The purpose of this study was to understand why there is such lack of citizen participation among Asian Americans, despite the exponential growth of Asian American population in the state. Based on the literature on sense of community, citizen participation, and psychological empowerment, it was speculated that how individuals experience community may influence their motivation to participate. With the goal to understand and document how Asian Americans define community and experience sense of community, a sample of Asian Americans were interviewed. These individuals were participants of the Photovoice project conducted by a local community-based organization. The second aim of the study was to explore if and how a project like Photovoice enhanced the sense of community among participants. The findings suggested that Asian Americans defined various types and multiple communities. Also, it was suggested that because Asian American community is an imposed community of people of diverse Asian background, Asian Americans may not necessarily define it as a community or experience sense of community within the community. Based on the experiences of the participants, Photovoice seem to have great potential in bringing such diverse group as Asian Americans together as a community. Limitations of the study and future directions are discussed.

Denna studie syftar till att belysa undervisningsmoment utöver musikalisk och sångteknisk träning som i yrkesförberedande sångundervisning förbereder sångeleven för yrkeslivet som professionell sångare. Detta för att främja arbetstrivseln hos professionella sångare. Studien har sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i hermeneutiken och socialpsykologin och har utförts med kvalitativ intervju som metod. Fyra professionella sångare har använts som informanter. I bakgrundsavsnittet presenteras litteratur och tidigare studier kring musikerns yrkessituation, arbetstrivsel, yrkesförberedande sångutbildningar, pedagogens möjlighet till påverkan på musikstudenten och för musikern vanliga yrkesrelaterade hälsonedsättningar. Studiens resultat stödjer tidigare forskning då flera teman är överensstämmande. Denna studies resultat är dock specificerat till sångarens livsvärld till skillnad mot den tidigare forskningen som mer generellt beskriver musikerns yrkessituation. Resultatet belyser också förslag på undervisningsmoment lämpade i yrkesförberedande sångutbildning på ett sätt som inte har visats i tidigare forskning. Exempel på enligt studien yrkesförberedande uppdrag lämpliga för sångpedagogen är att skapa trygga elever i en trygg undervisningsmiljö, att skapa självgående elever och att ge eleven insyn och praktik i sångaryrket. / This study aims to highlight educational elements, as well as the musical and technical training, which, as part of a professional vocal study program, prepares the student for a professional career as a vocalist. This in turn, should help ensure a degree of satisfaction for professional vocalists. The study has its theoretical basis in hermeneutics and social psychology, and has been performed with the qualitative interview method. Four professional vocalists have served as informants. The background section presents both facts and previous studies of the voice used as an instrument, the employment situation of the professional musician, job satisfaction, vocational vocal training, the instructor’s ability to influence the music student, and also the health risks associated with professional musicians. The study’s findings support previous research as several themes are consistent. The results, as opposed to previous research that more broadly describes the musician’s professional situation, is here specifically related to the daily life of a musician. The study also highlights specific suggestions for educational elements applied to professional vocal training in a way that has not been shown in previous research. Examples of vocational objectives, which, according to the study may be suitable for the vocal instructor, are creating confidence in the student in a safe learning environment, creating self-sustaining students, and providing the student with insight and professional experience in the profession.

Falling by older people is of significant global concern as the population ages, because of subsequent injury, disability, admission to long-term care and mortality. Older people experiencing dementia are twice as likely to fall with more severe consequences. Unsurprisingly, carer-burden increases when a care-recipient falls. Older people are rarely asked about their falls experiences and those with dementia less so. The studies presented in this thesis explore the experiences of falling of older people with dementia and memory problems, and their carers. The studies were informed by contextualism and the primary study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the experiences of nine older people with dementia and their 10 carers, using one-to-one and joint interviews, and three focus groups with nine older people experiencing memory problems and 12 carers from a branch of the Alzheimer’s society. Analysis of the data considered the falls experience itself and the perceived consequences of falls within two higher level themes: ‘Falling as a malevolent force’ as two themes - ‘Going back to the experience’, ‘Reactions, responses and coming to terms with events’, and ‘Falling as the manifestation of dementia’ as two themes - ‘Self, identity and falling’, ‘The caring relationship’. The secondary study elaborated upon primary study data using an inductive interpretative approach unaligned to any tradition. Older people recently diagnosed with dementia and carers from another Alzheimer’s Society branch participated in two focus groups. Participants discussed stimulus cards with quotations from primary study participants. Thematic analysis suggested four major themes: Making sense of falls, The personal and social significance of falling, Falling, self and identity and Struggling to care. The findings demonstrate how falling and dementia are enmeshed and embodied experiences for participants. Spouse-carers’ discussion of their own falls emphasise the need for joint assessment and intervention to reduce carerburden and preserve couplehood.

