ABSTRACT “MUSIC IS WAITING FOR YOU:” THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF CHILDREN’S MUSICAL IDENTITY by L. Michelle Mercier-De Shon This phenomenological study of lived experience (Van Manen, 1990) explored the perspectives of four 4th grade children as they live in and live through music to formulate their musical identities. Framed within perspectives of symbolic interaction theory (Blumer, 1969), communities of practice (Wenger, 1998), and figured worlds (Holland, et al., 1998), data were collected using methods consistent with qualitative inquiry. These included: observations of quasi-formal music learning settings, in musical playgroups and during professional musicians’ presentations; close observations of children’s daily school lives; and planned discussion group interviews (O’Reilly, 2005). Findings emerged from the data via a bricolage of existentialist (Morrisette, 1999; Holyroyd, 2001) and interpretative phenomenological analyses (Smith, 2003). Children in my study explored and expressed their musical identities through self-directed engagement across multiple modalities of singing, listening, performing on instruments, and creating music. They engaged with these modalities in individualized and shared ways. Singing was situated, by context and in concert with social and gender comparisons. Listening, performing, and creating encompassed a trajectory from experimentation to intentionality, with continually embedded exploration and musical play. Findings indicated that children in middle childhood may actively shape their musical identities within a dynamic nexus of individualized and social continuums of music experience and learning. These continuums may be understood along three dimensions: development; components, i.e., music participation and learning; and processes. The developmental spectrum of children in middle childhood provides a fluid context for understanding musical identity, revealed not as a fixed entity, but through interweaving elements of their past, present, and future musical lives. Self-directed music participation and learning may shape musical identity and provide a context for its expression through both musical and social roles, as children enact musical behaviors through social interaction. Finally, children’s musical identity may be understood as a process, in which personal dialogue meets external discourses, as children continuously negotiate self-conceptions of musicality within and among their musical worlds. Findings indicate that music teachers may offer opportunities for exploration and musical play as a basis for concurrently nurturing the development of musical identities and fostering musical understanding.

Följande undersökning behandlar ämnet rekrytering med inriktning på kompetensens betydelse vid tillsättning av en tjänst. Vidare redogörs för hur rekryteringsföretag i en mellanstor svensk stad väljer ut individer ur en grupp av arbetssökande och på vilka premisser urvalen sker. Det vill säga om en arbetssökande väljs ut att bli tillsatt för en tjänst på grund av vederbörandes arbetserfarenhet, kunskap och utbildning, eller om det är tack vare dennes personliga egenskaper. Studien ämnar undersöka i vilken utsträckning ansvariga rekryterare värderar arbetssökandes formella kompetenser i förhållande till dess informella kompetenser. Undersökningen kommer också studera den estetiska kompetensens betydelse vid rekrytering. Med andra ord betydelsen av att som sökande klä sig rätt, komma hel och ren till arbetsintervjun. För studien använder vi oss av en kvalitativ metod i form av intervjuer. Dessa intervjuer är baserade på frågor från en upprättad intervjuguide som går att ta del av i slutet av uppsatsen som en bilaga. Dessa frågor resulterar i information från respondenterna som möjliggör för oss att besvara våra frågeställningar som presenteras i inledningen av denna undersökning. I undersökningen framkommer det att rekryterarna framhäver vikten av formell och informell kompetens beroende på vilken typ av tjänst som skall tillsättas. För rekryteringar på kollektivsidan tar man mer hänsyn till vad den sökande besitter för faktiskta kompetenser. Det vill säga vilka direkta kunskaper individen har som går att omsätta i arbetet, till exempel om den sökande kan köra truck och har körkort för detta. Om individen i fråga har akademisk bakgrund eller ej är mindre intressant för dessa jobb och rekryteringsprocesserna sker i regel snabbare än på tjänstemannasidan. Rekryteringar på tjänstemannasidan är istället mer omfattande, komplicerade och tidskrävande. Här läggs tonvikten på den sökandes akademiska bakgrund och arbetserfarenhet. På den formella kompetensen ställs i regel höga krav vid tillsättning av tjänstemän. Studien har visat att det första intrycket av den arbetssökande har betydelse för den ansvarige rekryteraren när de möts för en intervju. En sökande som kommer ordentligt klädd och har förmågan att presentera och framföra sig själv på ett tilltalande sätt har större chanser till en anställning än den individ som inte anstränger nämnvärt. / The following study deals with the subject recruitment, focusing on the competence relevant for appointment to a post. Furthermore it describes how the recruitment companies of a medium-sized Swedish city will select individuals from a group of candidates and on which premises the samples occurs. That is, if a job applicant is selected to be hired because of his work experience, knowledge and education, or if it is thanks to his personal qualities. The study intends to examine the extent to which responsible recruiters value the job seekers formal competences in relation to its informal competences. This study will examine the aesthetic competences importance in the recruitment process. In other words, the importance of the candidates to dress properly, be clean and tidy to the interview. For the study, we use a qualitative approach through interviews. These interviews are based on questions from a prepared interview guide that you can take part of at the end of the essay as an appendix. These questions will result in information from the respondents that will enable us to answer our question as mentioned in the introduction to this study. In the survey, it appears that recruiters emphasize the importance of formal and informal skills depending on the type of post to be appointed. When it comes to recruitment of blue-collar workers the recruiters takes more consideration of which actual skills the candidate possess. That is, which direct knowledge the individual have that he’s able to use at work, for example, if the applicant can drive a forklift and has a license to drive it. If the individual in question has an academic background or not is less interesting for these kinds of jobs and the recruitment processes are generally faster than the white-collar worker side. Recruitment at the white-collar side, is more extensive, complicated and time consuming. Here the emphasis is placed on the candidate's academic background and their work experience. When it comes to the formal qualifications there are usually high requirements for the employment of white-collar workers. The study has shown that the first impression of the job applicant is important for the responsible recruiter when they meet for an interview. An applicant that arrives properly dressed and have the ability to present and express himself in an appealing way have a greater chance of employment than the individual who doesn’t make an effort.

