In response to a desired degree of participation within vaccination against the Covid-19 pandemic, the Swedish government chose to implement mandatory marketing measures. This has been exemplified by vaccine mandates which caused to provoke varying reactions from affected consumers. This study was, thus, based on investigating established marketing strategies for sensitive products from a consumer perspective and measuring the perceived level of trust between the state and its citizens. The study adhered to a qualitative research method to facilitate the assessment of a phenomenon with respect to medicalization. Semi-structured interviews were designed based on three main categories of respondents: critical-, neutral-, and positive-minded individuals, in relation to opinions concerning the marketing of vaccines and government mandates. Respondents were further distributed on the basis of four age groups to investigate the relevance of the individual's age and their corresponding level of trust. Based on the following results, however, there appeared to be no established link between these two variables, i.e. age and confidence. Furthermore, it has been shown that respondents' previous attitudes were related to their degree of social capital which determined the individuals' level of trust with regard to the state and its implementation of the vaccine mandate. The respondents' previous attitudes on the subject of vaccination mainly affected the level of trust they had for their state and how well they could identify with the message behind the marketing of vaccines. Further conclusions also showed a link between the degree of consumers' relatability with regard to the marketing message and their respective consumer behavior, for example within the vaccination frequency of each individual respondent. / Som svar till ett önskat vaccinationsdeltagande mot Covid-19 pandemin valde den svenska regeringen att implementera tvingande markandsföringsåtgärder i form av exempelvis vaccin mandat som väckte varierande reaktioner från påverkade konsumenter. Denna studie utgick därmed från att utreda etablerade marknadsföringsstrategier kring känsliga produkter utifrån ett konsumentperspektiv och mäta den uppfattade förtroendenivån mellan respektive stat och medborgare. Studien förhöll sig till en kvalitativ forskningsmetod för att underlätta undersökningen av ett fenomen med avseende för medikalisering. Semistrukturerade intervjuer utformades utifrån tre huvudsakliga respondentkategorier: kritiskt, neutralt samt positivt inställda individer, i förhållande till deras antaganden för marknadsföring av vaccin och statliga mandat. Ytterligare fördelades respondenter utifrån fyra åldersgrupper för att utreda relevansen kring individens ålder och dess korresponderande förtroendenivå. Utifrån följande resultat uppkom det däremot inte någon förekommande koppling mellan dessa två variabler, det vill säga ålder och förtroende. Vidare har det påvisats att respondenternas tidigare inställningar relaterade till deras grad av socialt kapital avgjorde för individernas tillitsnivå med avseende på staten och dess implementering av vaccin mandat. Huvudsakligen påverkade respondenternas tidigare inställningar kring ämnet om vaccinering den nivå av förtroende de utgjorde för staten samt hur väl de kunde identifiera sig med den etablerade marknadsföringens budskap. Vidare slutsatser visade även på en koppling mellan graden av konsumenters relaterbarhet med avseende på marknadsföringens budskap samt deras respektive konsumentbeteende exempelvis inom de individuella respondenternas vaccinationsfrekvens.

Bakgrund: Planerat kejsarsnitt på moderns önskan där inga medicinska indikationer föreligger är omtalat i medier. Indikationer för kejsarsnitt på moderns önskan anger att skälen ska vara tillräckligt tungt vägande, faktorer av betydelse är förlossningsrädsla, ålder, tidigare kejsarsnitt eller övergrepp. Men vid närmare analys finns det ingen konkret information om hur dessa indikationer ska bedömas. Ett stort missnöje hos kvinnor framgår på sociala medier och i debattartiklar angående rätten om kejsarsnitt. Detta skapar polarisering inom förlossningsvården mellan kvinnor och vårdpersonal. För att stärka den reproduktiva hälsan är det viktigt att ytterligare belysa vårdens perspektiv i denna aktuella fråga. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att belysa hur barnmorskor, obstetriker och neonataloger resonerar och beslutar angående kvinnor som önskar kejsarsnitt utan medicinska indikationer. Metod: Kvalitativ intervjustudie genomfördes med tio intervjuer med vårdpersonal. En innehållsanalys tillämpades för att analysera resultatet. Resultat: Två övergripande teman framtogs, processen och aspekter kopplat till kvinnan. Resultatet gav en djupare bild av hur bedömningar görs utifrån kartläggande samtal med kvinnan. Även vad de kort-och långsiktiga perspektiven är som vårdpersonalen måste tänka på vid beslutet. Rätten till kejsarsnitt som kvinnor uttalar höll inte vårdpersonalen med om, de refererade till lagen som säger att man inte kan kräva en operation utan medicinsk indikation. Slutsats: Tillräckligt tungt vägande skäl för kejsarsnitt på moderns önskan går inte att göra utifrån en checklista. Det görs som individuella sammanvägda beslut utifrån kvinnans situation och framtid. Beslutet är multifaktoriellt. / Background: The wish for a planned cesarean section on maternal request where no medical indication exist is well mentioned in the media. The indications for a cesarean section on maternal request are based on if they are sufficiently important reasons, which can be fear of vaginal birth, age, a former cesarean, or experiences of sexual trauma. In a closer analysis of the indications there was no concrete information on how the decision was going to be made by health professionals. There is a big discontentment from women which can be seen on websites and social media where they talk about the right to a cesarean section. This creates a polarization between the women and the health workers at the maternity wards. To strengthen women’s health and reproduction this is an important aspect to bring forward. Aim: The aim of this study was to illustrate how mid wifes, obstetricians and neonatologist perceives and reasons about women who wishes to have a cesarean section without medical indications.  Method: Qualitative interview study was done with ten interviews with health workers. A manifest analysis has been applied to get a result from the interviews.   Results: Two overall themes were produces, the process and aspects connected to the woman. The result gave a deeper understanding of how the decisions are being made from mapping dialogue between the health workers and the woman. The results also showed what short- and long-term consequences of a cesarean that health workers have to keep in mind when deciding. The right to a cesarean section that women speak loudly about did not resonate with the health workers, they referred to what the law says about not being able to demand an operation without any medical indication.  Conclusion: Sufficiently important reason for a cesarean section on maternal request is not possible to decide on the grounds of a checklist. The decisions are being made on individual bases based on the woman’s situation and future. The decision is multifactorial.

