What is a city? What do we mean when we describe something as urban? In what way should we build the city so that we can achieve a good environment for our own generation and for generations to come? These questions are constantly of interest and they are frequently discussed. It is also important to have considered these questions when working with city-planning. This essay contains a description of and reflections about the recurrent questions in today?s debate about the city and city-planning.

In order to fully grasp the phenomena 'City' we must understand its political structure as an integrated part of its physical structure and vice versa. This thesis focuses on one crucial element of the City, the public space, and discusses it in relation to the public realm, or sphere, of the City. The aim is to see if it is possible to conceive public space as a spatial dimension of power, and if so, how to analyse this. With the help of the theoretical tool of two ideal types of the configuration of public space, "The city as civic public life" and "The city as authoritarian control" an empirical study is carried out on the case of Prishtina, capital of Kosovo.Conclusions made are that function and use of a city's public spaces can be understood in relation to changes in the political climate of the society. Furthermore, a void in the asset of concepts offered by the ideal types is found ? and therefore also need for new concepts to describe and understand a public space undergoing a dynamic transformation, as being a part of a city in political transition..

Cities have always been founded on nodes of different roads.The city Harnosand was founded where the road along the coast of north Sweden meets the sea and the calm bay of Nattviken behind the island of Harnon. Harnosand has a big historic heritage as one of the first cities in the north part of Sweden, centre of the church and education city. The incrising centralisation of Sweden and the globalication of the world have made north of Sweden to the backside of Sweden.The coun- tryside and the smaller cities don ?t live anymore. In Harnosand is big moving out and many empty spaces. In the middle of Harnosand next to Nattviken, is one of these empty spaces. This empty space next to the road of E4, that leads out in the world and Europa.

Eslöv received its city privileges in the year 1911 and to celebrate the city?s 100th jubilee it has been decided, among many other things, to reinvigorate the City park. This master thesis presents a new proposal for the design of the City park. As a basis for the new proposal a study of the public park is made in a social and structural context as well as a study of the history of the Eslöv City park. The history of the Eslöv City park is somewhat unclear, especially if there has ever been a one design for the whole park? To create a picture of the public park in general, a study of literature has been made and to describe the history of the City park I Have researched the city archive in Eslöv.

Uppsatsen syftar till att utreda begreppet City branding i förhållande till Kalmar Konstmuseum. Byggnaden analyseras semiotiskt, i en kontext av City branding.Konklusionen blir att även om man under de senaste åren värjt sig mot begrepp som City branding och spektakulär arkitektur måste man som byggherre idag förhålla sig till dem. I en intervju har just avståndstagande från begreppet visat sig. I Kalmars fall hävdar uppsatsen att man använt sig av det när man byggde sitt nya konstmuseum..

This study shows how city planners and politicians in Karlstad plans different parts of the city, what type of model/ city ideals they use when planning, and how it is expressed. The study was made using a qualitative method, were a discourse analysis was vital for the elected planning document and blog posts. Qualitative interviews were also made with five people with significant meaning, who hold different positions in the city planning of Karlstad. In the produced material, it appears that the city planners and politicians in Karlstad are planning for traditional city ideals as a foundation in the planning, with influence from new ideas as for example sustainable planning and economic growth. In some parts of the city a modern and rational planning remains.

AbstractCities are once again becoming the locus of economic, social and political processes. The effect of these processes on the city is two-fold: one one hand they threaten to fragment and dislocate the city and the actors within them, on the other hand they give actors within cities new opportunities to react and mobilize resources towards different strategies of integration. The latter gives rise to what Patrick Le Galès calls the collective actor-city. The aim of this thesis is to explore the notion of the city as a collective actor in a swedish context by utilizing Le Galès theory of european cities as collective actors in an abductive case study on the city of Malmoe. By utilizing Le Galès five dimensions that make up a collective actor I analyze interviews conducted with city officals aswell as documents produced from the city wide plan of action Welfare for everybody.