The purpose of this study is to examine the process of stabilization and/or change in university students' notions of content and transmission and acquisition of knowledge. The subjects, 25 students of engineering, economics, medicine, and psychology, were interviewed at the beginning and the end of their training period. The main result of the study is that the students of psychology, both at the beginning and the end of their training, manifest the greatest variation in notions of content and in the transmission and acquisition of knowledge. They express five qualitatively different notions at these two points of time. Furthermore, practically all students of psychology develop a repertory of notions in the course of their training. This means that the students simultaneously express more than one notion of the content of their education. Initially, the students of economics express three different notions of content and of the transmission and acquisition of knowledge. Towards the end of their training, they have developed a fourth notion. Slightly more than half of the students of economics acquire a repertory of notions of the content of economics in the course of their training. Initially, the students of medicine express three notions of medicine. Towards the end of their training they express only two different types of notions of the content of medicine. Few students of medicine develop an individual repertory of notions. Initially, the students of engineering express three different notions of engineering. Towards the end of their training they express four qualitatively different notions. Some students develop a repertory of notions of enginee­ring in the course of their training. From the point of view of content, the students' notions vary between social and individual explanations and definitions of their respective subjects. The changes in the students' notions are analysed on the basis of the curriculum code of each programme. The programmes of medicine and engineering are dominated by a collected code whereas the programmes of economics and psychology are dominated by an integrated code. / digitalisering@umu

The overall aim was to explore the experiences of sexual risk taking among Chlamydia Trachomatis positive (CT+), HIV positive (HIV+), and HIV tested young women and men. The specific aims were to explore, from a gender perspective, the course of events, the norms, considerations and emotions involved in sexual risk taking in CT+, explore the perception of sexual risk taking in HIV+ youth, and their understanding of why they caught HIV and look at how the Law of Communicable Diseases Act impacts their sexuality. Moreover, to investigate why young adults test for HIV, how they construct the HIV risk, and what implications testing has for them. 42 informants between 17-24 years of age were recruited from a youth clinic in Umeå and from three infection clinics for HIV patients in Sweden. In depth interviews and focus group interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed according to a Grounded Theory approach. The finding revealed that behind sexual risk taking, there was a drive to go steady, where lust and trust guided if sex would take place. In one-night stands women were expected to be less forward compared with men. We found an uneven responsibility concerning condom use where men expected women to be "condom promoters". By catching CT, women experienced guilt, while men felt content through knowing "the source of contamination". Among the HIV+ youth, socio-cultural factors such as; lack of adult supervision, naivité, love, alcohol, drugs, the macho ideal and cultures of silence blinded the informants to the risks and made them vulnerable. By grouping narratives according to degree of consensus in sexual encounters, this demonstrated that sexual risks happened in a context of gendered power relations where the informants had varied agency. The Law of Communicable Diseases Act implied both support and burden for these HIV+ youth. A lot of responsibility was put on them and to be able to handle the infromation duty they tried to switch off lust, switch off the disease, or balance lust and obedience. Among the HIV tested youth, HIV was seen a distant threat. Many had event-driven reasons for testing for HIV; multiple partners being one. Risk zones, like bars were perceived to be a milieu that often was expected to include one-night stands. Responsibility for testing was a gendered issue; "natural" for women, while men rather escaped from responsibility and had a testing resistance. Receiving a "green card" confirmed healthiness and provided relief, and made the informants felt "clean". They could restart with new ambitious, including reconsidering risk. The findings can be used in public health and in health care sectors that work with young people. We present suggestions on how to decrease the spread of STIs: To implement how men could play an equal part in sexual and reproductive health. Promote general CT screening for men. Liberal HIV testing among both young women and men. Promote safer sex behaviour from the uninfected youth, especially focusing on men??. Consider the role of gender and social background in the context of risky behaviours. Give lots of positive rewards concerning HIV disclosure to diminish the risk for HIV transmission.

