As birch is one of the most common trees in Sweden, and probably one of the easiest for someone who lives here to identify, it is interesting to note that most people do not know how variable the genus is and how widely it is distributed across the northern hemisphere. One can find birch growing at both high and low elevations, demanding different soil conditions and preferring varying amounts of sunlight. Many people may also be surprised to hear that the colour of the bark can vary from bight white to almost black, and different shades of pink, orange and red can also be displayed. This, together with the astonishing beauty of the genus, the important role as a pioneer in many ecological systems and the difficulty in sorting out the taxonomy of the genus, constitutes the background of this thesis. The thesis is written at the Department of Landscape Development in Alnarp, Sweden with Kenneth Lorentzon, researcher at the Swedish University of Agriculture as a supervisor. The aim of this thesis is to highlight which species and cultivars within the genus Betula could be appropriate for horticultural use in Sweden.

This analysis explores the psychosocial aspects in relationship to the occupational role as a correctional officer in Sweden. Historically prisons are hierarchically structured with a military organisation used as the basis for a role model. This military type structured organisation is designed to keep the prisoners under constant observation, thus providing direct authority and control by the prison guards over the prison inmates. Data obtained from investigations conducted by the Swedish Government indicate a direct link between the prisoners's living conditions and the prison employee's work duties and environment. The data strongly suggests that the work needs of prison guards have significant priority over the general work conditions of inmates, thus showing that the status for the occupational role was relatively low.

Title: From inspectors to guides: how citizen journalism and participatory cultureaffect the professional identity of Swedish journalists (Swedish title: Från granskaretill guide: om medborgarjournalistikens och deltagarkulturens påverkan på svenskajournalisters professionella identitet).Number of pages: 44 (48 including enclosures).Authors: Towe Bengtsson and Matilda Källén.Tutor: Amelie Hössjer.Course: Media and Communication Studies C.Period: Fall 2011.University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Informatics andMedia, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The goal of this paper was to answer how citizen journalism andparticipatory journalism as well as an increasing range of information today haveaffected the professional identity and professional lives of journalists. In addition tothis, study how journalists today respond to these changes.Material/Method: The study is based on Deuze?s theories about journalistic ideals,Jenkins? theories about convergence culture, and on theories about professionalizationand de-professionalization based on Nygren, Wiik and Torstendahl?s theories. Thestudy is based on eight interviews with professional journalists, four employedjournalists and four freelance journalists. The results are analysed based on a broadtheoretical framework.Main results: The results of this survey show that the role of the professionaljournalist is extremely complex, with a strong ideological basis that fundamentallyinfluences the journalist's view of the profession and of him- or herself.

The main purpose of this thesis was to examine the collection management at five different hospital libraries´ children and youth?s section to discern different roles of the collections. We made qualitative interviews with five hospital librarians. The purpose was also to see how the collection development affected the different roles of the collections. We used two theories.

There is little doubt that the digital technology has played a major role in reshaping the ways in which we experience the world. In a few decades the Internet has become a vast repository for knowledge and ideas. New arenas where people may meet and fraternize have emerged, and with the help of various digital tools and websites, the production of new material has increased to an almost unfathomable level.But all is not well on the digital front. As the Internet has become a crucial part of our everyday life, certain skills in handling digital media has become very important to master. A well-developed ability to navigate through this ocean of information is needed, and knowledge in managing the risky nature of the internet is critical.

Play is an important part of children´s everyday life, it is through play children develop. Play occurs a lot in kindergarten and in this study, the aim is to examine how play activities play is used in preschool teaching and the role of the teacher´s in the play. Video recordings of play activities done and qualitative methods (conversation analysis) has been used to analyze the video recordings. The results of this study show that play are widely used as a pedagogical tool in preschool. It is through play children develop.

The aim of this essay is to study how the University Church is represented in student newspapers. By conducting an inductive thematic analysis on sixteen articles chosen from newspapers distributed by the student union at three Swedish universities, the main purpose of the study is to further understand the role and function of the University Church in a contemporary Swedish context. Three themes emerging from the initial step of the thematic analysis were chosen for further analysis: (1) a secularized church?, (2) provocation and (3) reasons to seek out the University Church. The themes were then highlighted by two theoretical perspectives: Mark Chaves? theory of internal secularization and a theoretical framework developed by Anders Bäckström with the aim to explain the role of the church as a welfare agent in Sweden.The study shows that the University Church is portrayed as both an ambiguous and complex organization.

