The purpose was to look into the pattern of consumption among middleage women. Our questions were how women experienced the need to consume, how they defined the expression of consumption and if there was a difference between "shopping" and "buying". The research has been done through eight qualitative interviews and searching in litterature, illuminating our questions.All women defined consumption as satisfying basic needs. According to them everything bought on a daily bases is consumption. More difficult to define was the experience of "need".

Swedish contract law is based on the main principle of freedom of contract, which means that a contract is built on a voluntary agreement of both parties. There are exceptions from the principle of freedom of contract. In some instances a party is obliged to contract (kontraheringsplikt), which also is the subject for this paper. Kontraheringsplikt can be described as an obligation for one of the parts in a relation to come to an agreement under normal circumstances with everyone who ask for it. The cases of kontraheringsplikt are rather different.

The subject for this paper is the Class Action against Skandia Association, a civil organization formed in 2003 with the aim of claiming compensation for some 1.2 million life insurance customers. The background to its formation was one of the largest financial scandals in Sweden in recent times, involving a number of questionable affairs within the insurance corporation Skandia and its subsidiaries, most notably the life insurance company Skandia Liv. The interests of both the stake- and stockholders of the company seem, in certain ways, to have been grossly misrepresented. The scandal, as well as the reaction it spawned, pose a number of questions. In this study, we focus on two: a possible, and in many ways apparent crisis in the representation of interests in Swedish society, and the role of civil society in upholding the balance between these interests.We argue that what is often held to be the ?greed? or ?immorality? of individuals in scandals such as Skandia is, to a great extent, a mere reflection of the ?rational? underpinnings of modern-day capitalism.We find that trust has been a key mechanism of control in the relationships between consumers and agents in pension and life insurance markets, and that ?the Swedish model? that distinguished post-WWII Swedish society was a model heavily based on trust towards existing models of bureaucratic governance.

The aim of this essay was to describe what some Macedonian men had to say about their own and the Swedish alcohol culture and which alcohol culture they identify with.I did five qualitative interviews with Macedonian men that had moved to Sweden. Some of the questions that were asked are whether or not age, country and culture is of importance when it comes to the alcohol culture you have? The most important question to be answered is whether or not the Macedonian men had changed their alcohol consumption after moving to Sweden.The answers to the questions and the result of the essay is that there is no ideal type of alcohol culture but that the Macedonian men all agreed that they still drink as their fellow countrymen and they dislike the Swedish way of drinking..

The purpose of this study was to examine how professional workers understand the bullying problem among Swedish youth in the age of 13-15 years. The main focus was to examine the new phenomena electronic bullying, from a professional point of view.The biggest question to answer was: "How does the school and organizations understand the bullying situation among Swedish youth today?" Individual interviews with professional social workers within the school and nationwide organizations have been used to fulfill the purpose of this work. Two different respondent types were used in order to get a wide perspective and a dynamic view.Electronic bullying had increased, but the school yard was still the most common arena for bullying, according to the respondents. The schools tried to prevent bullying, but the social workers felt that they lacked some knowledge of electronic bullying, because it was relative new.

The aim of this essay was to look into and compare the experiences and opinions about the practice of 13 § LVM among persons that, through their profession, use the law.The questions we have been asking were; what experiences and opinions the individuals have about the paragraph in general, what they think about the cases when no application for LVM is made after a client has been taken in charge as directed by 13 § LVM, and of the fact that the majority of cases of LVM are initiated by the same paragraph. Another question was how the individuals think about the legal security in connection to 13 § LVM.The methods used are qualitative and we have interviewed individuals from different fields of social work that comes in contact with drug abusers.The findings from these studies include that care made out of the clients' free will is the main reason why an application is not made. It is also the reason to why many LVM initiates as directed by 13 § LVM for the reason that the districts above all try to help the clients without force. The economical aspects are repeatedly mentioned as another reason to the problems appeared in connection with 13 § LVM..

This essay aims to examine and compare Swedish and Norwegian social work with children. It is a comparative study between two social welfare offices, in districts with similar population and problems, one located in Stockholm and one in Oslo. The main questions were; how is the work organized and carried out, what type of help and assistance is available and what kind of discretion and powers do the social workers have. In our essay we used qualitative methods mostly based on interviews, vignette questionnaires and documents, but also written research. In our analysis we used modern organisation theory and street level bureaucracy to seek explanations.The two welfare offices have similarities and differences.

