The purpose of this study is to make a close and critical scrutiny of the EU Lisbon Strategy and the assumption of `sustainable growth´. A basic question is to clarify what is meant by `sustainability´ in the economic and the environmental dimension respectively, and also, to analyse the meaning of `sustainable growth´. Secondly, I try to investigate the relationship between the economical and environmental dimensions of the strategy. Are the goals of the dimensions compatible and mutually supporting or are they conflicting? By illuminating these issues the study moves towards a final set of questions: What are the arguments that encourage or counteract the Lisbon assumption of `sustainable growth´? Is the European Union approaching `sustainable growth´ looking at different economical and ecological indicators? What are the prospects for the Lisbon Strategy as a way towards global `sustainable development´?.

This paper contains an analysis that sets out to investigate how sustainable development is portrayed in textbooks used in gymnasium level civics education. The study covers three textbooks, all in current use. The paper sets out to explore the relationship between the books chapters on economics and those about environmental issues. The sum of these two parts is in the context supposed to make up the books big picture of green sustainable development, i.e. the ecological aspect of sustainable development. An analytical model will be used to categorise and compare the three textbooks.The method chosen for this is analysis of ideas by use of ideal types.

This master thesis is a study of how city cemeteries can be used and contributes to a socially sustainable urban development. Today sustainable development and sustainable urban development is something that more or less every organization is working with. Therefore it is also relevant to integrate our cemeteries in this work so that they can become a part of the sustainable urban development process.The thesis gives a basic understanding of sustainability as a concept and also defines socially sustainable (urban) development. The work then immerse itself in various types of park structures and how the relationship between the human individual and the public space work, to satisfy the needs that different people have.The literature study that has been made is also the base for the design of the walking interview that has been made for the two city cemeteries. The cemeteries that where studied where the Assistens cemetery in Copenhagen and the Eastern cemetery in Gothenburg.

The study is a case study about the green urban district, East Kvillebäcken, located in Gothenburg, Hisingen. East Kvillebäcken is the first urban district in Sweden with ambition to build sustainable according to the certification system Miljöbyggnad, which make it a pioneer project. The purpose is to investigate the upcoming and the meaning of the green urban district in East Kvillebäcken and show how public employees think the urban district can affect social, ecologic and economic aspects in the area. Dialogue interviews were done with four public employees, one estate agent and two residents. Local plans and other authority documents were used to get a deeper understanding for the case study.

An increasing global population and a worldwide growing urbanization has raised the questionabout the future food security in cities all over the world. Peak-oil limits the access to cheap fossilfuels which threatens the global food-supply chain. This has resulted in a larger awareness anddiscussion related to urban agriculture. Growing crops and keeping animals within the city-borderscould be one way of creating a more robust and sustainable food supply for city dwellers. However,to enable an expansion of the urban agriculture many theorists argue that policies and institutionalstructures that supports and promotes city farming have to be developed.

Rapid urbanisation is putting strains on both the landscape and the city dwellers and the pressure on planning for sustainable and equitable cities is crucial. As many cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are expanding, city planning has trouble keeping up to meet the needs of the growing amount of urban dwellers. Many cities have also been planned with the cars in focus and the needs and comfort of the pedestrians have been overlooked. The capacity of institutions is limited due to centralized government and bureaucracy, as well as corruption. Planning is erratically implemented and it is difficult to know what will happen.

The purpose with the essay is to point out how the main differences of the Helsinkicommission, Helcom and Baltic 21 can be explained from a general perspective and with a specific focus on two of their ongoing projects: Baltic 21 Lighthouse projects and The Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Plan. And to investigate how the organisations them selves formulates the purpose of the two projects. This will be an indication on why environmental problems are handled with in a traditional matter although the rhetoric of the environmental politics is permeated by the concept of Sustainable Development.This dilemma is being treated from the theoretical approaches of Ecological Modernisation and Sustainable Development and linked to how these organisations actually carried out their work and how the historical heritage have a role to play in this complex of problems. The results of the essay shows that concrete differences exists in the way that the two organisations are constructed and how their ongoing projects are designed and formulated. These differences can be derived to the theoretical platforms Ecological Modernisation and Sustainable Development and be explained by in witch political context the organisations were created.

