Almost all Swedes today have access to the Internet, if not through the home then via the library or work. Despite this, around 20% of the population stand outside the information society in that they lack in knowledge, assistive usability tools or positive attitude towards technology and its influence on society. The main factors influencing the digital divide in today's society are age, disability and education, while the main reason for staying outside seems to be disinterest.The question about digital inclusion is important as we now stand on the breaking-point between a society where the industry has had a prominent position for private as well as national economy and a digital society where access to the Internet is no longer about prestige, but where significant differences between users' knowledge levels can create a power gap. Gaps in access and use not only reflects already existing socio-economic conditions, but can also maintain and enhance these.It is crucial for the future expansion of Internet usage how today's non-users feel about becoming users. To understand what underlies the motivations not to use computers is one of the keys to get non-users to embrace becoming users.

The aim of this paper is to investigate how teachers in Swedish schools abroad reason about their work developing the Swedish language as the students live in a non-Swedish speaking country although going to a Swedish school. Furthermore the study intends to examine the teachers' attitudes towards the impact the Swedish language has upon the school. Research questions:What thoughts do the teachers signify in reference to the language development of the students?How do the teachers reason about the role of the Swedish language in the school?In order to answer these questions, qualitative measures has been used in terms of observations and interviews. The study is based upon a social constructivist perspective with the idea that reality is socially constructed.

BAKGRUND: I bakgrunden har tidigare undersökningar och litteratur tagits upp som berör ämnet matematik i relation till barns och elevers lärande. Utöver tidigare undersökningar görs även kopplingar till skollagen, läroplanen för det obligatoriska skolväsendet, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet, Lpo 94, samt till läroplanen för förskolan, Lpfö 98. Undersökningen utgår från utvecklingspedagogiken och det socio-kulturella perspektivet.SYFTE: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur förskollärare och lärare uttrycker att de arbetar för att göra matematik till ett ämne som barnen och eleverna intresserar sig för, vill lära sig och utvecklas i.METOD: Undersökningen för vårt examensarbete är av kvalitativ art. Vi har genomfört intervjuer med 5 förskollärare och 10 lärare.RESULTAT: I vårt resultat framkom fem kategorier gällande matematik för barn och elever i förskolan och skolan. De är attityd och inställning till ämnet, intresse för matematik, planering, arbete med matematik och individanpassning.

Studien syftar till att få djupare insikt i hur professionella musikers övning i fri improvisation kan se ut. I bakgrundsavsnittet ges en överblick av begreppen ?improvisation? och ?fri improvisation? och därefter följer en presentation av tidigare litteratur och forskning inom ämnesområdet. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt utgörs av det sociokulturella perspektivet på lärande och kommunikation.Studiens datamaterial består av kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra professionella musiker inom fri improvisation. I resultatavsnittet beskrivs informanternas syn på improvisation, fri improvisation och frihet, deras redskap för övning samt deras användande av tillägnade färdigheter.

Den senaste PISA-studien (Skolverket 2010) visar på en försämrad läsförmåga bland svenska elever jämfört med tidigare studier. I föreliggande examensarbete intervjuades sex gymnasieungdomar om de lästraditioner som förekom under uppväxten, sina läsvanor, samt sin syn på läsning idag. De intervjuade var alla pojkar som läste på El-programmets andra år. Intervjuerna har varit halvstrukturerade och de har relativt fritt fått berätta vad som har påverkat deras läsning eller brist på läsning under uppväxten. Jag har utifrån transkriberat material analyserat deras svar med utgångspunkt i det socio-kulturella perspektivet.

Syftet med den här undersökningen har varit att utgå från Skolinspektionens tillsynsrapport över Malmö kommun från 2011 och bredda den bilden genom att intervjua de som direkt berörs av skolan, nämligen eleverna. Skolinspektionens rapport har visat att resultat och måluppfyllelse sjunker i vissa delar av kommunen samtidigt som skillnader mellan skolor och olika områden inom kommunen ökar. Jag har intervjuat fem elever för den här undersökningen som alla går i samma klass i ett område som beskrivs som socio-ekonomiskt svagt och där skolresultaten försämrats. Syftet har vidare varit att öka förståelsen kring hur ett mindre antal elever upplever att det är gå på en mångkulturell skola och hur de upplever bemötandet från lärare. Min undersökning har visat att lärarnas bemötande gentemot elever ibland bygger på förutbestämda förväntningar som grundar sig på elevers tidigare resultat.

The purpose of this study was to look into how learners of Swedish as a second language and some teachers of the subject think and reason about the choice between Swedish or Swedish as a Second Language and literature in Swedish at upper secondary schools. Similar studies have earlier been carried out at upper secondary schools in areas dominated by immigrants while the present study has been accomplished in a small municipality with comparatively few immigrants. The study is based upon qualitative interviews which have been analysed through the socio-cultural theory regarding those artifacts, communication and that mediating second learners of Swedish and their teachers and schools are using in their choices between Swedish or Swedish as a Second Language as well as selection of literature in literature teaching.  The study also shows how learners of Swedish as a second language perceive the choice between the two options of Swedish courses at advanced upper secondary school and how their teachers look upon their choice and the information given. Furthermore we will also get to know the learners of Swedish as a second language and their teachers? view on teaching Swedish literature at advanced upper secondary B-level in Swedish.

