?nding the key ingredients for improving an individuals time as a student. In a time when students are struggling to ?nd accommodation that ful?lls the need of being close to university, close to social places, adequate size and affordable. This is close to impossible! This is not just a problem in Stockholm but an international dilemma.The heart of my thesis is, how can we create clever ways of student accommodation with emphasis on community and a more sustainable way of living?Only when we start embracing change and by breaking out of our traditional individual living, can we then start to realise and recognise the bene?ts of working, studying and living together.

Purpose: Our aim is to get an insight on how home care workers experience, handle and looks upon their work. We also want to form an opinion of how home care workers experience the relationship to the clients they meet.Questions: How does home care workers experience their daily work with their clients? Home care workers daily meet many different sorts of clients with different needs, how do they handle this? What kind of support does home care workers get in their work?Method: A qualitative design with semistructured interviews.Conclusion: The most central conclusion from all of our interviews were: that home care service workers has a very stressful and demanding occupation, that the work has a low status, that the personnel has a big responsibility for the wellbeing of other people and that they often find their work satisfying and fun. To have someone to talk to and exchange ideas with was also mentioned by the informants as a vital part of feeling support in their work. From the Antonovskys theory, a sense of coherence, and Goffmans views of the society, we also find that the larger part of our informants feel a high sense of coherence and that when they have to adjust to their different caretakers they play different roles..

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.

How is the identity of Swedish diplomats affected by living a very international life, regularly moving from one place to another, while their main task is to represent Sweden at all times? How does the national identity relate to the professional and the international identity and what role does the context play in this process? These are the questions asked in this thesis. By interviewing 39 Swedish diplomats and by comparing the responses of the interviews and the theories applied, this thesis will show that it is the context, rather than the time spent abroad that changes their identities and not the least their perspectives of the world. The theories concern intersectional identities, nationalism, context and globalisation. It is from the point of view that identities are constructed and therefore changeable.The diplomats gain a greater awareness of their Swedish identity, wider and deeper perspectives of what it means to be Swedish, but also the advantages that other cultures have to offer.

AbstractTitle: Cheap Monday ? A qualitative study of the consumers? opinions of the brand (Cheap Monday ? En kvalitativ studie av konsumenternas åsikter om märket)Number of pages: 38 (40 including enclosures)Author: Oskar NorlanderTutor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose of this essay is to examine from the customers? perspective how the Swedish jeans-brand Cheap Monday in just three years time could become such a prominent brand on the Swedish market. An additional purpose is to examine whether there is some kind of brand community connected to the brand or not.Material/Method: The main method used in this essay has been qualitative interviews with ten consumers of the brand. The answers from these interviews has then been analysed using two different theories, Keller?s Customer Based Brand Equity and Muniz and O?Guinnn?s Brand Community.Main results: The main results of this essay is that Cheap Monday is a brand that has become successful due to people?s perception of who the users of the brand are.

The aim with this essay is to emphasize the problems that ethnical belonging causes at schools today. We have chosen to examine and compare two schools with each other, one school is called ?the new school? situated in Stockholms kommun and the other school is called ?the old school? belonging to Huddinge kommun. We have had contact with these two schools for a longer period as substitutes and students. This essay is based on how these two schools prominently differ from each other.

The main purpose of this study is to explore and develop how the Christian conception of love as agape can be understood in light of feminist concerns, and how it can be cultivated in light of psychological research. Traditionally, agape has been defined as unconditional self-sacrifice for the sake of the other. Feminist theologians have highlighted repeatedly that an ethical principle of self-sacrifice might not be liberating for groups who have already internalized pressure to sacrifice their own needs for others. The main research questions are: 1) How may agape be understood in light of feminist concerns about its traditional interpretations? 2) How could a Christian community cultivate a form of agape that is responsive to feminist concerns? In order to answer these questions, the first part of the dissertation examines feminist concerns regarding discussion of agape, and then uses these concerns as a lens for analysing four themes in contemporary accounts of agape: community, care, humility, and mentalization.

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to a further understanding of the complexity in green consumer behaviour by examining how and why individuals priorities values, personal norms and identity in green consumer behaviour. The thesis employs a qualitative approach with an abductive strategy. The empirical data was produced through in-depth interviews with green consumers. Based upon the empirical findings and theoretical concepts, a conceptual model was introduced to illustrate how consumers prioritise between several values when assessing green products. The prioritisation is dependent on internalised values as well as the product function and the need that the consumer seeks fulfilled.

"One life in two worlds" is a qualitative study of Syriac boys constructs ethnic and religious identity in different social contexts.Based on these three questions: how do the boys describe the importance of the parents' cultural and religious background in relation to their own identity? How do the boys describe their experiences of being categorized in school? Which significance is given to religion and ethnicity when the boys describe their experiences in relation to home and school context?I did reach the aim of this essay which was to investigate by interviewing the Syrian boys how they construct or reconstruct ethnic and / or religious identity in relation to different social contexts with a focus on the home and the school.In this study, I assumed the qualitative method in which I interviewed six Syriac boys who attend grade nine. The starting point of the study was social constructivism. Therefore, knowledge in this study is seen as something that is constructed in language, social and cultural interactions. The reality and perspective of reality is socially constructed, meaning that knowledge is created through the interplay of common action.The results of this study show that all the informants are agreed that their parents' ethnic background has had and has great significance for their identity formation.

This study is based on six narrative interviews which I conducted with students at the University of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia. My aim is to find out how these students are creating their identity in the environment of the university, how they look at their family structure and how Namibia´s independence in 1990 has created new opportunities for young people in contemporary Namibia. I have been using postcolonial theory and identity theories to analyse the interviews. Five of the six respondents are from the northern parts of Namibia, Ovamboland, and this area is seen as a rural area. The students have made an emotional journey from the rural areas in the north to the urban area of Windhoek and they feel that they have many new opportunities and they are willing to change Namibia into a more developed country..

The purpose of this essay was to explore how the concept of gender identity is constructed, by doing a discourse analysis of texts from two different perspective discussing intersexuals, and to define the areas where the discourses doesn't agree. The two perspectives were; feminist- and medical perspective.How are sex/gender identity constructed in the chosen articles?What themes can be seen in the discourses?My method was discourse analysis. A discourse can be described as a way of talking about and understanding a part of the world. The analytics task is to define the discourses, which the world is constructed by.The areas of conflicts have been found.

The purpose of this Masters Thesis is to explore the impact of spare time reading fiction on the identity of teenage boys, and what it really means to them. To investigate this, we have focused our investigation on how teenage boys relate to and what they search for in their reading. The data collection is based on 8 interviews with boys in the age between 14 and 15 and on literature on the subject. The theoretical framework focuses on the reading theories of Joseph A. Appleyard, the transactional theory of Louise M.

To be able to feel a sense of belonging, people need to have the possibility to take part of the information from the society. Hearing-impaired don?t have the same possibility as hearing people when they want to take part of the information, therefore they don?t get the same benefit. This contributes to a feeling of not belonging and a sense of limitation in different social occasions. Therefore the society needs to be accessible to everyone regardless disability.