In this dissertation I analyze the figure of the East-Bengali refugee woman in Indian literature on the Partition of Bengal of 1947. I read the figure as one who makes visible, and thus opens up for critique, the conditions that constitute the category women in the discursive terrain of post-Partition/post-Independence India. The figure of the refugee woman, thereby, allows us to map the relationship between the category women and the collective imaginary, specifically the nation. I argue that the figure of the refugee woman explicates, interrupts, and critiques the relationship of women to the nation in the normative patriarchal nationalist discourse, which constructs women as a sign of the nation. The representational import of the refugee woman pushes the signification of women in relation to the collective from a sign to that of a subject. My analysis of the refugee woman is, thus, a critical engagement with the tension between women as figurative and women as historical-material categories, although both are imagined within the field of discursive signification. I develop my argument by analyzing three major texts from West Bengal, India that respond to the Partition to critically apprehend the radical charge inherent in the figure of the refugee woman. These texts are the film Meghe Dhaka Tara (Cloud-Capped Star; 1960) by Ritwik Ghatak, and the novels Epar Ganga, Opar Ganga (The River Churning; 1967) by Jyotirmoyee Devi and Swaralipi (The Notations; 1952) by Sabitri Roy. The larger argument of the dissertation is that the Partition, as a historical event, lies in contiguity and continuity with the normative regime of the gendered everyday world. Therefore, the Partition allows us to examine the historical configurations of power that make the gendered everyday but that cannot be easily discerned from within the everyday. Within the rubric of this larger argument lies my contention that the figure of the refugee woman has the radical potential to make visible the traumatic relationship between the extraordinary violence of the Partition and the gendered, ordinary, everyday life.

This phenomenological study was conducted in order to understand the everyday experiences of contemporary mystics in the Jewish traditions of Kabbalah. This author could find no available information about psychological research of this topic in psychological, educational or psychiatric databases. She used the applied phenomenological methodology of Howard Pollio and the Research Groups at the University of Tennessee. Interviews were conducted by this author with eight volunteer, living, adult participants who lived throughout the United States and ranged in age from 37 to 60+ years. These mystics were found through various means after they had described themselves, by their own definitions, as mystics in the Jewish traditions(s) of Kabbalah. There were six men and two women who participated; four were Jewish and four were not. The interviews ranged from one to three hours in length, were recorded, and later transcribed for confidential analyses. After analyzing the results, the Ground of the participants’ experience was determined to be Being Aware. The Thematic Structure of the participants’ everyday experiences of living with their mystical events and processes contained six themes: 1) Divine/Sacred, 2) Receiving/Calling/Gift, 3) Knowing/Realizing, 4) Practices/Body, 5)Developing/Stages, and 6) Struggling: Self/Others/World. Implications for this study suggest that the everyday experiences of these mystical participants are different in many ways from everyday experiences of non-mystics. There is some support for the ideas of spiritual intelligence, spiritual giftedness, consciousness advancement. Appreciating intuition, higher emotional states, and the deeper, yet usually hidden parts of human experience, along with learning to identify and support young people who are having mystical experiences is a worthwhile goal for psychologists.

This thesis aims to explore the importance of proximity and mobility, respectively, for individuals’ accessibility, as well as the relationship between these two key spatial dimensions of accessibility in the context of everyday life. The thesis is based upon three empirical research papers which focus on accessibility-related preferences, actual accessibility conditions, and travel patterns. Focus is directed towards the spatial relationships between individuals’ residential location vis-à-vis the location of a selection of different amenities including work, education, service and leisure functions as well as social relations. The analyses are based on a wide range of quantitative data, including questionnaire surveys as well as official register data for the Swedish population.      The first paper shows that residential proximity to amenities was most valued by individuals in the case of social relations and basic daily activities. The level of satisfaction with current accessibility conditions was generally high, with the exception of social relations where the findings suggest the existence of a ‘proximity deficit’. The second paper shows that observed average distances to most amenities have decreased over time (1995–2005). Concerning service amenities, the increases in proximity over the period were primarily due to a restructuring of the localization patterns within the service sector. A comparison of potential accessibility conditions and actual travel patterns revealed that people tend to travel farther than to the nearest amenity options, presumably to a large extent because of selective individual preferences, which may downplay the importance of distance in destination choice. The third paper shows that although the numerical supply of amenities within different spatial ranges has a significant influence on how far individuals travel for service errands, supply size alone is not sufficient for explaining travel length. The findings also suggest that although people tend to utilize the supply of amenities available locally, they are also willing to extend their travel distance in order to reach the amenity supply available within the region. Thus, even when there is a local supply, a rich regional supply may induce longer trips.      A juxtaposition of the findings of the three empirical studies suggests the existence of an ‘accessibility paradox’ with several facets. First, although people express an affinity for residential proximity to many amenities, this is not necessarily reflected in actual destination choices, since minimization of travel distance is apparently not always a key criterion. This is also suggested by the conclusion that the spatial structure of the amenity supply alone accounts for only a relatively small part of the explanation of travel length, which is influenced by many other factors. In addition, actual travel distances show an increasing trend over time despite the concurrent reductions in potential distances. Second, the development over time indicates that the proximity deficit regarding social relations may be increasing in the sense that average distances have increased to many of the amenities considered important to have nearby, for instance adult children, but have decreased to those where proximity is not considered particularly important. Third, there is a discrepancy between the observed trend towards increased proximity to many amenities and much of the general discourse on accessibility, which tends to emphasize deteriorating conditions.