Bakgrund: Den äldre populationen är växande i Sverige och anhörigvårdarnas insatser ökar i omfattning. Detta innebär förändringar i anhörigvårdarnas livssituation och kan upplevas både positivt och negativt. För att få ett väl fungerande vård- och omsorgssystem är det viktigt att få en övergripande bild av anhörigvårdarnas erfarenheter. Detta för att kunna främja och bibehålla deras livskvalitet. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att studera äldre anhörigvårdares erfarenheter av att vårda en närstående. Metod: Litteraturstudie som är baserad på 9 vetenskapliga artiklar. Både kvalitativa och kvantitativa artiklar har använts och dessa har granskats och analyserats. Kriterierna för urvalet var att de skulle innefatta människor över 60 års ålder, vara publicerade efter 2001 samt skrivna i industriländer som kan passa in på Sveriges sjukvård. Resultat: Resultatet beskriver anhörigvårdarnas erfarenhet av att vårda en närstående som en förändring som påverkar även deras livssituation. Studien presenteras i två kategorier med sju underkategorier: Anhörigvårdarens livssituation och Den viktiga interaktionen med omvärlden. Diskussion: Erfarenheterna av att vara anhörigvårdare var av olika karaktär och påverkades av yttre och inre faktorer. Där en del anhörigvårdare kände en förlust av egen tid upplevde andra en ökad samhörighet med den närstående. Att bemästra sin roll som anhörigvårdare verkade till stor del grunda sig i personens inneboende egenskaper, även det sociala nätverk anhörigvårdaren hade upplevdes betydelsefullt. Benner och Wrubels omsorgsteori låg till grund för diskussionen och vissa begrepp förankrades: omsorg, person, situation, kontext, stress, bemästrande, livscykel, hälsa (välbefinnande) och ohälsa.

Casablanca was long time perceived as laboratory for European architects to experiment with modernist mass housing. Yet, the spatial structure has since then been considerably transformed and appropriated by the inhabitants to respond to the requirements and aspirations of everyday life. The neighbourhood Hay Hassani has experienced substantial change since its construction in 1958-62, initiated by its residents. This paper aims to explore the inhabitants’ underlying reasons and means to adapt their dwellings, and further to provide perspectives into the logics behind these bottom-up, informal transformations. Applying phronetic planning research, an empirical case study has been carried out in Hay Hassani, which provides detailed narratives of the ways in which power and values are at work and with what consequences to whom. The findings indicate that multiple economic, socio-demographic, and cultural aspects are decisive dynamics that trigger the motivation or urge to adapt the original modernist architecture. While identifying the (f)actors of importance and drawing their power relations, the research reveals that because of reduced architectural, economic , institutional-political, and social barriers the inhabitants have been able to transform their built environment significantly. The present study highlights that questions of values, judgement, and power relations are central to understand and deal with the bottom-up transformation processes in the spatial development. / Migration as Inspiration (The Netherlands)

