The purpose of this essay is to examine the Swedish governments discourse on integration of immigrants and thereby examine what social reality it constructs. The aim is to examine how integration and immigrants are constructed within the discourse. The method and theory being used in this essay is discourse theory. As a methodological instrument we use the policy on functional impairment as a comparison. The material being analyzed in this essay is political documents on the strategy on integration policy and the strategy on the policy of functional impairment.

This paper examines the interpersonal and intercorporate networks of interlocking boardmembers among Sweden's 50 largest publicly traded companies in 1985 and 2005. We find that both the interpersonal and intercorporate networks of 1985 are considerably more coherent and densely connected than those of 2005. The observed changes in social network structure are compared to changes in company ownership in Swedish publicly traded companies during the same period, and it is found that the observed changes in network density and cohesion can be related to a notable increase in the number of foreign board members. These results imply that the social organization of the Swedish system of corporate governance has changed notably during the period. Social network theory suggests that these changes can explain the greater demand for external regulation, decreased homogeneity of board members and increase in board member compensation observed under the period.

The purpose of this study was to examine how young men and women who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) who are exposed to honor related violence, intimidation or repression perceive their situation, what kind of help/support they have received and if they feel that the help and support offered by the society has been adequate. After the murder of Fadime Sahindal in 2002 attention was drawn to honor violence in Sweden. During the period 2003-2007 the government invested 200 million SEK for efforts to prevent honor related violence. Studies have shown that honor related violence not only affects young immigrants, but also young people with different sexual orientation then heterosexual. It also shows that the honor violence is not depended on religion or ethnicity.

Interaction is an important part of children?s development. The school is a main arena in which children learn to interact, mainly through their playing. This study aims at investigating the role of interaction in a leisure school didactic setting. The aim of the study is to gain a better understanding for how the pupils develop though use of social interaction.

AbstractMy study is based on that I think there is a problem at the Handicraft program for hairdressers where I currently work as a hairdresser teacher. I believe that there are clear objectives and a wide range of courses focusing in craft knowledge, but the social competence goals are unclear and there are no courses on the subject. Since I have 13 years hairdressing experience and know roughly what it requires, I wonder where and how the teaching of social skills is performed at the Handicraft program for hairdressersThe purpose of this study is therefore to find out how some of my colleagues perceive the teaching of social skills. The issues I have focused on are what these teachers believe that social skills are, how they perceive their teaching of it and when they believe that teaching really should be. There is not much literature on this subject because it is a relatively unexplored area. I have therefore concentrated on literature dealing with social skills in general, and theses and essays dealing with the quality of hairdressing education. I have chosen to make a qualitative interview study. The objectives related to social skills can be incorporated in the teaching of many subjects; I chose to interview two core-subject teachers and four vocational teachers. The interviews have been based on respondents' own interpretations of social skills. They have been individual interviews of about 30 minutes. My results show that most teachers believe that social competence is about a good meeting between people and to coping with different situations in a good way.

During the autumn of 2007 I carried out an investigation within the bank and finance Sector. The aim of the investigation was to see how informal aspects could be understood in relation to equality within Bank AB? The main question was: Which are the obstacles and opportunities for equality within Bank AB? To answer the main question I asked the following questions to the material: Are there any gender related different within the organization? How are men and women represented within the internal magazine? Which are the conceptions related to sex/gender within the organization? The investigation is based on a survey, the internal magazine was investigated and finally interviews took place. Throughout the investigation I used organization theory in a gender perspective. With the gender organization theory I examined concepts as structures, leadership, symbolism and changes associated with equality.

This study aimed to describe children?s experience of living with overweight or obesity, by using a literature-review. The study includes eleven articles, data is from children between ages 5-15 year. The result occurring were in the areas; Quality of life and self-esteem, Social company, Body concept and weight reduction and Psychological unhealth. BMI above what is recommended gives a negative influence on quality of live and self-esteem.

