In this undergraduate thesis you will venture on a journey through the land of democratic values and urban planning. My research question is stated as: whether or not urban planning can show effects on democratic values and whether or not the municipalities in Sweden takes these possible effects into account when planning their city centres. You will in my theory part of this thesis be able to read about different views on urban planning and on democracy. Famous authors like Robert D. Putnam and Richard Florida will be examined as well as other theorists on democracy and urban planning.

The purpose of the study is to examine and analyze the relation between the existence of global companies and given support to immigrant- owned companies with large cultural difference from public services. This helps answering the question "Which affect does the existence of local dominating companies have on the establishment of small companies owned by immigrants with large cultural differences?" This has been accomplished through a field study containing twelve interviews with small companies in two different cities and two interviews with the community officials in each city. The research was thereby narrowed to only treat the two cities in Sweden in order to examine the relation between public services support to small immigrant-owned companies and how the immigrants experience the support from them. The analyze was made due to a handful of theories such as the The network theory IP model, Hofstede's 4+1 model and the Product Life Cycle.

The aim of the study is to learn more about the way preschool teachers work with Information and Communication Technology(ICT). More specifically, this study aims to explore how preschool teachers describe their experience of ICT, the conditions and opportunities to work with ICT, and their own knowledge and competence in the use of digital tools with preschool children. The research method consists of interviews with preschool teachers and observations at five municipal preschools in Stockholm as well as an analysis of the relevant passages in the Curriculum for the Preschool and the Curriculum of Stockholm city. This study shows that there seems to be great variation in the amount of ICT tools present in preschools. Preschool teachers expect a lot from ICT, and the improvements that it can make on their work.

The purpose of this essay is to examine if there is any difference in the style of conversation between a municipal politician and a politician in parliament? In order to answer this question I have created two sub-questions that are more precise. The first question is: Are the municipal politicians more open to cooperate with politicians from other parties than the politicians from parliament? And the second question is: Is the rhetoric between the politicians in parliament different than the rhetoric between the municipal politicians?My study is a comparative case study with two different groups of politicians. With the help of a survey I have tried to examine if there are differences in the use of language in the daily work for the politicians.

Sustainable urban development is a concept that has become increasingly important as the urbanization continues and more and more challenges are focused to the cities.  The Swedish government and authorities regulates and sets goals for how a sustainable urban development is to be achieved. These laws and goals are vaguely defined, which leads to disputes between the actors about how the term should be interpreted. By examining Västermalms Strand, an urban development project in Stockholm, this study strives to describe how involved actors interpret the concept of sustainable urban development and what the consequences of this are for urban development in Stockholm from an ecological, social and economic perspective. A case study has been carried out where a document study and interviews have been conducted. The interviews were conducted with four key actors from the private and public sector.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the possibilities of, and interest in, a digital download service at the music departments of the libraries. I chose to conduct my study at the city library of Gothenburg. I studied the legal download services that exist today and I did a statistical survey among the users of the music department, followed up by interviews to see how they took to the idea. From the inquiry I learned that a majority of the users was negative to having a digital service replacing the physical department, although a majority was positive to try a digital service. I also used the inquiry to compare the reasons for downloading music to the reasons for borrowing records from the library, but there was no significant difference.

ABSTRACT?Crisis Management? New York Citys management of the terroristattack against World Trade Center?Essey in political science, C-level, at Karlstad University, by Sara Kringsberg.Spring 2006. Tutor: Susan MartonThe purpose of this essay is to study New York Citys management of a larger crisis and to see how states are coping with stress. It is important to study how states manage stress so that states can learn to cope with larger crisis. That is important for the survival of the state and the protection of its citizens.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate if signage for tourists in Stockholm is enough to easily find your way to attractions and public modes of transport and how the city works with the issue. Triangulation was chosen for the essay, that is, a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. A survey of 100 tourists was carried out in the Old town of Stockholm and interviews were made with stakeholders in the tourism industry and signage policy in Stockholm. The survey showed that most of the tourists found it easy to find their way in Stockholm and that they were content with the signage. Few of the tourists thought it was difficult to find their way in Stockholm.

