Social housing in Northern Europe and the importance of social and political consideration in planning. Focus of the essay lies on the "burning suburbs" of France, based on literature studies combined with a study visit to Les Minguettes outside of Lyon..

The purpose of our study is to examine whether stress among social workers is present, and ifso, what strategies they and their supervisors use to manage work-related stress. The study isbased on a qualitative method. The data consist of interviews, with six social workers andthree supervisors. The study?s theoretical framework is based on KASAM, SOC-sense ofcoherence by Antonovsky, demand- control- support model by Karasek & Theorell, stresstheory by Hans Selye and coping strategies by Lazarus.

AbstractIT can facilitate communication among individuals and connect people across geographical distances. On the contrary, citizens of the society who do not use communication technologies to some extent might feel excluded from the information society. As elderly citizens are already in a vulnerable position for the digital divide, communication technology becomes an important tool for interacting with friends and family. The social situation of elderly, 60 years of age and older, is a topic of current interest since they are the fastest growing age group in the world today. Further, social interaction becomes more important among elderly since it has a positive effect on well- being.

This essay addresses the subject social interaction in the social network named Facebook. The studied interaction took place between the Swedish clothing company H&M and the active visitors on the company page in the social network. The subject of social interaction in social media is an interesting field to study due to its vast range, the largely amount of people involved and it is of interest to see how the company and customers interact. The purpose of the essay was to study the interaction between the company and visitors. The statement of the problem is divided into four questions which is processing a deeper analysis of how the company page is used.

ABSTRACTSince Robert D. Putnam first wrote about the causes behind the regional differences in economic and political development in Italy, the theory of social capital has truly flourished in the fields of social science. This days you constantly hear politicians and scholars stressing the important role of the quality of the social fabric to a society?s wellbeing. There all looking at ways to construct policies and institutions that help the spread of social capital.

The aim of this study has been to highlight how school social workers experience their discretion, and furthermore how they feel about working in a context mainly dedicated to teachers. The study is executed with a qualitative research method where ten interviews with school social workers, in eight schools in the area of Stockholm have been conducted. The theoretical framework used to analyze the results was discretion, street-level bureaucracy and human service organizations.The main findings of this study imply that the most important ambition of the social work that was conducted in the schools was to help the students reach their knowledge goals. The assignment is, however, not clearly defined, which has lead to school social workers defining the mission and goals themselves. They all have wide discretion and great possibilities to decide how to execute their work, but how they use the freedom that was given seems to vary among them.

The ambition to use evidence based treatments has spread within the field of Swedish social work. The number of treatments with claim to being evidence based has grown but the research concerning implementation; the procedures being used to introduce new methods in organizations and assure that the method is being used appropriately and continuously, is scarce. The aim of this study was to examine the implementation of Functional Family Therapy (FFT), being an evidence based treatment, in an organization providing social services in the public sector, in Sweden. We used a qualitative research design and conducted interviews with persons involved in the implementation of FFT in the social services in a town in the south of Sweden. We used the practice guidelines provided in Evidence Based Practice (EBP) together with recently published meta- analyses of implementation research, in the field of social work, to examine the implementation of FFT, as being an evidence based treatment.

Syftet med denna studie är att genom kvalitativa intervjuer beskriva upplevelser och erfarenheter av medierad social interaktion på Internet för klienter på behandlingshem för missbrukare. Vi ville undersöka hur detta påverkar klienternas möjligheter att förändra sina liv, identitetsskapande och sociala relationer. Vi genomförde enskilda intervjuer med tre personer som jobbar på ett behandlingshem där klienterna har fri tillgång till Internet och med en klient på samma behandlingshem, samt gruppintervjuer med sammanlagt sju personer som hade varierande erfarenhet av behandlingshem.Resultatet visar en allmän negativ syn på medierad social interaktion under behandlingstiden. Den största risken som lyfts fram under intervjuerna är att Internet försvårar för klienterna att bryta med missbruksvärlden. Kontakt med vänner och bekanta i missbruksvärlden kan leda till att klienten avbryter sin behandling.

