The fourth volume of the International Journal of Homiletics opens with an article from South Africa presenting first results of an empirical research on preaching in times of the pandemic. Marileen Steyn, Cas Wepener and Hennie Pieterse, all three from Stellenbosch University, conducted a grounded theory exploration on Preaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa analyzing 24 sermons preached on March 22 and March 29 2020- during the time of the South African lockdown. They convincingly show that in an experience of ‘distance’ (to God and the others) sermons primarily try to present a God who is ‘near.’ The authors explore the ‘hinges’ preachers use to help people on the threshold between near and far. They also point to the role liturgy plays together with the words of the sermon and suggest Holy Saturday/Silent Saturday as a metaphor for the homiletical endeavor of preaching in times of crisis. The article is presented in our volume in an English and an Afrikaans version.

Studien undersöker hur olika personlighetsdrag samvarierar med andelen stress vi upplever under Covid-19 pandemin, samt hur dessa personlighetsdrag samvarierar med copingstrategier och hur väl restriktionerna efterföljs. Urvalet bestod av 105 vuxna svenska personer. Formuläret bestod av Ten Item Personality Inventory, Perceived stress scale 10, sex frågor hämtade från Brief cope samt fyra frågor gällande deltagarnas compliance gällande Covid-19 pandemin som konstruerades utifrån Asselmann et al. (2020).Multipla regressioner utfördes för att undersöka det dubbelriktade sambandet mellan personlighetsdrag, stress och coping. Även de demografiska faktorerna ålder, kön, samt boendesituation undersöktes. Analyser av compliance resulterade i takeffekter, vilket gjorde att variabeln uteslöts från multipla regressioner. Resultaten av variabeln compliance var genomgående höga, vilket indikerar att samtliga deltagare, oavsett personlighetsdrag anser sig följa restriktionerna i hög utsträckning. Resultaten från de multipla regressionerna visade ett moderat negativt samband mellan PSS-10 och emotionell stabilitet (β=.53). Även ett svagt positivt samband mellan agreeableness och coping hittades (β=.24). Ett ytterligare fynd var ett svagt positivt samband mellan coping och boendesituation (β=.21), vilket indikerar att personer som bor ihop med andra använder sig av en mer funktionell coping, samt tillämpar dysfunktionella copingstrategier i lägre grad. Fortsatt forskning inom området behövs för att undersöka kopplingar mellan personlighetsdrag, stress, compliance och copingstrategier i relation till Covid-19 pandemin. / The present study investigates the relationship between personality traits, the amount of stress we experience due to the Covid-19 pandemic and how different personality traits covariates with coping strategies as well as compliance to the announced restrictions. The sample consisted of 105 Swedish participants over the age of 18. The questionnaire consisted of Ten Item Personality Inventory, Perceived stress scale 10, six questions were taken from Brief cope and four questions regarding the participants compliance concerning the Covid-19 pandemic which was constructed based on Asselmann et al. (2020). Multiple regressions were performed to investigate the bidirectional relationship between personality traits and stress, and coping. The demographic variables age, gender and housing situations were examined. The analyses of compliance resulted in roof effects, which excluded the variable from multiple regressions. The results of the variable compliance were consistently high, which indicates that all participants, regardless of personality traits, considered themselves to follow the restrictions to a large extent. The results from the multiple regressions showed a moderate negative relationship between PSS-10 and emotional stability (β=.53). A weak positive relationship between agreeableness and coping was also found (β=.24). A further finding was a weak positive relationship between coping and housing situations (β=.21), which implies that people in shared households have more functional coping and tend to use dysfunctional coping to a lower degree. Further research in this area is needed to investigate links between personality traits, stress, compliance and coping strategies in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Titel: CSR i tider av Covid-19-pandemin - En kvantitativ studie om Covid19-pandemins påverkan på svenska börsbolags CSR-aktiviteter Författare: Ellinor Gustafsson och Joel Mattsson Handledare: Torbjörn Tagesson Nyckelord: Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, Covid-19-pandemin,innehållsanalys Bakgrund: Covid-19-pandemin hade sin startpunkt år 2020 och är en kris som påverkat enskilda individer, samhällen och företag. I tidigare studierges ingen entydig indikation om hur företags CSR-aktiviteter påverkasav oförutsedda, ej företagsspecifika kriser. