Contemporary researchers typically classify negative peer interactions as bullying or conflict. Theoretically, bullying involves exploiting a power imbalance to demobilize a peer(s), and conflict involves using power tactics to exert influence or resolve a dispute. This study attempted to explore the exercise of power between adolescent peers within psychological, social psychological and feminist psychological frameworks of power, and bullying and conflict constructions. Three hundred and fifty-two Melbourne students from Years 7 to 10 completed a �Young People�s School Relationships� survey. Students described their understandings of personal and interpersonal power, and rated their perceived power. The experimenter asked the students to differentiate three recent difficult incidents with peers according to perceived power disadvantage (less power), balance (same power) and advantage (more power). They described the difficulties, their responses and their perceptions of the power balance. Outcomes were rated on affect, relationship quality and overall evaluation. Power construction, gender, and year group differences on perceived personal power were examined. Scenario type (less, same, more power), gender, year group (7/8, 9/10), and relationship closeness (not friends, friends) differences on difficulties, responses and outcomes were evaluated. The power constructions formed three themes (�power-within�, �power-with�, �power-over�). Difficulties were subgrouped into three forms (two-way, one-way, other-way) and three types (physical, verbal, social). Responses were categorised into adapting, distancing, dominating and engaging. There was no support for Falbo and Peplau�s (1980) two-dimensional model for classifying types of interpersonal responses in power-differentiated situations. Power was constructed most frequently as �power-within�. Perceived power ratings formed a Global Power Score (GPS), with males reporting higher GPSs. Males and year group 7/8 reported more physical difficulties in the �same� power, and females and year group 7/8 more social difficulties in the �less� and �more� power scenarios. Students reported more adapting responses in the difficult interpersonal situations. Adapting and distancing responses were more frequent in the less power scenario, and dominating and engaging more frequent in the more and less power scenarios respectively. Affect and relationship status outcomes were rated more positively in same power scenario. Outcomes were more positive for difficulties with friends. Students rated their responses more positively when they used engaging strategies, but less positively when they used distancing or dominating. Power theories provided partial explanations for the findings and alternative frameworks to bullying and conflict for understanding negative peer interactions. This study extends on knowledge of adolescents� school-based relationships and proposes a power model for schools

This thesis aims to explore the role of social practice in the production of space within an anthropological perspective. In particular I drew my empirical data from my fieldwork in the site of Banyabashi Mosque. Banyabashi Mosque is the only active mosque which is located at the very representative, cultural and commercial center of Bulgaria&rsquo / s capital city, Sofia. The historical background of Bulgaria together with its current socio-political situation as the country having the largest historically indigenous Muslim population among the EU member states and its geopolitical location make it an intriguing geography to study the dynamism of Islam in the European context. In regard with this socio-political background this study seeks to understand the transformation of meaning through spatial practice within the perspective of the congregation of the only mosque in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is a cultural and political expression itself as Islam in Bulgaria in its broadest sense is represented as part of daily interactions of everyday urban life. Seeing the built environment as a system of conjoining parts, looking at the spatial practices and the established relations through the site of Banyabashi Mosque this study aspires to provide a perspective on having a better insight on the causal relationships between power, society and culture. In the pursuit to reveal the production and reproduction of power relations, difference, identities and their maintenance this thesis puts Banyabashi Mosque in the center of the study as a meeting point where all those relations manifest themselves through spatial practice and discourse.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability in Sweden and in the Western world. Despite this, stroke with focus on elderly is a field where few studies have been conducted from a gender and socioeconomic perspective. The objectives in this thesis were to analyse from a gender, age and socioeconomic perspective how women were affected by stroke compared with men. The focus was on what it meant for elderly women and men to live with stroke and to explore various gender constructions among men and women. The study also included aspects such as incidence, medical treatment and case fatality after stroke. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. During a two-year period (15 October 2000–14 October 2002), uniform information was collected for all cases of first-ever and recurrent (>28 days) stroke occurring in people of all ages living the region of Umeå, admitted to the University Hospital. Five different registers were used to achieve maximum coverage; the Riks-Stroke (RS) register, the Hospital Discharge Register (HDR), the Cause of Death Register, the northern Sweden WHO MONICA study, and one case-finding study in nursing homes and homes for elderly performed for this thesis. For the qualitative study a maximum variation sampling procedure was used to retrieve participants for in-depth interviews in a follow-up study. Nine women and seven men were interviewed about their experiences of treatment and care after suffering a stroke, as well as about their perceptions and experiences of help from others (health care personnel, relatives and home help personnel). The first-ever incidence of stroke was higher among low-educated than high educated men and women. Our study showed that there was an education-related age-dependent difference in stroke incidence, where elderly women had the highest incidence of stroke. The 28-day case fatality was shown to be associated with low educational level in patients above 75 years, after controlling for sex, risk factors and acute care variables. The elderly stroke patients experienced subordination in their contacts with health care personnel and the medical context. The participants used different ways to negotiate in the subordinate position, and some of these negotiations were interpreted as being gendered. We have also shown how the elderly stroke patients minimized their own needs of help, strove for independence and accepted help. The men and the women differed in their perceptions and experiences of help from others. Also, the participants expressed multiple types of needs. The elderly stroke patients’ perceptions and experiences of help from others must be studied in relation to their life circumstances and expectations from society. Further analyses of the patients’ perceptions and experiences of help from others were interpreted as being different examples of constructions of masculinities and femininities. Stroke with a focus on the elderly is a field where few studies have been conducted from a gender and socioeconomic perspective. With further community-based stroke incidence studies including elderly men and women and with the development of appropriately targeted interventions, the burden of stroke in the population could be reduced. More research is needed where both qualitative and quantitative methods are used, as this can provide a richer and perhaps more authentic description of the issue under investigation.

