This study is about the factors that motivate individuals to engage in football hooliganism in Stockholm, Sweden. These individuals are often seen as problem makers and a threat to Swedish football. The aim of this study was to increase the understanding and knowledge about the phenomenon of football hooliganism in Sweden.  The question that has been answered is: What motivates individuals to engage in organized football hooliganism, and examine how these factors can be understood from Pierre Bourdieu's theory about habitus and capital?. Through this we hope to provide further knowledge about this phenomenon and understanding of why some individuals are drawn to this form of supporter culture. The method used for this study was semi-structured-interviews with former hooligans and the interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. We found that there are five main themes that are correlated to why individuals are  drawn into football hooliganism and motivated to engage in the phenomenon. These are Belonging, togetherness, community and friendship, Life experiences and social environment, Respect and status, Violence and the “Kick” and The feelings for the football club. We also found that these themes can be explained through Bourdieu's theory about habitus and capital. This study has shown that there are some central themes, or aspects to help explain why individuals are drawn into football hooliganism that are related to motivation and Pierre Bourdies theory about habitus and capital.

The amateur – the one who loves is an assay about the conditions of existence for amateur theatre in the region of Västerbotten, Sweden. During the last 20- something years the number of active amateur theatre-companies has gone from being a well-established form of cultural expression to being absent in the majority of the Västerbotten-communities. The purpose of this essay has been to understand why the people who are still active amateur theatre-performers-and- (volunteer)workers is interested in this form of art and which kinds of conditions of existence matters and enables these people to live their amateur theatre-lives. To be able to answer to this purpose it has been important to meet and speak to people from different parts of Västerbotten, why the study is multisited with shorter visits to several different places. By doing so, I have interviewed 12 people who still are, or used to be, engaged in amateur theatre, and I also visited three different amateur theatre companies to observe while they were rehearsing. Theoretically, the starting point has been the term culture and cultural theories such as a gleaning from Pierre Bourdieu's theories of practice where field, conditions of existence, habitus and symbolic capital has been identified in the empirical material and clarified with the help of feeling-work from Erin Hurley and orientation from Sarah Ahmed. The results have shown that the participants who has been interviewed all have (or used to have) three things in common: a great passion and love for the arts, an urge for self-realization and a longing to be part of a field or community of practise. But depending on where you live and where you come from, your conditions of existence differ quite a lot - even within the region of Västerbotten.

The pace of urbanisation in less developed regions creates consequenceswhich cause problems such as housing, overcrowding and lack of livingstandards in the urban areas. A problem connected more to developingcountries than developed countries that earlier went through the same process.One of the reasons why urbanisation occurs is because of rural-urbanmigration. This study focuses on why men and women migrate and usemigration as a tool to obtain personal development. The methodologicalframework used is qualitative with abductive reasoning, and the researchdesign is a case study. The case study selected is Zambia, specifically the slumarea Misisi in Lusaka. Ten semi-structured interviews are conducted to gatherempirical data. A selection needs to be made to do the interviews, which iscontrived on the snowball sampling method and delimitations. The empiricaldata is coded through thematic analysis, and three themes are found anddescribed in the findings, personal economic and educational development,network and gender differences. These themes are analysed through the chosensociological analytical framework; Bourdieu's class theory and West andZimmerman's theory doing gender. The findings show that individuals usemigration as a tool to climb in societal class and obtain personal developmentin different capitals. Furthermore, the differences between men and womenare not as vast anymore, women have started to focus more on themselves thanon the family. This research follows the lines of Agenda 2030, specificallynumber 11, and can inspire a more profound interest in the subject ofsustainable cities and communities with the findings. Continuing research canincrease the understanding of how personal development affects the fastgrowing urbanisation in developing countries with rural-urban migration.

