This essay presents an investigation of the ruins of an assembly of crofts in a rural area in the south of Sweden, outside the town Falk?ping. Using literary sources and intangible sources, and then combine them with the information found by investigation of the physical remains of the crofts, the essay attempts to capture the life and the living conditions of the crofters. The investigation is focusing on the period between the nighteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century, and looks into the the living conditions according to, for example, the buildings, the orientation in the landscape, demografical changes, the transformation of the area over years and how the crofters were affected by powerty. The investigation shows that the crofters in many ways were in vulnerable and exposed positions, powerty summarized as a lack of freedom ? concerning economical, political and social dimensions.

The structure and performance of grocery distribution in Sweden has changed profoundly since the second world war. Increasing access and usage of the private car, in combination with an accommodating town planning has enhanced the exploitation of scale economies within distribution firms. There is, however, some ambiguity concerning the overall efficiency of the distribution system when the costs associated with travelling and purchasing performed by households are treated as an integrated part of the total distribution cost function. The purpose of this master thesis is to develop the foundation of a spatial optimisation model, which defines the most efficient distribution system. The underlying idea is that the optimal localisation and size of grocery stores is a function of economies of scale within the firms weighed against distributions costs within the households, such as transportation costs.

AbstractThis report has been developed in cooperation with Peab Region Bostad Göteborg, mentor at Krook& Tjäder (through Chalmers), and examiner at Chalmers University of Technology. The report is the result of a research of a building project, constructed by Peab. The report is investigating and it means to identify and evaluate qualities in the dwelling and its surroundings. Its purpose is to evaluate how the residents in a chosen housing cooperative enjoy living there. It shall, with help of chosen quality aspects, identify what expectations the residents had before moving in, how they experience the dwelling and its surroundings today, and what hopes they have for the future planning of the area.

The purpose of this study was to increase the level of knowledge in the field of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for wind power. The study includes six wind power farms in the County of Västerbotten in northern Sweden. The main questions were: What are the real dimensions of roadways and land claims for both roads and wind power turbines? How do those dimensions correlate with the dimensions stated in the EIA? Are there any differences in values of the dimensions between the wind power farms that are included in this study? The width of the roadways and the land claims for both roads and wind turbines in wind power farms were examined on site. The results from the examinations were compared with the dimensions available in the EIA for each wind power farm.

Benchmarking is an established method of working which is often used in order to develop the quality of the organization. However, almost 70% of the organizations with benchmarking fail due to the lack of planning and structuring of the benchmarking exercise. Maintenance sections in the paper and pulp industry are one of those who have decided to conduct benchmarking. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain knowledge of how the maintenance sections in the paper and pulp industry deliberately structure and plan to use benchmarking as a driving force for quality development in the maintenance sections.The study is a hermeneutic case study. Telephone interviews and document analysis have been used as data acquisition methods.The results show that there is a lack of both planning and structuring in the benchmarking process, and lack of management commitment for quality improvements within industrial maintenance.

The ambition to use evidence based treatments has spread within the field of Swedish social work. The number of treatments with claim to being evidence based has grown but the research concerning implementation; the procedures being used to introduce new methods in organizations and assure that the method is being used appropriately and continuously, is scarce. The aim of this study was to examine the implementation of Functional Family Therapy (FFT), being an evidence based treatment, in an organization providing social services in the public sector, in Sweden. We used a qualitative research design and conducted interviews with persons involved in the implementation of FFT in the social services in a town in the south of Sweden. We used the practice guidelines provided in Evidence Based Practice (EBP) together with recently published meta- analyses of implementation research, in the field of social work, to examine the implementation of FFT, as being an evidence based treatment.

This thesis has been carried out to the Technology Group at industrial plant Tube Mill2012, which belongs to the Sandvik AB. Technology Group is a unit that takes care ofall requirements and suggestions regarding investigations, test runs and designmodifications. The main objective is to identify and analyze the existing initializationprocess to see where improvement opportunities exist and to come up withsuggestions for improvement, supported by previous research and literature. Anextensive literature search and case study has been conducted to provide a solidfoundation to refer to during the work. Completing the interviews and the workshopgave a clear picture of their unstructured work and approach, how the lowrequirements on the received orders caused problems for the group as well as thelack of a standardized resource allocation method provides major delay factors.Solution proposal then became a very easy process model in five steps with all theinformation gathered in one place.

