AbstractTitle: DREAMING OF A UNITED ?NORDEN? (The North)? Four central Nordic actors about the progress and extent of Nordic cooperationThe Nordic cooperation are often spoken as in terms of a peaceful international cooperation that is built upon a wide range of similarities among its members, such as a common culture, language similarities and a related kind of political system etc. But in spite of the fact that these so called propitious factors are present, many of the attempts that has been made trying to bring the states of the North (Norden) closer together has turned out unsuccessfully. Therefore no far-reaching Nordic cooperation has come to be implemented. The aim of this essay is to find out what the main reasons could be why this has been the case.I have chosen to take a closer look at the motives given by the former Nordic Prime ministers Tage Erlander (Sweden), Karl August Fagerholm (Finland), Einar Gerardsen (Norway) and Mauno Koivisto (Finland).

The purpose with this master thesis is to analyze how the Swedish County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen) acts in an environment that changes fast with more regional actors than ever before. There are also proposals regarding new public authorities and eventually a reduction of the Swedish County Administrative Board.By studying a report issued by the Board in December 2005 the aim is to find their intentions and actions for the future. By using three diverse theoretical concepts - the public organisation, the instrumental perspective and two separate perspectives from new institutionalism - the expectation is that I will have the possibility to analyze the intentions of the organisation in many different ways.In this case study I also want to take into consideration the central discourses in the regional debate, shall we decentralize or shall we keep on having a strong state even in the future? What kind of regional policy does the Swedish County Administrative Board prefer?The result shows that the Swedish County Administrative Board struggles for a strong state even in the future, but it does not propose any huge changes. In many ways it seems like they act as they are supposed to - as an instrument for the government - but despite that it is obvious that the Swedish County Administrative Board tries to show that it has the traditions and knowledge.

This essay explores the Swedish state?s geopolitical view and creation, of the spatial spaces in and of the Arctic. With a critical geopolitical framework, a discourse analysis is conducted on the Swedish strategy for the arctic region, with the ambition to unfold the underlining spatial spaces, actors and dramas that this discourse creates. The result of this analysis shows that Sweden creates three different Arctic spaces within its geopolitical discourse; a Swedish Arctic, a Nearby Arctic and a Regional Arctic. This has major political consequences, which will be illuminated in the essay.

Lundin, Ellen (2007): Jämställdhet i regional planering: nedslag i tre planeringsnivåer Stockholms län [Gender equality in regional planning]D-uppsats 10 poäng, fördjupningskurs i kulturgeografiHandledare: Gunnel ForsbergSpråk: SvenskaKORTFATTAD SAMMANFATTNINGUppsatsens syfte är att förstå hur planerare på olika nivåer i den regionala planeringen arbetar med jämställdhet och att tolka vad dessa skillnader eller likheter kan ha för konsekvenser. Frågeställningarna behandlar planerarnas upplevelse av jämställdhetsarbetet, hur de ser på den som de planerar för och vilket av synsätten ?lika behandling?, ?kvinnans perspektiv? och ?genusperspektivet? som planerarna uppfattar ligger närmast deras egen verksamhet. Uppsatsen bygger på forskning om jämställdhetsintegrering och genusperspektiv i planeringsarbete och testar denna mot en intervjuundersökning genomförd under hösten. Tjänstemän från Länsstyrelsen, Regionplane- och trafikkontoret och två kommuner i Stockholms län har intervjuats om jämställdhet i sitt arbete.

This study examines the differences between Bosnia and Herzegovina?s, Montenegro?s and Croatia's tourism development after the Civil War in the 1990s. In particular, this essay is about the town Neum, which is the only Bosnia and Herzegovina destination on the Adriatic, splitting the Croatian coast in two. Through information from books, the internet and interviews I´ve tried to find out why Neum is a special place to visit and how it differs from other destinations on the Adriatic coast. One of the findings is that many are not aware of Bosnia and Herzegovina having a small, but still, part of the Adriatic.

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..

The aim of this study was to investigate physical education teachers (PET) view of the needs of physiotherapy in compulsory school. Semi structured interviews were conducted with five PET. The study was carried out as a qualitative content analyse study. The interviews were coded in categories independently by the two authors. The categories were then brought together in four major categories: PET work situation, pupil health, physiotherapy and cooperation.

