The construction and use of buildings in the EU accounts for half of the EU?s extracted materials and energy consumptions, and a third of greenhouse gas emissions. In the past decade, the construction sector has responded to such concerns by focusing on post production energy efficiency. However, new findings indicate that upstream construction processes influence emissions significantly ? necessitating a shift in focus to include material choices and building processes.

The overall aim is to examine how the European Union Water Framework Directive has affected the local water management in the catchment Märstaån situated in the eastern part of the lake Mälaren river basin, Sweden. The first part of the study gives an historical overview of the area with focus on how the old agricultural landscape was handling the nutrient load from farming activities by means of different kinds of wetlands. By using the concept of the procedural landscape, introduced by Torsten Hägerstrand , together with historical maps with dates starting from the 17th century, the pre-modern landscape is analyzed.  The second part is an investigation, based on qualitative data, on how the different actors in the catchment area work together to secure the water quality for the Märstaån river. The analysis shows that the Märstaån catchment river systems are mostly unchanged in the rural areas.  The exception is the mainstream section of the Märstaån river running partly underground today and the Halmsjöbäcken river that is heavily affected by the Arlanda airport situated within the catchment area.

Abstract Title:                       Grades at Primary School ? A study of local politicians' arguments in                       connection with the division into grades at Swedish primary schools.Author:                       Annie LinderUniversity of KalmarC-essay in Social StudiesAutumn 2011 The study aims to investigate local politicians' decisions since municipalities took overSwedish primary education in 1990/91. The arguments put forward in support of how stages are organised have been studied, likewise whether municipalities have acted rationally when making their decisions.Six municipalities are included in the survey. They were divided into three educational categories: lower, middle and high level schools; previous and recent schools and F9 schools with pre-schools and primary schools integrated.Minutes from politicians' and civil servants' meetings have been studied and categorised according to arguments for and against. The most common supportive arguments are about economy and organisation, others concern school premises, trends and the wish for a comprehensive compulsory school.

The functionalism started in southern Europe after world war one and got its breakthrough in Sweden with the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930. Poverty caused many people living in overcrowded conditions which the functionalists wanted to change by using less expensive materials and giving healthier living conditions to the people. The industrialization brought new materials and working methods which made this possible. The Swedish functional style is recognised by its light plaster facing and nearly horizontal roofs. Also the garden design of that time was influenced by the functionalistic ideas. The garden was now introduced as a pleasure garden for not only the rich but for everyone.

AbstractOur world is facing new challenges depending on the climate changes. The UN panel of climate changes has determined that the human race is responsible for the changes, but also that we have the opportunity to reduce the effects. This demands that the information reaches out to the public which means that the school system carries major responsibility to this type of questions. This also means that the teachers have to be observant, and give the questions the attention which is needed. The purpose of this essay is to see if this awareness exists today among active teachers and teacher students and if the perspective differs among them, but also their opinions is in agreement with the course plan in the subject.

Ever since Lipsky wrote about street-level bureaucrats in 1980 the main belief has been that certain characteristics of their jobs make it exceptionally difficult to severely reduce their discretion. However, discretion comes at a price and if public servants abuse their power the legitimacy of government is at risk and ultimately even the democracy.This thesis address this question by analysing the Swedish employment service which in the beginning of 2001 started a project called ?Af Sverige? trying to improve internal rule of law. By comparing two local and fairly equal jobcentres and how the street-level bureaucrats within use their discretion, I seek to find support for my hypotheses that organizing local jobcentres according to the principles of machine bureaucracy plays a significant part in reducing discretion.My findings show that a jobcentre characterised by strict rules, few units, good communications and a forthright manager who delegates formal power to the employees results in a stricter and more uniform application of regulations among the street-level bureaucrats. My conclusion is therefore unambiguous.

The Church of Sweden had barely 6.5 million members in 2012. Just over 1% of the members visit a church service regularly every Sunday. The number of visitors in worship services has diminished continuously for a very long time. From 1990 to 2010, the annual number of visitors at the main worship services has decreased by 50% from 9 million to about 4.5 million. The service activities can still be maintained at the current level because the many passive members still pays their membership fee.