The media landscape has evolved significantly over the last decades. Previously, the extent of media choice was limited to a handful of newspapers and radio- and TV broadcasts. However, with the rise of cable TV and internet access, people are faced with a multitude of choices regarding what media and content they choose to consume. Scholars have argued that these developments may enable people who are not interested in news consumption to avoid news more than previously. Considering this transformation of the media landscape, this paper aspires to shed light on the factors that affect news media choice. More specifically, the aim of this essay is to study upper secondary school students’ news interest, news consumption and their trust in news media.   This essay employs uses and gratifications and Bourdieu’s symbolic and cultural capital theory to analyze the empirical data. This data is based on 6 semi-structured interviews with students in the first or second year in two upper secondary schools.  The analysis demonstrates that parents’ political interest in addition to students’ uses and gratifications are significant to understand news interest and news consumption among upper secondary school students. Furthermore, the analysis highlights that the interviewees with higher cultural capital perceive news media with a higher symbolic capital as more trustworthy, while students with a lower cultural capital trust tabloid media to a greater extent.

Klimatfrågan är ett ständigt aktuellt ämne i dagens samhälle och det tycks finnas en stor medvetenhet hos de flesta människor om att det krävs akuta insatser och stora livsstilsförändringar, om vi ska ha möjlighet att minska vår klimatpåverkan. Trots att klimatförändringarna lämnar få oberörda och många individer uppger sig dessutom vara både insatta och engagerade i klimatfrågan, så omsätts engagemanget inte alltid till handling. Denna miljösociologiska kvantitativa studie avser undersöka om olika typer av klimatbudskap har en inverkan på individens attityd gentemot klimatförändringar vid exponeringstillfället. Studien undersöker också huruvida det finns skillnader i individens socio-ekonomiska bakgrund som inverkar på deras självskattade klimatengagemang. I studien deltog 140 respondenter med varierande bakgrundsvariabler (ålder, kön, boendeort, utbildningsnivå och inkomst). Respondenterna som delades upp i två experimentgrupper och en kontrollgrupp, fick besvara en digital enkät med en kvasi-experimentell design.                                                                                                     Resultatet visade att de olika kommunikativa angreppssätten att förmedla frågor kring klimatet på, inte hade en inverkan på respondenternas attityd gentemot klimatförändringar vid exponeringstillfället. Det fanns inte heller en signifikant skillnad avseende respondenternas klimatengagemang mellan bakgrundsvariablerna boendeort och utbildningsnivå. Däremot visade resultatet en signifikant skillnad mellan män och kvinnor gällande skattat klimatengagemang, något som ligger i linje med tidigare forskning. / Climate change is a constantly debated issue in our society today, and most people seem to have a sense of awareness that we need to act urgently and make major changes in our lifestyle in order to decrease our impact on the climate. Despite the fact that climate change leaves few untouched and many individuals also claim to be both well informed and engaged in the climate issue, the commitment is not always put into action. This environmental sociological quantitative study intends to investigate whether different types of climate messages have an impact on the individual's attitude towards climate change at the time of exposure. The study also examines whether there are differences in the individual's socio-economic background that affect their self-rated climate commitment. In the study 140 respondents with varying background variables participated (age, sex, level of education, place of residence and income). Respondents who were divided into two experimental groups and one control group were asked to answer a digital survey with a quasi-experimental design.                                                                                                                The result showed that the different communicative approaches to conveying issues around the climate did not have an impact on the respondents' attitude towards climate change at the time of exposure. There was also no significant difference with respect to the respondents' climate commitment between the background variables residential area and level of education. However, the result showed a significant difference between men and women regarding estimated climate engagement, which is in line with previous research.

