This master thesis is based on the sociocultural perspective. A qualitative research study was conducted to investigate children's attitudes towards reading, texts and libraries.The theoretical background is constituted by ideas from the new sociology of childhood, literacy-studies and reader-response theory.The study was conducted with 23 children, 13 girls and 10 boys, participating in focus groups.The results of the study reveal that children's literacy-activities in school are strongly influenced and limited by adults. Children's interest in pictures and non-fiction-reading do not correspond to the school institution that favors traditional media and fiction. The study also reveals a gender division between children's literacy-activities that tends to grow with age. All the children in the study regard libraries as book-houses and wished for libraries that combine activity and serenity.The thesis shows the importance of being aware of, and engage in, children's reading-interests and reading-practices if the reading stimulating activities in schools and libraries are to be successful.

SummaryI have a great interest in bouzoukis and since I, during my education in guitar making, mainly have focused on building bouzoukis and other traditional folk instruments, I have chosen the bouzouki as the object of my degree project.In connection to the making of these instruments, I started to consider the construction of the bouzouki and why the bouzouki has such a characteristic sound.One of my theories is based on the fact that most bouzoukis are made with floating bridges instead of glued pinbridges. Do these types of bridges differ from each other tonally and if so, how much and in what way?To receive answers to my questions, I have built two identical bouzoukis with different types of bridges, one with a glued pinbridge and one with a floating bridge. I have been very precise in the making of these instruments, giving them the exact same dimensions and using material from the same piece of wood. This to make sure that the instruments should be as exactly alike as possible.After finishing the making of the bouzoukis, I arranged for a sound test where I let musicians play and listen to the instruments.

Syftet med denna studie var att ta reda på hur pedagoger kan motverka traditionella könsmönster i leken inom förskolans verksamhet. För att fördjupa syftet ytterligare valde jag följande frågeställningar; Vad finns det för definition på traditionella könsmönster, enligt pedagogerna? Vad och hur gör pedagogerna för att motverka traditionella könsmönster? Hur upplever pedagogerna att det fungerar med att motverka de traditionella könsmönstren? För att nå upp till mitt syfte genomförde jag kvalitativa intervjuer med fem verksamma pedagoger för att bland annat få deras syn på hur man kan motverka traditionella könsmönster i leken. Resultaten visade bland annat att det finns många sätt att arbeta med att motverka traditionella könsmönster och att pedagogers förhållningssätt spelar stor roll in på barngruppen. Jag fick även fram att det också handlar om att tillföra och inte ta ifrån barnen leksaker. Pojkar och flickor ska få ha samma möjlighet att leka med alla leksaker.

The purpose of this essay is to examine what kind of pictures the children encounter everyday in their classroom. Furthermore, the idea was to immerse myself in how girls and boys are portrayed in these pictures from a gender perspective. Three question were set, to enable this study: What kind of pictures will second grade pupils encounter in their classroom, in a city school and in a rural school?How many girls and boys are illustrated in these pictures?How are girls and boys portrayed in these pictures?The examination was done by a field study of two classrooms, where all the pictures on the walls were documented using a digital camera. The collected material were examined, using both a quantitative analysis and a qualitative ditto.

The purpose with the essay is to point out how the main differences of the Helsinkicommission, Helcom and Baltic 21 can be explained from a general perspective and with a specific focus on two of their ongoing projects: Baltic 21 Lighthouse projects and The Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Plan. And to investigate how the organisations them selves formulates the purpose of the two projects. This will be an indication on why environmental problems are handled with in a traditional matter although the rhetoric of the environmental politics is permeated by the concept of Sustainable Development.This dilemma is being treated from the theoretical approaches of Ecological Modernisation and Sustainable Development and linked to how these organisations actually carried out their work and how the historical heritage have a role to play in this complex of problems. The results of the essay shows that concrete differences exists in the way that the two organisations are constructed and how their ongoing projects are designed and formulated. These differences can be derived to the theoretical platforms Ecological Modernisation and Sustainable Development and be explained by in witch political context the organisations were created.

The structure of the Swedish public library field has been evolving during the last decades. The traditional mission of educating the citizens to become responsible, democratic and knowledgeable members of society has in a way led to the integration between public and school libraries. Lately new co-operational models have been under debate and a sense of resistance has arisen because of the economical and market influences. In parallel with closure of library branches new libraries have evolved in malls and wash houses and some with self-service with no use of librarians. This work shows how co-operation in rural areas finds the common goals for the people living there who are concerned about keeping the service needed including the public library and thus using existing means and crossing borders of commercial thinking.