The purpose of this essay is to examine one of Sweden's oldest motorways in cityenvironment. The researched section is motorway E20 east of Gothenburg. Olskroksmotetin the west and Jonsered junction in the east, a distance of about 11 km. The mainquestion was, can maintenance of areas and objects related to the motorway give greatermeaning to a system that currently lacks historical connection?The survey was partly an archival study and partly a physical examination of themotorway and its appearance today.The road through Säveedalen from Gothenburg has a long history that begins with theriver and its valley as transport routes.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an idea about geography in literature and through the study of science fiction literature examine the ?future city?. With the perspective that the city is a social construction and through the use of discourse theory, I have tried to emphasize how the future city is a representation of cultural discourses and in what way geography in literature can be used to increase our understanding of urban places. My intention with this paper has also been to find a way to connect the fictional future city with today?s urban planning discussion about the future city.

The purpose of the essay is to discuss from the theory about the established and the Outsiders if the Culture Centre Blå Stället can serve as a meeting point between the majority of the people and the minority of the people in Gothenburg. The idea of Blå Stället is that it shall work as a house available for everyone and as a cultural meeting point between people in and outside Angered. I argue if Blå Stället really is a place where people from Gothenburg as a whole go or if there are some hindrances for their visions. My study is comprised of interviews with three of the staff at Blå Stället. With the theory about the established and the outsiders I want to show that the division in the city between ?them? and ?us? has to do with differences of power.

Urban planning is not only a matter of architectural trends; it is first and foremost political. This thesis seeks to understand the links between political ideas and visions for the city and the physical structure of the city. The study aims to construct a model to help understand these links, a helpful tool in analysing a city, focusing on the one hand at the physical structure of what I call "The City as a Welfare Provider" and on the other hand at "The City as a Growth Engine". It also sets out to test this model in an empirical study of Stockholm and the soon-to-be built district of Norra Station in the same city.The analysis shows that Stockholm has ambitions to be a welfare provider to its citizens, but have also adopted to a discourse of interurban competition which stresses the importance for the city to enhance economical growth. What is interesting is that the physical structures promoted in the planning documents of Stockholm are nearly exclusively those associated with the model of "The City as a Growth Engine"..

The city is complex, multi-faceted and fascinating. The same can be said about the rooms of the city. The experience of the rooms of the city can be described in as many ways as there are individuals. The question concerned in this essay is How can you describe the rooms of the city as a phenomenon and how can you describe the experience of these rooms in general? The concepts city and room are widely understood and neither of them has a description that can be used in all situations.

Globalization allows companies to expand and establish themselves in other markets, which can have unexpected consequences for those who are not aware of the controversy or sacrifices that are required, and Gothenburg, Sweden is not an exception. The study has focused on two institutional theories that can explain whathappens when a foreign direct investment takes place, Institutional work and Institutional duality. The study was conducted at Business Region Gothenburg and the interviews took place at department of establishment and investment. The result shows that to overcome institutional barriers they use networking, relations, and marketing of the region of Gothenburg as examples. The paper also argues that by performing some sort of institutional work, institutional duality occurs..

Urban density is not new, but rather one side of the continous processes of change underway in the city. During the urbanizing boom of the industrialization, when the cities grew bigger, the first spaces to be built on were vacant and planted areas in the interior of the district. The gardens that once were there were replaced by yardhouses. The idea of urban density is that a dense city means less distance between residential areas and workplaces, resulting in fewer shipments and travelers, which ultimately leads to lower energy consumption and lower emissions. Urban density may lead to shorter distances, but not necessarily. In the wake of urban density the greenstructures of the city is shattered. The possibilities for green areas to contribute to the health of the city and its inhabitants is dramatically reduced.

Throughout the history, the theories which have shaped our cities have varied from time to time. We have gone from a city development characterized by spontaneousness, where commerce and people side by side shared the space, into a function-based planning where people and functions are being increasingly separated. Regardless the forms of planning the city design causes implications for those who live there when the physical environment controls were we live, work and meet. In today's society where `sustainability ' has become a watchword the current community planning needs to be questioned so we, in the best possible way, can meet future changes. Searching for new planning strategies is part of this and in this essay the term `mixed-use´ will be investigated and analyzed in terms of its social aspects.