Als Forschungsförderprogramm zur Stärkung des Wissenschaftsstandorts Deutschland hat die Exzellenzinitiative von Bund und Ländern eine hohe symbolische Tragweite. Eine durch das Ziel der Förderung von Spitzenforschung motivierte Exzellenz-Rhetorik ("Leuchttürme der Wissenschaft", "Elite-" und "Exzellenzuniversitäten") konkurriert mit den tatsächlich gemessenen Effekten dieses Forschungsförderprogramms. In dieser Dissertationsschrift wird am Beispiel der Exzellenzinitiative ein Modell entwickelt, um solche Formen symbolischer Konstruktionsarbeit zu beschreiben. Grundlage ist eine theoretische Reflektion des Sichtbarkeitsbegriffs der Exzellenzinitiative durch Bezug auf den Disziplin-Begriff Michel Foucaults, das Kapitalmodell Pierre Bourdieus, Niklas Luhmanns systemtheoretische Perspektive auf die Medien sowie Thomas Gieryns Konzept der boundary work. Diese theoretische Reflektion leitet die daran anschließende empirische Analyse an. Es kommt eine Methoden-Triangulation zum Einsatz: Ergebnisse einer quantitativen Analyse des medialen Framings der Exzellenz-Debatte (ca. 1850 Artikel; Vollerhebung der Berichterstattung zwischen dem 01.01.2004 und dem 31.07.2013 in acht relevanten Leitmedien; Entwicklung des Codebuchs auf Grundlage einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse) werden in Bezug gesetzt zu den Resultaten von 19 qualitativen Leitfaden-Interviews mit den berichtenden Journalisten und Mitgliedern des Bewilligungsausschusses der Exzellenzinitiative sowie der Auswertung einer Online-Befragung von Antragstellern bei der Exzellenzinitiative. Die Ergebnisse dokumentieren die stimulierende Wirkung von Symbolen im Allgemeinen sowie die Bedeutung des Entscheidungsverfahrens speziell für die Exzellenzinitiative. Daraus resultieren Handlungsempfehlungen für die "Exzellenz-Strategie", welche die Förderung von Spitzenforschung über die Förderdauer der Exzellenzinitiative hinaus fortführen wird. / The Initiative for Excellence is a joint research funding program of the German Federal State and the 16 Länder. It aims at (1) increasing the international competitiveness of German universites and (2) making peaks within the German university system more visible. These goals motivate a rhetoric of scientific excellence which is - at least partly - not in line with the measurable impacts of the Initiative for Excellence on the German university system. This thesis contains a proposal for a model to analyze such symbolic constructions. For that reason, the goal "visibility" is discussed with reference to the theories of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Niklas Luhmann and Thomas Gieryn. The resulting synthesis guides the empirical work: Results of a quantitative framing analysis of media reporting on the Initiative for Excellence are combined with results from a survey of applicants and 19 qualitative interviews with journalists as well as members of the Grants Committee. The results document the stimulating effects of symbols in general and the importance of the decision-making-process for the Initiative for Excellence, in particular. Finally, the results motivate recommendations for a new research funding program.

<p>The aim of this study is to analyze the construction of research culture and collaboration within the research studio Tools for Creativity, one node in the larger Interactive Institute. This studio is an arena that in today’s society is associated with boundary crossing, dynamics and variability: An environment with high-tech equipment, a staff equipped with diverse skills, and a flexible approach with the ambition of developing innovative tools based on ICT to strengthen human creativity. The present thesis is divided into four main parts. In Part One, culture as analytical framework is presented. This is followed by a presentation of field work, data and field site, the studio Tools for Creativity, and its employees. This includes a discussion of the methods of participant observations and deep inter-views. In the theoretical framework overview, perspectives used in this thesis is presented, including the so-called “new research landscape” debate, a background to this thesis. The introduction concludes with a chapter whith a reflexivity discussion including the making of the research self during field work and in the written text. In Part Two, entitled “Technology”, the informants’ definition of technology in relation ICT and the prototypes produced is ana-lyzed. The concepts “enlightenment optimism” and “romantic uneasiness” are presented as theoretical entrances to the chapter. This is the background for an analysis of the future- and speed-oriented discourse that characterizes the informants’ perception of technology. The aim of using technology to support human creativity, challenge presence and facilitate multi-cultural communication is further discussed. This is juxtaposed with another aspect of technol-ogy, namely the informant’s critique of technology’s impact on mankind, humanity and society. Part Three, “Re-search”, deals with interpretations and negotiations of the concept of research and the researcher conducted by the informants at Tools for Creativity. First, the concept of “boundary object” is presented followed by its use order to analyze the construction of research and the researcher in a multi-disciplinary arena like the studio. An important part of the making of the researcher is the trading of skills in the attempt of legitimizing the individuals’ efforts at conducting research. Here, focus is the negotiation of research as an activity between individuals representing the sciences and the arts, as well as those with formal education and autodidacts. Attempts to manage a broader research concept are placed in relation to academic quality demands. In this analysis, the point of departure is Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of symbolic capital. Here, gender is included as symbolic capital. Part Four is called “Reflections” and contains a discussion of the study and reflections concerning field work. This is followed by a summation of what happened to Tools for Creativity and Interactive Institute after finished field work.</p>

