I Sverige har normerna kring och synen på faderskap länge varit i förändring och idag både eftersträvas och uppmuntras jämställt föräldraskap. Jämställdhet i föräldraskapet mäts ofta kvantitativt och saknar kvalitativa nyanser. Syftet med föreliggande intervjustudie var därför att undersöka pappors upplevelser av jämställdhet i föräldrablivandet för att erhålla bättre förståelse för deras situation och erfarenheter. Nio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes och analyserades tematiskt, vilket resulterade i tre teman: Upplevelse av jämställdhet i omgivningen, Den egna relationen till jämställdhet samt Livet som pappa. Resultatet indikerar att pappor är positivt inställda till jämställt föräldraskap, samtidigt som de kan uppleva både biologiska och samhällsstrukturella hinder i sina ambitioner att vara jämställda. Övervägande beskrevs föräldrablivandet som en omtumlande tid för papporna, präglad främst av glädje och meningsfullhet, men även av utmaningar och stress I konklusion uppmuntras relevanta vårdaktörer att uppmärksamma pappors eventuella behov av stöd och vägledning tidigt i föräldraskapet. / In Sweden the norms regarding and view on fatherhood have long been transforming and today an equal parenting style is both strived for and encouraged. Gender equality in family life is often measured quantitatively and lacks qualitative aspects. The aim of this interview study was therefore to investigate fathers` experiences of gender equality in their transition to fatherhood in order to increase the understanding of their situation and experiences. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed with thematic analysis, which resulted in three themes: Experience of Gender Equality in the environment, One's own relationship to Gender Equality, and Life as a father. The results indicate that the fathers hold a positive attitude towards equal parenting, but can at the same time experience biological and social structural obstacles in their ambitions to be equal. Altogether the transition to parenthood was described by the fathers as an overwhelming time, characterized mostly by happiness and meaningfulness, but also by challenges and stress. In conclusion, healthcare professionals of relevance are encouraged to acknowledge fathers’ potential need of support and guidance in early parenthood.

People living with honor-related violence and oppression has in many cases a limited room for maneuver. Even though it exists several organizations today that work to support vulnerable people in Sweden, the problems remain. The present study aims to examine Swedish located and thereby obtain an increased knowledge and a deeper understanding of the organizations work and their crime prevention efforts against honor-related violence and oppression. The study conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with five different organizations, all of which worked with support and protection efforts for people who are exposed to honor-related violence and oppression. The results showed that the context of honor is governed by patriarchal societal that are reproduced for generations. As, according to the context of honor, it is of great importance that women follow the group’s norms, it leads to women being most exposed to the problem. Therefore, should more organizations develop preventive measures towards changing attitudes of the perpetrator. At last, the results showed that more knowledge is required to be able to create more long-term efforts that prevent the emergence of honor-related violence and oppression. / Personer som lever med hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck har i många fall ett begränsat handlingsutrymme. Trots att det idag finns flera verksamheter som arbetar med att stödja personer som är utsatta i Sverige, kvarstår problematiken. Den föreliggande studien syftar till att undersöka svenskbelägna verksamheter och därigenom erhålla en ökad kunskap och en djupare förståelse om verksamheternas arbete och deras brottspreventiva insatser mot hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Studien genomförde kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem olika verksamheter som alla arbetade med stöd- och skyddsinsatser till personer som är utsatta för hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Resultatet visade att hederskontexten styrs utifrån patriarkala samhällsstrukturer som reproduceras i generationer. Då det enligt hederskontexten är av stor vikt att kvinnor efterföljer gruppens normer leder det till att kvinnor blir mest utsatta för problematiken. Därför bör fler verksamheter utveckla förebyggande insatser mot att förändra attityderna hos gärningspersonen. Slutligen krävs mer kunskap för att kunna skapa långsiktiga insatser som förhindrar uppkomsten av hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck.

