The aim of this study is to explain and analyse political steering of public libraries in Swedish municipalities and the roles of politicians and administrators in this process. To fulfil this purpose five municipalities have been studied. It is argued that both politicians and administration have to be included in a study of steering and that the relation between politicians and administrators should be seen as an interplay. Planning and evaluation are discerned as the two main activities in the steering process. The material in this study consists mainly of information collected through interviews with library responsible politicians and library managers in all five municipalities.The results show that libraries are considered politically uncontroversial and that politicians see little need for political interference and steering.

This thesis describes redesign and adaption of a products housing. In order to make it more economical to produce at a lower production volume. The thesis is based upon a prototype that a previous student developed for injection moulding. The goal is to find alternative manufacturing methods, but also to identify parameters that affect the cost of the injection moulding tool.The housing must be tough in order to protect the circuit board inside. But at the same time it must allow sound, light an electrical communication to pass through.

The purpose of this study is to search and analyze different logics that operators use in the work of helping juvenile delinquents to break their criminal behavior. New institutional theory is used in this study to analyze the results. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews of six professionals in two municipalities which work with juvenile delinquency. There are two questions that we want to address in this study. The first one is what methods the social workers are using in two middle large municipalities to help youth to brake there criminal behavior.

Environmental issues and sustainable development is a high priority in today?s society and has received substantial attention lately. In the inaugural speech it is expressed that the goal for the IT?politics is a sustainable information society for everyone, which can be achieved by using IT to support sustainable growth. The Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications has developed a document which outlines three specific proposals on what the government should focus on during a three?year period (2008?2010) that with the use of IT will contribute to a sustainable society.

This paper analyzes governance of cultural and ethnic integration. The study has a comparative perspective between five municipalities in Skåne. One aim in this thesis is to clearify the ratio between the state and municipal authority and how municipalities exercise their autonomy. I analyze the advantages and disadvantages in different governance methods linked to how the municipalities are working in practice and what problem the integration policy is intended to eliminate. I also resolve the influence of officials and citizens in the policy process.My conclusion is that direct ruling to a large extent is limited by indirect control.

The aim of this dissertation is to examine why smaller municipalities[1] in Sweden experience difficulties when implementing the 16 environmental objectives that are designed to solve Sweden's environmental problems.The theoretical framework used for this dissertation is implementation theory which provides three conditions that need to be met in order to have a successful implementation.  These three conditions have shaped the research questions that examine if Torsby municipality has the "understanding," "ability" and "will" needed to implement the decision correctly.  The dissertation employs a case study method to examine why Torsby municipality has experienced difficulties implementating the target: programmes and strategies for planning, which is an interim target to environmental objective number 15: A good built environment.  Qualitative text analysis and interviews with politicians and civil servants from Torsby municipality and the county administration board of Värmland have been conducted in order to answer the research questions.   The material used for this dissertation is mostly from the government bills that are the foundation of the Swedish environmental policy and the documents and reports about the environmental objectives that the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket), the Swedish Environmental protection agency (Naturvårdsverket), and the Environmental objectives council (Miljörådet) have released.The result of this dissertation supports previous research which has shown that smaller municipalities have problems implementating the environmental objectives due to a lack of financial resources. This dissertation also shows that the problems can be due to a lack of understanding the purpose of the objectives.  This leads to a lack of political will to implement the objectives.  Since the municipalities do not have the political will to implement the objectives the appropriate resources needed for a successful implementation are not appointed and therefore the municipalities are not able to fully implement the environmental objectives. [1] Municipalities with less than 20 000 inhabitants..

Today, nine out of ten municipalities are active on social media and it has become increasingly popular among municipalities that make use of placemarketing to promote their particular region. A problem that is raised in this study is that the population of the municipalities in northern Sweden often is in decline. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a democratic-controlled organization such as Luleå Municipality uses the social media Facebook in its placemarketing, to highlight a place of scale and to attract new residents and stakeholders to move to or visit the city. In order to answer the purpose I have with the help of a critical discourse analysis examined how Luleå Municipality using social media Facebook in their marketing of Luleå as a place. The results were then analyzed using theories of placemarketing, Norrland and the market-oriented municipality.

