Visby is a city that at first glance is of medieval origins. The popular image of scientists today is that the city was formed in the Middle Ages. According to some of the researchers Visby was formed during the Viking Age, it is based on the basis that the area has been used for a long period. Urban development in the Nordic countries is complex and there are different opinions as to why the Nordic cities emerge. It is important to shed light on the underlying process on why cities are emerging to provide clarity as to why Visby city is emerging.

Öland?s Business Office is on the verge of developing a strategy for the island?s future tourism. Before any work with developing Öland can be carried out, it is essential to gain an understanding of how the place is perceived today.The purpose of this essay is to study the island?s current image and make recommendations for how the place brand could be developed.The methods used are literature studies and qualitative group interviews. The participants have been inhabitants of Öland and returning visitors from the Kalmar region.

With this essay I have tried to give an image of some Swedish teenagers opinions about Islam. I have also done research on how the Swedish school depicts Islam and how the media in Sweden and other western countries describe Islam and Muslims. I have come to the conclusion that the media do not give a positive image of Muslims and their religion. One the contrary, Muslims are talked about in relation to negative subjects. This is an image that seems to have influenced how young people in Sweden look at Muslims.I have handed out a questionnaire at schools in Kalmar and Jönköping, Sweden.

This paper discusses the world heritage of Falun and its influence on the marketing of Falun as a destination. The reason for this study is the fact that world heritage nominations can lead to an increased pressure on the destination and an increase in popularity for the place. A world heritage is something unique and odd that can be used in the marketing of the destination in the purpose of attracting tourists, company investments and so on. It has been vital for the study to interview people that work with marketing or have important rolls within the world heritage.With this background the study is focused on three major questions:What meaning does the world heritage have in the marketing of Falun?Is the world heritage important for Falun? If yes: For who and why?Which organisations/persons in Falun have the greatest influence on the marketing process?In order to answer or discuss this question there are discussions in the paper regarding the notions of place marketing as well as the importance of a well outlined marketing strategy as a basis for the formulation of a product portfolio and segmentation strategy as well as strategy for developing a strong profile on the market.The answers to the question are relative and can have a different view in the future.

The aim of our graduate work is to study the importance of image and shape?s in children's development and learning and also the preschool teacher?s views on image and shapes. Our research aims to explore the value of image and shapes creation and how it is expressed among children and in classroom activities. We are also interested in finding out how it differs from adults' views and what materials teachers use to promote the image and shapes creation in the curriculum. In our own experience, image and shapes activities are often structured differently in different curriculum activities.

We travel more to day than we have ever done before and there is an abundance of destinations to choose from. All -destinations have vantages and disadvantages and the things that are favourable for one traveller can be the opposite for another. So the questions are, why do we have different opinions about the same destination and what is it that makes us choose one destination before another?The purpose with this thesis is to investigate if the demographic factor age has an influence on the Swedish traveller?s opinion about winter destinations. The thesis also investigates if there is a link between the traveller?s demography and their opinion of a destination.

AbstractIn the heart of Paris, you will find Sweden?s only cultural center abroad. Since the early 70?s a wealth of cultural activities has been offered, and every year the center receives more than 100,000 visitors. The center is a branch of the Swedish Institute (Si), a public authority which promotes mutual relationships between Sweden and other countries through culture, education, science and business.

A study has been conducted with the aim to investigate young people's perception of the relationship between cyber bullying and self-image and their perception of which role gender plays in this relationship. Three focus group interviews were conducted with six to seven participants in each. The majority (16/19) of participants were women. A thematic analysis was used in which five themes were identified. The results show that there is a perception of a link between cyber bullying and self-image in which people who become cyber bullied have lower self-image and poor self-image can contribute to the experience of feeling cyber bullied.

The physical environment is constructed of materials. The materiality of different places contributes to how places can be distinguished and the material can contribute to the construction of place identity. For architects with different orientations the material is one of the principal means by which they can express their idea. The material remains when the design process is finished and instead the material becomes a precondition for how people will perceive and deal with the place. The literature study of the essay examines how the concept of place and materiality is dealt with in different disciplines and how these descriptions are linked to the concept of place identity.

Det Àr svÄrt att skapa en enhetlig bild av en destination eller stad, och dÀrför Àr det svÄrt att skapa ett destinationsvarumÀrke. Destinationens image, alltsÄ hur folk ser pÄ destinationen och uppfattar den, kan pÄverka varumÀrkets framgÄng, och Àven tvÀrtom. Hur pÄverkar en destinations varumÀrke destinationens image, och vice versa? Det Àr vÄr forskningsfrÄga i den hÀr uppsatsen. Syftet Àr att öka förstÄelsen för hur en destinations image och varumÀrke hÀnger ihop och pÄverkar varandra.

Title: Images of Sweden in ItalyNumber of pages: 5252 (589 including enclosures)Author: Oskar GustafssonTutor: Martin NilssonCourse: Political Science C level ? Bachelor?s ThesisPeriod: Spring term 2010University: School of Social SciencesLinnaeus UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose of my research study is to, through the use of political science theories on soft power and marketing theories about nation branding and in comparison to previous studies on the image of Sweden in Italy, gains a better understanding of the image of Sweden in Italy, with special focus on national political institutions and young Italians.Method: The method of analysis is a combination of qualitative methods: interviews where information about the image of Sweden amongst national political institutions were gathered and a survey where information was gathered about the image of Sweden amongst young Italians.Main results: On the basis of the results I have gained it can be concluded that a positive and well informed image of Sweden emerges when it comes to cultural and social factors but a more restricted and somewhat negative image come to light when asking national political institutions and young citizens in Italy about their views and knowledge on Swedish domestic and international politics and economics.Keywords: Soft power, Public Diplomacy, Nation Branding, Images of Sweden, Italy..

The world has become a globalized place in constant development and much of which is now taken for granted did not even exist 30-40 years ago, such as smartphones or Internet in common households. As new tourist destinations is continuously being created, it becomes increasingly important with effective place marketing to compete in the global market. Developing a good and interesting profile is thus a way for places to become more attractive for tourists. The main theory in the paper is "post-industrialization and the entrepreneurial city" which describes how cities in the global north have moved away from industry towards becoming post-industrial cities ? very often with a strong focus on tourism.

Visby is a city that at first glance is of medieval origins. The popular image of scientists today is that the city was formed in the Middle Ages. According to some of the researchers Visby was formed during the Viking Age, it is based on the basis that the area has been used for a long period. Urban development in the Nordic countries is complex and there are different opinions as to why the Nordic cities emerge. It is important to shed light on the underlying process on why cities are emerging to provide clarity as to why Visby city is emerging.

The aim of this study is to examine the services offered by the public libraries in the context of distance learning students. I wanted to examine if there has been any discussion among the public libraries on how the new needs and demands affect them. To get a premonition on the development in Sweden I have focused on the public libraries in the province of Blekinge, which in many ways can be looked upon as precursors. Interviews have taken place with the distance learning students contacts at the local public libraries, the responsible librarian and a distance learning organiser at the local university college, the county library consultant and one of the chief librarians. I have reached the conclusion that no thorough discussion on the far-reaching aspects has taken place.

When discussing nation branding, there are three perspectives that correlate with each other: National Identity, Nation Brand Identity and Nation Brand Image. This thesis explores the nation branding of Sweden, and describe the three perspectives with a focus on Sweden. When comparing how the perspectives are comported with each other, there is the possibility of gaps existing when one perspective does not comport with another. We have compared our empirical material on the different perspectives and looked for possible gaps..