The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the information use among Swedish backpackers, both prior to departure and while travelling. The questions posed in this study are; which artefacts did the backpackers use, in what way were those used as tools of mediation within their social practice and how does a presumptive interaction between backpackers and information sources appear? The empirical material consists of interviews, held with eight backpackers, concerning their information use. The interviews reveal that a number of information sources are being consulted. The most commonly used sources identified in the empirical material are guide books, advice from other backpackers, fiction, TV programmes and periodicals.

Title: Digital christmas greetings - the viral communicators, public sphere and democracy(Digitala julhälsningar - de virala kommuniktörerna, offentligheten och demokratin)Number of pages: 41Author : Anna-Sara TorgnysdotterTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse : Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring, semester 2010University: Devision of Media and Communications, Department of Information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose: The purpose of this study is to see if social media could be an arena for the usersto increase democracy and the public sphere. Studying the role and possibilitys of the individual.Is there a space for any one to act and debate?Method: A qualitative analysis based on interviews with ten users of social media - viralcommunicators. They were discussing public and private sphere, democracy, norms andbehavior in social media.Theoretical platform: The theoretical basis has its roots in sociology: Ervin Goffman´sidea on self-presentation and social interaction, Manuel Castels´ theories of the networksociety and Jürgen Habermas idea of the public spehere.Main result: The viral communicators are ambivalent in their use of socialmedia. They are users because they want to be but also because they feel forced to - professionalor private.

The purpose of this study is to investigate four students in grades six by interviewing them. It will find out how they personally perceive their own learning in group work and why they work in groups. In my investigation, I will rely on these two questions:How do my subjects reflect on their own learning during group work?Why do my subjects think that they work in groups?For my study, I selected four students from the same school, two girls and two boys, who are 11 to 12 years old. The interviews were individual because I wanted to get a deeper view of how students perceive their own learning in groups and why they are working with a group of other students.

This paper deals with the difficulties of applying user-centered design practices as an independent developer, based on the visualization of a game concept in the form of a prototype. The aim is to evaluate the usability of user-centered design practices, specifically in the field of games development. Throughout this paper, I will give an account of the methods used for testing, as well as a review of previous research done in this field of study. Finally, I will end with a discussion regarding the pros and cons of user-centered design, as well as some thoughts about its importance in similar projects..

The purpose of this study was to investigate the understanding of the diagnoses ADHD and DAMP within different professional categories in the educational system, how it is being addressed and how this affect their work with children diagnosed with ADHD or DAMP. We also wanted to shed some light on the debate between Kärfve and Gillberg, about whether the diagnoses of ADHD and DAMP are social constructed problems or biological and genetic disorders. More specifically, our study was of a qualitative nature and consisted of interviews with seven persons working in six different professions within the educational system. The respondents all worked in school environments but with varied roles and thus varied experience of children with ADHD/DAMP. The interviews and literature studies revealed the complexity of ADHD and DAMP and also the diversity of the debate regarding the diagnoses.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how social procurement can be a further development of public-private partnership. This is done with interviews and a case study of the social procurement Mitt Gröna Kvarter and its labor effort Boendebyggarna. The theoretical framework used in the thesis consists of public-private partnership and corporate social responsibility. It tries to answer the following questions:What does this social procurement mean by the concept of public-private partnership?What does this social procurement mean for the participants involved?How can social procurement be seen as a further development of public-private partnership?The thesis uses the theory development around the concepts of public-private partnership and corporate social responsibility and shows that social procurement does indeed have similarities to public-private partnership and could very well be a further development of it..

Gender is a universal factor that is unavoidable in classroom interaction between pupils and teachers. The principle aim of this essay is to illustrate whether, during the interaction between pupil and teachers still occurs behavior that expresses a gender order. We also want to establish if the ones who attract attention from the teachers is the individual, or if teachers still on a subconscious or conscious level, think of the pupils gender and ascribes him or her some characteristics or qualities. Especially we want to bring out the pupils thoughts and sights of there is a difference on how teachers treat boys and girls. Another purpose we wanted to achieve was to illustrate how teachers work with the concept of equivalence between the sexes, according to Lpo94.Our essay is built on our studies around what teachers think on how they treat the pupils, on the basis of gender perspective.

