The purpose of this study is to investigate sensemaking among employees within large service companies regarding sustainable development. To fulfill the purpose and address the research questions, the study has been conducted through six semi-structured interviews with employees from three major service companies. The collected data has been coded and thematically analyzed using a thematic analysis method, guided by the theoretical framework consisting of new institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Meyer & Rowan, 1977) and Karl Weick's (1995) sensemaking. The findings of the study indicate that the sensemaking process is a significant element in the interviewees' daily work towards achieving sustainability goals. Through an ongoing process of interpretation, employees create meaning for why and how they should work towards sustainable development. Furthermore, the results reveal that the primary motive behind organizing for sustainable development is a pursuit of a leading position within the organizational field and credibility within the institutional environment. The organizations and employees align with societal developments and attempt to adapt to prevailing institutional requirements and norms, which strongly influence their sensemaking. Societal developments and the institutional environment also have a strong impact on which dimension of sustainability is most prominent and dominant. In conclusion, the results demonstrate that employees' sensemaking plays a central role in the organizations' organizing for sustainable development. The sensemaking process is not an independent factor that solely contributes to organizing, but it is greatly influenced by the institutional environment surrounding the organizational field.

This study investigates how the feminist movement in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, relates to the International Women’s Strike – a transnational feminist mass strike launched by the Argentinian feminist collective Ni Una Menos in 2017. Based on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with representatives of 10 feminist organizations in São Paulo, this text explores the feasibility of a feminist strike in the context of São Paulo and highlights the structural challenges in its implementation. In addition, the text employs a qualitative literature review to examine the ways in which women in São Paulo have resorted to the strike as an instrument of their resistance since the early 20th century. Theoretically drawing on the theories of direct action and institutionalization of social movements, this work constitutes a synthesis of previous debates and sheds light on the implications that the institutionalization of the Brazilian feminist movement has had on the viability of direct actions such as the feminist strike. A central finding indicates a relative consensus that the feminist movement in São Paulo must first build a massive and popular feminist movement, before an inclusive and intersectional feminist strike can be carried out.

Föreliggande studie har som avsikt att förtydliga för intresserade allmänhet, forskare eller andra yrkesinriktningar vad det strategiska HR-arbetet innebär samt identifiera utvecklingsområden för HR-strateger. Syftet med studien är därför att undersöka vad det strategiska HR-arbetet egentligen är eller kan vara och hur detta tillämpas på olika arbetsplatser i Sverige, samt hur det förhåller sig till den operativa sidan av HR-arbetet. Frågeställningarna utgår från studiens HR-personal som anser sig arbeta med strategisk HR, för att undersöka deras upplevelser av det strategiska arbetet. Studien baseras på en kvalitativ ansats bestående av transkriberat intervjumaterial, totalt intervjuades tio informanter som arbetar både inom offentlig och privat sektor, och i större och mindre verksamheter. Materialet har analyserats utefter nyinstitutionell samt institutionell teori med hjälp av begreppen, isomorfism, legitimitet, särkoppling samt institutionalisering. Resultatet visar att organisering är en förutsättning för det strategiska arbetet samt att HR-strateger bevakar trender för att möta samhällets krav och därmed få legitimitet. Resultatet visar vidare att skillnaden och därmed gränsen mellan operativt och strategiskt arbete är inte tydlig, dock har det operativa arbetet visat sig vara mer kortsiktig medan strategiskt arbete har visat sig vara mer långsiktig. Resultatet visar även motsättningar mellan operativt och strategiskt arbete. Slutsatsen är att strategisk HR behöver leda till aktivitet för att ge värde till organisationer, vilket däremot inte alltid är fallet enligt empirin, samt att HR-strateger behöver ha en större förståelse i personalens styrkor och svagheter för att skickligare utveckla strategier.

Syftet med denna studie är att utifrån teorin om befolkade institutioner förstå hur fyra socialtjänstkontor förhåller sig till interkulturellt socialt arbete. Socialarbetare möter klienter från andra kulturer än den svenska, och de skapar kompetenser inom interkulturellt socialt arbete. Undersökningen tar avstamp i intervjuer med socialarbetare och enhetschefer enskilt och i grupp. Analysen visar att ett socialkontor utmärker sig medan de övriga tre socialkontoren skiljer sig minimalt från varandra. Koppling till en institutionaliserad myt om socialarbetare med interkulturell kompetens sker i alla enheter och med likartade konsekvenser, även om det på ytan kan se olika ut. Resultatet visar att många socialarbetare menar att de saknar inter­kulturell kompetens, och att de flesta inte har reflekterat över vad interkulturellt socialt arbete betyder i mötet med klienter med utländsk bakgrund, samtidigt som alla faktiskt utför ett interkulturellt arbete i praktiken. Den interkulturella sociala kompetensen skapas i huvudsak genom klientmöten och genom ett kollegialt kunskapsutbyte. Formell och strukturerad kompetensutveckling i ämnet verkar dock saknas. Socialarbetare i en kulturellt diversifierad arbetsgrupp med interkulturell medvetenhet inom enheten verkar bättre klara att återkoppla och länka sin kunskap och meningsbyggnad till mångfalden runt omkring dem. Slutsatsen är att interkulturellt socialt arbete kontinuerligt måste artikuleras, dokumenteras och spridas, detta för att främja ökad kunskap och kompetens. I den bästa av världar sker detta i en kulturellt diversifierad personalgrupp i samverkan med omvärlden.