Detta examensarbete i landskapsarkitektur behandlar ämnet urban odling med avsikten att identifiera vilka möjligheter och begränsningar det finns med odling i staden. Målet med examensarbetet är att uppnå en större förståelse och kunskap inom detta ämne. Varvsstaden i Malmö har valts som ett exempel för att illustrera hur odlingar skulle kunna implementeras i en central stadsdel som är under utveckling.Litteraturstudier har legat till grund för en kunskapsöversikt av olika aspekter av urban odling. En kvalitativ miniundersökning har utförts för att ta reda på hur nyckelpersoner i Malmö från de tre kategorierna; politiker, tjänstemän samt brukare ser på urban odling och dess möjligheter och begränsningar. Kunskapsöversikten om urban odling i allmänhet och beskrivningarna om Varvsstaden i Malmö har fungerat som underlag till idéskisser för hur odling i Varvsstaden skulle kunna se ut.Resultatet av examensarbetet visar på att det finns många möjligheter med urban odling och att det finns mycket att vinna genom att odla i staden.

The aim of the essay is to analyze destructivity and the aspiration of artistry in August Strindberg´s debut novel Röda rummet. By the method of close reading the thematic analysis is performed. The method is also based on an hermeneutic way of looking at literature.A historical context is adapted and the characters are compared to historical descriptions of artists such as bohemians, decadents and dandys. The artists of the novel prove to be, like the bohemians of the 19th century, standing outside and against society, although the presence of relations and cultural exchange seem to be just as important. There is also an ambivalence to be found in their relationship with the city and it´s lifestyle.The question at issue is how the development of the characters´ artistry come about, and in what ways the characters are influenced.

Media har i flera år skrivit om att centrumhandeln i många städer har en negativ tillväxt. De externa köpcentrum har under den senaste tiden haft en positiv tillväxt. Under de 10-20 senaste åren så har stora detaljhandelskedjor haft som strategi att etbalera sina nya butiker i de externa köpcentrumen. När de väljer att etablera sig där så ökar konkurrensen för centrumgalleriorna. Syftet med denna uppsats är ta reda på centrumledarnas syn på situationen för centrumgalleriorna och de externa köpcentrumen i Västerås och Norrköping.Åtta centrumledare på centrumgallerior och externa köpcentrum i Västerås och Norrköping har intervjuats samt en fastighetsmarknadsutvecklare i Norrköping.

The aim of this thesis was to understand and illuminate how readingpromotion projects can be carried out, what sort of activities they mightcontain and what sort of lasting impressions they might make. We choseto examine reading promotion projects because we consider thepromotion of reading and literacy a vital and important part of thelibraries work. The study took place at the city library of Uddevalla andthe projects included in the study were all directed towards children andyouth.The theory used in the thesis was Aidan Chambers?s model of theReading Circle which consists of the four themes of selection,?reading?, response and the enabling adult. Methods used were semistructuredinterview, document studies and observation.The results show that reading promotion projects benefit from cooperationbetween the adults involved and that education of the adultsin order to indirectly target the children is an effective way of spreadingthe love of reading.

Projektet har genomförts i samarbete med Lokalförvaltningen, Göteborgs Stad.Eftersom behovet av lokaler i en stad förändras över tid efterfrågas en byggnad som kan användas till flera olika ändamål under dess bruksperiod. Ombyggnation av befintliga byggnader kan bli kostsamma och tidskrävande eftersom bärande komponenter eller fasta installationer ofta måste flyttas eller bytas ut. En flexibel byggnad som redan vid uppförandet förbereds för ombyggnation kan enkelt anpassas och användas till flera olika verksamheter. Att bygga mer effektivt och flexibelt minskar kostnader och bidrar till ett mer hållbart byggande. Syftet med arbetet var att ta fram en byggnad som genom enklare omställningsarbeten i byggnadens invändiga utseende kan fungera för tre olika verksamheter.

Due to globalization, decentralization and the capitalist system's need to physical location cities have become increasingly important economic spheres during thee last decades. City mayors are seen as increasingly important actors, who can shape the future economic development of their cities through networking with businesses and strategic policy development. Therefore several European countries have introduced mayor reforms to enable mayors to take a bigger responsibility for the local development. These reforms raise interesting questions concerning what leadership changes they produce at the local level and if there is a difference between local leaders and leadership in different countries. This paper further explores the connection between the local leader and the locality since this relationship often has been neglect in studies concerning mayor reforms.

In recent decades, public relations and news management have become increasingly important in organizations? communication efforts. This thesis aims to show how the Kalmar municipality works with this type of strategic communication to build the Kalmar brand and how their communication efforts can be improved. The thesis is mainly based on theories concerning Public relations and News Management but also the medias impact on forming opinion. An important issue throughout the thesis is that all theories must be related to the fact that the study concerns an organization in the public sector and the obligations that comes with that fact.