This paper examines the consequences of membership and participation in immigrant associations on individual immigrants? political integration and indirect political participation with reference to Swedish society. The theoretical underpinnings consist of a social structural outlook on social capital, combined with the Civic Voluntarism Model, both of which focus on the potential role of social networks for moving people into political action. After a presentation of parallel qualitative data over the experiences of individual members in a Finnish and Bosnian-Hercegovinian organisation, it is suggested that immigrant associations support the political integration of their members into the host society. Firstly, the case studies indicate that members of immigrant associations gain the opportunity to augment their civic skills, which is a significant prerequisite for political participation.

In year 2009, a new housing form (here referred to as "owned apartments", in Swedish called "ägarlägenheter") was introduced in Sweden. Owned apartments are in many countries the dominating form of housing tenure, but in Stockholm, to where this thesis is delimited, only four have been established in four years. There are many possible reasons for this low establishment, but the thesis writers believe the main reason to be that the owned apartment is situated in an organizational gap. With the hypothesis that the owned apartment is situated in an organizational gap and that there are opportunities to overcome this gap through interorganizational collaboration of the players on the market, this thesis strives towards examining if this is the case.By using Burt's theory of structural holes the concept of organizational gaps are elaborated to fit this context, since this area is previously unexplored.The data has mainly been gathered through in-depth interviews but also through secondary sources such as previous theses and newspaper articles. It has appeared that the majority of the central players are characterized by conservatism.

The aim of this study was to examine how newly qualified social workers from Linnaeus University in Kalmar feel that the school has prepared them with the professional skills to meet the demands that exist within social work. Social work education is a generalist training that will result in a professional qualification. With a qualitative approach eight newly qualified social workers were interviewed.We used the sociology of knowledge as an overall theoretical approach. We also used experience- based knowledge as a theoretical approach. One of the study's conclusion was that the graduates had difficulty linking theory to practice.

Sävar bibliotek ska införa meröppet, och denna studie har undersökt hur man bör gå tillväga. Intervjuer utfördes via telefon och e-mail till andra meröppna bibliotek, och en fokusgrupp utfördes med besökare och personal vid Sävar bibliotek. Vi undersökte även relevant litteratur för att hitta hur själva miljön i biblioteket ska se ut. Vi kom fram till att det är viktigt att information om förändringarna kommer ut till besökarna. Det är också viktigt att biblioteket ska vara en social miljö, så det är viktigt att arrangera det så att det uppmuntrar till social interaktion..

Title: The role of social media on today?s markets ? Companies? desire to understand theircustomersAuthors: Kristoffer Avci-Nåmark & Patrik WidlundBackground: The markets of today are characterized by dynamic conditions because of thecontinuous change in consumer preference. Due to this, the interaction between the company and its consumers is gaining importance as companies find the need to increase their knowledge about the market. Out of this need social media has emerged as a tool forcompanies to improve their communication with customers. The popularity of social media isincreasing at a rapid rate and sites such as Facebook now has around 500 million usersworldwide.

The purpose of this thesis is to find means of control that secure cost efficiency regarding the accommodation for the employees on missions abroad of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Today the ministry?s cost for the employees? rented housing is 100 million SEK and there is a need of improvement in the control of these costs. A work method for organizational development will be used in order to reach the findings presented in the thesis. First we study the strengths and weaknesses in today?s control system.

Längs den skuggiga Hornsbruksgatan bryter en veckad volym upp den långa sträckan. En ny bergssida som definierar park och gata och serverar scener för medborgarinflytande på både gräs och betong. Med biblioteket som katalysator får den bortglömda delen av Hornstull ett välbehövligt komplement av både mångfacetterad verksamhetslokaler, kontor och större lägenheter. Med mer park i parken och mer stad längs gatan bygger Hornsbruksgatan vidare på områdets karaktär av experimentalitet ? ett urbant växelbruk..

With this research we aim to examine foster parents and social workers perceptions about the relationship between foster parents and the foster child?s biological parents and their perceptions about the support to the foster parents in the contact with the child?s biological parents. The research will provide a deeper understanding of the actors? perceptions and explain possible differences in their opinions. This study has a qualitative approach and contains eight semi-structured interviews with foster parents and social workers in a smaller town in the south of Sweden.