This thesis concerns the subject of social media in the internal communication, how it can function to improve the communication among the coworkers. Good Old has been the web agency of our case study, through them we have gained understanding of the phenomenon. Media and communication theories and interviews have given us the foundation of the thesis.Our conclusion shows that it is beneficial to use social media internally in the type of company that Good Old is. Furthermore, the result shows that it can improve the communication, increase organizational learning and unity among coworkers. Finally social media can make organizations more effective.

This thesis aims at studying representatives from three groups in the Egyptian society with an ethnographic method and with regards to their experiences, reflections and stories of the Egyptian revolution. The material of the thesis is based on ethnographic fieldwork and on interviews. The purpose of the study is to explore different themes in the informants’ stories related to society, freedom, social justice, human values, peace and civility. The purpose is also to examine the informants' stories with emphasis on various informal learning processes that occurred in the Egyptian social change. The study finds that according to the informants a society should be characterized, among other things, by human values, social justice, non-violence and peaceful methods and approaches. Various informal learning processes involving both individual citizens and active members of civil society and NGO groups were found to be practiced to be able to accomplish these changes in the Egyptian society to create a better future. The degrees of involvement of the various learning processes not only reflect differences between informants regarding the social and cultural background. Although informants' involvement in the ongoing development of society and how different informal learning processes have affected the informants.

In November 2010, The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting) distributed a survey where 53 % of the responding municipalities declared that they use Twitter. Out of the municipalities that declared they did not use social media, 49 % answered that they were planning on using it but that they had not gotten started. The purpose with social media was primarily declared to be maintaining dialogue with citizens and a channel for information. The informal “twittersphere” is a new environment for the conventionally formal government communication, and with it comes an entirely new set of demands on the style and content of texts, compared to other media. The purpose of my work was to present a style proposal for the public sector’s communication on Twitter, with the help of theory and empirical data. My methods consisted of text analysis and qualitative interviews. I analyzed eight selected municipalities on Twitter and interviewed four informants who held different perspectives on the subject, to get a deeper understanding. Chosen topics in both methods were e.g. formality, address, dialogue and visibility of the writer.  The analysis results showed that the municipalities were neither present, personal, nor inviting – and my conclusion was that they therefore did not strive for dialogue, at least not on Twitter. The interviews focused mainly on how the municipalities should use Twitter, and what surfaced in the interviews took great part in my style proposal and the accompanying guidelines. From the results of both methods, I created a style proposal consisting of 20 tweets, that formed a tweet style, along with a set of guidelines for good civil-servant tweeting. The style I’m presenting tries to address the purpose of dialogue in a better, more suitable way, by being personal, engaged, present and clear. / I november 2010 skickade Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting ut en enkät där 53 % av de svarande kommunerna uppgav sig använda Twitter. Av de kommuner som uppgav att de inte använde sociala medier svarade 49 % att de planerade att börja men att de inte hade kommit igång. Syftet med sociala medier uppgavs primärt vara att ha en dialog med medborgare och en kanal för nyheter. Twitters informella sfär är en ny miljö för det konventionellt formella myndighetsspråket, och ställer helt andra krav på texters stil och innehåll än andra medier. Syftet med mitt arbete var att, med stöd av teori och empiri, ta fram ett förslag på en stil åt den offentliga sektorns kommunikation på Twitter. Mina metoder var textanalys och kvalitativa intervjuer. Jag analyserade åtta utvalda kommuner på Twitter och intervjuade fyra informanter med olika infallsvinklar på ämnet, för en fördjupad förståelse. Berörda ämnen i båda metoder var bl.a. formalitet, tilltal, dialog och synligt författarskap. Resultatet av textanalysen visade att kommunerna inte var särskilt närvarande, personliga eller inbjudande – och min slutsats av det blev att de därför inte alls strävade efter dialog, åtminstone inte på Twitter. Intervjuerna kretsade främst kring hur kommunerna borde twittra, och det som kom fram där låg till stor del bakom mitt gestaltningsförslag och de tillhörande råden och riktlinjerna. Utifrån båda metodernas resultat skapade jag ett gestaltningsförslag om 20 tweets, som byggde upp en s.k. tweetstil, tillsammans med råd och riktlinjer för gott twittrande. Den stil jag presenterar försöker adressera dialogsyftet på ett bättre, mer anpassat sätt, genom att vara personlig, engagerad, närvarande och tydlig.