The main objective of the thesis is to study how people of African decent experience and deal with everyday discrimination and racism in a context where such racism is to a large degree concealed and/or denied. Everyday racism affecting people with an African background in Sweden is expressed in a number of different, often subtle and obscure, ways. It is experienced in a context of structural inequality between those who are racialized and those who are seen as the norm in society. The mystification that takes place in the public debate highly restricts the opportunities for resistance in an open and articulated manner. This is partly because silence leads to an insecurity about how to understand the racism experienced, for example, should it be defined as “racism” or as a “misunderstanding”? In addition, people who openly resist and protest tend to be discredited as exaggerating or being too sensitive. Consequently, resistance against structural discrimination in Sweden today is difficult. The findings demonstrate that interviewees deal with everyday racism in a variety of ways that can be categorized in to three broad strategies: mystifying the experiences of racism in one’s everyday life, longing for a place or context far away from Swedish racism and finally, keeping racism at a distance, including resisting and protesting within the existing limitations.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the conditions of designing a technical solution (ICT) to assist everyday life in the home, in four objectives. First, to identify and analyse the everyday practice in terms of home-related values and activities. Second, to analyse a model for a technical and organizational developed ICT-solution in a local community. Third, to analyse the opportunities and dilemmas of ICT as a support system for everyday life, and fourth, to discuss how actors in society can interact with households in making daily life work The method of the thesis takes support in a so-called interactive research and aims to fulfill both the scientific quality criteria as well as requirements of relevancy for the practice. The thesis outlines a theoretical understanding of the individual construction of the home, based on everyday practice taking place in the home and neighbourhood, in an expanding residential landscape. The empirical parts of the thesis derive from two studies. The Husum study examines issues such as what a home is represented by, and what can be said to constitute a good home. The Vällingby study is analysing a model of a technical and organized ICT-solution in an experiment-house in a suburb to Stockholm. In this thesis ICT reinforces the home as a hub for everyday life. Households increase their flexibility and accessibility, support the relationship between people and strengthen the influence and a local foundation. ICT also creates new roles for actors in local society and evens out the landscape of everyday life.

Purpose/aim: To investigate individual experiences of how a new communication technology, e-mail, influences a) the structure of the internal communication – does it for example make networking any easier? – and b) the form of the persons everyday language. Material/method: A theoretical framework gathered through a literature study and empirical data gathered through interviews with two persons. Main results: Differences and similarities exist between the experiences studied in this paper. The most unexpected result is that the system of e-mail does not seem to be able to create new channels of communication. If anything, it reinforces the structure that already exist. An aspect of decisive importance is the original rules and norms concerning internal communication within the organization.

Abstract This text deals with one of the preschool everyday routine chores, and the phenomenon I have chosen to investigate is the hallway situation. The purpose of the study was to see if the hallway situation offers good communicative interactions between children and teachers, and investigate if the teachers use special strategies to make the hallway situation work. The method of this study was survey, qualitative interviews and observations. The three methods have deliberately been selected to best suite and reply to the different issues. Today’s groups of children in preschool are very big, and some of the preschools are not adapted to these large groups of children that we have today. This means that teachers are forced to think about and use their skills to get the business to work. During the 1990 - century was unfortunately substantial financial savings and cuts made, which today results in too large groups of children. But these cuts and savings have also generated a positive trend, and that trend is that the teachers consider themselves increased in their expertise and that they now have to use there skills to make the hallway situation work.The outcome of my case study shows that teachers and the children together create and allow for communicative interaction between them. But it then depends on educators' skills and willingness to reflect on their own activities. One way of looking at life is the postmodern perspective that centers the child. The child exists through its relationships with other people and in a unique context. Therefore it is important that we choose to see knowledge as a perishable commodity.   Key words: Preschool, hallway situation, communication, interaction, everyday routines

