During the emergence of social work, women have been considered to hold greater competence in social relations. Approximately 80% of social workers in Sweden are women, which leaves men in a minority. Men are considered to have advantages in female-dominated professions because of their unique and desirable abilities. This paper aims to adress men's underpresentation in the female-dominated social work profession. The purpose is to explore the attitudes and experiences of men working in a minority group.

In recent years, the demands for effectiveness and evidence in social work have increased in all work areas, including that of healthcare. This has sparked the discussion on concepts such as practical- and theoretical knowledge and their respective roles in social work. In the light of this, the purpose of this candidate thesis is to investigate healthcare social workers understanding of practical- and theoretical knowledge in the working process as well as their respective influence and importance. This candidate thesis is based on three interviews with social workers from different departments in Norrlands Universitetssjukhus in Umeå, Sweden. To provide range to the thesis, the interviewees were chosen from a purposeful sampling.

The transformed municipality ? Economic and social growth in Örnsköldsvik 1997-2007Author: Kristina HanssonThis thesis focuses on the economic and social growth in the municipality of Örnsköldsvik. It is a single case study and the municipality is studied through economic theories concerning regional growth in the period of 1997-2007. The aim is to analyse whether these theories, such as Åke E. Anderssons and Ulf Strömquists K-society, and other more or less microeconomic assumptions, also are applicable in smaller local contexts.

Marknadsföring används inte bara för att sälja varor och tjänster. Överallt stöter vi idag på budskap som försöker marknadsföra en idé, ett beteende eller en attityd. Detta område inom marknadsföringen är oerhört stort och mångsidigt. En studie av den befintliga litteraturen visar att området benämns med flera olika begrepp och dessa begrepp har flera olika definitioner. Ett av de vanligaste definitionerna av detta område är ?social marknadsföring?.

The focus of this thesis is the conception of work and the relation between work, economic growth and welfare in today?s Sweden in the editorial of Dagens Nyheter (DN), which is the main morning paper in Sweden.As the theoretical foundation of this thesis is social constructionism and the method being used is critical discourse analysis, the language is considered as an important source for the construction of value and meaning of work. In that context it is important to investigate how DN, by certain ways of representing reality, preserves a certain view of the human being, the society and the economy. Which ideological ideas underlie the conception of work that emerges in DN? What social consequences will these ideas have?The thesis discusses the ?truths? that the editorialists mediate concerning for example the view of the human being as guided by rational choice and the view of economic growth as the main goal for social life.One of the conclusions is that DN considers work as a means for economic growth as economic growth is regarded fundamental for the survival of the welfare state..

Social work in Sweden has historically been mostly done by the public sector andthe work has been regulated by law. In the last two decades, private and voluntaryactors have played an important role as providers of welfare state; one of theseplayers is the Swedish Church. The aim of this thesis has been to describe thework the deacons perform in the Swedish Church in a medium-sized municipalityin Sweden. To find out how much freedom of action the deacons themselves feelthat they have and if they feel that their work is influenced by the social work thatother performers are doing. In order to reach the goal, a qualitative approach wasused where seven deacons were interviewed.

In this master thesis I investigate different views on literary quality in two quite different library journals; Biblioteksbladet and Bibliotek i Samhälle. One aim of the study is to see whether the ambiguity of the term literary quality is considered. Since there is no universally accepted definition of literary quality to be found the analysis is inspired by discourse analysis. This theoretical frame work starts off in the assumption that our views of the world are much dependent the way we describe it. The work of Finnish scholar Sanna Talja is presented and the results of this thesis are compared with the three perspectives on music culture that are presented in her book.

This study is investigating what conditions can strengthen an alliance and which obstacles there are. Coercion aspects can also influence an alliance and are therefore also written about. The asymmetrical relationship between the social worker and the juvenile delinquent is investigated also with in regards to the tacit and explicit coercion when they are entering care. The study is focusing on the consequence/influence programs that the juvenile delinquents can be sentenced to because of their crimes. Counseling is a major part in these programs.

After the honor killings of Fadime and Pela, an extensively discussion started in the media, debating honor-related violence and oppression. This debate also made us, the authours of this paper, to pay attention to the problem. As a professional in social work, there are several good points to be made by having an in-depth knowledge in the field, both to discover individuals exposed to honor-related violence and to be able to protect them. The study was conducted by four qualitative interviews with professionals in social work with a professional experience of honor-related problems. Through the interviews, the social worker's view of honor problems emerged.

According to the Swedish curriculum the education should establish respect for human rights and democratic values (Skolverket, 2011, s.7). The purpose of this study is to investigate how five first grade teachers understand the democracy education and how they practice it in reality. I have, based on the purpose of this study issued following questions:What is the teachers interpretation of the democracy education? How does the teachers work with democracy in practice?What difficulties does the teachers see with the democracy education?This study is made through a qualitative method based on interviews with five teachers. The results show that the teachers at both schools, despite the different definitions of the concept of democracy, yet interprets democracy education relatively equal.

Defining the concept of information has long been the subject of debate within Information Science (IS) and new challenges are constantly presented by new scientific discoveries and new theoretical positions. It is, nevertheless, of key importance for any academic discipline to find definitions on which there is a consensus. The paper therefore aims to clarify the relevance of one of these new theoretical approaches for IS, namely poststructuralism. It does so by describing the theories found in the writings of poststructuralists Mark C. Taylor, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, and discussing their relevance for the three definitions of information suggested by Michael Buckland (Information-as-knowledge, Information-as thing and Information-as-process), thereby answering the following questions: What relevance does Mark C.

The overall aim with this essay was to study how counsellors at upper secondary school work with mental illness among youths and compare this with what research and theories advocate. This because there has been a rise in the number of people, especially in the age-group 16-24 years, suffering from different degrees of mental illnesses. The school can in some aspect contribute to cause mental illness but it also consists of good opportunities to offer counselling and work to prevent mental illness among the students. This study consists of five qualitative interviews and two short telephone interviews with school counsellors. During the interviews they expressed their thoughts concerning factors that causes mental illness among youths and gave an account of how they work with prevention, counselling and collaboration.

The purpose of this paper was to discuss stigma and stigmatisation in relation to social policy and social work. By discussing welfare systems in social policy I wanted to see if there could be any connection between social policy and stigma. I used case studies of hearing impaired adults to give examples of how the stigma processes work. By connecting the stigma and the social policy theories with the case studies I wanted to see how the social policy could affect the stigma processes or vice versa.In the paper the concept of stigma has been described and discussed, foremost using the theories of Erving Goffman. I have also discussed the welfare system and the connection between residual systems and stigma.

This work applies intersectionality to five Somali women self-narratives and focuses on their identities and positions in Swedish society, but also their relation to Somali society. Since people constructs in relation to the environment, this work studies the impact of environmental confirmations of their own self. Intersectionality is brought into the social work with an operational attempt, and shows how critics of power and interplay between theories and empirics can provide new knowledge. Intersectionality also demands some alterations of the social constructionists? idea of the ego.

Sustainability work is something that is emphasized more and more. Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, is discussed and the question of how much responsibility companies should really take is frequently in the news. Companies tend to ask themselves how much responsibility they should take. CSR is a common concept of companies environmental and social work and a concept we tend to see here and there in our modern society. CSR includes companies? social responsibilities, both in terms of carbon footprint, working conditions, social responsibility and more.