This paper examines the power producing dams along the Ume-river as an integral part of and a result from the urbanization process in Sweden during industrial capitalism. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the knowledge of the urbanization process in Sweden in general and of its traces along the Ume river in the county of Västerbotten in particular. The paper applies the theory of concentrated urbanization and extended urbanization put forward by Neil Brenner and Christian Schmid (2015) and argues that the building of power producing dams along the Ume-river is part of an extended urbanization process. This becomes particularly evident when examining the vast physical structures that is the dams, situated in an otherwise remote and sparsely populated area. These vast physical structures are also very well connected to a nation wide electric grid that has connections to bordering countries as well.

Trygghet är en subjektiv upplevelse som påverkas av många olika faktorer och påverkar människors hälsa och beteenden. En individs hälsa påverkas av hela den omgivande miljön och otrygghet kan leda till att områden inte utnyttjas, vilket kan föranleda inaktivitet, isolering och stress. Trygghet påverkas negativt av förekomst av brott och positivt av gemenskap, mötesplatser och delaktighet. I Sverige upplever de flesta sitt bostadsområde som tryggt men det är vanligare att boende i flerfamiljshus i större städer upplever otrygghet. I stadsdelen Råby i Västerås finns mycket flerfamiljshus och har ett rykte om att vara otryggt.

The first of May 2007, a decision from the Swedish Board of Fisheries about a Swedish prohibition of eel fishery got legal force. This prohibition is one of the most challenged decisions that the Swedish Board of Fisheries has taken. In the town Karlskrona in the southeastern part of Sweden the prohibition has got a lot of attention in local media. Early in the debate, it was clear that the actors active in the archipelago of Karlskrona were against the prohibition. The aim with the master thesis is to investigate different actors' opinions and view of the prohibition of eel fishery, today's management of the resource and how the actors' think that the communication between the actors involved in the management of eel and eel fishery works and what need to be changed to be able to develop a sustainable management of the eel in the future.

Purpose: To examine the governance mechanisms and the competence PE-firms adds to theirholding companies through an active ownership in order to create growth.Methodology: A qualitative study with interviews as its main source of data.Theoretical perspectives: Corporate governance and relevant theories within that subjectsuch as agent theory, board of directors and management. Previous research within the subjectwill also be presented.Empirical foundation: The empirical foundation consists of three conducted interviews anddata collected from the chosen PE-firms as well as six different holding companies.Conclusions: The governance mechanisms used in the PE-firms we have chosen are stronglyrelated to both theories within corporate governance as well as previous research on thesubject. The governance mechanisms being used are an explicit owners agenda and strategy, athorough acquisition process, usage of external competence, active ownership through theboard of directors and the insertion of incentive systems..

Syfte: Vårt syfte är att analysera vilken inverkan kulturella skillnader har på kontrollfaktorn som är en del utav transaktionskostnader i den operationella fasen av outsourcing processen. Empiri: Flash AB, en svensk detaljhandlare och Fuda Industrial Ltd, en kinesisk tillverkare, har blivit intervjuad för att ge oss ett kulturellt perspektiv angående deras relationshantering. Slutsatser: För att kunna hantera kulturella relationer mellan två skilda kulturer, som den svenska och kinesiska, måste båda ta hänsyn till varandras värderingar, beteende och attityder. Kulturell intelligens är ett sätt att uppnå detta. Resultatet av en stark integrerad relation i den operationella fasen i en outsourcing process, har direkt påverkan på transaktionskostnader.

During my final examination project, I have been working with a design process to develop a new set of candle lanterns for the company Sagaform AB. This company has a large and significant role on the Swedish interior design and retail market. The assignment was developed when the company stated that they would like to supplement and expand its existing range of products. The research and surveys I have done have helped me to create eight different concepts and one of them ready to compete with the existing candle lanterns on the market. The result of my concept proposal expected to be included in Sagaform?s 2013 spring catalogue. During the project I have developed 3D-rendered images, a physical model, and a solid foundation for making prototypes. The Balloon has an attractive design language that fits both every day and more festive events.

This thesis is a critical discourse analysis of the vision of Malmös contemporary urban development. By analysing official documents produced by Malmö municipality our aim is to make discursive and sociolcultural practices in the constitution and construction of the city visible and problematicize them. To do so we use critical discourse analysis and theories on Urban Studies. Malmö is a city historically labeld as a ?labour- city?, with heavy industry as its main labourmarket.

AbstractThis report has been developed in cooperation with Peab Region Bostad Göteborg, mentor at Krook& Tjäder (through Chalmers), and examiner at Chalmers University of Technology. The report is the result of a research of a building project, constructed by Peab. The report is investigating and it means to identify and evaluate qualities in the dwelling and its surroundings. Its purpose is to evaluate how the residents in a chosen housing cooperative enjoy living there. It shall, with help of chosen quality aspects, identify what expectations the residents had before moving in, how they experience the dwelling and its surroundings today, and what hopes they have for the future planning of the area.