The use of earth bricks in Scanian building traditionThe present work is concerned with the manufacturing and use of earth bricks inbuilt heritage in the south Swedish province of Scania. The first part of the studyprovides a thorough description of the traditional use and manufacturing of earthbricks based on relevant literature, archive material as well as interviews withinformants. This forms a basis for the second part of the study in which practicalexperiments on and tests with earth bricks where carried out. This involved themaking of traditional earth bricks of different composition. The new handmadebricks were compared with industrially produced bricks (extrusion bricks) and oldhandmade bricks.

The essay on ?The revival of the countryside ? a multitalent in landproduction.? focuses on local and regional development within agriculture, foodprocessing and tourism.Due to great changes in society, the inhabitants in rural areas are forced to find alternative occupations. Using history as a tool to build up the future is a main factor in rural development. Apart from this it involves cooperation, resources, cultural heritage and values, entrepreneurship and innovation, economic vitality, and an understanding of markets and marketing. They all contribute to a region`s ability to benefit from rural development..

Mediation of fiction for adult users in Swedish public libraries is a subject which has been little studied from a theoretical perspective. The motivation for this thesis was based on this realization, and the opinion that actual library users too seldom get their voices heard in library and information science-research. The thesis analyzes interviews with seven library users in which they have been asked to talk about the librarys work with mediating fiction. The answers are analyzed using a discourse analytic approach to see how the librarys work with mediating fiction is constructed in the users talk.Two main discourses are identified, one authoritative and one neutral. In the authoritative discourse librarians are talked of as experts who have the knowledge to guide users to the ?right? literature.

This thesis aims to develop a theory in the under researched field of international comparative cultural policy studies. lt does so by combining theories from the fields of political scienceand cultural studies, researching how and to what extent the concepts of culture of different states have an impact on the way cultural policies are constructed.The thesis uses this theoretical development in order to research a specific problem, namely the perceived possibility that Swedish and German cultural structures are slowly converging. Two recent official policy documents from each country are the objects of study. Through comparative idea analysis and with Michiel S. D Vries theories on decentralization, the thesis explains the convergence between the countries by differing cultural views between them.

Fornföreningen Fibula on the Aland Islands contacts the author because its members want to create a museum.The purpose of this two years master?s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies is to shed light on what a museum really is. The research question I have answered is ?what is a museum and is this what Fibula really wants in their reconstructed Viking village??. Based on interview material, ethnographic field studies, relevant research in the subject and documents from Fibula, I have answered the research question.

In this report listed buildings, according to the Swedish Heritage Conservation Act, have been studied with a focus on cases where economical compensation has been given to the owner of the building and cases where the listing of the building has been appealed by the owner. In order for a building to become listed it needs to be particularly valuable from a cultural and historical standpoint. The listed buildings are protected through a list of regulations that determines which parts of the building can or cannot be changed, what methods and materials should be used for changes and repairs, and how the building should be maintained. These regulations should as far as possible be formulated in agreement with the owner, but a building can become listed against the owners will. To decrease the damage this causes the owner he can in some cases have the right to economical compensation. There is also a possibility for the owner to appeal the listing of the building.

The aim of this thesis is to map the intellectual base, and identify the general research interests, of Cultural Policy studies. In addition to this the thesis also aims to trace the uses of theoretical and conceptual approaches within the identified research interests. This is done by analysing citations from 130 articles published in the leading scientific journal International Journal of Cultural Policy between the years 2002-2007 using the bibliometric method author cocitation analysis (ACA). The results of the ACA confirm the overall notion that the research field of cultural policy studies is an ambiguous one, even when it?s studied with a quantitative method specialised in uncovering hidden structures within a given field as ACA.

Fornföreningen Fibula on the Aland Islands contacts the author because its members want to create a museum.The purpose of this two years master?s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies is to shed light on what a museum really is. The research question I have answered is ?what is a museum and is this what Fibula really wants in their reconstructed Viking village??. Based on interview material, ethnographic field studies, relevant research in the subject and documents from Fibula, I have answered the research question.

Natural monuments are natural objects with special protection due to their high natural value or cultural significance. The natural value is determined by the occurrence of signal species found on and near the natural monument. The law surrounding natural monuments has evolved a lot since the first ones were declared, and today the title natural monument can be replaced with the title tree with high conservation value. The title has come later and can sometimes overlap natural monument. Some natural monuments lack the qualities required to be classified as a natural monument or a tree with high conservation value, but have a cultural importance.

The project objective was to make parts of our cultural heritage available as a resource for learning, by developing the pedagogical activities on a medieval castle, that today functions as a museum. I also wanted to explore the role of a designer in a process that aims to develop the interaction between schools and cultural institutions.By a selection of objects and locations in the castle, illustrations with accompanying texts were made, which through the children?s imaginative ability may bring them to a historical scenario. This resulted in a working material that supports the children?s activities and reflections during their visit to the castle.

The aim of this study has been to explore local cultural policy documents in some municipalities in the geographical region of Västra Götaland. Do the municipalities have these kinds of documents for their local cultural activities, and how are they designed? These are questions which the study has focused on. The study has been concentrated on the library activity in the local cultural policy documents. The research has been a comparative one.

The National Libraries task to save and preserve the national cultural heritage has turned to a new challenge in a digital world. The preservation of born-digital material for future use requires not only saving the digital object itself but also information about the object, preservation metadata. This is a relatively new issue and the library community has very little experience in this area. It has become evident that international cooperation is necessary to solve the task and that the development of international standards is of fundamental significance. This thesis investigates what has been done to meet the problems with the fast obsolescence of digital material with the focus on metadata.

The invisible entrepreneurship is a study of owners of businesses with foreign heritage. It describes the unexplored relationship between ethnicity and class within this group of entrepreneurs.The result of the study is a model which I have found to be suitable to use when depicting the relationship between the ethnic profile and class. The model indicates that the importance of ethnicity decreases as both the owner of, and the business reach a more prominent class. The method of collecting data has been interviews with owners of businesses and Grounded theory has been used to analyse this data. Theories on ethnicity, owners of businesses with foreign heritage, and class in relation to ethnicity have been discussed on the basis of social constructivism.

The purpose of this study has been to examine what approach and experience pedagogues at pre-schools, with a limited amount of nationalities, have regarding cultural promoting work in pre-schools. The concept ?cultural promoting? mainly regards the children's cultural backgrounds. The first question formulation focussed on the what the concepts ?cultural promoting? and ?cultural diversity? meant to the pedagogues.

The responsibility to identify, protect, look after and develop cultural and historical values in our surroundings - urban as well as rural - falls on the local authorities. This essay focus on local preserve programs for cultural landscapes in Sweden?s municipalities. Programs for preserving cultural landscapes are important tools in the aim to reach a sustainable development of these values. The object of the essay is to delineate how the municipalities handle cultural landscapes in terms of how cultural and historical values is identified, how the landscape is divided and assessed and how different aspects of intangible and tangible values are taken into consideration.