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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 aim of my study was to investigate a few young peoples experience of their treatment. The study was qualitative based on interviews with three young persons at the end of their treatment there. The subject was chosen because this kind of youth housing is an interesting alternative to institutional care for young people, despite there is not much known about the results of the treatment. The results were analyzed from earlier research and central concepts from the theory of empowerment and Anton Antonovskys theory about Sense of coherence. The results of this study show that these young peoples are satisfied with their treatment at the youth housing.

The aim of this thesis is to assess the strategic importance of Central Asia as a whole and interests of great powers in the region in particular within the theoretical framework chosen. The work shows Central Asia as an area of the New Great Game, analogue of the original Great Game which was played out between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia in XIX century. The parallels between the original Great Game and the New Great Game are drawn in order to understand the scope and the true intentions of the players of the latter one. Also, the security issues in the contemporary Central Asia are explored and analyzed to provide with the background for future predictions. Furthermore, the indirect purpose of the thesis is to examine whether the international system has changed from that of two centuries ago by comparing the structure of the international systems at the time of two Games.

Course:Business Administration, Master Thesis, Second Level, 30 Credits.Authors:Sara Frännlid and Helena RamstedtTutor:Jim AndersénTitle:Internet, relationships and loyalty ? Best praCtice foR the bankMarketPurpose:The study aims to explain how banks use electronic customer relationship management, eCRM, to create loyal customers. A figure will be created, which will enlighten the factors a bank should focus on when enhancing customer loyalty through the internet. Through interviews with two successful banks is it possible to study how a bank can successfully create loyal customers.Methodology:A qualitative method in terms of semi-structured interviews is used. The empirical results were then analyzed with the theory in order to contribute with a new figure.Theoreticalperspective:The theory describes how a bank can create a loyal customer over the Internet.

In theory, the management control of maintenance functions is described as problematic due to the nature of the work performed in the unit. The purpose of this thesis is to examine these predicted problems in practice. Further,the thesis aims at identifying how these control problems may affect the relationships between the maintenance department and its internal customers. A case study has been conducted in one of Sweden?s largest industrial companies to investigate the said control problems in practice.

Children who are exposed to crime are a delicate issue. The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze children's narratives in the juridical process. Our primary questions focused on how adults could help children to express their experiences and what kind of elements imposed the narrative. How is the narrative structured? How does the court evaluate children's testimonies? What increases the credibility of a child's testimony? Our theoretical standpoints are derived from: the narrative perspective, theory of communication, and theory of evaluation.

Adopting a socio-cultural approach to the study of cold war historiography, this master?s degree essay is a comparative study of the two main disciplinary fields of cold war scholarship, diplomatic history and international relations theory (IR). The study applies the theory of scientific development formulated by Thomas Kuhn and the concept of paradigm on the field of cold war research.Diplomatic history and IR shows many similarities in their development, and in the importance different schools has had in scholarly debate. These different schools are analysed as paradigms, a concept that has been more willingly adopted within IR than in diplomatic history. The transition from what historian John Lewis Gaddis has termed Old Cold War History to New Cold War History is discussed in terms of paradigms and paradigm shift.

This essay seeks to analyze the consequences of modern information and communication technology for collective action within the framework of social movements. With references to the protests in Seattle 1999, the essay argues that the emergence of distributed collective action is closely related to the use of technology, for example cell phones and Internet. This distributed collective action can be characterized by its decentralized and self-organizing features, forming a global pattern emerging from local interactions. Whereas contemporary theories of collective action can be ´stretched´ to fit these aspects, they lack analytical tools to describe and analyze such systems. Further, their rejection of classical crowd theory is problematic, since it contains valuable insights.

The education sector can be seen as a cornerstone of today's society, an organization that is under constant change and evolve as society. The compulsory school system is of significant role in society that places high demands on its management. The following study investigates the requirements for documentation in primary school organization and operations, and how these requirements are perceived and affect the school's organization and activities of the study carried out at different levels of the organization so as to get an overall picture of its impact. In order to analyze and create understanding of the results, the study applies the theory of New Public Management and various reforms that can be linked to the increased documentation requirements and its influence in the public administration. Study results show that there is a mixed picture of the documentation impact on the school system. Shown are both positive and negative effects of the documentation requirements.