The question regarding male circumcision in Sweden became a relevant topic within the public debates during the last three years. Due to the Swedish political party, Centerpartiet’s decision to strive for a ban on male circumcision, this debate surfaced after the 28th of September. Participation in the public debate came from different directions and perspectives on male circumcision. In this thesis I focus on different actors and their public opinions in debate articles published between the years of 2018-2019. The aim of this thesis is to examine how critical arguments are constructed from perceptions of a decreasing significance of religion within late modern societies. This results in a motivation to ban the performance of male circumcision without medical indication. By using the qualitative text analysis of systematic text condensation this thesis closer categorizes the arguments into the three themes of “children’s bodily integrity”, “the delimitation of medicalization” and “the religious other”. In addition to this, the thesis also looks into the argument from the analytical framework on argumentation analysis in order to distinguish “normative” and “factual” arguments in the debate. To look closer at the constructions of the critical arguments within the debate this thesis uses the theoretical framework of Sara Ahmed (2011). From a phenomenological inspired perspective this thesis further looks into the argument’s correlation and construction of a collective body. This in particular is the construction of the secular- in relation to the religious body. Constructions of the religious body allows for secular ideas to circulate around national symbols and principles, which results in an exclusion of religious motives and perspectives. The thesis further sheds light on the cultural imbedded “medical gaze”, from the theoretical perspective on medicalization of Karin Johannisson (2013). This thesis aims to examine the reproduction of the medical superiority within debates on questions regarding the human body, like the one on male circumcision. The thesis illustrates the complexity of religious visibility within the Swedish context. Although the critical arguments reject the religious motives of male circumcision, the debate increases the religious visibility in the public debates.

This study explores the experiences of the Swedish front-line social workers (socialsekreterare) in the municipal income support unit, Young Adults, monthly assessing the income support applications as well as daily processing the activation programs for young adult clients with mental ill-health combined with social-medicinal vulnerabilities, also referred to as young adults with complex needs. Furthermore, this study aims to illuminate the ever changing conditions of the Swedish welfare state and its underlying driving forces through the lens of the social workers. 9 Semi-structured distance interviews with 11 social workers from 6 municipalities belonging to 5 regions in Sweden, were conducted for the collection of qualitative data. It has been analyzed by the inductive-deductive coding as well as a theoretical frame consisting of concepts such as discretiona and advocacy of M. Lipsky, and reciprocal interaction (Wechselwirkung), form and contents, and call of G.Simmel. The result and analysis show that the rehabilitative approach based on the interactions and relations with the clients, is prevalent through the social workers’ processing of the activation program. It seems to be effective in a dyad, between the social workers and the client while the social workers’ discretion is maximized for the utilization of the agency (unit) activation resources. However, it proved not to be as effective in a triad or more when an extern agent outside of the unit, Young Adults begins to be involved. The tension is a fact and the social workers’ discretion is minimized when they have to process the activation program for the clients who are neither “active enough” to have a job in the ordinary labor market, nor “sick enough” to be eligible for the stately activity compensation (aktivitetsersättning) from the Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) which heavily relies on the medicinal expertise for its decision making. The social workers’ experience to fail to deliver the best possible results out of the activation programs, and the client relationship built on the rehabilitative approach turns out to be unsustainable, which can indicate the discrepancy between the rehabilitative approach as well as the activation programs, as content, and the unit, Young Adults, as form. Even though the social workers daily carry the ideological as well as the social-political tensions between the medicalization and the activation through the ever changing reality of the Swedish welfare state, their mandate to make an impact on the decision making of the activity compensation program, is rather limited, reflecting the Swedish welfare state’s expectation for the professionalism of the social workers. Rather striking that the social workers, however, confess that they in spite of the pressure of organizational efficiency as well as socio-economic discourse of digitalization undermining the concept of the unit, Young Adults, are not willing to give up the rehabilitative approach for the client’s sake but also to protect their unit, Young Adults, which postulate that they are not the gatekeepers in the agency but the advocate for the clients. In this moment, they also seem to know, and even have the call, the essential, if not mandatory, element needed to be landed in the perfect society of G. Simmel.