In this study bone material from six stone ship settings and a total of seven deposits of bones from two sites on the island of Gotland have been analyzed. Four ship settings from the burial site at Gålrum in Alskog parish and two from Tängelgårda in Lärbro parish. The ships contained both cremated remains and inhumations.  Human remains were identified in five of the analyzed ship settings and a minimum of six individuals was identified in total.  Animals were found in three of the ship settings, where one of them contained only the burned remains of a dog. Two of the ships contained inhumations, one in Gålrum and one in Tängelgårda. The one from Gålrum was determined to 17-19 years of age but of undetermined sex. The inhumation from Tängelgårda was determined to a male of 35-64 years of age.  Of the cremated remains none could be determined to sex but all were determined as adult individuals. The temperature that the cremated bones had been exposed to during the cremation was similar between the different ship settings, with one exception which had been exposed to a slightly higher temperature. The results of the material have also been compared with those of other osteological analysis from ship settings on Gotland. The interpretation of this has been that the amount of bone and the number of individuals that has been buried in stone ship settings vary from different sites. Some ship settings have contained several burials and have been interpreted as family graves (Pettersson 1982) which do not fit with the results from this analysis where all the ship settings contained a maximum of one or two human individuals, so the results from the ship settings on Gålrum and Tängelgårda differ from earlier interpretations of ship settings on Gotland.

This thesis is a discourse analysis analyzing public library librarians' talk on the subject of public library meeting places. Within the field of Library and Information Science the public libraries' functions as social meeting places have been scrutinized for more than a decade. Researchers in the Nordic countries in particular have looked at library users' use of the library space and have highlighted the sociologic dimensions of the public library and the meeting place functions. Few however have paid much attention to the library personnel's point of view. The discourse analysis perspective is about language use and how people construct the reality. Using the discourse psychology approach to discourse analysis as a basis of a discourse analytic framework this thesis examines how public library librarians use interpretative practises to construct versions of the phenomena talked about in order to suite the purpose of their talk. The analyzed data material is a transcript from a performed focus group where four public library librarians talked for about one hour on the subject of public library meeting places. The main findings is that the focus group members use eleven different interpretative repertoires in their talk. Interpretative repertoire is a close synonym to discourse. In Sweden the discourse analysis perspective in the Library information science is fairly new. Discourse analysis's made in the Library and information science has mostly been based upon written material. In the thesis it is suggested that there are differences in how discourse practises is being used in talk compared to how it is used in written texts. The talk seems richer on variations and more interpretative repertoires are to be found. The librarians in the focus group move seemingly free between discourses and subject positions. They don't just adapt to existing positions but also construct them to better suite their purposes. Different levels in the discourse order are not upheld in the talk. The impression is that the focus group participants float between discourses' subject positions and interpretative repertoires at all levels in a complex language-game allowing the librarians to take different stands that in a different context would be perceived as conflicting and problematic.

The motivation for this thesis lies in the knowledge that there is a crucial information need amongst LGBTQ-persons wanting to read fiction related to LGBTQ in order to strengthen their own identity. This particular information need regarding identification has been said to be more central within LGBTQ-communities than within other user groups, largely because they represent a marginalized group in society. Critical feminists, such as Hope A. Olson, have proved that knowledge organization based on systems of subject representation in fact may lead to further marginalization and exclusion of already marginalized groups. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to compare subject representation and social tagging as methods of organizing LGBTQ-fiction. The empirical data is drawn from the collaborative tagging platform LibraryThing and five public library catalogs.Within a feminist framework based on queer theory, the advantages of user-generated metadata in the form of social tagging over professional knowledge organization in the form of subject representation are discussed, and in the end dismissed as an adequate replacement or alternative for the latter. The results of this study show that social tagging presents users with more diverse access points than those created within a controlled vocabulary system. However, while some of the social tags are more specific and in some ways inclusive, most of the tags consist of general terms describing the works of fiction. This is a two years master’s thesis.

