In fashion, as in the rest of the economy, the globalisation of taste, power and production now plays a major role. The industry is dominated by fashion capitals like Paris, London or New York, populated by star designers like Tom Ford, Karl Lagerfeld or Jean-Paul Gaultier and controlled through MNC giants like Prada, Gucci, DKNY and Dior, who together influence consumer preferences on a global scale. However, there are numerous smaller actors that compete successfully in the fashion industry. Sweden is one such example, where fashion is a growing. In this thesis, there is a focus on group of small and medium sized Swedish fashion firms with a brand focused business strategy. Their products are design intensive, but their main competitive advantage rests on the brand and brand management. This group of firms are proficient at ‘putting fashion into clothes’ (Weller 2004). In other words, their main competitive advantage rests neither on price, nor on the most experimental design. More exactly, they produce clothes for a fashion conscious but not too adventurous consumer group. In the thesis it is argued that they are better described as trend forerunners than as trend setters. The subject of this thesis is this group of firms within the Swedish fashion industry and the aim is to improve understanding of their innovation processes, competitiveness, and the systemic character of the business they are a part of. As with most other fashion firms in high cost countries, Swedish companies has outsourced the garment production. They secure their competitive edge through high value added activities like design, marketing and retail. This points to the fact that fashion has both material and immaterial dimensions: it relates to clothing, design, textile and quality, but also to consumers’ subjective feelings and attitudes towards the clothes and their brands. This is a study of the interface between these dimensions, with a focal point on the production of immaterial and symbolic value. The systemic nature of fashion can hardly be overestimated. This goes for both the practical part of clothes production, but also for the production of a belief system created not only by fashion producers but by a whole set of institutional actors. This thesis has an analysis of fashion firms’ relations to business partners, competitors, media, and consumers. It is argued that the nature of these relations is critical for competition and success. The thesis is a collection of papers, which illuminates different parts of innovation, competition and business strategies in the fashion industry. The papers cover the central activity areas for fashion firms: how branding is affecting industrial structure and innovation, how symbolic is value created, and how ‘cool’ is used as a strategic resource.

The main aim of the study is to generate increased knowledge about young people’s leisure time sporting habits in a contextual perspective. The intention is to highlight the circumstances in which young people pursue and participate in different activities, with a particular focus on sport in terms of one’s own life circumstances. An essential point of departure of the study is regarding sport as an important pedagogic environment of norms and values. The perspective of the study is mainly cultural-sociological. In the analyses, Pierre Bourdieu’s key concepts habitus and capital have been used as research tools together with gender. The data on which the thesis is based is collected from young people from school year 9 living in four different milieus and comes from three different collections, conducted in 1996, 2002 and 2007. In each data collection about 1200-1500 pupils replied to a questionnaire. Sport occupies a central position in young people’s life on the recreational field. The results show that sport culture can best be understood in the local perspective. Young people’s sporting habit development can be said to be a result of a complex interplay between personal preferences, the home environment, local traditions, what is on offer, living conditions and the prevailing laws of gender and status. For the group of teenagers as a whole the proportion of members, as well as those who pursue personal sports, increases with higher educational capital and higher economic capital. When it comes to organised sport outside the sports club milieu no such connection can be determined. The thesis has shown that sport is not accessible for all and opportunities for participation are curtailed for large groups of young people in our society. This is especially true for sport organised in sport clubs, i.e. sport mainly supported by public funds.

The overall aim of this thesis was to examine what experiencing childbirth-related fear may imply for women and for men. The thesis compromises four studies with the following specific aims: I) to investigate the extent and level of childbirth-related fear in women and men, and to identify and compare experiential factors associated with childbirth-related fear in relation to level of fear. II) To describe the contents of childbirth-related fear in women and men, and to investigate whether the contents differed in relation to level of fear. III) To illuminate experiences of intense childbirth-related fear from the perspective of the women, and IV) of the men themselves. The studies were carried out using a combination of postal questionnaires and open interviews. The questionnaire was answered by 410 (74%) women and 329 (60%) men who prior to the study had had a baby at Norrlands university hospital, Sweden. Twenty women and 20 men who in the questionnaire had assessed their fear related to childbirth as intense were interviewed about what this experience had meant to them. The questionnaires were analyzed by factor analyses and quantitative content analysis. When analyzing the open interviews an approach based on the similarity-difference method in Grounded Theory were used. The results showed that the large majority of women (80%) and men (72%) had some experiences of fear related to childbirth. For 94 (23%) women and 43 (13%) men the fear was defined as intense. Among the factors identified as being involved in the experience of childbirth-related fear, 'exposedness and inferiority' had the greatest explanatory power in women, while 'communicative difficulties' had the greatest power in men. The contents of fear were fairly similar in both women and men, but the relative importance fo the fear categories differed. Among women fears related to 'the labour and delivery process' were ranked highest, while the uppermost category among the men were fears related to 'the health and life of the baby'. The comparison of the contents in relation to level of fear revealed that fears related to 'own capabilities and reactions' were significantly more common in women with experiences of intense fear than in women with mild to moderate fear. Among the men fears related to 'the health and life of the baby' and 'the health and life of the woman' were significantly more common in men with intense fear than in men with mild to moderate fear. In addition the open interviews indicated that socially constructed norms and beliefs about being happy and expectant influenced the women's perceptions of themselves and of what is considered as appropriate to feel and talk about during pregnancy. Many women judged themselves as different and inferior to others because of their fear, and described difficulties in expressing their fears due to expectations or experiences of not being taken seriously, being neglected or given misguided consolation. For the interviewed men, wishes to contribute and not causing trouble for the woman, as well as strives to adhere to prevailing norms about "masculinity" impled difficulties to disclose and talk about the fear, and look for support.

