Child poverty in Sweden as a social phenomenon has been highlighted in various debates and in poverty research during the recent years. Children's economic vulnerability has gotten more place in research. An interest to highlight child poverty awakened and this study highlights child poverty through a resource perspective among children in preschools. This study aims to examine how preschool teachers perceive the child's assets to various resources as well as how preschool teachers perceive the impact of the preschool where they work on children's access to these resources. The study is qualitative and has used interviews as a tool.

The purpose of this study was to examine the process of developing an identity as a skateboarder during adolescence. Our aim was to, from the actors? point of view explore what impact their values, experiences and thoughts have on their identity as individuals as well as a collectivity. We also investigated which symbols that are significant for this group. For this essay a qualitative method was used; we conducted nine individual interviews and one group interview with young skaters from the ages of 15-17.

This essay deals with the same task that utilitarians have tried to solve for a long time, what is happiness? In the eighteenth-century utilitarians suggested that happiness should be the base for social political decisions. But the lack of definition disposed so that GDP became the measurement of happiness, which proved to be wrong when the unhappiness continued to increase. More than two hundred years later scientists came up with a new definition of happiness and new ways to measure it. And during the last decade economists have taken the discussion to a higher level.So once again we?re dealing with the same old issue, if happiness ought to be the base of social political decisions.

The working alliance between therapist and client has been proven important for the treatment outcome in psychotherapy, as well as the therapist?s characteristics. The aim of the current study was to examine the experience of important characteristics when forming a working alliance, among psychotherapy trainees. Eight psychotherapy trainees at Umeå University were interviewed and the material was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Characteristics described as positively impacting the working alliance were interested, empathic, warm, genuine, secure, flexible and accepting.

The purpose with our essay was to examine which clients/patients get treatment for alcohol problems from either health care units or social service units. We also wanted to find out how staff in these units considers the importance of social background in the assessment of treatment. The questions we have focused are: How do the clients/patients get in contact with the units? How does staff in these units consider the importance of social background in the assessment of treatment? How is the social background like for the present clients/patients? To fulfil the purpose with our investigation and to get answers to our questions, we performed an explorative examination and applied a qualitative method in the form of a semi-structured interview with six persons. The investigation showed that clients/patients get in contact with the units by looking for treatment by themselves or by relatives and other organisations.

People recieving social assistance is today very common in Swedish society. Of those receiving social assistance single mothers is one ofthe largest groups. The purpose of this study is to examine how single mothers with social assistance experience themselves to be treated by social services, how this treatment affects their confidence in the social services and how they experience it is to live with social assistance. To answer the question, we use qualitative interviews with three clients. Previous research has shown that single mothers receiving social assistance experience vulnerability, and how they perceive it is affected by how they are treated by their social secretaries.

The main purpose of this study was to examine, and illustrate, highschool social workers experiences of pupils with self-injurious behaviour. Self-injurious behaviour in this study refer to individuals who harm them-selves, with physical injury as consequence, without purpose to commit suicide. A qualitativ method was used and five highschool social workers, in the south of Sweden, were interviewed.The main questions were:- What kind of experiences have highschool welfare officers of pupils with self-injurious behaviour?- What view, and personal opinion have the welfare officers at the problem, and how do this affect them in their work with these pupils.The school social workers experiences of pupils with self- injurious behaviour, were for instance that the pupils often feel ashemed over their behaviour and that they often have lowe self-esteem. The social workers seemed to imagine the behaviour as a copingstrategy.It turned out that the social workers personality and their personal opinion regarding self-injurious behaviour, were of great importance in their work with these pupils..

With the climate change issues growing in importance on the social agenda, the field of urban masterplanning is of no exception when it comes to minimizing the carbon footprint in a variety of projects. The aim of this thesis has been to prepare the Carbon Critical Masterplanning tool, a software plugin for carbon dioxide emissions assessment developed by Atkins, to be used in Swedish conditions. The main targets were to improve the areas of the tool associated with energy conversion and renewable energy sources, and to test the tool in a real case. A planned construction of a new campus in Albano, Stockholm was chosen for the pilot study. A 3D model was built in the tool and the carbon footprint was calculated for a variety of combinations for energy supply to the future area.