This qualitative study has its starting point in women's experiences around self-proclaimed singlehood. The sociological relevance in this study is to study how self-proclaimed single womens life situations look and how their living conditions are affected by this choice. The studies overall purpose is to get a deeper understanding of heterosexuall womens conscious choice of not to enter in a relationship with a person of the opposite sex, thus becoming a self-proclaimed single. The study has resulted in a survey of which driving forces that affect women's life choices. This was achieved through a qualitative method where in-depth interviews were used to collect the empirical material. To be able to create a deeper understanding of the chosen fenomenon and be able to analyze the material we have used the concepts of social construction, performativity and theories about the woman in the reflexive modernity. The primary result shows that the women from the group of focus have had bad experiences of both their own and others relationships. It can be about anything from infidelity, inequality, controlling behaviour, shortcomings in responsibility and implied expectations of sex. These factors entailed such great restrictions and adjustments in their everyday lives that they eventually came to an insight about their living standard becoming far too suffering in relation to the benefits of entering in a relationship. The conclusion became that singlehood gives an opportunity to more freedom and space for both independence and self-realization. / Denna kvalitativa studie tar sin utgångspunkt i kvinnors upplevelser kring självvalt singelskap. Den sociologiska relevansen i denna studie är att undersöka hur självvalda singelkvinnors livssituation ser ut och hur deras livsvillkor påverkas av detta val.  Studiens övergripande syfte är att få en djupare förståelse över heterosexuella kvinnors medvetna val om att inte ingå i ett förhållande med en person av det motsatta könet, således vara självvalt singel. Studien har utmynnat i en kartläggning av vilka drivkrafter som påverkar kvinnors levnadsval. Detta uppnåddes genom en kvalitativ metod där djupintervjuer användes för att samla in det empiriska materialet. För skapa en djupare förståelse för det valda fenomenet och kunna analysera materialet har vi använt oss av begreppen social konstruktion och performativitet samt teorier om kvinnan i den reflexiva moderniteten. Det huvudsakliga resultatet visar på att kvinnorna från fokusgruppen har haft dåliga upplevelser av både egna och andras förhållanden. Det kan handla om allt från otrohet, ojämställdhet, kontrollerade beteende, brister i ansvarstagande och underförstådda förväntningar på sex. Dessa faktorer medförde såpass stora begränsningar och anpassningar i deras vardag att de slutligen kom till en insikt om att deras levnadsstandard blev allt för lidande i förhållande till nyttan med att ingå i en relation. Slutsatsen blev att singelskap gav en möjlighet till mer frihet och utrymme för både självständighet och självförverkligande.

Die musiktheoretische Schriften Joseph Riepels (1709-1782) sind nicht nur für ihren Beitrag zur Satzlehre des 18. Jahrhunderts, sondern auch für ihre Dialogstruktur und Riepels eigenwilligen Sprachgebrauch bekannt. In der Tat, Riepels Traktate, die einem wirklichen Kompositionsunterricht ähneln und sich als lebhaftes Zwiegespräch zwischen einem Lehrer und Schüler entfalten, bestehen nicht aus einer Sammlung trockener Kompositionsregeln, sondern sie konfrontieren uns mit dem musikalischen Denken des 18. Jahrhunderts. Gender-Metaphern spielen eine große Rolle in Riepels Beschreibung von musikalischer Form. Während er, nicht unerwartetet, den Dur-Moll Tonartenkontrast dem männlichen und weiblichen Geschlechtsunterschied gleichsetzt, erstreckt sich sein Gebrauch von Gender zur Erklärung von Musik auch auf andere Gebiete. Beispielsweise vergleicht Riepel den Effekt einer Komposition in Moll, die mit einem Dur-Akkord endet, mit einem Mann, der, nachdem er für eine lange Zeit den Geschichten seiner Frau zugehört hat, ihr dann einfach sagt: »Halt den Mund Frau«. Er bezeichnet eine bestimmte melodische Fortführung als ›verkehrten Zwitter‹, beurteilt Melodien in Bezug auf Gender und erklärt, »nur ein Weiberer liebt so einen weichherzigen Gesang«, und er vergleicht nicht zuletzt die Hierarchie innerhalb einer Tonart mit der Rangordnung zwischen Männern und Frauen auf einem Bauernhof. Ausgehend von den Studien von Lakoff und Johnson betrachte ich Metaphern nicht einfach als unterhaltsame Art und Weise, um über Musik zu sprechen, sondern ich verstehe sie als Zeugnis dafür, wie soziale Strukturen in musikalische Strukturen eingebettet sind. Während stetige Strömungen der Zeit und ein größeres Verlangen für sprachliche Abstraktion, diese Verbindung zwischen musikalischen und sozialen Strukturen weggewaschen haben, bringen Riepels Schriften sie nachdrücklich zum Vorschein. In diesem Vortrag untersuche ich deshalb einen Moment in der Entstehung von Gender-Metaphern als Beitrag zur historischen Bewertung von musikalischen Konzeptionen. / The music theoretical writings of Joseph Riepel (1709-1782) are known not only for their contribution to eighteenth century compositional theory but also for their dialogue structure and Riepel’s idiosyncratic language usage. Indeed, Riepel’s treatises, which resemble actual lessons in composition and unfold as lively dialogues between a teacher and a student, render not stifled attempts in regulating musical composition but confront and engage us with mid-eighteenth century musical thought. Gender metaphors play a large role in Riepel’s account of musical structure. While not unexpectedly he equates the major-minor key difference with the masculine-feminine opposition, his use of gender as a means of explaining music extends to other areas as well. For example, within his discussion of form he compares the effect of a composition in minor that ends with a major chord to a husband who, after listening for a long time to his wife’s stories, simply says to her “Shut up woman,” and he identifies a particular continuation of a phrase as a “reversed hermaphrodite.” He judges melodies in terms of gender, stating, for example, that “… only a womanly man would love such a softhearted melody.” And, finally, he compare the relationships within a given key to the hierarchical relationship between the men and women working on a farm. Drawing on Lakoff and Johnson’s work I argue that these metaphors constitute not simply “entertaining” ways of talking about music, but that they tell us something about how underlying social structures reside in musical structure. While the steady currents of time and the desire for greater linguistic abstraction have washed away the association between musical and social structures, Riepel’s writings forcefully articulate these associations. This paper examines a moment in the formation of gender metaphors contributing to a historical appraisal of musical conceptions.

