The reason why this study has been made is the fact that a substantial part of students in the upper secondary school changes their field of study, during or after their first year. The aim of this study is to find out the reasons behind such changes as well as finding out the affecting factors. The study has been made in two steps, first quantitatively by a poll study and the second step is qualitative by interviews. This research has been made in both private schools and municipal schools, with the ambition to search for differences between these two separate school forms. The study shows that no general differences can be found in a comparison between them.

Today the right of the child to participate freely in cultural life and the arts is a goal on the political agenda. As a consequence, in 2011, twenty-six government agencies and institutions of culture were assigned to formulate strategies for activities for children and young people. These strategies are the empirical basis of this thesis. The aim of the study is to elaborate and problematize three issues concerning children?s culture from the viewpoint of a social constructionist understanding of childhood as constructed in various, often political, practices.

This paper has focused on specific aspects of the law concerning the 3rd paragraph of The Care of Young Persons Act (1990:52), LVU. The purpose of this study was to examine the prerequisite other social destructive behaviour in four cases where youths has been under compulsory institutional care because of their computer gaming. The study was composed on a legal dogmatic method and a legal sociologist perspective. The legal dogmatic method implies to examine the law and its elaboration, the legal sociologist perspective focus on the consequences and causes of the court of law. The study shows that problematic computer gaming is an increasing problem in society and that other social destructive behaviour is a wide prerequisite that need new amendment in order to ensure citizens certainty..

The theses discuss information seeking with a focus on Google and social networks. Students attending the librarian program in Lund have been examined by means of two methods; diaries and information horizons, where they had to solve a specific assignment. The information horizon as a method contributes to getting a structural perspective on the information search process instead of viewing information search as a procedure. Information horizons use social network analysis.The aim of the theses is to investigate the importance of the social network in information search, with a particular focus on Google as a search tool. Our hypothesis is that Google acts as a compensator to the social network when the students search for information and in the educational program.The research indicates that there is no direct correlation between usage of the social network and usage of Google.

By doing a study of Stapelbäddsparken from a gender perspective I have been investigating and analysing physical planning and landscape architectural design. My intention with this thesis is to reflect on what a gender perspective in physical planning means and what kind of consequences and effects it could have on physical planning and outdoor design. Gender is something that is created, moulded and transformed by social and cultural processes. And it also includes a dimension of power concerning the knowledge of the relationships between women and men where the standard in today?s society is still men?s interests. To implement gender in my analysis of the park I have been observing how the park is used and who is using it. I have also been investigating who?s needs and wishes that has been provided for in planning and design.

The purpose of this qualitative sociological law study is to examine the relationship between the social services and civil court to apprehend if knowledge about the child's best interest is transfered from social workers to the legal system. This have been done by investigating civil court cases concerning custody transition from biological parents to foster parents according to 6 chapter 8 paragraph in the law of parenting, built upon the legal principle of the best interests of the child. Eight cases has been examined by using a method of qualitative text analysis and categorised into five primary categories and three concepts linked to sections of the law. The material has been analysed through a sociological law perspective, social constructionist theory and attachment theory. The study shows that a variety of factors interacts when it comes to determining what?s in the best interest of the child .

The purpose of this essay is to examine the concept of competence within the social services. More specifically it aims to find out how the social workers themselves look upon their own competence in social investigations concerning children. As the study was based on focus groups the main questions were vague at the beginning and were cleared later on during the group sessions.In three focus group interviews in three different municipalities in southern Sweden 11 social workers were asked to discuss this issue. The interviews were then thoroughly transcribed. In the data I identified 9 themes seeming to play a special roll in the discussions about competence: practice; experience; approach; intuition; responsibility; theories, methods and laws; reflection; resources and ethics; specialisation versus integration.The analysis made on these themes was based on two different kinds of perspective; one focusing knowing-in-action and the other focusing the organization framing the competence considered.As a conclusion the 7 first themes can be seen as a definition of the competence used in social investigations concerning children.