Sustainable Development is often described as a balance between ecological, economical and social aspects. Between these exists a complicated interaction that creates conflicts in the planning of the landscape. We see a growing need for a functional interaction between values and interest and an understanding for different perspectives. Cooperation and dialogue are key ideas with the focus on cooperation rather than the goal. There is a lack of forum for dialogue and cooperation within municipalities where a great knowledge and competence are gathered.

The purpose of this study was to investigate interactional patterns in the context of a fifth grade class in Sweden. It was also to investigate whether the interactional patterns of the class and their teacher was subject to any change dependent on the lesson subject, specifically mathmatics and science. The study was conducted through observations and interviews. The results of the study varied somewhat from the results of earlier studies within the same field of research. The girls of this class was more likely than the boys to initiate interaction with the teacher or other pupils.

Purpose: To compare the expectations of coming profession in social work with experienced social work. We wanted to compare the pictures between the students in school of social work studies with social workers. We also wanted to increase social workers as well as other readers? awareness of social work as a profession.Questions: What characterizes the school of social studies? How do students in school of social work view the coming role as a professional? How do students in school of social work view upon social workers as professionals? How do social workers view upon their own profession? How do social workers view upon the own role as a professional? How do social workers view upon the relation between the idea of the profession and the daily practice? How do the students in school of social work studies and social workers view upon professional social work?Method: Qualitative study with qualitative interviews.Conclusion: Social work is a low status profession. How to increase the status of social work is not easy.

Early studies of what motivates volunteering often have had an older sample and youth organizations have not been studied. A survey was used to study motives for volunteering in Swedish youth organizations. The importance of age and years of volunteering was studied. In the analysis 102 persons in age between 17 and 59 years participated. The participants ranked the motives as followed: knowledge, development, values, social, career and protection.

A case study of professional interaction designers' usage of design materials was conducted. Five interviews were performed in order to gain insight in the systems used by designers, how these work, how they collaborate within them, and what they think of recent research about them. Design studios allow collaboration for several users at once. Digital material (mockups, pictures, etc.) are commonly used, but needs to be made analog, e.g. printed, to be usable in the design studio environment.

The Swedish election year of 2010 has just begun and the political actors are mobilizing their communication efforts to win the votes of the public. The political campaigns of 2010 have the potential to be the first where a new channel for political communication has the potential to make a difference ? the social media. This paper aims to describe in what ways a Member of Parliament, Nina Larsson (FP), together with the PR-agency Hello Clarice are using social media to conduct political campaigning on the web. It also aims to study if the professional consultants of Hello Clarice have any influence over Nina Larsson?s political communication.The theoretical framework which is the base for this study are theories of an extended public sphere in the age of mediation.

Allt fler människor använder sig av sociala medier via sina mobiltelefoner. Mobiltelefonernas egenskaper tillåter användarna att kommunicera på ett snabbt och platsoberoende sätt. Flera stora välgörenhetsorganisationer i Sverige har börjat mobilanpassa sina hemsidor. Däremot används inte sociala mediers mobilanpassade funktioner för att tillåta social interaktion. Denna uppsats undersöker hur välgörenhetsorganisationer kan tillåta användare av mobila sociala medier att dela med sig av sitt engagemang till sitt sociala nätverk, för att öka givandet via mobiltelefoner.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka hur deltagare upplever en föräldragrupps innehåll och utförande på ett familjecentrum. Studien genomfördes med en kvalitativ ansats, där åtta föräldrar intervjuades. Datamaterial bearbetades och analyserades med hjälp av en kvalitativ manifest innehållsanalys, och studiens teoretiska tolkningsram utgjordes av ett systemteoretiskt perspektiv, Putnams och Bourdieus teori om socialt kapital samt Eriksons psykosociala utvecklingsteori. Betydelsefulla resultat var att föräldragruppen upplevdes som viktig, framför allt för att etablera nya sociala kontakter, uppleva trygghet och stöd från andra nyblivna föräldrar. Det var även viktigt med en ledare med social kompetens, där lyhördhet och flexibilitet var några betydelsefulla egenskaper.