World Social Forum, and the worldwide appearance of regional, national and local Social Forums (SF), is an important part of the movement for global justice. The aim of this thesis is to explore how the SF as a global phenomenon is interpreted and staged locally in Sweden. Central questions are: What local meanings are given to the SF phenomenon when it is introduced and organized in a local context? What relations are created between the various actors in this organizational process in terms of coalitions and power relations? How do the SFs relate to the Swedish institutionalized popular adult education? These questions are explored in the four articles on which this thesis rests. Ethnographic field studies of local organizational processes constitute the empirical basis of theoretically informed hermeneutic interpretations. A neo-gramscian perspective is used to analyze the SF as a potentially counter-hegemonic popular education phenomenon. This perspective has been complemented by mainly two theoretical concepts, that is, framing and symbolic capital. Results demonstrate how the emergence of SFs in Sweden is characterized by a widespread desire among various activists and organizations to build coalitions. In the establishment of SFs the institutionalized popular adult education play both the role of a source of economic and material resources and of being a link between various organizations. However, in the wide and formally open organizational process, specific distinctions and hierarchies arise that might neutralize the SF’s ideological impact and its potential for counter-hegemonic coalition construction. Finally, a Swedish academic debate on the concept of “folkbildning” (popular adult education) is addressed. It is argued that there is a need to widen the scope of this debate to more frequently focus on global (popular) educational phenomena (such as the social forums) in research on “folkbildning”, and not only pay attention to “typical” national or Nordic institutions and traditions.

The research question was stirred by observations that the set-up of the clinical situation seems to contain elements that have a deep impact on the patient. I found that the clinical situation shows important similarities to the space for play that children negotiate when they want to immerse themselves in mutual phantasy play. Consequently, one overall purpose of the present study is to explore the psychoanalytic situation as a play situation with the help of two clinical vignettes.In the first part, I give a picture of my understanding of Freud’s reasons for shaping his clinical situation as he did. A critical scrutiny of Freud’s case of the Rat Man gave us keys to an understanding of the clinical method’s contradictoriness.A tentative hypothesis was framed that the set-up of psychoanalysis’s clinical situation induces an ambiguity about different levels of reality, the purpose being to create a space in the course of the analysis in which this confusion can be analyzed and comprehended. This work on the ambiguity of the reality links psychoanalysis with the intimate and spontaneous interaction that characterizes children’s social phantasy play. The investigation came to the conclusion that there exists a conspicuous equivalence between the two situations. The issue of what connects the universal play situation of children on the one hand, with the specific psychoanalytic situation on the other, makes a point of departure from which to approach and investigate the field of inquiry.The theory is that a ‘play’ with factual and illusory asymmetry generates a field of tension that serves as a sounding board from the moment of psychoanalysis's introductory negotiations until its ending. A third area is created that supports a mutual explorative space that in its turn makes a bridge between outer and inner reality and between now and the past. In such a context the phenomenon of play becomes a transformational concept.The conclusion is that psychoanalysis organizes a clinical situation that speaks to a profound and universal human need and that it is understood as an analogy of the play situation of children.

Recent research in classrooms has often had its focus on the pupil, the individual, and not on the different groups of students that exist. In a classroom there are normally several different groupings, each one having its own personal attitude towards the current lesson. If there had been more research we would find it easier to understand why pupils sometimes behave the way they do. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how pupils` social relations create groupings. Furthermore I intend to investigate how and why pupils show their belonging to a certain group. The two questions of the essay are: 1. How pupils’ social relations appear in a classroom? 2. What strategies do the pupils use to indicate their belonging to a grouping? My final conclusion is that the pupils’ social relations appear in groupings, in which a certain standard dominates how the pupil should behave during a lesson. The members of a group use the same strategies to show their group belonging. For example, it can be different attitudes to the teacher’s lesson that mark a grouping.

Using a symbolic interactionistic analytical approach, this essay aims to study the socialisation of young women’s sexuality in treatment institutions for young women. Through qualitative interviews with staff members at said institutions, concerning their views on young female sexuality, and how they discuss sexuality with the young women in the institutions, my aim was to identify the socialisation of young women’s sexuality. I have also investigated how the staff experiences their own sex as an important factor in conversations about sexuality with young women, as well as the possible effect sexually mixed or sexually segregated institutions exert upon conversations about sexuality. I have therefore interviewed both male and female staff, as well as staff of both sexually mixed and sexually segregated treatment institutions. The results indicate that the staff does talk about sexuality with the young women, but in varying degree and form. Treatment ideology seems to have an impact on the conversations of sexuality. The staff perceives their sex to be of importance for the conversations about sexuality but they also emphasise the importance of trusting relationships. They believe that sexuality as a subject arises more often in sexually mixed treatment institutions than in sexually segregated institutions. The staffs’ view on young female sexuality is not characterized by a discourse of desire, but rather by concern for the young women’s vulnerability, triggered by their own behaviour, as well as doubts about the young women’s own sexual desire.

