The purpose of this study was to examine how SOS Children's Villages as an organization in Swaziland is affected by, and takes into account, the cultural, organizational and societal context in which it acts. Material was gathered through a field study during one month in one of the three SOS Children's Villages in Swaziland. The study has a qualitative approach and is based on the result from 12 semi-structured interviews with village mothers and other representatives from the organization. The other representatives were: social worker, program director, child and youth development coordinator, board member and educational manager. Since this study is both characterized by a specific historical, cultural and organizational context, we decided to connect the postcolonial perspective with an organization theory with focus on the concepts of culture, power and a children?s right perspective.

We started out the study with a preconception of culture as something that creates difference between groups of people, which had been verified by our prior research. We also had a sense of culture as a polysemous term. Our assumption is also that there is an opinion within social work practice that Swedish social workers are faced with a cultural barrier when encountering immigrant clients.In this study our aim is to examine constructions of the terms cultural competence and culture. Constructions of the terms ethnicity and ethnic diversity are also observed, although the main reason for this is to show what relation these terms have to the terms cultural competence and culture, and how they may give each other meaning, according to the theory of social construction. In addition to constructions, we also aim to bring out discourses around the terms, upon which we will create a discussion about power and dominance informed by post-colonial theory and critical discourse analysis (CDA).

The main purpose of this study is to investigate how student nurses seek and use information and libraries. Furthermore, I want to know how they think information can be used in their future occupation. Seven student nurses were included in the study. A qualitative method with personal interviews was used. The analysis of the empirical material was made according to a socio-cultural perspective.

During the three first centuries A.D the cult to roman emperor was practiced over the absolute majority of the known world. It was based on the idea of the deified ruler, where religion was used as a way of legitimizing a social position of an absolute few. It arrived from below but was promoted and spread from above as a way of governmental control. During the same period of time did a new aristocratic social group emerge in remote Scandinavia that eagerly sought new ways to identify themselves and their newly found social standing. With a base consisting of an economic surplus they wanted to create an acceptance for their new way of life and thus in doing so change the very foundation and core beliefs of their own society.The central theme of this study is the cultural exchange that took place between these two cultural spheres and mainly of the effect that the cult to the roman emperor had on the emergence and identification process of the Scandinavian aristocracy..

This study examines the connection between social capital and involvement within voluntary associations; involvement is defined either as being a member in an association or a member who has some kind of assignment in an association. The study also examines if there is a difference between two social economic groups regarding the attainment and transformation of social capital through being involved in a voluntary association.Social capital is defined as social trust and the willingness of collective action.The result of the research shows there is a slight connection between the involvement in voluntary associations and social capital. It shows that people who are members of a voluntary association often have higher social capital than those who are not members of any voluntary association at all. The study also shows that there is a difference in attainment of social capital between those who have some kind of assignment in a voluntary association and general members.When studying social capital and involvement in voluntary associations it is also of interest to take social class into the analysis, because the study shows that people with a lower education had increased social capital when they were members in an association compared to the members with a higher education..

Within literature, politics and science, there is a claim that ?tree avenues are important?. But the question and the goal for this essay are to explore the pretext to how and why. Planting tree avenues is a 4000 year old tradition and they are a common element in the Swedish and Scanian landscape since the 18th century. They were first mainly planted by aristocratic land-owners or on their initiative, but since the 19th century also by farmers.

The purpose of this study has been to examine what approach and experience pedagogues at pre-schools, with a limited amount of nationalities, have regarding cultural promoting work in pre-schools. The concept ?cultural promoting? mainly regards the children's cultural backgrounds. The first question formulation focussed on the what the concepts ?cultural promoting? and ?cultural diversity? meant to the pedagogues.

This study investigates educators? experience of Intensive Behavioral Therapy (IBT) for preschool children diagnosed with autism. The aim is to examine, from the educators? perspective, how useful this method has been, what difference it made for the children with autism that took part in this training and also how the educators? have been able to organize and implement the method. The study is based on 6 semi-structured interviews and 29 surveys.

Can the lack of functional cross-cultural communication among individuals within an international organization be the reason for cultural clashes to occur, and lead to conflict between two cultures within the same organization?Our aim is to try to create a potential model of how cross-cultural problems can be studied, in order to contribute to the solution of the problem. And to examine whether the theories, which form the basis of our model can be applied in reality.The research have assumed from the hermeneutical approach for a holistic view of the problem area. The deductive approach has been used in order to distinguish whether the theories can be applied to reality, and qualitative research method for collecting data.The focus lies within cross-cultural communications, which defines the various cultural factors that can affect organizational culture. Hofstede dimensions and the social structure are mentioned and cultural factors as language and religion.

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Sweden  has  been  characterized  as  one  of  the world?s most  secular  countries, even though  it is  becoming  increasingly more multicultural.  This,  combined  with  the fact that pupils do  not  feel  they  have  enough  time  in  school  for  Religious  Education and that the requirements are increasing made me interested in how they talk about religion in upper secondary school. The aim of this study is to see if there are any differences between how pupils in vocational programs and academic programs are talking about religion and Religious Education. The main questions that were raised revolved around 1)  how  pupils  talk  about  what  religion  is,  2)  how  they  talk  about  religion  in  the Swedish  society  and  3) how  they  talk  about  Religious  Education  in  upper  secondary school. The questions were also about what similarities and differences I could find in the way they talked about these subjects.

The aim of our thesis was to describe how the connection between co-dependent relatives and the alcohol-dependent influences the family into changes in their teamwork.Our purpose was also to answer the following questions: How is it living with an alcoholic? Are there any differences in how men and women feel and behave in their relationship with an alcoholic? Are factors like cultural belonging, genre or social class important for how the co-dependent relatives feels and behaves and handle their co-dependency?To answer these questions we made twelve thematic qualitative interviews with six adult children to alcoholics and six people married to alcoholics. We compared the results of these interviews with earlier research. We also applied System Theory and Goffman's Role Theory, as well as Bourdieu´s Capital and Habitus concept.We believe that co-dependency is a family divergence that is very similar to family disease, but that a change in attitude can trigger recovery. According to the interviews many spouses stand by their alcoholic husbands and do actions that perpetuate the alcoholic dependence and thereby hold back any recovery.

In our bachelor thesis we have strived to examine the representation of journalism students in Nicaragua. The freedom of press is much lower compared to Sweden and the journalist profession is protected by a certificate. It is also a high level of corruption within the country. Our investigation concerns who has access to the journalist education and the goal is to compare that with the public in Nicaragua. To be able to examine the representation among the journalism students we have chosen seven different aspects to examine, the sex of the student, witch social class they belong to, their academic background, religion, ethnicity, geographical belonging and political view.

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..

This Master thesis aims to study the relation between Swedish governmental cultural policy and cultural events at two Swedish public libraries. The Masters thesis demonstrates how national cultural policy regulates every part of the public library. This demonstration is a result based upon national cultural policy documents and interviews with employees at two public libraries in Sweden. The conclusion that national cultural policy regulates this part of the public library is drawn with help of the circle of culture as applied in Culture Studies and Michel Foucault theories of power. The thesis contains the answer of four questions, two involving cultural policy and the other two events at the library.