The role of Islam in integrative work in Swedish societyThe main purpose of this report was to describe the role of Islam in integrative work in Swedish society. Questions connected to the purpose were: Is Islam a possibility or an obstacle to integration? Which arguments are used to describe Islam as a possibility or an obstacle? How are the different views on Islam expressed in integrative work? Which are the consequenses of such views?A qualitative method with an empirical research and a thematic analysis has been applied to the material. The empirical research consists of interviews.The results of this report describe Islam neither as a possibility nor as an obstacle from a political view. By muslims and researchers Islam can be regarded both as a possibility and as an obstacle in integrative work.

The aim of the study was to examine how substance abuse influences social relationships to families, friends and others. Five ex addicts in a treatment centre were interviewed. We used thematic interviews with themes that we regarded as relevant for our study. In the analysis we applied the theoretical concept of symbolic interactionism. Theories of emotions also helped us to explain feelings that arise in the social relationships.

This paper is about street children in Delhi and how they get through the day. The content is based on interviews with staff in different Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) in Delhi. The facts from the interviews are complemented with different researches about street children in general and not only about street children in Delhi. Our main question is "How is it possible for a child to deal with the street life in Delhi?".

The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of the phenomenon that there are so many young people placed in institutions in Sweden despite the valuable knowledge regarding the problems and risks of doing so. The questions that follow in the essay were what guided the social workers to choose institutional placement for youngsters. It went on to also ask if this knowledge could contribute to an increased understanding of why there were so many young people placed in institutions despite the criticism from scientists. To accomplish the goal of the essay, former science in the subject was reported and six social workers within social services were interviewed. The material of the interviews was analyzed with help from the theory of human service organizations, street-level bureaucrats work situation and the new institutionalism.The result of the investigation showed that the social workers choices to place young people in institutions is guided by specific work and organizational factors connected with a belief in the helping function of the surroundings.

This essay deals with 18 year old boys´ experience of their usage of pornography. My main focus was the pornography found on Internet, which includes pornographic films and nude pictures.Both developmental and social psychological perspectives were applied in the study. These theoretical perspectives were chosen, because boys´ view of sex, especially during their adolescence, are influenced by the increased supply of porn and that boys understanding of porn are influenced by values present in our society. The methods used were three focusgroups and a short survey with simple questions regarding pornography. The choice of methods was based on my standpoint that an open discussion concerning porn was less offensive of integrity, in comparison of working with individual interviews.

This is a qualitative interview study about intellectually disabled parents and their children. I have conducted interviews with six professional staff who have some experience working with intellectually disabled persons. In my investigation I used vignettes and those I interviewed had to read the same story about Anders and Britta in preparation for the interview. The six persons whom I interviewed were: a midwife at a mother care centre, a nurse at a child health centre, a social welfare officer at a rehabilitation centre, a "LSS administrator" at a local authority, and two social welfare secretaries. One of the two welfare secretaries works to assess the social situation of children and the other one works with fostercare.The conclusion that I have drawn is that the relationship between intellectually disabled parents and their children is very important.

In August 2007 we went to New Zealand for a placement at Child Youth and Family Services. There our interest in Family Group Conferences (FGC) took off. FGC is not near as common in Sweden as in New Zealand. Therefore the purpose of this study was to examine how the Social Services in Helsingborg and Höör in Sweden and Belfast in Northern Ireland work with FGC. We had the privilege to go to Belfast in Northern Ireland as part of the project Insight Europe.

Utredningshemmet in Hässleholm, Sweden, is a special residential home for acute management and investigative evaluation of juvenile delinquents.Utredningshemmet has, since 1991, used an investigative model, which is based on systems theory. The investigative work is done in close co-operation with social workers, youths and their parents.This study takes into account the youths, who have had a commissioned placement to carry out an investigation of their needs of care and treatment, 71 juvenile delinquent cases. They are divided into three one year intervals: 17 cases in 1993, 28 cases in 1998 and 26 cases in 2003.The purpose of this evaluation is to illustrate changes in the social workers, parents and youth's level of satisfaction during the development of the special residential home's investigative model.Approximately one to three months after discharges social workers, youths and their parents completed a level of satisfaction questionnaire. The results demonstrate no significant difference in the level of satisfaction between different time periods. There are, however, differences in satisfaction levels between social workers, who have the highest level of satisfaction, parents, who have the next highest level and finally the youths level of satisfaction..