Elitidrottsproblem? : En kvalitativ studie om elitidrottares karriäravslutning

This paper used a qualitative technique from a social scientific perspective, a model based on Hewitt and his theory of the self-concept. The purpose of this study was to investigate why some elite athletes experience troublesome periods after their career ending. Interviews were performed with five elite athletes with varying experiences after career ending. The length of the elite athlete careers vary between 7 to 17 years. Two groups were made based upon experiences after career ending. Group 1 had experienced problems, for example suicide tendency, and group 2 had not. The result shows that a troublesome period can come up independently of career ending. The self-concept was investigated during the career and further different kind of variables which could affect the self as training and competition, social relations both before and after termination from sport. Result indicates that an individual in group 2 who has a high complexity in the self-concept based upon significant others outside the elite sport during the career copes with the new situation after career ending much better than group 1 who have not. To build up the self based only upon significant others in the elite sport seems to give expression in a strengthen self. Intensity in training and competition did not have a connection with a troublesome period after retirement from sport but it could prevent establishing contact with others outside the elite sport and reduce a high complexity in the self-concept. The result further shows that elite athletes who practise an individual sport trains in to a greater extent than elite athletes in a seasonal sport. Result also shows that practising a sport with one day off a week, contributes to better opportunities for developing a higher complexity in the self-concept. Suspicions has also rouse that practising an elite sport on the highest level can lead to extensive focusing that further leads to social isolation from individuals outside elite sport. To build up the self upon significant others outside elite sport during the career and keep in touch with significant others from elite sport after the career seems to be the key to avoid problems after the career ending. Suggestions about further investigations are made to see if medial exposure and status can affect the self.

Women of Substance : The Aspect of Education, Career and Female Identity in Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones's Diary

Although two hundred years separate Jane Austen and Helen Fielding and, subsequently, also their portrayals of society, the similarities outweigh the differences. When juxtaposing Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary in the light of feminism it is evident that both books provide clear examples of the prevailing situation of women in each time and place. The aspects of the study, which are especially important today, show both the development and some degree of stagnation of women’s rights and identities.

The actual status of the development of a Danish/Swedish system concept of a solar combisystem

At the beginning of 2003 the four year long research project REBUS on education, research, development and demonstration of competitive solar combisystems was launched. Research groups in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Latvia are working together with partners from industry on innovative solutions for solar heating in the Nordic countries. Existing system concepts have been analyzed and based on the results new system designs have been developed. The proposed solutions have to fulfill country specific technical, sociological and cost requirements. Due to the similar demands on the systems in Denmark and Sweden it has been decided to develop a common system concept for both countries, which increases the market potential for the manufacturer. The focus of the development is on systems for the large number of rather well insulated existing single family houses. In close collaboration with the industrial partners a system concept has been developed that is characterized by its high compactness and flexibility. It allows the use of different types of boilers, heating distribution systems and a variable store and collector size. Two prototypes have been built, one for the Danish market with a gas boiler, and one for the Swedish market with a pellet boiler as auxiliary heater. After intensive testing and eventual further improvements at least two systems will be installed and monitored in demonstration houses. The systems have been modeled in TRNSYS and the simulation results will be used to further improve the system and evaluate the system performance.

The concept of e-service from a social interaction perspective

Today’s e-services are complex phenomenon consisting of several different e-services linked together. The e-services are provided by IT systems and presented to customers through user interfaces. Within web design research criteria are laid out for the design of good user interfaces, but one problem is that these analyses are performed without a service focus. This lack of service focus can result in the designed user interfaces providing indistinct service concepts, especially where several e-services are intertwined with each other.In order to design IT system interfaces, we have to be clear about which e-services are provided by the IT system and how these e-services are related to each other. This paper presents a framework for the analysis of user interfaces in terms of focused e-service, service environment and two types of intertwined e-services; related e-services and interrelating e-services. The analyses are exemplified by an Internet based e-marketplace. The paper discusses how the framework can be combined with ordinary web design criteria and how it can be used for e-service development.

The Concept of ’Selling/Buying’ in the Russian Linguistic Picture of the World : from standard to sub-standard

The thesis belongs to the field of lexical semantics studies, associated with describing the Russian linguistic world-image. The research focuses on the universal situation of purchase and sale as reflected in the Russian lexical standard and sub-standard. The work deals also with subjects related to the sphere of social linguistics: the social stratification of the language, the structure of sub-standard, etc. The thesis is a contribution to the description of the Russian linguistic world-image as well as to the further elaboration of the conceptional analysis method. The results are applicable in teaching Russian as a foreign language, particularly in lexis and Russian culture and mentality studies.

Föreställningar om klass och kön i Arbetsförmedlingens yrkesbeskrivningar?