On the first of October 2012 the media reported that the women in the Ikea catalogue had been airbrushed in the Saudi edition. Initially the blame was put on either the Saudi government the Islamic culture or the Saudi franchise. In the end it was revealed that the Swedish company Inter Ikea Systems had the full responsibility for Ikeas actions and therefore was the culprit behind the airbrushing. On whose initiative or why the airbrushing was done the media never found out. These are answers only Ikea has, although they remain unresponsive to these questions throughout the news portrayal. This study methodology uses a qualitative content analysis as framework to further investigate the news media with support of theoretical perspectives such as media theory, power relations and cultural differences. Other theoretical themes included in this case study are gender, hegemony and discourse analysis. This study therefore investigates how the presentation of news shape and frame news in the way that they do from the basis of cultural values and power relations. The study shows that the perspectives we have of other cultures in some way are preconceptions that is shaped by the media and society. Furthermore the news media demonstrate within this discourse that discrimination and inequalities are a portrayal that is easy to apply on others but difficult to criticize within our own culture. With that said, the construction of the news portrayal and the concept of power relations will always be dependent on context and cultural values, therefore the news media portrayal will remain a complex subject.

In this thesis, in which I use the stand-alone paper format, I employ a Foucauldian lens to examine Alberta’s Future Leaders (AFL), an Aboriginal youth leadership development program. In the first paper, I identify how power relations shape AFL, including its ambitions and struggles towards developing sustainable programming. In the second paper, I examine AFL’s cross-cultural approach to mentorship and the ways in which failing to address issues of culture (re)produces colonial relations of power. Overall, my findings highlight the importance of recognizing and problematizing the power relations at work within Aboriginal youth leadership development initiatives.

Violence is put in a specific context when the police are the perpetrator of violence rendering violence possibly legitimate through sovereignty. The possibility of legitimization of police violence raises important questions of how such violence is legitimized and how resistance is conceived of and defined. I have interviewed seven people in Sweden from different backgrounds, all of whom share the experience of having been subjugated to police violence, including threats, harassments and physical violence.This paper analyzes the performativity of police violence through the relations between police violence, power, sovereignty, subjectstatus and resistance, in order to understand how police violence is being legitimized and to understand its consequenses with respect to those subjugated to it. I’ve also analyzed if this violence is being politicized and, in that case, how politicization is made possible. Performativity implies an understanding where those relations aswell as understandings of it are framing which actions are made possible and rendered real while those very actions themselves also animates those understandings. Those framings are to be understood as neither unambiguous nor ever-lasting.In order to analyze power relations considerate of different backgrounds and experiences where the relationship between the police and those who are subjected to police violence aren’t formulated in political terms I’ve chosen to analyze power relations through subjectstatus and sovereignty. Subjectstatus signifies to which extent we are acknowledged as subjects and thus granted raison d’être through such status. Sovereignty is understood as the power structure giving meaning to the police actions of violence. Thus, I am not analyzing structures of power or identity such as class and gender. Instead I analyze to what extent we are acknowledged as subjects through the concept of subjectstatus where for instance gender and class may be included.The perception of yourself through others is of significance for the risk of being subjected to police violence where the very experience of being violated carry consequences for how we are perceived. Legitimized police violence in itself denies victimstatus to those being violated, thus explaining why the victims of police violence are seldom seen as subjugated to violence. The possibility of police violence being rendered legitimate are materialized through sovereignty where police violence can be understood as a way of outlining the boundaries through which sovereignty acknowledges some subjects the freedom from violence in ambiguous ways.A subject wielding resistance can be conceived of as being in a subject-position, rendering police violence legitimate. The very acts of police violence carry the power to define what is to be understood as resistance. Such subject-positions are advantageous to the police since they entail the possibility of rendering police violence legitimate when someone who is violated by the police can be construed as wielding resistance after the violations. Thus police violence and sovereignty entail their own prerequisites for being rendered real. When the framings of police violence are being materialized through that very violence they can be understood as hegemonic, making police violence hard to politicize. / <p>Masteruppsats i genusvetenskap</p>