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka om och hur omfattningen av svenskabörsbolags CSR-aktiviteter har förändrats under den pågående Covid19-pandemin; således mellan åren 2019–2020. Forskningsfråga: Har svenska börsbolags omfattning av CSR-aktiviteter minskat/ökat eller inte påverkats under Covid-19-pandemi-året 2020 i jämförelsemed 2019? Metod: Studien har en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi och har en explorativoch explanativ forskningsansats med ett deduktivt angreppssätt. Studiens syfte uppfylls genom att utföra en innehållsanalys avsekundärdata i form av årsredovisningar och hållbarhetsrapporter från företag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen. Resultat: Studien visar att svenska börsbolags omfattning av CSR-aktiviteterdelvis ökat under Covid-19-pandemin. Omfattningen av CSRaktiviteter kopplade till den miljömässiga och den socialadimensionen av CSR visade sig öka under Covid-19-pandemin. Däremot visade sig omfattningen av totala CSR-aktiviteter samt CSRaktiviteter kopplade till den ekonomiska CSR-dimensionen varaopåverkade under Covid-19-pandemin. Kunskapsbidrag: Studien bidrar till ökad kunskap om hur Covid-19-pandemin påverkat omfattningen av svenska börsbolags CSR-aktiviteter. Detta kan ökaförståelsen för vilken effekt en oförutsedd, ej företagsspecifik krispåverkar företags arbete med CSR. / Title: CSR in times of the Covid-19 pandemic - A quantitative study of theimpact of the Covid-19 pandemic on CSR activities at companieslisted on the Stockholm Stock Exchange Authors: Ellinor Gustafsson och Joel Mattsson Supervisor Torbjörn Tagesson: Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, Covid-19-pandemic, contentanalysis Background: The Covid-19 pandemic had its starting point in 2020 and is a crisisthat has affected individuals, societies, and companies. There havebeen no one-sided indications of how companies' CSR activities areaffected by unpredictable and non-company-specific crises in earlierstudies. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate whether and how the extentof Swedish listed companies' CSR activities has changed during theongoing Covid-19 pandemic; between the years 2019–2020. Research question: Has the extent of Swedish listed companies' CSR activities decreased /increased or not been affected during the Covid-19 pandemic year2020 in comparison with 2019? Method: The study has a quantitative research strategy and has an exploratoryand explanatory research method with a deductive approach. Thepurpose of the study is fulfilled by performing a content analysis ofsecondary data in the form of annual reports and sustainabilityreports from companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Result: The study shows that Swedish listed companies' extent of CSRactivities partially increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. The studyfound CSR activities linked to CSR's environmental and socialdimension increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, theextent of total CSR activities, as well as CSR activities linked to theeconomic CSR dimension, were found to be unaffected during theCovid-19 pandemic. Contribution: The study contributes to increased knowledge of the effect that theCovid-19-pandemic has had on Swedish listed companies' CSRactivities. This study can increase the understanding of what impactan unpredictable, non-company-specific crisis may have oncompanies' work with CSR.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera och bidra till ny kunskap kring om, och i så fall på vilket sätt Covid-19 pandemin har påverkat studenter på Karlstads universitets resvanor. Studien avser även att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan studenters resvanor och behovet av att befinna sig på en viss plats för att genomföra en viss aktivitet. För att möjliggöra detta ska situationen under pandemin jämföras med situationen före pandemin, för att på det sättet upptäcka eventuella skillnader. För att uppnå syftet har två frågeställningar formulerats. Studiens frågeställningar är följande:  - Hur har Covid-19 pandemin påverkat studenterna på Karlstads universitets resvanor? - Hur har behovet av att befinna sig på en viss plats, för att genomföra en viss aktivitet, påverkats till följd av Covid-19 pandemin bland studenter på Karlstads universitet? Studien utgår från en kvantitativ metod i form av en enkät för att få studiens problemformuleringen samt frågeställningarna besvarade. Teorierna som studien utgår ifrån är tidsgeografi, aktivitetsansatsen samt den geografiska och virtuella rörligheten. Aktivitetsansatsen är en ansats som uppkommit ur tidsgeografin och båda dessa teorier ger möjlighet att analysera hur Covid-19 pandemin har påverkat studenter på Karlstads universitets resvanor. Den geografiska och virtuella rörligheten är en teori som förklarar att kommunikation med andra människor blir oberoende av avstånd i samband med att den virtuella rörligheten utvecklas. Sammanfattningsvis handlar det om att geografiska förflyttningar primärt grundar sig i människans behov att till exempel utföra ett visst ärende eller aktivitet samt möta människor på olika platser. Slutsatsen av studien är att respondenternas vardagsresande har minskat till följd av Covid-19 pandemin och att distansundervisningen har medfört att behovet av att befinna sig på lärosätet har minskat. / Our purpose with this essay is to study and contribute to new knowledge about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on students' traveling habits. The study also intends to investigate whether there is a link between students' mobility patterns and the need to be in a certain place to carry out an activity. To enable this, differences during the pandemic must be compared with prior to the