This paper examines the informal economy’s greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions and whether it poses a problem to the effectiveness of international frameworks designed to reduce GHG emissions. With the results of a literature review conducted on the relation between the informal economy and regulations and results on 160 nations’ theoretical informal-economy emissions over time, this paper finds that the informal economy does hinder the ability of governments to manage GHG emissions. This paper then discusses how this aspect of the world’s economy limits the efficacy of international frameworks to reduce GHG emissions. Suggestions are made on how to incorporate this sector into the proposed frameworks. The paper concludes with summarizing the main findings and proposals for further research.

The incidence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is expected to rise in the coming years. Presently, in health care there has been a shift of the provision of care to the home therefore, the major burden of care falls on informal caregivers. The challenges that these caregivers face may be compounded by residing in a rural area where the provision of health care services has been increasingly compromised. In the literature, there has been an abundance of information looking at the experiences of caregivers of people with other chronic illnesses. However, the information on the lived experience of caregivers of people with severe COPD has been minimal. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience and meaning of that experience for spousal caregivers providing care to a person with severe COPD living in rural Saskatchewan. Face-to-face, conversational interviews, along with observations of the caregivers and their spouses interactions and environment, were utilized to collect information from five women caring for their husbands with severe COPD living in rural Saskatchewan. Hermeneutic phenomenological reflection, as guided by the works of van Manen, utilized writing, collaborative discussion, life world existentials, and imaginative variation to illuminate themes and the overall essence of this experience. Five overlapping themes identified stemmed from the essence of unrelenting responsibility: 1) Assuming additional roles; 2) Ongoing vigilance; 3) Unfulfilled expectations; 4) Emotional burden; 5) Intermittent reprieve. This study assists in understanding the challenges faced by COPD caregivers and further aids in our understanding of how COPD patients manage their condition. In addition, it will facilitate the identification of strategies and actions to meet the needs sensitive to this population.

Business Administration, Business Process & Supply Chain Management, Degree Project (master), 15 higher education credits, 4FE06E, Spring 2011 Authors: Marjorie Laporte and Jérôme Le Duff Tutor: Fredrik Karlsson Title: Trust and contract effects on the efficiency of the supplier-manufacturer relationships – A dyadic perspective Background: The current global situation leads to a tightening of the supply chains. Since supply chain management is primarily about managing relationships, developing an efficient relationship appears to be the best way to stay competitive. Trust and contracts are elements that influence the efficiency of the relationships, but there is a debate concerning the way they impact efficiency. The focus has been made on the supplier-manufacturer relationships. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the supplier-manufacturer relationships of Ferrero France, in order to increase the understanding of trust in relation to different types of contracts, while providing a managerial contribution by describing their impact on efficiency. Method: Interviews have been run among Ferrero France, manufacturer of confectionery products, and two of its suppliers. The empirical findings have been analyzed and compared to the existing theory in order to draw relevant conclusions. The results and conclusions also give rise to a broader strategic reflection about the impact of trust and contract on the whole supply chain, and not only on the supplier-manufacturer relationship. Results, conclusions: The results of this research point out some similarities and differences compared to the existing theory. The dyadic perspective provides a broader point of view, and results in stating that trust is the most important factor leading to efficiency. Moreover, several types of contracts exist. Formal contracts and trust are substitutes and can work together to improve the efficiency, even if the legal framework may limit the increase of efficiency. Informal contracts and trust have a much moreTrust and contract effects on the efficiency of the supplier-manufacturerrelationshipsMaster Thesis – Spring 20123important relationship, and are key elements to achieve greater efficiency and long-term success of the supplier-manufacturer relationship, as well as the whole supply chain. This study provides managers with a better understanding of the role of trust and contract to improve the competitiveness of the whole supply chain, while contributing to enrich the existing theory with new perspectives.