Notions of Class and Gender in the Employment Service Job Descriptions This article examines whether job descriptions emphasize different characteristics and competences depending on the occupations’ social class and gender relations. The study is partly a replication of a similar analysis conducted by Gesser in the 1970s. The purpose is to examine the prevalence of stereotypes in occupational descriptions provided by the Swedish state, and if the descriptions contribute to class and gender labeling of occupations and, by extension, its practitioners. Previous research has shown that career guiding materials are characterized by notions of the appropriate practitioner’s class and gender. In this study we depart from the concept of doxa and argue that stereotypical images of occupations are based on common sense that remains unquestioned. The study draws on a quantitative content analysis of 420 job descriptions analyzed by various statistical methods. The overall results show that there are systematic differences. In general, social class seems to have greater impact than gender on what kind of competences that are emphasized in the descriptions. Social skills are emphasized in female dominated occupations, while physical abilities are highlighted in male-dominated occupations. To some extent, these results are uncontroversial, as it also portraits abilities necessary to do the work in different kind of occupations

Att göra sig anställningsbar : Om instrumentella identitetspositioner och könad säljbarhet

To make oneself employable – instrumental identity positions and gendered marketability. The article takes up the question of the negotiation of expert discourses in career advice and constructing the self in the practice of CV writing. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with 19 students (11 women and 8 men) the stories about job search are analyzed. The concept of discursive positioning is used in order to analyze how the students position themselves in relation to career advice and position the self in CV writing. The results show that the female students had difficulties embodying the position as a marketing self as they described it as conflicting with feelings of ‘who they were’. ‘Being you’ in CVs and job interviews is, further, an ideal that is negotiated in relation to what to display as a job-seeking subject. CV writing involves a process of identifying suitable characteristics in an instrumental manner, but it is also combined with an introspective reasoning and identification to find ‘authentic’ strengths and characteristics in ‘who you are’.

La thématique de l’eau dans l’œuvre de Marguerite Duras

The aim of this thematic study is to examine how the water motif is used in Marguerite Duras’s literary work. The study shows that water has multiple functions in these texts: it is linked to major themes and creates an enigmatic atmosphere by its association with the unknown, the inexplicable and the unconscious. The strong presence of water in Duras’s texts is striking. References to the water element can be found in several titles throughout her career, from early works such as Un barrage contre le Pacifique (1950) to La mer écrite (1996), published just after her death. Almost all of her fiction take place near water – and the rain or the sound of waves serve as leitmotifs in specific novels. The water motif can play a metonymic as well as a metaphoric role in the texts and it sometimes takes on human or animalistic characteristics (Chapter 4). Several emblematic Durassian characters (e.g. the beggar-woman, Anne-Marie Stretter and Lol V. Stein) have a close relationship to water (Chapter 5). The water motif is linked to many major Durassian themes, and illustrates themes with positive connotations, for example, creation, fecundity, maternity, liberty and desire, as well as themes with negative connotations such as destruction and death (Chapter 6). A close reading of three novels, La vie tranquille (1944), L’après-midi de Monsieur Andesmas (1962) and La maladie de la mort (1982), shows that the realism of the first novel is replaced by intriguing evocations of the sea and the pond in the second text, motifs which resist straightforward interpretation. The enigmatic feeling persists in the last novel, in which the sea illustrates the overall sombre mood of the story (Chapter 7). Finally, the role of the water element in psychoanalytic theory is discussed (Chapter 8), and a parallel is drawn between the Jungian concept of the mother archetype and the water motif in Duras’s texts. The suggestion is made in this last chapter that water is used to illustrate an oriental influence (Taoist or Buddhist) of some of the female characters in Duras’s work.

Are schools able to bring sense into pupils' lives? - an experiment to use Antonovsky's concept sense of coherence from a school perspective. : Paper presented at the ENIRDEM conference in Kilkenny, Ireland 26th-29th September, 2002

Young people now spend a longer and longer period of their lives at school then ever before. Not always because that they want to, but because society has nothing else to offer. The situation in many schools may also, in different aspects, be seen as highly problematic. Andersson (2001) has, for example, found in a large longitudinal study - The Life Project – that schools seem to be adapted to the needs of only a minority of the students - around 30%. On the other hand school is badly adjusted to the requirements of another 30 %. This group of students often find school meaningless, uninteresting and boring. For these students school is mostly a waste of time. In such circumstances, it seems natural that society has a responsibility to offer young people a meaningful time at school, both here and now and to prepare them for a future live as adults, not only as a part of the work force.As a part of departure I briefly describe the model that Antonovsky has developed and try to use it in a school context instead. I have here, of course, no possibility to make a deeper analysis of a complex problem such as this.In Antonovsky’s spirit, using a salutogenic perspective, instead of asking ourselves why do pupils fail or perhaps also not like being at school we have to ask, instead: What it is that makes pupils successful? From this background the purpose of this paper is to discuss some aspects of how pupils may use different strategies to handle their school situation in a proper way.

Sustainability in nursing : a concept analysis

Aim. The aim of this study was to describe, explore and explain the concept of sustainability in nursing. Background. Although researchers in nursing and medicine have emphasised the issue of sustainability and health, the concept of sustainability in nursing is undefined and poorly researched. A need exists for theoretical and empirical studies of sustainability in nursing. Design. Concept analysis as developed by Walker and Avant. Method. Data were derived from dictionaries, international healthcare organisations and literature searches in the CINAHL and MEDLINE databases. Inclusive years for the search ranged from 1990 to 2012. A total of fourteen articles were found that referred to sustainability in nursing. Results. Sustainability in nursing involves six defining attributes: ecology, environment, future, globalism, holism and maintenance. Antecedents of sustainability require climate change, environmental impact and awareness, confidence in the future, responsibility and a willingness to change. Consequences of sustainability in nursing include education in the areas of ecology, environment and sustainable development as well as sustainability as a part of nursing academic programs and in the description of the academic subject of nursing. Sustainability should also be part of national and international healthcare organisations. The concept was clarified herein by giving it a definition. Conclusion. Sustainability in nursing was explored and found to contribute to sustainable development, with the ultimate goal of maintaining an environment that does not harm current and future generations' opportunities for good health. This concept analysis provides recommendations for the healthcare sector to incorporate sustainability and provides recommendations for future research.