Publikationer från Stockholms universitet
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Cultural Maintenance and Muslim Rites of Passage Practices in Sweden and the UK
No full textCultural maintenance of immigrants has been a contentious and polarising subject in the West. While Sweden and the United Kingdom has a similar percentage of Muslims, both nations approach cultural maintenance of Muslims from a differing perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this comparative study is to examine the similarities and differences of minority Muslim communities’ cultural practices in Sweden and the United Kingdom regarding rites of passage, specifically focusing on birth, circumcision, marriage, and death rituals, and the response of the majority populations. The research analyses how sharī'ah traditional practices are modified and adapted within two Western European contexts, each with distinctive demographic compositions, legal frameworks, and historical relationships with Muslim populations. Through comparative analysis of religio-cultural practices, the research demonstrates that cultural maintenance operates as resistance against assimilative pressures while simultaneously adapting to legal constraints and social contexts of host societies. Various aspects of the rites of passage are first defined by taqlīd, and then compared to practices. Key findings include: the impact of animal welfare legislation on sacrificial customs (ʿaqīqah), varying regulatory approaches to male circumcision, differing marriage age requirements and recognition policies, and adaptations in Islamic burial practices within Western cemetery systems. The study identifies three principal factors influencing cultural negotiation within Muslim diasporas: the normative influence of host society culture, legal framework constraints that shape religious practice interpretation, and generational adaptation processes among second- and third-generation Muslims. These factors result in a dynamic religio-cultural realignment that maintains core Islamic identity while incorporating contextual modifications
A call for a trauma-informed approach during compulsory care for enduring anorexia nervosa with combined PTSD – an autoethnographic perspective
No full textBackground Individuals with both anorexia nervosa (AN) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often experience significant challenges in psychiatric inpatient care, particularly when coercive measures are used. While the comorbidity of AN and PTSD is well-documented, their interplay in the context of compulsory care and from a lived experience and trauma-informed perspective remains underexplored, despite its critical impact on treatment outcomes. This autoethnographic study aims to shed light on how coercion is experienced in this context, highlighting the need for a trauma-informed approach that acknowledges patients’ histories rather than solely viewing their behaviors as pathological. The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) provides a theoretical lens for understanding how trauma affects individuals with AN and PTSD, emphasizing the importance of viewing these conditions not just as symptoms to be treated but as survival strategies linked to broader trauma histories. Methods An autoethnographic approach was used to analyze blog posts, clinical notes, and diary entries from 2010 to 2019, focusing on experiences of AN, coercion, and trauma. Results One overarching theme, ‘Life in inpatient care’, and four subthemes emerged: (1) ‘Being sucked into the vortex of hunger’, (2) ‘Relapse no. 5 and admission procedure – state of emergency’, (3) ‘Encountering coercion and losing control – living in constant fear’, and (4) ‘Managing the aftermaths of eating’. Conclusions This autoethnography highlights the interplay between AN and PTSD in compulsory inpatient care, showing how AN served as a coping mechanism for trauma, with starvation as emotional avoidance. The PTMF framework challenges diagnostic-based models, viewing these behaviors as survival strategies rather than pathology. Key findings highlight the impact of coercive treatments such as forced feeding and restraint, which can intensify fear and retraumatization. A trauma-informed approach prioritizing trust, autonomy, and trauma acknowledgment is essential for effective, compassionate care. Recovery should go beyond renourishment to include psychological healing and body-self reintegration, emphasizing a holistic, patient-centered approach for improved treatment outcomes
Framing of gender in right-wing alternative media : How gender is framed in content by the YouTube channel Riks and an assessment of how this contributes to marginalisation
No full text Over the past few years, right-wing alternative media have become increasingly popular in the Nordic countries. These media offer alternative interpretations of social and political issues which often diverge from those in the mainstream media. While these outlets primarily focus on critiquing immigration, previous research has shown that they also play a significant role in constructing exclusionary identities based on gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality, and social class. This study explores how the YouTube channel Riks, a right-wing alternative media outlet, frames women. The framing of women within these media has not been sufficiently addressed in prior research. Employing a qualitative research design and thematic analysis, this study uses framing theory as its theoretical framework, with a focus on gender and marginalisation. The analysis reveals five distinct framings of women: the victimized woman, the biological woman, the lenient woman, the ideological woman, and the traitorous woman. Further, the analysis finds that these framings do contribute to exclusionary boundaries and in particular of trans women, migrant women and left-wing women. This research contributes to understanding how right-wing alternative media construct exclusionary boundaries through its construction of identities
Evaluating BERT for Email Text Classification: A Comparative Study with Manual Text Pattern Matching
