The aim of this thesis is to gain a greater understanding of Stockholm Public Library’s democratic role in a society that is increasingly digitalized. This is done by studying the Young IT-support project at the library, and how it aligns with the library’s mission for digital inclusion. Critical discourse analysis methods are used to understand for which “problem” the project was formulated as a solution. By using theories about digital inclusion the study also investigates if the Young IT-support project contributes to the library users’ digital competence, and how the project effects the library’s own mission of digital inclusion. The empirical material consists of policy documents connected to the Young IT-support project and interviews with young IT-supporters, librarians and administrators involved with the project. The results show that the project is formulated as a solution to two different types integration “problems”: social and digital. But the responsible authorities are only interested in whether or not the goals of social inclusion are achieved. The study shows that the project mainly contributes to increase the users’ operational skills rather than their information and strategic skills, and that it favours socioeconomically strong groups. The project does have an unburdening effect on the library’s heavy workload on digital issues. However, the study also shows that it has a potentially impeding effect on the library’s digital mission, as librarians are overlooking the deeper digital work. In conclusion, the project partially has a positive effect on the digital inclusion but that it isn’t enough to bridge the digital divide. I argue that the library needs to examine if these external collaborations are a long-term solution to social developments, or if they are a short-term solution in place until other authorities take responsibility for democratic needs and rights. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

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published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / abstract / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Unaccompanied children that arrives in Sweden are usually placed in homes for care and residence, called HVB. It is the municipality's responsibility to provide adequate care and protection for the children. The aim of the study is to examine how a workgroup on a HVB home for unaccompanied children is working to meet the needs of the children, and how the workgroup improves the children’s integration process. The study also aims to examine the emotional labour of the workgroup, which illustrates how they can manage their own emotional behavior when working with the unaccompanied children. The study is based on a qualitative approach with detailed descriptions of five semi-structured interviews with the workgroup and assistant managers. The study relieved that the workgroup of the HVB home are able to cater to the individual needs of the unaccompanied children based on difficulties and their past experience. The result shows that the professional approach of the workgroup differs when working with the unaccompanied children’s needs and integration process. The results also relieved that the overall goal of the studied HVB home – to make the unaccompanied children completely independent and responsible young adults, is not completely fulfilled. In order to further improve the children's development in their new environment, previous studies have found that it is important to not only understand the importance of a professional approach but also to collaborate with others. This in order to contribute to the children’s development in the new society.

Although research findings to date have documented that computer-mediated communication (CMC) gets students involved, a substantial gap remained in determining the impact of CMC on academic and social integration of community college students. Because computer technology, specifically CMC, has proliferated within teaching and learning in higher education and because of the importance of academic and social integration, this study was significant in documenting through quantitative data analysis the impact that CMC had on the academic and social integration of community college students. The following research question was addressed: Does computer-mediated communication have an impact on the academic and social integration of community college students as measured by the CCSEQ? The study hypothesized that data analysis will show that there will be no difference in the integrations reported by the control and experimental groups. The overall approach was to conduct a pretest-posttest control-group experimental study using CMC as the experimental treatment. The Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CCSEQ) was given to collect data that were used to measure the academic and social integration of the control and experimental groups. After an in-depth analysis of data using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and ANCOVA, the finding of this study was that there is no statistically significant difference between the control and experimental groups on their academic and social integrations as measured by the CCSEQ. In other words, CMC did not have a positive or negative impact on the integrations of community college students. This study examined for the first time the impact that CMC had on the integrations of community college students and provided an experimental methodology that future researchers might replicate or modify to further explore this topic. Because CMC will continue to increase as technology becomes more available and accessible to faculty and students and because of the importance of academic and social integration, further study on this relationship is vital to higher education research.

En vue de présenter la spécificité du processus d’intégration sociale des immigres dans le pays d’accueil, notre recherche propose l’analyse du cas des immigres roumains en France. Nous considérons l’intégration sociale un processus social et tant que tel, avec des caractéristiques et des dimensions spécifiques et, en même temps, parte dans un système complexe qui implique la présence et interdépendance de plusieurs phénomènes En conséquence, nous avons analysé l’intégration sociale par rapport à ses dimensions intrinsèques, mais aussi en relation avec des phénomènes comme la migration et la transgression des règles. Tous ces phénomènes sont analyse en utilisant des méthodes adaptées, au niveau macro méso et microsocial. L’intégration sociale des immigrés roumains en France, notre principale approche dans cadre de notre étude, est analyse en prenant en compte les dimensions suivantes : structurelle, culturelle, relationnelle, identitaire, dimension de la satisfaction et des plans d’avenir. A ce propos, une recherche de terrain a été faite en France, centrée sur des les villes de Paris, de Nice, de Bordeaux, de Montpellier et de Strasbourg. Ensuite, pour mettre en évidence la relation entre migration et intégration sociale nous avons réalisé, dans le cadre de notre projet, une étude sur l’émigration des Roumains. Cette étude a été faite en Roumanie. Enfin, en observant le forte l’intensité de la relation directe entre le processus d’intégration sociale et l’image négative associée à une catégorie d’immigrés roumains, nous avons introduit dans le cadre de notre projet de recherche une étude sur les formes de la transgression des règles existante chez les immigrés roumains. / In order to present the specificity of social integration process of the immigrants in the host country, our research propose to analyze the case of Romanian immigrants in France. We consider social integration as a process that has its own characteristics and dimensions and, in the same time, as part in a complex system where more interdependent process are involved. In consequence we construct our research project based on this perspective. We analyze firstly the social integration process according with its own dimensions and secondly in relation with the migration and the rule transgression processes. Social integration and these two others social processes that could influence the first one, are each analyzed at macro, meso and micro-social level. The intensive study on social integration, the main study of our research project, is oriented on the analyses of its dimensions: structural, cultural, relational, identity, satisfaction and future plans. This study is based on field research realized in France, more exactly in the towns of Paris, Nice, Montpellier, Strasbourg and Bordeaux. Then, in order to identify the relation between migration and social integration, another study on emigration was run in Romania. Observing the important relation between social integration process and the negative image of Romanian immigrants, we introduce in our project a new research oriented in analyses the forms of transgression of rules.

