This master thesis summarizes contemporary theories on secularization processes in the Western world, and compares these with the example of Sweden, which by many scholars is considered to be the most secularized country in the Western world.I do this by dividing the most influential theorists in five different groups. In each group I explain how the theorists formulate and motivate their positions. These groups are:1) The secularization paradigm, where secularization always accompanies modernization. (Therorists: Steve Bruce and Peter Berger (in the 1960s)2) The paradigm basically accepted, but revised to depend on existential security, rather than modernisation as such. (Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart)3) Religion returned in the public sphere.

Before the autumn term 2011 the Swedish compulsory school adopted new syllabuses in relation to, inter alia, religion. Changes within the religion topic have historically been a heavily debated issue among decision-makers, interest groups and the church, where the role of the Christianity has been particularly controversial.The main purpose of this study is therefore to investigate how the Swedish compulsory school?s teaching of Christianity has changed over the years. I have in order to conduct this study applied a descriptive method as well as a content analysis. The Swedish compulsory school?s current and historical syllabuses in religion have served as basis for this study.The outcome of this study clearly shows that the Christianity has received less influence to the benefit of other topics.

Viral marketing is a marketing tool that is becoming more common in the marketing industry. As people spend more time on the internet via their smartphones, tablets and computers marketers try to find new ways to reach out and connect with consumers. Succeeding with a viral spread is not easy; it's several factors that are important. Viral marketing encourages consumers to recommend and talk about product-related information with each other. So, what should a viral campaign or message contain in order to create this interest among us consumers? There are few empirical studies done in this subject which makes this kind of uncharted territory.

This is an essay concerning the differences between boys? and girls? way of learning and how this difference influences the teaching in the technology subject. The method is divided in two. The first part is based on a survey over literature about teaching girls and boys in the technology subject. The second part is based on interviews with three male teachers in the same subject.

The aim of this Master´s thesis is to examine which type of regime the state Iran is. There has been much research on this issue and the discussion is not over yet. I have departed from three theoretical perspectives in order to understand which type of regime the Middle Eastern nation is: theocracy, democracy and hybrid regime. The theocratic regimetype is composed by David L. Websters archeological theory about governments ruled by God.

The purpose of this essay is to analytically review and discuss architecturalcompetitions, mainly through the general views of a few selected workinglandscape architects, architects and scientists. I have studied the moral and workethicalaspects of using graphical presentations as a mean to draw attention,rather than trying to meet the set program points.My results are derived from e-mail interviews, literature studies and studies ofthe competition entry Stockholmssfären from the competition Stockholmsportenwhich was held in Sweden early 2011.The literature studies have shown that the available literature on architecturalcompetitions and research on the subject is biased towards architecture ratherthan landscape architecture. Worth mentioning is also that there is not a lot ofavailable literature, mainly due to lacking research on the subject.The informants for the interviews were selected based upon their academicmerits and/or experience of working with or doing scientific research onarchitectural competitions. The landscape architects? opinions regardingarchitectural competitions turned out to be in many ways alike ? they seemed tohave a pretty relaxed view of competing in architecture.

From a management point of view, enabling organizational creativity is often referred to as reducing immediate control, increasing autonomy and enhancing the access to slack resources. At the same time, the business environment of today is fiercer than it was only a decade ago, and this renders a quest for more efficient approaches to competitively run a business. This paper aims to examine creative industries and more specifically try to identify a set of elements that are common for successful companies. As this industry has not been subject to any considerable array of studies, this thesis seeks to establish a structure for how to take both organizational models and leadership theories into account when developing an understanding for the process, organization and leadership of the creative business. By studying six separate creative companies, our findings suggest that conventional theories on organizational creativity do not adequately account for all factors that contribute to these companies' creative success.

The aim of this essay is to do a queer reading of the early Swedish pentecostal movement, with a special focus on the women within the movement. The main empirical material is Gustaf Emil Söderholms Den svenska pingstväckelsens historia part I and II, published 1927 and 1928, in addition to this a selection of articles from the Swedish pentecostal magazine Evangelii Härold has been used. The theoretical framework consists of Judith Butler's concepts of heterosexual matrix and performativity, as well as interpellation, and of Adrienne Rich's concept of a lesbian continuum. The analysis shows that the evangelist role, as well as the charismatic practices of the movement, made it possible for women to take the position as leader and teacher of congregations, and thereby take up a male subject position. The role as evangelist also made possible a life outside of the heterosexual norm, within the lesbian continuum..

The aim of this Master's thesis is to investigate the importance of subject expertise for academic librarians in Skåne. Virtually all librarians in Sweden have studied other subjects besides library and information science (LIS) before becoming librarians, and in this thesis we ask what happens to this expertise. How many librarians can be said to have a good background in the subjects they are working with? Do academic librarians use their subject knowledge on the job? Does it make a difference what subject one has studied when it comes to job opportunities? What do librarians themselves think of the importance of subject expertise? We are also interested in finding out how subject expertise fits in with the growing professionalization of librarianship.A quantitative questionnaire was sent to 195 academic librarians at four different institutes of higher education in Skåne. A total of 107 librarians answered questions about their LIS education, subject background and current job as well questions on how important they perceived a subject background to be for themselves and for academic librarians in general.

