The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the combination of bibliographic coupling and three hierarchical cluster analytic techniques: average, complete and single linkage. Bibliographic coupling is applied as a measure of similarity between recently published articles and the cluster techniques are used for the partition of a set of articles into subsets of articles with similar research focus. The field of information science is applied as the test arena and the selection of data, i.e., the article population to be partitioned, is based on a number of central journals. Methods of evaluation include both quantitative approaches as well as a qualitative one. For comparing the resulting partitions, adjusted Rand index is utilized and for the establishment of cluster coherence and isolation, measures of average normalized coupling strength is applied.

TitleSystems, Stability and Power. The Discourse of Information in Organizing Knowledge.AbstractThe aim of this Master's thesis is to inquire into the consequences of an unequal distribution of power between information discourses in the field of knowledge organisation. A deconstruction of Jennifer Rowley's and John Farrows introductory textbook Organizing Knowledge from 2000 is related to the major discourses of information in LIS. Questions posed in this study are: What meaning is ascribed to information in the material studied? Which information discourses are given a dominant position? Which are excluded? and: How does this affect the construction of the library and information science student's identity, in relation to practices of knowledge organisation? The theoretical framework is provided by Ernesto Laclau's and Chantal Mouffe's theory of discourse and combined with techniques for text analysis originating from the work of Norman Fairclough.The analysis reveals a strong domination of a cognitive discourse of information that underlines the importance of information systems for the organisation of knowledge.

The aim of the study was to get a deeper understanding of how social workers at the welfare office think and act when it comes to methadone or buprenorphine treatment. What role does the welfare office take when it comes to methadone- or buprenorphine treatment, what does the welfare office think about this form of treatment, what possibilities does the welfare office have when it comes to decide the selection to this kind of treatment and what consideration does the welfare office take to the separate individuals demands when it comes to methadone- or buprenorphine treatment. The study is done in the perspective of society as a social construction. The method that was used was qualitative interviews with professionals at the welfare office and professionals at the reception of methadone- and buprenorphine treatment. The result of the study is that the attitude towards methadone- and buprenorphine treatment is complicated and the opinions are partly divided..

The aim of this thesis has been to investigate women's experience of the Methadone maintenance treatment and what help they believe they need to be able to recover and to improve their social life and whether the medical- and social workers share the similar view.Our method of investigation has been qualitative interviews with four women in the program, two nurses and a counsellor at the methadone clinic and two social workers, who have female clients in the program.The questions at issue were:* how did the women describe their life situation during treatment, compared to the situation they had while they were addicted to narcotics,* did the women experience that the treatment they get in the methadone maintenance program is giving them a better social life situation,* did the employees at the clinic and at the social office share the similar view about the treatments as the female patients?Main problems seemed to be; meeting new non-addictive friends and finding something to do. We could se that, in different ways, they need more support. It wasn't always clear to the people who work with them whose responsibility it was, depending on workplace and/or personality..

The North-American sociologist Michael Lipsky has characterized social workers as street-level bureaucrats with a substantial discretion in the relationship between the welfare state and its citizens. Within Lipsky´s theoretical framework social workers appear as a powerful group that socializes the citizens to uphold certain expectations towards the welfare state and its (re)distributional programs. From this point of view, it is important to learn more about social workers and the attitudes they express towards the welfare state. The aim of this study is to analyze how the welfare-political attitudes of future social workers are affected by their social background (e.g. class background and ancestral homeland).

The purpose of this article is to examine how social workers may experience fear in their profession, how they and their organizations handle the fear and how the fear may affect their practice. To obtain the purpose, in-depth interviews were carried out with seven social workers from the southeastern part of Sweden. The experiences of fear were many and are summarized in four categories. Fear of treats and violence, fear of the responsibility in complicated situations and without optimal solution, fear of being regarded and judged as worthless and fear of being scrutinized with the risk of being stigmatized. Five strategies were identified to handle the fear: Safety strategies (e.g.

Karlsson. A (2015). Importance of spirituality and social support for quitting narcotics - Experiences of the12 step program. Bachelor thesis in Public Health science. Department of work- and public health science.

Recently, there have been intense discussions about the humanities and their role in society. Internationally, as well as in a Swedish context, the humanities have been regarded to be in a state of crisis. However, these discussions usually demonstrate a lack of historical perspectives based on thorough empirical research. The notion of a crisis needs to be historicized.In this study, a case is being examined where the relationship between science and society was renegotiated. In the context of World War II, a discourse has been identified in a borderland between science and politics through an analysis of Swedish journals and anthologies during the time period 1937-1947.