Introduction: An increasing number of children in need of special support are included in mainstream schools. The roles of teaching assistants have changed with the inclusion of these children. Social partic-ipation is an essential aspect of inclusion, possible to be achieved in schools. In the literature social participation in elementary schools is studied in terms of friendships and relationships, contacts and inter-actions, perception of pupil with special education needs and acceptance by classmates. The impact that teaching assistants have on social participation has been questioned due to low or no education or training to work with children in need of special support. The aim is to investigate the social participation dimen-sions and the impact that teaching assistants have on the social participation of children in need of special support in mainstream elementary schools.Method: A systematic literature review was performed exploring four databases.Results: Nine studies in total were found. Seven studies examined social participation dimensions of con-tact and interactions, four – perception of pupil with special education needs. Friendships and relationships and acceptance by classmates were examined in two studies. Six studies identified negative impact of teaching assistants on social participation of children in need of special support, and three showed positive and negative results. The impact is attributed to the roles of teaching assistants, and participation in class.Conclusion: All four dimensions of social participation were studied in the articles, but no studies explored all dimensions at once, therefore complete impact of teaching assistants cannot be entirely realized yet. Nevertheless, the negative trend of teaching assistants’ impact on the social participation of children in need of special support found in this systematic review implicates two possible approaches. The role of teaching assistants could be shifted and adapted to suit the abilities of teaching assistant. Education and training of teaching assistants are necessary to support social participation of children in need of special support.

Entrepreneurial opportunities are frequently noted and addressed in the literature of immigrant entrepreneurship; however, little is known about how these entrepreneurial opportunities come into existence and how immigrant entrepreneurs create such opportunities. The purpose of this thesis is to examine why and how immigrant entrepreneurs create entrepreneurial opportunities through embedding processes in the home country and the host country. Sweden was chosen as the country of residence of immigrant entrepreneurs from Lebanon, Syria, Cameroon and Mexico. Four cases were selected in this study. Each case illustrates an opportunity creation process in a different industry, between a different home country and Sweden as the host country and by immigrant entrepreneurs with different backgrounds. By using the mixed embeddedness perspective as the theoretical lens in combination with the literature on entrepreneurial opportunity and immigrant entrepreneurship, this thesis develops a model of entrepreneurial opportunity creation as an integration process. The findings suggest that entrepreneurial opportunity creation can be considered as a process of local integration by immigrant entrepreneurs into the host country and a re-integration of these entrepreneurs into the home country. At the beginning of the opportunity creation process, immigrant entrepreneurs feel socially excluded in the host country. Throughout the opportunity creation process, immigrant entrepreneurs interact with different actors in the host country and gradually move from being socially excluded to socially included, which illustrates a local integration process. In this process, immigrant entrepreneurs become localized through different activities that embed them in the local context. The process of entrepreneurial idea and business concept development and the refinement of the business concept in this thesis illustrates an ongoing and non-linear process of: being locally integrated through creating trust in the local people, acculturating and creating a sense of belonging; and being re-integrated to the home country through maintaining and establishing new links to the home country. The study contributes to the mainstream entrepreneurship and immigrant entrepreneurship in several ways. First, it contributes to studies on immigrant entrepreneurship by investigating why immigrants embark on a journey to be entrepreneurs and how immigrant entrepreneurs create entrepreneurial opportunities through embedding processes in the home and the host country. The study demonstrates how an entrepreneurial opportunity is created as a social integration process. Second, the study contributes to literature on entrepreneurship and immigrant entrepreneurship by incorporating the entrepreneurial opportunity creation process with acculturation strategies. It illustrates how the entrepreneurial opportunity creation process intertwines with the four strategies of acculturation. Third, the study contributes to the mixed embeddedness perspective by adopting the process approach and proposing mixed embedding as a new concept which centers on the interplay between the home and the host country’s influences on immigrants’ business activities; by extending mixed embeddedness from the national level of the home country or the host country to the transnational level between the home country and the host country; and by proposing an alternative way to view an entrepreneurial opportunity as a creation process instead of being discovered. Fourth, the study contributes to the immigrant entrepreneurship literature in Sweden by furthering the understanding of entrepreneurial opportunity creation by immigrant entrepreneurs in Sweden. Furthermore, the study suggests some implications for practice. The study proposes some embedding mechanisms which can be implemented in business support programs for immigrant entrepreneurs and in integration programs for immigrants in general. The design of the business support programs can aim to help immigrant entrepreneurs to: create credibility through contacts and experiences that they establish and gain in the local community; create familiarity to the local community through associating business concepts with well-known values; engage in the local life to understand customers’ mindsets, master the local language to understand local customers’ needs; and establish new/strengthen connections to the home country. The design of integration programs can aim to undertake activities that help immigrants increase the interaction between the local people and themselves. This type of interaction could be increased by organizing meetings and activities in which immigrants are introduced to different local sports clubs and hobby clubs. An approach in which the host country’s language is practiced and mastered anywhere and anytime should be adopted in the integration programs.