In accordance with societal norms and values, consumers readily indicate their positive attitudes towards sustainability. However, they hardly take sustainability into account when engaging in exchange relationships with companies. To shed light on this paradox, this paper investigates whether defense mechanisms and the more specific concept of neutralization techniques can explain the discrepancy between societal norms and actual behavior. A multi-method qualitative research design provides rich insights into consumers' underlying cognitive processes and how they make sense of their attitude-behavior divergences. Drawing on the Ways Model of account-taking, which is advanced to a Cycle Model, the findings illustrate how neutralization strategies are used to legitimize inconsistencies between norm-conforming attitudes and actual behavior. Furthermore, the paper discusses how the repetitive reinforcement of neutralizing patterns and feedback loops between individuals and society are linked to the rise of anomic consumer behavior. (authors' abstract)

The purpose of this study was to understand why there is such lack of citizen participation among Asian Americans, despite the exponential growth of Asian American population in the state. Based on the literature on sense of community, citizen participation, and psychological empowerment, it was speculated that how individuals experience community may influence their motivation to participate. With the goal to understand and document how Asian Americans define community and experience sense of community, a sample of Asian Americans were interviewed. These individuals were participants of the Photovoice project conducted by a local community-based organization. The second aim of the study was to explore if and how a project like Photovoice enhanced the sense of community among participants. The findings suggested that Asian Americans defined various types and multiple communities. Also, it was suggested that because Asian American community is an imposed community of people of diverse Asian background, Asian Americans may not necessarily define it as a community or experience sense of community within the community. Based on the experiences of the participants, Photovoice seem to have great potential in bringing such diverse group as Asian Americans together as a community. Limitations of the study and future directions are discussed.

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka hur ryttare upplever Flow, och vidare även hur ryttare upplever samspelet inom ekipaget vid Flow. Studien inkluderade 10 kvinnliga informanter (M = 18.7, SD = 1.48) med tävlingserfarenhet som sträcker sig från ingen alls till internationell nivå (Hoppning= 4, Dressyr = 3, Fälttävlan = 2, Ingen tävling = 1). En semi-strukturerad intervjuguide utvecklades utifrån Csikszentmihalyi's holistiska perspektiv på de nio dimensionerna av Flow (Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999), och data analyserades kvalitativt genom en innehållsanalys. Resultatet visade både att ryttares upplevelse av Flow stämmer väl överens med andra idrottsutövares upplevelse (Swann, Keegan, Piggott och Crust, 2012), och bekräftar tidigare tolkningar av att ridsporten skiljer sig från de flesta andra idrotter genom att utfallet till stor del är beroende av interaktionen och samarbetet mellan häst och ryttare (Beauchamp & Whinton, 2005). Vidare visar resultatet även att samspelet mellan häst och ryttare är en viktig och oersättlig del i upplevelsen av Flow. / Theaim of this study was to investigate how riders perceive Flow, and how ridersperceive the interactions with the horse during Flow. The study included 10female respondents (M = 18.7, SD = 1.48) with competition experience rangingfrom none at all to international level (Jumping = 4, Dressage = 3, Eventing =2, No competition = 1). A semi-structured interview guide was developed basedon Csikszentmihalyi's holistic perspective on the nine dimensions of Flow(Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999), and data were analyzed throughqualitative content analysis. The results showed both that the riders'experience of Flow correspond well with other athletes experience (Swann etal., 2012) and confirms earlier interpretations of that riding is differentfrom most other sports though the outcome largely depends on the interactionand collaboration between horse and rider (Beauchamp and Whinton, 2005).Furthermore, the results also show that the interaction between horse and rideris an important and irreplaceable part in the experience of Flow.

