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Sweden has become more and more multicultural where research indicate that several minority groups and people with a background other than European one, still experience stress about deviating from “the Swedish norm”. Previous research also shows that these people risk being subjected to special treatment, prejudice, and discrimination. The aim of this study is therefore to analyze the perceptions of second-generation immigrants about their social identity. To collect data, qualitative semi-structed interviews have been conducted with four respondents. The interviews have been analyzed using Goffman’s theory of Stigma and the results show that most respondents feel that their ethnicity and foreign background affect them in school. The results show that there is a certain degree of misunderstanding between ethnic Swedes and students with a foreign background. Furthermore, the respondents paint a gloomy picture about how their foreign descent has affected them in relation to how they develop in school and how their roles and identity are affected. The norms of being a Swedish is perceived as an ideal needed to succeed in Swedish society and for that reason it is disappointing to see how the exchange between the different ethnic seems to be small and the willingness to learn from other, is small from both groups.

This study examined the differences in individual self-esteem, collective self-esteem and the need to belong between group members and non-group members of Greek organizations, religious groups and ethnic/cultural organizations. Participants were freshman and sophomore students from a large southeastern university. Participants were given Rosenberg's (1965) self-esteem scale, Lutanen and Cracker's (1992) collective self-esteem scale and the Need to Belong scale by Leary et al., (2005), as well as asked about their various group affiliations. It was found that participants who reported belonging to a Greek organization scored significantly higher on the Need to Belong scale than their counterparts. Also, participants who reported a religious affiliation scored significantly higher on the public collective self-esteem subscale than those who reported no religious affiliation. Participants who reported belonging to an ethnic/cultural organization showed similar scores on the three scales to those who did not report such an affiliation. Further research should expand this study to an older more mature population because there are likely to be differences on these scales for those who report a religious affiliation and those who do not.

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Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-32).

Le résumé en français n'a pas été communiqué par l'auteur. / Administrative registers maintained by statistical offices on vastly heterogeneous firms have much untapped potential to reveal details on sources of productivity of firms and economies alike. It has been proposed that firm-level shocks can go a long way in explaining aggregate fluctuations. Based on novel monthly frequency data, idiosyncratic shocks are able to explain a sizable share of the Finnish economic fluctuations, providing support to the granular hypothesis. The global financial crisis of 2007-2008 has challenged the field of economic forecasting, and nowcasting has become an active field. This thesis shows that the information content of firm-level sales and truck traffic can be used for nowcasting GDP figures, by using a specific mixture of machine learning algorithms. The agency problem lies at the heart of much of economic theory. Based on a unique dataset linking owners, CEOs and firms, and exploiting plausibly exogenous variations in the separation of ownership and control, agency costs seem to be an important determinant of firm productivity. Furthermore, the effect appear strongest in medium-sized firms. Enterprise group structures might have important implications on the voluminous literature on firm size, as large share of SME employment can be attributed to affiliates of large business groups. Within firm variation suggests that enterprise group affiliation has heterogeneous impacts depending on size, having strong positive impact on productivity of small firms, and negative impact on their growth. In terms of aggregate job creation, it is found that the independent small firms have contributed the most. The results in this thesis underline the benefits of paying attention to samples encompassing the total population of firms. Researchers should continue to explore the potential of rich administrative data sources at statistical offices and strive to strengthen the ties with data producers.