pandemic. To achieve the purpose with this study, two question formulations have been formulated. The study's question formulations are the following: - How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected students at Karlstad University traveling habits? - How has the need to be in a certain place, to carry out a certain activity, been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic among students at Karlstad University? The study is based on a quantitative method where a survey was designed to get the study's problem formulation and the question formulations answered. The theories on which the study is based are time geography, the activity approach and the geographical and virtual mobility. The activity approach is an approach that has emerged from the time geography and both of these theories give the opportunity to analyze how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected students at Karlstad University's traveling habits. Geographical and virtual mobility is a theory that explains that communication with other people becomes independent of distance due to the development of virtual mobility. In summary, it is a matter of geographical movements primarily being based on the human need to, for example, carry out a certain task or activity and meet people in different places. The conclusion is that the respondents every day travelling has decreased as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic and that the distance learning has reduced the need to be at the centre of learning.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the society and its inhabitants and this is first and foremost a result of the closed national borders and limited opportunities to travel. Despite these societal restrictions it was stated in a press release that the seizures of drugs had increased in quantity during the pandemic. Because of this it is of interest to examine such a highly topical phenomenon and to see which factors contributed to these results. The purpose with this study is to examine if the concerned authorities experience any change in the drug smuggling to Sweden during the Covid-19 pandemic and to examine possible factors that can be contributing to these changes. In the results it was presented that the reason for the change in seizure statistics was changing methods made by the smugglers and how the drugs were being transported. This is a consequence due to possibilities that were no problem to use earlier were all of the sudden impossible to use due to prevailing societal situations. Further on is the statistics a result of change in working methods within the crime preventing authorities regarding how to place their resources. Encrochat was also a contributing factor to why the statistics are the way it is. Finally it is worth to mention that since the Covid-19 pandemic is an ongoing phenomenon it is problematic to draw an actual conclusion regarding which factors contribute to why the statistics look the way it does and which ones that do not contribute. Because of this it is of high relevance to examine this phenomenon once again when the pandemic is over to be able to figure out if the pandemic was the main reason to why the development in the statistics looks the way it does or if there are any other factors that has had a bigger part in this. / Covid-19 pandemin har haft en stor påverkan på samhället och dess invånare och detta är främst ett resultat av stängda landsgränser och begränsade resmöjligheter. Men trots dessa samhällsrestriktioner uttalade Tullverket sig i ett pressmeddelande att beslagen av narkotika har ökat i mängd under pandemin. Det var därför av intresse att undersöka ett sådant högaktuellt fenomen och se vilka faktorer som bidrog till detta resultatet som Tullverket presenterade. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om berörda myndigheter upplever att det finns någon förändring i narkotikasmugglingen till Sverige under Covid-19 pandemin jämfört med innan pandemin samt att undersöka vilka möjliga faktorer som kan vara bidragande till dessa förändringar. I resultatet från intervjuerna framkom det att anledningen till den förändrade beslagsstatistiken är ändrade metoder från smugglarna och hur de transporterar narkotikan. Detta är en konsekvens av att de möjligheter som tidigare inte var några problem att använda helt plötsligt inte längre är möjliga på grund av rådande samhällssituation. Vidare är statistiken ett resultat av förändrade arbetsformer inom de brottsförebyggande myndigheterna vad gäller hur myndigheterna ska placera sina resurser och vart det är störst sannolikhet att narkotikan kommer in till Sverige. Informanterna belyste även Encrochat som en bidragande faktor till varför statistiken kan se ut som den gör, flera ärenden har gått till åtal till följd av upplösningen av Encrochat och kriminella nätverk har varit tvungna att omorganiseras. Slutligen är det värt att nämna att eftersom Covid-19 pandemin är ett pågående fenomen är det problematiskt att dra en slutsats gällande de faktiska bidragande faktorerna till varför statistiken ser ut som den gör. Det är därför av hög relevans att undersöka fenomenet på nytt när pandemin över för att undersöka om pandemin verkligen var den huvudsakliga faktor till varför utvecklingen ser ut som den gör eller om det finns andra faktorer som har haft större roll.