In the light of the problems the media industry are struggling with, local news reporting is only one of the challenges the news organizations are facing. When local editors is being moved to the cities the tie with the local community is being severed.The aim of this study has been to analyze how the inhabitants of Vilhelmina municipality talks about their experiences of local journalism. With methodological inspiration from the Critical discourse analysis (CDA) this study examined the discourses of local journalism, social media, journalism's role and municipal policy. The theorectical framework consisted theories of media and democracy, convergence culture and discourse theory.The survey was conducted with four focus groups interviews. The focus groups were divided in different cathegories based on the participants experiences, ages and employment.

This study investigates and describes the phenomenon of ?technical tourism?, in the case ofwind power plants in Sweden. The main purpose of the study is a greater understanding ofa field which to date has remained largely uncharted.Technical tourism is a type of visits to a production site, where the technical aspect ofthe production is the main focal point for the visitor. The definition of technical tourism isbased on concepts within ?Industrial tourism?.

To be able to maintain an adequate ITservice for various users and needs,more municipalities are looking at thepossibility for mergers of local ITdepartments. One solution for mergingmultiple services/functions and creatingsynergy opportunities is called SharedService Center (SSC). The concept of SSCis that the administrative serviceitself becomes a core activity withinthe organization. The aim of this thesisis to provide municipalities who areconsidering a merging of their local ITdepartments with recommendations on howto design the Shared IT Service Center.Recommendations are outlined based on ananalysis of IT-management literature,reports and by conducting a study onthree ongoing collaborations.The conclusions drawn from the studysuggest guidelines for the design of aShared IT Service Center formunicipalities. These are as following:Create a vision associated with aspecific and structured target state.Identify needs for different targetgroups in municipalities and set acommon standard.Create a clear and practical model/SLAappearance of the cooperation andagreement.Ensure the individual municipalitiescommissioning skills in order to notlose it in the context of a common IToperation.Find an organization that is democraticfor member municipalities andfacilitates long-term partnership.Specify the operation and maintenance sothat it can be regulated and controlledEstablish a common help desk.Establish a common standard andconsolidated infrastructure before theintroduction of a common technology platform..

In the year 2002 the European Union decided on a new directive according to the energy use in buildings. The outcome of this direction is a proposition from the Swedish government on the outlines of a new law in the field of energy use in buildings. The date that the law will be applied is the first of October 2006. In the future al real estate owners must be able to show an energystatement over the real estate. This project contains cooperation with HFAB a local real estate company where two buildings are analyzed according to their energystatement.

This study examines a case of cooperation between banks, commerce, police and the municipality of Skövde, which in a project has the target to reduce the use of cash by 15 % in the city during 2011. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the importance of cooperation in which different actors come together to reach a common goal, such as speed or interfere with an ongoing change, while they must meet their own interests. In this study the case of cooperation has been studied by using a qualitative approach. The methods used in this study are participant observation and a group interview as well as personal interviews. The theories underlying the study revolve around the concepts of collaboration between organizations with similar interests, changes in society, conflict and resistance to change..

The purpose of this report is to find a model of statistics for construction and demolition waste, which makes it useful for the local manager at the building site. The intention with the model is that it will be used as a support of the local manager, to direct his project towards reduced strain of the environment. The model will also be used to make it easier to control that the claims from authority and aims for the environment are achieved. To familiarise with the subject waste handling within the building and construction sectorI have done a literature search. I have also been studying rules and regulations regarding the waste handling.

Sustainable Development is often described as a balance between ecological, economical and social aspects. Between these exists a complicated interaction that creates conflicts in the planning of the landscape. We see a growing need for a functional interaction between values and interest and an understanding for different perspectives. Cooperation and dialogue are key ideas with the focus on cooperation rather than the goal. There is a lack of forum for dialogue and cooperation within municipalities where a great knowledge and competence are gathered.

Preschools are nowadays a big part of almost every childhood in Swedish society and the relationships that are built there are important for the child and the child?s future integration in the world of knowledge and education. The preschool teachers are therefore the first persons the child links to beyond the parent. That?s why the relations between the parent and the preschool teacher are an important and interesting aspect in the cooperation between them.