I denna uppsats undersöks den kritiska realismen som vetenskapsteori för samhällsvetenskaperna. Tillvägagångssättet är en immanent kritik, där den kritiska realismen följs genom dess grundläggande argument, för att sedan vända dess egen begreppsapparat mot sig själv för att visa på spänningar och motsägelser i teorin. Särskild uppmärksamhet kommer genomgående att riktas mot den nära relationen till marxismen, samt synen på abstraktioner som ett centralt samhällsvetenskapligt verktyg. Undersökningen tar sin utgångspunkt i argumenten för en realistisk vetenskapsteori utifrån det naturvetenskapliga experimentet som oomstritt faktum, och upplyftandet av ontologin framför epistemologin. Den kritiska realismens ontologiska modell presenteras, liksom dess kritik av empirismen och idealismen.

This case study is an attempt to give empirical support to Georgio Agambens theory, regarding how the exceptions from the constitutional order should be regarded as a constant element in modern societies. The purpose was to investigate if Agambens theory is valid in the Swedish context. The exception, as definied by Agamben, is a reappearing phenomenon, which implies that the constitutional order is fragile. Individuals and groups are transferred into ?homo sacers?, meaning people that is to be regarded as legally naked, and offset from the rest of society.What then is it that make the legal norms fragile? In this thesis I will discuss the causality of moral panic.

Mass media is becoming more and more personalized and despite common ideas it could actually be a good thing. Instead of affecting the actual content of news coverage it might only have an effect on the way in which news are presented. Famous politicians more regularly become symbols and synonyms for their parties or for the government and are being used to create interest in the beginning of articles.Those are the results from a content analysis of the newspaper coverage of the Swedish parliamentary election in 1976 and 2006 in which the scientist categorized each article in one of four ideal types, counted quotes and analyzed whether personal names were interchangeable with party names without affecting the content. All three methods showing that it is the presentation, not the content, which has been personalized.At the same time, psychology-science tells us about the human brains associative learning processes, where memorizing becomes far more efficient when the information can be connected to an already known person. Increased personalization of news might therefore increase the political knowledge of the receivers..

This is a qualitative social psychology study, which aims to describe how mothers with 1-2 year old children develop their identities, seen from Symbolic Interactionistic perspective. Five young mothers have been interviewed, through qualitative interviews and self reports. Through this data I have attempted to establish how these women develop their identities when they have been mothers for 1 or 2 years. The conclusions I have drawn is that the identities change radically with becoming a mother and all respondents take different decisions outfrom their identities as mother. There seems to exist a need of more knowledge about how to bring the identity of a woman and a mother together and create a new entity.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the theoretical developments on social entrepreneurship. Our purpose is to create a better understanding of the phenomenon leading to new insights. We have categorized the knowledge of the concept into social economy, social ownership, social innovation and social missions. Drawing from our theoretical review we have chosen four empirical illustrations, Grameen Bank, Wikipedia, Basta Arbetskooperativ, Jörn Hälsogemenskap, and we have shown how these fit into the general description of the social entrepreneur. With help of our illustrations we show that it is complicated to pin point the core of social entrepreneurship as they each have separate structures, innovations, social missions and operate close to different sectors.

Denna teorianvändande uppsats handlar om konsekvenserna av skuggekonomins utbredning i post-konfliktuella samhällen och hur dessa påverkar utvecklingen i Bosnien-Hercegovina. Vi har använt oss av Roland Paris IBL-teori på statsnivå och Carolyn Nordstroms hypoteser på individnivå för att bättre belysa problemen som ett post-konfliktuellt samhälle ställs inför när det gäller skuggekonomins utbredning och konsekvenser. Genom att tydliggöra vad som omfattas av skuggekonomin på dessa två nivåer belyser vi vilka positiva respektive negativa konsekvenser skuggekonomin medför. Den inofficiella sektorn i Bosnien-Hercegovina har ökat och staten har blivit allt svagare och därigenom fått svårt att bygga upp starka institutioner vilket syns i den offentliga sektorn som präglas av korruption. På individnivå har skuggekonomin tagit över statens tidigare roll som socialt skyddsnät, arbetsgivare och inkomstkälla.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur kvinnan som könsidentitet konstrueras och förändras inom den nationalsocialistiska diskursen under sjuttio års tid. Uppsatsen är en komparativ studie av den nationalsocialistiska rörelsen i Sverige under 1930-talet och 2000-talet och dess syn på kvinnan. Grunden för uppsatsen och dess analys utgörs av främst tidningsartiklar från rörelsens tidskrifter från de båda tidsperioderna. I analysen av den nationalsocialistiska diskursen har jag använt diskursanalysen. Bakgrunden till uppsatsen är att synliggöra kvinnan och dess agentskap inom den nationalsocialistiska rörelsen, vilket historisk forskning oftast döljer.

