Introduction: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test is a widely used test for measuring aspects of social cognition. The aim of the present study was to provide results from a group of typically developing Swedish children (age 9-12) and to compare these results with children and adults in other Swedish and English studies, as well as results from a group of children with Asperger syndrome. Method: A Swedish version of the child version of the test was completed by 83 controls and by six children with Asperger syndrome. Results were compared between the two groups and with data from other studies. Results: The children in the current study did not differ on scores compared to children in the same age group in other studies.

Title: Market Communication in transformation Authors: Gabriella Holm and Christoffer LarssonPurpose/Aim: The purpose of this paper is to examine how market communication at PR-firms in Sweden has changed over the first decade of the 21-century. In 2007 social media expanded on the Swedish market. This had implications for the way we are looking at communication and therefore also the PR business and how they are operating. The aim with this paper is to see how social media have affected marketing communication at PR-firms.Methodology: This paper is based on case studies from Swedish PR-firms. We used five cases from 2003-2005 and five from 2010-2012.

This is a qualitative study inquiring ?What does it entail to be a sex worker in Sweden today?? Four female sex workers were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. Using methods for reflexive analysis, interpreting the interviews and their context theoretically through notions of Competence and Stigma, the results of this study shows that sex workers may be both competent agents and stigmatized. This informs the understanding of sex work, stigma and how learning, subjective room for action and social agency can be aggravated or hindered by stigma. The results are viewed in the context of Swedish legislation against sex purchase in relation to previous research which shows that said legislation is problematic.

Rabbits today are used for different reasons. They are often held as pet rabbits but they also can be found at zoos, in laboratories and as a producing animal where their meat, fur or wool are used. All rabbits in Sweden are protected by the Swedish animal welfare legislation. For rabbits held as pets, in laboratories or at zoos there are more detailed rules or regulations that defines for example how much space the rabbit must have or how the cage should be enriched. For rabbits in the production there is no detailed legislation, which is a problem because their welfare could be hard to secure when the producers do not have any guidelines to follow. Rabbits are social animals and therefore they should have the company from either one other rabbit, or from the owner.

The aim of this study is to examine some teachers and assistants? perception of conditions for students? democratic participation in the compulsory school for learning disabilities specialization training school. In order to deepen and more clearly describe the purpose of the study, three issues have been selected. Firstly, how do teachers and assistants perceive the concept of participation? Secondly, how do teachers and assistants perceive students opportunities for participation in teaching? And finally, do teachers and assistants perceive students? opportunities for participation in democratic activities of school? It is a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews.

 Prostitution has been intensely debated in Sweden for nearly four decades. Two major investigations have so far been initiated by the government and numerous propositions have been put forward in the Swedish parliament resulting in the sexköpslag from 1999 that criminalizes purchase of sexual services. The law aims at punishing the buyer and protecting the women in prostitution, thus making it possible for women to be helped by various social interventions rather than punished. Swedish society has undergone major changes in these decades. Globalization, the internet and the membership in the EU have changed the Swedish society and influenced the discourse on prostitution.This paper has a twofold aim, on the one hand investigating if and how these changes have had an impact on the prostitution discourse in texts produced by the government and analyze how female and male sexuality in connection to prostitution is constructed.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the regulatory power, efficiency and impact of export control on Swedish arms export from the 1980s onwards, linked to the delegation of authority of permit license to the Inspectorate of Strategic Products in 1997. An increase in the administrative sector, based on a collective decision making process and established criteria and guidelines, aimed to strengthen the control of arms export to non-democratic and problematic states. In short, the aim of the study is to investigate and analyze whether there was a decrease in the arms export to problematic states or not. On one hand, it is reasonable to assume that the introduction of the new regulation entailed a more strict arms export policy. However, previous research has showed that regulations are sometimes not effective since incentives to breach these may be present.The study begins by examining the Swedish case and situation in terms of arms manufacturing and export, as well as the delegation of authority and legislation applied to the field over time.

On the 13th of June 2005 the Minister of Defence, Leni Björklund, was subjected to a formal complaint addressed to the Committee on the Constitution concerning her handling of a specific co-operation project with France. The project concerned the development of a technology demonstrator for an UCAV called Neuron. The reason for the complaint was that the Minister of Defence had failed to present the project to the parliament and thus bypassed a parliamentary decision. Such negligence might be considered unlawful under the Swedish Constitution. The issue became public during an unscheduled meeting with the Committee on Defence, a meeting that was arranged at the request of the Minister of Defence.