This thesis intends to examine the role of the city, Dublin, in the Irish economic growth during the 1990s. It is a case study where Dublin is compared with current theories on post modern cities as growth machines and increasingly prominent actors in the global context. The study has an interdisciplinary approach but focuses on political science issues such as power distribution, global-local governance and local political organisation. It is a theory driven study that also intends to add aspects to the understanding of the cities of our time. I argue that Dublin has faced a lot of changes during the last decades in accordance with the post modern city.

In this essay, I have studied the image of the drug abusing mother and her motherhood as seen in some of the social science literature on drug abusing women. This I did with a qualitative research design and with the questions:How is the drug abusing mother and her motherhood portrayed by social scientists?What signification is her motherhood given in her life by the researchers?What approach towards the drug abusing mother in the research process, and hence in the creation of the images of her, does the scientists have?I found that there are distinct patterns and themes in the research on mothers with a drug abuse. The researchers studied the women with the goal to understand them and to give them the opportunity to speak for themselves through the researcher. The drug abusing mother is in short portrayed as a woman who cares for her children, whose motherhood is one of the most important factors in her life and who is anxious that her substance abuse should not threaten it.

Title: ?? Then came the realization that I was just like them. That I have a gambling addiction?? This is a qualitative study of four former gamblers and their experience of getting out of the gambling addiction. The study is about how individuals have overcome a gambling addiction.

Previous research has shown that the psychosocial work environment and leadership have a significant influence on the employees work satisfaction. Still there is much to explore regarding the employees experiences about these two subjects. A qualitative approach was used in this study to increase the understanding of the employee´s experience of psychosocial work environment and leaders role affecting it. Eight semi structured interviews were carried out at two organizations with four interviews in each place. The data was transcribed and a meaning concentration analysis was conducted.

The purpose of my study is to examine how four preschool teachers go about using the term play in children's early mathematical development. In order to fulfill the purpose of this study, I have the following questions:How the preschool teachers visualize mathematics in children?s play?What reflections have the preschool teachers about the importance of play for children's mathematical learning in preschool?How do the preschool teachers see on their own role in the children's play?In this study, I have conducted a semi-structured qualitative interviews based on the interviews with four preschool teachers from various departments in a preschool. I have also conducted some observations to complete my study. Whereas in my analysis of the researched material, I have used Vygotsky's theory.The survey shows that the preschool teachers are aware of the use of mathematical language and concepts in children?s different activities which were conducted daily in the preschool.

Using a qualitative research method to get the empiricism for analysis, we have analyzed advisors and job seekers experience of management meetings at the job center in Halmstad. We used a semi-structured interview form when we collected the empiricism from four advisors, four job seekers and one complementary actor in the form of a job coach, with a hermeneutic approach to interpreting the informants? subjective experience. We also chose to analyze our results using theories by Asplund, Von Wright, Mead, Scheff, Barth and MalténsThe results presented have shown that time is what they all described as lacking. It was found that the job seekers had a reasonable degree of common experience in both the management meetings and the working role of the advisors, while the advisors themselves were divided on how their role would be applied.

This thesis is an attempt to understand how the traditional female gender identity is constructed and what kind of structures that are maintaining it. I also study how this identity is reflected in young women's conception of themselves and in their views upon whether they should sign in to the military service or not.The theoretical framework that I use mainly consists of theories about gender construction, male dominance and the woman's role in the nation-state.The purpose of using this theoretical approach is to illustrate that the traditional female gender identity consists of characteristics that are in opposition to the male ones. The woman should be weaker, less aggressive and more caretaking than men- in sum she is defined as the Other. The structures that constructs this identity is the male dominance, also known as the gender system and the patriarchy.This traditional female gender identity and citizenship role that historically has been allotted to women in the nation-state is still today very vivant in Sweden and is reflected in the fact that the military service is optional for women. Certain parts of this identity is also reflected in the young women that I interview, in their sense of probably not fitting in to the military service, because of their sex and the characteristics discussed above, that are associated with it..

The purpose of this thesis is to carry out a qualitative study of the perceptions of language teachers as to their role in the teaching of values and morals to pupils. Five language teachers have been interviewed about their perceptions of how values are taught and their role therein. The interviews serve to investigate the reality of teaching values to pupils in a Swedish secondary school and the work involved in this on-going process, this being with a view to having a better understanding of just how important a role the teaching of values plays in the daily working life of a teacher. Terms such as fundamental values and morals can be difficult to define as they are highly personal and can differ from person to person depending on one?s background, experiences and family circumstances, for example.