<p>The purpose of the study was, with initial position from two particular youth homes, to survey the staff’s experiences regarding different youth cultures that might occur at the institutions and how they react to them. The question formulations were as follows: What kind of youth cultures might occur at the institution and how are they being expressed, according to some of the staff members? How do the same staff members, individually, see their role and prospect to influence the type of youth culture that is developing on the institution? Earlier research in the field were used as theoretical starting positions as well as the concepts of “looking-glass self“, “the generalized other” and ”the overtaking of roles” in the symbolic-interactionism. Qualitative research interviews were carried through with three of the employees at the two youth homes and the results of the study evinced that both positive and negative youth cul-tures develops at both of the institutions, concluding the fact that youths affect each other both ways. The results of the positive culture is that the youths identifies themselves with other youths, support each other and by comprehending more might change their attitude toward different matters. The negative culture might be expressed with youths who bring their trou-bles to the institution, youths who discuss divergent subjects within the group, exposure to bad influence which leads to negative behaviour. Henceforth, the personnel considered that they have a propitious potential to influence the youths and the conditions between them. It was deemed crucial that the personnel group acted alike and kept a jointly approach toward the youths.</p>

<p>The aim of this study was to examine how individuals who have left a criminal lifestyle may experience their present life. A symbolic interaction approach was the theoretical framework for this research. Qualitative interviews were conducted with seven individuals who have stated having had and left a criminal lifestyle. The results showed that how individuals experience their present life is highly dependent on individuals’ own view of themselves as well as on how others view them. A sense of being judged on the basis of previous lifestyle and a strive to leave the criminal identity could be discerned. There seems to be of importance for individuals to separate themselves from their prior lifestyle, both in thought and action. By doing this, they demonstrate their change both to themselves and their surroundings. By con-demning their previous destructive actions but not themselves as persons, they can maintain a positive self-image. Making good and giving back to society also tends to be of importance. Furthermore the study indicates that individuals, in addition to a sense of belonging, need to experience both resemblance and contrast in interaction in order to fully be able to leave the criminal identity. Some implications for social work practise were discussed.</p>

<p>How is research and science being used in political debate? An idea analysis of the debate about försäkringsmedicinskt beslutsstöd (decision tool in healthcare security)</p><p>This is a case study on different types of research use (utilization) The aim of this paper is to examine how the politicians make use of expertise and research in the parliamentary debate surrounding the decision tool in healthcare security (försäkringsmedicinskt beslutsstöd). The aim is also to find out to what extent different types of research use are present in this debate. In this case study the qualitative method of idea analysis is being used on the empirical material. The tool of analysis is based upon the theories of research use by Amara et al. (building on Beyer) and Carol Weiss. My conclusion is that the most common type of research use in this debate is the symbolic, followed by the conceptual type. The instrumental type of research use is the least frequent one in this debate.</p>

No description available.

<p>Software is finding its way into an increasing range of devices (phones, medical equipment, cars...). A challenge is to design <i>verification</i> methods to ensure correctness of software. </p><p>We focus on <i>model checking</i>, an approach in which an abstract model of the implementation and a specification of requirements are provided. The task is to answer automatically whether the system conforms with its specification.We concentrate on (i) timed systems, and (ii) parameterized systems.</p><p><i>Timed systems </i>can be modeled and verified using the classical model of timed automata. Correctness is translated to language inclusion between two timed automata representing the implementation and the specification. We consider variants of timed automata, and show that the problem is at best highly complex, at worst undecidable.</p><p>A <i>parameterized system</i> contains a variable number of components. The problem is to verify correctness regardless of the number of components. <i>Regular model checking</i> is a prominent method which uses finite-state automata. We present a semi-symbolic minimization algorithm combining the partition refinement algorithm by Paige and Tarjan with decision diagrams.</p><p>Finally, we consider systems which are both timed and parameterized: <i>Timed Petri Nets</i> (<i>TPNs</i>), and <i>Timed Networks</i> (<i>TNs</i>). We present a method for checking safety properties of TPNs based on forward reachability analysis with acceleration. We show that verifying safety properties of TNs is undecidable when each process has at least two clocks, and explore decidable variations of this problem.</p>