Creating safe environments is a necessity within urban planning. In each element of the urban planning process, it is essential to reflect upon how the proposed plans can affect safety within the chosen environment. The purpose of the thesis is therefore to develop an analysis tool based on scientific research, to assess the perceived safety that is mediated through environmental design. The report aims to answer the following research questions, Which theoretical perspectives and scientific research can be used as a research basis, to develop a analysis tool that seek to increase perceived safety through environmental design? How can the perceived safety through the environmental design be assessed using the analysis tool? The method consists of a literature study, to give a broad and global insight on data as well as results that have been in previous research on safety. International studies and articles have been primarily used with few elements from the Swedish context, with the aim of obtaining a broad mapping of different contexts where safety in the physical environment has been investigated. The used search engines consist of the Royal Institute of Technology's Primo, Google and Google Scholar. Through these, the theoretical perspectives and the scientific research that underlies the work were found.  The analysis tool consists of a checklist that includes six different categories; Lighting and mobility, Maintenance of the physical environment, Technical monitoring, Natural monitoring, Physical design and orientation as well as Vegetation in the physical environment. Within each category there are various claims that the user of the tool will rate in an assessment scale from 1 to 5. To take position to the presented claims, the user must perform a site visit to observe the surroundings. / Skapandet av trygga miljöer är en grundpelare inom samhällsplanering. I varje element av samhällsbyggnadsprocessen är det essentiellt samt nödvändigt att reflektera hur de planerade åtgärderna kan påverka tryggheten inom den valda miljön. Syftet med avhandlingen är därav att ta fram ett analysverktyg utifrån vetenskaplig forskning, för att bedöma den upplevda tryggheten som förmedlas genom utformningen av den fysiska miljön. Rapporten riktar sig till att besvara följande frågeställningar, Vilka teoretiska perspektiv och vetenskaplig forskning kan användas som forskningsunderlag, för att utveckla analysverktyg som eftersträvar att öka upplevd trygghet genom fysisk utformning? Hur kan den upplevda tryggheten genom utformningen av den fysiska miljön bedömas med hjälp av analysverktyget? Metoden utgörs av en litteraturstudie, för att ge en bred samt global inblick av data och resultat inom tidigare forskning av trygghet. För att få en bred kartläggning av olika fall där trygghet i den fysiska miljön har undersökts har primärt internationella studier och artiklar använts med få inslag från den svenska kontexten. De sökmotorer som använts består av Kungliga Tekniska Högskolans Primo, Google och Google Scholar. Genom dessa hittades de teoretiska perspektiv och den vetenskapliga forskningen som ligger till grund för arbetet.  Analysverktyget består av en checklista som innefattar sex olika kategorier; Belysning och mobilitet, Underhåll av den fysiska miljön, Teknisk övervakning, Naturlig övervakning, Fysiska utformning och orienterbarhet samt Vegetation i den fysiska miljön. Inom varje kategori förekommer diverse påståenden som bedöms utifrån en bedömningsskala från 1 till 5. För att ta ställning till de presenterade påståenden bör användaren gå en rundtur på platsen och observera den omgivande miljön .

This is a qualitative interview study where the purpose is to compare the view and experience of the Våxnäs district between individuals who live in the district and people who have moved out of the district. Furthermore, the purpose is to investigate whether local media affect the individual's view and experience of the district. The study is based on eight interviews where the interviewees live in the district and moved out of the district Våxnäs. The results have been analyzed based on a thematic qualitative analysis. A qualitative content analysis of local news articles has also been carried out, to examine how the media report on the area. The results have been analyzed empirically and theoretically based on sociological theories and concepts such as stigma, the definition of the situation, self-fulfilling prophecy, and the functions of a district. This study shows that the two groups of have a predominantly negative view of and experience of the Våxnäs district. The difference between the two groups is that the residents experience the district as positive periodically, while the emigrants experienced the district mostly negatively. A factor that governs the view and experience of the district is the different seasons. The results also show that the views and experience of the district by the people who live in the district and the people who have moved out of the district is affected by how others talk about the area, as well as how the media reports about the area. Based on the results of the content analysis and the thematic qualitative analysis, it can be deduced that the media's reporting is predominantly negative, and that the individual speaks negatively about the area. Furthermore, this is something that creates a stigmatization of the area, where the area is attributed negative characteristics. The study shows that the media’s reporting partly affects participants in different ways depending on what the media reports about. What affects the individual is the reporting of crime, gangs and threats that occur in the area. Furthermore, the content analysis shows that the media's reporting on Våxnäs produces two images. One image is characterized by crime and the other image is characterized by growth in the area. These two images can collide, which can create confusion for the individual who may become insecure and don’t know what to believe in relation to the reporting by the media.

