The hypothesis of this study is that the local government act in Sweden 1862 was an instrument for the state to keep its´ political influence on the local level. It did not open for local self-government. The swedish historians Dahlkvist and Strandberg description of the Swedish local government act support this hypothesis, as does the analysis of political scientists Pettersson and Söderlind. The general opinion that the local government act opened for local self-government does still exist among many swedish historians.This study had two aims. The first was to investigate the actual extent of self-government in Borgvik, a small municipality in Sweden during the period 1861-1924.

The purpose of this thesis is to give an understanding of how grocery stores relate to local foods. Through a case study representatives for two groceries in Norrbotten have been interviewed regarding why they supply local foods, how they try to influence customers to buy this, and how they decide upon the assortment of local foods. The result shows that groceries supply local foods in order to supply a wide range of products and to mediate social responsibility, in order to create customer loyalty. Concerning how the groceries try to influence customers to buy local foods the result cannot give any clear-cut view. Instead it shows that a grocery that actively works to influence customers to buy local foods markets them in specific ways, while the opposite applies to a grocery that does not actively work for this.

This study examines the connection between social capital and involvement within voluntary associations; involvement is defined either as being a member in an association or a member who has some kind of assignment in an association. The study also examines if there is a difference between two social economic groups regarding the attainment and transformation of social capital through being involved in a voluntary association.Social capital is defined as social trust and the willingness of collective action.The result of the research shows there is a slight connection between the involvement in voluntary associations and social capital. It shows that people who are members of a voluntary association often have higher social capital than those who are not members of any voluntary association at all. The study also shows that there is a difference in attainment of social capital between those who have some kind of assignment in a voluntary association and general members.When studying social capital and involvement in voluntary associations it is also of interest to take social class into the analysis, because the study shows that people with a lower education had increased social capital when they were members in an association compared to the members with a higher education..

This paper examines the consequences of membership and participation in immigrant associations on individual immigrants? political integration and indirect political participation with reference to Swedish society. The theoretical underpinnings consist of a social structural outlook on social capital, combined with the Civic Voluntarism Model, both of which focus on the potential role of social networks for moving people into political action. After a presentation of parallel qualitative data over the experiences of individual members in a Finnish and Bosnian-Hercegovinian organisation, it is suggested that immigrant associations support the political integration of their members into the host society. Firstly, the case studies indicate that members of immigrant associations gain the opportunity to augment their civic skills, which is a significant prerequisite for political participation.

AbstractSince the 2006 election the country of Sweden is governed by four Liberal and Conservative parties. Parties that by cooperating maintain power in office and forms a so called coalition. A coalition that not only can be seen at the national but also at the local level. According to pervious research coalitions that holds control of the seats in the government at the national level tends to increase the total expenditures compared to other types of government formations. Can a similar connection be seen at the local level? This the fundamental issue of this essay.

This thesis concerns how local governments use the concept sustainable development, and what the concept means. The concept of Agenda 21 and local Agenda 21 will also be discussed in this essay, because it's an instrument for local governments to specify their work towards sustainable development. I have interviewed civil servants in leading positions in the municipalities? work with environmental questions and sustainable development. In the choice of method for this thesis, I use the qualitative method and for the interviews I chose the ?semi structure way of interviewing?.This thesis shows that local governments? implementation of sustainable development and Agenda 21 differ between the municipalities.

This essay is about local history in history teaching in two cities; Kalmar and Vetlanda. The purpose was to see how teachers in Kalmar and Vetlanda define local history and what kind of local history they teach their students. I have also examined what benefits of didactics the teachers see in teaching local history. In order to find out I interviewed four history teachers at three schools in Kalmar and two history teachers at one school in Vetlanda. Some of the interviews were carried out over the telephone and the rest at the teachers´s schools.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to do a brand survey of Metro in Karlstad. The study will originate from the terms ?brand identity? and ?brand associations?, where the brand identity is the organization?s desired view of the brand, and the brand associations define the associations held by the consumers.Issues: What is Metro?s brand identity? What are the brand associsations of Metro in Karlstad? How well do the brand identity and the brand associations correspond?Theoretical framework: The study is done from the perspective of media and communication studies, where the theoretical terms are defined from literature regarding brands.Method: The study is carried out using a qualitative document analysis, interviews, and a quantitative survey. The document analysis was made on Metro?s own documents regarding values and target audience.

