This case study examines the new media presentation system in Alby public library. The aim is to explore if the contemporary Zeitgeist, wich according to the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, could be described as liquid modernity, has affected how the system was formed. The purpose is to find out how that would affect users and staff of public libaries of the contemporary. Interviews were conducted with the library staff, and plans and documents concerning the media presentation system was examined.The empirical part of this thesis starts with a study of the process that resulted in the new presentation system while the second part examines the system as such. I discovered that both the media presentation system, and the process which preceded it, contained aspects that could be traced to liquid modernity.

The aim of this master thesis is to create an understanding of what it can be like to grow older as a homosexual man in Sweden today. The study has an intersectional and queer theoretical approach and is based on eight in depth interviews with men who are aged between 68 and 82 years old. In the analysis I deal with the problem of how sexuality can be inter- preted with the experience of aging. Central to the analysis is the criticism of norms connected to age, sexuality, social- and family life and gay culture.The results show that the norm-breaking sexual orientation of the men affects their life path in terms of how to organize social life, where friends often replace the traditional family. New ways of forming relationships and living their lives imply other obligations rather than the traditional for significant others, which was shown to influence the expectations and outcome of old age in terms of care and support.

This paper investigates the level of consciousness regarding to the diversity work in the municipalities of Malmö, Lund and Landskrona. The study focuses on persons in a middle management position connected to various spheres of activities in each municipality. A survey concerning each municipality's diversity plan, diversity work, recruiting process, education and knowledge was used to investigate the participants' consciousness. The survey poses similar questions regarding equality between the sexes to compare the results from each field. The paper presents an overview of the development of Sweden's labour market and society, and gives an account for the differences between immigrants and natives positions in the labour market.

This thesis is a discourse theory analysis of two feminist anthologies - Det heter feminism! and F- ordet.  By analyzing these texts through the three categories feminism & feminists, gender equality & equality and sex/gender & sexuality I have raised questions about the feminist debate in Sweden in the 21st century.The discourse theory?s ideas of descriptions of reality and fixation of meaning lies as a foundation for this thesis. The concepts of social constructionism, post structuralism and essentialism/anti essentialism are central for the analysis as well as concepts connected to the three previously mentioned categories.The intention of this thesis is to describe and analyze a fraction of the Swedish feminist debate in the 21st century and discuss its meaning in a societal context. A number of conclusions were reached in the final discussion.

In scientific investigations on how organizations can learn from their mistakes the perspective is usually that of the social engineer; the object is to prevent human errors through modeling the system in a certain way. The aim of this paper is to explore the learning process from a different standpoint than those usually applied in organizational learning and error theory. By studying the learning process in Swedish health care I seek to discover how theoretical presumptions affect the outcome in terms of what we actually learn. The theoretical framework draws on two major discussions in contemporary political science; the question of structure and agency and the question of whether to focus on formal or informal structures when explaining organizational behavior.The investigation shows that Swedish health care tend to understand human errors as a result of formal organizational structure. Such a view leads to insufficient explanations to why errors occur but is useful in producing preventative measures.

This paper studies the research foundations created in 1994 from the former wage earners? funds out of a portfolio management point of view. Firstly it describes the seven largest foundations and their different portfolio management structures. Secondly it analyses the performance of these foundations measured as the intercept, Jensen?s a, in a linear regression of the excess returns of a portfolio versus a proxy for the market, as well as the Sharpe-ratio.

Mergers between companies has become more and more common in Sweden and in the rest of the world with the motive to increase the competitive strength in the current markets and has an important role within organisational development of companies. When organisations merger there is not only buildings and objects that are put together but also their individual organisational structures, people, values and cultures. This can be a difficult process and can affect many people in how they think conscious as well as unconscious, feel and react.The purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of how employees are affected following a merger when changes in the organisational culture come up, and how these changes are expressed.This thesis is delimited to investigate only one company, Skruf Snus AB and only focus on their business and employees in the region of Stockholm. The thesis contains a qualitative investigation with semi structured interviews that has been carried out with eight employees at Skruf Snus AB. The thesis is partly based on a model of Schein which describes the different levels in organisational culture and partly on some theories about reactions to change in relation to the integration between the employees following a merger.The results of the investigation indicate that with a merger the whole organisational culture is affected and therefore also the employees.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how employees in the financial sector perceive the leadership behaviors of middle managers, and if these perceptions differ depending on the manager's gender and if so, in what way. The study is based on a social constructivist perspective and theories of gendered organizational structures. It is based on 15 semi-structured interviews with employees who have either female or male middle managers from different companies in the Swedish financial sector. The results show that gender often acts as a framework for how leadership is evaluated and understood. Female middle managers are frequently associated with relationship-oriented qualities.

