The aim of this bachelor?s thesis is to investigate how the activities of the public library are portrayed by the Swedish press. It poses the following questions: What kinds of public library activities are portrayed in the Swedish press? What image does this depiction purvey to the general public about the societal role of public libraries?A model of four library spaces developed by Skot-Hansen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen, and Jochumsen is used as the theoretical framework for this study. Qualitative content analysis is applied to 173 Swedish newspaper articles that describe public library activities.The analysis reveals that articles about many kinds of public library activities get published in the Swedish press, but that some activities occur more frequently than others.

The purpose of this study was to examine domestic adoptions in Sweden, and also compare the Swedish adoption system to the Canadian adoption system. I wanted to find out why there are so few domestic adoptions in Sweden, and how it has changed over the years. I also wanted to know why there is such a large difference between Sweden and Canada regarding adoptions.I interviewed five social workers to find out what attitudes the social services have regarding adoptions. My other questions were how the childs best interest is considered when a parent wants to place a child in an adoptivefamily, and which parents decide to place their child instead of keeping it.I found that the social services are reluctant to place children in adoptivefamilies because their main goal is to keep biological families intact. In Canada the social services goal is to provide the child with a safe and stable home.There is no longer any stigma surrounding single mothers and well developed welfaresystems enable most to keep their children.

The aim of this master's thesis is to study how the design of the music library space affects how it is used and its role as an arena for culture. This is done in form of a case study of Library 10 in Helsinki, a public library branch that specializes in music and information technology. The backdrop to the study is the changing context for cultural activity in the information society and the role of public libraries as public space and meeting place. By analyzing the distribution of space in the library, the distribution of functions and artefacts and the spatial use of the room, I interpret the ways in which this distributional logic produces a unique place for music and culture. I discuss the music library design in a space and place perspective, utilizing theoretical tools from cultural geography and the space theories of Henri Lefebvre.

The aim of this study was to analyze the assessment of the national tests seen from the teacher?s perspective. The national tests are performed in the Swedish school, classes 3, 5, 9, and the upper secondary school (gymnasiet). There has been an ongoing discussion regarding assessment and grading for a long time and it is of high interest now more than ever. The last control assessment done in 2009 by the department of school inspections on the order of the Swedish government, showed big differences between the assessments done by the teachers, and the assessments completed by the department of school inspections.

Reinforcement is of great importance to fulfill the dimensioned strength of a concrete construction. This requires that the work needs to be carried out with adequate results that neither endangers the workers or the safety of the construction. Progressive development of the planning phase, construction documents, and construction methods is in constant need since the technology constantly evolves.In order for contractors to be able to get acceptances from their quotations requires that they have to increase their working pace in order to be able to leave a quotation with a lower price than the competition.Due to the increasing pace the different parts involved in the construction process is subjected to time pressure. The design stage, construction documents, work preparation and the execution are all affected when everything has to be finished quickly. To avoid problems, it is required that all parts are able to deliver good quality solutions and results under the influences of time pressure, which is not always easy.

This essay examines resident experiences and notions of the Gotland countryside and their ideas about the future. In particular the countryside is studied as both space and place. In space and place people interacting. People are therefore important components in the study of the landscape. One can say that the landscape and the interaction between people affect resident experiences and notions of the countryside, as well as people certainly affect the landscape.

The purpose of this thesis was to create a deeper comprehension for the role of place marketing within Swedish municipalities and how it is applied to attract visitors and residents. A case study was performed to obtain this purpose. Interviews with three northern municipalities were conducted in order to retrieve essential information. This was compared to previous studies of place marketing in order to find similarities and differences. The results of this study showed that municipalities emphasise on creating an attractive image, directed to the residents as well as to people outside.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the research library of Linnæus University is used by students as a meeting place. Building upon Putnam's theory of bonding and bridging social capital and Audunson's conception of high and low intensive meeting places, it aims to explore the research library's potential for creating social capital and thus strengthening both learning and democracy in a university context. Borrowing part of the survey design from a study conducted as part of the Norwegian PLACE project, this study collects responses from 134 students as to their use of the library as a meeting place. The results show that the Linnæus University library is used for a variety of meetings of both high and low intensity, why it should provide a good setting for the creation of social capital. There seems to be a connection between how often one visits the library, as well as to which department one belongs, and how one uses the library as a meeting place.

