ABSTRACT Within migration and globalization the concept of ethnic identity, religious identity and belonging have come to play a significant role in both immigrants? lives and as well in social context. Sweden, as a multicultural society has been dealing with different ethnic groups of immigrants and the way these minority groups perceive themselves to be and how they are perceived by others in the society has also come to be of high importance. By migrating people also change their position. They often occupy inferior positions in the society when they settle down in the new country.

Detta examensarbete är en fallstudie i hur kvinnliga klienter som söker vård för substansmissbruk upplever mötet med vården och socialtjänsten. Den utgår från djupintervjuer med fyra kvinnor som har haft missbruk och beroendeproblem. Vad som särskiljer dessa kvinnor är att de faller utanför ramarna av den traditionella bilden av den kvinnliga missbrukaren. Det finns ingen social utsatthet i form av våld, bostadslöshet, arbetslöshet eller prostitution som annars brukar vara närvarande. Samtliga av mina informanter är välanpassade och högst kompetenta samhällsmedborgare med arbete, akademisk utbildning, egna företag och bostad.

The main purpose of this C-essay is to answer the question: What have been the consequences and effects of the merit point system on language studies and the parties concerned (teachers, students and principals) during the school year of 2010/11?The merit point system is the result of a political decision and was implicated for the first time in the Swedish upper secondary school during the school year 2010/2011. Being a completely new phenomenon it is of great interest and importance to study its effects.The study in this essay also aims to verify, falsify or nullify two hypotheses very often referred to in the political discussions regarding the merit point system:The merit point system will replace affection and interest as main reasons for language studies in upper secondary school and cause a rectification amongst the students choices of additional courses.The merit point system will have a segregating effect upon society and make it harder for people to rise in society through education in the future.A verification of these hypotheses would imply the appearance of an increased rectification amongst students as well as an orientation towards an in the future more segregated society.The empiric material has been collected and examined with qualitative as well as quantitative methods (questionnaires and interviews) and belongs epistemologically to the phenomenological and hermeneutical traditions..

 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.

This essay points at the importance of public libraries as arenas of meetings between refugees and the local population, and by this - creating social kapital in the society as a whole. The researchers Aabø, Audunson and Vårheim have created theories about low-intensive meeting places, that means ? neutral, public places where accidential meetings with different strangers can happen, which can create social capital and trust among each other. To complement these theories I also use Vårheim who have implementet social capital-theories to the sphere of public libraries. These two theories complement each other and can help me investigate two public libraries in a rural area in Sweden.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan?s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy.

There was a silence surrounding homosexuality in the People's Republic of Poland. One can almost get the impression that same sex love, and same sex relationships, did not even exist there; that the communists had successfully removed homosexuality from society. The roots of this silence can be found in the Communist Party´s disdain for anything deemed individualist and deviant, and also in the conservatism and religiosity of the Polish society.In my thesis I study when and how gays and lesbians found a way out of the silence that surrounded their sexuality. Gay men did so by creating subcultures, which found refuge in parks, public bathrooms and a few bars in larger Polish cities, and offered a sense of belonging for them. Lesbians, on the other hand, lacked this access to semi-public spheres, which made it even harder for them to find each other and create a space for their sexuality.

This thesis explore women?s needs when reentering society after having served a sentence at the female prison Färingsö, outside Stockholm and whether those needs are being met in the reentry strategies that are being provided. Parallel to this the thesis also examines if there, based on nonconformity and gender theories, is a socially constructed representation of women maintained in the rehabilitation work.The method of this thesis applied semi-structured interviews and used snowball sampling to expand the network of informants to obtain the data necessary. Totally five interviews were carried out. Previous research has shown that women in prison have much more complex problems than men and that there is a need for reentry strategies that take gender in account.The results showed that in terms of being able to reenter back in society, women needed help to structure a previously chaotic life.

 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.

During the beginning of the 19th century Sweden is effected by the Napoleonic Wars and in the aftermath of the war Sweden looses Finland to Russia. This loss leads to the dismissal of King Gustav IV Adolf and the introduction of the Bernadotte dynasty on the Swedish throne. Over the century the industrialization plays a big part in the progress of Sweden. The growth of the industries leads to developments in the areas of agriculture. With this essay I would like to examine if the people on the countryside of Gotland keep the same pace as the people on the mainland in their introduction of new things.

Who tells the true story of the world? The western civilisation is highly influenced by the written word. The writings of ancient philosophers, poets and religious authorities still have a strong cultural impact. Myths and religion as well as philosophical and political systems effects our self-concept. These models are all unified by there ambition to explain mankind and tell the story of reality.This essay examines two published diaries in order to discuss their relation to the common story of the world.

The foundation for this thesis lies in whether or not, and how, the body representation in printed commercials, specific products directed to the body (shampoo, body lotion etc.), has changed during the last fifty years. Four years have been chosen because of the changes in society that we believe might have had an impact. The commercials that have been picked out are the ones that best represent the general view of the body. We have found that the changes when it comes to body presentation has followed the social development to a certain degree, but it is difficult to say how much the society has had an affect on the body ideal in advertising. Representations of the male body is something that has escalated since the early 70?s, fifteen years earlier few commercials was made with male models, and the few there were, never showed more than the face.

In this essay a conclusion about the way female characters are portrayed in fantasy novels will be attempted through an analysis of one selected female character from each selected novel. The works that have been chosen are; J.R.R. Tolkien?s The Lord of the Rings, Robert Jordan?s The Eye of the World and A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.The analysis will be done with the help of examples and theories from both feministic criticism and gender studies.

Author: Jessica Liljekvist and Emmelie Wiss CedergrenTitle: A miserable wretch that you should feel sorry for ? If social workers see persons who prostitute themselves as victims or agents. [Translated title]Supervisor: Marie ErikssonAssessor: Anders GiertzOur purpose with this study was to examine if social workers see persons who prostitute themselves as victims or as agents. We also wanted to examine how social workers see male and female persons who prostitute themselves. This study is based on the qualitative method and the result was analyzed with social constructionism, postmodern feminism and labeling theory.

Many reports in recent years are suggesting that young people should be involved in the development of the digital society. The Swedish government's Digidel campaign launched in 2011 involved adolescents to train elderly people. This thesis builds on the campaign with its major aim being to investigate how young people think about digital society and their own knowledge and skills to promote digital inclusion.The research questions were set to examine how adolescents look upon the competencies needed in today's digital society, what specific skills and capital the adolescents suggest that they have which can promote digital inclusion and how projects in this direction are perceived by the participants. The theoretical framework is based on theories about social capital. It encompasses Bourdieu's theories about symbolic capital and people's habitus, Putnam's theories about social capital and the power of the organization and Gidden's vision about how people are organizing themselves in the modern world.