My intention was to explore the childhood of children and adolescents within the religious organization of Jehovah´s Witnesses, in Sweden. I used a technique where I interviewed three active witnesses and four former members. The former members either had left the religion freely or had been excluded by the movement. I wanted to know more from those two different perspectives, because they often seem to conflict. First of all, I wanted to learn about the persons own upbringing.

From a historical perspective, Sweden is a classic example of a social democratic state in view ofits early development of labor movements, democracy and focus on the welfare state. Today, as amember state of the EU, Sweden has however come to be influenced by America?s neoliberalpolities, where companies need to deliver more and better products/services while the consumerawareness and sensitivity has increased about company?s way to invest. Research shows thatScandinavian companies, primarily in Denmark and Sweden, has a leading position when it comesto responsible corporate behavior which has been the reason to our choice of studying howSwedish companies do to achieve success in CSR. To carry out this study, we have usedqualitative analysis, using semi-structures to interview companies in different industry sectors.

The meaning of the concept of psychosocial treatment is ambiguous. The purpose of this study was to examine how professionals within some care institutions, which provide methadone, buprenorphine or naloxone treatment, regard and carry out the psychosocial features of such treatment. Central issues discussed were; how personnel approach the psychosocial features of the treatment, what personnel regard as a focus in the psychosocial treatment, what conditions personnel consider affect treatment positively in order for it to be successful and how personnel see the relation between the medical and psychosocial features of the treatment. The method used was interviews with nine professionals in six qualitative interviews. The theoretical perspectives and concepts used in our analysis were; the theory of biological dependence, an organizational perspective, Prochaska and DiClemente's Stages of Change Model, the concept of individual reality and the concept of marginal conflict.Results show that the conditions most important for successful treatment are; that the patient has a place to live, an occupation, motivation, that the patient take responsibility for his/hers progress and have realistic expectations about the effects of the medicine.

The purpose of this study was to examine parenthood of young mothers from a professional point of view. The professionals work in a medium-sized city in Sweden and they represent different professions to give a broad perspective of the subject. The questions in the study were: What were the advantages of being a young mother of today and were there any problems with being a young mother, from the professionals perspective? What role did young mothers network and family play, from a professional point of view? From a professional point of view, how well did society handle young parenthood? How do the professionals handle the young mothers they met? Studies with reference to professionals' thoughts and expectations of young mothers were few, therefore the professionals were given a central position in this study. A qualitative method was chosen, for this study.

There is currently an ongoing discussion in Sweden about the need for weather shelter for farm animals being kept outdoors during the winter season. Currently, the national animal welfare legislation requires weather shelter providing the animals? with access to a dry and clean place to rest, but under certain conditions exemptions can be granted. The Swedish Board of Agriculture has put forward a hypothesis that there is a difference between judicial decisions in animal welfare cases dealing with weather shelters, as to whether the animal has shown to be suffering or not. The aim of the study was to highlight any weaknesses or difficulties when assessing animal welfare issues associated to the absence of or design of weather shelters.

Social hållbarhet är ett högaktuellt ämne. Delegationen för hållbara städer presenterade år 2012 sin slutrapport och bara ett år senare presenterade Malmökommissionen sin slutrapport för ett social hållbart Malmö. Syftet med uppsatsen är att bredda kunskapen om social konsekvensbeskrivning samt att undersöka dess potentiella effekt på social hållbarhet, eftersom det är av största vikt att hitta konkreta arbetssätt för att uppnå ökad social hållbarhet. Genom en litteraturstudie undersöks i uppsatsens första del vad begreppet social konsekvensbeskrivning har för bakgrund, varför det förespråkas, hur en metod för genomförande skulle kunna se ut samt vilka utmaningar som finns. I uppsatsens andra del studeras tre artiklar som utvärderat effekten av att utföra social konsekvensbeskrivning. Litteraturstudiet resulterar i slutsatsen att social konsekvensbeskrivning har stor effekt på social hållbarhet, på flera olika sätt. Trots att metoden medför en hel del komplexa frågor att förhålla sig till finns det därmed god anledning att utveckla arbetet med social konsekvensbeskrivning, för att vi tillsammans ska nå en mer socialt hållbar framtid..

The aim of my work was, from the point of view from my respondents and literature, to create a picture of why so many highly educated people born abroad don't have an employment that coincides with their education.The question at issue was: How come highly educated people born abroad don't have an employment that coincides with their education from the native country?In my work, I carried out interviews with six highly educated people born abroad that moved to Sweden in the 1990's. In my results and my conclusion I started with the view of the respondents and the literature, linked together to some theories I have found fruitful for my understanding of the respondents' answers.The theoretical starting point for analysis of my work was the human capital theory, the theory of growth, the signal and filter theory and Habermas' theory.The result of my studies show that there are several factors that causes many highly educated people born abroad to have difficulties in getting an employment that coincides with their education. Such factors are weaknesses in the language, the lack of networks within one's profession and the fact that it takes a long time to complement the education..

