ABSTRACTSince Robert D. Putnam first wrote about the causes behind the regional differences in economic and political development in Italy, the theory of social capital has truly flourished in the fields of social science. This days you constantly hear politicians and scholars stressing the important role of the quality of the social fabric to a society?s wellbeing. There all looking at ways to construct policies and institutions that help the spread of social capital.

The aim of this study was to investigate the social behaviour and time budget of breedingbulls kept at VikingGenetics, Falkenberg in Sweden when the staff was off duty. It was ofinterest to see if there was any difference between bulls housed in group pens and bullshoused in individual pens. It was also of interest to investigate if there was any differencein the behaviour between the dairy breeds Swedish Red (SR) and Swedish Holstein (SH).Sixteen bulls were used in this study. Eight bulls kept in individual pens and eight bullskept in group pens were used. The individually housed bulls had a social gate with widerbars where the bulls could but their head and neck through to have social contact with thebulls in its neighbouring pens.

People in Sweden have more and more dogs in their care, and several of these dogs are kept in kennels in back yards for various reasons. According to Swedish animal welfare legislations the need for social contact for dogs has to be met. However, there are few details presented on how to meet the need and when it can be considered satisfied. Does the dog need human contact to fulfill the need, or is the company of other dogs enough? This study aims to specify what can be acceptable when it comes to fulfilling dogs? social needs in accordance with the Swedish animal welfare legislation.

The aim for this essay is to investigate the importance of studying religion in an upper secondary school in Närke county, this is done by distribution of a questionnaire. The importance is studied both on the individual level and on the societal level. The result shows that although the students do not have a big interest in religious studies still the subject has an importance on both an individual and a society level..

The purpose of this paper is to examine how work and individuals is portrayed in today?s labor market policies and workrelated coaching. To do this I am using discourse analysis. My theoretical points are social constructivism, governmentality, coaching and theories regarding activity. The results portray a picture of work as the foundation of society and the main way to break isolation.

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..

In this study we have aimed to explore how participation and self-determination is implemented in the daily life of disabled people who receive support through LSS. The questions addressed concern possibilities/obstacles for the participation and selfdetermination of disabled people who live in group housings, and how the terms participation and self-determination are realized. Nine interviews have taken place with staff members and directors of different group housings. We have found that the interviewees believe that the nature of a person?s disability can be a barrier to the individual?s self-determination and participation in his or her everyday life.

The study aims to reduce energy consumption in apartment buildings where individual metering and charging of heat is applied. The aim is to develop planning and design for individual metering and charging in apartment buildings.The study is based on literature review, interviews and case study that include analysis of existing documents. Interviews were carried out with the property developer and the involved consultants who planned the apartment building Yasuragi. To investigate the differences the condominium association has noted in heat consumption between flats, the debit values of the heat were used to discern which houses that were furthest from the average consumption. On these flats there were temperature measurements and thermal photo shoots made for discriminating behavior and possible construction techniques which could be the explanation for the heat spread.Boverket shows that the consumption of heat can be reduced by 10-20% after insertion of individual metering and charging in an apartment block.

Background: The background shows that since the consumption patterns constantly are changing and the Internet usage is growing it creates more opportunities for the companies to interact through new media. There are two ways to go for companies that intend to use social media as a marketing strategy, to be in the possession of their own information or get help from a third party.Problem definition: What factors are important in the long term survival of the companies when choosing a social media?Objective: The objective of this essay is to analyze and evaluate the personal blog and the company blog as an information technology strategy.Method: The essay will have a hermeneutic and quantitative approach in the form of a survey. Theories: Consumer Behavior, The Buying Decision Process, Involvement Theory, Business Concept, Branding, Total Communication Theory, Word-of-mouth/web and Service Profit Chain.Empiric: The empiric will consist of the results from the survey.Results: The result shows that the blog is effective as an information technology strategy however the companies should adapt their choice of blog to the products that they sell.Conclusion: Important factors for companies that seek long-term survival are involvement, communication and loyalty. It is also important to use a relationship marketing approach. .

