Syftet med studien var att undersöka lönens roll i förhållandet mellan medarbetare och första linjens chefer i socialtjänsten, samt hur första linjens chefer upplever sitt handlingsutrymme i lönerevisionsprocessen. Studien bygger på intervjuer med fem chefer vid kommuner i Skåne. Intervjuerna analyserades utifrån Goffmans teorier om dramaturgi samt Hochschild teorier om emotionellt arbete. Resultatet visar att det lönesättande samtalet i sig oftast är odramatiskt. Det är istället när medarbetarna börjar jämföra sina nya löner med varandra som det kan bli problem, då många upplever att de har blivit orättvist behandlade. Lönesättningen påverkar inte bara relationen till den enskilde medarbetaren utan den skickar signaler till hela gruppen. Första linjens chefer upplever ofta ett stort handlingsutrymme, men också att det finns en undervärdering av socionomyrket från politiskt håll, vilket gör att medarbetarna alltid kommer att vara underbetalda. Studiens resultat pekar på att det är svårt för cheferna att få medarbetarna att fokusera på sina egna löner istället för att jämföra sig med sina kollegor, samt att förklara lönerevisionsprocessen för medarbetarna på ett tydligt sätt. / The aim of this study was to examine the role of salary in the relationship between coworkers and first-line managers within the social services, and how first-line managers look upon their scope of action during the pay review process. The study was based on five interviews with managers in municipalities in Scania. The analysis was based on Goffman’s theories of dramaturgy and Hochschild’s theories of emotion work. The result shows that the salary-setting meeting itself is usually undramatic. It’s instead when the coworkers start comparing their new salarys with each other that it can become problematic, as many people find that they have been treated unfairly. The salary-setting not only affects the relationship with the individual coworker, but it sends signals to the entire group. The first-line managers often experience a great scope of action, but also that there is an undervaluation of the social work from a political perspective, which means that coworkers will always be underpaid. The results of the study indicate that it is difficult for the managers to get the coworkers to focus on their own salary instead of comparing themselves with their colleagues, and to explain the pay review process to the coworkers in a clear way.

Although sexual abuse is a problem in all age groups, the group which is the most exposed is women between 16 and 24. Many of these youths, boys and girls, are contacting youth centres for support and help regarding sexual assault, mental illness and sexuality. Counsellors working at the youth centres treats youths with experience of sexual abuse in their daily work.This study’s purpose is to demonstrate the counsellor’s experience when meeting these young people. Issues concerned are how we talk about sexual abuse, which emotions are raised among the counsellors during these conversations and which of these emotions that the counsellors feel the need to hide in the conversation.  The study’s material is based on four different interviews with counsellors from youth centres. The questions are being analysed with help of Goffman’s sociological theory expound in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956) and Hochschild’s theory of emotional labour. The results show that the counsellors focus a lot on reducing guilt and shame among the children and youths. The result also shows that the meeting causes strong and heavy emotions among the counsellors. Opinions about which emotions that are okay to show and not okay to show when taking care of the youths are diverged.

Denna uppsats bottnas i vår, som verksamma lärare på gymnasiesärskolan, upplevelse av stigmatisering hos elever på nationella gymnasiesärskolan. Syftet har varit att undersöka om och hur verksamma lärare gymnasiesärskolan upplever stigmatisering hos elever som nyligen blivit placerade på gymnasiesärskolan och hur det påverkar elevernas identitet, lärande och framtidsutsikter. Gymnasiesärskolans historia och funktion kategoriserar in elever som intellektuellt funktionsnedsatta vilket erbjuder ett historiskt grundat och samhälleligt förankrat Stigma. Empirin har samlats in via kvalitativa intervjuer med verksamma lärare i gymnasiesärskolan. Empirin har sedan analyserats med hjälp av Goffmans teori om Stigma. De huvudsakliga resultaten från studien var att stigmatisering upplevs förekomma och att stigmat främst kopplas till institutionen särskola, vilket i sin tur upplevs grunda sig i samhälleliga förväntningar, normer och bristande förståelse för särskolan. Detta leder till en krock med elevernas självbild som i sin tur begränsar elevernas lärande och framtidsutsikter.

In today’s media society and the growth of user-generated content, everyone has the opportunity to create their own content on social media. Instagram influencers are an exciting phenomenon considering that ordinary people have started documented their everyday lives through photographs and gained a large group of followers and started earning money on their content.  The purpose of this study was to examine Swedish influencers self-presentation on Instagram. Based on their self-presentation I wanted to examine what image they choose to communicate to their followers, in order to understand how they construct an online identity and establish their personal brand. To see how they have gained success and differentiated in a large industry. But also developed an understanding of the effectiveness of different types of presentations based on the measured values likes and comments.  Using a quantitative content analysis method, a total of 198 post from four purposively selected fashion-influencers Instagram accounts was analyzed. The result indicated that the influencers accounts consisted of industry -related photos. They represented an ideal and presented themselves in a positive way. At the same time, they strived to achieve a varying content. In the terms of number of likes and comments, the result showed the importance of showing a personal and private side of oneself, as it was appreciated by the audiences and created an authenticity image. The results of this study showed both differences and similarities to other studies in the field.

