The purpose of this thesis is to study how swedishness is constructed and narrated in two Swedish documentary series that picture the Swedish participation in the international ISAF mission in Afghanistan. The main focus lies on how the Swedish soldier as such is portrayed, on which values, characteristics and qualities that they are said to embody and how these are linked to notions of swedishness, particularly the strong historical narrative, formed during the second half of the twentieth century, that defines Sweden as a peaceful, neutral and humanitarian state, with peaceful, enlightened and democratically minded citizens. Theoretically it draws on the concept of metanarrative to explain how ideas of shared national origin translates in to a broad organizing discourse, that defines, interprets and communicates notions of what it means to be a Swede and what is needed to make claims on swedishness. Another concept, that of national bodyscape, is also used to further define and explain how ideas of nationality are embodied and take the form of specific characteristics and  personal qualities. The meaning-making in these two series makes use of the above mentioned definition of swedishness as defined by humanitarian concerns, democratic ideals and moral superiority to construct an image of the Swedish soldiers as on the one hand soft, humanitarians, who are needed in Afghanistan because of their especially strong sense of justice and moral, and, on the other, as tough soldiers, who are able to participate in every aspect of the war as fighters.

The foundation for this thesis lies in whether or not, and how, the body representation in printed commercials, specific products directed to the body (shampoo, body lotion etc.), has changed during the last fifty years. Four years have been chosen because of the changes in society that we believe might have had an impact. The commercials that have been picked out are the ones that best represent the general view of the body. We have found that the changes when it comes to body presentation has followed the social development to a certain degree, but it is difficult to say how much the society has had an affect on the body ideal in advertising. Representations of the male body is something that has escalated since the early 70?s, fifteen years earlier few commercials was made with male models, and the few there were, never showed more than the face.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how swedishness is constructed and narrated in two Swedish documentary series that picture the Swedish participation in the international ISAF mission in Afghanistan. The main focus lies on how the Swedish soldier as such is portrayed, on which values, characteristics and qualities that they are said to embody and how these are linked to notions of swedishness, particularly the strong historical narrative, formed during the second half of the twentieth century, that defines Sweden as a peaceful, neutral and humanitarian state, with peaceful, enlightened and democratically minded citizens. Theoretically it draws on the concept of metanarrative to explain how ideas of shared national origin translates in to a broad organizing discourse, that defines, interprets and communicates notions of what it means to be a Swede and what is needed to make claims on swedishness. Another concept, that of national bodyscape, is also used to further define and explain how ideas of nationality are embodied and take the form of specific characteristics and  personal qualities. The meaning-making in these two series makes use of the above mentioned definition of swedishness as defined by humanitarian concerns, democratic ideals and moral superiority to construct an image of the Swedish soldiers as on the one hand soft, humanitarians, who are needed in Afghanistan because of their especially strong sense of justice and moral, and, on the other, as tough soldiers, who are able to participate in every aspect of the war as fighters.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur genus skapas och upprätthålls hos barn i ung ålder som går i förskolan. Vi har valt att fokusera på två olika förskoleavdelningar för att analysera hur personalen talar med barnen, men även hur barnen kommunicerar i leken. Två avdelningar på samma förskola, som arbetar med barn i åldrarna tre till fem år, observerades och intervjuer utfördes med fyra förskolepersonaler. De centrala delarna i undersökningen är hur det biologiska könet upprätthåller könsrollerna, och den konflikt som då uppstår mellan de olikheter som det biologiska könet bär med sig och arbetet kring könsneutraliseringen. Undersökningen syftar även på hur pojkar och flickor kategoriseras in i olika roller och hur dessa isärhålls och hur ojämlikheten upprätthålls, men också hur den hierarkiska ordningen ser ut samt om dessa stereotypa könsroller går att motverka.

The purpose of this study is to explore active after-school teacher?s perceptions of the concept of meaningful leisure time. The purpose of the study is also to investigate if the interpretations of meaningful leisure time affect the perception of their work roles and after-school teacher?s actual work in a leisure activity. The study also provides an insight into how afterschool teachers perceive their roles in general.

The purpose of this study was to illustrate how children of the "digital generation" used their computers in their everyday practice. The important in the study was children's perspective on computers interactions and communications in a digital arena.An essential item about understanding children's way to think about computers was to let children themselves speak by taking part in the study, because children's voices are seldom heard in public. The empirical material used was interviews with sex children between 13 and 15 years old. My method was qualitative.The main results showed that social relations are very important for children. The Internet gives children access to an arena where they are able to make new contacts with others as well as transcend their biological as their physical identity.An important accepts for the children in the study was the option to be anonymous.