The main purpose of this C-essay is to answer the question: What have been the consequences and effects of the merit point system on language studies and the parties concerned (teachers, students and principals) during the school year of 2010/11? The merit point system is the result of a political decision and was implicated for the first time in the Swedish upper secondary school during the school year 2010/2011. Being a completely new phenomenon it is of great interest and importance to study its effects. The study in this essay also aims to verify, falsify or nullify two hypotheses very often referred to in the political discussions regarding the merit point system: The merit point system will replace affection and interest as main reasons for language studies in upper secondary school and cause a rectification amongst the students choices of additional courses. The merit point system will have a segregating effect upon society and make it harder for people to rise in society through education in the future. A verification of these hypotheses would imply the appearance of an increased rectification amongst students as well as an orientation towards an in the future more segregated society. The empiric material has been collected and examined with qualitative as well as quantitative methods (questionnaires and interviews) and belongs epistemologically to the phenomenological and hermeneutical traditions.

The purpose of this study is to examine how school meals are organized in a selection of Stockholm's secondary schools and to examine the relationship between school meals and the different parameters that indicate each school's symbolic capital and educational capital. By looking at the statistics from each school on the basis of the final grade average, percentage of pupils with foreign background and gender, I examine whether it is possible to see a relationship between how schools organize meals and which pupils attend the school.  In my study, I systematically went through each school's website and tried to identify how school meals at each school are organized. To increase the validity of the study, I have also conducted a questionnaire survey by mail addressed to school principals.   In order to analyse and understand my results and put them in relation to my current knowledge about the schools in my sample, I am using Bourdieu's theoretical tools that a given aid, both in methodological and analytical purpose. Based on Bourdieu's theories of symbolic capital, cultural capital and educational capital, I can understand and analyse school meals are organized and focused as part of schools' symbolic assets in competition with other schools.   The first part of the study shows that there are four different organizational models for school meals, fully equipped kitchen and canteen, heating kitchen and canteen, school meals in restaurants and school meal card.    In the second part, I have examined the relationship between the type of organization for school meals used and the symbolic resources available at the school. I can conclude from the results that it is difficult to find a correlation between the symbolic resources and the different categories. But even though it is not possible to see all the schools' symbolic assets equally clear, there are still some very telling examples. In many ways, these examples can be seen as polar opposites to each other based on Mikael Palme’s concepts ”goal rational” and ”education oriented” schools.

This report focuses on social networks surrounding visual music, a sub-field of audiovisual experimental art in which hearing and seeing intersect, often through the music-oriented manipulation of abstract imagery and audio-visual synchronization. The discussion evolves from my fieldwork in Los Angeles, where I interacted with artists, archivists, publishers, institutions, software developers, and scholars. Taking into account Howard Becker's notion of art world, Pierre Bourdieu's ideas of cultural and economic capitals, and Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, I try to understand how these groups have been trying to establish visual music-networks. Although elements of visual music have been present in various media and artistic trends (color organs, abstract films, VJing-DJing, etc.), the field's history and premises are still little known, in part because the very term 'visual music' is a contested one. Due to its entertainment/cultural industries, Los Angeles is a place where multiple processes of high tech differentiation coexist; since the 1930s the city's technocultural environment (from film production to academic programs on computer animation) has lured artists interested in visual music. Not surprisingly, the city holds the only two institutions directly related to visual music in the country. I navigate through this field by considering some intersections between science, art, and technology. / text