In my essay, I describe a situation that happened at a preschool during my service as a replacement childcare worker. There I address some issues that deal with power relations in preschool, exercise of power and how it can affect children in their free play. In my story, a regular staff, claims some local rules that I think are contrary to curriculum rules on children’s development. I myself do participate in the event. I feel at a disadvantage in what’s going on. The purpose of this scientific essay is to analyse power relationships within preschool from different perspectives using some scientific theories. One is the theory of power that Foucault presents in Monitoring and Punishment, a study in everyday life's drama by Goffman and the other is status change concept by Johnstone. I reflect on what has happened and find that I too may have neglected colleagues and been able to make them feel inferior in certain situations. This discovery I will bring with me and act differently in future similar situations.

The purpose of this study is to explore the social role of librarians at public libraries. Public libraries promote themselves as open democratic arenas where everyone is welcome. This has the effect that all kinds of people visit public libraries, and might result in disconcerting situations involving for example persons suffering from mental illness or intoxicated people. The library staff might then be expected to handle threats or violence, situations that they have not been prepared or trained for. Even less turbulent social situations can be hard to juggle, such as regular library users who are unwilling to end a conversation or people who want to get too personal. This study takes an explorative approach on the social role in public librarianship, investigating the problematic as well as the pleasant social situations in public libraries. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted to collect statements from five librarians at various libraries. As a theoretical framework. Erving Goffman's theories about social interaction has been used to analyse the social role from a individual perspective. The concept ”community of practice" by Etienne Wenger has has been used to study the subject in a collective perspective. The results show that all the interviewed librarians saw themselves as having a social role but they approached it in different ways. Another conclusion is that the librarians in the study have formed a community of practice in the way they cooperate and the way they support and educate each other in connection to the social interactions with the library users.

The ways in which advertisements can affect social and brand-related aspects is an area of interest for both companies and society at large. The aim of this study is to examine and identify differences in the production and interpretation of advertisements on Instagram, targeted towards men versus women. There are two research questions: (1) How can the production of Gillette and Gillette Venus’ advertisements on Instagram targeted towards men and women differ? (2) How can the interpretation of Gillette and Gillette Venus’ advertisements on Instagram targeted towards men and women differ, based on the gender of the interpreter?  The study includes a gender perspective and Goffman’s theory on gender and advertisements has been applied. To answer the second research question, Hall’s encoding/decoding theory has been applied.  The study consists of two research methods, a semiotic photo analysis and semi-structured interviews. The photo analysis was used for RQ1 and consisted of six photos, three from Gillette’s Instagram account and three photos from Gillette Venus’s account. The semi-structured interviews helped answer RQ2. A total of ten interviews were carried out, with an even distribution of male and female interviewees. A comparative analysis was used for both research methods to enable comparison between the two genders.  The results showed that there are three main differences in the production of Gillette and Gillette Venus’ advertisements on Instagram. As for RQ2, it was concluded that the gender of the interpreter affected how the advertisements’ overall message was interpreted.

This thesis investigates the wedding dress in the 21st century in Sweden. Interviews provided the main material for the analysis of the wedding dress and its connotations. Erving Goffman’s theory on performances in everyday life and Efrat Tsëelon’s thoughts on modesty connected to the female body is used as a theoretical framework in this thesis. The wedding dress is also analyzed as an object, and thoughts from material culture are implemented when discussing the cultural connotations of the dress. The wedding dress is only worn during the wedding ceremony, and it evokes thoughts on performances and identity due to cultural values and expressions that the bride either identifies with or not. Being dressed as a bride is deemed less authentic than being dressed in everyday clothes and is compared to a masquerade garment. The Swedish word utklädd, which means being dressed out in different ways, is a common factor and description of wearing a wedding dress in Sweden in the 21st century.

The purpose of this essay was to examine the experience of loneliness as well as the strategies used to manage loneliness as described in Swedish podcasts. Swedish podcasts concerning the experience and managing of loneliness were picked using a strategic selection based on several criteria relating to the questions posed by the study. To analyse the empirical data a qualitative content analysis was used, combined with a theoretical framework based on the dramaturgical perspective and stigma theories of sociologist Erving Goffman. The experience of loneliness was found to be paradoxical in nature due to its social and relational elements. The interviewees throughout the study appeared to compare and relate their experience to that of other people. Furthermore, the study found loneliness to be heavily reliant on social interactions and thus did not exist in a vacuum of social isolation. Several coping methods were identified and in turn grouped as either constructive and active or counterproductive and passive.

The main area of inquiry for this thesis is super-maximum security prisons or as commonly referred to “supermax prisons”. First, the thesis traces the shift from the use of physical punishment to the use of disciplinary measures in punitive institutions and the development of the modern prison until it reaches its latest form as embodied in the supermax model. Secondly, the design, characteristics, and conditions of these prisons are also explored to demonstrate how they systematically contribute to the dehumanization and depersonalization of prisoners. These institutions are subsequently found to represent physical spaces of the lawless “state of exception” that reduces inmates to a “bare” animal-like form of living through depriving them of all the rights and prerogatives granted to them by law. Third, the thesis analyzes the penological rationale commonly invoked to justify supermax prisons and concludes that it suffers from a clear deficiency in demonstrating any evidence-based credibility. Finally, the thesis sheds light on the devastating and long-lasting impacts of supermax confinement on mental health and argues that it may be in violation of fundamental human rights such as the right against torture and other cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment or punishment as provided by international law.