The increasing rates of intervention in childbirth are an issue for women, their families, health professionals, and society across much of the Western World. This study is a response to these increasing rates of intervention, as reflected in the research question: 'What is shaping the practice of health professionals and the understanding of the public in relation to increasing intervention in childbirth?' The participants in the study were nine health professionals: midwives and obstetricians, who were interviewed individually, and thirty-three members of the public who took part in six focus groups. The research was carried out under the umbrella of critical hermeneutics, and the particular approach used was that of critical interpretation as formulated by Hans Kogler. This approach enabled a hermeneutical thematic analysis of that which is shaped (worldviews) and a critical structural analysis (discursive orders, social practices, relationships of power and structures of domination) of the shaping and shapers of practice and understanding. The research process facilitated by critical interpretation in identifying and describing the shaping and shapers of practice and understanding adds an important dimension to the statistical picture of increasing intervention that is of concern, both to health professionals and the public. The research revealed that the everyday world and its associated processes of socialisation in the 21st century - in particular pain, choice, and technology - shape the practice of health professionals and the understanding of the public in relation to increasing intervention. The study's findings were supported by the revelation that many of the social and cultural values, such as convenience, ease, and control, that underpin Western society in the 21st century, correlate with what intervention has to offer, which results in intervention being increasingly sought after and utilised. This milieu of intervention, which increasingly surrounds childbirth, is shown to be calling into question those things that have traditionally been at the heart of childbirth: the ability of the woman to birth and the clinical skills of the health professional. This research provides insight and awareness of those things that are shaping understanding and practice and birth itself and creating a milieu in which intervention is increasingly normalised.

<p>Though death and mortality is an inevitable part of our lives it seems like both the society with its culture and the individual in some way repress death. This study was set to explore how and why the individual holds back thoughts on his/her own death and in which way society affect the individual’s repression of death-thoughts. Using a hermeneutic approach I have interviewed five informants about death and thoughts about death in everyday life. Also for the analysis of the empirical material a hermeneutic approach was used, and the works of Bauman, Giddens, Heidegger, Fromm and May served as a theoretical starting point. The findings reveal that society influences the individual’s thoughts about death and that the individual’s fear of death comes out of the fear of one owns body being in some sort of suffering just pre death. The institutionalization of sick persons and dead bodies is part of the medical culture and can explain the fact that the individual sees the bodily death as more frightening than human mortality itself. Even the way persons want to be remembered by survivors is part of the evidence of our society’s and culture’s objectification of the human body and death.</p>

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>All students in the Swedish elementary school that do not reach the educational objectives in mathematics have a legal right to receive support in order to reach these objectives. An action plan shall be created, where it should be visible what supportive measures the student is given to reach the objectives. The purpose of our final thesis is to investigate how the action plan can contribute to the work with students that experience difficulties within mathematics.</p><p>The study is performed on 7-9^th grade schools, and the empirical material is gathered through reading of hundreds of action plans, observations, and interviews of students, teachers, remedial teachers and headmasters. The theoretical frame used is hermeneutics, constructivism and perspective on special education.</p><p>The result of the study is that action plans do play an important role in the work with students that experience difficulties within mathematics, but the quality of the programs seems to vary. Some action plans are clearly stated, contain tangible actions, both on individual as well as on a group level, that help the student in their learning, whereas other programs are unclear and aimed only at what the student himself should perform to reach the objectives, i.e. only on an individual level. The remedial teaching support is often categorical, they are assuming that the student is the owner of the problem, and the support is also given from that perspective. That means that the student is given support in the format of individual education by a remedial teacher or by education in a smaller group.</p>

