This thesis highlights the importance of social relationships for high school adolescents? identity in a multicultural school in Stockholm?s suburb. The second purpose of this thesis is to shed light on, if the school sees the students? cultural background as an asset and how teachers can take advantage and implement it to the way they teach .The theories in the study were developed by Urie Bronnfenbrenner; The ecological theory, Pierre Bourdeau; The three forms of capital and George H. Mead; The significant other, The generalized other and "I" and "Me".

The aim of this study is, using the Swedish expression ?kulturtant? (cultured lady) as starting point, to understand how and why women consume the products of the culture industry more eagerly than men. The study is using the concepts put forward by Pierre Bourdieu; fields, capital and habitus. It is a qualitative study based on discussions in focus groups, interviews and material gathered through Google Alerts. In the literature this gap between the sexes with regard to the higher consumption on behalf of women has been referred to as the ?puzzle? of women´s cultural consumption.The empirical results show that the women in the study are well aware of what they want to gain by participating in cultural activities like reading, going to concerts, watching plays or going to the movies.

This thesis focuses on the perception of immigration and refugees in the commonEuropean refugee and immigration policy. It identifies different discourses andstudies their development and interrelated power structures.Using the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, documents from theEuropean Council, the Commission, the Justice and Home Affairs Council andParliament debates are analysed. The study is defined in the time span of 1999-2006, i.e. from the European Council's first agreement on developing a commonEuropean asylum system, following the period up till today.Four discourses are distinguished, focusing respectively on rights, security,European Union's needs, and cultural identity. I use Sandra Lavenex theory ofrealism and idealism to analyse one of the main points in the thesis: There is afundamental schism between the one rights-based discourse, focusing on universalhuman rights, and the three sharing a particularistic focus on immigration as asecurity concern.

The study?s purpose is to find out how important cultural competence is for the guidance of people with multicultural backgrounds. I also want to illustrate that what is seen as normal in one culture may mean something different in another culture. The study will also in some extent explore culture clashes and its problems in the guidance context. The method used in the study is qualitative and the five respondents were all practicing Muslims.

This thesis has aimed to study steering process and institutionalization in the context of educational policy work. This has been conducted by using empirical material from the political decision-making process that preceded the implementation of a new national program on how principals should be educated and certified. By using an aggregated theoretical point of view containing new institutionalism and traditional Swedish curriculum theory, the process was analyzed from different perspectives. The results depict a process that contained several actors who tried to shape the principal education program differently. From the theoretical perspectives, the decision-making process could be understood as an act of both self-interest as well as trust in their own beliefs and cultural values.

ABSTRACTTitle: Cultural dimensions? and their relevance in the interpretation of TV commercialsThe purpose of this study has been to explain the cultural dimensions masculinity versus femininityand individualism versus collectivism and see what their impacts on interpreting commercials are.We also wanted to see if there are any other important aspects to consider when looking at theinterpretation of TV-commercials. To fulfill this purpose we also used this research question:?How are the cultural dimensions relevant when it comes to interpreting TV-commercials?We used a qualitative approach when conducting this study. We found that the dimensionindividualism versus collectivism seemed the most applicable, while the respondents? answers fittedthe best to the highlighted theories.

A refugee reception has been placed in Kungshall, one of Nybros residential areas. The area has a bad reputation and there are arguably prejudices about the area from the local population. I therefore want to investigate if an ethnic residential segregation exists in Kungshall, from a postcolonial perspective. The following research questions have been formulated: How do residents who doesn?t live in the refugee reception, look at ethnic residential segregation in Nybro? How has Kungshall changed since the refugee reception? Does a cultural racism exist in Kungshall? The study is a qualitative study using semi structured interviews of four people living in the residential area, a person who has moved out of the area and a person working on the housing corporation ?Nybro bostads AB?, who is one of the housing corporation responsible for the residential area Kungshall.

Aim: To examine director?s experiences of the process to implement smoke-free working hours and also their need of support to make it feasible in the municipality of Östhammar. Method: A qualitative interview study with a descriptive design was used. Semi-structured interviews were made with six directors who were selected from different levels, localities and administrations in the municipality of Östhammar. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data.Results: Many positive aspects were pointed out regarding the implementation of smoke-free working hours.