In Sweden, responsibility for the collection and recycling of packaging and newspapers lies with the producers. Therefore, the major producers created a jointcollection with 5800 recycling stations. The stations are the responsibility of a coordinating body, Förpacknings och Tidningsinsamlingen (FTI) which ensures Government regulations are adhered to by the producers.In 2006, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) carried out an evaluation of the collection of packaging and newspapers. EPA´s research showedthat 80 percent of households were satisfied with the collection but that there were also shortcomings, including problems with littering at the recycling stations.We have tried to approach the litter issue from different angles in order to suggestpossible measures to reduce the problem. An important aspect proved to be uncertainties regarding the concept of operators.As there are currently many parties involved in the collection process this lead to the issue of who is legally considered as the operator of the recycling stations.

The aim of this report was to investigate which factors determine municipal taxes in Sweden.The aim was also to find out whether and how the forms of political rule are significant covariates. A multiple regression analysis was performed using data from 289 municipalities. The analysis resulted in five dierent models, of which a model based on municipal grouping was found to be most satisfactory. In all of the models, there are effects from the form of political rule. The results indicate that socialist municipalities have higher tax rates than non-socialist.

The main purpose of this Master thesis is to illuminate the understanding of local politicians regarding the public libraries and the librarians. We argue that the local politicians´ opinions regarding public libraries and librarians influence the way they act and react in their roles as politicians.In order to achieve the aim of this thesis we focused on following questions:What are the opinions of the politicians:- regarding themselves in relation to the public library?- concerning public libraries in general and its functions especially in the municipalities of their own?- concerning the librarians and their work in a public function?What are the conclusions to be drawn regarding the politicians´ interest and commitment to public libraries in the politic daily-life of the municipalities? Our empiric material consists of qualitative interviews with six politicians elected in two municipalities in the interior of Västerbotten, a northern sparsely populated district. In order to distinguish the various opinions that emerge from the material, we apply a phenomenographic approach. The analysis result we present in three conceivable categories in order to express the different opinions.In general our study points at a positive and favourable attitude to the public library, and all the respondents assume that the municipality ought to offer this service.

The crucial factor for successful municipal climate work is that there are driving forces. Most importantly is that the senior officials and politicians in the municipality are dedicated to the cause considering that they have the power to influence and make a change. Besides proactive and committed individuals, it is necessary that the work is organized and anchored by clear and concrete documents and control systems. It is also important that the work is continuously monitored and evaluated. To collaborate with other municipalities, authorities or participate in various networks is another factor contributing to the improved climate work in the form of exchange of information, knowledge and experience.A major driving force for municipalities to improve themselves is the distribution of state aid and grants.

The Volvo Trucks plant in Umeå is a highy complex manufacturing facility where the same production line handles a variety of different models. This require flexible and agile processes with high quality standards. This thesis studies the flow of material through a production line and how Volvo can use their existing manufacturing monitoring system to optimize the flow of materials.The goal with the thesis is to identify eventual problems with the flow of materials and to deliver a few proposals on how the production line can improve its productivity. The theory of LEAN, Just-In-Time and Supply Chain Management serves as the scientific reference to this project. By analyzing the flow of material, performing interviews and observing the processes a few problems are identified.

The aim of this study was to describe and to analyze needs and social efforts concerning unaccompanied/separated asylum-seeking children. The responsibility for the reception of this target group was transferred on July 1, 2006 from the Swedish Migration Board to the municipalities that sign an agreement with the Swedish Migration Board. Eight qualitative interviews were carried out with representatives for transit-residents and assigned municipalities in Skåne. Our main questions were: How has the reception of unaccompanied/separated asylum-seeking children been planned, how do the municipalities and the transit-residents consider their needs and what is the level of qualifications and competence within the municipalities in order to work with unaccompanied/separated asylum-seeking children on the basis of social efforts? We chose to clarify our findings on the basis of the attachment theory, which is applicable during the critical emancipation phase that the vast majority of the unaccompanied/separated asylum-seeking children find themselves in.

The primary purpose of this study has been to investigate the Swedish timber industry?s perception of compression wood. A secondary aim has been to describe particular areas within the production process where compression wood is likely to cause problems. This study has mainly been carried out as a questionnaire. In order to connect the findings to current research, additional information has also been collected by means of a literature review. The questionnaire has been intended for sawmills and wood-manufacturing companies from various production classes and owner categories, as well as from different parts of the country.

The aim with this study is to see how social workers apprehend the law, support and service for persons with certain functional impairments (LSS) and the application. We interviewed six social workers in six different municipalities to get a distribution between small and big municipalities. In the study we have used a qualitative method with half structured interview questions, since we wanted to get a comprehension for the social workers apprehensions. We have used a communication theory and a role theory in the study. The result showed that the social workers consider that the LSS is important, but that there are a few difficulties in the application.