The study was conducted with an landscape approach with an subject related approach in the field of environmental psychology to investigate how road design affects drivers' choice of speed. The purpose was to portray road environments on thoroughfares in urban areas to motivate motorists to keep the speed limit and thus increase road safety for vulnerable road users. The task question was formulated, how can thoroughfares in suburban settings be portrayed to motivate motorists to reduce speed? The study was conducted throughout a literature review of motivational speed measures along with interviews with road design experts at the Swedish Transport Administration. Case studies were conducted on three thoroughfares in the Stockholm suburbs Vallentuna, Upplands Väsby and Danderyd.

Prior research on the ability of financial ratios to predict bankruptcies has shown a significant difference between the companies that went into bankruptcy and those that survived. This paper investigates whether there is a difference in the prediction ability of financial ratios during the last financial crisis compared to relatively normal macroeconomic environments in which most previous studies have been conducted. We use univariate analysis to compare companies that went into bankruptcy during 2010 and 2011 with companies that remained active. Our dataset consists of 51 failed companies that are matched with 102 companies that remained active. All companies were Swedish limited companies with more than 50 employees and the comparison is made with 26 financial ratios.

I bakgrunden redogörs olika aspekter som berör kultur samt sjuksköterskos förhållning till patienters etnicitet. Patienters syn på vård skiljer sig åt beroende på kulturtillhörighet vilket påverkar mötet i vården. Sjuksköterskans ansvar är att ge vård samt behandla patienterna med respekt och värdighet oavsett etnicitet. Svårigheter kan finnas i att tillgodose detta i mötet med patienter då uppfattningen av sjukdomsorsak kan skilja sig ifrån sjuksköterskans. Svårigheter i kommunikationen samt i förståelsen för respektive kultur kan leda till missförstånd.

According to the immigration service forecasts Sweden faces large refugee influxes in the coming years. This means that educators in the kindergarten, preschool and school, will meat children from the war torn countries. In this study, the purpose is to find out the educators different conceptions of war-affected refugee children, because my theory is that their beliefs influence their actions. I wanted to get answers to their beliefs about the difficulties or challengers that children and educators may be faced with. Furthermore, I wanted to know what educators envisioned about their own role?s importance to the war affected refugee children and their perceptions of the Swedish culture, environment, language and school.

When one experiences a place, it is a complex composition of both social and spatial factors.One of these spatial elements, is scale, which is influenced both by the room size and itsproportions. This paper aims to explore both large and small scale concepts and thus increasethe understanding of how scale directly and indirectly affects the experiences and uses ofurban space.First, is a theoretical discussion of scale in relation to aesthetics and the differencesbetween real scale and perceived scale. Next, is an analysis of spatial perception usingexamples from two existing sites. One, which is understood to have been planned in a largescale and one which is understood to have been planned in a small scale.When preparing this paper, the focus quickly became the importance of scale as itrelates to street spaces. The perception of a street usually takes place while in motion, whichforces it to be perceived in sections.

Our lives in urban areas are becoming more and more inactive with negative effects on our mental and physical health. Natural environments and physical activity have the power to both prevent and reduce mental fatigue. Meanwhile we engage ourselves with physical activity, the nature fascinates us with its complexity. In April 2006, some of the visitors to the recreational area of Skrylle were asked to fill in a questionnaire which included questions about their habits within physical activity and the experience of nature. The questionnaires were then divided into two groups: those filled out by persons who exercise on regular basis (i.e. three or several times/week) and those who rarely exercise.

This study is about howStockholm?s policy for zero tolerance of graffiti from 2007 affected the graffiti culture inStockholm. We have researched what consequences there were for the practice of graffiti, and what consequences there were for the stylistic performance of graffiti. In doing so, we have had two focus group interviews and one deep interview including eight graffiti writers from Stockholm. The individuals in the groups have been practising graffiti for a varied amount of time, but we have representation from both before, and after/during the policy of zero tolerance from 2007. Our study shows that the result ofStockholm?s policy for zero tolerance of graffiti for the graffiti culture inStockholmwas a ?subcultureification?, a ?stylistic generalization? and the ?subculture?s ambivalent identity?.

Riksteatern is a Swedish movement which was formed during the 1930s. The movement now consists of 230 local societies and had 545 000 visitors last year. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how a movement, mainly financed by the Swedish government, is run. To be able to understand this, the theories of Pierre Bourdieu are used together with organizational theories. The empirics are collected mainly by semi-structured interviews made with employees at Riksteatern.

