The purpose of this study is to examine how women?s reading of the Harry Potter books can be understood on the basis of gender theory and reader-response criticism. The empirical data is gathered through qualitative interviews with six female Harry Potter readers between the age of 21 and 35, and is analyzed through several theories regarding gender and reading. The results show that the readers are critical towards many aspects of the books, especially when it comes to the stereotyped depiction of women and men. The books are said to reproduce the gender dichotomy, the gender hierarchy and the heteronormativity in society.

In order for any society to exist there must be a sense of belonging. In other words "We" need to be made distinctive and differentiated from "the Others". The aim of this thesis is to examine the processes behind the making and upholding of collective identities and the consequences of doing so. Theories regarding stereotypes, enemy images, power over the discourse and glocalization have therefore been applied to an empirical example in the form of a case study.The study is made on the municipality of Laxå in Sweden. Representatives on assumed key positions have been interviewed on their and Laxå's inhabitants views on the asylum seekers in the community between the years 1986 and 2005.Yet another aim of the thesis is to examine the possible connection between the perceived collective identity and the decision to close down the asylum facility in Laxå.

This study was conducted by using a qualitative textual analysis on UNICEF Sweden?s website with the purpose of problematizing the role of UNICEF Sweden in today?s globalised society. This was done in the context of how organisations of civil society have gained influence. Following questions were answered: How does UNICEF Sweden legitimise its operation? Which strategies does UNICEF Sweden use to encourage involvement and donations?The study shows how UNICEF Sweden legitimises its work by promoting a unique influence, their unique methods of work and by showing how the organisation helps the most disadvantaged children.

This essay deals with how the development of society, the media society in particular, has an impact on the teaching of the subject of art. In the society of today, we are bombarded with more images than ever before. As an effect of this, the curriculum of 2011 emphasises the importance of the ability to orientate oneself in the modern society. Furthermore, it describes art not only as a practical subject, but also as a verbal and community-orientated subject. Because of sparse and dated research, the subject of art is in danger of marginalization as a school subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate art teachers? conception of the aim of the subject of art.

Obesity and overweight is the worst public health related disease today, and it is a constantly increasing problem in societies all over the world. In Sweden the number of overweight persons has been doubled in the last 20 years. Today about 500 000 persons suffer from obesity and overweight.The aim of this study was to investigate obese and overweight people´s thoughts and wishes regarding what support they would like, in order to be able to successfully manage a weightreduction. The study is qualitative and conducted through six interviews, the material was analysed with content analysis. The result of the analysed interviews led to four categories:offered support, wished support, are you strong enough to find support by your own and mental wellbeing.The conclusion of this study is that overweight person?s biggest wish is to get continuous and personal support from the health care system.

The study discloses unaccompanied children´s socialization in their new society. The purpose of the study is to investigate how unaccompanied children's schooling is an important factor in their socialization and skills development in their new society. For example, we have chosen to illustrate how their school works and if and whether the teachers receive the support they need in order to help children develop their skills so they can find their way in society. The research is based on three different methods. The first method is based on literature research.

This paper deals with the concept "Information Overload" (IO). It describes the intellectualcontent of the idea as well as its supposed domains of activity. Furthermore it problemizes theimage of "Information", "Information Society" and other concepts related to those phenomenons.A division by two fundamental different distinctions of IO are being made. InformationOverload serves as a name for:I. An information-intensive environment.II.

The aim of the study was to investigate whether the sedation method had an effect on the screening result for hip dysplasia (HD). Another aspect considered was if the dog?s weight had an impact on the results. This study was a follow up on the results from an earlier study of sedation routines in Swedish dogs. The breeds included in this study were the same as in the earlier one; German shepherd, Bernese mountain dog, Boxer, Newfoundland, Rottweiler, Saint Bernard, Golden and Labrador Retriever.

In todays society the legal rights of the individual are a highly debated subject. Among other things there have been a debate going on in Dagens industri where the participants have discussed the National Tax Board, courts of law and law and order. The legal rights of the individual have been described as threatened and uncertain due to deficiencies in the tax assessment.There are difficulties defining the concept of law and order due to the fact that there is no generally acknowledged explanation. The concept of law and order originates from the citizens ability to predict the consequences of their actions provided that the authorities actions are regulated according to current legislation and will therefore protect the citizens from possible abuse of power that can exist within a state governed by the law.The purpose of this paper is to analyse law and order within the tax assessment through a method that experiments with real and imagined situations with the main purpose of interpreting current legislation. The paper collects essential legislation, preparatory work together with established practice and supplements the method with information from articles, dissertations and the National Tax Authority?s documented directions within the tax assessment.Through juridical argumentation concerning areas, such as legal rights essential to the citizens and the tax assessment, the paper results in aspects essential to the individual involved in tax dispute.

The purpose of this study was to examine if there was a relation between birth order, gender and locus of control. There where 162 participants in the study, 44 men, 115 women. Birth order was coded into three levels. There where no significant differences between birth order and locus of control. The result showed that female participants where more external when it came to locus of control.

The Swedish public library was founded in the years when the society in Sweden went from being a society of agriculture to industrialism. Modernism was sweeping over the country, everything was possible, which influenced the new society that was built. Now Sweden was going to be a true democracy with responsible and empathic citizens. One of the main tools in this process was to educate people, to get them to read and write and the public library fitted very well into these new ideas. It represented a place, free of charge, where everyone could go to take part of the knowledge and cultural learning that they needed in order to become the citizen that the society required.

During the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century Sweden experienced social changes. The proceeding industrialization led to a process of urbanization where people were forced, more or less, in to the cities to find work. The traditional agricultural self-sufficiency society was successively replaced by salaried employment. This meant that family and home was no longer the major centre of production, nurturance and care. In order to support themselves and their families, even women applied for industrial work.

As a starting point the society is more enlightened and has gained a greater awareness about the gender power structures and its different forms. Present research shows the continuous development into other shapes and comes into different expressions that might be unrecognised. In order to gain knowledge about the present structure of the gender power structure system, the aim of this study was to investigate framing of female and male politicians in media. The main question asked was: ?are there framing differences in the portraits of the male and female politicians?? In order to achieve results articles in the biggest Swedish daily newspaper were examined.

The purpose of this Master`s thesis is to examine if the pur-chase of media in public libraries reflects the library's role in society. Two questions have been posed: ? What view of public library's role in society is reflected in the purchase of media? ? What principles guide the selection of media in public li-braries in Sweden? In order to investigate these questions, we used a question-naire that we sent out to a sample of 120 public libraries in Sweden. The analysis is based on a theory of three ap-proaches to the role of the library developed by Douglas Raber. The three approaches are the conservative approach, the populist approach and the social approach.

This essay deals with how the development of society, the media society in particular, has an impact on the teaching of the subject of art. In the society of today, we are bombarded with more images than ever before. As an effect of this, the curriculum of 2011 emphasises the importance of the ability to orientate oneself in the modern society. Furthermore, it describes art not only as a practical subject, but also as a verbal and community-orientated subject. Because of sparse and dated research, the subject of art is in danger of marginalization as a school subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate art teachers? conception of the aim of the subject of art.