  The use of social media has increased in recent years and has become a part of everyday life.  Through  the  use  of  social  media  grows  new  opportunities   for  constructing  ones identity, this enables individuals  to selective self-presentation.  The social media trend has gone from largely consisting of a linguistic communication  to become directed towards a more visual form of communication,  this encourages individuals to be more visual in their self-presentation.  This study aims to create an understanding  of how individuals  present their  identity  through  visual  self-presentation,  more  precisely  via  Instagram.  Previous research  has  shown  differences  between  men's  and  women's  use  of  social  media.

The aim of this study is to shed light on the phenomenon of destructive sexual behavior among youth from the perspective of professionals working at nonprofit organizations. To examine this, we used a qualitative method; we interviewed professionals working at nonprofit organizations. To analyze our results we used gender theory and empowerment theory. Our main results are that the professionals view this behavior as deliberate self-harm, such as cutting, as they do it to achieve relief from anxiety. Also, the professionals think that gender norms affect young people with destructive sexual behavior in that it imposes guilt and shame, which inflicts their already low self-esteem and makes them feel inferior.

In November 2006 and July 2007, changes were made to the Social Services Law and the Criminal Injuries Law, defining children who have witnessed domestic violence as crime victims. The objective of our study is to examine if these changes have affected how social workers responsible for child protection inquiries interact with children who have witnessed domestic violence, and to what extent these children?s need of support are taken into account. Qualitative interviews have been carried out with five social workers, with the aim to evaluate how they meet and become aware of these children. Our problem-formulation is based upon the question how social services implement the recent changes to the law.

The aim of this study is to examine how one can understand the experiences that social workers within the social service's have of children who have committed sexual assault against other children, and the social workers? thoughts about the choice of actions and the family involvement in those actions. The study has a qualitative character. Information was obtained through interviews with social workers within two Swedish counties, and the analysis of the results was based on earlier research findings as well as theoretical aspects, such as systemic theory and salutogenesis.Regarding the actions taken for the target group, the social workers have, in many ways, a systemic perspective as they emphasize elements within the child as well as within the family. It is also shown that the collaboration with other authorities affects the choice of actions, and that it is important to involve the entire family in any interventions, so that the effect of those interventions may last over time.

The main purpose for this study was to examine how boys with destructive and self-harming behaviour are perceived and comprehended by school counsellors and literature. The study assessed how boys who harm themselves are defined both in practice and in theory by using a social constructivist point of view and a gender perspective. The study was divided in two parts concerning gathering knowledge of the matter. The authors, using a method called qualitative semi-structured interviews, interviewed nine school counsellors. To acquire scientific knowledge, the authors implemented a literature review and researched books and journal articles regarding boys who self-harm.

This essay is a qualitative study concerned with questions about disability. I set out from a definition of disability which highlights non-disabled peoples´ participation in making a disabled person ?the Other?. My aim is to contribute to an understanding of the experiences of disabled people as well as problemize the way that normality and disability is socially constructed. The empirical material of the essay consists of qualitative interviews with disabled men and women and the essay is written with a critical perspective.

The purpose of the thesis Masculinities ? Gender and its Impact on the Social conditions of individuals is to perform a critical study of how gendered norms influence the social conditions of individuals. This has been done by a problematization and the attempt to answer the question of how the hegemonical masculinity can be analyzed as a discourse, and how the structural aspects of this discourse inflict on the social conditions of masculinities.The question was divided into the analytical themes: the boarders of the discourse, the institutionalization of the discourse, the actuation of the discourse and the agents of the discourse. The theoretical frame is constituted by the theory of discourse by Michel Foucault, the theory of the hegemonical masculinity by R.W. Connell and a subversive identity theory by Judith Butler.

This study elucidates the perceptions of twelve people at an age between 35 and 50 years, on what influence intoxication and drunkenness in the bar environment. The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of the effect the intoxication has on the visitor in the bar environment and this is done through qualitative method interviews. The theoretical frame we use to analyse the empirical data, is divided in to four parts: set and setting, environment and its regions, social behaviour and genus perspective. The theoretical material, together with the empirical data in the form of the results of the interviews, forms the platform for this paper. It is on the basis of these results that our questions finally will be answered.