The purpose of this study is to use a qualitative method to investigate the Swedish curriculums of 1919, 1962 and 2011 in search of attitudes and different usages of the popular culture of the time. To reach these conclusions Antonio Gramsci?s theories about cultural hegemony have been applied to prove how the superior classes, in this study these classes are represented by the Swedish school as an institution, use popular culture to maintain sovereignty of the lower classes. Ergo the problem highlighted in this study is whether the cultural class society exists in a fixed state since the 1919?s with the school as the institution to implement the tradition of cultural hegemony.

The purpose of this study is to shine a light at the Swedish americans impressions and attitudes against the American society from the perspective of modernization and cultural attributes. This, with a reference frame of the deeply politically rooted European conception of America as a threat to the cultural well being, and as a thriving materialistic and progress bound constitution.The result shows that the attitudes against America in the descriptions were not all comparable with the conception that was conducted in Europe. However, the experiences altered whereas the study attends two different periods of time. The experiences differenced due to the growing exposure to cultural diversity and a modernization that grew faster in America than anywhere in the world. Not to mention the change of experiences and expectations that was with brought from a changing atmosphere in Sweden.

Discussions about the democratic deficit of the European Union have gotten more intense and the criticism usually points towards a great gap between the citizens and the EU politics. In this study the political communication policy is being put under the scope to investigate to what extent the policy is designed to counter the democratic deficit, supported by the theory of deliberative democracy. The analysis examines three aspects of the deficit ? decentralization, participation and the distribution of information ? and makes research into the communicative measures that have been implemented. The importance for EU to make deliberation possible is stressed throughout the essay and in the conclusion I argue that improvements still need to be made.  .

This thesis has aimed to study steering process and institutionalization in the context of educational policy work. This has been conducted by using empirical material from the political decision-making process that preceded the implementation of a new national program on how principals should be educated and certified. By using an aggregated theoretical point of view containing new institutionalism and traditional Swedish curriculum theory, the process was analyzed from different perspectives. The results depict a process that contained several actors who tried to shape the principal education program differently. From the theoretical perspectives, the decision-making process could be understood as an act of both self-interest as well as trust in their own beliefs and cultural values.

Marketing research has acknowledged the concept of authenticity. It is argued that consumers in modern society increasingly search for something real, in contrast to what they perceive as mediated and distorted. Producers of regional food brands has acknowledged this trend, and started to market their products as being authentic. Given the potential practical and theoretical contributions in studying the concept of authenticity in this context, this study aims to explore how consumers perceive these claims of authenticity. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to extend knowledge on how consumers come to perceive a regional food brand as authentic.

This essay deals with ruins from the perspective of their cultural values ??and the impact of add-ons, protective add-ons and caring actions affect these values. The issues in the essay are; What are the cultural values of a ruin?  How have ruins been used?  How are ruins treated today?Initially the definition of the concept ?ruin? is discussed, what is a ruin? A building has an architectural biography: the creation, destruction, change and the decay. The concept of ruin is considered to be a state of this decay, rather than a dead building.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att redogöra för de generella tankarna kring ISO 26 000, analysera KappAhls CSR policy genom att koppla policyn till ISO 26 000 samt redogöra för hur KappAhl konkret arbetar med CSR.Teori: Teorier som används i uppsatsen är institutionell teori, intressentteori men även Carrolls CSR Pyramidmodell. Tanken är att med hjälp av dessa teorier kunna analysera innehållet av standarderna, KappAhls CSR-policy och hur de konkret arbetar med dessa standarder och riktlinjer.Empiri: Empirin består av tre delar där den första och andra delen utgörs av innehållsanalys av standarden ISO 26 000 och KappAhls CSR policy med fokus på uppförandekoden för deras leverantörer. Den sista delen beskriver hur KappAhl allmänt jobbar med CSR i vardagen.Slutsats: Uppsatsen avslutas med en diskussion om KappAhls tillämpning av ISO 26 000 och deras egna CSR policy. Dessa standarder och riktlinjer finns för att bidra med ett etiskt ansvar men också får att det ligger i deras intresse att följa dessa. Genom att följa standarderna förstärks varumärket och överlevnadsförmågan ökar..