Many of us have grown up hearing or using words meant as insults or negative adjectives that were in fact names for social groups. Most of them have gone unquestioned in the mainstream consciousness, but the term Gay in the generally negative meaning has in the past years been given attention as offensive and homophobic, with debates emerging in response over whether or not this is true, particularly on the internet. It is the articles and forum threads from these debates that make out the empirical material for a qualitative study as I ask what these people?s thoughts are about this term and how it is perceived.After a qualitative coding and analysis of these texts, and interpretation of the results based on Erving Goffman?s theory of Phantom acceptance and stigma terms, Judith Butler?s theory of performativity, Ferdinand de Sassure?s theory of signifier and signified and how it connects to the community and Baudrillards theory of simulacra, this is the principal conclusion that I have drawn:For some of the people in this debate, the term Gay and its use is about homophobia and heterosexism, though mostly it?s not overt but a subconscious part of the continued dehumanization and stigmatization of homo- and bisexual people. This is a position I callThe socially focused skepticism.

The first part of this essay focuses on how we relate to the landscape at the international and the national level today. The landscape convention is presented and compared to actual current Swedish policies. Different definitions of landscape are discussed. The second part renders the landscape in different archaeological contexts. The central theme is the attempt to investigate if and how we can approach prehistoric man by looking at the landscape as a socially constructed concept.

The purpose of the present essay, as part of the project Self esteem and Life circumstances among teenagers, was to investigate the rate of both deliberate self-harm (DSH) and risk behaviour related to eating disorders in 14-year-old swedish adolescents, gender differences in DSH, and possible correlations between DSH and risk behaviours related to eating disorder. In addition, the effects of expressive writing (Pennebaker & Beall, 1986) on DSH and risk behaviours related to eating disorders were investigated. Data from two pilot studies are included. In total, 198 14-year-olds from four different schools in southern Sweden participated. For the purpose of measuring the rate of DSH, a simplified version of Gratz's (2001) Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory (DSHI) was used.

AimThe Swedish government has allocated a milliard Swedish Crowns on the project ?Ett handslag med idrotten?, (A handshake with sports), to make it possible for more children to participate in sports. The project goes on for four years and my work is an evaluation of the projects that have received fundings from Gästriklans Idrottsförbund for the second year. One aim is to see how many pupils that have been involved with the projects and especially the numbers of pupils earlier not active in a sport club and the number of girls. It is interesting to see what?s in common in the sport clubs that have had a large number from those two groups.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how homosexuality is portrayed in young- adult novels. I use books published in Sweden from 1977- 2003. Three of the books have female main characters and the other three have male main characters. My purpose is therefore to compare the different results between the sexes.I will examine and discuss the homosexuality in the novels with focus on the homosexual identity of the young characters and how it is formed. I relate the results to a queer discussion about identity.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to identify how Swedish clothing companies strategically communicate CSR ? the issue being that CSR communication is frequently scrutinized and criticized. This is examined using semi-structured interviews with six company representatives. The result is presented thematically, dealing with (1) conditions for CSR and CSR communication, (2) how to manage the issue with criticism and (3) which communication strategies companies use. Following conclusions are drawn: the companies can be divided into Mirvis and Googins phases integrated or engaged/innovative, with conditions characterizing these phases.

The current research examined whether motives, traditional mass media consumption and individual differences (social activity and political interest) predicted the use of social media among a group of university students in China. In coherence with Uses and Gratifications assumptions the study found that the factors differentially predicted the extent of media use. Information seeking, social interaction and affinity were the main reasons for using social media. There was a negative correlation between television viewing and use of social media, in addition to a negative correlation between information seeking and use of the media. Results further suggest that social media are used to enhance social capital, since student?s being socially active offline, tend to use the media to a greater extent than those less active..

This study highlights the problematic situation fathers encounter when they require help and support in a custodial dispute. Previous research shows the emergence of a new, more involved father. In the light of this earlier research, this study will show a father that is willing to fight for his rights to be a present and engaged parent in the case of a separation from the mother. The aim was to analyze the subjective perceptions of five fathers in custodial dispute. This analysis did not only show how they perceive their role as a father and their masculinity but also the way they feel about the help they got from social services and other institutions.

The purpose of this study is to examine how four teachers in preschool describe their view of conflicts between children from gender perspective. The theories associated with the study conclude that sex can be considered as being either biologically or socially engineered. The study consists of empirical material by the means of qualitative research based on interviews. The results of the study show different views on whether children's gender plays a role in a conflict. Furthermore, I have chosen to find out whether gender plays a role in conflict management as well as in the children's play at preschool, this to come to as qualitative conclusions as possible..

Social sustainability is often regarded as a solution to social problems in general. In this study, on the contrary, social sustainability is conceived as a socially constructed concept and the result of a certain way of looking at the world, the human being and the ideal society. The study centers around Kinda municipality in the southern region of Östergötland and a few of its elder inhabitants. What meaning and substance social sustainability is contained with as well as the effects that are produced by these conceptualizations is explored and analyzed. Also, the study examines the encounter between political policy?s and judgments on the one hand and the experiences and preferences held by the municipality?s elder inhabitants on the other..

The purpose of this essay is to show how or if teachers use different methods working with minority language students, who don?t speak Swedish in lower primary school. By using different socio-cultural perspectives I want to show that learning for both students and teachers is contextual and socially connected and how practical knowledge is significant for many teachers.My working method of this essay is made in a qualitative form by interviews with four preschool teachers. By these interviews I hope to find account for how teachers with or without experience work with immigrant children.The result of my survey shows that perceived experience is significant to most of my informants, which is what deficient in their work with non-Swedish speaking children.    .

Trust is the most important thing for a webshop. The consumers must be able to feel trust to choose to submit their personal information to a webshop. In this study we examine the impact that design has on the consumers trust and confidence. We study six consumers that are engaged in e-commerce in their everyday life. By allowing these participants to be presented with two different webshops, an assessement could be made in both how much design is affecting and also which parts of the design that leads to trust and lack of trust.

Social competence is an effective weapon at all costs on today?s market. In many job ads we can see the words to be socially competent. In our report we have studied the subject?s social competence, relations, relationship marketing and personal networks and looked to the connection these subjects have to one another.

This bachelors thesis was made forWallenius Water AB to develop a basisfor an Airpurifier prototype. Wallenius Water isone of the world's leading environmentaltechnology companies engaged inchemical-free water treatment based onUV-radiation. The thesis aim was toproduce a basis for a prototype that canbe used in three applications:Standalone, RAS systems and ventilationsystems. The work includes anintroductory description of the theorybehind AOP technology based on aliterature review on the subject. Asurvey of products currently on themarket and a product specification hasbeen used as the basis for thepreparation of a number of concepts inthis report.

The essay's purpose is to find out why municipalities engaged in local labor market policies and the study focused on a smaller survey unit. In the paper an analysis is made of the Torsås municipality's labor market policy. The work also intends to structure the political organization and their cooperation with other players. The survey methods used were interviews and a case study. The essay results are based on two interviews.