No full textAutomated email systems can be implemented as a text categorization task to deliver timely and relevant responses to email inquiries. Although manually crafted text patterns have been proven sufficient for this purpose, they remain limited by human ability to capture contextual nuances. This study investigates how the performance of a pre-trained deep language representation model, Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), compares to manual text pattern matching. A laboratory experiment was conducted as a text categorization task using the same dataset and evaluation metrics as in a previous study, with manual text patterns serving as the benchmark. Performance was assessed in terms of precision, recall and F1 score and differences were evaluated using descriptive statistics and a Mann-Whitney U test. Results show that BERT achieves slightly higher overall performance, with a statistically significant improvement in recall compared to text pattern matching. These findings suggest that BERT’s ability to manage linguistic variation can enhance the responsiveness of automated email systems
Enhancing Sampling-Based Path Planning for Autonomous Robots in Confined Areas
No full textThis thesis investigates how different variants of the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT*) algorithm can be used to plan drivable paths for autonomous vehicles in confined environments. The focus is on comparing the standard version of RRT* with an improved version that uses informed sampling to make the search for the optimal path more efficient. Furthermore, the vehicle’s steering function is a major focus, the movement constraints of a real car, with the aim of generating physically drivable paths. The study was conducted in three different simulated environments: an alley, a warehouse space, and a U-turn, each representing different levels of complexity and constraints. The results show that the improved variant of RRT* led to noticeable improvements in some cases, especially in the open warehouse environment, where informed sampling effectively avoided unnecessary exploration. In simpler and more confined environments, such as the alley, the differences were small, as both algorithms produced similar solutions. Statistical analysis using the Fréchet distance and the number of nodes showed that informed sampling can reduce computational complexity and improve search outcomes in the right type of environment. However, the results are also influenced by the quality of the initial path — particularly in more complex scenarios like the U-turn. The conclusion is that informed RRT* has the potential to improve both the efficiency and robustness of path planning, but its benefits are highly dependent on the structure of the environment and the initial conditions
President Macron's discursive ethos after the dissolution in 2024 : Comparative analysis of the ethos in Emmanuel Macron's speeches and letter to the French after the dissolution of the National Assembly in 2024.
No full textRule-based Information Extraction for KIDs: The PRIIPs Information Extraction Framework (PRIIEF) Supports Compliance, Oversight, and Education
No full textThis thesis addresses the challenge of improving regulatory compliance in financial product disclosures by applying rule-based information extraction (IE) to Key Information Documents (KIDs) and related marketing materials under the PRIIPs (Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products) Regulation. Two key research gaps are identified: the dismissal of rulebased IE for tabular data and the limited understanding of the broader range of compliance errors found in KIDs and associated marketing materials. To address these, a Design Science Research approach was used to develop the PRIIPs Information Extraction Framework (PRIIEF), which informed the design of a rule-based prototype. Tested on 463 Swedish KIDs and associated marketing materials, the prototype achieved over 99% precision, recall, and F-measure for both free text and tabular data – outperforming AI (Artificial Intelligence)-based solutions applied in prior research, and uncovered several compliance violations – such as the absence of any indication to the KID in the analyzed marketing materials, as required under Article 9 of the PRIIPs Regulation. The results show that rule-based IE, when guided by a structured framework aligned with PRIIPs regulatory requirements and the KID template, enables systematic, transparent, and accurate supervision while supporting manual regulatory assessments
Governing on Thin Ice : An Interpretative Case Study of the Swedish Climate Policy Framework
No full textThis thesis investigates how climate governance is shaped through meaning-making,symbolic stability, and evolving conceptions of the human–nature relationship in theAnthropocene. Focusing on the Swedish Climate Policy Framework (SCPF), adopted in2017, it examines how political actors justified incrementalism and stabilized legitimacyunder ecological uncertainty. The framework–consisting of a national climate act,emissions targets, and a policy council–offers a case for analyzing how environmentalfutures are imagined and institutionalized. Drawing on a case study approach, the study uses qualitative interpretative analysis ofreports and a parliamentary debate to reconstruct how actors framed climate actionthrough shared anchors: political consensus, economic pragmatism, scientific authority,and global responsibility. These framings enabled agreement but constrainedtransformative ambition. The analysis reveals how nature was rendered technicallylegible, while political contestation was contained through appeals to neutral expertise. Theoretically, the thesis extends a previous interpretive causal model by integratingmaterial, symbolic, strategic, and purposive dimensions of policy. This recursive modelis proposed to conceptualize climate governance as embedded in dynamic socio-naturalsystems. The thesis contributes to environmental sociology by showing how climategovernance is materially embedded and how political meaning-making is constrainedby and responsive to biophysical conditions in the Anthropocene
Mata, klappa, älska: relationen till virtuella husdjur