This paper deals with how science teachers in the Swedish secondary school choose the content in the education they give to the pupils. What are the reasons for their choices and what do they think of the purpose of science in secondary school? Through interviewing science teachers the investigation shows that there are three different views of how to choose content in the science education: one focuses on the processes of science itself, one integrates the socio-cultural aspects and one emphasizes the interests of the pupils.

A high degree of urbanization with growing cities has raised a need of transforming closed landfill sites for giving them new uses. This study aims to investigate how old landfills can be re-used, what has lead to the new uses, and for what and whom the transformed site will be an asset. The method used is a case study of four different landfills in Stockholm county, Sweden. The case study is analyzed in the light of former studies regarding re-use of degraded urban areas, so called brownfields, and in particular studies and reports of landfill re-use. The result indicates that old landfill sites is identified as an area with possible values if transformed properly, in the case study area especially as green structure and recreation areas.

Following essay examines the social and cultural patterns of southern rural Sweden between the years 1838-1845. The study is based on records from trials held by the district court of the district Norra Möre, which provides an insight to the everyday life in rural local community. Emphasis is put on exclusion and inclusion: the basis for community, codes for inclusion and exclusion, meaningful attributes, social and cultural capital etc. Questions concerning gender are raised as well as intents to discover whether modern ideas contrast early-modern, especially considering the process of individualization. Results show that concepts of confidence and trust were extremely valuable and possessed significant meanings.  Confidence, which established itself on virtuous and honest life, created the framework for most aspects of social society: for example credibility inside and outside of court, maintenance of friendship and company, capacity of upholding a working life. Forfeit of trust, through extensive dissolute, mischievous and ill-considered way of life meant exclusion from the community and great vulnerability.

The Gift 2.0 - A Museological Study of donations of Objects and its Underlying Motives, is a study in order to explain why people choose to donate items for museums, rather than any other alternative.The empirical study consists of qualitative, semi-structured research-interviews conducted with seven selected curators from various museums, with extensive experience of the subject acquisition. I have chosen to only examine Swedish cultural-historical museums. The hypothesis that I assumed was first and foremost that the heritage sphere is what Pierre Bourdieu calls a field. The reason that people would donate objects to museums, is that the donation itself brings cultural capital to the donor, from people with the same habitus. Since I felt that Bourdieus theory of field, capital and habitus could not explain all the reason why people donate items to museum, my second hypotheses was that certain objects are what Annette Weiner called inalienable possessions, objects that at any cost may not be sold or bartered away.

This study examines the connection between social capital and urban and rural areas. The study divides the environments into two categories; metropolises and rural areas. Metropolises are defined as any of Swedens largest cities Stockholm, Gothenburg or Malmö. The study also examines if there is a difference between these groups in how high social trust they have to people living in the same areas as themselves versus people who live in other areas. The studie also focuses on the urbanization that the world is going through, where people move from rural areas into the cities for work and education.

At the centre of this study lies the question if normative gender thinking affects the way poetry gets reviewed and how the reviews are written, this in relation to both the gender of the reviewer and the poet. The study crosses three academic fields; gender studies, poetry and journalism, and is based on the cultural studies theory of media affecting and even creating the world around it.The study is based on two types of analysis. One quantitative analysis based on the thematic criticism theory about detail studies that shows bigger patterns, this analysis focuses on how the poet and his/hers work are being treated in the reviews in areas such as how much space they´re given in the newspapers, how they are named by the reviewer and the tendency to quote the reviewed work.  And one qualitative analysis based on the new criticism method of close reading, that focuses on the reviewers way of writing and how that may be connected with theories of gender differences, this both connected to the gender of the reviewers and the poets.The material chosen for this study are all the reviews that were published in the same newspapers and that reviewed two specific poetry works by two specific poets chosen with great sensibility to age and career so that their difference in gender would be the most significant difference between them. The works were chosen based on year of publishing, they were supposed to be published as newly as possible and as close to each other in time as possible.

The essay on ?The revival of the countryside ? a multitalent in landproduction.? focuses on local and regional development within agriculture, foodprocessing and tourism.Due to great changes in society, the inhabitants in rural areas are forced to find alternative occupations. Using history as a tool to build up the future is a main factor in rural development. Apart from this it involves cooperation, resources, cultural heritage and values, entrepreneurship and innovation, economic vitality, and an understanding of markets and marketing. They all contribute to a region`s ability to benefit from rural development..