Tidigare forskning kring arbetslöshet har visat på en mängd negativa effekter för den arbetslösa individen. Det behövs fler kvalitativa studier på detta område, eftersom de flesta tidigare studier är utförda med kvantitativa ansatser. Våra syften med studien är att ”nå en förståelse för hur yngre långtidsarbetslösa upplever sina möjligheter att få ett arbete”. Samt ”nå en förståelse av den arbetslösas identitet”. Vi använder en socialkonstruktionistisk utgångspunkt i tolkningen av identitetsbegreppet. Vi har valt tre socialpsykologiska begrepp för att analysera våra resultat, dessa är: stigma, utanförskap samt makt. Materialet har insamlats genom intervjuer med långtidsarbetslösa som befinner sig på AMA arbetsmarknad, vilket gett oss en mängd upplevelser av arbetslöshet. Denna studie har baserats på en hermeneutisk metod. Några centrala resultat är att respondenterna känner sig ekonomiskt begränsade, samt upplever ett utanförskap och skam. De visar att arbetet fortfarande är en stor del av identiteten. Trots stora påfrestningar för den arbetslösa individen visar vår studie på att yngre arbetslösa kan uppvisa en optimism inför framtiden.

Though death and mortality is an inevitable part of our lives it seems like both the society with its culture and the individual in some way repress death. This study was set to explore how and why the individual holds back thoughts on his/her own death and in which way society affect the individual’s repression of death-thoughts. Using a hermeneutic approach I have interviewed five informants about death and thoughts about death in everyday life. Also for the analysis of the empirical material a hermeneutic approach was used, and the works of Bauman, Giddens, Heidegger, Fromm and May served as a theoretical starting point. The findings reveal that society influences the individual’s thoughts about death and that the individual’s fear of death comes out of the fear of one owns body being in some sort of suffering just pre death. The institutionalization of sick persons and dead bodies is part of the medical culture and can explain the fact that the individual sees the bodily death as more frightening than human mortality itself. Even the way persons want to be remembered by survivors is part of the evidence of our society’s and culture’s objectification of the human body and death.

The overall purpose of this thesis is two-fold; to illuminate the meaning of living with ‘impurity’ in terms of malodorous exuding ulcers, and the meaning of caring for people with ‘impure’ bodies in institutions and in people’s homes. The thesis comprises four papers based on studies using qualitative methods. To illuminate nursing care as narrated by 27 retired care providers in northern Sweden, seven audio recorded group dialogues were performed (I). The transcribed group dialogues were analysed using a hermeneutic approach. The findings formulated as cleanliness, order and clear conscience point to purity. By cleaning patients and their surroundings repeatedly, by preserving order in various ways and by keeping a clear conscience, nurses committed to preserving purity. This study opened up for questions concerning the meaning of ‘impurity’ and‘purity’ in nursing today leading to papers II-IV. Learning about ‘purity’ is possible through studying ‘impurity’. Audio recorded narrative interviews were performed to illuminate the meaning of living with malodorous exuding ulcers (II) and the meaning of caring for people with malodorous exuding ulcers (III). A phenomenological-hermeneutic method was used to analyse the nine transcribed interviews with patients (II) and 10 transcribed interviews with nurses (III). The comprehensive understanding of living with malodorous exuding ulcers (II) was formulated as being trapped in a debilitating process that slowly strikes one down. There is a longing for wholeness and purity. When finding consolation, i.e., encountering genuineness and feeling loved, regarded and respected as fully human despite ulcers, patients feel purified. The comprehensive understanding of caring for people with malodorous exuding ulcers (III) was formulated as being exposed to, and overwhelmed by suffering that is invading. One runs the risk of experiencing desolation when one cannot make the ulcers and malodour disappear and fails to protect patients from additional suffering. To illuminate nurses’ reflections on obstacles and possibilities providing care as desired by people with malodorous ulcers (IV), six nurses from a previous study (III) were interviewed. An illustration with findings from paper II was shown and participants were asked to reflect on obstacles and possibilities providing the care desired by patients. The 12 audio recorded transcribed interviews were analysed using qualitative content analyses. The interpretations were presented as one theme ‘striving to do ‘good’ and be good’. The sub-themes related to the obstacles were ‘experiencing clinical competence constraints’, ‘experiencing organisational constraints’, ‘experiencing ineffective communication’, ‘fearing failure’ and ‘experiencing powerlessness’. The sub themes related to possibilities were ‘spreading knowledge on ulcer treatments’, ‘considering wholeness’ and ‘creating clear channels of communication’. The meaning of living with ‘impurity’ in terms of malodorous exuding ulcers, and the meaning of caring for people with ‘impure’ bodies in institutions and in patients’ homes is interpreted as striving for purity. Patients experience impurity when feeling dirty, losing hope, and not being respected and regarded as fully human. Nurses experience impurity when failing to shield patients’ vulnerability and their own defencelessness, and when facing obstacles preventing them from providing good care and being good nurses. Both patients and nurses may experience purity through consolation. For nurses, mediating consolation presupposes being consoled by being recognised for their challenging work, being respected and included in multiprofessional teams supported by the health care organisation and the leaders. Then patients can become consoled, and feel restored and fully human again despite their contaminated body.