This study aims to research how digital media can be used for communication and information management between teachers at preschools and children?s homes. To get an understanding of this we have investigated which channels are being used and for what purposes. The interest has also been to explore preschool teachers and caregivers? attitudes towards digital communication in preschools.A qualitative case study of comparative nature has been conducted, where two preschools were selected because of their use and non-use of digital media for communication with caregivers.

Then the language learning process and the approach in a preparatory class differs itself from a general class. The methods conducted in a preparatory class are not just focused on teaching as in a more traditional method. Achieving the objectives in a preparatory class depends on the individual student and the cohesion in the group. Students have different backgrounds and knowledge level, therefore it is extremely important that the teachers use different work methods in order to achieve and to promote the students' language development. The aim with this survey is to get the knowledge about what education methods is being used by teachers in a preparatory class.

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a further development of the Six Sigma draft to carry through preventing quality measures in developing and designing of new products and processes. With increasing demands on enterprises development processes to be more safety and faster the need of DFSS arise as a product, process and service development concept in the organisations. Design for Six Sigma aims to improve and structure the development process of an organisation and consider the application of the innovation problem solving. The concept aims to leave the structure of the traditional Six Sigma concept and instead, from an innovative perspective, search for new solutions to existing problems. The concept constitute of a toolbox with a lot of quality tools that are divided into phases in a development model.

The main purpose of this bachelor?s thesis is to examine how Swedish upper secondary school librarians and related staff relate to the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia. The research is placed in the all-embracing context of information literacy and source criticism on the Internet. The study was carried out in the form of qualitative interviews and based on two theoretical bases: firstly, the concept of cognitive authority stipulated by Patrick Wilson, and secondly the idea that Wikipedia has a draw towards late modern epistemological assumptions. The latter theory was also associated with the perceptions of knowledge among the library staff interviewed.

Remote work has become increasingly widespread due to advances in digital technology and changing organizational structures, a shift initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to examine how leadership influences employee motivation in remote work environments. The aim is to deepen the understanding of which leadership styles are most effective in maintaining and enhancing motivation when traditional psychical interaction is absent. To investigate this, a qualitative research approach was applied, consisting of semi-structured interviews with both individuals in leadership positions and employees. The findings indicate that leadership plays a crucial role in shaping employees' motivation in remote contexts.

This is a BA thesis in landscape planning at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate why Japanese gardens, created in Sweden, often lack the feeling connected with Japanese gardens. The thesis includes a short study of Japanese history, spanning from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, to create a mild understanding of how the Japanese society changed, due to political, religious and cultural influences. The traditional Japanese garden styles, developed during this period, have been concisely compiled separately to create a homogeneous image of each style. In order to display opposite views of garden design in the European garden styles, some of the european styles have been concisely compiled as well. To produce a higher level of understanding of the Japanese garden, a consice compilation of the fundamental design principles has been included, as well as variuos types of decoration typical to the Japanese gardens, since the miss-use of these is a certain way of losing the feeling of a Japanese garden. The thesis is concluded by a consice compilation of possible reasons as to why the feeling connected with Japanese gardens is absent, as well as some attempt to include the feeling in the Swedish versions of Japanese gardens..

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a further development of the Six Sigma draft to carry through preventing quality measures in developing and designing of new products and processes. With increasing demands on enterprises development processes to be more safety and faster the need of DFSS arise as a product, process and service development concept in the organisations. Design for Six Sigma aims to improve and structure the development process of an organisation and consider the application of the innovation problem solving. The concept aims to leave the structure of the traditional Six Sigma concept and instead, from an innovative perspective, search for new solutions to existing problems. The concept constitute of a toolbox with a lot of quality tools that are divided into phases in a development model.

The increased competition in e-commerce puts pressure on e-businesses which makes it even more important to influence the visitors on their e-commerce sites. An often overlooked marketing tool is atmospherics. With the increased focus on e-commerce from both traditional and new e-businesses this marketing tool becomes even more relevant. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the atmosphere on an e-commerce site influences the customers' thoughts, emotions and behaviors. We examine the effects the level of stimulus on a website has on the customer's emotions, attitudes, intentions, behaviors as well as the relationship between these variables.

The relationship between fandoms and religion has become an increasingly popular topic to study within the field of the sociology of religion. In previous studies, there have been different views concerning whether or not fandoms should be regarded as religious from a functional perspective. This issue is especially interesting considering the decreasing popularity of traditional religion in some aspects. The aim of this essay is to study how Harry Potter fandoms are described in previous studies. The study aims at discerning both the empirical data and how the data is interpreted. The material in this study consists of three previous studies about the communities centered around Harry Potter fandoms.