This paper analyses the existence and nature of the sacred landscape Olands härad during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Olands härad is located in Northern Uppland, onthe way to Östhammar, about 30 km northeast of Uppsala. The interpretations are done with help of place names studies as well as archaeological finds. The results indicate that different types of cult locations can be found in the area..

In this thesis my purpose is to study the mechanisms and discourses that are the foundations for identification processes, in a contemporary society characterised by increased mobility. By means of a fictitious life history, I relate to this problem constantly through the work. At the beginning of the essay I discuss the traditional, western, philosophical view of the self and its surroundings, which eventually leads me to focus on the theories of the sociology of knowledge. From this perspective I choose to examine globalisation processes and mobility, to create an understanding of how these two, changes the circumstances for the individual identification. In my concluding argument I stress that all research or all studies concerning identification processes must take into account that these identifications always take place with regard to time/place which also means, that it takes place both in real space and in imaginary space.

This paper is focuses on trade between eastern Blekinge and the other side of the Baltic Sea during the Viking Age. There are scarce tracks of trade in the area but one place, Skällenäs, isdifferent. Here a treasure has been found with coins from England and Germany and some of the place names are here probably connected with places on the other side of the Baltic.This discovery can be an indication of trade but the paper should be seen as a first investigation and could be the basis of a more extensive survey..

The aim with this Master's thesis is to study the debate that takes place in the local community when a public library branch is threatened by closedown through the local newspapers. Through this it is our aim to understand why the debate takes place, and why so many people gets concerned with it. By relating this debate to contemporary research of library- and information science, and the discussion in three major Swedish library journals, we have found the answers to these questions. By studying the debate, we found six subjects that where essential for this study. These were Politics and economics, Urban and rural districts, Democracy and accessibility, The service of the library, The meeting place and To replace a closed down library.

The last decades the increased computerisation at the places of work has led to new physical loads in the working life and new demands on the working environment. The widespread usage of computers in the working life has led to more sedentary work and less daily movement.The purpose of the thesis is to develop a new product to a concept that in a low intensive and healthy promotional way will activate the body. The product will make a combination of healthy promotion activity and work during office hours possible and primary aims to those with a sedentary office work, which leads to that the body don´t get to be activated in the extent needed.Information has been gathered from studies already made in this area, interviews plus a study and an experiment. From the gathered information concepts and functional solutions has been generated and evaluated to result in a product concept.The thesis has resulted in a concept that consists of a work place unit where the user walks on a treadmill and works at the same time.A general conclusion which can be drawn is that the majority of persons that tested to walk and simultaneously work with a computor on the treadmill found this way of working attractive. Many were positively surprised and said that they would use such an physically activating work place implement if it was available at their place of work..

The ancient site of Skårby, situated about twenty kilometres south of Stockholm, includes one very large cairn enclosured by a stone wall with a small cairn attached to it. Cairns are originally thought of as graves, but resent research shows that they are more likely to have been religious objects. The constructions are seated on a small hill with a view over the lake Bornsjön which used to be a bay of the lake Mälaren. This place has been the object of worship throughout the whole Bronze Age. Over the years the manifestation of the worship changed, but the place for it stayed the same..

It has become increasingly common for cities and municipalities to take greater account of the place marketing, and to see the physical location as a brand. An early step in this process is to make the image measurements of the place, in order to develop better marketing strategies. A method often used in tourism research for this type of measurements is Etchner and Ritchie's theoretical framework. The framework is initially designed to measure visitor's image of a tourist destination.Almost all previous research in this area is based on the visitor's perspective, but Olofsson and Skredsvik have used this framework to measure a location's image among the residents. They feel that the residents of a place can be seen as ambassadors of the place because they know the site well.