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the importance of the mother figure for the definition of the female identity in three novels by the Belgian writer and psychoanalyst Jacqueline Harpman: La fille démantelée, La plage d’Ostende and Orlanda. This perspective is largely motivated by the specific character of the mother-daughter relation which is crucial to the formation of female identity. Freud already argued that it was impossible to understand the female identity without considering a woman’s preœdipal fixation to her mother. The analysis of the three novels is based on the concept of what Kristeva terms primary narcissism, which represents a delicate stage in the relationship between mother and child. In different ways, the analyzed novels are permeated by an oscillation between identification and differentiation. On a thematic level, the female protagonist’s desire to distance herself from the mother is always countered by an awareness of an intimate bond with her, and, paradoxically, it may seem, that the differentiation from the mother opens the way for a happy reunion between mother and daughter, now two individuals who no longer form a symbiotic unit. In this process of individuation described in the novels, a third instance which Freud called father of individual prehistory is crucial. Even though, at first sight, love appears to be the most important theme in the works of Harpman, this thesis argues that the theme of love is intimately linked to that of the mother figure and that it is necessary to read the works of Harpman through the spectrum of the mother-daughter relation in order to achieve a deeper understanding. Such a reading reveals among other things the key role of the inner dynamics of love. Love is not only the main theme of the work of Harpman, it’s also the meeting place of the two “love cures” of Harpman: literature and psychoanalysis, both situated in the field between narcissism and idealization, mechanisms that are inherent to what Freud called the subject’s eternal rebirth. The way in which writing functions as a way for the Harpman female protagonist to become a subject corresponds to Kristeva's idea of the entering into language, or into the symbolic system as Lacan put it, as a way to ward off the emptiness of the abjection. The symbolic system gives the subject a sense of being an individual with clear boundaries in a structured and intelligible world.

The purpose of the study was, with initial position from two particular youth homes, to survey the staff’s experiences regarding different youth cultures that might occur at the institutions and how they react to them. The question formulations were as follows: What kind of youth cultures might occur at the institution and how are they being expressed, according to some of the staff members? How do the same staff members, individually, see their role and prospect to influence the type of youth culture that is developing on the institution? Earlier research in the field were used as theoretical starting positions as well as the concepts of “looking-glass self“, “the generalized other” and ”the overtaking of roles” in the symbolic-interactionism. Qualitative research interviews were carried through with three of the employees at the two youth homes and the results of the study evinced that both positive and negative youth cul-tures develops at both of the institutions, concluding the fact that youths affect each other both ways. The results of the positive culture is that the youths identifies themselves with other youths, support each other and by comprehending more might change their attitude toward different matters. The negative culture might be expressed with youths who bring their trou-bles to the institution, youths who discuss divergent subjects within the group, exposure to bad influence which leads to negative behaviour. Henceforth, the personnel considered that they have a propitious potential to influence the youths and the conditions between them. It was deemed crucial that the personnel group acted alike and kept a jointly approach toward the youths.

Denna kvalitativa intervjustudie syftar till att definiera fenomenet elektronisk mobbning, att utreda ansvarsfrågan samt att kartlägga organisationernas arbete och eventuella samverkan. Resultatet baseras på intervjuer med BRIS, Friends, LunarStorm och Playahead som analyserades utifrån symbolisk interaktionism. Studien visar på hur liten skillnaden är mellan traditionell och elektronisk mobbning i hur den kommer till uttryck och vem den drabbar. Utmärkande för e-mobbning är spridningseffekten samt hur språket hårdnat i kommunikationen på Internet och andra elektroniska källor. Föräldrarna, skolan och barnen själva borde enligt organisationerna ta ansvar för att motverka e-mobbningen och de anser att lagstiftningen på området är bristfällig. Organisationernas arbete mot e-mobbning är relativt omfattande men effektiv samverkan saknas delvis. Till följd av den nya nätkulturen och att unga besitter en betydligt högre IT-kompetens än vuxengenerationen har unga i stor utsträckning lämnats ensamma att interagera på Internet. Utifrån symbolisk interaktionisms idéer kring den sociala interaktionens betydelse för identitetsskapandet och behovet av en generaliserad andre kan den vuxna frånvaron vara en bidragande orsak till problematiken kring e-mobbning. Dessutom har vuxenfrånvaron lett till att symbolspråket i nätkulturen blivit betydligt tuffare. Uppsatsens slutsats består till stor del i hur stort behovet av vuxen närvaro är i den unga nätkulturen. / This qualitative study aims to examine how cyberbullying appears, who should be responsible for prevention and measures, and how four organizations work against and cooperates round cyberbullying. The result is based on interviews with BRIS, Friends, LunarStorm and Playahead and analyzed with help from symbolic interactionism. The result indicates little difference between cyberbullying and traditional bullying. The tougher language and the quicker circulation of information characterize bullying on the Internet. The responsibility should, according to the organizations, be placed upon the parents, the school and the children. Legislation regarding cyberbullying is insufficient. In the organizations otherwise rather comprehensive work, efficient cooperation is partly lacking. The new Internet culture and the youths’ considerably higher IT-skills have led to that they to a greater extent have been left alone to interact on the Internet. According to symbolic interaktionism, satisfying development of the identity is highly dependent on social interaction and the idea of the generalized other. Therefore, the adult absence could be one of the most important explanations to cyberbullying, as well as to why the language has become more harsh and ruthless. To sum up, this essay emphasizes the need of adult presence in the new Internet culture. Title: Cyberbullying in the Internet culture – a qualitative study of the work and experiences of two Internet communities and two non-profit organizations.