The aim of the study is to explore the meaning of living with urinary incontinence caused by Spina Bifida, self-esteem, psychological well-beeing and expectations on treatment of urinary incontinence in 10 children and adolescents, 9-20 years old, as well as their parents perspective. The study was conducted through semi-structured interviewes as well as self-reports about self-esteem ("I think I am"; Ouvinen-Birgerstam, 1999) and psychological well-beeing (Beck Ungdomsskalor; Beck, Beck & Jolly, 2004). To examine the parents insight in their childrens situation and well-beeing parents proxy-reports was compared to their childrens self-reports. The results showed that psychological well-beeing and self-esteem of the children and adolescents in this study was comparable to normgroups, but that there was big individual differences. The parents proxy-reports are comparable to their childrens self-reports, but vary depending on the domain beeing estimated.

The ambition of this paper is to study the construction of the categorization between ?us? and ?them? in a religious minority, represented by Jehovah?s Witnesses and a nationalist political party, represented by the Swedish Democrats. This will be done by a discursive psychology analysis of their official publications on each group?s website. By a deductive study using Henri Tajfel?s Social Identity Theory trying to disclose the psychological processes; social categorization, social identity, social comparison and psychological distinctiveness.

Syftet med denna studie är att spegla tidsandan i det tidiga 2000-talets Sverige så som den tar sig uttryck vid annonser för bostadsförsäljning. Hur kan ett svenskt hem se ut idag? Vad finns det för ideal kring hem och heminredning?.

The process of economic globalization has in recent decades increased the power of multinational corporations. In recognition of their powerful position, corporations have begun to adopt Corporate Social Responsibility as a way of managing their social impact. Their interaction with the surrounding society reaches a peak when involved in large-scale projects, such as the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Narmada Valley Development Project in India. This essay analyses the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility in a comparative study between the two cases. By using current research, it focuses on the role of civil society for making Corporate Social Responsibility effective in developing countries.

Sammanfattningsvis kan åtagandena i uppsatsen kokas ned till följande: Dess syfte är att se till hur intermedialitet och bildspråklighet manifesterar sig i vinrecensionen samt hur dessa två fenomen interagerar i densamma. Frågan som söks besvaras är: Hur arbetar bildspråk för att uppnå god överföring mellan medier i en applicerad intermedialitet? Metoden för att besvara denna fråga utgår ifrån en jämförelse mellan vinrecensionens sätt att kommunicera med sin läsare och idéer från semiotiska kommunikationsmodeller angående hur betydelse överförs. Dessutom görs historiska utblickar angående intermedialitet och bildspråk i respektive kapitel, för att vinna hävd åt definitionerna i uppsatsen. Samtliga moment utförs i semiotisk anda, med fokus på språk och på de strukturer som styr sådana..

ÖREBRO UNIVERSITYDepartment of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences Programme in social care oriented towards social pedagogy C-essay, Social Work, 41-60 pAutumn term 2005 Social Work in School A qualitative study influenced by youths experiences and needs.Authors: Pernilla Abrahamsson & Sandra LiljemarkTutor: Marianne Freyne-LindhagenAbstractThe aim with this study is to investigate young adult´s experiences and need of social work in school, and a qualitative method was used to take part of their experiences. Groupquestionnaires with open questions was formed and three year one classes in uppersecondary school participated. In the process of making the questions a testquestionnaire was tested with one of the three classes as particpants. Information has also been collected throug an interview over the phone with the school´s welfare officer, and the school´s policy dokuments have been read. Social work in schools is mentioned in the study as preventive measures with youths when it comes to bullying, alcohol, drugs, sex and coexistance and tobacco.

This essay studies what has been written about religious experience and visions both in the past and now. It deals with both the religious experience and tries to explain how and if there is any place in the modern society for religious visions and experience. The essay has a strong theoretical perspective to psychology of religion as presented by Anton Geels whose writings in the subject have been of one of my main sources.The study shows that people of all times and cultures have had religious visions and the feeling of a divine experience even if this has changed because of tradition, time and place. Religious experience and visions can furthermore occur both in a spontaneous, unprepared way as well as being cultured through ascetic practice in order to facilitate the divine reception. The study also shows that religious experience in no means is reserved for special ?chosen ones? but can occur to each and every one, no matter what class, race or position in life.

År 2002 utkom statsvetaren Staffan Anderssons avhandling Corruption in Sweden, i vilken han kartlägger korruptionen i Sverige och det officiella arbetet mot densamma. Sedan dess har en del ägt rum på den politiska och akademiska arenan inom området korruption, och denna uppsats utgör en komparativ uppföljning till Anderssons resultat.Vad gäller den officiella medvetenheten kring riskzoner för korruption har ingenting förändrats sedan 90-talet: det finns fortfarande ingen officiell svensk ståndpunkt i denna fråga. Det har heller inte skapat någon officiellt uttalad policy som reglerar arbetet mot korruption, däremot har det bildats en juridiskt operativ enhet (Riksenheten mot korruption, RMK), främst på initiativ från EU. Riksrevisionsverket (RRV) har även ombildats till den oberoende Riksrevisionen, vilket ger konstitutionellt skydd mot korruption.De legala förändringarna finns främst på det kommunala planet, men vi anser att det trots dessa förändringar fortfarande finns frågetecken kring den kommunala revisionens arbete, som kan anses politiskt och ekonomiskt beroende av kommunstyrelsen. Det finns fortfarande, vad vi erfarit, en hemmablindhet och en ?sömngångaraktig? inställning hos myndigheter och näringsliv gentemot korruption i Sverige..