The aim of this diploma thesis was to describe the attitudes of Roma towards the majority ethnic group and towards people with various differences. I tried to map the attitudes of Roma towards the majority ethnic group, their social distance to them, whether and to what extent they experience conflicts with persons of other ethnic groups and different social groups and how they view otherness. I created the work in collaboration with researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health (NUDZ) on the project The Stranger as a Symbol of Otherness - How Personality Affects Our Attitudes. The experimental group of Roma people had 15 respondents, the control group 55 respondents. I conducted the research using a Bogardus scale and a conflict-oriented questionnaire, and I obtained average values for individual items from the answers. Due to the different size of the experimental and control groups, I also used the analysis of the Mann Whitney test to determine the significance of the difference between the observed groups. The results led me to the conclusion that the degree of social distance of the Roma towards the majority in comparison with the degree of social distance of the majority towards the Roma is statistically insignificant. Another finding was the overall higher degree of social...

The general purpose of this study is to better understand stigmatized views of mental health conditions in the current social climate. In order to assess changes in current stigma levels, valid measurement tools are needed to make more accurate assessments. Many existing tools used to assess stigma levels present validity issues due to reporting bias, specifically social desirability bias. Researchers suggest that purposefully omitting diagnostic labeling helps to eliminate biased answers. In order to measure stigmatizing beliefs while minimizing the threat of social desirability, this study utilized an experimental design that compared mental health conditions with medical conditions. The Adjusted Attribution Questionnaire and Social Distance Scale were used to measure stigmatized beliefs toward each health conditions. Levels of familiarity and demographic characteristics were controlled for in analysis to determine potential mediating and moderating effects. Results indicate that familiarity had a significant effect on perceived attribution and preferred social distance for the mental health group. Gender also significantly affected outcomes on both stigma measures when considering mental health conditions. Ethnicity significantly affected both stigma measure outcomes for both the medical and mental health groups. Results may help contribute to current stigma reduction efforts by identifying research-based approaches to addressing stigma.

Social isolation is one of the main challenges for distance students. In the situation of covid- 19, on-campus university students in Sweden are faced with the same challenge, since they have been required to study elsewhere as Universities are closed for students. We asked in what way students use technology during covid-19, and which role technology has for university students. The answers to these questions are important to be able to design and implement better technology for communication and collaboration across distances. To study this, we conducted qualitative interviews and a questionnaire with university students normally studying at campus. Our findings show that university students use a variety of technologies during covid-19 to socialize, work and study, and entertain themselves. We contribute with information about which online services, functions, and hardware are seen as most important. Finally, we provide information about technology's role for university students during covid-19, such as something used to maintain your social life, studies, for entertainment and to combat boredom.

Covid-19 pandemic has affected lives in negative ways globally and these impacts on unaccompanied minors who are already disadvantaged and marginalized, are positioningthem at high risk in the society. This study aimed to examine the professionals and practitioners’ perception on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and related challenges on unaccompanied minors in Sweden. A qualitative inductive research approach wasfollowed, conducting semi-structured interviews with professionals/practitioners such as teachers, foster parent, legal guardian and social worker focusing on the individual meanings and importance of reporting the complexity of the situation. The empirical data was analyzed using caringscapes/carescapes framework and intersectionality theory to understand how time, place and space affect different sets of identities of individuals experience of pandemic. The findings indicate the school space/place plays a very important role in overall wellbeing of unaccompanied minors. Furthermore, the challenges faced under the new law on upper secondary level studies and the negativeimpacts during pandemic

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Bakgrund: Ensamhet uppstår vid många stadier i livet, där vi människor upplever ensamhet på olika sätt. Men ensamhet uppstår även vid användandet av sociala medier. Människor kommer ifrån varandra genom att den fysiska kontakten medan den sociala interaktionen på sociala medier ökar. Frivillig ensamhet och många som upplever ensamhet kan oftast uppleva positivt eller negativt av upplevd ensamhet. Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete är att förstå och undersöka hur ensamheten förekommer i relation till sociala medier användning. Studien är avgränsat till att studera ensamhet och avskildhet för att kunna få olika uppfattningar om upplevelsen av ensamhet som uppstår med användandet av sociala medier. Metod: 10 människor i olika åldrar har djupintervjuats med semistrukturerade intervjuer för att få en bättre förståelse för hur ensamhet upplevs av olika människor. Jag har använt mig av kvalitativ dataanalys. Resultat: Studiens resultat visar att människor har olika upplevelser av ensamhet när de använder sig av sociala medier. Många kan känna att det är bra att komma från varandra medan andra kan känna att det är jobbigt att komma ifrån sammanhållningen som finns. / Background: Loneliness occurs at many stages in life, where we humans experience loneliness in different ways. But loneliness also arises when using social media. People get apart by increasing physical contact while social interaction on social media. Seclusion is a loneliness that is selfchosen and many who use loneliness can often experience positively or negatively from perceived loneliness. Aim: The aim of this work is to study the loneliness that arises when using social media. How loneliness arises with the use of social media arises. The study is limited to studying loneliness and seclusion to get different perceptions about the experience of loneliness that arises with the use of social media. Method: 10 people of different ages have been interviewed in depth with semi- structured interviews to gain a better understanding of how loneliness is experienced by different people. I have used qualitative data analysis. Results: The study concluded that people have different experiences of loneliness when they use social media. Many may feel that it is good to get away from each other while others may feel that it is difficult to get away from the cohesion that exists.