Some Turkish Jewish women have been serving the elderly staying in the geriatric unit of the Jewish Or-Ahayim Hospital in Istanbul. Their group is recognized as &lsquo / the Pink Angels.&rsquo / The volunteer women at the Jewish hospital founded a group in 1974, and Nuket Antebi named this group &lsquo / the Pink Angels.&rsquo / Today this group of women is divided into three subgroups: (1) those who offer chat and art therapies, after having been trained, (2) those who distribute foods and beverages, deal with donations, are involved in the preparation process of jam jars, and offer memorial services, and (3) those who assume both duties. The Pink Angels who serve as therapists contribute to the attainment of world peace locally in Istanbul by chatting and reading various texts belonging to various world cultures in the chat therapies and making the patients create works of art and sing songs related to different cultural occasions in the art therapies by promoting global moral values. Sometimes they promote the moral values of other religious and cultural groups by celebrating different feasts and narrating stories belonging to these diverse groups by underscoring the concept unity in diversity and imposing upon the patients that they constitute a family in the hospital. Moreover, not only the foods and beverages the Pink Angels distribute, but also the jam jars and gift baskets they prepare carry Turkish Jewish symbols. This thesis based on fieldwork tests the hypotheses that the Pink Angels employ positive symbols in the therapies and activities they conduct, avoid talking about negative issues, such as sadness and death, not only the therapies, but also all the other activities that the Pink Angels conduct evoke happiness and joy in the patients as long as the Turkish Jewish culture is reproduced, since the patients feel as if they were at home, and several intercultural peace building techniques are employed in the therapies together with symbols and metaphorical imagery emphasizing the importance of peace between different religious and ethnic groups by mentioning the commonalities between them, and the rules obeyed by the Pink Angels provide the patients with comfort, since they conceive that they are in a serious and secure place. Furthermore, the foods cooked everyday in the hospital and the music the patients listen to during the therapies reflect the transcultural identities of the Turkish Jews whose ancestors had lived in different countries and interacted with various cultural groups. Symbolic interactionism is employed in analyzing all of these.

This thesis deals with the construction of identity going on in Swedish students' societies, which is analyzed as an intersection of gender and social class. Theoretically, I draw on discourse analysis. Foucault's genealogical method is applied in order to understand how discourses of the past are active today in students' identity construction. The study is based on interviews with members of the board of three different societies. In all, 28 interviews were made. Furthermore texts and pictures from each society's homepage were examined. Overall, the study shows that two main discourses are activated in students' identity construction. The members of the male-dominated society belonging to the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology represent a specific form of masculine identity in accordance with medieval ideas of student life. Being a student means to be without responsibility, to drink and have fun, and women are constructed as 'the others'. The members see them-selves as rather ordinary men in the future. Women and men are active in equal numbers in the society of students belonging to the Faculty of Social Sciences. They activate the meritocratic discourse dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries as they construct themselves as future men in power with the right to speak. Women can however also represent this identity. In the society of students belonging to the Faculty of Medicine, women constitute the vast majority. They also activate the meritocratic discourse. However, they attach new meanings in accordance with the female symbolic gender to what should be regarded as merits: responsibility, respectability, care, and nicety. Thus, they represent a feminine identity, but the few male members do not adhere to these female symbolic norms. The society is an arena for the members' resistance against hegemonic discourses of gender and class that would confine them to subordinate positions in their future working-life. Each society provides valuable symbolic capital that might be important. Key words: class, discourse, gender, genealogy, ideal identity, identity construction, ideological dilemma, intersectionality, mass university, students' society, symbolic capital, the other.