Background Modern capitalist societies have consumption at the core of their social and economic activities. This is one of the underlying problems that sustainability is facing. In need of solutions and avenues for limiting our footprint and consumption, we turn towards alternative solutions such as coliving as a potential for facilitating sustainable lifestyles in their residents.   Objectives The overall purpose of this thesis is to investigate coliving impacts on the sustainability practices of residents within the Swedish urban environment. To do this effectively, the theoretical framework of this thesis will primarily utilize practice theory, as well as institutional theory and clan control theory to a secondary degree, to explore their interactions between coliving social structures and residential agents in terms of following sustainable activities and compare those with a single living household. Through conducting interviews with the residents of the Coliving and single living in line with these frameworks, this thesis aims to explore to a greater degree how the coliving housing model can contribute to more sustainable lifestyles.   Methods A qualitative research strategy was chosen for the study with a two-case comparative study design. To further explore the complexity of the interactions between agents and properties of social structures, data collection methods were utilized, such as semi-structured interviews with residents of coliving and single-living. The analytical approach was conducted through a thematic data analysis method.   Results The Coliving initiative stimulates sustainable lifestyles by creating a set of social structures and cultural rules that promotes interaction, diversity, and sustainable lifestyles. The design of the Coliving initiative activated the most evident and impactful change mechanisms. Specifically, the built environment that is diverse and flexible and facilitates variations of facilities and immense recourses accessible for the residents to interact and use for different moods and behaviors. The recruitment process facilitates a foundation of balance between diversity and like-minded individuals for learning potentials and collaboration. The governance structure of the community-based organization is nonhierarchical participatory, and consensus-based, and the community is self-organized. These features have shown to promote collaboration and interaction between individuals and stimulate sustainable practices. Last, the cultural rules of the community also promote interactions and collaboration, as well as many of the social sustainability principles and anti-consumption practices.   Conclusions The coliving, compared to the single-living, has much more quantitive, qualitative, and diverse set of structures with sustainable properties that brings the residents more or less into the situation where a greening of their corresponding lifestyles becomes a very convenient option.

As robustness of social science is getting more attention, analytical choices have been found to be more important than previously thought. This thesis investigates robustness of intergenerational educational mobility estimates using multiverse analysis, a technique for incorporating many analyses into one framework while varying analytical choices such as variable coding, mobility measures, and exclusion criteria. Using ESS data from 16 European countries over nine survey rounds, results show substantial variation in point estimates, which in turn creates high variation in rankings of European countries. The conclusion is that analytical choices play an important role in calculating educational mobility estimates, and that ranking of European countries according to intergenerational mobility estimates is sensitive to varying these choices. Future mobility research should take this into account.

This thesis investigates what narrative themes are found in the historical framing used in Russian political communication in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War from December 2021 to February 2023. Using a qualitative content analysis in combination with framing theory, transcripts of the Russian president’s political communications and the Russian Foreign Ministry’s press briefings are analysed as to the main narrative themes found within concerning the Russo-Ukrainian war. The thesis argues that the narrative themes of (1) External Enemies, (2) Diplomacy, (3) Historical Truth and (4) Unity are used to relieve Russia of any responsibility for the war justifying it as a pre-emptive war of defence, the preservation of historical truth and the importance of unity in the face of this historic crisis. It also discusses the implications of the findings for the future of Russian memory politics and the use of historical framing.

Many of the languages in the world are currently dying at an alarming rate. One of these languagesis Eldalian. It is a small language spoken by about 2,500 people in the village of Älvdalen in theDalarna county of Sweden. Despite shrinking numbers, attitudes towards the language remain highand people are increasingly identifying themselves with the language.Through qualitative datacollection and by using the analytical frameworks of framing as well as place-making to examinethe issues, this thesis details the relationship between the language and its speakers with a focus onthe speakers. Based on the ethnographic accounts and the subsequent analysis, this thesis pointstowards how the change in attitudes regarding the language during the 20th century led to adecrease in the presence of the language is viewed as the main reason why the language is where itis today; with Swedish having replaced the language in most public settings. To change this, therevitalisation movement strives to increase the value of the language by “framing” it in variouscontexts, arguing for its existence, and enriching its usage through values that can be found indifferent contexts. Furthermore, this leads to an engagement with the place-making of Älvdalen bywhich the language is “imbued” into the place through signs and the content production of thosewho live village; increasing its presence by placing it firmly in the Älvdalen setting. Hence,Elfdalian is currently situated in the middle between the “private” to “public”.