The physical environment is constructed of materials. The materiality of different places contributes to how places can be distinguished and the material can contribute to the construction of place identity. For architects with different orientations the material is one of the principal means by which they can express their idea. The material remains when the design process is finished and instead the material becomes a precondition for how people will perceive and deal with the place. The literature study of the essay examines how the concept of place and materiality is dealt with in different disciplines and how these descriptions are linked to the concept of place identity.

This study represents seven adolescents? perspective on online poker gambling. The purpose of this study is to analyze and describe adolescents? thoughts and experiences of online poker gambling, thus gaining a deeper knowledge and understanding of how gambling affects youths in their living conditions and in their identity development. This was done by studying the symbolism and meaning that gambling has in these youths every day live and in their identity development.

The main purpose of this Master´s thesis is to examine how Swedish librari-ans manage and relate to social problems within the service to young visitors. To reach understanding in this subject, qualitative interviews with six Swedish public librarians have been conducted. As a theoretical framework the ideas of interactions and identity have been used. These concepts together with attitude and behavior, form the theoreti-cal model upon which the analysis of the material is based. The outcome of the study shows that social problems exists and affect the library staff?s daily work.

This is a study of the trade union journal for female blue collar women in Sweden, Arbetets Kvinnor, between 1927 and 1931. The purpose is to examine how a female trade union activist's constructs collective identity by those notions of social class, sex, and moral values that are articulated in the journal. The main theoretical basis is Alberto Melucci's analysis where he argues that a collective identity in social movements is made in an interaction between individuals, where the action possibilities and limits are defined. Another purpose is how the female blue collar worker's resistance and/or adaption to the male hegemonic trade union and the bourgeoisie hegemonic society are presented. The essay shows how the collective identity is made of both historical and contemporary images of the working class women as workers and trade union activists.

The purpose of this comparative study is to investigate if the views of Sayyid Qutb and Tariq Ramadan regarding social structure and religion are possible to unite with western liberal democracy. The basis of the study is the problematizing approaches written by Qutb and Ramadan regarding the possible unity between Islam and democracy. These problematizing approaches are then tested on the political philosophy of liberalism to see if a unity is possible.The result showed that Qutb's view did not meet the criteria of democracy, which wasn't surprising due to his negative views on the system. However, Ramadan's reformist view on Muslim identity did unite with the views of liberal democracy, though questions regarding the possibility of creating and preserving a European Muslim identity in the secular society were immediately brought to attention.The importance in Qutb's view is social equality, unity and submission to God and the importance of Ramadan's view is to create and preserve a European Muslim identity and adapt to the society where you live and participate as a citizen. Qutb's view will not tolerate diversity and one is to keep or convert to the Muslim faith.

The study examines selectivity of the customer base and scarcity of a product?s effect on attitude and value towards a product or service. A questionnaire study is made from three different situations. The result varied depending on the situation; however it was found that selectivity of the customer base and scarcity has a great impact on the attitude and the perceived value towards a product or service. Selectivity of the customer base was found having the highest level of impact on both attitude and perceived value.

Research regarding the maintenance of the Sami language shows that the Swedish society has a big influence on the development of the Sami identity and also the maintenance of the Sami language. The assimilation of the Sami language and the traditional Sami religion was forced mainly by the Swedish education form and the Swedish church. In modern times many different forms of Sami identities have been developed due to the scattering of the Sami people, and also because of the urbanization of the Swedish society. The Sami nature religion is still alive in the Sami group, thanks to the mythological stories told and preserved by their oral  tradition. The purpose of this assignment was to make research of how the Sami identity is being presented in three current Swedish books.