The aim of this master‟s thesis is to investigate the value and impact that reading groups organized by Swedish Public Libraries, have on its participants, role of the librarian and the Library as whole, according to librarian‟s conceptions. In literature and earlier research reading groups are described to represent an important reader pro-motion tool for Public Libraries. At the same time the typical reading group member is often described as a per-son with a familiarity of reading. Another purpose is therefore to investigate the contribution of reading groups in promoting reading, according to librarian‟s conceptions. A phenomenographic approach was adopted and qualit-ative interviews were carried out with five librarians at five Public Libraries. The phenomenographic analysis of the interview-material, concerning reading groups impact on its partici-pants and the Library as a whole, resulted in the following categories: reading groups perceives as a natural part of the Public Library service, reading groups inspirer to reading and literature interest, reading groups leads to human interactions and shared reading experiences, reading groups has a democratic function, limitations of reading groups and reading groups part in reading promotion. Comparisons have also been made to how reading groups fit the Public Library task, as it is described in Swedish Library law and Unesco‟s Public Library manifes-to. The analysis of the interview-material shows that reading groups in many ways fit the task of Public Library service, like promoting literature and reading, supporting individual development and be available to everyone. The phenomenographical analysis of the interview-material, concerning the librarian‟s part in reading groups, resulted in the following categories: administrator, educator, social inspirer and competence and interest for fiction. Comparisons are also made to Jofrid Karner Smidts thesis concerning the five different roles a libra-rian should fulfill working with literature promotion. Based on her thesis it´s foremost the librarian as a critic and literature expert, educator and as ordinary person that correspond with the interviewed librarians perceptions about what part they play and should play in reading groups. One distinct conception that transpired in the interview-material is that reading groups organized by Swe-dish Public Libraries do not necessarily have a specific reading promotion purpose, but that reading groups have potential to have a positive impact on the participants reading habits. Further that more active work from the librarians is required, in order to fulfill a reading promotion function. One of this thesis most important conclu-sions is that there seems to exist a need to make the literature-promotion task of Public Libraries more visible, that it is important that librarians is given the opportunity to develop their competence to fulfill this task and that reading groups can fulfill an important aspect in that context. This study is a two years master´s thesis in library and information science.

Disputats, Uppsala Universitet, 2007. / Findes også på internet (PDF-format): http://www.diva-portal.org/diva/getDocument?urn_nbn_se_uu_diva-8327-3__fulltext.pdf. Med litteraturhenvisninger.

This master thesis studies debates on historical theory in Sweden ́s two main historical journals, Historisk tidskrift and Scandia, during the last fifty years. The study investigates discussions of epistemological questions, the purposes of historical writing, and the influence of postmodernism. The theoretical approach and methodology used is inspired by the American pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty. In a concluding chapter Rorty’s writings are used to confront the study’s results. The purpose of this is to highlight certain problems from the investigation. It is argued that the vocabulary used by the Swedish historians is an effect of the correspondence theory of truth, and that a pragmatic approach to the study of history could help history break free from that unfortunate vocabulary.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the European Union (EU) is one of the oldest fields of cooperation within the European Union. During the past decades the different Commissioners have made several proposals about changes in the CAP and many of them have not been passed but renegotiated. The present Commission has however published a report in 2011, which emphasizes that the CAP has three alternative ways to go in the future. This study aims to predict which one of these three alternative ways it is most likely that the CAP will take according to the historical institutionalist theory. When to be able to predict this text analysis is used. The analysis tools of the study are collected from the theory, which focuses on the conceptions: critical juncture, feedback effects, path dependency and sequencing. These tools as well as the theory are applied on the empirical material, which mainly consists of books about the earlier reforms and proposals from the Commission, academical journals and some reports. The analysis shows that the Luxembourg compromise can be seen as a critical juncture in the history of the CAP and this led to a path dependency, which is characterized by a decision-making procedure by consensus between the political institutions in the EU. The analysis also shows that most of the reforms regarding the CAP, are made with some sort of compromise or consensus (the Delors I budgetary package, the Mac Sharry reforms and so on). Therefore the conclusion of the study is that, from an historical institutionalist perspective, it is more or less possible for the CAP to go with any of the alternative ways that the Commission points out in the report. It is however most likely that the second way is the most prominent one. This is because that option emphasizes that major overhauls of the policy should be made, that the measures should be more targeted, and that the spending of the CAP should be more efficient. All of these changes have been made more or less during the history of the CAP and the institutional framework therefore allows this way.

