The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions within social services regarding men who are victims of domestic violence based on how gender, sexuality, masculinity and victimhood was constructed in the social workers' statements. Eight qualitative interviews were conducted with nine social workers who work within the social services and meet people who are victims of domestic violence. A social constructionist scientific approach has permeated the study and theories of gender, heteronormativity, masculinity and the ideal victim has served as the study?s theoretical views. The results of the study showed that some of the social workers ascribed men specific characteristics such as strength and fearlessness.

Unhealthiness is not just a damaged back or asbestos. The fact that mental ill-health seems to increase in our society is well known. Statistics from Arbetsmiljöverket proves a fourfold increase of work-related disorders since 1997. These are primarily caused by organizational and social factors, 60% are considered caused by stress and a heavy workload. Sick leave due work related fatigue and depressions are scarily common today.

Work environment has been an important part of the Swedish working life for a long time and with the help of the Working Environment Law the work environment is mandatory. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper insight into how the system of middle managers systematic work environment looks like. The question was: How do six middle managers perceive and deal with systematic work environment? A qualitative study was conducted with six middle managers from a global company. During the analysis, there were three main themes to be recognized (cooperation and support facilitates the work environment, problem with the systematic work and difficulties with staff) and six sub themes.

The aim with this thesis, based on five childrens librarians statements, is to highlight their view of their work, and what they deem to be of importance when working with small children within the library sphere. My main question is as follows: What motive compels childrens librarians in their work with small children, and will Vygotskys theories be recognised in their statements. I have two questions as a base for this main question: How do childrens librarians work with small children, and do they utilise any special methods in their work? How do childrens librarians view their work tasks, and what do they deem to be of importance regarding small children and libraries? The thesis is based on qualitative interviews. As a theory I have decided to concentrate on Vygotskys thoughts on imagination and creativity, the Zone of Proximal Development, and childrens language development.

The purpose was to look into the pattern of consumption among middleage women. Our questions were how women experienced the need to consume, how they defined the expression of consumption and if there was a difference between "shopping" and "buying". The research has been done through eight qualitative interviews and searching in litterature, illuminating our questions.All women defined consumption as satisfying basic needs. According to them everything bought on a daily bases is consumption. More difficult to define was the experience of "need".

AN EVALUATION OF EFFA-VÄSTERS PARENT PROGRAMME FOR PARENTS WITH CHILDREN 2-4 YEARS- A qualitative and quantitative research focused on content, effects and implementationAuthors: Fritz, Jesper & Johansson, LinaSupervisor: Koutakis, NikolausÖrebro UniversityAcademy of Law, psychology and social workSocial Work ProgramSocial Work 41-60 pointsC-essay, 15 pointsAutumn term 2008AbstractThis study is written on commission by The Unit for prevention which is a part of the Social welfare Services in the district of Örebro. The social work practice carried out by the unit is based on universal prevention, which includes providing parent programmes. The aim in this study is to describe and evaluate the EFFA-Väster parent programme, which has been compiled by social workers working at the unit, with regard to the content, effects and implementation of the program. The study is based on a non-experimental inquiry of an experimental group which has been subjected to a pre- and post test. Further, observations has been made of every program session to examine whether the program is implemented in accordance with the intention and how the program is received by the participants.

The purpose of this study was to examine in which way personnel who work with LVM approach their client?s integrity, autonomy and their participation in decision making. We used a semistructured interview when we interviewed three social workers, one placement secretary and four care personnel who work at institutions for LVM. In the theoretical approach of this study we used the total institutions and the user influence by clients. The study has shown that personnel?s considerations to their client?s integrity, autonomy and participation in decisions are a convoluted problem.

This report is about Swedish statistics on work related accidents and work related diseases onboard Swedish ships. The authors analyzed collected statistics from two authorities and an insurance organization in an attempt to compare the data. In order to understand the need for statistics and why the authority publishes them; minor literature study was conducted. The results of the literature study are in the background chapter. The requirements for the different cases to be registered in the statistics have been investigated, in unity with the issue in question.

