Since the 1950s new laws on higher education have led to a ?mass education phenomenon? in Sweden. This has led to a surplus of people with a university degree measured against available positions on the labor market. As a result of that development it must be assumed that in this over qualified society it is not anymore the degree but additional factors which are decisive for getting a job. In this respect the importance of the class background for getting a jobb that is equal to once level of education shall beexamined.The research was carried out by means of a Quantitative Analysis based on data from anational database called Undersökningar av Levnadsförhållanden (Survey of LivingConditions).

The North-American sociologist Michael Lipsky has characterized social workers as street-level bureaucrats with a substantial discretion in the relationship between the welfare state and its citizens. Within Lipsky´s theoretical framework social workers appear as a powerful group that socializes the citizens to uphold certain expectations towards the welfare state and its (re)distributional programs. From this point of view, it is important to learn more about social workers and the attitudes they express towards the welfare state. The aim of this study is to analyze how the welfare-political attitudes of future social workers are affected by their social background (e.g. class background and ancestral homeland).

The aim of this study is to illuminate social worker?s perception of social class within the Swedish social service system. This study therefor examine if social class contributes to the production and reproduction of the client and what impact social class has on the interaction between client and social workers. The study was conducted with qualitative semi-structured interviews with social workers from three different departments of social service. The theoretical approach is Yeheskel Hasenfeld?s theory about moral practices in welfare organisations, Michael Lipsky and Roine Johansson?s theories about client construction and Pierre Bourdieu?s class theory.

The focus of our dissertation is masculinity which is often a topic of debate in today?s society concerning areas such as violence, sport and paternal leave. Male studies are a relatively new field which means there is a lot remaining to be explored. We have chosen to explore how social class reflects on male identity. The reason we have chosen social class as a variable is due to a focus in the general debate of identity amongst the social sciences towards identities formed through consumption in the world of global mass-media.

This thesis is based on the conception that class is relevant. The thesis discussesclass relevance and consciousness of class amongst personal at the department ofsocial welfare in Lund.I have studied different theories of class from Karl Marx, Max Weber and PierreBourdieu. The study´s empirical survey is based on interviews with the personalat the department of social welfare in Lund. Then I have applied their view onclass on models based on the theories mentioned above.Out of my analysis I can draw the conclusion that the consciousness of class ishigh and that the applied models matches the interviewed personal. An importantaspect is that class perspective is bound to class.

The purpose of this essay was to examine class-travellers experiences of having done the class-travel and when they realised they had done it.My questions were: when did they start the class-travel? How do they experience themselves after going through the classtravel? How do they change as class-travellers in their relationship with their surroundings?The study was based on interviews with six classtravellers, trained social workers who have made their journey through studies. In the essay I have analyzed and compared the interviews with relevant litterature/theory.My conclusions are that the experiences of the class-travel are different. The lass-traveller of this study are recognized of being/have been part of two worlds or cultures. How long the class-traveller has been in one of the worlds is of big importance.

AbstractPurpose/Aim: My study aims to analyse, using Pierre Bourdieu´s theory, whether the social background plays a significant part in the attitudes and use of Apples mp3-player iPod. The study also aims to determine whether it is possible to group the focus groups used in my study and iPod into Bourdieu´s model.Material/Method: The reference material used in this paper is mainly gathered from books concerning Pierre Bourdieu´s theories. I have also had four focus groups of two different characters, to study their attitudes towards Apples mp3-player iPod. I have then applied the results of the focus groups to Bourdieu´s theories and models concerning habitus, social fields, capital and lifestyles, and studied whether there are any divergences in attitudes between the groups.Main results: My findings are that the focus groups as well as iPod can be put into Bourdieu´s model. According to the responses from the people in the focus groups, the attitude and usage of iPod do not mirror people?s social class or background, which goes against Bourdieu´s? theory.

Örebro UniversityDepartment of Social SciencesSociology and social psychology, Continuation course, 61-90 p.Essay 15 p, Spring -08.Title: ?Youth (work)seekers?Author: Karolina LindellAbstractThis essay focuses on young people?s social background when they apply for their first job. I have interviewed four young people from a small town in Sweden, to see how social background and identity affects their vital conditions in general. I?m interested understanding the relationship between structure and agency.

