India is home to every sixth person in the world, some 30 million dogs and a quarter of the total world cattle population. A vast majority of Indians are Hindus, and even though the Hindu religion proclaims love, nurturing and worshipping of animals, sometimes the same religion constitutes an obstacle for animal welfare in practice. This paper investigates the significance of historic and religious symbols to the way animals are perceived in modern Indian society, as well as the different social factors which underlie attitudes to animals. The concept of karma, as well as that of good versus bad deaths, is probably the foundation of the general Hindu reluctance to euthanasia in any form. Although in theory all species are generally regarded as equal in Hinduism, in practice there seems to be a differentiation; for cultural, religious, medical and financial reasons.

Social media has become an important marketing and communication tool worldwide, mostly through the largest social platforms Facebook and Twitter. With two-way communication via Internet companies has gotten the opportunity to interact and communicate directly with their customers. Facebook has been the focus point through the study because it has shown to be the most efficient and frequently used platform for communication. Our study aimed to confirm how communication via social media actually looks like. To be able to reach the best results, we have conducted the study from a phenomenological approach, which means; usage of qualitative semi-structured interviews to reflect the respondents experience on the phenomenon social media as a communication tool. Social media has shown to be a great way of communicating externally for companies who are willing to spend time engaging in the platform.

The focus of this thesis is a specific part of Swedish library policy called library plans. A library plan is a political document created with the purpose of constituting a platform for co-operation between different library systems within a municipality, e.g. through determining and analysing the needs for library activities within municipalities in Sweden.This thesis´ aim is to investigate whether library plans are, or can be used as, a tool for change and thereby increase legitimacy for public libraries in Sweden.We have examined aspects of library plans using theories from change management to determine whether these plans include tools focusing on conditions in organisations that could result in an improved and stronger position in the society for public library. Through the use of theories from new institutionalism we opted for an understanding of the interaction between the libraries and the context in which they are part of.Upon examining 23 library plans, we discovered similarities as well as diversities among them. From our study we have drawn the conclusion that it is important to analyse the specific needs of each different municipality and to consider these individual conditions and needs when developing and composing the library plan.

Social enterprises make up one of the groups of participants that provide welfare services financed by public funding. The object of this study is to describe and analyze from a theoretical point of view which conditions, in what fields, by which division of responsibility and finally through what decisions these social enterprises are allocated a place in the market for social welfare services. The company that has been the object of study offers services in the field of social welfare and in employment. In the study a triangulation of qualitative methods has been used: studies of literature on the subject, recurrent interviews and observations and also reviews of documents. The results have been analyzed from theories on the space available on the market for social services, on social economy and on social capital in the form of strong, weak and bridging bonds.

The purpose of this essay is to explore the social services work with crime victims in Sweden, according to Chapter 5, § 11 of the Social Services Act. The study examined how social workers define the victim and assessing and prioritizing victims' needs. It has also been central to study how social workers interpret and understand the regulation of social services responsible for crime victims.Qualitative interviews with 18 social workers is the basis for the study. The analysis of the social services work with victims based in the above-mentioned interviews. The interviews analyzed using the sociology of law theory.

This study explores how online television works and how it is integrated with social media such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Through three qualitative interviews with representants from different fields of work regarding online television, we have concluded how online television is being used in Sweden today and concludes with examples of what the future of online television could look like. Representatives from the following companies have been interviewed: SBS Media Group Sweden, Strix Television and Mediamätning i Skandinavien. The use of social media for marketing of online television is a fact for the companies in this study. However, the result of the study shows that theres room for development in the integration between online television and social media.

Erik Andersson: Utanför Murarna: En studie av Ulf Lundells och rockkulturens outsiderpositionering. Uppsala universitet: Institutionen för musikvetenskap, 2007.The main aim of this essay is to show how the artist Ulf Lundell presents himself as someone with an outsider's view of life. This also includes showing that this aspiration is a common one among artists in the rock culture.The aim was reached by studying texts, lyrics, interviews, articles of and with Lundell and then applying theories about authenticity and performativity on this material. In order to put this in a context I looked at a similar material but with a much broader perspective, artists from different countries, genres and eras is here included.The conclusion of this study is that a kind of norm system in the rock culture has developed and Lundell is acting accordingly to these rules. The outsider position has become an important ingredient in Lundell's persona and this position can also be seen as a given norm in the wider context.

