Sweden is divided according to an ethnic boundary, which divides people in "we" and "the others", "Swedes" and "immigrants" (Ålund, 2002). We believe this is due to the fact that society categorises immigrants all the time as a homogeneous group with fixed and static qualities, resulting in a situation where you cannot represent yourself as a person. Instead you are represented on the basis of your ethnic belonging. Young immigrants often grow up under other conditions and find themselves in more vulnerable situations than Swedish youths. The purpose with this paper was to investigate young people with different ethnic backgrounds, their thoughts and feelings about their identity, Group belongingness and future.

The aim for this study was to examine betweenship as a phenomenon by focusing on identity. There is not very much research done on betweenship. I have used a qualitative phenomenological approach, based on four qualitative interviews. The four interviewees were all experiencing betweenship. To analyze their stories I used two theoretical frameworks; identity and affinity groups.

Since the first of July 2010, military training in Sweden is no longer mandatory. Ever since then the Swedish Armed Forces have needed to attract people interested in serving as soldiers, in new ways. The campaigns for doing so have been much debated and discussed in Swedish media. This thesis tests how an increased presence of guilt and belongingness in the Swedish Armed Forces recruitment campaigns affects young people - how their attitude toward the Swedish Armed Forces possibly changes as well as their intention of applying to military training. Guilt and belongingness were chosen for several reasons.

Det övergripande syftet i denna uppsats är att studera finska romers identitetsskapande. Defrågeställningar som studien avser att besvara utgörs av hur finska romer anser att de blirbemötta utifrån de stereotypa föreställningar som finns och om stigmatiseringen påverkarderas identitetskapande. Studien tillämpar ett kvalitativt angreppssätt baserat på fyraintervjuer. Studiens teoretiska ram består av Erving Goffmans teori om stigma och RandallCollins teori om sociala ritualer. Arbetet visar att det finns ett diskriminerande bemötandesom bygger på fördomar av gruppen finska romer och för att hantera dessa är derasgrupptillhörighet viktig.

The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the participants experiences of a parent support group and the effect of their participation on their parental role from a learning perspective. As the parent support group takes place as a group activity, the focus was on the individual learning processes which, in turn, are influenced by both the group itself as well as the leaders of the group. The empirical data was collected from a focus group interview with four mothers, and analyzed using empowerment and coping theories. Based on the participants´ narratives, the result showed that the parent support group had a great social and pedagogic effect on the participants. As a result of the received knowledge in the group from both leaders as well as from other participants, they felt less stressed and more confident in their parental role.

The purpose of this Master Thesis was to study the reader in the informal reading group. To fulfil our purpose we have used the following questions: how did the reader become a reader and what does her reading look like, why do people choose to participate in a reading group, how may the group influence the individual member in her reading and interpretation of a book, does the reading group have a therapeutic function, how does the informant find the group dynamics and different roles in the reading group, and finally how does the informant experience the discussion in the reading group. We have used two studies about reading groups, one by Elizabeth Long and one by Jenny Hartley. Our theory is divided into reading and group psychology. We have interviewed seven women belonging to different reading groups.

At first glance, the group CEO's (koncernchefens) legal position looks easy. It is the CEO?s responsibility to lead and make decisions on matters which affect the entire group, all while defending the company?s best interests. However, when one looks closely at how the Companies Act (Aktiebolagslagen) regulates how a company should organize itself, as well as the options available to manage the group, one rea-lizes that simply appointing a group CEO does not necessarily make the company compatible with the Companies Act. A group CEO threatens to reduce both the Board and CEO's legal administrative districts which are not in accordance with legal and commercial principles.In order to introduce a group CEO it requires a detailed investigation of the group's legal relationships.

In today's society there is a trend in progress that it is positive and effective to have working groups or teams in organizations. But is it really all good? This essay explores this question through the concept "group weariness". Group weariness is defined as a negative attitude towards working in groups based on previous experiences of the working form. The aim of this study is to explore the concept of group weariness through a quantitative study.

In 2007 the Prevention Unit at Södermalm in Stockholm started a group activity for parents and children. The group activity?s intention is to offer families support in their early interaction. This study is a part of providing knowledge about this intervention. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the stories which are produced by five participants in a support group for parents and children.

In modern dairy production, the newborn calf generally is separated from its mother and put in a single pen for some time before it is introduced to group housing. Group housing is becoming more and more common because it saves the farmer a lot of valuable time. Even thought group housing has a lot of benefits it is often associated with a higher morbidity and mortality in the young calves. Therefore, knowing the optimal way to use the group pen lies in many farmers? interests and the importance of different factors such as the optimal age of introduction is important to evaluate. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of age at introduction to group housing on the health of the calves in the group pen.

Having the right executive group is vital for the success of a company. The complex context, in which the company operates, makes it difficult to create a well functioning and high performing group. This study aims to investigate how the executive group should be composed in terms of externally and internally recruited people, in order to take full advantage of the positive aspects associated with each one. Furthermore, we will discuss why and when a company chooses to recruit people to the executive group either externally or internally..

The use of group contribution between consolidated firms is a common phenomenon in Sweden where taxation is not based on the return on the consolidated level but on the return on the individual firms. However, the process of handling the group contribution does not work without problems. This thesis analyzes three main issues where group contributions oppose the Swedish Companies Act. ? The Swedish Companies Act enacts the decision regarding group contributions to be made at a shareholder?s meeting.

This research is about six pedagogue´s and their reflections about the size of the children´s group in the preschools. Then I will discuss the pedagogue?s recommendation on the significance of the size of a children´s group learning and development and it´s practical significance for the preschool function. The pedagogue?s statements will be discussed in relation to The Swedish National Agency for Education (TSNAE) guidelines on group size.The theoretical framework of this essay will take an overview of the social cultural perspective, the group size and its significance for both the children´s learning and development, for interaction and communication and TSNAE advice and guidelines.

This Master's thesis concerns the public library as a public meeting place. Our aim has been to find out why and how the library as a social meeting place has been discussed within the Swedish library community and if there has been a constant core in the discussions from the mid 70's and up to the present day. In order to do this we apply a place and space-perspective. The result of the study is that the core of the said discussions concerning the library as a meeting place is to create belongingness. This is the reason why the library community has an interest in the public library's function as a meeting place with the idea that people, by using the public library in that aspect, may experience a feeling of belonging to the society.

The DISA method is a universal program developed for teenage girls to prevent depression. The program includes cognitive behavioral techniques are suppose to change negative pattern of thinking, give practice of communication, strategies of problem solution and exercises to strengthen the social network. The purpose of this study is to find out how a group of teenage boys were affected by the DISA program and what factors that may have impacted the outcome. Material from three different studies have been used, a quantitative study in terms of data from self-assessment form CES-D, materials from two semi-structured focus group interviews with the boys and material from a questionnaire filled out by the boys on two occasions during the DISA method. The result of the CES-D indicates that the boys had less depressive symptoms after the final group meeting compared to the first group meeting and also a year later. Analysis of the material from focus group interviews and questionnaire have been made from a communication theory and systems theory perspective and indicate a shift to greater cohesion in the group and demonstrates that communication between the boy-group and group leaders had importance for the outcome.