<p>In this study, I explored the experiences of gender and power relations among a group of black women holding leadership positions in six government departments in the Western Cape. South Africa is in a process of transition and, to create a departure from the past, key objectives focus around the transformation of gender disparities and the eradication of racism and other forms of inequality and discrimination in all spheres of this society. There are many methods utilized to increase the number of women in leadership positions in the private and public sectors. However, there is a lack of research regarding the social environment for women once they have entered into these structures (Angevine, 2006). This study made use of a feminist qualitative methodology which guided the research. Six semi-structured, open-ended interviews were conducted in order to carry out an in-depth exploration of participants&rsquo / experiences. After the participants had given consent, the interviews were audio-recorded, then transcribed verbatim. Data was analyzed in accordance with qualitative thematic analysis. All standard ethical considerations to protect the participants and the researcher were taken into account and practised throughout the research. The findings show evidence that black African women leaders in government departments have internalized learnt subservient characteristics / and that this serves to undermine their authority as leaders. Specifically, larger social power relations and traditional forms of authority undermine their capacity to express authority in work environments. They also experience both subtle and blatant racist and sexist prejudice in the form of stereotypes and hostility in the workplace. A minority of women managers actively oppose the gendered notions that undermine their leadership. Ultimately, black African women managers are not accepted or supported as legitimate leaders in the workplace. Women leaders are perceived to be incapable of performing effectively as leaders because of gender and racial stereotypes that serve as hindrances to their expression of leadership. The study found that some participants conform to the socially constructed notion of maintaining a work-life balance and this poses a challenge for such leaders. Those who are married attempt to balance career and life by maximizing on their management of their time. A number of women had made the personal decision to remain single in order to focus explicitly on their careers.</p>

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)

I denna uppsats ville vi undersöka hur den samiska kulturen representeras inom turism I Sverige. Vi utgick från fyra relevanta teman; dessa var autenticitet, identitet, makt och turism. Frågeställningarna var: Hur framställs den samiska kulturen i turismsammanhang i Sápmi? Hur påverkas den samiska identiteten av hur kulturen framställs inom turismnäringen? Hur mycket får samerna själva vara med och bestämma när det kommer till hur kulturen framställs inom turismnäringen?   Vi började med att se över den samiska befolkningens historia. Det är viktigt att förstå hur de har behandlats förr för att kunna förstå varför saker och ting är som de är idag. Teorierna som användes i denna studie hanterar frågor om kulturell representation inom turism, vad det gör med människors identitet samt vad som verkligen menad med autentisk representation. En del teorier är också knutna till maktrelationer, vilket uttrycks i ämnen som handlar om ”Vi” kontra ”Dem”. Dessa teorier utgör en lins som ger en djupare och bredare förståelse av de problem som lyfts och kontextualiseras i den empiriska delen av uppsatsen.   Vi samlade in vårt empiriska data genom intervjuer med människor involverade i turismindustrin. Vi gjorde även en kompletterande strukturerad observation genom att besöka några samiska utställningar och museum.   En viktig slutsats som vi kom fram till är att den samiska befolkningen vill och måste bli mer involverade i hur de representeras av turismindustrin. Samisk turism kan bli en stor inkomstkälla för samerna men de behöver mer statlig finansiering. Förståelsen för kulturen är idag relativt liten, delvis på grund av att industrier som turism ofta använder en stereotypisk bild när de framhäver samer. Mycket kan därför fortfarande göras när det kommer till kulturell representation.

Mitt syfte med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap hur förskollärarna på en åldershomogen förskola arbetar med barns delaktighet och inflytande, hur arbetet skiljer sig för de olika åldersgrupperna och hur förskollärarna kopplar sitt arbete till läroplanen. Jag har använt mig av intervjuer med fyra förskollärare samt en förskolechef på en åldershomogen förskola för att besvara mina frågeställningar. Resultatet av min undersökning visar att förskollärarna lägger stor vikt vid att barnen ska få delaktighet och inflytande över sin vardag på förskolan. Detta gör de genom att synliggöra det enskilda barnet med hjälp av den pedagogiska dokumentationen. Därefter anpassas verksamhetens arbetssätt och miljö efter de behov samt intressen som barnen visat uttryck för. Detta ansåg förskollärarna hade blivit lättare efter att de börjat med åldershomogena barngrupper till skillnad från när man hade arbetat med åldrarna 1-5. / The purpose of this study is to bring further knowledge into how educators in homogeneous pre-schools work with children's participation as well as their ability to influence their daily school life. The study will also identify what the differences are for different age groups and how educators connect their work with the curriculum. The results have been accumulated by interviewing four educators and a principal in a homogeneous pre-school. The results of the study show that the educators believe that it is important for children to participate and have a say in day to day pre-school life. The use of pedagogical documentation is a tool used to help notice every individual child. Through this documentation they are able to adjust their way of working, the education level and the surrounding environment to cater to the children's interests and needs. The results also show that the educators found it easier to include a child's needs and interests when working with children of the same age.