This thesis is a case study that examines what political decisions have been taken and how these policies have been implemented. Further this thesis discusses how legitimacy of local policy makers and implementors is affected. The subject studied have been the social service of Jönköping municipality and the intervention of safe-housing aimed at women who have been, or are subject to violence by person close to them. In our study we have examined local policy within the territory of the intervention and how this policy is implemented. A qualitative method with semi-structured interviews was used in combination with quantitative methods to examine protocols from the social welfare board and an action program named "Skydd och stöd för misshandlade kvinnor och deras barn? [Protection and support for abused women and their children].The purpose of this study has been to highlight how the social services implemented the local policy of safe-house accommodation in Jönköping municipality from the legitimacy and discretion perspectives.

The discussion of the swedish treatment of offenders often revolves round the two contradictions punishment and care. Modern prison is described to be based on values such as humanity, care and respect, although the main task is to protect the society from criminals by keeping them locked up. This study focused on the role of the prison officer with the purpose of understanding how he sees his profesional role in an organisation influenced by punishment and care.Central questions are: How does the prison officer handle his role as caretaker in an organisation where he not only has the right to, but also is obliged to, controle and power his clients? How does the prison officer define his working role and does he find any dificulties in combining these?The research was realized during the months of April and May 2005 through qualitative interviews and conversations with prison officers working in a swedish prison. It also contained a minor fieldstudy in that same prison.The results showed that the principle conflict between punishment and care have an insignificant influence on the daily work of the prison officer.

The aim of this study is to analyse the Swedish state´s ambition in achieving equality among its citizens. By studying the new urban policy introduced by the government in 1998 from a theoretical perspective the purpose of this essay is to understand the ideational dimensions in this policy project, in regard to established understandings about equality.The theoretical framework on which this study is based consists of two different parts. The first presents dominating models on welfare states, mainly focusing on the socialdemocratic welfare state. The second introduces influential theoretical views on equality, primarily discussing universalism and a differentiated equality view. It also presents theoretical views on how to understand the relationship between the state an its citizens.

The purpose of our report was to analyze the effects of youth drug abuse on the families concerned. Youth drug abuse made us wonder about the effects on the family as a whole, of those involved with drug abuse. To answer this question, we decided to employ an empiric study in the form of interviews with four teenagers, five parents and four drug counselors. Because our intent was to understand rather than try to measure the problems involved, we decided on a qualitative method. Our method built upon semi-structured interviews using open questions, where the interviewees were free to express their own thoughts and opinions.

The intension of this study is to investigate the interaction between teachers and social workers in two diffrent countys. The study is focused on how teachers act upon suspicions when there are children at risk and what kind of support the teacher gets from social workers. Another importent question is if the teachers know what kind of rules regarding to confidentiality and if it would be better for the pupils if there were no confidentiality.To get answers to my questions, i have interviewed teachers and social workers in both countys.In this study I assume that the power has three dimensions and that there are four levels of interaction.Due to the law about confidentiality the social worker has the power over the teachers. Because the law about confidentiality it is difficult for teachers and social workers to interact.If the teacher want help from social services, she or he must call the social worker because the social worker will not call the teacher. If the social worker want to help the teacher and give her advice, the social worker can do that without breaking confidentiality.

This study has a double purpose. First, it explores and maps out the use of quantitative key indicators in social performance reporting within a microfinance portfolio. This was done on behalf of Storebrand Asset Management, who would like to aggregate and report the social results of their microfinance investments to their customers. The study concludes that the extent of social reporting and types of indicators used varies, meaning that it is hard to aggregate data for use in further reporting. Thus, the work towards the goal of social reporting has only just begun.

Slaughter of animals should consist of two steps in order to be considered humane. The first step of the slaughter process is stunning, with the purpose of inducing unconsciousness and insensibility in the animal. The second step is exsanguination, which causes bleeding and eventually death. What death really means in these situations has been discussed intensively, but still no agreed definition has been accepted. Nonetheless, it is conceded that animals are declared dead when consciousness is irreversibly lost, and absence of respiration and blood circulation are observed.

The aim of this essay was to examine children's experiences of having a pathological gambler as a parent, which consequences this led to socially, economically and emotionally, if those children got any help and in that case where and what kind of help.Central questions asked where:* In what way did the child experience consequences from the parent's gambling?* How did the child experience the gambling parent during the gambling period?* In what way did the gambling affect the relationship between the parent and the child?* How did the parent's gambling affect the child socially, emotionally and economically?* How did the child handle this?* What help did the child itself think it required?* Where did the child got help?This is a qualitative study of nine today adult persons that grown up with a pathological gambler as a parent. The method is qualitative semi structured interviews.The results of the study are that all of them experienced large consequences socially, emotionally and economically. The consequences varied depending on the total situation in the family. The result shows that all of them have got coping abilities and they have applied more to emotion-focused forms of coping than to problem-focused coping..