This study investigates the effects that commercial computer games have on young individuals social comfort and learning progress. As a systematic study of literature, scholarly articles have been analysed in order to illuminate the positive as well as negative effects on social comfort and learning progress that may come with playing computer games. The social effects have mainly been discussed with role-playing games, such as World of Warcraft, as starting point, while the learning effects have been coupled with strategy games, such as Civilization IV. The study does not simply declare how these games can be good for these factors, but also in what respect computer games may prevent the development of young individuals socials skills and learning progress. The study showed that in spite of perpetual prejudices against computer games in the technological age, computer games might actually be good to use as a tool in order to authorize the development of young individuals regarding learning and social aspects.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the theoretical developments on social entrepreneurship. Our purpose is to create a better understanding of the phenomenon leading to new insights. We have categorized the knowledge of the concept into social economy, social ownership, social innovation and social missions. Drawing from our theoretical review we have chosen four empirical illustrations, Grameen Bank, Wikipedia, Basta Arbetskooperativ, Jörn Hälsogemenskap, and we have shown how these fit into the general description of the social entrepreneur. With help of our illustrations we show that it is complicated to pin point the core of social entrepreneurship as they each have separate structures, innovations, social missions and operate close to different sectors.

The following study explores the relation between psychosocial work environment and individual health. The purpose is to examine how female employees in the occupational health sector experience their own psychosocial work environment, focusing on different influencing factors in both the workplace and their private life regarding the employees own health. The study applies a hermeneutic approach in which qualitative interviews constitute the empirical data. Previous research on this particular subject has focused on the following themes: the combination of work-family life, demand/control model and flexibility in the workplace in relation to health and stress. The theoretical framework used in this study integrates relevant concepts, specifically SOC, poor leadership and flexibility.

The basic ingredient of paper is the individual wood fibers. The property of the fibers depends on a variety of factors e.g., method of pulp production and processing. The final sheet quality depends in part on how the fibers interface between each other and therefore factors that affect the fiber size are of interest.The flexibility of the fibers depends in part on the pore water i.e., the fiber swelling. The sheet becomes less flexible at low water content which gives a loss in strength. Thus it becomes desirable to increase the water uptake.The experimental investigation described in this report consists of exposing the wood fibers to different ions and ionic strength and then measure the pore size by thermoporosimetry where a DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimeter) is used.

ternal communication in an organization by using CSM Communication Situations Model [18[upps-01.gif The topic of this master thesis is internal organizational communication and factors influencing the way people in an organization communicate with each other. The purpose of the study is to, by using a specific model called Communication Systems/Situations Model CSM, identify the social context of a given organization and examine how it relates to the dimensions of communicational behaviour which are presented in CSM. We would also like to see how the different parts of CSM affects the choice of communication channels. The thesis is based on interviews with eight employees in the specific organization, whom we have asked a number of questions regarding how they communicate with each other and through which channels. The results show that the social context is very informal within the organization and the relationships between the employees are very open and personal.

The purpose of this essay is to define the meaning of the concept of crime victim and how the crime victim as a concept is constructed. The question is answered through an investigation of the discourse that constructs and reproduces the crime victim. Furthermore the purpose is to open a theoretical discussion which aims to clarify whether or not the crime victim is a subject or an object through an examination of how the individual is constructed as a crime victim by the crime victim discourse.The essay takes a theoretical point of view based on a mixture of Michel Foucault?s and Ernesto Laclau & Chantal Mouffe?s discourse theories. The method used to organize the research ? regarding the meaning of the concept of crime victim ? is Laclau & Mouffe?s discourse analysis which is an extension and a part of the theory mentioned above.The discourse analysis creates a model of the crime victim discourse which answers the question of how the concept of crime victim is constructed, and how this concept should be understood.