Background: Stigmatization of people with schizophrenia remains a highly relevant topic worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries like India. It is crucial to identify the determinants of the desire for social distance as a proxy for discriminatory behavior in a socio-cultural context to indicate ways to reduce stigma. This study aims to explore whether the public perception of the perceived course of an illness concerning people with symptoms of schizophrenia has an impact on the desire for social distance. Subjects and Methods: Data collection took place in five cities in India. The sample (N = 447) was stratified for gender, age, and religion. Desire for social distance was sampled based on a self-reported questionnaire using unlabelled vignettes for schizophrenia. First, factor analysis was conducted to identify the main factors underlying the perception of the perceived course of the illness. Subsequently, a regression analysis was conducted to examine the impact of the perception of those prognostic factors on the desire for social distance. Results: Factor analysis revealed two independent factors of the perceived course of an illness: (1) life-long dependency on others and loss of social integration and functioning and (2) positive expectations toward treatment outcome. This second factor was significantly associated with a less desire for social distance toward persons with schizophrenia. Conclusion: The desire for social distance toward people with schizophrenia reduces with the expectation of positive treatment outcomes which underlines the need to raise public mental health awareness and provide psychoeducation for affected people and their family members in India. Help-seeking behaviors can be promoted by directing those needing treatment toward locally available, affordable and credible communitybased services rather than facility-based care. Strikingly, lifelong dependency and the inability to socially integrate do not increase the desire for social distance, reflecting the Indian nation’s socio-relational values and insufficiency of public mental health services. This indicates the suitability of systemic therapy approaches in public mental healthcare services to support the family’s involvement and family-based interventions in caregiving for mentally ill people across the lifespan.