The aim of this study is to examine the historical information about women?s libraries and book ownership during the early modern period in the work of Carl Magnus Carlander, Svenska bibliotek och ex-libris [Swedish libraries and ex-libris] (1904) and to inquire the scientific value of the information. A gender perspective is applied to the study. Gender is understood as a social and cultural constructed concept, dealing with female and male identities as interdependent categories.The study of Svenska bibliotek och ex-libris is made using source criticism and it has two parts. The first part deals with external conditions of the creation of the work; the life of C.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine the roles ofthree different public libraries in three differentcommunities. In order to get some answers about the roles ofthe public libraries I have used the following questions: Howis the local cultural policy formulated? How is the locallibrary structured? What or which profiles has the publiclibraries in the three communities?I have made three qualitative case-studies in three differentcommunities. These three communities are somewhatlocated in the same area in order to identify any cooperationbetween them.

This study aims to show how teachers talk about their teaching with regards to gender in relation to literature.We have interviewed four teachers of Swedish for upper secondary school to discover how they feel about, and understand, the fact that gender is a factor in the teaching of literature and that they should present to the students literature written by both male and female authors. To analyze the interviews we use Sannersted's (1991) theory about teachers as street-level-bureaucrats ("närbyråkrater"). He states that teachers are persons who have to follow what politicians have decided but they are fairly free to choose how they do it, but to be able to follow a decision as closely as possible three qualifications have to be met. The teachers have to understand the decision, be able to follow it and want to follow it. We find that the teachers that we have interviewed are aware that they discuss gender issues with their students and they all claim that they present a variation of authors to their students.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the user service discourses in the field of public libraries that can be identified in four Swedish library journals. Also which underlying causes that control the discourses and the consequences of them are examined. Questions in this study are: which discourses can be found, what characterises them, what kind of different discourses concerning technology in society control the user service discourses and what are the consequences of them. The theoretical starting-point is Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory. The method is text analytic.

Elderly couples have a right to live together. On June 1st 2006 the Swedish government extended couples? rights, granting special consideration to elderly partners to enable them to receive care in the same home. But what happens if only one of them is eligible for care? This paper has studied how elderly couples were affected in situations where one partner was unable to continue living at home, and what measures could be taken to improve their situation.

By doing a study of Stapelbäddsparken from a gender perspective I have been investigating and analysing physical planning and landscape architectural design. My intention with this thesis is to reflect on what a gender perspective in physical planning means and what kind of consequences and effects it could have on physical planning and outdoor design. Gender is something that is created, moulded and transformed by social and cultural processes. And it also includes a dimension of power concerning the knowledge of the relationships between women and men where the standard in today?s society is still men?s interests. To implement gender in my analysis of the park I have been observing how the park is used and who is using it. I have also been investigating who?s needs and wishes that has been provided for in planning and design.

This report is an analysis of the gender representation in Swedish sports media, a comparison between sport in public service television for adults and children. The study explores the differences between the number of male and female sports in the matter of air time and also the number of male and female appearances in the TV shows. The programs studied in this report are the Swedish SVT?s Sportspegeln and Lilla sportspegeln. When we began this analysis we were under the impression that men would be over-represented, but that representation in sports television for children would be more gender equal than the adult counterpart. The result of the analysis confirmed previous studies stating that men dominate the sports programs in Swedish public service television.

The position of middle-management is a role where the manager is at risk of being caught between its management and its employees. Elderly care is an industry that has been discussed a lot, to a large extent on how businesses should be managed and by whom it should be conducted. Middle-management in the business of elderly care thereby possess a vulnerable position in a controversial industry. In this study the aim is to investigate the managers' roles and tasks in both the public sector and the private sector in elderly care. It also aims to examine whether there are differences between the roles and how they in such cases is manifested.

Our society has faced monumental changes and therefore our working life has changed as well. We are now in the twentieth first century and still our labor market is gender-segregated. Today networking is an important part of working life and one cannot emphasize enough the importance of having good connections in your network. Networking is now seen as an important tool when it comes to your career. In the past networking has been the men?s arena and it has almost been seen as a male institution.