Today all buildings contain some form of home automation. It might be heating controlled by athermostat or motion detectors controlling outdoor lighting.This paper,The Intelligent House, deals with the planning of a house in Kiruna, in the north ofSweden and further immerses itself in home automation or intelligent control in single-familyhomes. The house has been entirely planned, from layout to structural design and plumbing.The purpose of the paper has been to investigate the possibilities in home automation in singlefamilyhomes and to choose a suitable home automation system for the house being planned.The system has been designed and the costs and energy savings have been calculated.The system chosen for the house is called KNX and is the largest system for home automation inSweden. It is used to control heating, ventilation, lighting and alarm systems in the house. Is hasbeen found that KNX is very expensive and that the amount of energy, possible to save in thehouse, using the system, is relatively small.

The purpose of my report was to find out how music can benefit the language development of children, whilst getting a glimpse of how the educators in preschools use music as a tool for the language development of children. During the course of the report I?ve used the sociocultural perspective theory as a foundation to stand on, this is most of all visible in my analysis and discussion of the result. In the result we can see that the educators possess insight in the importance of music in childrens development, and that they therefore give music a lot of room in their work. Songs where rhyme and language play are allowed are common elements at the preschool that attracts the children and makes them want to partake. Songs sung with movement is a commonly used combination which also serves to further lift the childrens language development when they, through movement, give meaning to the lyrics. It does however take a devoted educator to make music with the preschool children and to support them and making them want to do it.

På vilket sätt framställs Rinkeby ? Kista som en otrygg plats av politiker och tjänstemän jämfört med de boendes? Och hur ser de boende på politikerna och tjänstemännens trygghetsplanering? Dessa är frågeställningarna som vår studie undersöker. Metoden har bestått av två delar: text- och videoanalys samt kvalitativa intervjuer av både beslutsfattare och medborgare i stadsdelen. Teorierna som har legat till grund för vår analys är Foucaults diskursteorier, Ristilamis forskning om förortsdiskursen samt Stigendals teorier om sociala levnadsförhållanden.Text- och videoanalyserna och de kvalitativa intervjuerna har visat oss att politikernas och tjänstemännens bild av trygghetssituationen i stadsdelen har varit annorlunda gentemot medborgarnas perspektiv. Denna skillnad ligger till stor del i deras olika tolkningar av begreppet trygghet som kortfattat kan uttryckas som att beslutsfattarna har en snävare, säkerhetsbaserad syn på trygghet medan medborgarna generellt inkluderar fler aspekter såsom den socio-ekonomiska situationen.

Due to the developments in today's gender discussions, this essay aimed at investigating the gendered constructions and encouragements to consumption. As a former fashion student I have a special interest in the commercial constructions featured in fashion magazines, especially since advertising, fashion and perceptions of gender have long walked hand in hand. Just as feminism studies have shown femininity being a fluid identity, recent studies of masculinities, media and culture are also showing changes in the depictions of men.The aim was to clarify how fashion magazines encourage men and women to consume products and ideals, and also discuss the gender constructions occurring in the junction of editorial and commercial text (articles and advertisements). The analysis was thereof based on three main questions:-       How is consumption encouraged in male and female fashion magazines?-       What kind of gendered pattern appears in the junction of advertisement and editorial text?-       With regard to the gender constructions, what is the reader encouraged to consume?The theoretical framework of the analysis was based on gender studies and political economy, mostly describing a commercial perception of feminine journalism and a new metrosexual expression in men?s fashion and lifestyle magazines.By using a combination of quantitative (content analysis) and qualitative (semiotics) approach two fashion magazines, Elle and King Magazine (published in May 2013) were used as representatives of fashion magazines in general.The results showed clear differences between the sexes.

The history of Banu Umayya has since the collapse of the caliphate occupied a major part in Islamic historiography. The present thesis analyses the presentation of the Umayyads in Ibn Khaldun?s al-Muqaddima and its relation to previous historical traditions. The thesis examines the social and intellectual context in which Ibn Khaldun stood and how it is represented in his historiography, while also providing an overview of the various socio-political, intellectual and historiographical developments in Islam. The theoretical perspectives are based on the concept of agency, examining the intellectual room for manoeuvre that the historian disposed of while composing the works.

This essay deals with risk management and social risks, which have received increased attentionin recent years. Methods for dealing with social risks, for example within local Risk andvulnerability assessment (RSA), are currently under development. The purpose of this paper is toexamine if and how social risk can be quantitatively assessed and mapped using GeographicInformation Systems (GIS). The definition of social risk that the essay is based on states: "Theprobability of unwanted events, behaviors or conditions originating in the social conditions thathave a negative impact on the objects that are worth to preserve.? A number of social riskindicators that can be used for a spatial analysis have been operationalized based on thisdefinition.

The aim of the study was to explore the psychological well-being of a group of adolescents in relation to how they regarded achieving in school, in a gender perspective. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with students aged 17-19 at a high-achieving school in a big city in Sweden. The interviews were analyzed thematically and the results showed that the adolescents acted differently as well as regarded achieving in school differently depending on gender. The young women were driven by ambition, they were high-achieving and planning for the future. The young men cared less about achieving and thought more about the present.

The Swedish stock-market gives investors an opportunity to benefit from the global growth while financing companies invests and contributes to a socio-economic development. Parallel to the ownership of the funds also follows a responsibility as companies in the funds affect society and the environment. The growth of savings in funds, combined with an increased focus on sustainability has developed SRI (socially responsible investment). Therefore it is interesting to examine whether responsibility is an exception, which only concerns SRI-funds or a general principle, which includes the whole Swedish stock-market.The results of the survey makes it clear that all the Swedish major banks actively works to integrate sustainability within the respective bank's business to achieve a more sustainable financial system. Thus concludes the investigation that responsible investments are a general principle on the Swedish mutual stock-market.How responsibility is integrated in fund management differ between the banks.