Jews have been represented in Latvian literature for centuries. This dissertation investigates the images of Jews in a comprehensive selection of Latvian novels published between 1934–1944 in order to establish whether, and to what extent, the traditional images are subject to change under the pressure of modernity, nationalism and a rapidly changing political situation. Since most representations of, and references to, Jews in this literature are very brief, it is necessary to initially deprive the individual works of their titles and authors and let them form an authorless entity, a Corpus, however diverse, yet representative of Latvian society at the time. Through this approach the centres of attention are put aside, and the scattered images of Jews are brought into focus. With the help of a Matrix designed for this purpose, all ‘Jews’ are sorted and analysed. The Matrix, including also linguistic references, illustrates how Jews in the discourse are made to represent the ‘other’ through the provision of certain pieces of information and the omission others. The Jews in the Corpus, with very few exceptions, are thus systematically and consistently reduced to blank images and stereotypes. Through this process they are also subject to ‘othering’ and dehumanisation, albeit not necessarily articulated as such. The social distance between Latvians and Jews becomes more pronounced in the Corpus compared to in the Latvian literary tradition, and there are several examples of negative attitudes and anti-Semitism. Yet, with regard to the extreme political situation, especially under Soviet and Nazi occupations, these examples are fewer than expected: the investigated literature follows its own traditions and, with hardly any exceptions, does not reflect societal and political changes immediately.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka och förstå gymnasieelevers attityder till invandring. Faktorer som vi valt att undersöka och som kan påverka attityder är bland annat kön, nationell bakgrund och erfarenheter av olika kulturer. Studien är genomförd på en gymnasieskola i en mindre stad i Mellansverige. Totalt deltog 195 elever i den genomförda enkätundersökningen och fyra uppföljande intervjuer genomfördes. Begrepp som attityder, invandrare och social distans är centrala i den teoretiska förståelsen av studien. Resultatet har analyserats med hjälp av teoretiska utgångspunkter såsom symbolisk interaktionism och stigmatisering. Utgångspunkterna har underlättat förståelsen av hur invandrare tillskrivs negativa egenskaper och diskrimineras därefter. Tidigare forskning och studier har använts i utformandet av denna studie samt för att jämföra resultat och på så vis kunna se förändring över tid. Slutsatser som har kunnat dras utifrån studien är att negativa attityder till invandring ofta grundar sig i en rädsla inför förändring och att invandrare ofta betraktas som en samhällelig belastning, ett hot och ökar konkurrensen om materiella tillgångar. Den viktigaste bakomliggande faktorn till negativa attityder till invandring är klasstillhörighet där kunskap och utbildning har en central betydelse. Upplevelser och erfarenheter av andra kulturer än den egna ökar även toleransen inför invandring. Generellt sett ökar positiva attityder till invandring jämfört med tidigare, även om resultatet ger uttryck för att det fortfarande finns extremt negativa attityder. Ungdomar behöver ges utrymme att diskutera dessa frågor. Skolan såväl som det sociala arbetet står inför utmaningen att möjliggöra en öppen diskussion baserad på grundläggande demokratiska värderingar för att öka toleransen inför minoriteter. / The purpose of this study is to examine high school students´ attitudes towards immigration. Several factors that may influence the attitudes were presented, including gender, national origin and experiences of different cultures. The study was conducted in a small town in central Sweden. A total of 195 students participated in the survey and four follow-up interviews were conducted. Concepts such as attitudes, immigrants and social distance are central to the theoretical understanding of this study. The results have been analysed using theoretical frameworks such as symbolic interactionism and stigmatization. The theoretical foundations have assisted our understanding of how immigrants are assigned negative characteristics and the discrimination against them. Previous research and studies have been used in designing this study, as well as to compare results and thus being able to see changes over time. A conclusion that has been drawn from this study is that negative attitudes towards immigration are often based on a fear of change and that immigrants are regarded as social burdens, a threat and an increased competition for tangible assets. The most important underlying factor to negative attitudes towards immigration is class affiliation where knowledge and education has central influence. Experiences of cultures other than ones own also increase tolerance concerning immigration. Compared to previous studies results show that, generally, positive attitudes toward immigrants increases, although there are still some extremely negative attitudes. Young people need to be given possibility to discuss these issues. The fields of social work as well as education are faced with the challenge to allow open discussion based on fundamental democratic values to increase tolerance towards minorities.

Cette thèse défend l’intérêt d’appliquer une démarche d’analyse exploratoire de données spatiales pour examiner un phénomène complexe irréductible, dans un contexte limité en données : le paludisme-infection à Dakar. Chaque partie du système pathogène du paludisme est nécessaire mais non suffisante au fonctionnement du système. Il n’y a paludisme-infection que lorsque les trois composantes sont en contact : le parasite, le vecteur et l’hôte humain. La recherche des lieux où ces contacts peuvent s’opérer facilement est donc primordiale dans la lutte contre le paludisme et l’amélioration des programmes visant à la diminution voire l’élimination de la maladie. L’analyse exploratoire, encore très peu appliquée dans les pays dits du Sud, se définit ainsi comme une démarche de recherche mais aussi comme un moyen d’apporter des réponses aux besoins sanitaires. Elle pousse à l’observation, sous différents angles, des déterminants sociaux qui sont impliqués dans la réalisation du phénomène, tout comme à l’examen des interactions existantes entre eux. Nous avons récolté des informations quantitatives variées, en lien direct et indirect avec l’étude du paludisme. Interprétation d’images satellites, données censitaires, résultats d’enquêtes sociales et sanitaires ont été intégrées dans un système d’information géographique pour décrire la ville et ses habitants. Le croisement de ces sources a permis d’étudier les faces spatiales du risque épidémique palustre. Le recours à des analyses statistiques et géostatistiques, bivariées et multivariées, a permis de souligner que le risque d’infection des populations dépendait fortement d’une distance, que l’on a qualifié de sociale. / This thesis applies an Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) approach to study a complex phenomenon in a data scarce environment: malaria infection in Dakar. Each component of the malaria pathogenic system is necessary but not sufficient to result in an infection when acting in isolation. For malaria infection to occur, three components need to interact: the parasite, the vector, and the human host. The identification of areas where these three components can easily interact is therefore essential in the fight against malaria and the improvement of programs for the prevention and control or elimination of the disease. ESDA, still rarely applied in developing countries, is thus defined as a research approach but also as a way to provide answers to global health challenges. It leads to observation, from different angles, on the social and spatial determinants of malaria infection, as well as the examination of existing interactions between its three components. Several streams of quantitative information were collected, both directly and indirectly related to the study of malaria. More specifically, multi-temporal satellite imagery, census data, and results from social and health surveys have been integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) to describe the city and its inhabitants. Combining these datasets has enabled to study the spatial variability of the risk of malaria infection.