The aim of this paper is to get a deeper understanding if research about international relations has any practical meaning. The main focal point is about the importance of the scholar idea soft power, and its meaning on foreign policy actions through expressions. A quantity and quality method is used. The point of the main theory that concerns international relations takes a rationalistic perspective, and expands it to the notion that ides can have an impact on policy outcomes. Three different types of research utilization can be traced to determine in which way an idea is getting implemented.

This bachelor thesis aims to analyse the Swedish mortgage market and investigate whether it is in a current price bubble or not. Comparisons have been made with Denmark, a country with a market similar to Sweden?s, and where the mortgage market faced a price bubble that crashed in 2008. The housing market in Stockholm has been analysed as a separate market, as it differs from Sweden as a whole in prices and underlying factors to increased prices. The conclusion of this thesis is that not Sweden, nor Stockholm, is currently in a price bubble at the mortgage market.

The rise of the Swedish Democrats, as a political party in Sweden, has been surroundedby controversy both within and outside of the media. As such a polarizingtopic, the party has been the focus of negative and positive attention. On onehand it has been considered a racist and xenophobic party due to its policies onimmigrants. On the other, it has also been seen as a solution to what has been consideredby some to be a constant problem in Sweden, for those same policies.These policies are motivated by what the party perceives as a threat to Swedishsociety. That is to say, immigrants are a threat to Sweden because of thechanges they impose on the Swedish identity.

The paper evaluates two housing proposals with Space syntax as method. The proposals are very different in a topological sense but are in a configural sense almost the same. This effect is because both proposals connect themselves to the existing configural structure of the city in the same way. Neither of them takes advantages of the most integrated streets in the existing structure and use them to concentrate pedestrian and car flows to the streets or points which are intended to be the most urban areas. The knowledge of Space syntax and this evaluation puts focus on the pour understanding among architects and planners of what effect urban design proposals will have..

This thesis is a case study that examines what political decisions have been taken and how these policies have been implemented. Further this thesis discusses how legitimacy of local policy makers and implementors is affected. The subject studied have been the social service of Jönköping municipality and the intervention of safe-housing aimed at women who have been, or are subject to violence by person close to them. In our study we have examined local policy within the territory of the intervention and how this policy is implemented. A qualitative method with semi-structured interviews was used in combination with quantitative methods to examine protocols from the social welfare board and an action program named "Skydd och stöd för misshandlade kvinnor och deras barn? [Protection and support for abused women and their children].The purpose of this study has been to highlight how the social services implemented the local policy of safe-house accommodation in Jönköping municipality from the legitimacy and discretion perspectives.

Today  Real  estate  companies  face  the  challenge  where  extensive  renovations  on  existinghousing built before 1980 must be performed. Conditions have changed and the housing need performance-­?enhancing measures that meet today's quality. With a current renovation rate,  it  would  take  30  years  to  meet  the  renovation  needs.  The  renovation  rate  must therefore rise dramatically, which requires the real estate companies to act consistently in accordance with commercial principles and in an economically, socially and environmentally responsible way.The  paper  discusses  renovation  strategies  in  four  municipal  housing  companies  in  the Stockholm  suburbs.  The  report  includes  surveys  of  four  ongoing  renovation  projects; Fastighets AB Förvaltaren in Sundbyberg project Hundloken 3, Stiftelsen Signalisten in Solna project Ritorp, Sollentunahem in Sollentuna project Svalgången och Väsbyhem in Upplands Väsby project Dragonvägen. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the practices of redevelopment projects.

The acts of promoting local business and implementing efforts to appear as an attractive location for potential business are rather new activities among Swedish municipalities. The knowledge about how these activities are organised and what strategies are perused are fairly limited. In addition the structures concerning cooperation between municipalities for economic policies contain incentives both for and against cooperation. This creates a complicated situation. Using prior research mainly done by Markus Gossas, Lennart J Lundqvist and an analytical model designed by Jon Pierre, which in this essay is completed with the works of Roger Henning, these issues are addressed.

The aim of our study was to examine how the elderly experience their meal situation in a sheltered housing. We have used a qualitative approach. We conducted individual interviews with six elderly in a sheltered housing to collect our empirical material. To reach the purpose of this study we tried to answer the questions: which factors affect the elderly person?s experience of the meal and which significance does the meal have for the elderly? To reach deeper understanding for our collected material we used Maslow?s theory of human motivation, the two concepts of Tönnies; gemeinschaft and gesellschaft, disengagement theory and the concept of Bourdieu, called habitus.