Do new, attractive neighborhoods meet the requirements of being socially sustainable? This essay is based on the potential conflicts between the pursuit of social sustainability, while the theory of the creative class influence city planning. Social sustainability is difficult to measure, but implies broadly that everyone should have equal rights and opportunities. A city or region that aims to attract a certain type of people by providing what they ask for, might pay less attention and spend less resources on the rest of the population. Socially sustainable - for whom? The new district Hyllie in southern Malmö stands in focus, and the paper seeks to identify how different operators in Malmö defines the concept of social sustainability, how it is implemented in the design of Hyllie, and if any potential conflicts may arise.Interviews with the following informants; representants from the Office for City Planning in Malmö, the nonprofit organization Sustainable Development Skåne, the Commission for a Socially Sustainable Malmö and the company Skanska Öresund have constituted the main methodology, among with reading and analyzing existing documents and policies relating to the development of Hyllie.

The state of our society is frequently changing. Due to various factors, the pressure of creating a changeable city is high and necessary to adequately supply the needs for its inhabitants. But making these changes and adapt to the fast shifting state of the city is not always physical possible. Young adults and students is a group that often seeks to move to intensely growing city regions. The reason for this is a more promising job market and more attractive educations, but coincidentally the shortage of housing is extremely high in these areas.

All around the world more and more people move from rural areas to live in the cities. Because of this, the urban areas have become an important part in the debate about the effects on the environment and sustainability. In many countries word wide initiatives have been taken to build sustainable cities and eco cities, the Stockholm Royal Seaport is one example. The vision for the district is to become a world class sustainable city based on the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic and ecologic. The municipality of Stockholm has set requirements for the buildings? energy usage, emissions and amount of waste generated during the building process.

The aim of this essay is to give the reader an idea of how the European agricultural policies have developed, in regard of sustainable development, since Sweden became a member in the union 1995. The main aspect that?s been investigated is the issues regarding sustainable development and how the issues regarding the ecological farming methods have been dealt with. My research questions are:- How has the European environment- and agricultural politics changed since Swedenjoined the union in 1995?- What consequences have the changes had for ecological farming?The answers to the stated questions are that there have been several treaties in the field of environmental development of the agricultural policy, starting with the Maastricht treaty and ends up with the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming.

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.

In June 2006 the Council of the European Union agreed on the review of the EU sustainable development strategy. This renewed strategy voices a commitment to sustainable development that includes a diverse list of safeguarded interests. Sustainability is to be attained in the spheres of democracy, solidarity, the rule of law, gender equality and at the same time it should promote a dynamic economy. Given this multifunctional application of sustainable development, curiosity may soon give rise to questions such as; What is the legal significance of the concept? Is it to be considered a general principle of Community law? And can it be used as an instrument in adjudication and legal reasoning? Anyone who looks deeper into the concept of sustainable development is soon to find a labyrinthine complex of ideas, expressions and opinions.

This study aims to analyse the connection between poverty reduction and sustainable development through strategies used for the reduction of poverty. With the methodology of content analysis of three policy documents to provide and easy overview of how the government of Ethiopia is planning to achieve sustainable and long-term poverty alleviation. The focus of this study will be on Ethiopia, a country with very high economic growth in the past years but still with hight poverty rates. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the already existing and broad knowledge and research of sustainable development and poverty alleviation and contribute with more research in Ethiopia where the research done in this specific area and region is not in abundance. In this study all dimensions of sustainable development, social, economic and ecological are included to get a more holistic picture of the sustainable development in the government?s plans and its challenges.

To reach an Ecological Sustainable Development, Sweden has established environmental quality objectives. Green spaces are attractive for exploitation and in Sweden the access to large jointly green spaces has decreased, which has impact on humans recreation and the biodiversity. The economic aspect has great impact on the planning process which gives indications that the environmental objective may collide with other sector goals within the municipality. The thesis overall aim is to see how the management by objectives for the green spaces implements and how the green spaces is handled in the planning process in a specific case. The thesis builds on a content analysis, strategic interviews and a case study.