The purpose of this paper was to describe how a phenomenon is constructed into being a social problem, by studying articles on honour killing in the Swedish daily press and in the technical journal Socionomen. The main questions were: can different discourses on honour killing be identified, and if so, have they changed over time, and are there differences between the discourses identified in the daily press and in Socionomen? The method used was a qualitative analysis of discourse influenced by Faircloughs Critical Discourse Analysis. The main conclusion was that honour killing has been textually constructed as a social problem in the studied media. There was one main discourse which clearly pointed out groups as bearers and victims of the social problem.

Starting at the end of the Cold War, this publication assesses the impact of the upheavals in Eastern Europe and the atrophic Soviet Union on the Swedish doctrine of neutrality with its 200 year old tradition. Since the end of world war two the proximity of the Soviet Union had constituted the major impetus for upholding a position of neutrality and as this vanished a pressure for change was created. This essay works with a theoretical framework delineated by Kjell Goldmann and under this disposition, the Swedish tradition of neutrality, governmental positions, opposition and four major influential newspapers are studied. The standings of each variable are canvassed in an attempt to explain the development of Swedish security policy during the crucial years of 1988-1992..

 ABSTRACTThis study focuses on immigrant women in Sweden and how their perceptions of resource loss may affect their motivation to learn Swedish. Focus group discussions were conducted with immigrant women who partake in a Swedish language learning project. Their Swedish language skills were very limited, and all of them had no or very few years of elementary level education. Results of the study suggest that the strongest motivator to learn Swedish is its potential role in facilitating everyday activities.    .

The social dimension in the EU, explored through the document texts of the Treaty of Rome, the Lisbon Strategy, the Social Policy Agenda and the Swedish Strategy ReportThis paper explores the social dimension of EU social policy, except the aspects of the economic and labour market. The EU documents reveal an underlying line of thought stemming from the alignment of the six founding countries, spearheaded by France, with the conservative corporatist welfare model. As one of four European welfare models, the conservative corporatist model emphasises labour market issues, corporate social responsibility and the subsidiarity principle in EU social policy. It also influences how the texts define the terms social, social policy and social exclusion. The definitions determine how policymakers combat problems such as social exclusion and identify the policy issues to be included in EU social policy.The Swedish Strategy shows how the country is responding to the objectives that it has been assigned by the EU and how it plans to attain them.

Is social media becoming a new form of interview? This is a quantitative study about the use of quotations from social media in Swedish newspapers. We chose the online editions of two of Sweden?s biggest newspapers for this, namely aftonbladet.se and dn.se.Although we noticed a big difference between the more serious dn.se and the more scandal-oriented aftonbladet.se both newspaper still frequently used quotations from social media.The thing that we found most troublesome about this phenomenon was the fact that we found that journalists very rarely contacted the person whose quotations they used. That meant that the interviewee had a very slim chance of correcting any misunderstandings.It also opened up the opportunity for certain people to use the media to spread their own agendas without getting questioned.We used the social institutionalizing theory and the social responsibility theory to verify our findings.

AbstractTitle: Anabolic Androgenic Steroids ? An analysis of how AAS is portrayed in Swedish media.Author: Jens SundénTutor: Philip LalanderKeywords: AAS, Anabolic steroids, social problems, media, drug abuse, genderThe purpose of this study was to investigate how Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS) are portrayed and described in the media, how AAS is constructed as a social problem, and how society in a social context uses knowledge and power for disciplinary and educational means. The study is based on the perception of AAS as a constructed social problem and analyzes the discourses surrounding AAS depicted in three Swedish newspapers. The sample was prepared on the basis that it represents different aspects of daily Swedish press. The method used in the paper is a discourse analysis with social constructivism and gender as theoretical tools used to analyze the sample material.

Swedish trade unions are engaged in several activities at the European level. One of these isthe sectoral social dialogue, an institutionalized part of the European Union. This bachelorthesis examines the motives for Swedish trade unions in three different sectors to engage themselves in the European social dialogue. The three sectors are chosen because of their differences according to their exposure to competition caused by ongoing globalization and europeanization processes. By interviewing central informants in trade unions which are active in the three dialogues this thesis seeks to learn more about the motives stated by the trade unions.

The purpose of this essay was to look at how the Swedish Prison and Probation Service and the Social Service work with children who have parents in prison and what they can do to ease the contact between the children and their parents. In our study we have used different questions regarding parent role, gender, child perspective, contact possibilities and collaboration. We have interviewed six prison officers and five social workers in Skåne. We have also used previously written reports. Our conclusions are that the parent role is affected by imprisonment and more amongst the women than the men.