No full textDenna studie undersöker virtuella husdjursspel, en genre som har spelats av miljontals spelare. Virtuella husdjursspel är simulationsspel där spelaren tar hand om virtuella husdjur, och de centrerar ofta kring att ta hand om och uppfostra husdjuren. Trots att djuren i dessa spel är enkla små varelser har de fått en speciell plats i mångas liv. Det finns däremot begränsad forskning kring ämnet med spelaren i fokus, om hur de ser på sina virtuella husdjur och vilken påverkan husdjuret har på spelarens liv. Den här studien utforskar därför frågeställningen “Hur upplever spelare emotionella band till virtuella husdjur i spel?” Syftet är att öka självmedvetenheten och insikten kring dessa anknytningar. För att besvara frågeställningen används en fenomenologisk forskningsstrategi med fokus på människors känslor, erfarenheter och uppfattningar. Datainsamlingen skedde genom tio semistrukturerade intervjuer där deltagarna var i åldersspannet 20-23 år. En tematisk analys används för att analysera datan, där målet är att identifiera gemensamma mönster och teman i koppling till frågeställningen. Den tematiska analysen resulterade i tre huvudteman - Spelpreferenser, Spelarens uppfattning av husdjur och Bandets utveckling - med tillhörande underteman. Första temat visar bland annat att spelare föredrar att spela med söta husdjur, kan bete sig illa mot oattraktiva djur, samlar husdjur och uppskattar när det finns en variation av spelmekaniker. Under andra temat framgår det exempelvis att spelare känner ett ansvar att ta hand om husdjuren, men att virtuella husdjur inte betraktas likadant som verkliga. Det visas också att favoritdjuren ofta är de man haft en längre tid och kopplar till minnen. Tredje temat indikerar att många börjar spela virtuella husdjursspel på grund av sociala sammanhang, att banden upplevs starkare när man är yngre samt att många slutar spela när husdjuret kräver för mycket uppmärksamhet. Utifrån resultatet dras slutsatsen att spelare generellt upplever banden till sina virtuella husdjur som positiva då de utgör en källa för underhållning och avkoppling, men att det kan ge negativa känslor ifall djuret är för krävande eller dör. Relationens styrka påverkas av faktorer såsom spelarens ålder, husdjurets utseende och hur länge spelaren haft husdjuret. Slutsatsen dras även att dessa band kan tolkas som ytliga och själviska då spelare bland annat kan skapa band för egen vinning, såsom för att förbättra måendet och för att passa in i sociala sammanhang. De kan dessutom betrakta husdjuren som en utmaning snarare än ett faktiskt husdjur.This study explores the topic of virtual pet games, a genre that has been played by millions of players. Virtual pet games are simulation games where the player owns virtual pets, usually focusing on caring for and raising the pets. The pets in the games have received a special place in many people's lives despite being simple creatures. However, there is limited research about the subject with the player in focus, about how they view their virtual pets and what impact they have on the players’ lives. This study therefore investigates the research question “How do players experience emotional bonds to virtual pets in games?” The purpose of this study is to raise self-awareness and understanding about these connections. A phenomenological research strategy focusing on people’s emotions, experiences and perceptions was used to answer the research question. Data was collected through ten semi-structured interviews where the respondents were between 20-23 years old. A thematic analysis was then used to analyse the data, with the goal to identify common patterns and themes in relation to the research question. The thematic analysis yielded three main themes - Game preferences, The player’s perception of the pet and The bond’s development - each with subthemes. The first theme showed that players for instance preferred to play with cute pets, could behave poorly towards unattractive ones, collected pets and appreciated when there were a variety of game mechanics. The second theme shows that players feel a responsibility to care for the virtual pets, but that they aren’t viewed or treated exactly as real pets. It’s also shown that players’ favorite pets are usually those they have had for a longer time, being connected to memories. The third theme indicates that many started playing virtual pet games because of social context, that the bonds were perceived stronger when the players were younger as well as that many stopped playing when the pets demanded too much attention. Based on the results, the conclusion is drawn that players generally experience the bonds to their virtual pets as positive since they act as a source of entertainment and relaxation, but that the relationship can evoke negative emotions if the pet is too demanding or dies. The relationship’s strength is affected by factors such as the players’ age, the pet’s appearance and how long the player has had the pet. The conclusion is also drawn that these bonds can be interpreted as shallow and self-serving as the player can create a relationship for their own benefit, such as to better their mental health and to fit in in social settings. The players can also see the virtual pets as a challenge rather than an actual pet
The Skilled Man and the Lovely Woman : A qualitative analysis of gendered expectations in Swedish course evaluations
No full textResearch has shown that course evaluations often reflect gender bias, with women being rated differently than men based on stereotypes rather than teaching ability. While this pattern has been shown in various contexts, less is known about how such biases manifest in written comments and in settings that actively promote gender equality, such as Sweden. This study focuses on course evaluations from the Sociology Department at Stockholm University, with an emphasis on written comments. By analyzing qualitative course evaluation feedback, the research aim is to identify potential gendered language patterns when evaluating teachers and see whether women and men are described differently by students, what is expected from them, as well as what specific qualities are associated with each gender. The study was guided by Expectation states theory, and used thematic analysis with an abductive approach to explore whether and how gender might play a role in shaping students’ perception of their teachers. By doing so, this research contributes to a broader understanding of gender and evaluation processes in higher education, and provides insights that can be useful to ensure fairness and accuracy in course evaluation systems. The findings indicate that gendered expectations shape how teachers are evaluated, with differences emerging in tone, focus, and frequency of both praise and critique. These patterns suggest that course evaluations may contribute to the reproduction of gendered assumptions about ability and authority within academia