This thesis focuses on early beginnings of a video conferencing platform Zoom, its development and enormous rise during the global pandemic of COVID-19 disease, and on its influence on users. It focuses particularly on millennials who are already familiar with this kind of technology. The aim of this work is primarily to determine the effects of Zoom, as a video conferencing platform, on user's activities because they were used to perform them in a physical contact with other people. However, due to restrictions resulting from epidemiological measures, participants were forced to move their activities to the online environment. The thesis focuses on answering these research questions: How do people's behaviour, perception of the situation and their self-presentation change when using Zoom in comparison to a face-to-face meeting? How have the activities of users changed while using Zoom, due to COVID-19, namely March to December 2020? How and for what reasons do users use Zoom? How do users perceive Zoom's affordances? In order to answer these questions, qualitative research was conducted using semi-structured in-depth interviews. These were attended by ten respondents who regularly use Zoom for a certain activity that was carried out in personal before the pandemic. Respondents were millennials,...

Background: In March 2020, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, suddenly and completely unexpected, governments worldwide replaced face-to-face education with emergency distance teaching. Studies showed that students and teachers, in general, had been negatively affected by the strategy. Upper secondary school teachers and students in Sweden were affected and have now worked and studied from home for more than one year. Problem: Teachers were now asked to do extraordinary things regarding course delivery and learning. However, school curricula have not changed, and it has been up to the teachers to adapt their teaching to fulfil the curricula. Few studies provided teachers’ perspectives on this extraordinary situation and why it was essential to enter the teacher’s world and determine how this affected them and their work. Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the Swedish upper secondary school teachers' experiences of Emergency Distance Teaching during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Three research questions were considered sufficient to answer this aim. Method: A qualitative narrative design captured the lived experiences of Swedish upper secondary school teachers. Stories from two teachers that worked in two different school contexts were collected. Result: The stories were personal, emotional, and revealing and answered the research questions. The Qualitative content analysis identified three themes: (1) Distant and Remote Communication, (2) Key are to be Present, Kind, and Innovative, and (3) Trials. Both teachers' most decisive change and challenges were the difficulties they experienced with maintaining connectedness and the interrupted teacher-student relationship, which was especially difficult in vocational programs. The result surprisingly showed that some students had benefitted from EDT and showed higher attendance than before. The stories showed how the teachers struggled to be creative to fulfil students' vital needs and often used outside-box strategies to manage. The teachers also showed how they felt lonely and how this had affected their job satisfaction and well-being. Significant, was that the result showed that the teachers had gained new skills and knowledge of how to handle the best teaching during school closure, even if it were not the teaching that they would prefer. Conclusion: Remote and distance teaching will become increasingly important in the future, considering Anthropogenic Climate Change. There is a strong call for a holistic transdisciplinary approach to identify and manage the organizational and psychological impacts of EDT on Swedish upper secondary school teachers. Strategies specifically targeting teachers working with vocational programs and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are needed to avoid exacerbating existing disparities. Teachers required close contact with their students to have job satisfaction and they needed to be included and receive clear support, trust, and guidelines from school management.