In recent years, the Internet has exploded with different kinds of social media, where a significant function is to share your life in text and images. This changes how we form our identity, our religious identity included. The aim of this paper was to study how Instagram forms a space for the creation and development of religious and spiritual beliefs. For this purpose, Instagram updates from five women with yoga oriented Instagram accounts have been analyzed in relation to two theories: Paul Heelas? och Linda Woodhead?s theory of a spiritual revolution and Heidi Campbell?s theory of networked religion.The aim of the study was to explore how these women presented themselves in their Instagram flow and what part religion and spirituality had in their presentations.

Syftet med denna undersökning har varit att få en övergripande uppfattning om ungdomars förhållningssätt till Gud, religion, livsfrågor och tro, samt att se om deras tankar möjligen visar influenser av ett genusperspektiv. Alltså om deras svar och förhållningssätt gentemot dessa ämnen skiljer sig beroende på om de är flicka eller pojke. För att nå fram till dessa resultat har jag använt mig av en kvantitativ metod där jag genom enkäter med öppna svar låtit ungdomarna besvara ett antal frågor i ämnet. Jag har även använt mig av hermeneutiska tolkningsläran då jag genom den tolkat respondenternas enkätsvar. Resultatet har visat att de allra flesta ungdomar har frågor kring Gud, religion, livsfrågor och då speciellt meningen med livet.

Freedom of religion or belief is indisputable in Human rights discourse, more discussed is exactly what it is that is included in the concept of freedom of religion or belief (in Swedish: religionsfrihet). This thesis focuses on the freedom of religion or belief in a European context, in particular on the European court of human rights and article 9 in the European convention for human rights. Some criticism has been directed against the Court to the effect that its practice and verdicts don't answer to the pronounced desire to develop a pluralistic and inclusive form of freedom of religion or belief.My aim is to examine, analyse and test three different theories, which all try to develop alternatives to the expression freedom of religion or belief, in relation to six verdicts from article 9 in Europe convention. My basic purpose is to try to find new ways of talking about freedom of religion or belief that might lead to a more inclusive, pluralistic and equal interpretation of that concept.The three theories wich I use are elaborated by Richard Amesbury (associate professor at Claremont school of Theology); Hugo Strandberg (TD at Åbo Akademi) and Eberhard Herrmann (professor in philosophy of religion at Uppsala University); and Martha Nussbaum (professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago). The six cases from the European court are: X v.

This qualitative study examines if an interest in soccer can give the same meaningfulexperiences in a person's life as a religion would. Five soccer fans were interviewedregarding the meanings and impact of soccer in their lives. Two theories in the fields ofsport and religion were used to analyze the data: Antonovsky's sense of coherence (SOC)with its components meaningfulness, manageability and comprehensibility and Heelasand Woodheads "life-as" and "the subjective-life? derived from the concept "thesubjective turn". It was concluded that the interest in soccer affected the respondents?views of life.The respondents? personal identities were strongly associated with groupmembership, meaning that their interest in common with others was perceived to makeeveryday life meaningful and manageable.

Denna uppsats består av en studie av en dialog mellan vetenskap och religion hos den amerikanska filantropiska John Templetonstiftelsen. Syftet har varit att utreda värdet av denna dialog och att få en uppfattning om värdet av dialoger mellan vetenskap och religion i allmänhet i fråga om aktualitet och fruktbarhet för deltagarna, publiken och den allmänna debatten. Den studerade dialogen visade brister i definition och riktlinjer, val av deltagare och diskussionsämne. Argumentationen utgick ifrån deltagarnas personliga tro eller icke-tro och inte utifrån deras kompetensområden inom vetenskap eller religion. Dialogens olika bidrag visade inte på någon större grad av nytänkande, med undantag för två korta essäer som diskuterade nya Gudsdefinitioner.

Detta är en komparativ uppsats som beskriver likheter och skillnader mellan Sydafrikas läroplan, Revised National Curriculum Statement for Schools (Grades R-9), Svenska läroplanen Lpo 94 och kursplanen i religion.Hur en läroplan utformas beror mycket på landets historia. Att Sydafrika har haft mycket problem med exempelvis apartheid speglas också i läroplanen. Demokrati är något som tycks vara mycket viktigt för den sydafrikanska skolan. I Sverige har vi haft demokrati relativt länge, och det verkar nästan som att vi börjar ta detta för givet. Hur stort utrymme demokratin tar i läroplanerna och kursplanen i religion är en av sakerna jag tar upp i denna uppsats.Jag jämför också hur man beskriver religionsämnet i respektive läroplan/kursplan.