The purpose of this study is to examine if, how and why history teachers work with local history projects in education. The results will be analyzed based on a theory of the uses of history. I also investigate, through group interwiews with students, if and how students? historical consciousness may develop through teaching about local history. The result is a variation map of teachers? different uses of history and how students historical consciousness can manifest itself.The results of the study shows that all the teachers interviewed uses local history projects in education.

The purpose of this study is to examine if, how and why history teachers work with local history projects in education. The results will be analyzed based on a theory of the uses of history. I also investigate, through group interwiews with students, if and how students? historical consciousness may develop through teaching about local history. The result is a variation map of teachers? different uses of history and how students historical consciousness can manifest itself.The results of the study shows that all the teachers interviewed uses local history projects in education.

Colour has encountered to be a significant part in marketing, which advantageously can be used in todays competitive market. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the colours varying associations and present ideas how colours can affect the hotel business. In coherence with the purpose we deveoled the research question, which resulted in following: How can hotels affect their servicescape and identity by the help of colour?The study has a qualitative method that began in an empirical problem that has been tested against theory, which subsequently developed the research question. This implies that our study alternated between induction and deduction.

The purpose of the master thesis was to reflect and analyze music library activities and policies in the public libraries in the area around the city of Borås, in the south-western part of Sweden. With this thesis I also wanted to look at the interaction between the public libraries, the music school and the music associations in the same area. To investigate these matters, qualitative method was used in the form of interviews with seven librarians from seven different libraries and five representatives of different local music organizations. Other methods used were observations and source studies. The literature used discusses the role of the music department of public libraries as well as that of a music librarian working in a public library.

Ångermanland has at the last five years lost 420 hockey players. This is a qualitative study that focus on investigating the main problems of dropouts among young hockey players and how ice hockey associations in Ångermanland act to find solutions to the problem. The main questions of the study are: How can the dropout problems in Ångermanland be understood or explained in terms of youth operators' perspective and what are the potential strategies that the ice hockey associations are using to deal with the dropout problem and what approaches to youth hockey is reflected in the youth operators' statements? The study was based on semi-structure interviews with 6 different ice hockey sports clubs in Ångermanland. The results showed that the leadership programs ought to be more educational, and more oriented toward understanding the children instead of mainly technical learning objectives about how to shoot, dribble, and skate.

ABSTRACTTitle: Teenagers and their perception of fashion brands (Ungdomar och deras uppfattningar om modevarumärken)Number of pages: 42Author: Louise KindblomTutor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and communication studies CPeriod: Autumn term 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala universityPurpose/Aim: To achieve a deeper level of knowledge and a better understanding of high school teenager`s perception of the three fashion brands Gucci. H&M and Canada Goose and too distinguish potential gender related differences in their perceptions.Material/Method: A questionnaire about fashion brands delivered to three schools in the Stockholm area.Main results: Teenagers perceptions of the three fashion brands Gucci, H&M and Canada Goose are more different than similar. This differences in teenagers perceptions are discernible in a comparison between the most usual and unusual associations that are related to each of the brands. Gucci is associated with success, wealth, excitement and uniqueness. H&M is for example seen as earth-bound and has in a comparison with the other brands reached the highest level of positive associations.

AbstractOur study deals with intrapreneurship in local activity. The main purpose of this study is to understand, explain and develop the concept of intrapreneurship in local activity with the help of existing information, our discussion, and reasoning and with the help of theoretical concepts. One reason for the choice of this topic was our pure curiosity towards this quite unique and unexplored phenomenon. We know that the term intrapreneurship in local activity has not existed longer than about ten years and the amount of existing thesis of intrapreneurship in local activity is very few. The information about intrapreneurship in local activity is mainly collected by studying Örebro´s intrapreneurship policies but also by studying other local authorities in Eksjö, Umeå and Västra-Götaland.