As the risk society has evolved, crisis management has become significant in order to survive a crisis. Crisis consultants have an important role in the risk society and organizations expects a whole lot from the profession. There is a gap in the research about the perceptions of crisis consultant’s role and expectancies in the risk society. Additionally, there is no research connected to the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on the profession of crisis consulting. The study aims to explore the crisis consultants view of and their role in the risk society. It also seeks to investigate how the crisis consultants have adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic. The study has been conducted through a qualitative case study consisting of various crisis consultants from diverse consultancies. The primary data consisted of eight semi-structured in- depth interviews. Crises in the risk society has become more complex due to the developing technology which has had an effect on the dispersion of information and personal exposures. Crisis consultants are expected to act as change agents who provides an outside perspective and pushes the client forward during crises. The Covid-19 pandemic has had no effect on the types of crisis and neither on the processes used by the crisis consultants. The shift lies within tools and certain procedures where social distancing and digitalization has become the new standard. Although the alterations have been challenging in some situations, the crisis consultants have still managed to fulfill their tasks and increase their workload.

The covid-19-pandemic has affected many companies and businesses in society, the retail business being one of them. The pandemic has caused a decrease in sales and many stores have had to make staff reductions. The responsibility of managing the store, as well as managing the changing work conditions, lands in the hands of the store managers. Previous research shows that the middle management position is a vulnerable position where they constantly have to adapt to and handle different interests, particularly during a time full of change. The purpose of the study is to contribute to knowledge about how the covid-19-pandemic affect the store managers work role and leadership, focusing on the conflicting demands and expectations that are integral parts of the middle management position. The empiric material has been gathered through qualitative interviews with store managers in retail, specifically within clothing,cosmetics and shoe retail. The basis for the analysis of the data is a collective theoretical framework regarding sociological ambivalence and sociological coping. The result of the studyshows that the pandemic has resulted in changed work conditions mainly due to temporary and permanent staff reductions. The changed work conditions has led to intensified conflicting demands for the store managers causing them to experience a role conflict, a conflict of values, and conflict between goals and means. Moreover, the study shows that the store managers have handled the conflicting demands and expectations by switching between roles, accepting the intensified demands, seeking support from upper management and co-workers, and to some extent by attempting to make change and set boundaries. The study indicates that the storemanagers work involves incompatible demands and expectations that they are attempting to meet, as a result the store managers feel that they are stretched to their limit. / Den rådande covid-19-pandemin har påverkat många företag och branscher i samhället, däribland handelsbranschen. Pandemin har resulterat i minskad försäljning och många butiker har behövt göra personalneddragningar. Ansvaret för att driva butiken och hantera de förändrade arbetsförhållandena hamnar i knät på butikscheferna. Tidigare forskning visar att mellanchefspositionen är en utsatt position där de ständigt måste förhålla sig till och hantera olika intressen, särskilt under en tid av förändring. Studien syftar därmed till att bidra med kunskap om hur covid-19-pandemin påverkar butikschefens yrkesroll och ledarskap, med ett fokus på de motstridiga krav och förväntningar som inbegrips i mellanchefspositionen. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom kvalitativa intervjuer med butikschefer inom sällanköpshandeln. Grunden för analysen av datamaterialet är ett samlat teoretiskt ramverk om sociologisk ambivalens och sociologisk coping. Studiens resultat visar att pandemin har resulterat i förändrade arbetsförhållanden främst i form av permitteringar och personalneddragningar. De förändrade arbetsförhållandena har lett till en intensifiering av motstridiga krav och förväntningar på butikscheferna vilket gör att de upplever rollkonflikt, värderingskonflikt och konflikt mellan mål och medel. Vidare visar resultatet att butikscheferna hanterat motstridiga krav och förväntningar genom att växla mellanrollfunktioner, acceptera intensifieringen av kraven, söka stöd från ledning och kollegor samt till viss del försöka förändra och sätta gränser. Studien indikerar att butikschefernas arbete präglas av yttre inkompatibla krav och förväntningar som de försöker möta, vilket resulterar i butikschefernas upplevelse av att de vänder ut och in på sig själva.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how consumer behavior related to food changed during the pandemic in Sweden. At the beginning of 2020 a global pandemic named Covid-19 hit all the countries, Sweden being one of them.  The pandemic has forced everyone to change their usual lifestyle in order to be safe from the virus. The consumers' food choices have been changed during the pandemic, this topic would be interesting to be researched by the authors. Since the pandemic has urged worldwide, most of the countries have been affected because of it. The researchers have conducted a  questionnaire in order to be able to analyze the situation in Sweden from the consumers point of view. The findings indicate changes in consumer behavior and buying behavior that are tied with the pandemic times in the context of health. Some changes have been observed in product buying for food consumption as many people bought healthier products.