The main aim of this thesis is to introduce a normative perspective to surveillance studies. I examine how the use of videocameras or CCTV-systems can create a social sorting and, then, try to answer why it ought to be reconstructed based on a normative study.For the empirical analysis I use Foucaults theory about the panopticon, maintained by the psychological subjection of the common citizen in the modern world, together with Lianos theory of a more socio-cultural surveillance in the post-modern world. The empirical examination is, furthermore, guided by a theory that describes the construction of the stranger, which today, is not explicitly excluded, because everyone is a stranger in some way, but rather depicted as the other due to institutionalization.The post-modern society today can no longer be built upon a common or divine moral or norm. Thus, I have chosen a normative method, using a deliberative democracy derived from Habermas, focusing on the communicative practice, that can engage and include every citizen in a democratic process. This is necessary for both deciding whether videocameras should be installed and whom and why some should be under surveillance ? to avoid a social sorting that both can constitute and undermine social trust and increase the gap between the governing and the governed..

This paper investigates the science fiction novels of Swedish crime writer Per Wahlöö, most famous for his collaboration with his writing partner Maj Sjöwall on the ten Martin Beck mysteries. During two important years, 1964 and 1968, Wahlöö wrote the novels Murder On the 31st Floor and The Steel Spring, set in a near future land ruled by a social fascist power structure where political opposition is eradicated. The pretexted notion of this paper is that these novels consists of extensive quantities of criticism against the Swedish welfare state and the monopoly-capitalistic Swedish press during the sixties. Through the lens of science fiction theory and the notion of the novels as historical sources this paper concludes that PerWahlöö´s science fiction becomes a bridge between the classic Swedish detective novel and the new social critic crime fiction in the style of Sjöwall-Wahlöö and others. The novels are also representations of the historical process in the mid-sixties during the radical turn: the sci-fi novels as social criticism of the contemporary society ? an utopian flare.

The veterans in Sweden is a group that is steadily growing, one of the reasons is the new employment agreement that requires the soldiers and officers to commit to Foreign Service. The Swedish Armed Forces have received critique from the government in their investigations concerning the Swedish veteran politics. Since then the Swedish government has introduced a new law that gives the Swedish Armed Forces an utmost responsibility concerning the veteran?s physical and mental health. The purpose of this study is to qualitatively investigate ?The Peace berets?, a non-government organization which have had, and is still having a cooperation with the Swedish Armed Forces as a result of the investigation conducted by the Swedish government.

This study investigates the corporate sustainability activity, linked to the company's core business, which is a relatively unexplored field in a Swedish context. The study examines how the organization has used management control for its sustainability activity within two social initiatives; and whether these initiatives have generated value for the organization and involved stakeholders. Management control of social initiatives are examined within the theoretical framework of The Sustainable Balanced Scorecard and the organization's value creation contributions are outlined in accordance with a definition of the concept of Creating Shared Value. The method used for the implementation of the study is a qualitative study, embodied in an illustrative case study of a large Swedish company operating within financial sector. The empirical data was collected through 12 in-depth interviews with representative interviewees within the organization and with other stakeholders involved in the company's social initiatives.

This thesis aim to investigate the living conditions among marginalized habitants of suburbs in the Swedish welfare state. To approach an understanding of the complexity of marginalized urban areas, this thesis focus on studying the Stockholm suburb Husby in a context of the May riots 2013.The research method used is qualitative interviews with seven informants, who have a connection to the Husby area.The theories applied to the empirical material is Gösta Esping-Andersens theory on welfare state regimes and Loïc Wacquants theory on advanced marginality, also known as ?The new urban poverty?.By observing the complexity of the Husby riots in a contextual aspect of the Swedish welfare state and the living situation in Husby, the analysis has shown that the Swedish welfare model is going through a changing process. This process means a shift from a social democratic welfare model towards a more liberal regime, with an increased privatization of public welfare and a focus on individual responsibility regarding the citizens own living conditions. Husby as an area is characterized by a low socioeconomic status, a high level of unemployment and poor school results.

Organizational democracy has been a popular research area in recent decades but the implementation in real organizations is slow (Kokkinidis, 2012; Verdorfer, Weber, Unter Rainer & Seyr, 2013). Several researchers (Schön Jansson, 2012; Falkheimer, Heide & Johansson, 2013) argue that communication practitioners have a key role in democratic processes and that because their job role is under constant change there are only a few modern studies regarding the subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how communication practitioners in private and public organizations experience their role in the process of internal communication and to what extent they are aware of, and work with internal organizational democracy.The practitioners we interviewed had a strong feeling that they were a support function for the business and the organizational management. As a result of the study it is clear that communication practitioners are very loyal to their employers and to the organization they work for. They are, therefore, not neutral in their professional role and argue that their task is to represent the management's interests.

This thesis studies three kinds of debate formats. Those are DN Debatt, SVT Debatt and Ring P1. The focus lies in the interrelations between these forums and how they interact with theri audience. Since debate is an essential tool for political and democratic practice, it is vital to study the movements and the realtions between these media formats. Some of the questions in this study are: What happens with a debate topic when it moves between the formats? In which way are the formats democratic and what does their communicative forms mean for political practice and citizen participation? The study shoes how the interpretation of a specific term can expand during a debate.