The aim of this research is to evaluate whether the social environment of Swedish high school students affects their views on the multicultural society. The research material was collected through the use of two focus groups containing high school students from two different schools, one group is used to a multicultural social environment while the other group is used to a less multicultural social environment. With the researcher acting as a moderator in the focus groups, the students discussed different questions regarding multiculturalism, gender equality and religion. The theory that this research is based on suggests that the social environment and the social capital affects the students views on the multicultural society. The results of the research were evaluated and connected to the theory. The evaluated results were then further analyzed and two conclusions were made, first, that the social environments and the social capital has an affect on the students views on multiculturalism and second, that the educational system of the schools also affects the students and provides them with the elementary values that the society is based upon.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the leading cause of disability in North American and has major economic consequences for society. People with knee OA experience the worst quality of life, among musculoskeletal conditions, with function and mobility being influenced by symptoms such as pain and stiffness. However, the impact of OA symptoms varies due to intrinsic and extrinsic factors, leading many researchers to employ biopsychosocial and other population health frameworks to study the disease. These population health approaches have not been adopted when studying knee OA outcomes in bioarchaeology, where a limited biological lens prevails due to the sole reliance on skeletal remains. The purpose of this research was to explore methods for identifying the impairment potential of knee OA in archaeological populations using a clinical sample and population health approaches. Clinical studies have the advantage of assessing not only the biological implications of knee OA but also the functional outcomes. By creating a knee OA grading system applicable for both MRI and dry bone femora samples (Clinical Archaeological Osteoarthritis Score) a link between clinical and archaeological populations was proposed. Using this link to infer functional deficits onto archaeological populations using population health frameworks, a theoretical analysis was performed with two populations; the 17th century Huron and the 19th century Inuit from the Igloolik region of Nunavut. The results demonstrated the increased impairment potential of knee OA in the Inuit population versus the Huron population, produced by contrasting factors captured by the determinants of health, including social and physical environments.

To increase disaster preparedness in immigrants, risk communication and management need to be tailored to their needs and concerns. To this end, research needs to uncover how immigrants construe natural disaster risks and issues in the context of the receiving community’s social environment, and how their experiences compared to the general population. The goal of this thesis was to understand how risk perception and the social environment relate to immigrants and Canadian-born individuals’ disaster preparedness. The relationship between risk perception and disaster preparedness was investigated in the first study. Analyses of the data from a national survey revealed that both groups shared three core risk perception dimensions: external responsibility for disaster management, self-preparedness responsibility, and illusiveness of preparedness. However, they differed in the salience of five risk perception beliefs. For both groups, external responsibility for disaster management and self-preparedness responsibility were positively associated with preparedness behaviours, whereas illusiveness of preparedness was negatively related to preparedness behaviours. In the second study, the relationship between community social capital and individuals’ preparedness behaviours was investigated. Analyses of two conceptually-linked national surveys revealed that neighbourhood contact and societal trust predicted during-disaster preparedness behaviours in both groups. Interestingly, societal trust positively predicted emergency planning in Canadian-born individuals but the reverse was true for immigrants. To provide a comprehensive social-ecological perspective, twenty-two individual interviews were conducted to explore immigrants and Canadian-born individuals’ lived experiences of natural disaster risks and issues. A unifying thread across five emergent themes showed that individuals did not perceive natural disaster risks as a valid threat and disaster preparedness as relevant to their daily lives because they believed that the positive social environment in Canada would mitigate the risks. For immigrants, the immigrant condition and culture shaped how they construed natural disaster risks and issues. Overall, findings suggest that risk communication and management need to focus on building human capital and social capital, use an all-of-society engagement approach, and reframe all-hazards preparedness as relevant for daily stressors. Specific for immigrants, disaster initiatives need to be tailored to the timeline of experience of being an immigrant within the context of their receiving communities.

Diploma thesis deals with the social environment of a project manager and describes different approaches in its analysis. The social environment is defined as a sum of soft factors that affect a project manager and influence the course of the project. Besides proficiency in various project management methodologies, knowledge of the project plan, and understanding of the client's field of business, awareness of the social environment is essential for eventual project success. Thesis objectives aim at defining the scope of the social environment, and presenting analysis techniques and methods, through which it is possible to enhance overall project performance. Other objectives include stating recommendations for project managers to fully comprehend their social environment, and documenting discussed findings on project related case studies -- among others also on the social networks analysis conducted in a real life project environment. The thesis describes three analysis methods -- social network analysis, stakeholder analysis, and analysis of psychological profile of the team members, which mutually complement each other and provide project managers with a comprehensive overview of their social environments. Social network analysis is elaborated on the most in detail, because it forms theoretical as well as practical introduction to the topic, and a base for further analyses.

