The failure of Structural Adjustment Programs and its neoliberal policies to effectively reduce poverty have led to the creation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) by The World Bank and International Monetary Fund. PRSP, connected to both the Comprehensive Development Strategy and the HIPC initiative, are built on the notion of national ownership and stakeholder participation and thereby expand potential conditionality to include matters of governance. This thesis examines the evolution of PRSP and how the process of participation affects national governance structures. By analyzing the role of rules and norms within the World Bank and IMF from a historical point of view the thesis explains why the participation process has developed the way it has. It concludes that neoliberal norms, still at heart within the World Bank and IMF, have an impact on the process of participation within nation states and thereby its governance structure.

Through a critical discourse analysis this study explores the gender norms that students on Kvinnofolkh?gskolan produce, reproduce and experience. Kvinnofolkh?gskolan is built on the understanding that the world discriminates against women politically, culturally, economically and socially, and thus intends to give women, non-binaries and trans people an education with a feminist alignment. Despite studies being made on gender segregated schools as identity forming, I argue that there is a lack of studies that show how gender discourse and theory is produced in contexts where men are excluded.

The purpose of this study is to find out which attitudes, norms and values exists about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families in preschools. Based on five qualitative interviews with teachers that work at a LGBT-certified preschool and one that is active in their work with norm critical pedagogy. To be able to fulfil my purpose of this study I concentrated on why these teachers believed that it was of importance to counter society?s heteronormativity, to prevent discrimination and mistreatments towards children and their LGBT parents in preschool. I wanted to find out what the teachers thoughts were on the concept of what a family is and how the diversity of families is shown in the preschools material and pedagogy.When I analysed the results of my qualitative interviews I used queer theories that include heteronormativity and norm critical pedagogy.

Swedish municipals schools have been given an assignment to convey basic values to pupils. The assignment is to bring up the pupils through transmitting and developing a heritage such as values, traditions, language and knowledge. Together along with the lasting knowledge which constitutes the community frame of reference everybody needs. There by is the purpose of this study through a qualitative method to investigate how the schools assignment to create a community national identity of the pupils is interpreted by the teachers in introduction classes. Even how the teachers in this study response to ?Swedish? culture by presenting and educate the pupils in this.

This work applies intersectionality to five Somali women self-narratives and focuses on their identities and positions in Swedish society, but also their relation to Somali society. Since people constructs in relation to the environment, this work studies the impact of environmental confirmations of their own self. Intersectionality is brought into the social work with an operational attempt, and shows how critics of power and interplay between theories and empirics can provide new knowledge. Intersectionality also demands some alterations of the social constructionists? idea of the ego.

This paper discusses some concerns about Japanese gender identity as a construct and the subversive means to overthrow it. In my paper I claim that the eastern influences on Japan has created a gap between old and new gender- traditions and norms. This interspace is what the philosopher Judith Butler claims as the site for a possible gender transformation. As Butler claims gender identity to be a construct, I use her methods of understanding and subsequently queertheory, to investigate the construct of Japanese gender identity and also the norms that constitute a national identity. As I elaborate on this theory I use specific artworks from Morimura Yasumasa, Yoshiko Shimada and Bubu de la Madeleine and also the all-male theatre kabuki vs.

The purpose of this essay was to investigate affecting factors concerning social workers in social services assessments with cases of abuse. We wanted to see if social workers in social services tend to make different assessments of the need of substance abusers care. Our survey was carried out as a vignettesurvey with complementary interviews as means to deepen the outcome results.Our survey showed that the included social workers in social services in some senses make different assessments when it comes to choice of effort put in for the client. We shed light on different factors and circumstances, which could bear meaning for the social workers in social services assessments. Examples of factors were the social workers in social services age, gender, working experience and attitude towards substance abusers..

The social policy defines what is social problems. There is no clear scientific explanation to why children fare badly and unity in what constitutes a bad parenthood that leads to deficiency of care (Sundell&Egelund 2000). The society's values are fickle and influences what to be defined as social problems. In the prevailing period, the discourse produces the social norm (Claezon 2004).The aim with this study was to examine which children that fare badly and attitudes about it the good and the insufficient parenthood between 1921-1923 and 1997-2007. The survey was a qualitative file study in witch we studied child welfare.

Since a decade back in time, Sweden is officially recognised as a multicultural society. Different cultures exist side by side and the city of Malmo is one of the clearest examples of this setting. In multicultural societies, the dichotomy of ?us? versus ?them? is common, which leads to segregation and asymmetrical relations of power. The concept of intercultural education is in theory known to be able to create a position of ?us? where every culture is equally recognized and reinterpreted and thus become an alternative to the dichotomy.

This is a qualitative study with a descriptive approach. The main purpose with this study is to examine the view of prostitution and sex trade among Social worker students at Malmö Högskola. Our research questions are; To which extension and consideration is the view of male and female prostitutes divided? Is the view of the male and female sex buyer different among the students? How do the students explain and understand male and female prostitution? How do the students explain and understand the male and female sex buyer? To collect data and to be able to find out the students views and thoughts about the phenomenon we used focus groups with four to six students in each group. To categorize the material we used four topics; explanation/understanding models, the individuals behind the phenomenon, love/sex and intimacy, and the society?s responsibility.

In this essay I analyze Karin Boye?s first novel, Astarte, focusing on her views concerning norms,ideals and female liberation. The novel is written in a tone of irony, allowing for many of thecharacters to be viewed as caricatures. The theories and methods I use are drawn from genderstudies and queer theory. Queer theorist Judith Butler, and the concepts of performativity, interpellation, genealogy and the heterosexual matrix, are of central importance for my analysis.

The purpose of this study was to examine and illustrate how young adults look at themselves and their lifesituation in relation to the late modern society. More specifically its aim was to find out if the respondents have been affected by the ideals and norms of the late modern society in their lifechoises and their view of happiness. This study was based on interviews with eight young adults in the ages between 25 - 33. Out of the eight three were singles, two were married with children and three were in relationships. During the process four themes were identified: The importance and developement of an identity, fullfillment in the respondents lifesituations, the experience of happiness in the respondents lives and how the late modern society have influenced the respondents in their lives.

The purpose of this thesis is to, based on interviews and document studies, critically discuss how the introduction of kickboxing in Physical Education (PE) could affect gender equality in society. Based on a queer feminist and norm critical perspective on the prevailing teaching of PE, which, despite official efforts to challenge and modernize PE, persists in reproducing gender norms by e.g. spending 75% of class time on ball games. The hypothesis is that girls accessing violence (empowerment) through a bodily awareness in the form of kickboxing, positively would challenge the power imbalance that gender norms create. Girls are brought up, even today, in accordance with gender norms arguing against girls/women wanting to use their bodies as powerful tools to set limits.

The aim with this study was to gain knowledge about how parents who are visual impaired experience and manage the meeting with the world around them. To have children and to be visual impaired creates a complex situation. There is not only the problem how to manage the parenting in technical terms. The disability is also filled with stigma because it diverges from the norms of society. There is not only demands from society about how the parent should behave, the parent also create demands of themselves.

Social work is a social phenomenon, existing in most societies, that has given rise to a multitude of special organizations and professions. For that reason social work is dealing with a complex identity. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how social workers and the scientific discourse interpret the concept of social work. In addition to that the study intends to show similarities and differencies. The research process containes two studies, one based on qualitative interviews with five social workers and the other consisting a surway of academic litterature.