The concept of sustainable development is a challenge that demands cooperation from all levels of society for it to be successful. The focus for this thesis is how politicians within the local councils understand the concept of sustainable development and how they implement it in political decision-making.The basis for the study is a questionnaire that was distributed to 303 local politicians in three municipalities of varying size in Southern Sweden. The study concentrates on departments within the local councils that are directly connected to the Swedish environmental law and the Swedish planning and construction law. One of the primary goals with the aforementioned laws is the achievement of sustainable development within one generation.The outcome of the study was that over half of the local politicians could correctly define sustainable development according to the World Commission on Environment and Development?s (WCED) definition.

In 2006 there was a change in LMA (1994:37) that clarified the division of responsibility be-tween the Migration Board and the municipalities, concerning unaccompanied children. The social services should now be utmost responsible for the housing and care of these children, to assure that they gain the same standards and rights as all other children. The aim of this essay has been to examine how the division of responsibility has influenced the work of the social services and how they interpret their responsibility for the unaccompanied children. How do the social services investigate and make decisions concerning these children? Do these chil-dren have the same rights as other children? To answer these questions a legal study was made, followed by qualitative research interviews with four social services that receive unac-companied children.

This paper investigates decision-making under uncertainty and complexity. The focus point of the study was to investigate how organizations in Stockholm has come to a decisions on how to manage the trial implementation of a congestion tax in terms of their company cars. The study was conducted as a survey with complementary interviews with the decision makers in change of congestion tax problem. The aim of the study was to gain an understanding for the decision making processes, and how and why the companies decided as they did. The theory on which we based our study emanated from both systems theory and business economic theory on decision making.

In order for a business management to be able to make informed decisions for their companies need enterprise management system regularly checked by internal audits. The aim of purpose with this work was to develop a working manual for integrated internal audits. This was done through a litterature study and interviews with auditors. An in-depth interview was conducted with an experienced auditor to get more understanding and depth of the internal audits process, and how the manual could be designed. Discussions were held with the person responsible for environment, health and safety at Swedspan Hultsfred to adjust the manual to the company?s internal management system.

This master?s degree project concerns the combination of a multi dwelling passive house with solar energy for the generation of electricity and domestic hot water (DHW). Different alternatives with either solar thermal systems or photovoltaic (PV) systems are compared with two reference alternatives producing DHW from electricity or district heating. The economical comparison uses a life cycle cost (LCC) perspective based on the present value of expenditures for investment, energy and annual operating and maintenance.The energy yields from the solar energy systems were calculated by hand and with simulation software. Calculation and dimensioning of PV systems were carried out with a software called PVSYST.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate which the main determinants of capital structure in Swedish listed firms are and to identify which incentives lies behind managers choice of capital structure determinants. Further, the study investigates whether the Post Keynesian theory and theories which incorporate behavioral aspects can be used to explain the capital structure decisions or if the traditional Neoclassical theory give an better explanation. We have used a qualitative method to analyze the determinants of capital structure and the managers incentives behind capital structure decision. We conducted a survey which was sent to 83 Chief Financial Managers and financial executives in Swedish firms listed on Mid Cap or Large Cap. The questionnaire was on-line which enabled for the respondents to quickly and convenient respond.

Two elementary schools are now being built in Gråbo (in the municipality of Lerum),Röselidsskolan and Ljungviksskolan, which are both designed with solar thermalcollectors for the schools domestic water heating. During the summer while thelargest amount of solar heat can be generated, the activity hence the domestic wateruse in the schools are heavily reduced. Both schools are connected to the local districtheating system which makes it possible to use the solar collectors to deliver heat tothe district heating.The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the two systems mentioned above and todetermine which system is more suitable to apply on a school. The building whichconditions were used for this evaluation is Röselidsskolan.A solar heating plant of each system type was dimensioned from the expected andknown conditions of the building. The purpose with the dimensioning was to makethe solar plants replace the ordinary energy source as much as possible.