In 1890, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote a piece of fiction that reflected her personal experience for treatment of nervous exhaustion. The story she developed created controversy and comment after it was published and, years later, agitation among feminists who found allegories of truth in its narrative. This thesis explores the use of linguistic features employed by Gilman to establish cognitive connections between physical structures and social institutions, such as marriage and domesticity, that confine women within contractual obligations. Gilman’s use of extended metaphor challenges conventional conceptions of the home, inanimate objects, and institutional authority and her use of metonymy extrapolates examples from the particular to a wider review. The main findings of this inquiry reveal feminist opposition to women’s subjugated status in the marital relationship and to established hierarchies of male control. The literary analysis exposes the efficacy of narrative gap and textual silences in provoking the reader’s participation.

This study aims to provide a deeper insight on how the communication is used in capacity building and how it affects the socially constructed power structures using theories of Critical Discourse Analysis and the Public Sphere Theory. Through qualitative research methods, the data collected will position the analyzed material in the theoretical framework mentioned before. The study is conducted in co-operation with the Swedish civil society organization Olof Palme International Center, together with the Kosovar non-governmental organization Syri I Vizionit. It includes observation and analysis of the Active Citizenship project. The project relates to the CDA, as it involves the context of social and communicative structures based on the effects of capacity building on micro level.This work includes a Written Essay, based on scientific research and theories, and a Visual Representation in from of a documentary based on the topic of this essay i.e. communicative processes impact on capacity building (e.g. see appendix 7).

Virtual Reality (VR) is considered the next major communication tool and its potential has been described as “a ubiquitous force and as pervasive and transformative as the internet was in the 90s or the smartphone was in the 2000s” (Somasegar, 2016). Social spaces in VR (SocialVR) are at the forefront of developing new possibilities in communication that could offer greater connection and understanding between people around the world.The aim of my research is to identify the dominant discourses in SocialVR spaces, which also involve solutions for inclusivity, to reveal embedded power-relations that are currently defining bodily boundaries and identity. The research questions I pose are:1. What discourses are currently defining embodiment across different SocialVR spaces?2. How are these embodied experiences configuring notions of self?My research stance, as a woman of colour, was a fundamental feature in this study and I have used my perspective as a basis to gain a wider insight into the phenomena of SocialVR. In obtaining my empirical data, I combined the methodologies of Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis and Analytic Autoethnography. This enabled me to examine the dominant company discourses of different SocialVR spaces and assess my personally embodied experience in relation to them.The fusing of human experience with technology is implicit in virtual embodiment. Therefore, a robust theoretical lens is needed to examine the dynamics between identity and technological renderings of embodiment in SocialVR. The theory of agential realism acknowledges the vital role that techno-scientific practices play in the workings of power, and how it informs the constitution of boundaries between people. As an analytical tool, agential realism provides a fitting a framework to address how bodily boundaries and one’s sense of self come to matter in SocialVR.My findings lead to a surprising insight into the resilience of socio-historic power- relations in spite of strongly opposing intentions, and it points to the importance of understanding the historical constitution of technology and application methods, if change is going to be meaningfully enacted. The success of a SocialVR environment as an inclusive space is based on clearly structured contexts of socialising. By placing certain performance limits on what is possible in a space, the creators are able to focus on constructing meaningful experiences that can be reflected in both the type of avatar embodiment they offer, and the corresponding embodied experience.