Uppsatsens övergripande syfte var att undersöka profiler av samsjuklighet mellan depressiva symtom och olika undergrupper av social ångest hos unga vuxna (20-24 år) samt dess samband med livstillfredsställelse och upplevd social funktionsnedsättning inom yrkesliv/studier respektive sociala aktiviteter. Data har inhämtats via självskattningsformulär. Resultaten analyserades genom en klusteranalys. Två profiler med samsjuklighet mellan undergrupper av social ångest och depressiva symtom framkom. Denna samsjuklighet verkar vara relaterad till både en lägre grad av upplevd livstillfredsställelse samt till funktionsnedsättning inom två domäner, yrkesliv/studier och sociala aktiviteter..

According to the Conventions on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to make their voices heard and express their opinion in situations concerning them. With this paper the authors have chosen to explore social worker?s view?s on children?s participation and influence, and how these are manifested through the entire case process. The focus in this study has also been the positive and negative effects the children?s influence may have.To investigate this, a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews has been conducted.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how pupils with social dysfunction were defined and described and how the responsibility of the school concerning the needs of these pupils was apprehended. For this matter, in depth interviews with four headmasters and four teachers at three different schools were carried out.The possibilities to help pupils with social dysfunction were regarded as limited due to limited resources. The school can be described, as a huge refined apparatus of classification where some children very early are eliminated and there does not appear to exist any back up plan for these individuals. In this respect the function of the school is very similar to that of yesterdays school where the elimination process worked just as well, the denotations change but the problems remain the same.The material used in this study is too small to make general conclusions but the results give some indication of the problems of the interaction between the school and its staff and pupils with social dysfunction. We strongly believe that the results warrants further investigation as to in what way the school can improve in helping pupils with social dysfunction..

The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the social identity of students at upper secondary school for physically disabled students. The youths I drew my attention to suffered from severe physical disabilities and therefore received specially adapted education in small classes, but integrated at an ordinary upper secondary school.By "social identity" I mean how the students view themselves as a group, how they value their membership of the group and how they relate to non-disabled students at school. I wanted to investigate the connections between these students' social identity and the problems of marginalization of disabled people in society.According to qualitative methods I interviewed five physically disabled students, aged 18-19, at upper secondary school level taking part of especially adapted education. The study showed that these students regarded themselves as a segregated group at school. None of them associated with non-disabled students at school.

Organizations over the world increasingly start to realize the possibilities of the use of a social intranet, also known as Enterprise 2.0. The social intranets can be used to collaborate and communicate with colleagues in the workplace. Both Cook (2008) and Coope (Barnett, 2011) say that Enterprise 2.0 is about to fundamentally change the way organizations communicate. But do companies know how these tools can be used?The study emanates from three questions:How can social intranets be used in business?How can internal communication and collaboration get easier through the use of a social intranet?What are the possible risks with the use of social intranets?In this study we have in a qualitative manner been interviewing two companies that currently use social intranets in their daily activities ? Securitas and Skåneme-jerier.

The aim of this study was to examine the social relationships between children and librarians during reference interviews. Using qualitative interviews with five children's librarians I illustrate attitudes and behaviours during a reference situation which take place in psychological, social and even in pedagogical contexts. The literature review comprises studies of the reference interview with children and youth, a description of interpersonal communication and finally social interaction and dialog between teachers and pupils. The main result of this study was the demonstration of a dichotomy in modes of interpersonal communication. In one mode, the social frame is emphasized.

AbstractThis report has been developed in cooperation with Peab Region Bostad Göteborg, mentor at Krook& Tjäder (through Chalmers), and examiner at Chalmers University of Technology. The report is the result of a research of a building project, constructed by Peab. The report is investigating and it means to identify and evaluate qualities in the dwelling and its surroundings. Its purpose is to evaluate how the residents in a chosen housing cooperative enjoy living there. It shall, with help of chosen quality aspects, identify what expectations the residents had before moving in, how they experience the dwelling and its surroundings today, and what hopes they have for the future planning of the area.