The purpose is to illustrate the phenomenon of self-harm from a social psychological and sociological perspective. The purpose is furthermore to examine the role social relationships play in the individuals´ self- imagine and what role does identification play for anyone who harm themselves? We want to examine in what way social relationships are important and how they function for individuals who harm themselves, both once they have started to harm themselves, and if the relationships in any part caused the cutting to begin with.Questions:How do individuals shape their identity based on self- harm? Which self-image do individuals have who self-harm? Is there anything in the person's previous social relationships that have caused them to begin to hurt themselves?Method:In this paper we have analyzed five autobiographies. We have used open coding from grounded theory as analytical method and subject positions based on discourse analysis.Theory:We have used the Cooley concepts looking glass self, Foucault's theory of power, Giddens' concept of ontological security and existential anxiety.Results and Analysis:We found six different categories that we thought were central. These were negative self-image, guilt, lack of family support, negative experiences of others' views, the protective identity as self- harmer and insecure social relationships in school.Conclusion:The self-harming is a very complex behavior.

Syftet var att undersöka fyra hälsovägledares uppfattningar och strategier för att motivera individer till viktminskning. Avsikten var även att utreda vad de bygger sina uppfattningar och strategier på, samt att jämföra deras strategier med befintliga teorier om beteendeförändring såsom Motiverande samtal, Stages of change, Social learning theory och Health belief model. Teorierna valdes då de belyser hur en beteendeförändring kan gå till samt att de varit fram­gångsrika i tidigare forskning. Studien är kvalitativ och genomfördes med ostrukturerade intervjuer där respondenterna valdes genom ett bekvämlighetsurval. De fyra hälsovägledarna arbetade med att motivera individer till viktnedgång, alla hade utbildning inom hälso­främjande arbete som varierade mellan en vecka till flera år.

Digital games are today avaliable on all kinds of different platform. Games and game thinking is also increasingly being applied within non-traditional contexts. This thesis explores the term "gamifiation" which can be defined as "the use of game design elements in non-game contexts". The purpose of the study was to identify and give perspective on the discourse surrounding the use and applicability of the term today. More specifically, it explores the possibilities of the potentially value creating ability in the context of work, and focused on the application of gamified software in the context of project work.

Vi gör dagligen bedömningar av risker i situationer av alla de slag. Trafiken är en av de situationer där riskbedömningar är särskilt viktiga och hur korrekt bedömningen blir beror på hur vi upplever riskerna, vilket i hög grad varierar från person till person. Hypotesen i detta examensarbete är: Kvinnliga bilister upplever större subjektiv risk i trafiken än manliga bilister. Undersökningen av hypotesens giltighet utfördes med hjälp av intervjuer av 20 män och kvinnor. Frågorna syftade till att ta reda på deltagarnas subjektiva upplevelser av trafikrisker.

Syftet med föreliggande kvalitativa studie var att undersöka hur ekonomiska och psykosociala faktorer kan påverka motivation på en avdelning i en statlig myndighet i Sverige. Avdelningen består av två filialer, benämnda filial A och filial B, vilka utgjorde studiens fokus. De ekonomiska och psykosociala faktorerna avgränsades till att enbart bestå av ersättning, trivsel, stöd och egenkontroll, eftersom dessa utpekats som problemområden av de aktuella filialerna som studien berör. Ämnet motivation avgränsades genom Vrooms (1964) perspektiv och undersökningen baserades på hans kognitiva processteori Expectany Theory.För att besvara studiens forskningsfråga utfördes nio stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer, fyra på filial A och fem på filial B. Resultatet visar att problemområdena trivsel, stöd och egenkontroll innehöll faktorer som bidrog till motivation och att problemområdena ersättning, trivsel och stöd bestod av komponenter som reducerade motivation..