The main aim of this study is to examine the development policies of Sweden and the European Union from a postcolonial perspective. Sweden and the European Union are increasingly coming to be viewed as normative powers rather than military powers. So how does the colonial past of the western societies affect the policies of today? Are there any signs of the power structures of the past, and if so, how are these power structures manifested in the development policies of today? Since both Sweden and the European Union have come to be viewed as normative powers they are compared with each other to highlight their similarities and differences. The results of the study shows that both Sweden and the European Union can be seen as carriers of western values and interests.

This bachelor essay is divided into two parts, the first being a construction of a single-familyhouse and the second an in-depth study of five different isolation materials, analysed from anenergy perspective.The first part, the construction of the single-family house, has been created from knowledgeacquired during three years of studying at KTH Royal institute of Technology in Stockholm, inthe program Architecture and the Built Environment. The constructed house is a one-floorhouse of 137m2with façade plaster, situated in Borlänge, Sweden. The house has a wooden framewhich is built on a on sight cast concrete foundation, on the ground. The house?s roof is a gableroof, which has an angle of 24 degrees.

Since Sweden became a member of the European Union (EU) several constitutional reforms has been taking place. During this time, Sweden has also changed its view on democracy,from a collective to an individual perspective of democracy in the politics. A reasonable hypothesis and the purpose of this essay is to investigate if the Swedish government has beendeveloped towards an Europeanization.The Swedish state audit changed in a pioneering way after the EU- entry, with the formation of Riksrevisionen. Another constitutional change is that the Swedish EU- membership is being instituted in the Swedish constitution. The role of Swedish courts has also changed since the EU- entry.

This thesis focuses on the perception of immigration and refugees in the commonEuropean refugee and immigration policy. It identifies different discourses andstudies their development and interrelated power structures.Using the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, documents from theEuropean Council, the Commission, the Justice and Home Affairs Council andParliament debates are analysed. The study is defined in the time span of 1999-2006, i.e. from the European Council's first agreement on developing a commonEuropean asylum system, following the period up till today.Four discourses are distinguished, focusing respectively on rights, security,European Union's needs, and cultural identity. I use Sandra Lavenex theory ofrealism and idealism to analyse one of the main points in the thesis: There is afundamental schism between the one rights-based discourse, focusing on universalhuman rights, and the three sharing a particularistic focus on immigration as asecurity concern.

The first part of this essay is about a single-family house that we have planned and projected. Thesecond part is a deeper study in ways to further insulate windows when they are not in use.In the first part the building?s design and its most important construction elements are described.The planning of all major installations (heating, domestic water, ventilation, sanitation, electricity)are reported so that one can in principle start construction of the house. In addition there arecalculations done on the building?s energy management.The result is a two stored house angled toward the south.

Svensk Växtkraft is the owner of the biogas plant in Västerås. The company is planning to increase their treatment capacity at their biogas plant. In connection to this work it is also possible to make some energy saving changes to the biogas plant. The objective of this study was therefore to make an electricity and heat survey of the biogas plant, a detailed study of the heat consumption in the sanitation step and also a comparison of energy consumption with the present sanitation method and an alternative strategy where the waste is treated in 55 °C during 10 hours (the current method is heating to 70 °C during 1 hour). The energy survey was conducted in close collaboration with staff at the biogas plant. The current during normal operation was measured, power was calculated and multiplied by the time of usage to obtain the energy consumed.

The municipality in Uppsala has set up goals for the future work concerning climate-and energy issues. As one way to achieve these goals the municipality started aproject called Uppsala climate protocol. During one of the project meetings anabatement map was presented. The map showed what savings in carbon dioxide andmarginal costs for different actions can be made. Statistics show that 40 % of thepopulation in Uppsala lives in a condominium.

Sweden has long had access to low electricity prices due to the wide availability of hydro and nuclear power. This has now changed because of today's rising electricity rates resulting in increasing heating costs for properties, especially in the properties with electric heating systems."Ankaret" is a parish for "Svenska Alliansmissionen", which is located at "Gullbrannagården".The parish has installed electrical radiators and an exhaust ventilation system that makes the energy demand high due to the large ventilation flows. The building was built as the price of electricity was still low and would reduce energy use today by combining its heating system with an air/air heat pump. The heat pump delivers more heat into the room than the electrical energy that it uses. This lowers the electricity needs.

Arbetet går ut på att genomföra en miljö- och energianalys av två pressgrupper i processhallen. Detta innebär att dagens process skall analyseras för att se om man genom olika system kan göra arbetsklimatet bättre för operatörerna samtidigt som en besparing av energi möjliggörs..

The European Union is struggling to maintain democracy and tries to increase the participation among the citizens in Europe. The European Citizens? Initiative, ECI, is a platform established by the European Commission to allow citizens to propose new legislation. ?Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity!? is the first ECI that has met the requirements.

In this paper I attempt to analyze the ways the European Union defines its external borders in cross-border co-operation with its neighbours. The analysis is based on case study examining the founding components of a updated version of the Northern Dimension policy of the European Union.The analytical framework of the study is composed of three different perceptions on the cross-border co-operation; regionalisation, integration and flexible integration. I conclude that the model of cross-border co-operation laid by the Northern Dimension policy would have an impact on the EU's external border with Russia, making it more flexible and vague.As far as the geographical terms of the co-operation are concerned, they seem to shift from regional co-operation to greater emphasis the role of networks as basis for co-operation instead of traditional regions..

This thesis has been written with our society?s current energy-situation in mind.Although it only deals with one particular block of buildings, the solutions and suggestions presented herein are quite applicable on other objects of the same type.This thesis is intended to be used as a guideline for energy-preserving projects in general, with an eye to buildings erected during the Swedish ?million-programme? in the sixties and seventies.The paper starts with the acquiring of all necessary blueprints and technical specifications. It then moves on to a thorough description of the buildings in question, and their heating- and ventilation-systems.Followed by this the reader is guided through the successive stages of energy-perseverance measures that are available, and possible. Reasoning around the economic factors concerning all measures is also held.The paper ends with conclusion, and a discussion concerning the delicate issue of the higher return-temperatures possibly reaching the district-heating plant..

Uppsala County has ambitious environmental aims for the planned residential area inÖstra Sala backe. In this thesis different energy sources have been evaluated todetermine which system that would be most favorable given currently availableinformation about the project. Planned energy usage has been divided into tap waterheating, space heating and power. Three base case scenarios were made with districtheating, small scale bio fuel and heat pump. Solar power and solar heating were thensimulated and the production from the two could individually be deducted from theenergy need in the base cases, constituting 9 different scenarios.

Warmer climate is a driving factor to species expansion northwards. Expansion to new areas can result in escape from natural enemies, resulting in reduced levels of mortality and thereby potentially increasing the rate of expansion. The most important parasitoid species attacking butterfly larvae belong to the families Tachinidae, Ichneumonidae and Braconidae. The aim of this thesis was to investigate parasitism and difference between populations in established area and newly colonized area for the European map butterfly, Araschnia levana, in order to examine if the butterfly has escaped from some natural enemies. In 1982 the first European map butterfly was observed in Sweden and has now established up to middle Småland.

The building sector accounted for around a fourth of the total energy usage in Sweden in year 2010 (Energimyndigheten, 2012). Therefore it has become very interesting to achieve a lower energy usage in residential buildings. One way to achieve that is to build so called passive houses. By being very well insulated and have low leakage through the walls, they can reduce the energy usage for heating with a substantial amount. The first passive house was built during the 90?s in Germany; and in Sweden the first passive house was built in Gothenburg 2001.