The purpose of this study was to examine the incentives behind Sweden?s decision to engagein the Afghanistan conflict.The method used to fulfil the purpose of the study is content analysis. The material that hasbeen used in the study is various books and articles concerning Sweden in Afghanistan,Swedish foreign policy and perspectives in political science.The study is multi-theoretical and thus the analysis explains the incentives from a liberal, arealist and a constructivist point of view.The conclusion of the study is that identity has a great part in explaining the incentives forSweden to engage in Afghanistan, especially because of the transformation in strategy andforeign policy that has taken place since the end of the cold war. Other factors, such as peacebuilding and national interests also are incentives supported by the material used in the study.Yet, perhaps they are first and foremost connected by the constructivist idea of identity..

The aim of this bachelor?s thesis is to examine what expectations a few, adult, frequent library users have on librarians' competences at a specific library. We also aim to compare how well the library users' expectations relates to how the librarians describe their own competences.The method used to gather the empirical information in this study is the qualitative semi-structured interview. We interviewed six library users and the four librarians who are employed at the library where we placed our study. The results of our interviews were analyzed with the help of a model based on Anders Ørom?s librarian identities.

Through this thesis, we want to discuss how the marginalization of people, several precedent political, city planning- and engineering decisions resulted in a catastrophic outcome after hurricane Katrina in New Orleans 2005. We also put forward a case study of the Make It Right Foundation, to demonstrate how the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward are involved in the urban development of their community. We would like to draw attention to the power of citizens and how they can influence the urban development of a community after a trauma. This study also focuses on the mission of The Make It Right Foundation: which is to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward with firm concepts on sustainable development where all dimensions are accounted: ecological, social, cultural and economic. The empirical data was collected by a field study in New Orleans 2010-03-22 and semistructured interviews were made during the same days..

Aim. The aim of this study is to analyze the living conditions of physically disabled people from the viewpoint of sexuality issues with regards to personal assistance services, identity and attitudes in society on disability and sexuality. Background. Not much research is done on sexuality issues for physically disabled people. Even though we live in a society where sexuality takes up a lot of space in the media, the culture and is acknowledged to be of great importance for every person?s wellbeing, the sexuality of disabled people is often not recognized and discussed.

There are several possibilities for those with an eating disorder, who wishes to get treatment and recover to get help and support. But for those who are not ready to recover, there are not any help to receive. Pro-ana is a youth culture where individuals who want to achieve the anorectic ideal help and support each other. The purpose of this study was to describe and analyse the content and the need for the Pro-ana community on Internet, among young people with eating disorders. More specifically the aim was to find out how young Swedish people uses the Pro-ana communities on Internet.

This essay deals with the issue how to define the concept successful school and what ingredients it includes. To aim this task I have interviewed four principals at upper secondary schools, two placed in community schools and the other two working for non-community schools. We have discussed how the principals define a successful school, whether they believe that the principal has a major part in contributing to the schools success or not and further if they think that schools have anything in common with private companies.The principals all agreed on what components they believe a successful school consists of, that is good school results from the pupils, a high comfort level for the pupils at school, professional management from the principal and a high level of young people who wants to attend the particular school.Further I have studied Swedish and foreign research in the area of successful schools and management in schools to get at good background in this matter..

We were commissioned to do this study by the Red Cross Centre for victims of torture and war (RKC) in Skövde and questions was asked about how it can be to come as a refugee to a new country and start over. The purpose of this study was to search for a deeper knowledge about older immigrants experiences of their integration in the Swedish community. The conception of ?older immigrant? aimed of persons born before 1954 since these persons culturally was the older ones in the patient group at RKC. This study handled both men and women, was categorised in different themes and was analysed from theoretical points about identity and crises.

The European Union is a self proclaimed leader in the field of climate change and has a common target for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. In spite of this, there are great differences between the member states capacity and dedication to the cause of implementing the Unions climate policy and reduce their emissions. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to an understanding of how different European states construct their identity in the context of climate change mitigation. By analyzing national documents from three European states and using tools deriving from discourse analysis, I aim to illuminate differences and similarities in their rhetoric. The result is that due to the states relationship to the European Union and the United Nations, there are great similarities in the way they construct mitigation and their identity.