Work gets more seamless and the demand on workers increases because of changes in the labour market. Studies show benefits for workers and companies if the employee achieves a balance between work and family, a way to facilitate it is family-friendly policies. A study done by Unionen shows that three out of four white collar workers choose to vobba (working and caring for a sick child), which blurs the boundaries between work and family. Research on flexibility, organisational culture and gender structures shows how these aspects affect the balance between work and family. This is a study where seven white collar workers (three men) that vobbar and two managers (one man) were interviewed.

The industrialized timber housing process is capable nowadays to build multi-storeyhouses since fairly new changes in the Swedish regulations where made after theadmission of the European Union in 1994.The industrialized process moves parts of the construction process into a highlyeffective factory where 3D-volumes of the building are prefabricated beforetransportation to the building site for assemble.The assembly process is relatively effective compared to the completion of thebuilding service system and this is therefore the main focus in this thesis. This thesisattends problems with completion of the building service system, and thereforedemarcates from other aspects, such as technical and economic aspects, of thebuilding service system.The degree of completion of the flats differs from completion of the connectivepassages, for example hallways, in a way that suggests a need for further investigation.This thesis includes analysis of the possibilities to increase the prefabricatedconnective passages, to the extent of containing building service systems.An increase of the prefabrication of the building service system has a greatdevelopment potential, even though some restraining factors need to be solvedbefore implementation.This thesis was made in collaboration with two of Sweden?s leading companies on themarket of multi-storey industrialized timber housing, Moelven ByggModul AB andLindbäcks Bygg AB..

Purpose/aim: The purpose of this thesis is to examine if, and in that case how, the municipality of Umeå worked strategically with its communication during 2014 when Umeå was chosen as ?European Capital of Culture?. The research is mainly focused on the outlines of their communication plan, main goals, what  communication strategies the municipality has chosen to and their choice of media channels.Material/method: Two methods are used for this research; qualitative interviews with four employees within the communication team during Umeå2014 and a text analysis of three formal documents which provide the framework of communication policies and media strategies during Umeå2014.Results: The results clearly indicate a well structured, strategic planning outlined in the formal documents. The four people intreviewed all had a good knowledge of the policies and strategies in the documents, they also described their work in accordance with these..

In Sweden, a big part of the energy use is used in the housing sector. Political goals and targets are set up which the housing sector needs to work towards. Apartment buildings are a major part of the housing sector in Sweden and therefore reduction of energy use in these kinds of buildings are key to lower the energy use in Sweden. But there are not only political incentives to reduce the energy use. Some energy?saving measures are directly profitable and should thus be performed.

This is a qualitative study which purpose is to examine how the social workers in a medium-sized municipality in southern of Sweden are experiencing the different forms of housing that the municipality has for disposal. The purpose is also to examine opinions - belonging to the social workers? representatives - concerning the value of motivational work in changing the lifestyles of assaulted and addicted women. The questions we have decided to examine are; how is the social services' work with assaulted and addicted women designed, how do the social workers experiences the situation on these forms of housing and what the social workers believe is promoting and inhibiting factors for motivation with assaulted and addicted women. The results in this study are built on qualitative semi-structured interviews with social workers where both sexes are represented.

The study sheds light on how individuals from different countries experience the labour action Komjobb. The study aim to examine in which consideration experiences of the action Komjobb differs among the participants. The study is based on eight qualitative interviews and analyzed by using the method of phenomenography. We have based this research on a theory about Social constructivism. Other theories that we have used are Bauman's theory about the changing value of work in the modern and postmodern society and Andersson's theory of unemployment as a social category.

This is a study about residential segregation in Malmö. The aim is to highlight the segregation that is taking place in the city as a whole. I therefore focus on two residential areas in Malmö which are not often mentioned when speaking about segregation; Västra Innerstaden and Limhamn-Bunkeflo. I present different theories on housing segregation and discuss them in relation to these specific residential areas. I investigate how the socio-economic and ethnic characteristics of the inhabitants in these residential areas are connected to Malmö being a segregated city.