The society strives for sustainable development, in the construction industry it is expressed through sustainable building. Energy and LCC analyzes increases the ability to make conscious decisions in the process. A problem in the construction industry is that energy and LCC analysis is not used to the desired extent, as they are perceived as complicated and time consuming. The report aims to achieve a more sustainable building through increased use of energy and LCC analyzes.The goal is to show how BIM can be used to improve the efficiency of the energy and LCC analyzes.The study was conducted with a literature review and a case study to answer which information that is required in a BIM model to perform energy and LCC analyzes. The study also shows which software can be used in BIM based energy and LCC analyzes and how the analyzes can be carried out efficiently.The result shows that effective analyzes may be performed if the BIM-model contains the relevant information for making analyzes.

The means to political participation at the local level in Sweden are changing and this change is analyzed through a case study. The first aim is to explore the forms of public political participation in Swedish municipal Älvkarleby, namely public question time in local government, citizen motions and open meetings. A part of this is also to analyze he every day contact between citizens and representatives. The second aim concerns the reasons why politicians decide to support these means to participationThe empirical material consists mainly of semi structured interviews with local politicians, civil servants, participating citizens and local press. Official documents such as public minutes are also used in the process of creating an image of local participation.Local political participation is found to be limited but yet having the potential to strengthen democracy, provided that public decision-makers are open to a dialogue with the participants.Using Kjell Arne Røvik's theories of organisational change, the changes in local democracy can be explained as being partly rational, partly symbolic and partly identity shaping political decisions..

Abstract Before the choice of upper secondary school in the ninth grade, young people need to have knowledge of themselves and the world. In this tough choice, the parents are the main support. The supporting role, which are their thoughts on how much they influence in their children?s choice of study? Based on these issues, we seek the answer to the question; which vision have the parents on their involvement in their children's choice of upper secondary school? Which visions have the parents on the impact on their children's upper secondary school? Do the parents think that the children's upbringing has influenced their choices? Young people's career decisions take place in interaction with their parents and with very different cultural, economic, social and symbolic capital. The concepts are Pierre Bourdieu's theory that intends to be our toolbox for this thesis.

Media has the power to influences society. Some call them the third power of a state. Through amongst others, the agenda setting theory and the framing theory, this report seeks to understand how media describes the swine influenza and how it uses its power to influence people to vaccinate. As this report will show, there is no doubt that media has had an impact on the Swedish population of which 60 per cent followed through with the vaccination. Media used an information discourse and attempted to present its articles in an impartial manner and used governmental authorities and experts to support its arguments.

In this study we have aimed to explore how participation and self-determination is implemented in the daily life of disabled people who receive support through LSS. The questions addressed concern possibilities/obstacles for the participation and selfdetermination of disabled people who live in group housings, and how the terms participation and self-determination are realized. Nine interviews have taken place with staff members and directors of different group housings. We have found that the interviewees believe that the nature of a person?s disability can be a barrier to the individual?s self-determination and participation in his or her everyday life.

The purpose of this law-sociological study was to, on the basis of the District Court's decree to single custody, analyze the District Court?s comprehensive ideas and fall-oriented interpretations of the concept of the best interest of the child and the way they are constructed in connection with the District Court's application of the new law regulation of 6kap. 5§ FB regarding collaboration between parents. Our empirical data consisted of ten decrees to single custody. The decrees were examined and analyzed on the basis of social constructionism as a theory and the idea-analysis as the study's method.

Two elementary schools are now being built in Gråbo (in the municipality of Lerum),Röselidsskolan and Ljungviksskolan, which are both designed with solar thermalcollectors for the schools domestic water heating. During the summer while thelargest amount of solar heat can be generated, the activity hence the domestic wateruse in the schools are heavily reduced. Both schools are connected to the local districtheating system which makes it possible to use the solar collectors to deliver heat tothe district heating.The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the two systems mentioned above and todetermine which system is more suitable to apply on a school. The building whichconditions were used for this evaluation is Röselidsskolan.A solar heating plant of each system type was dimensioned from the expected andknown conditions of the building. The purpose with the dimensioning was to makethe solar plants replace the ordinary energy source as much as possible.

Purpose: The purpose is to research different co-operations between venue owners and WISPs, when WLAN is deployed in a public space. The aim is to establish viable business models for the interaction between the two vital actors in the public WLAN industry. In this work, the advantages and disadvantages of revenue and cost sharing will be defined, along with technical and commercial issues that need to be resolved. Methodology: A number of case studies of the current situation have been conducted in the most attractive venues for WLAN, airports. As the public WLAN market had most widespread adoption and is most mature in the USA, case airports were chosen both there and in Scandinavia.