This qualitative essay has been performed on the secondary school Klaraskolan in Halmstad. The school has two defined groups that derive from two separate, different and homogenous schools. The aim of the essay is to identify the pupil’s experiences, thoughts and opinions about the social environment on Klaraskolan in relation to their different backgrounds. The primary focus for the essay is to examine differences between the groups that contribute to an internally segregated school. Conclusions will be made from how the power is distributed between the groups and how that affects the social cohesion. The main theory for the essay is Pierre Bourdieus field theory with two supportive theories which is Michel Foucaults conceptof disciplinary power and Ove Sernhedes concept of territorial stigmatization. The empiricism is collected by two group interviews, four individual interviews and three observations. The result proved that there are significant differences in how the pupil’s experienced their schooling, how they chose to interact with their friends and how they experience their treatment by their teachers and surroundings. The conclusions made by this was that language and residential area is of big importance regarding how they defined themselves and how they interpreted the opposite group. Regarding power between the two groups they dominated different social spaces at school. These conclusions combined generated the final conclusion that Klaraskolan can be defined as an internally segregated school.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq initiated a surge of texts by US soldiers who utilized recent Web 2.0 technology to forge new types of war narratives, such as the so-called “milblogs.” Milblogs merge letter and journal writing with journalistic reporting, and they maintain contact between soldiers and their social environment. They are at once public and private communication. Military psychology since Vietnam has referred to warrior traditions of Native American communities to discuss public narration and ceremonial acknowledgment of a soldier’s war experience as vital elements for veteran readjustment and trauma recovery. This article analyzes an exemplary milblog to argue that the interaction between blogger and audience does similar cultural work and has comparable ceremonial and, therefore, therapeutic functions: Soldiers publicly share their experience, reflect on it with their audience, receive appreciation and support, and thus mutually (re-)negotiate group identity.

A prospective longitudinal study was carried out to establish the relationship between growth, development and social milieu in Coloured pre-school children in Cape Town. This population was selected because, on the basis of previous studies, a wide range of nutritional status as well as a spectrum of socio-economic conditions were known to exist. A pilot study was conducted to establish the feasibility of obtaining information about factors to be included in the study as well as to determine the most suitable sampling methods. A cohort of 1 000 consecutive Coloured infants born in the Cape Town municipal area and notified to the Cape Town City Council was identified. A random sample of 187 was selected from the cohort for long-term study. Anthropometric data were documented from birth until 5 years and compared to the NCHS reference values. Developmental data consisted of milestones recorded during infancy, language assessment on the Reynell Language Scale at 2½ years carried out by the Logopaedics Department, University of Cape Town, and at 5 years, a specially constructed developmental assessment designed to assess gross motor function, fine motor development including visuo-motor skills and language, both comprehension and expression as well as basic colour and number concepts. Social data were collected during home visits by two experienced, full-time research social workers, who were both integrally involved in the planning of the study. At birth infants were relatively light and short for gestational age. Size at birth correlated with social class. A rapid post-natal weight gain rendered them relatively overweight between 3 and 6 months. Thereafter they again became lighter and shorter than the NCHS reference values and this persisted during the pre-school period. Mother's weight was related to weight at birth, 12 months and 30 months. The genetic influence on growth was reflected in a correlation between parental height and child's length from 12 months onwards. Environmental influences as assessed by social class by occupational grading of the breadwinner, income and family stability were also correlated with growth from 12 months onwards. Infant development as indicated by milestones was very similar to internationally reported studies. Motor development was not associated with social class by occupational grading of the breadwinner but with father's education, mother's personality and family stability. It was also highly correlated with growth during infancy. Early language milestones were associated with the child's micro-environment as indicated by marital status, family unit, setting and stability. Language development at 30 months reflected a general lag in verbal skills and was correlated with parental education and family stability. At five years there was a good correlation between growth, development and social milieu, although the social variables accounted for far more of the variation in development than did growth. Social class by occupation grading of the breadwinner and income reflected the general socio-economic status and there was a good cross-correlation between the social variables. Approximately one third of the families lived in a middle cl ass environment. However, poor maternal education, low incomes and over-crowding were prevalent and must constitute risk factors in child rearing. Sixty five percent of the mothers were not educated further than primary school level and over half of the families were living below an effective minimum level of income. Similarly, over half the families lived in grossly overcrowded conditions. In conclusion, therefore, during infancy developmental milestones were similar to those reported in the literature. Later, however, there was a fall-off in development and this coincided with a greater association with social circumstances. Just prior to school entry social factors far outweighed growth indices as predictors of developmental variation. Social stability of the family a composite evaluation based on a number of social characteristics, was most consistently associated with development. The implications for intervention are that this would need to be broad based and aimed at improving incomes, housing, family cohesion and child centredness and eliminating social pathology. Such intervention would require a concerted effort from a variety of sources which should include administrators, community workers and health professionals.