The aim of this M.A.-thesis in social work is to problematize the assimilatoric concept of integration and its discourses in a postcolonial perspective in relation to social work in Denmark.As a support theory I use symbolic interactionism. By using these theories I show how the concept of integration and its discourses, when its aim is assimilatoric, can be understood and problematized with concepts as binary oppositions and hegemony.It is shown that the construction of the discoursive other is a useful term as an instrument of interpretation of power in general. The relevance to social work in relation to the social workers double powered positions, professional and cultural power to define 'the other', in social work with ethnic minorities is shown in relation to the post colonial perspective with support of symbolic interactionism. The white western world hegemony and the social workers power positions in relation to the clients fits to the theoretic frame chosen in the thesis.A second aim in this thesis is to point to new ways for social work and to the necessity to reflect over a globalized world characterized by international migration, ethnic relations and diversity..

Our purpose with this study was to look at the pawnbrokers role in the Swedish welfare state from the customers perspective. Our purpose was also to see how the customers used the loan. We wondered why people used the pawnbroker's and how the pawnbroker's could be understood as a providing alternative related to the three spheres state, market and family? Above looking at previous science we also did three interviews with people who worked at a pawnshop, a budgetadvisor and a smaller investigation with customers of a pawnshop.We came to the conclusion that the customer needed the money from the loan to buy food in many cases, according to the investigation we did with the customers. According to the employees the customers needed the money for different things, such as paying the bills or unexpected expenses.

The following essay aims to determine what textbooks and teaching media educators in the county of Västerbotten use when teaching the relation between religion and science. Based on educational science theory and through analyzes of factual texts, the teaching materials was examined to determine how much focus they put on the thematic of religion and science. The result shows how the different teaching materials affect this thematic differently. The main conclusion is therefore that students in Sweden could, depending on the teaching materials used in their education, be taught by different standards to reach the same requirements..

This investigation is about how teachers in school can motivate and create interest for science among younger children. Teachers were interviewed about attitudes to their subject and how this affects their lessons.I have also tried to find out, both by interviewes but also by studying litterature, what the most important thing is to teach in science, which knowledge is necessarry in the future and why.My result indicates that teachers find science both interesting and important but at the same time they also think it is a difficult subject to teach even if they are educated. Both the litterature and the teachers in my study agree that knowledge in science gives us a chance to ask questions, take stands and solve problems and that this knowledge is important for us in our future..

In early January 2010 the authors participated in a meeting with the chief engineer for a company in which a central part is manufacturing of printed circuit boards (PCB). At this meeting it emerged that the machinery and production methods have changed substantially since the early 1990's. The spreadsheet for preliminary production time calculations by the company is today based on conditions from almost 20 years ago. The company has over the years been trying to adjust the spreadsheet template. The result of these adjustments has filled it with historical residue, something which makes the template difficult and time consuming when the primary user tries to handle it.The purpose of this study was to help the company increase its accuracy in the representation of the production times for the different PCB-based products by developing a new costing model based on an already existing but inadequate spreadsheet template. The company also expressed the wish that the new costing model would be less time consuming to work with.The methods used to achieve the goal are interviewing, participatory observations and meetings with relevant persons. The data obtained were analyzed using the theory on PCB production and visualization of data.

The purpose with the essay was to study the school and the social welfare personnel respectively along with their perspectives and views on their collaboration in the work with socially exposed children and how the collaboration was formed.To get answers to my questions, I interviewed three teachers and three social welfare secretaries. The questions and the analysis were divided into themes: the collaboration between school and social services now and in the future, development of collaboration, and facilitation and difficulties.When analysing the interviews I found a consensus in some questions. All interviewed agreed on the importance of collaboration for the welfare of the child through continuous meetings. The relationship and dialogue between school and social services was vital. Both teachers and social welfare secretaries found it essential not to be seen as a hidden authority.

In Sweden between 800.000 and 900.000 people have some kind of alcohol related addiction. Each and everyone are expected to have three relatives who in some way are involved in the abuser´s way of life. The consequences of living close to someone with an abuse of alcohol is described as a chaotic life with extreme emotional stress, fear and anger.The aim with our essay has been to look into how social workers are describing their work, from the relatives´ point of view. We also wanted to understand how the relatives´ situation can be. We reached our aim through interviews with social workers and by literature studies.The primary conclusion of the essay is that the dominating theory is that addiction is an illness.