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 a press release from the Swedish church it says that the pressure from people who are in need is increasing on the deacons in Sweden and that it?s getting higher each year. This study contains the search of knowledge about the deacons of the Swedish church, if they actually feel an increasing pressure and in what way, how they are handling the possible pressure from people in need, if that pressure is too high and if the deacons feel that they can assist the people seeking their help. The study also aim to provide more knowledge about the deacons experiences of the opportunities and boundaries (or obstacles) they meet in their line of work and how they handle the boundaries when/if they can?t provide the help that the people need.

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..

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.

In a press release from the Swedish church it says that the pressure from people who are in need is increasing on the deacons in Sweden and that it?s getting higher each year. This study contains the search of knowledge about the deacons of the Swedish church, if they actually feel an increasing pressure and in what way, how they are handling the possible pressure from people in need, if that pressure is too high and if the deacons feel that they can assist the people seeking their help. The study also aim to provide more knowledge about the deacons experiences of the opportunities and boundaries (or obstacles) they meet in their line of work and how they handle the boundaries when/if they can?t provide the help that the people need.

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.

The task of this project was to build an computer processing system for pressureregulation, in which the pressure loss over the open hydrolicvalve should be kept as low as possible. By using an cross connected proportional directional valve the valve problem could be solved. The control- and regulationproblem for the pressureregulation system was solved by using the DAQ- card NI6035E from National Instruments and the computerprogram Automatic Pressure Control 1.0 which has been software developed and written in Visual Basic. The final result showed that correct processvarible was obtained in 0,5 seconds, when the setpoint was changed in the testarea 0 - 2,5 MPa..

Heavy duty vehicles often have problems with traction during the winter periods. For vehicles that can lift tag axles it is possible to increase the normal force on the driven axle by lifting one or more tag axles, this will then increase the propulsive force of friction. This however increases wear on both road and vehicle. A possibility to reduce the wear while achieving nearly equivalent traction compared to lifted tag axles is to allow the vehicle to regulate the normal force by lowering the pressure in the air suspension associated with the tag axles or by the lifting of these axles. The vehicle would then by itself be able to set just the right amount of normal force on the drive wheels to avoid unnecessarily high normal forces while maintaining sufficient traction.The purpose of the report is to find out which parameters affect heavy duty vehicles when driving on slippery slopes and how traction can be improved.

The aim with this Master's thesis is to study the debate that takes place in the local community when a public library branch is threatened by closedown through the local newspapers. Through this it is our aim to understand why the debate takes place, and why so many people gets concerned with it. By relating this debate to contemporary research of library- and information science, and the discussion in three major Swedish library journals, we have found the answers to these questions. By studying the debate, we found six subjects that where essential for this study. These were Politics and economics, Urban and rural districts, Democracy and accessibility, The service of the library, The meeting place and To replace a closed down library.

The municipality of Olofström is intensifying the co-operation with Sölvesborg and Karlshamn, the two other municipalities in the west of Blekinge. They co-operate in two local federations and for the moment negotiations are going on about a third local federation in continuation school, but the municipalities do not agree. The aim of this thesis is to examine why Olofström co-operate with Sölvesborg and Karlshamn, if there are any problems and where the limit of this co-operation is. The method in the thesis is qualitative interviews with local politicians and officials and an actor-structure-perspective is used. The result shows that Olofström is a municipality where the population is decreasing, and it has lost state subsidy during the last decade.

This thesis work has been performed at the department of diagnosis and dependability at Volvo Car Company, Torslanda. The background of this project is based on interest in ascertaining how different factors possibly can affect a diagnosis method, which has been developed to find leaks in the fuel tank and evaporation system. According to the OBD II requirements leaks with an orifice diameter larger or equal to 0,5 mm, must be detected. The idea of the diagnosis method is to create an over pressure in the system with an air-pump. The current through the pump is measured and correlates to the power consumed by the pump.

A debate on environmental issues and food safety has been ongoing in Sweden and it is suggested that consumers' are seeking local produce instead of global and exotic foods. Moreover, studies show that the consumers? positive attitude towards local produce does not reflect their actions. The purpose with this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of the dissonance between the consumer?s attitudes and actual behaviour towards local produce.

Some MNEs encounter frustration or failures when they enter a new market. The main reason is due to a lack of adaptation. There is a lack of theoretical study about the local adaptation phenomenon of Swedish MNEs in China. Most studies are at the level of experience. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out the dimensions subject to local adaptation and their degree for the Swedish MNEs in China.

The subject for this thesis is to examine the portrayal of the local farmer in four different museums in Scania. The purpose is to examine these two questions: 1. Which narrative and museal strategies are used in the portrayal of the local farmer by the local history societies? 2. How do the actors of the local societies relate to the living conditions and hierarchies of the rural society of Scania? The source material consists of guided tours and text material from the museums. The theoretical fields consists of history culture, use of history, historical narrative, museology and rural science act as our theoretical fields. Peter Aronsson, Anna Eskilsson and Maria Bjo?rkroth act as our main theoretical framework. Our research presents two central discourses in the portrayal of the local farmer.

Because of a more globalised world the national states have been forced to make structural changes at both national, regional and local level to cope with different challenges. The regional community has become an important area which has resulted in a policy of more self governing, both for the regional and the local level.The aim of the thesis is to study the relation between regional and local level in the partnerships organisation. To fulfil the aim of the thesis, a case study of Region Skåne is used. The analyse is based on expressions such as cooperation, conflict, power and influence.The result of the thesis confirms that the opinion between the regional and the local level is very different. The representatives from Region Skåne experience the cooperation as quite good because it creates an opportunity for discussions and a possibility to learn from the other actors which in turn creates a qualification in the exchange of knowledge.