The aim of this study is to explore the approach and views on female genital mutilation(FGM) among young women from Somalia, and how they perceive the tradition afterimmigration to Sweden. This is structured under the following questions: What do theyknow about FGM? What are their experiences? And what do they reckon about FGMtoday? The study is based on one recorded interview with a group of young femalesfrom Somalia. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The women?sfeelings were ambivalent though they on one hand opposed FGM because of serioushealth risks, but on the other hand were conscious of the tradition?s great influence inthe social network and daily life.

Vårt syfte med denna uppsats är att bidra till en ökad kunskap om begreppet edutainment samt att vi vill undersöka begreppets applicerbarhet inom turism. Vi vill dessutom utifrån ett kundperspektiv undersöka om och isåfall hur edutainment i ett turismsammanhang kan relateras till människors identitetsskapande process. Med hjälp av den kvalitativa metod vi använt oss av i vårt insamlande av empiriskt material, har vi i vårt arbetssätt tagit vår utgångspunkt i teorin. På så vis har vi genom triangulering i form av en överblickande analys av skriftligt material, kvalitativa intervjuer och en i viss mån kvalitativ enkätundersökning, ämnat ta reda på om teorin går att urskilja i ett empiriskt exempel, varpå vi valt arrangerade dansresor med fokus på salsa. Resenärer efterfrågar idag upplevelsebaserade och kunskapsalstrande nöjesresor, varpå vi menar att begreppet edutainment mer än väl kan appliceras i turismsammanhang.

The purpose of this study has been to explore definitions of violence performed in the name of honor, and the conditions under which the phenomenon occurs and is upheld. Furthermore, the study aimed at exploring how the Swedish expression for violence in the name of honor, ?hedersrelaterat våld?, is used within the Swedish media. To achieve these purposes, previous research in this matter was reviewed, as well as an analysis by means of categorizing the content of news articles from two Swedish daily newspapers. Previous research has showed that this type of violence occurs foremost within cultures upholding patriarchal structures and traditions, and women?s (non-)sexuality is looked upon as being of an utmost importance for the family?s honor.

Vi lever idag i ett mångkulturellt samhälle där människor från alla världens hörn möts. Anledningen till att vi ville göra denna undersökning är att vi anser att det finns en diskurs i det svenska samhället om att invandrartjejer är strängt hållna, kontrollerade och förtryckta. Det är oftast denna grupp av tjejer som nämns och problematiseras i samhället. Vi vill bidra till att ge samhället en annan bild av hur invandrartjejer lever än den som ges ut.Syftet med vår undersökning har varit att utforska och analysera invandrartjejer i Sverige med speciellt fokus på deras fritid. Vi har velat ta reda på hur de uppfattar sig själva och det samhälle de lever i.

This thesis approaches the problem of estimating the arm angles of an industrial robot with flexibilities in joints and links. Due to cost-cutting efforts in the industrial robots industry, weaker components and more cost-effective structures have been introduced which in turn has led to problems with flexibilities, nonlinearities and friction. In order to handle these challenging dynamic problems and achieve high accuracy this study introduces state observers to estimate the tool position.The observers use measurements of the motor angles and an accelerometer and the different evaluated observers are based on an Extended Kalman Filter and a deterministic variant. They have been evaluated in experiments on an industrial robot with two degrees of freedom. The experimental verification shows that the state estimates can be highly accurate for medium frequency motions, ranging from 3-30Hz.

The intention of this study is to perform a content analysis based on a theoretical framework founded on multi-level governance, MLG. The thesis examines the formal changes within employment politics between 1999 and 2004 (Sweden´s action plan for employment) and 1998 and 2007 (the spring budget proposition). I will investigate how multi-level governance has effected the Swedish employment politics. Furthermore, the purpose of the thesis and the questions under consideration are: How have the formal structures within Swedish employment politics changed since Sweden?s admission to the European union, particularly during the periods 1997-2008 and 1999-2004? And: How do the changes in Sweden, together with the European union directive concerning employment, coincide in the so-called employment strategy?While performing the analysis I have focused on multi-level governance.

The work examines geographical variations of bicycle use in Trondheim municipality with the aim to create an understanding of what influences the use of bicycles and explain the geographical travel pattern for cycling. The work focuses on the how physical structures generates different transports effects. Where bicycle travels in Trondheim municipality are undertaken is described by using network analysis in ArcGIS, based on aggregated data from the travel habit survey (RVU) in 2009/2010. Trondheim municipality is divided into smaller geographical units (zoner) whose characteristics are described by 19 variables, categorized into 6 groups; Distance, Land use, Topography, Bicycle Facilities, Road characteristics and Demographic factors.By linear regression analysis in SPSS and ArcGIS Spatial Analyst, an explanatory model is elaborated. The variablesdistance to the regional center, workplace density, percentage separate bike paths and hilly terrain explains 78 percent of where cycle journeys are undertaken.