Willy Kyrklund (1921–2009) anknyter i en betydande del av sina verk till såväl det gamla som det moderna Grekland. I avhandlingen gör nedslag i ett antal av dessa verk, men även Kyrklundforskningen i stort diskuteras. Med inspiration från Peter Szondis diskussion kring en specifikt litterär hermeneutik ställs textens estetiska verkningsmedel i centrum. Medan en ansenlig del av den tidigare forskningen strävat efter att fixera ett fåtal bärande tankar i Kyrklunds författarskap går denna undersökning i en annan riktning: det handlar om att visa på mångfalden och rikedomen i de olika verken. Den teoretiska diskussionen ligger till grund för en serie närläsningar, där såväl beröringspunkter som skillnader mellan de olika verken klarläggs. I de tre novellsamlingarna Ångvälten (1948), Hermelinens död (1954) och Den överdrivne älskaren (1957) väljs enskilda stycken ut, där grekiska element på ett eller annat sätt är närvarande. Ett återkommande drag är hur det förflutna framträder i nutiden, som något främmande. Hur de olika tidsplanen relaterar till varandra tematiseras ytterligare i Greklandsskildringen Aigaion (1957), på ett sätt som problematiserar bokens status av reseskildring. I det korta dramat Platanhårsdialog på en ö i Aigaion (1961) blir det våldsamma förhållandet mellan nuet och det förflutna avgörande för hela formspråket. Med exempel ur två senare prosaverk, Den rätta känslan (1974) och 8 variationer (1982), påvisas slutligen en underliggande logik bakom Kyrklunds angrepp på traditionen, en strategi som får namnet 'antimyt'.

All across the world, people struggle daily to create and enhance their sense of identity. Such struggles are waged in many ways, including through the process of rediscovering and reinterpreting history. Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, an African American congregation in a suburb of Atlanta, is engaged in a search for its church cemetery, lost when the land was sold to the military during the nation’s mobilization for World War II. The church’s efforts are analyzed in the context of identity creation -- a search for links to a mythic and self-sufficient past. Archaeological methods reveal compelling evidence that the cemetery lies in a location previously unknown to the community. Through a collaborative process, the church community and the investigator identify the possible cemetery location and develop plans to institute reforms that are sustainable and agreeable to all parties.

In traditional Islam, Adam is the first human created. Eve, or Hawa, was created to be his mate and she was made from Adam’s uppermost left rib. There has been a move to argue that Eve and Adam were created simultaneously. I will argue that, because of the negative patriarchal and misogynistic imagery that has been attached to Islam, some feminist Muslim thinkers are attempting to move Islam into a realm where they believe is revolutionary enough to make a new statement in the modern world. These feminist Muslims are making strides to make the Qur'an the sole authority in Islam, while simultaneously dismissing all traditional accounts that have historically been used to assist in interpreting the Qur’an. Although their conclusions are interesting, their methods will be the focus of my thesis. What these feminists are attempting is a method of interpretation that has never been widely accepted in Islam.

This essay tries to investigate the possibility to reconstruct the concept of mimesis in Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutical phenomenology in Sein und Zeit. Paul Ricoeur’s interpretation of the concept of mimesis in Aristotle’s Poetics, develops a new temporal understanding of the mimetic activity, which Ricoeur in his work Time and Narrative, claims to have the possibility to overcome the aporias in the phenomenology of time. With this criticism as the background context for the present study, seeks this essay to pick up Ricoeur’s new conception of mimesis, and use that in a comparative philosophical reflection on the basic concepts in Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit. The main thesis in this essay is that Ricoeur’s concept of mimesis can be rethought and reconstructed as a possibility within Heidegger’s thinking.