1 Abstract Migration has been an inherent part of population development, and due to its role in shaping settlement system and societal changes also one of the key research interests of social geography. Due to the political regime and the limited movement across state borders, attention was predominantly given to internal migration in Czechia in the second half of the 20th century. Conversely, international migration has only been coming to the fore of academic debate since the 1990s. Despite the broad diversity of aspects of international migration in Czechia and the fact that the city has traditionally been the environment associated with the majority of immigrant population, little consideration has been given to the deeper understanding of the relationship between international migration, the presence of foreign citizens and the urban environment, especially foreigners' influence on socio-spatial differentiation and on social environment of particular urban locales. Czechia is a specific case: a country which was isolated from international migration for four decades became one of the main immigration countries in the post-socialist Central Europe after 1989. It represents a unique occasion to investigate the connection between international migration and the city in a previously unexplored environment...

Syfte: Att beskriva incestutsatta personers upplevelse av hur den sociala miljön hindrat eller främjat deras delaktighet i aktivitet både som barn och vuxen. Metod: Litteraturstudie av självbiografier vilka analyserades utifrån en kvalitativ analys av berättelser och resulterade i fem kategorier: Behovet av stöd för en sund kärleksrelation, vuxna påverkar barns lek och fritid, avgörande faktorer för missbruk, utsattheten driver utbildning och karriär och bemötandet påverkar vård och rättsprocess. Tre självbiografier inkluderades i studien, inklusionskriterier var självbiografier inom ämnet incest samt att de skulle vara skrivna på engelska eller svenska. Samtliga av de utvalda självbiografierna är skrivna av kvinnor där fadern varit förövaren. Resultat: Resultatet av studien visar att den sociala miljön kan verka främjande och hindrande gällande delaktighet i aktivitet för personer utsatta för incest. Övergripande upplever personerna att relationen till fadern och de övergrepp han begått på flera sätt påverkat deras delaktighet inom alla livsområde både som barn och vuxen. Ett socialt stöd från familj, vänner och omgivningen är den främsta faktorn i den sociala miljön som upplevs främja delaktighet i aktivitet. Slutsats: Det finns behov för djupare forskning inom ämnet. För att arbetsterapeuten skall ha möjlighet att utveckla arbetsterapeutiska åtgärder som gynnar en incestutsatt person krävs mer kunskap och förståelse kring kopplingen mellan den utsatte personen, den sociala miljön och delaktighet i aktivitet. Fortsatt forskning hade varit intressant genom en tvärvetenskaplig studie tillsammans med andra professioner som har annan kunskap av värde inom ämnet. / Aim: To describe how people exposed to incest experienced the social environment as limiting or enabling  their occupational participation during childhood and adulthood. Method: Literature study of autobiographies which were analyzed based on a qualitative analysis of narratives and resulted in five categories: The need for support for a healthy love relationship, adults affect children's play and leisure, decisive factors for addiction, the concequenses of incest drives education and career and treatment affects healthcare and legal process. Three autobiographies were included in the study, inclusion criteria were autobiographies in the subject of incest and that they should be written in English or Swedish. All of the selected autobiographies are written by women where the father was the perpetrator. Result: The results of the study show that the social environment can have limiting and enabling effects on occupational participation for people exposed to incest. Overall, the people experience that the relationship with the father and the abuse he committed in several ways affected their participation in all areas of life, both as children and adults. Social support from family, friends and the environment is the main factor in the social environment that is perceived to enable occupational participation. Conclusion: There is a need for deeper research in the subject. More knowledge regarding the interactions between social environment and occupational participation is needed for occupational therapists to be able to develop interventions that benefits people exposed to incest. Continued research would be interesting through an interdisciplinary study together with other professions that have other knowledge of value in the subject.

This work explores the influence of place of residence on the environmental attitudes and particularly their formation. I try to find differences in environmental attitudes of respondents from village and town in the context of other factors which have influence on formation of environmental attitudes. These factors are family environment, personal nature experience or impact of social environment. For this reason, I conducted a case study of environmental attitudes and their formation process of the respondents from the village Hostouň and respondents from the Capital City of Prague. The theoretical part focuses on attitudes in general and issues of environmental attitudes. It provides an overview of socio- demographic factors which do affect the environmental attitudes, mainly the place of residence. I also deal with the measurement of environmental attitudes, and define the terms village and town. The empirical part provides analysis of twenty semistructured interviews - ten respondents from the village and ten respondents from the city. I also conducted research using the additional standardized questionnaire NEP. The main objective was to identify existing differences in the current environmental attitudes of respondents from village and town. I also try to establish what impact the place of...