The master's thesis investigates how the concept traditional knowledge is represented by international organizations that are influential in development work and policy making. Departing from a theoretical framework drawing on Michel Foucault, constructed aspects of knowledge and the power relations knowledge production implies are highlighted.A recent interest within library and information science and practice to document this kind of knowledge raises questions about how traditional knowledge differs from other forms of knowledge and how knowledge organizational tools can be applied. Investigations, which critically explore the concept traditional knowledge, the power relations the concept creates as well as the interests and purposes it serves, have been surprisingly absent within the discipline. The focus in this master's thesis is how traditional knowledge is conceptualized by international organizations. A discourse analytical approach reveals the power relations that are inherent in their descriptions of traditional knowledge and how they describe the relevance of the concept for their work.

The purpose of this essay was to examine municipal guidelines regarding the administration of the social assistance, collected from 18 municipalities in the Stockholm-area to achieve a greater understanding on how they were constructed in respect to the legislation and how the language mediated their contents. The legal aspects of the social assistance was studied through a jurisprudential method in which the legislative history, texts of laws and case laws were examined. The empirical aspect of this essay was studied through a hermeneutical method and analyzed through theories of social constructionism and legal pluralism. The results from the jurisprudential study were also used to understand how the municipal guidelines were constructed in relation to the law. The results of this essay corresponded well with previous studies in this field where considerable divergences in the approval of social assistance have been established.

The aim of this Master thesis is to examine the institutionalization of Library- and Information Science in Sweden. I focus on the period 1978-1991, and pay special attention to the development of the discipline at the University College of Borås. My main method of investigation has been analysis of printed sources. After a brief description of the discipline and its history internationally, I describe how research and graduate education in Library- and Information Science developed in Sweden during the 20^th century. A major part of the thesis is an analysis of three reports from the chosen time period which are all, with slightly different prerequisites, trying to find a solution to the problem of how to establish Library- and Information Science as an academic discipline in Sweden.

The aim of this thesis is to study a job-searching process and elements that affects it. The elements I have focused on are gender, class and social network. The study is based on interviews and a survey study with students from the educational program of Social work (Socialomsorgsutbildningen), that graduated 3 years ago. Through the survey I have examined their social-background and their job-searching process. The interviews are the main focus in the study.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the kind of support society offer parents, by illuminating some of the parent education programs which are arranged by social services. By interviewing some of those who are involved in these education programs, we tried to figure out what society would like to mediate as good parenting.Our main questions was:* Why are parental education needed in society of today?* What are the purpose of the education?* For whose sake are these educations arranged, for the childrens, the parents or in public interest.* This model which you are using, what would it like to mediate as most important in good parenting.We found that the respondents all agreed that the main purpose of these educations was to improve the relationship between parents and children. However they all pointed out the fact that there are great gains in public finances to do as well..

AbstractDoes Geography Matter? A Study of the Bologna Process from a Policy Transfer Perspective.Essay in Political Science (D-level) at Karlstad?s University by Beatrice Högå, Spring 2007Tutor: Susan MartonThe purpose of this essay is to generally see how theories of policy transfer can help us to better understand the process through which the Bologna Process is being spread throughout Europe, and to specially see if geographic placement, i.e. in the heart of Europe, plays a role in how well and how fast the Bologna Process is implemented.To be able to answer the purpose, I have used Evans and Davies theoretical model on policy transfer network to describe the Bologna Process. Furthermore, Sweden and France are the countries being examined when they differ on the independent variable. From there, I have applied an analytical tool, namely process tracing, to examine whether there are differences in the two countries? work with the implementation of the Bologna Process.I have designed six specific research questions:Have France performed more extensive work than Sweden when it comes to implement the two-cycle system?Have France performed this work earlier?Have France performed more extensive work than Sweden when it comes to recognize awards and periods of study?Have France performed this work earlier?Have France performed more extensive work than Sweden when it comes to quality assurance?Have France performed this work earlier?After applying the analytical tool to be able to answers these research questions, the answer to the general question Does geographic placement, i.e.

This thesis presents a new way of providing library users with reference services, namely chat (text based digital reference service in real time). Our research questions focus on the role of reference service, a comparison of chat reference to other reference forms, and the interest for real-time, digital reference. Our literature review covered the areas of digital reference and reference theory, the results of which showed that an ongoing debate hardly exists among Swedish librarians on the topic of reference work. We interviewed librarians from the three different Swedish chat reference projects existing at the time of our study. Most interviewees were very positive about chat reference.