As our society moves into a more technical era, journalism and the reporting of culture have had to follow. But where has that left the cultural critique, and journalist/reviewers, in our local newspapers? This bachelor thesis will try to map and explain the change of the cultural presentation in the local newspapers from the day it was firstly introduced as a genre in the modern journalistic world until today – 1840 and onwards. Whether it has turned into complete tabloid journalism or if it's methods are used to expand the knowledge about the cultural object, it shall be discovered with the help of an analysis of the cultural sections in some newspapers – both from the last quarter of 2012 (October - December) and one date from two years prior to that. One of the answers provided by the analysis, and perhaps the most relevant to this thesis, is that by adding features of tabloid journalism in reports of cultural news, culture journalism can better adapt its contents according to academic and social preferences of what is considered important aspects of information in the news, as it positions itself according to the technological fields and the changes within the cultural area itself.

This paper deals with an object donated by a group of members of the public to the Royal Armoury in Stockholm, Sweden. The donators claimed to own a horse bit that had been used by King Gustav II Adolf's mount in the battle of Lützen, where the King was killed. The bit was a gift to the donators' ancestor, the farmer and politician Petter Jönsson, from the King of Sweden, Oscar I, in the 1850's. In this paper, the donated bit is examined and found unlikely to be the bit used at Lützen. The examination also revealed that the bit now worn by the horse in its display is a prop, included in the group of objects in the 19th century, and that the original bit probably was lost in a fire in 1648. The examination also raises questions on why this bit was considered a valuable gift, what consequences the gift transaction of the bit had for giver and reviever. It ends with a discussion about the donated bit and the bit in the display, and their roles at the museum in the future.

Seven individuals from Surahammar in Västmanland Sweden are analyzed for the appearance of pathological and skeletal changes. The graves, all from within the walls of a fourteenth century church, are dated from the Viking age to late eighteenth century. The aim of this scientific essay is to find pathological conditions by doing an osteological analyze, x-ray analysis, an osteoporosis measurement and letting orthopedists assess the individuals. The aim is also to say something about the individuals’ general health and how they experience the changes they have in the skeleton. The various types of methods of analysis could confirm and add information to the osteological analysis and in some cases they had different diagnosis. All of the individuals had pathological changes in their upper and/or lower jaw with caries, calculus or apical periodontitis. Among several pathological and skeletal changes three individuals were diagnosed with osteoarthritis in their cervical vertebrae and one in the hip, one had enamel hypoplasia. One individual had both old and new fractures and two individuals had some bone density loss. But despite this their general health was very likely not bad and most of them could live a good life.Caroline Groth, Department of archaeology and osteology, Gotland University, 2010.Sura Gamla Kyrka – Analysis of pathological and skeletal changes in seven individuals.Seven individuals from Surahammar in Västmanland Sweden are analyzed for the appearance of pathological and skeletal changes. The graves, all from within the walls of a fourteenth century church, are dated from the Viking age to late eighteenth century. The aim of this scientific essay is to find pathological conditions by doing an osteological analyze, x-ray analysis, an osteoporosis measurement and letting orthopedists assess the individuals. The aim is also to say something about the individuals’ general health and how they experience the changes they have in the skeleton. The various types of methods of analysis could confirm and add information to the osteological analysis and in some cases they had different diagnosis. All of the individuals had pathological changes in their upper and/or lower jaw with caries, calculus or apical periodontitis. Among several pathological and skeletal changes three individuals were diagnosed with osteoarthritis in their cervical vertebrae and one in the hip, one had enamel hypoplasia. One individual had both old and new fractures and two individuals had some bone density loss. But despite this their general health was very likely not bad and most of them could live a good life. / Osteoporosis och osteoarthritis då och nu