This thesis explores negotiations of belonging among unaccompanied young refugees in Sweden. The thesis further aims to shed light on methodological aspects of bringing out their voices. The analysis draws on postcolonial and poststructuralist approaches to belonging and relates belonging to the concepts of home, place, racialization and notions of “Swedishness”. The thesis analyses qualitative interviews with 17 young people, who arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors and have been granted permanent residency. The interviews are complemented with walk-alongs and photography-based interviews. Paper 1 gives an overview and discussion of research on unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors. I argue that there is a lack of their voices in the research, and that their own agency and perspectives are not addressed due to a focus on vulnerability and emotional health (or lack thereof). Paper II, which is delimited to participants in a rural village, shows that they negotiate belonging and a sense of home related to places but that othering is constraining. In paper II and III I suggest that the participants’ belongings and position in Sweden can be understood as conditional due to othering and racialization. In paper III, I argue that expressing gratitude can be understood as a form of impression management and, thus be a strategy to negotiate their position in the interview setting as in the host country. I finally argue that in order to understand the participants’ negotiations of belonging attention has to be paid to their agency as well as the conditioning of belonging in discourses and in interactions on the local level.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / ABSTRACT Background: Since British arrival, Aboriginal people have experienced marginalisation and extreme disadvantage within Australian society. Urban-based Aboriginal people, even more than those living in remote communities, have been subject to the impact of racism and discrimination on self-identity. Nonetheless, many urban-based Aboriginal people proudly identify with their Aboriginality. Having long been the subject of others’ research, it is only in recent times that the question of identity has attracted attention in Aboriginal research. Furthermore, few studies have addressed urban Aboriginality from an insider’s perspective. Aim and significance: The main aim of this research was to understand better the process of the construction of Aboriginal identity. Knowing how Aboriginal people see themselves and their future as Aboriginal within the broader Australian community is significant in providing a foundation for both the protection and the preservation of urban-based Aboriginal identity, while helping to create positive practical benefits and minimising the damage to Aboriginal culture that result from collective memory loss. A secondary aim was to test whether tools of narrative analysis could be used within an Indigenous Australian context, utilising Aboriginal Australian English language, and in the context of a specific urban setting. Method: The study used purposeful sampling to recruit 11 individuals from three age cohorts of mixed-descent Aboriginal people living in urban communities on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews which were tape-recorded and then transcribed in full. Both thematic and narrative methods were employed to analyse the data. Interpretations benefitted from an insider perspective, as the researcher is a member of the community under study. Results: Findings from both methods of analysis show that participants experience their Aboriginality as problematic. Nonetheless, they make strong claims to Aboriginal identity. In making such claims, they link the personal to the social in a variety of ways, drawing on both negative and positive aspects of being part of a marginalised culture to explain the construction of the problem of Aboriginal identity and, as importantly, its on-going resolution through processes of identity construction and re-construction. The Shoalhaven Aboriginal worldview is revealed thorough a thematic analysis of 11 interviews and shows that participants are able to construct positive versions of self when they perceive themselves as living in accordance with the prescribed worldview. Results from case study analyses reveal how four participants distinctly craft the Shoalhaven worldview. The adoption of multi-method qualitative analysis documents the construction of both collective and personal Aboriginal identities and shows how these become core elements of the various strategies for solving the broader problems of Aboriginal identity in contemporary urban Australian society. Conclusion: Understanding the construction of Aboriginal identity from a micro-sociological perspective, with the added benefit of an insider’s analysis, can point the way to the development of more meaningful and appropriate strategies to both address and alleviate the broader problems of Aboriginal marginalisation in Australia. The findings from this research have documented the narrative construction of urban Aboriginal identity revealing the positive and negative aspects of the urban Aboriginal identity concept. A starting point to address the broader problem of Aboriginal marginalisation in Australia is to focus on the positive elements of the urban Aboriginal identity concept, with a view to devise, develop and implement culturally appropriate strategies and policies. The researcher’s life experience, informed by the ontology (collective values and perspectives) of the community, influenced and informed the analysis and results of the study. This shared ontology and community acceptance was integral in the process of developing and maintaining rapport and trust with participants which ultimately shaped the interaction process influencing personal accounts told in the interview.