The aim of this study was to examine how leisure leaders in different youth centers collaborate and work preventively with youths who are or risk being socially excluded in areas with advanced marginality in Sweden. The study is based on eight qualitative interviews with leisure leaders working in youth centers with young people in areas with advanced marginality. The interviews were analyzed using a hermeneutic approach and the theoretical framework is social capital supplemented by empowerment. Our results show that the leisure leaders use several different strategies in the preventive work with young people. Youths’ were getting the opportunity to affect their own lives through participation and influence in youth center activities. A majority of the leisure leaders expressed having both structured and unstructured activities. The youths are given a great deal of responsibility to accomplish several things in interest for them, which aims to strengthen their self-esteem. There were certain strategies that appeared to be common among all leisure leaders in working with youths: to include the youths’ in the majority society, to cooperate with government and community arenas and to create trustworthy relationships. In conclusion, all the strategies used by the leisure leaders worked preventively.

Denna studie analyserar uppkomsten, konsekvenserna och bemötandet av territoriellt stigma som konceptualiserat av Loïc Wacquant (2008b) hos invånare bosatta på Hertsön, ett bostadsområde som ibland omnämns genom stigmatiserande termer som ”ghetto” eller ”problemområde”. Syftet är att använda Hertsön som fall i undersökningen av territoriellt stigma och hur det tar sig uttryck i ett bostadsområde som i en svensk kontext kännetecknas av en viss grad av marginalisering. Studien består av två delar. Genom en inledande historisk undersökning analyseras först framställningar av Hertsön som i sin tur stämplade bostadsområdet som avvikande och marginaliserat. Därefter görs en beskrivning och analys av områdets materiella och symboliska utveckling i relation till Luleå kommun som helhet under 2000-talet. Studiens andra del är baserad på data från 9 semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförda med invånare från Hertsön. Först undersöks stigmats eventuella konsekvenser för invånarnas relation till bostadsområdet och andra invånare i kommunen. Därefter undersöks vilka strategier invånarna använder i sitt bemötande av territoriellt stigma. Studien visar att invånarna, till följd av Hertsöns jämförelsevis milda grad av social och ekonomisk marginalisering, utvecklat en rad strategier som används i syfte att neutralisera och bekämpa de stigmatiserande förhållningssätt som riktas mot dem och deras bostadsområde. Detta har sannolikt medfört att man hos intervjupersonerna inte finner starka uttryck för det territoriella stigmats konsekvenser, som förakt mot sitt bostadsområde och dess invånare. Snarare ser man bevis för starka band mellan intervjupersonerna till Hertsön som bostadsområde och till områdets invånare. Avslutningsvis diskuterar studien huruvida det territoriella stigmat riskerar att intensifieras i framtiden om Hertsöns materiella och symboliska utveckling fortsätter i samma spår som under 2000-talets inledande 20 år. / This study analyzes the emergence, consequences and response to territorial stigma as conceptualized by Loïc Wacquant (2008b) by residents of Hertsön, a residential area sometimes referred to by stigmatizing terms as "ghetto" or "problem area". The purpose is to use Hertsön as a case in the study of territorial stigmatization and how it manifests itself in a residential area that in a Swedish context is characterized by a certain degree of marginalization. The study consists of two parts. By means of an initial historical survey, stigmatizing representations of Hertsön which are thought to have labeled the residential area as deviant and marginalized are analyzed. Subsequently, a description and analysis of the area's material and symbolic development in relation to Luleå municipality as a whole is made during the 2000s. The second part of the study is based on data from 9 semi-structured interviews conducted with residents of Hertsön. First, possible consequences of stigma for the residents' relationship with the housing area and other residents in the municipality are examined. Second, strategies used by residents in addressing territorial stigma are examined. The study shows that, as a result of Hertsön's comparatively mild degree of social and economic marginalization have enabled the inhabitants to develop a number of strategies that are used to neutralize and combat the stigmatizing approaches directed at them and their housing area. This has probably been the cause behind the interviewees not expressing strong consequences of territorial stigma, such as contempt for their residential area and its inhabitants. Rather, one finds evidence of strong links between the interviewees to Hertsön as a residential area and its inhabitants. Finally, the study discusses whether the territorial stigma may be intensified in the future if Hertsön's material and symbolic development continues in the same vein as during the early 20s of the 21st century.