The implementation of this research increases the awareness of the value for luxury fashion brands in utilizing social media as a communication channel to reach young consumers globally. It provides a general understanding of young consumers? perception of luxury fashion brands on social media in regards to geographic cultural background, attitude towards new luxury, and preferred way of contacts..

The aim of this essay was to study if social workers have a gender awareness in the social work they perform and if it appears in the assessment of needs and intervention. A qualitative vignette study with four social workers who handle adult- and addictive clients have been performed. Gender theory is used to interpret the empirical results. The results of the study show that social workers doesn´t see any differences in the clients situation, or make any different assessment of needs depending on if the client is a man or a woman. Social workers also propose the same interventions to men and women.

The main objective of this essay is to examine how the identities of young people are influenced by their choice of an individual sport or a team sport.The following questions are the focus of the essay:? How does the sport influence the creation of an identity for active young people?? How will the choice of an individual sport or a team sport affect the development of an identity in young people who practises sport?To achieve the objective of this essay I have used a qualitative research approach. The empirical material has been collected with help of eight semi-structured interviews. Four of them were held with young people who practised swimming and the other four with young people who played soccer. The essay is structured from Derek Layders model regarding how to understand the social reality.

Democracy has been a part of the Swedish society for a long period of time and it is also a part of the Swedish elementary school curriculum, in which you can find a number of statements that expresses that the Swedish elementary school should socialize the children into becoming role model citizens. This also conjures with the available research that describes schools in general as socializing. This led me to a question that hasn?t been answered: How much of the curriculums reasons for socialization the pupils are based on democratic values and how much of it can be dated back to events prior to the curriculum?The methodological approach is an analysis of ideologies as described by Sven-Eric Liedman and Ingemar Nilsson in Ideologi och ideologianalys. The text is focusing on the fact that a text has two layers; one is the manifest which is roughly the same as explicit or present in the text.

Adjustment to acquired hearing loss can be understood as a process of learning and change where the point of departure is the subjective apppraisal of a person?s hearing loss in a social and cultural context. The aim of the study was to describe women?s thoughts, emotions and actions prior to audiological rehabilitation, since these are considered important for the ongoing process of adjustment and for the planning of rehabilitation. A phenomenographical approach was used in order to describe the variation in the women?s attitudes before attending rehabilitation.

The aim of this study was to conduct an instrument test of the Canadian questionnaire Alberta Context Tool (ACT) version Long-Term care for Swedish conditions. ACT is designed in order to measure the context in the care environment and different behaviours related to the changes in clinical practice. In total, 159 Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) and Registered Nurses (RNs) within municipality care of the elderly were included in the survey. The test included the instrument's reliability and face validity.The reliability test was implemented through calculation of Cronbach´s Alpha, and showed internal consistency for five of the scales of the ACT-instrument with Cronbach´s Alpha values ranging between 0,728 and 0,873. However, three dimensions got lower values (0,558 - 0,683).The analysis was carried out with content analysis and carried out for LPNs and RNs in separate groups.

Abstract"The war on terror" has resulted in numerous exceptions from the constitutional order. This thesis is an attempt to give empirical support to Georgio Agambens theory that these exceptions should be regarded as a constant element in modern societies based on a constitutional order. The results of the case study of the empirical exceptions in the American context give Agambens theory validity. The exception is a reappearing phenomenon, which implies that the constitutional order is fragile. What then is it that makes the legal norms fragile? In this thesis I will discuss the causality of moral panic.

This is a discourse analysis concerning the visions for Malmö's future. Three concepts are studied to see which meaning these are given in the Malmö context. The studied concepts are ? development (utveckling), industry (näringsliv) and citizen (befolkning).The meanings of these concepts are studied against a backdrop of theories of inclusion/exclusion in general and inclusion/exclusion in the city more specific. Michael Foucault´s notion of a discourse which stigmatizes those not following a behaviour which is defined as being right and normal is central to this.