Meänkieli är ett av Sveriges fem nationella minoritetsspråk i vilket forskning kring kulturella aspekter är av begränsat områdesfokus. De politiska ändamål som uttrycks i lagen om nationella minoriteter och minoritetsspråk, ämnar skapa en språklig- och kulturell revitalisering. En ny rapport påvisar att kunskapsbristerna är stora dels gällande anspråk minoriteter efterfrågar, dels hur myndigheter arbetar med minoritetsrättigheter. Ett ledord i lagen är främjandet och bevarandet av minoritetsgruppers kulturarv.  Till skillnad från andra minoritetsgrupper urskiljer meänkieli inte en lika säregen kultur som exempelvis jiddisch eller romani-chib. Så vad utmärker meänkielis kulturarv utöver språket? Genom en kvalitativ generationsstudie undersöktes hur kvinnor, med anknytning till meänkieli, skapar mening i en kulturell kontext. I detta belyses hur generationsskillnader kan ta sig uttryck. Studien visar på att det förekommer liknande kulturella markörer bland deltagarna, och att en kulturell- eller språklig revitalisering inte är särskilt påtaglig bland grupperna / Abstract: Meänkieli is one of Sweden's five national minority languages in which research on culture is of limited area focus. The political purpose, expressed in the law on national minorities and minority languages, intends to create a linguistic and cultural revitalization. A new report shows that knowledge gaps are large, both within claims minorities ask for, and also how agencies are working with minority rights. A key word in the law, is the promotion and preservation of minority cultural heritage. Unlike other minoritygroups, meänkieli does not distinguishes a well known particular culture, such as yiddish or romani-chib. What distinguishes Meänkieli cultural heritage in addition to the language? Through a qualitative generational study, we examine how women related to meänkieli, create meaning in a cultural context, and highlights the generational differences that is manifested. The study shows that there are similar cultural markers among participants, and that a cultural- or language revitalization is not particularly striking among the groups.

How and why do organizations approach greening? How can we conceptualize approaches and how can we encourage reflexive dialogues on them? These are the main questions addressed in this qualitative study on organizational greening. The study sets off by discussing matters of research philosophy, arguing that our trust in science ought to be revised and that a more postmodern and constructionist philosophy might be a way to go. This is then followed by a theoretical review, showing that organizational studies have a history in environmental issues, but that it is basically technocentric in orientation. A more reflexive organizational approach is suggested. The empirical part of the study is based on qualitative research of five case studies, representing a mix of organizations situated in Sweden, all with an explicit ambition to approach greening. The analyses target the organizations' approaches from practice to assumptions, pointing at the commonalities as well as the tensions. Basically, greening was an issue for all studied organizations, but an increasing pressure to market-orient their operations in line with the business rhetoric dominated their identity construction. The environment was included if there were opportunities of win-win situations between environment and economy in sight. Once embarked upon, the organizations tended to focus on technocratic practices, developing or implementing management systems, product development indexes, life-cycle methodologies and other tools. On a more philosophical level, in the study referred to as the worldview level, the approaches were predominandy characterized by a representative epistemology and a dualistic ontology, that is, they were clearly anthropocentric. With a base in these findings, an alternative approach is discussed as a way out, or as a way of constructing a reflexive dialogue on greening. This is partly based on the tensions within and between the cases, which encouraged reflections on how greening was approached. In the alternative, organizations are seen as actors on a symbolic agora where transparency, participation and self-reflexivity are keys to organizational legitimacy. This view frames organizations in the dominating approach as agoraphobic producers of materialistically dependent satisfiers. The alternative also targets the limits of a preference and materialistically oriented view on die satisfaction of human needs. Instead, it is argued that environmental and cultural sensitivity should be acknowledged as natural parts of organizational greening. This, however, demands more room for reflexive dialogues encouraging ontological awareness and a respect for more ecocentric views. / digitalisering@umu

This study used an experimental script awareness task to measure the script recognition and metacognitions of 129 English language learners (ELLs) in Senior Kindergarten from Chinese, Portuguese, or Spanish L1 backgrounds. Items formed two clusters: those involving the Latin alphabet and those involving symbolic script. Based on ability to name letters and read some words, children were divided into “readers” and “prereaders.” There were significant effects of home language and reading group: the Chinese ELLs were better at distinguishing items of symbolic script from the Latin alphabet items, but the Portuguese and Spanish ELLs were better at explaining their metacognitions. When the item was more similar to English, readers were more likely to accept it as English. Differences in script awareness development are discussed in relation to home language, reading ability, nonverbal ability, and vocabulary skills.