The modern society has become increasingly digitalized and many workplaces follow the same pattern. This means that people are becoming more distant from one another as work can be done from other places than the office. Social interactions now occur more through a screen, especially in extraordinary circumstances such as Covid-19. Man is by nature a social being and the development of technology is forcing individuals to more or less adapt social relations to become more digital. The question is whether social evolution is catching up with the progress of technology. The purpose of the study is to investigate how employees experience that increased digitalization affects their social relationships at work, in general and in relation to Covid-19. The study examines employees’ experiences with the help of qualitative interviews at a large company in Stockholm. The result shows that digitalization enables interaction with colleagues, although employees cannot physically meet. However, digitalization prevents the possibility of establishing deep social relationships. These relationships are considered essential for a work-group to function. Finally, it appears that the need for social relations in the workplace becomes more evident when employees are forced to isolate themselves from each other for a longer period, which is a consequence of the pandemic. / Det moderna samhället har blivit allt mer digitaliserat och många arbetsplatser likaså. Det innebär att människor blir allt mer distanserade från varandra då arbete kan ske från andra platser än kontoret. Social interaktion sker i större utsträckning än tidigare via en skärm, speciellt under extraordinära omständigheter som Covid-19. Människan är av sin natur en social varelse och teknikens utveckling mer eller mindre tvingar individer att anpassa sina sociala relationer till att bli mer digitala. Frågan är om den sociala evolutionen hinner ikapp teknikens framfart. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur anställda upplever att den utökade digitaliseringen påverkar deras sociala relationer på arbetsplatsen, i allmänhet och i samband med Covid-19. I studien undersöks de anställdas upplevelser på ett stort företag i Stockholm med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer. Resultatet visar att digitaliseringen möjliggör interaktion med kollegor, även fast anställda inte kan mötas fysiskt. Däremot hindrar digitaliseringen möjligheten till att etablera djupa sociala relationer. Dessa relationer är essentiella för att en arbetsgrupp ska fungera. Slutligen framkommer det att behovet av sociala relationer på arbetsplatsen blir mer påtagligt när anställda tvingas isolera sig från varandra en längre tid, vilket är en konsekvens av pandemin.

Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka och analysera studenters upplevelser och utmaningar i samband med användningen av digitala medier i distansundervisning med fokus på social studiemiljö och grupptillhörighet.Syftet är att bidra till en ökad förståelse för de faktorer som påverkar studenters upplevelse av prestation i en virtuell gruppmiljö. Studien har besvarat följande frågeställningar: På vilket sätt kan studenter på ett svenskt universitet med hjälp av digitala verktyg upprätthålla en social studiemiljö? På vilket sätt kan digitala verktyg hjälpa till med känslan av grupptillhörighet för studenter? För att ha kunnat besvara studiens frågeställningar har tio semistrukturerade intervjuer gjorts med studenter på ett svenskt universitet, vars frågor tagits fram med hjälp av teorierna om Social Presence Theory samt Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Utifrån det insamlade empiriska materialet framgår det att digitala verktyg kan hjälpa till att främja den sociala studiemiljön. Dock är det viktigt att studenterna ska kunna kommunicera på ett enkelt och effektivt sätt. Att använda kameran vid videomöten kan främja känslan av grupptillhörighet och öka engagemanget. För att känna en gemenskap och främja en sammanhållning i gruppen är det viktigt att studenterna känner sig inkluderade, och då kan gemensamma chattar vara till hjälp. För att främja en social studiemiljö på distans är det viktigt att både studenter, lärare och universitet tar ansvar. Trots att tolkningarna och åsikterna av upplevelserna skiljer sig åt för studenterna, kan digitala verktyg främja den sociala studiemiljön och grupptillhörigheten vid distansgrupparbeten för många studenter.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the personal pronoun “we” in a political debate using Conversation Analysis as research method. More specifically, the thesis aims to identify and analyse how the speakers of a political debate use “we” to express different referential domains in terms of group affiliation. Consequently, to support the thesis’s aim, the following research questions have been devised: What different categories of “we” can be found in the debate? How and when are these different categories used to manifest group affiliation and what do they accomplish?

The aim of the study was to explore internet use among individuals that were children at the beginning of the 2000s. We wanted to understand what being one of the first children on the internet meant to them, what type of platforms they used, how they used them and in relation to whom. These research questions were formulated: - What initiated children in the early 2000s to start using the internet and how did they interpret their own internet use? - What did children in the early 2000s do on the internet and how were internet platforms used? - How could children’s internet use in the early 2000s be understood in relation to a sense of belonging and group affiliation? To collect the material, we conducted four focus group discussions with Swedish and German adults, we then transcribed and analyzed the collected data with the help of a thematic analysis. We identified three main themes and seven subthemes. Our results indicated that the first child-generation on the internet enjoyed playing games and interacting with friends. The most popular platform among the participants was the chat forum MSN. The results also showed an increase in internet use due to its development in terms of better internet connection and the internet gaining a more acceptable place within the homes of the general public as well as within education. We also found that socioeconomic status had an impact on the children’s interpretations of the internet. Further our study showed that the use and the development of the internet had an important impact on the children, both in terms of maintaining relationships but also in terms of learning and bettering life prospects. Internet platforms were fun to use alone, as well as in the company of others. They were thus places where children could connect with other children with similar interests as themselves and gain a sense of belonging.