This report consists of  an anlysis of the imapct of a dam failure at Tjärnviksdalen in Ragunda, Sweden. The analysis is conducted using the EU model for environmental impact assessments, as well as a group interview. The presentation of the results in the form of a map  where the water level has been raised to the level that the County Board  of Jämtland considers to be possible in case of a dam failure.The result of this work is a detailed analysis of the consequenses that a dam failure would cause, the result consider everything from the direct consequences of the water column to an analysis of the chemical changes that the water would undergo.Parts of the analysis have shown that the purification centre and the old deposits will have the biggest impact on Hammarstrand. Both the purification centre and the deposits will realise chemicals to its nearest environment and because of the flooded purification centre the city will not have the ability to clean the water. .

In this thesis I analyse civilizations in South America. I construct civilizationalnarratives through the method of emplotment, to build a historic continuity, whichI subsequently connect to the theoretical framework. The theory emphasise that,when confronted with globalization and free market capitalism, civilizationsembark on different strategies to challenge the power of transnational marketforces. I find that South America is a polarised continent, and is divergingconcerning the relationship towards the USA and free trade agreements. On thesame time the issues that concern the social movements are not being reproducedin a significant matter at state level.

Pollen analysis of a peat core was used to reconstruct the last 2500 years of vegetation history, with focus on the impact of anthropogenic disturbance, in Hamra National Park, central Sweden. In addition, analysis of pollen in soil samples was performed in an attempt to locate ancient cultivation plots in the National Park. The analysis of the peat core shows a development of the vegetation that can be divided into four stages of different degrees of human impact: A - virgin forest (c. 500 B.C.-A.D. 1300), B - grazed forest (c. A.D.

The reason for performing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is to incorporate environmental concern in different kinds of plans and projects. The purpose of such an assessment is to identify and describe direct, indirect and cumulative environmental impacts.Geographical Information System (GIS) is a tool that can be used to combine spatial extension of both sensitive areas and different environmental impacts in a quick and easy way. Because of that, descriptions of environmental impacts and motivation of different standpoints on a specific issue can be more correct and easier to make if GIS is used as a tool.Hence, GIS can contribute to improve the quality of Environmental Impact Assessments. If the benefits of using GIS are to out weight the costs, geographical information of satisfactory detail, actuality and accuracy need to be available at reasonable prices.In this paper, case studies are carried out for three different geographical analyses to investigate the use of GIS as a tool in EIA. From these case studies, more general conclusions about the benefits and limitations of using GIS for Environmental Impact Assessments are also drawn.

This master thesis was carried out for Saab Avitronics, a business unit of Saab ABactive in electronic systems for military aircrafts. Reliability and weight are of crucialimportance in this environment. To improve reliability and lower the weight graphitemay be used for electronics cooling. Graphite is an anisotropic material and hasthereof high thermal conductivity in two directions (in-plane) and a relatively lowconductivity in the third direction (through thickness).The purpose of this thesis was to investigate if graphite is an adequate thermalconductor to use in PCB carriers. The carriers support and cool the PCB by divertingthe heat dissipation from the PCB components to the edge.

The aim of the study was to examine if and how the social service and the social welfare secretary provides against threat and violence in the encounter with clients. The study is qualitative and carried out with six semi-structured interviews with social welfare secretaries and participation observations at the social welfare offices in three municipalities. The theoretical starting points used were symbolic interactionism and strange loops. The result shows that social service and social welfare secretaries both use measures to prevent threat and violence to occur. The precautionary measures mainly used by social services are ; looked doors, alarm device, loose objects removes and interview rooms are furnish in purpose for the social welfare secretary to flee the room at urgent need.

There is an irregularity in the interregional migration in Sweden. An increasing proportion ofthe population is drawn to the metropolitan areas, which creates problems for the smallermunicipalities and towns when their population declines. At the same time, our whole societyis faced with a great challenge: we need to redirect towards a sustainable development, wherethe environmental issues are discussed and dealt with to secure that all present and futuregenerations are given equal opportunities to live a good life.The aim of this study is to, focusing mainly on the environmental dimension of thesustainability concept, examine the attractivity of housing with sustainability claims. Toanswer this, three research questions were used:? Was the migration motive to reduce their environmental impact a part of the decision tomove, among migrants who had moved to housing with sustainability claims?? If the motive was a part of the decision, how much impact did it have compared to othermigration motives?? Which factors in housing aiming at sustainability are considered important by peopleliving in housing with sustainability claims?The research questions have been answered using quantitative data, gained in the form of selfadministeredquestionnaires which were distributed in four different residential areas withsustainability claims in the county of Västra Götaland, Sweden.