In the wake of deinstitutionalization, people with psychiatric disabilities are, to a great extent, living in the community. In this thesis everyday life of people with psychiatric disabilities, living in independent housing with community-based social support to manage their daily life, is investigated. Special attention is paid to the characteristics and meaning of community-based social support. Through participating observational studies, interviews and time-geographic diaries, data have been gathered about everyday life of seventeen men and women. It is the interpersonal social conditions that have been the main target of the study, addressed as social networks and social support. Everyday life conditions are dependent on social as well as physical and material circumstances. Although the social conditions are emphasized in the study they are not looked upon as isolated dimensions but as part of everyday life circumstances. The everyday life perspective offers an opportunity to reveal the structures within which everyday life takes place. The time-geographic concepts “community-organized projects” and “individual-organized projects” were used to investigate the structures of everyday life, resulting in four substructures. Four types of everyday life and four patterns of networks connected to the different substructures were identified, showing great variations. The characteristics of community-based social support can be summarized as “the doing”, “the talking” and “the being with” in a reciprocal type of relationship. The meaning of support is shortly described as solution of and relieving problems, social companionship, security, protection and control. Community-based social support show similar importance regardless of the type of everyday life when it comes to solution of problems and different importance when it comes to aspects of support such as social companionship.

I vårt arbete med palliativa patienter har vi sett en kunskapsbrist i hur patienters existentiella behov bemöts. Det saknas tid för att lyssna på patienterna och tillgodose de existentiella behoven. Det finns en risk att medikalisera de existentiella behoven istället för att bemöta dem. Uppsatsens syfte var att, baserat på självbiografier, belysa patienters existentiella behov i livets slut. En självbiografistudie genomfördes för att få belyst vilka de existentiella behoven var. En narrativ analysmetod användes. Fyra huvudkategorier framträdde; Behov av att känna tillit, behov av att ha en tro på något, behov av att få leva ett vardagsliv och behov av livet som går vidare. Familjen, de nära vännerna och att ges möjlighet att leva vardagsliv var det mest framträdande. Även tillit till personalen var viktigt. Patienter som hade en tro behöll denna till slutet, trots att inga under skedde. Vardagslivet tillsammans med familj och vänner var det som uppskattades mest och som gav störst tillfredsställelse vid livets slut. / In our work with patients in end of life we have seen a lack of knowledge in how we respond to the existential needs. Also there is a lack of time in listening to the patients when they want to express their existential needs. It is so much easier to give sedatives to comfort the patients instead of taking the time and effort to listen to the extential needs. The aim of this study was, based on autobiographies, to examine patients existential needs in end-of-life. In order to find out what needs they had we read autobiographies. The analysis was performed with a narrative method. Four main-categories were found; Need of confidence, need to have a faith in something, need to live a everyday-life and need of life that goes on. The family, close friends and the everyday-life was very important. Also the confidence for the caregivers was of significance. Patients who had a faith kept their faith to the end of life, inspite that there was no miracle. Everyday-life with family and friends at home was the most appreciated in end-of-life.

This paper focuses on how interior decoration and taste was seen and taught in relation to the vision of the ideal home in 1940s Sweden. Two phenomena that are focused on are surveys of how people actually lived, and the attempts made to alter that way of living. The activities of Svenska Slöjdföreningen (SSF, the Swedish Society of Industrial Design) is used as a prism for discerning the discourse on domestic interior reform, and the study consists of a close reading and analysis based on archival material and publications linked to SSF. Part of the archival material consists of survey protocols and photograph, of Swedish homes, from a survey into “dwelling habits” initiated by the Association of Swedish Architects (SAR) and the SSF. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, these kinds of surveys were made in order to analyse the standard of living, and the usage of homes and furniture with the aim to find adequate ways of building better housing, of producing better furniture, and of educating people to be more modern and enlightened consumers and home-makers. Based on these findings, courses were given on how to furnish and decorate the home. Through courses in how to furnish and decorate the home, the ideal home was to become real. I mean that the concept of “taste” was almost as important as the concept of “home” in the vision of what modern Swedish society should be like, but that manifesting “good taste” in the home in the 1940s meant something more than merely creating an aesthetically pleasing or beautiful interior. Taste was, above all, seen as an indicator of the degree of modernity and social awareness of people.