This study is based on the will to understand the importance of a specific theory within social work. From the concept of neo-liberal governmentality, the aim is to critically examine and discuss how governance and self-governance is manifested in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). This will be accomplished through an analysis of:? How governance (and self-governance) is manifested in text through the advocacy of CBT and methods based on CBT.? How (governance and) self-governance is manifested in text through the contents of CBT and methods based on CBT. The study has a deductive approach including the hypothesis that the discourses inherent in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory of CBT and methods based on CBT, may be related to the West?s development of a neo-liberal concept of governance.

This study examines how professional social workers relate to problematic computer and video gaming as an addiction. It is a qualitative interview study aimed to describe and analyze how professional social workers, who in some way work with problematic computer gaming, relate to the player?s problems in terms of a concept of dependency. The theoretical approach is based on social constructivist theories of discourses, normality, the definition of dependency and diagnoses. The study was conducted through five qualitative half structured definition interviews with professional social workers that work directly or comes in contact with problematic computer gaming.

The aim of this study examines how two groups of social workers at two workplaces reflect to their own clothes in various work situations. We want to gain an understanding of the variables that affects social workers choice of clothes at work. In a qualitative approach the study is based on two focus group-interviews and four semi structured interviews. Empirically analyzes relate to Pierre Bourdieu?s "la distinction, Ervin Goffman?s "frontstage-backstage", and of Michele Foucault?s power concepts.

Background: Cancer-related pain is a major problem worldwide. Studies indicate that patients do not get an adequate pain relief. This creates a large suffering and results in major problems for the patient and their families. In order to minimize this kind of suffering caregivers need to understand how cancer-related pain is experienced by these patients, what it does to them and how it impacts their daily life.  Aim: The aim of this study was to describe patients´ experience of living with cancer-related pain.

Previous studies of stress and coping regarding urban bus drivers describe an unhealthy occupation in areas of psychological and physiological factors. In the present study a social constructionist approach was used to investigate Swedish urban bus drivers' constructs of stress and coping regarding passengers. Semi-structered interviews were performed with ten bus drivers, nine males and one female. The data was transcribed verbatim and analysed with the program QSR NUD*IST.Three main themes where found; passanger related context, coping strategies and promoting circumstances. The bus drivers' constructs describe passanger relations as part of a stressful work environment where successful coping is problematic..

AbstractIn the paper, democracy's development and change are studied in Swedish textbooks related to social science. The study?s starting point is that the picture of democracy provided to students has changed over time. The study aims to see how the view on democracy has altered in Swedish textbooks in social science. In order to examine this, I have studied seven textbooks, from 1945 to 2006, in social science.

Objectives. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between the personality variables Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC), Negativ affect and Social inhibition (the D-personality), and health behavior and attitudes toward keep-fit measures.Methods. The participants in this study were 170 embloyees at a regional social insurance office in a midsize town in the south of Sweden. Scales concerning health behavior and attitudes toward keep-fit measures were constructed and the participants completed these scales as well as those of MHLC and D-personality.Results. Participants with strong beliefs that other people, such as doctors or family-members, are responsible for their health, showed a more positive attitude as to keep-fit measures than those with a belief that health is controlled by themselves.

When gender-related refugee claims was ratified in the Swedish asylum law the 31 of March this year (2006) it opened the door for women with this specific refugee status to receive asylum in Sweden. The aim of this thesis has been to investigate how these specific female refugees are represented and described in the asylum process. The focus has been the construction of identity concerning these women in the Officials discourse at the Immigration department. The theoretical framework has been a critical discourse analysis regarding the exercise of power and dominance connected to the construction of identity.An understanding of the women with gender-related refugee claims as the Others has been perceived through the Officials discourse. Female refugees which have been exposed to persecution that occur in our part of the world (rape, wife abuse, etc.) are treated differently and much more restrictive, compared to women exposed to so called culture specific oppression (e.g.