This essay is based on a mission from Anna Schibli, Director of Tourism at Solliden Palace. The thesis aims to investigate the image that Solliden Palace has, and the picture that local and regional tourist offices have of the Sollidens Castle brand and what position Solliden include in these markets. A total of six in-depth interviews with tourist offices, at local and regional level, has been carried out and an initial in-depth interview with Anna Schibli of Solliden Palace. The responses of the respondents have since been interpreted and processed based on an inductive approach, in order to interpret the image that Solliden Palace has. Scientific papers have been studied and analyzed in order to generate an explanation and understanding of the research area.

Malmö, like many other bigger cities in Europe, faces a double undertaking when facing the challenges the future. Not only must the municipal be able to provide its citizens with welfare and a high standard of living, it must also establish a level of economic growth that allows the city to act as catalyst for the surrounding area. In order to provide the population with welfare and the economy with a qualified working force, these two challenges have been combined into one plan for the future called Welfare for Everybody. As part of this plan, new organisations have been created with the purpose collaborating with the social services office and support people in their transaction from welfare recipients to self-providing workers. The purpose of our thesis is to build on Michael Lipsky's classic work "Street-level Bureaucracy" and by conducting interviews with a number of front line workers study how they view their role, the client group and how they motivate the working line.

Denna rapport beskriver bygglovsprocessen i en stor och en mindre kommun, samt bygglovsavgifter, sanktionsavgifter och respektive kommuns organisation..

GNSS-mätning med nätverks-RTK är en satellitbaserad geodetisk mätningsmetod som reducerar inverkande felkällor genom relativ mätning mot ett nät av fasta referensstationer.I Sverige har Lantmäteriet upprättat ett nät av fasta referensstationer kallat Swepos med ca 70 km mellan referensstationerna. En förtätning av Swepos-nätet till ca 35 km mellan referensstationerna pågår och beräknas vara klar 2015. Det finns tidigare studier (Emardson m fl (2009) och Odolinski (2010 a)) kring osäkerheten vid mätning i områden med ca 70 km mellan referensstationerna och vid ett projektanpassat nät med ca 10-20 km mellan referensstationerna. Studierna undersöker också hur lång tid som behöver gå mellan två mätningar för att de ska anses oberoende av varandra (korrelationstid). Detta arbete beräknar standardosäkerhet och korrelationstider vid mätning i det förtätade 35 km-nätet baserat på statiska GNSS-mätningar på olika avstånd från närmaste referensstation samt data från en permanent monitorstation belägen i Växjö.Standardosäkerheten (68% konfidensnivå) för mätningarna, vid förhållandena i denna studie, var vid mätning 0,1 km från närmaste referensstation 3,8 mm i plan och 6,9 mm i höjd (höjd över ellipsoiden).

Today it is mandatory for every college or university student to pay a union fee to their student?s union. The fee is mandatory and is a payment for writing examinations, receiving grades. The fees purpose is also intended to secure the education quality and student influence. In the presence of the abolishment of the union fee the Swedish student?s unions stand before an uprising competition between themselves and most likely a decrease in membership.

In the urban planning debate of today, two strategies for city development stand out as each other's opposites, urban sprawl and smart growth. This thesis concerns a development project of the latter kind and aims to give an alternative proposal to new buildings and a park in a Swedish city block. The term sprawl is used for new developments on virgin soil on the outskirts of cities leading to a city spreading, while smart growth stand for increased city density through development on re-used land within the city boundaries. The latter are often seen as more sustainable in many levels and are also shown to have positive effects on a number of city functions. At the same time smart growth has negative consequences on other aspects of the city such as public open spaces.

Södra is a co-operative of private forest owner organisation which is owned by 35 000 private forest owers in southern Sweden. Forest owners in Sweden can choose to certify their Forestry. Södra uses PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) as their certification scheme for their members. Those who choose to certify their forest are obligated to follow the demands for forestry which PEFC requires. A ?Green? forestry plan is another important tool in the ambition to reach a sustainable forestry.

The intention of this study is to perform a content analysis based on a theoretical framework founded on multi-level governance, MLG. The thesis examines the formal changes within employment politics between 1999 and 2004 (Sweden´s action plan for employment) and 1998 and 2007 (the spring budget proposition). I will investigate how multi-level governance has effected the Swedish employment politics. Furthermore, the purpose of the thesis and the questions under consideration are: How have the formal structures within Swedish employment politics changed since Sweden?s admission to the European union, particularly during the periods 1997-2008 and 1999-2004? And: How do the changes in Sweden, together with the European union directive concerning employment, coincide in the so-called employment strategy?While performing the analysis I have focused on multi-level governance.