In an attempt to make social work evidence based, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, has recommended the use of standardized methods. As there are very few instruments that are defined as standardized, we decided to compile studies made with the "Family Climate self-rating scale", FCS, that is used by the profession, although not yet validated. We were looking for conformity in results and functionality in family treatment. FCS comprises a list of 85 adjectives to reflect different aspects of the emotional atmosphere in the family. It has been used since the late 80´s and there has been no attempt to compile results of using the instrument, until now.By searching in databases and libraries we found 20 Swedish studies using the instrument, which we compared to each other.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how swedishness is constructed and narrated in two Swedish documentary series that picture the Swedish participation in the international ISAF mission in Afghanistan. The main focus lies on how the Swedish soldier as such is portrayed, on which values, characteristics and qualities that they are said to embody and how these are linked to notions of swedishness, particularly the strong historical narrative, formed during the second half of the twentieth century, that defines Sweden as a peaceful, neutral and humanitarian state, with peaceful, enlightened and democratically minded citizens. Theoretically it draws on the concept of metanarrative to explain how ideas of shared national origin translates in to a broad organizing discourse, that defines, interprets and communicates notions of what it means to be a Swede and what is needed to make claims on swedishness. Another concept, that of national bodyscape, is also used to further define and explain how ideas of nationality are embodied and take the form of specific characteristics and  personal qualities. The meaning-making in these two series makes use of the above mentioned definition of swedishness as defined by humanitarian concerns, democratic ideals and moral superiority to construct an image of the Swedish soldiers as on the one hand soft, humanitarians, who are needed in Afghanistan because of their especially strong sense of justice and moral, and, on the other, as tough soldiers, who are able to participate in every aspect of the war as fighters.

This thesis studies how the Swedish government articulates social exclusion within the spring budget of 2007. Through a discourse theoretical approach, inspired by Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the empirical findings are reconstructed through the nodal point of labour and two chains of equivalence, based upon the duality between employment and unemployment. By viewing social exclusion as a phenomenon concerning discourse, identity and politics, this duality forms the basis of a deconstructive and hegemonic analysis.I argue that the term social exclusion is a powerful and flexible political concept in that it obscures ideological assumptions and objectives as well as draws attention away from alternative social concepts. Throughout the thesis social exclusion is stressed as a social category constituting the relation between individual and society. Hence I argue that it is of vital importance that the values underlying its usage are made explicit and that social exclusion as a floating signifier is made an object of academic analysis..

The aim of this research is to evaluate whether the social environment of Swedish high school students affects their views on the multicultural society. The research material was collected through the use of two focus groups containing high school students from two different schools, one group is used to a multicultural social environment while the other group is used to a less multicultural social environment. With the researcher acting as a moderator in the focus groups, the students discussed different questions regarding multiculturalism, gender equality and religion. The theory that this research is based on suggests that the social environment and the social capital affects the students views on the multicultural society. The results of the research were evaluated and connected to the theory.

This study examines the possibilities of interpreting the moral values and ethics presented in the current curriculums in a way that makes them inclusive and constructive. The study also reveals how the liberal democratic ideal, presented in the curriculums as a hyper-ideology, is not at all easy to define or live up to in the pluralistic school of today.By close-reading and criticizing the curriculum for the Swedish senior high school (Gy11)and by looking at it from two different points of views, as rules or norms and as a process, Ishow how the curriculum can be interpreted as a basis or starting point for a communicationabout values. I also discuss wether the aim of this communication should be consensus or anongoing process..

Denna studie jämför euroskepticismen inom två europeiska partier, Socialdemokraterna iSverige och The Conservative and the Unionist Party i Storbritannien, i syfte att bidra tillsvaret på följande frågor: vilka faktorer är drivande i frågan om ett europeiskt storpartiseuroskepticism och vilka likheter respektive skillnader kan identifieras inom dylika partierseuroskepticism? Den teoretiska utgångspunkten är Paul Taggart och Aleks Szczerbiaksförklaringsmodell i vilken partibaserad euroskepticism definieras genom dess orsaker. Studienvisar vilka av dessa orsaker är giltiga för respektive parti och möjliggör att resultaten kanöversättas till europeiska partier i allmänhet. Studien använder sig även av klyvningsteorinoch exceptionalism begreppet som kompletterande. Materialet till studien utgörshuvudsakligen av litteratur som beskriver respektive partis euroskepticism samt de svenskaoch brittiska kontexterna som omringar dem..

Title: Sing in Swedish! The purpose of this study is to find out how songs and singing could complement Swedish second language education. The method I have used to collect information is qualitative interviews with four persons with different professions: a teacher, a choirleader, a singing teacher and a medical doctor and a laryngologist. The study begins with a few thoughts about my interest in the subject, followed by a short overview of other studies and literature that has been published on the subject. The persons I have interviewed has experiences of either singing, use of voice or teaching of the Swedish language. The results of the interviews have been analysed and compared with the literature.