The first purpose of this thesis is to investigate if, how, and why the perceived collective identity in the town of Karlskrona has changed. Collective identities can due to their socially constructed nature change rapidly in light of new collective experiences. The reason for suspecting such a change in Karlskrona is the immense impact that the change in the global economy, according to Saskia Sassen, has on cities. By interviewing politicians and media representatives from Karlskrona the perceived identity is drawn. The second purpose of this thesis will then be to test if the identity as it is perceived by Karlskronas habitants differ from the one that town officials present through city marketing.

In this thesis recruiter?s attitudes and usage of social media within the media business has been examined. The purpose was to find out whether a certain type of behavior in social media could or could not lead to a future employment. How much weight is put on the virtual identity and what does recruiters look for when the look someone up on the internet. Personal interviews with recruiters were done in six different media companies in Stockholm to find out how they used social media when searching and employing new employers.

The aim of this study was to deepen the knowledge about the meaning of being internationally adopted for individuals living in Sweden. Through group discussions with young adults data was retrieved, and then analysed with a qualitative phenomenological approach. The study revealed three main themes: 1) experiences of being Swedish, 2) experiences of ethnic origin, and 3) the interaction between the two aspects of the identity, how the internationally adopted individual integrate's his/her ethnical origin with his/her Swedish identity. With regards to previous studies about adoption and psychological theories the meaning of being internationally adopted in Sweden is discussed..

The thesis analyzes the making of Nordic identity after the cold war which brought an end to Nordic exclusiveness of emphasizing ?soft power?. A need for a revitalization combined with an effort to enter History as an active subject, created constructivist project of a narrative style.My study relies on contemporary literature, focusing mainly on the construction of Nordic identity and regional cooperation in the 1990: s.I argue that Nordic identity was, and still is, determined of its comparable weakness in regard to the superpowers of the cold war, and, nowadays, to the EU.The architects of establishing a new Nordic identity, able to challenge a new Europe, fails in their effort, and what is left of their endeavour are separate states, each following their own agenda..

To create fair conditions between majority and minority in Sweden is a challeging project. Male immigrants usually do not get same opportunities for a success identity structure and integration into Swedish society as women and children. The aim of this thesis is therefore to critically examine and analyse the processes regarding identity structure and integration for male immigrants with a specific focus on Helsingborg. The object of this study is Mansgrupp, a project which helps men to build up a secure ground for identity structure and which further helps them to integrate into the society. To be able to reach the results I have made a literature study as well as a minor field study in Helsingborg, where I conducted interviews with men from the above mentioned project.

The presence of nostalgic emotions during consumption is often seen as something purely positive to a product. To evoke these emotions has become a very common tool in marketing and advertising. Paradoxically very few studies have focused on the effects of nostalgia. The purpose of the thesis has been to understand how the presence of nostalgic emotions during consumption effect consumers. The research model used is a quantitative study with testing of hypotheses generated from theory.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ongoing changes in German family policy. It explores the issue of whether the German welfare state, in this policy field, can still be regarded as a conservative welfare model or rather approaches a more liberal or social democratic model. A qualitative method is used to analyze the material, especially from the German government, including press releases, other public documents and also articles from the political weekly magazines Der Spiegel and Die Zeit. The changes analyzed are the new parental benefit, the expansion of child care, the concept of whole-day schools and the system of joint taxation. The point of departure is Gösta Esping-Andersen?s categorization of three types of welfare states: the social democratic, the conservative and the liberal.

AbstractTitle: Who are you? Who am I? ? Charades in the mediated world of today. A study of the construction of identity at Facebook.(Vem är du? Vem är jag? ? Charader i dagens medierade värld. En studie av identitetskonstruktionen på Facebook.)Number of pages: 58 (66 including enclosures.)Author: Mathilda WahlundTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The aim is to study how people construct their own identities today.

The aim of this study was to examine young adult cannabis users? attitudes towards cannabis and their perception of the normalization of cannabis. The purpose was also to explore how their views of cannabis correspond with norms regarding cannabis. This study is based on interviews with five young adult cannabis users. The theoretical framework is based on Parker?s normalization thesis, Goffman?s notion of stigma, Becker?s definition of outsiders and the definition of social identity developed by Stone.

The purpose of this study was to examine and illustrate whether employed social workers, working with supplementary benefits at a social service office, felt stressed. If so was the case, we wanted to investigate if this stress that they felt had any effect on their clients. This study was based on eight qualitative interviews, of which four was with social workers and four was with clients. For a better understanding of our results we used Karasek & Theorells demand-control-support model.The study reveals that the social workers do feel stressed, but they only do so in periods. They declare that they would like to have more time for their work assignments, the meetings with the clients in particulate.

The aim of this Bachelor?s thesis is to investigate the public librarian?s professional identity and its relation to the public library as an experience centre. The development of the library as an experience centre raises questions about how public librarians understand their professional identity, and about their motives for working with activities like workshops and qigong, activities that have no significant connection with the librarian?s traditional tasks. The data was collected via semi-structured interviews exploring the perspectives and points of view of four public librarians.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to study how Catalans´ identifications, with respect to their city (Barcelona), their region (Catalonia), their country (Spain) and Europe, are related to each other. Furthermore it deals with whether they use cultural or civic notations when they speak of their identification with the different territorial levels.The thesis is based on a qualitative method with interviews with ten Catalans living in Barcelona, aged from 18 to 58. The result showed that Catalans´ identifications with different territorial levels vary in how they relate to each other. This variation can be classified using three models, namely; ?The Russian doll model? which implies that the identities are ranked hierarchically, ?cross-cutting? that is people can identify themselves with the different levels depending on various situations, and also ?The marble cake model? which means that the different identities are so intertwined that they cannot be separated.

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.

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine how the European Union through the Directorate- General (DG) of Education and Culture, are calling forth a constructed sense of European identity amongst the citizens of the Union.It is a discourse analysis, which can be described in twofold. Firstly, it is a mapping of the European discourse; i.e. how the European Union defines the identity it seeks to mobilise. Secondly, it examines whether or not there are similarities in the European discourse of identity and the traditional nation-building discourse of national identity.According to this thesis a European identity is articulated in cultural terms, whereby its members are said to share the same values and a common cultural heritage.To bring the people of Europe closer together and to deepen awareness of their "common" history, the European Union encourages all manner of meetings and exchange schemes between Europeans. Although its goal is to develop a feeling of belonging to a shared culture, the EU is also keen to preserve the specific aspects of Europe's many cultures.

The purpose of our research was to explore the social situation of unaccompanied children. We also aimed to reveal the relation between their social situation and their identity development. The overall purpose were to describe their social situation, the value of significant others, how different languages influence their identity development and finally how their origin affects their future dreams.In order to achieve the best result in our research a qualitative method was used. This was based on qualitative interviews and was disposed around a very loose set of questions in order to let the interviewees lead the way. The analysis of the result was conducted on the basis of a set of theories and concepts in order to understand the identity development.