The advancements of Internet have contributed to the expansion of social networks and new communities online where people are given an opportunity to get help and support. An important reason why people join these groups and organizations is to share their experiences, meet people in a similar situation and get support. Social media is nowadays an important part of our society. In this study, we will focus on investigating the interaction in closed communities online and blogs. The study aims to investigate whether social media and social networks online can be a support for young adults with cancer in the same way as physical meeting places.

According to statistics, a significant increase in sickness has occurred in the public sector in recent decades in Sweden. Human therapeutic professions is the area where the illness is most prevalent. The purpose of this study was through a qualitative method and hermeneutic approaches explore how conscious six social workers in the social services are on stress and how they cope with it. Further it investigates and analyzes how these results affect their daily work.One important result due to stress is that the social workers ability to treat their clients is impaired and they are less able to be empathetic. Inadequacy in the work environment leads to a sense of insufficiency by social workers, and a reduced quality of life.

The purpose of this study was investigating the means which rule the social worker?s choice of institution placing youths and how they match the youth?s individual need compared with the type of home. The questions were: Which significance has the characteristics of the youth and their family for the placing? Which significance has the characteristics of the institution? Which significance has the social workers? way of working, investigation, theories, economy etc.? A qualitative way of interviewing has been used. Eight interviews were done; six with social welfare secretaries who place youths and two social workers who work with coun­selling and placement.

This paper is a case study of a local labour market project. The aim of the study is to investigate the staff?s way of working with unemployed people, receiving social assistance, in order to reduce the payment of social assistance in four adjacent city districts of Stockholm. Other objectives of the study are to investigate which criteria the staff uses when selecting participants for the project, in which way the participants? background affects the measures taken by the staff and how the staff experiences working as part of a project.

Introduction: The health for individuals with intellectual disabilities is asubject that is prioritized by the Swedish Institute for Public Health. Socialsupport has been proven to be important for health and quality of life. Despitethis fact there is no research available regarding the influence social support hason health and quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities in Sweden.Aim: To describe social support and the consequence of social support forhealth and quality of life for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Method:A litterature review of research in a defined area with a descriptive design.Systematic searches for articles were done in several databases and ultimately16 articles were chosen. Themes and categories were created with respect to theaim of this study during the analysis of the articles.

Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att undersöka sambandet mellan social bakgrund och skolprestationer. Metoden har varit en litteraturstudie med en hermeneutisk ansats. I uppsatsen definieras social bakgrund som den bakgrund en grupp av människor har beroende på att de delar likartade grundläggande materiella, sociala och existentiella villkor. Den sociala bakgrund som en elev har påverkar hur han eller hon ser på skolan, kunskap, sina möjligheter, sin framtid mm. Det är entydigt i materialet att det finns ett samband mellan social bakgrund och skolprestation. Fram till och med grundskolans införande på 60-talet och femton till tjugo år efter införandet hade skolan en tydlig idé om att med likvärdig utbildning försöka utjämna klasskillnader. Då var det skolsystemets organisation som skulle lösa den uppgiften. Principen om alla elevers rätt till en likvärdig utbildning finns fortfarande i skollagen.

AbstractPurpose/Aim: My study aims to analyse, using Pierre Bourdieu´s theory, whether the social background plays a significant part in the attitudes and use of Apples mp3-player iPod. The study also aims to determine whether it is possible to group the focus groups used in my study and iPod into Bourdieu´s model.Material/Method: The reference material used in this paper is mainly gathered from books concerning Pierre Bourdieu´s theories. I have also had four focus groups of two different characters, to study their attitudes towards Apples mp3-player iPod. I have then applied the results of the focus groups to Bourdieu´s theories and models concerning habitus, social fields, capital and lifestyles, and studied whether there are any divergences in attitudes between the groups.Main results: My findings are that the focus groups as well as iPod can be put into Bourdieu´s model. According to the responses from the people in the focus groups, the attitude and usage of iPod do not mirror people?s social class or background, which goes against Bourdieu´s? theory.