<p>A foundation of our welfare state is that we have a social safety net. This safety net is designed to pick up individuals who are in need of help and support to manage their way of life. This essay regards people who need help with care or people who need help with an addiction. This essay is a qualitative text analysis, which aims to see whether, and if so how, help-seekers are constructed in 40 social service documents within a municipality in central Sweden. We have endeavored to illustrate the power that the written word possesses and which categories of people are constructed depending on the language and content of the social documents. With our theoretical starting point, which was marginalization and social constructivism we want to illustrate the administrators’ choice of content and language in the social service documents. The main result is that help-seekers in the addiction unit have to give more information about themselves. Addiction is a deviate behavior and therefore more information is needed in order for them to be accepted as opposed to help-seekers in the care unit, where information regarding the help-seeker is in relation to the means of the help-seekers needs.</p>

A foundation of our welfare state is that we have a social safety net. This safety net is designed to pick up individuals who are in need of help and support to manage their way of life. This essay regards people who need help with care or people who need help with an addiction. This essay is a qualitative text analysis, which aims to see whether, and if so how, help-seekers are constructed in 40 social service documents within a municipality in central Sweden. We have endeavored to illustrate the power that the written word possesses and which categories of people are constructed depending on the language and content of the social documents. With our theoretical starting point, which was marginalization and social constructivism we want to illustrate the administrators’ choice of content and language in the social service documents. The main result is that help-seekers in the addiction unit have to give more information about themselves. Addiction is a deviate behavior and therefore more information is needed in order for them to be accepted as opposed to help-seekers in the care unit, where information regarding the help-seeker is in relation to the means of the help-seekers needs.

In several medieval written sources an area called Ragundaskogen (Eng: Ragunda Forest) is documented in eastern Jämtland. The references in the sources are general and lack specific information about location, meaning and the extent of this area. This thesis uses a theoretical framework based on niche construction and a method employing written sources, place names and archaeological remains to better understand the medieval concept of the Ragunda Forest. The study will reconstruct and discuss the area’s geography, but also provide insight into the people who lived there, their relationships with each other and places in the landscape, as well as their relationship to the church in Uppsala and the monarchy in Norway. The Ragunda Forest was a niche in a border area and during certain periods seems to have had a certain form of independence. The Middle Ages are a period characterised by a series of crises due to climate change and diseases such as the plague. The Ragunda Forest will be used as a background to discuss how the medieval population and landscapes were affected. The thesis suggests that interdisciplinary studies of delimited and local landscape spaces are an effective method for better understanding historical human-environment relations. / I flera skriftliga källor från medeltiden omnämns Ragundaskogen i östra Jämtland. Hänvisningarna i källorna är generella så det är svårt att avgöra Ragundaskogens exakta betydelse, läge och utbredning. Denna uppsats använder ett teoretiskt ramverk som bygger på nischkonstruktion och en metod som omfattar skriftliga källor, platsnamn och arkeologiska lämningar för att bättre förstå det medeltida begreppet Ragundaskogen. Studien kommer att rekonstruera och diskutera områdets geografi, men också ge insikt till människorna som levde där, till deras relationer sinsemellan och till platser i landskapet, samt till deras förhållanden till kyrkan i Uppsala och kungamakten i Norge. Ragundaskogen var en nisch i ett gränsområde och verkar under vissa perioder också haft en viss form av självständighet. Medeltiden är en tidsperiod som kännetecknas av en rad kriser till följd av klimatförändring och sjukdomar som pesten. Ragundaskogen kommer att användas som en bakgrund för att diskutera hur medeltidens människor och landskap påverkades. Uppsatsen föreslår att tvärvetenskapliga studier av avgränsade och lokala landskapsrum är en effektiv metod för att bättre förstå historiska människa-miljö relationer.