Syftet var att undersöka uppfattningar, ansvarstagande och åtgärder kring matchfixning. Urvalet bestod av totalt sju respondenter fördelade på två spelare, två ledare och tre styrelsemedlemmar. Respondenterna tillhörde föreningar inom Gävleborgs län idrottsförbund med koppling till fotboll och bandy. Studien bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer och har fair-play idealet, sociala konstruktioner och Kohlbergs moralutvecklingsteori som teoretiska utgångspunkter. Bearbetningen och analysen följde de tre stegen transkribering, datareduktionoch skapande av teman. Resultaten från intervjuerna delades in i de tre teman som bildades utifrån syftet och frågeställningarna. Vid temat uppfattningar uppvisade intervjuerna framförallt att det fanns bristande kunskaper angående matchfixning och ett ekonomiskt hot med anknytning till spelindustrins utveckling. I temat ansvarstagande framfördes att både idrottsrörelsen och de samhällsmässiga aktörerna bör integrera mer och ta större ansvar. Angående åtgärder var anblicken riktad emot spelutbudet, värdegrunden, samverkan mellan aktörer och en avskräckande bestraffning. I analysen framkom det att idrotten är i förändring med spelindustrin och synen på moraliska handlingar. Det är något som utgör ett hot mot idrottens kärna med god etik och moral, samt en försvårande omständighet i arbetet mot matchfixning. Slutsatsen är att det finns flera bekymmersamma aspekter inom samtliga tre teman och att det behövs ett gemensamt arbete gentemot matchfixningen. / The aim was to explore perceptions, responsibility and measures around matchfixing using an idiographic approach. The sample of consisted seven respondents with two players, two managers and three board members. The respondents belonged to associations in Gävleborg county sports federations linked to football and bandy. The study is based on semi-structured interviews and has the ideal of fair play, social structures and Kohlberg's moral development theory as the theoretical bases. The processing and analysis followed the three steps oftranscription, data reduction and creation of themes. The results from the interviews were divided into three themes that were formed after the purpose and issues. The respondent’s perceptions showed that there was a lack of knowledge regarding matchfixing and an economic threat related to the gaming industry. Regarding the measures they were directed against the betting line, values, interaction between performer and a deterrent punishment. The analysis revealed that sports is under change with the gaming industry and with a new different view of moral acts in sport. That’s something that poses a threat to the sport's good values with good ethics and morals, as well as an aggravating factor in working against matchfixning. The conclusion is that there are several worrying aspects in all three themes and a need for a common effort against matchfixing.

Text in Afrikaans / This pastoral-narrative study pans the stories of multi disabled children's parents for story elements and account resources that lead to the development of alternative realities on the dominant reality of "disability". With a postmodern epistemology and postmodern theological background this study was performed with a qualitative narrative research approach. In this study the stories of eight multi "disabled children's parents are utilized. Story elements and account resources from social structures and existence are highlighted and discussed. Examples of this are family, circle of friends, hope and parental love. The account of this study underlines the value that alternative realities on the dominant reality of "disability" can add to the quality on how people experience life. It also services as prove of people's riches of inner power and resilience. / Practical Theology / M.Th.

This dissertation describes the manner by which a multinational corporation (MNC) enacts a market-based logic with a locally embedded partner in a complex and unfamiliar operating setting to fulfil both business and social objectives. It examines a hybrid partnership between BP, an MNC, and SSP, a rural Indian non-governmental organisation (NGO). Together, the organisations trained rural women, who were affiliated with SSP, as agents to distribute and sell BP’s ‘smokeless’ cookstoves and fuel pellets to households who cook on smoky firewood stoves. The research draws on two theories—neo-institutional organizational theory and real markets theory—to examine the process by which logics are aligned across partners and projected and translated into the rural Indian exchange setting. It constructs a four-actor model (MNC, NGO, agent, customer) to explore the exchange relationships between the actors at the meso- and micro-levels. At the meso-level, it explains how the MNC and NGO’s non-aligned logics, asymmetric power dynamics, and lack of mutual trust contribute to the venture’s failure. In addition, the NGO was so determined to succeed as a professional, market-driven, channel partner that it shed part of its identity as a civil advocacy organisation and adopted mainstream commercial practices that were not sensitive to the needs of its local stakeholders. At the micro-level, the partners did not come to a common understanding with the agents regarding the cultural challenges they faced marketing the stove. Moreover, the marketing strategy glossed over the multi-layered social relationships and culinary, behavioural, and religious practices that needed to be translated for the technology to meet the needs of consumers. Using gritty ethnographic data, the dissertation highlights a challenge that large, foreign companies face when entering ‘Base of the Pyramid’ markets, namely the inconsistency between the MNC’s market logic and the wider associational logics that motivate village agents and customers.