 Why is it that we still live in a society where an individual's social background plays such a big part in their chances of reaching a higher education? Despite the numerous educational policy reforms, especially in Sweden, it still seems that an individual's career choices are pretty much related to what kind of social class they grew up in. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu claimed that social class is reproduced in the school system, and that students from the lower classes are much less likely to reach a further education than students from the middle or upper classes due to injustice in the school system. One thing that plays a big part in this "Catch-22" situation is the concept that Bourdieu calls habitus. Habitus could be explained as an individual's taste, knowledge, ability to master the spoken language, etc. Your habitus is manifested in the choices you make, the music you listen to, how you dress and the way you speak, and it determines your relation to the education system and life in general. As part of my essay, I wanted to interview students from lower or working class at my school, Konstfack, to see if they have had any negative or positive experiences from their encounter with a higher education. And if so, could they be linked directly to their social background? As a reaction to my own and my interviewees? experiences and frustration, I use the concept of habitus in my practical work.

The objective of this thesis was to investigate how young adults view their own employabilityand to see if there was a connection between their view and their social background. Themethod used in the thesis is qualitative with a hermeneutic approach. The interviews includedwere of semi-structured kind. The main result is that respondents in the thesis expressed similarviews on their perceived employability regarding commitment and energy at work, networkingand contacts and job discrimination but there were some distinctions noted regardingtheir view on education and working life experience. The respondents from working classbackgrounds tended to focus more on education than the respondents from middle class/uppermiddle class backgrounds.

This paper aims to investigate how human beings uses food to found an identity, with regards to how social class affects their choice of food and if trends play a part when it comes to cooking and purchasing food. The paper applies theorist Pierre Bourdieu's concepts such as habitus, capital and field.The main part of the material is composed of four interviews with seven informants; all of which is middle class. The paper also looks at how lifestyle, taste and attitudes to consumption are used when the informants build identity. The empirical part is split into three main subjects, where I first seek to find each informants food habits. What do they eat, and what do they not eat?It showed that a large part was due to their varied lifestyles, however generally speaking the day to day meals should be quick while meals during the weekends could take longer and also cost more.

This essay is an in-depth, qualitative study concerned with questions about female ?class-travellers?. A class-traveller is a person who is born and raised in a particular social class but changes his/her social belonging through studies, marriage etc. In this study I have interviewed three female class-travellers, all of which have made their ?journey? through studies at the University of Lund.The study is an attempt to enrich the research-field of class-travelling by applying a feminist perspective, and by making women's voices about class-travelling heard.

Örebro UniversityDepartment of Social SciencesSociology and social psychology, Continuation course, 61-90 p.Essay 15 p, Spring -08.Title: ?Youth (work)seekers?Author: Karolina LindellAbstractThis essay focuses on young people?s social background when they apply for their first job. I have interviewed four young people from a small town in Sweden, to see how social background and identity affects their vital conditions in general. I?m interested understanding the relationship between structure and agency.

The aim of this thesis is to study a job-searching process and elements that affects it. The elements I have focused on are gender, class and social network. The study is based on interviews and a survey study with students from the educational program of Social work (Socialomsorgsutbildningen), that graduated 3 years ago. Through the survey I have examined their social-background and their job-searching process. The interviews are the main focus in the study.

This essay aimed to give a basis for the departement of social work in Lund in its task to recruit students from underrepresented parts of the population to the departement and to the university by presenting which social groups are underrepresentated. The research also aimed to give an explanation of how the backgrounds of the student´s have influenced them and lead them to undertake studies of social work. The main questions were: - What background do the students at the departement of social work have as seen from the variables; sex, age, national background, class, parents' educational level, society of childhood and direction of upper secondary school? - How can the background of the students at the departement of social work be explaned by the theories of Pierre Bourdieu? The research was performed with a quantative method based on a questionnaire. The data received by the questionnaire were compared with data of the general students population and of the population of Sweden at large.