On the 13th of June 2005 the Minister of Defence, Leni Björklund, was subjected to a formal complaint addressed to the Committee on the Constitution concerning her handling of a specific co-operation project with France. The project concerned the development of a technology demonstrator for an UCAV called Neuron. The reason for the complaint was that the Minister of Defence had failed to present the project to the parliament and thus bypassed a parliamentary decision. Such negligence might be considered unlawful under the Swedish Constitution. The issue became public during an unscheduled meeting with the Committee on Defence, a meeting that was arranged at the request of the Minister of Defence.

The aim of this master's thesis is to study how the design of the music library space affects how it is used and its role as an arena for culture. This is done in form of a case study of Library 10 in Helsinki, a public library branch that specializes in music and information technology. The backdrop to the study is the changing context for cultural activity in the information society and the role of public libraries as public space and meeting place. By analyzing the distribution of space in the library, the distribution of functions and artefacts and the spatial use of the room, I interpret the ways in which this distributional logic produces a unique place for music and culture. I discuss the music library design in a space and place perspective, utilizing theoretical tools from cultural geography and the space theories of Henri Lefebvre.

This graduate thesis is engaged with perceived safety and "safe making" design in public places. Despite the fact that we have never been as safe, questions of safety get more attention than ever in today?s society. Public demands for safer and more secure environments and low levels of experienced feelings of safety indicate problems in society that can shrink people's usage of public places as well as their quality of life. Through methodical exaggeration of danger and legislation of laws, the state creates a situation that in different respect work to overprotect the citizens, who are not unlikely to experience feelings of being unsafe at the same time that the actual safety is to big. An expansion of protection against fear can unlike what was first intended decrease the experience of safety.

AbstractThis degree project is about having meetings in The Swedish Social Insurance Agency, which is awide organisation. This work will concentrate on one of the projects going on within theorganisation which is travel-free meetings, where they are building a video meeting system thatallows the employees in the organisation to be able to meet with each other through the use ofvideoconferencing instead of physical meetings.In this work we will show how Kaikaku (radical system changes) along with Kaizen (continuouschange) can support an organisation to become more efficient and reduce wastage. We have donethis work in an organisation that is present in over one hundred locations in Sweden.The Social Insurance Agency has over 13 000 employees at over one hundred locations inSweden.The organisation has to be close to their customers and provide the best service aspossible. To be able to work in a uniform way, the employees get together and have meetings.Some meetings are just progress meetings and takes perhaps no more than two hours to complete.However, if seven employees from seven different locations need to have meetings, in the worstcase, they all have to meet in a common place.This is expensive for the organisation in travel costs, time and absence from work, but thetravelling also contributes to environmental pollution if the employees are travelling by a fuelpoweredvehicle.A whole day could go lost for having a meeting in about two hours if all sevenemployees went from their own cities to e.g. Stockholm for the meeting.Muda (wastage) of travel created several different types of Muda, namely:? Wastage with anticipation when the employees had to wait for e.g.

The river Selångersån runs through thenorthern Swedish city of Sundsvall, splittingthe city in two as it winds through thevalley between Södra- and Norra Stadsbergetand out into the Baltic Sea.The river is a national interest of nature conservationbut at the same time in the middleof an urban development string for the city,creating a complex situation of developmentcontra conservation of natural environment.This project attempts to create a strategy oflandscape urbanism for the area surroundingSelånger Bay, four kilometers upstreamalong Selångersån. A sensitive wetland, todayrather forgotten but with great potentialfor introducing wild nature as an active partof the city. Or rather, initiating a processwhere the built environment can infiltrateand enrich the natural environment gradually.A city park in this location to initiate thisprocess could be a joint project of the city?sresidents with the scope to become a projectin constant development.The idea of the project is to offer a large ecologicalpark and meeting place near the citycenter. This will be achieved by clarifyingthe activities and values that already existin the park, such as the largest living deltai the region, football fields and a medievalchurch ruin, and by creating new paths.

There was a silence surrounding homosexuality in the People's Republic of Poland. One can almost get the impression that same sex love, and same sex relationships, did not even exist there; that the communists had successfully removed homosexuality from society. The roots of this silence can be found in the Communist Party´s disdain for anything deemed individualist and deviant, and also in the conservatism and religiosity of the Polish society.In my thesis I study when and how gays and lesbians found a way out of the silence that surrounded their sexuality. Gay men did so by creating subcultures, which found refuge in parks, public bathrooms and a few bars in larger Polish cities, and offered a sense of belonging for them. Lesbians, on the other hand, lacked this access to semi-public spheres, which made it even harder for them to find each other and create a space for their sexuality.

The project of this thesis is to illuminate the teacher perspective on study visits by examining how six religion teachers relate to the study visit method in high school religious education. The research object of the thesis is to investigate whether teachers believe there are viable didactic possibilities and challenges associated with the study visit concept in education, and to define them if present. The results show that the main didactic advantage, as perceived by the teachers participating in this study, lies in the meeting the study visit enables. A meeting may lead to increased insight and understanding of other people?s way of thinking, conceiving and believing.

The trend in the transport sector is moving towards eco-friendly, fast and convenient transportation,this results in higher demands on railway transports. To meet the demand and quality requirements,the Swedish railway network will have to expand. The cheapest way is to expand little by little butwhat impact do these small steps actually have on the capacity?This thesis examines the interactions of different improvement for the capacity on a single-trackrailway. Through simulations in the software tool RailSys this report studies what effect block signals,extra meeting stations and rebuilding existing two track passing loops to three track loops have onthe capacity.

The aim of the study was to examine prerequisites for the changes that are taking place within working with Intimate Partner Violence in Västra Hisingen (a municipal district in Gothenburg, Sweden). My research questions concerned incentives for the new features, their practical consequences and prerequisites for implementation. The study has been performed by three focus group interviews with different parts of the organization represented. The work material has then been analyzed using Implementation Theory, Human Service Organization Theory and theories on breaking up. The study showed that all respondents were motivated to perform the changes, but also that there were significant differences between the groups? conceptions of what implementation demands, and of the organizational support today.

The purpose of the study was to describe how care givers experience working with people who suffer from dementia and acting out behaviour and to illustrate the importance of the care givers approach. Sixteen caregivers were interviewed from different nursing homes in the middle of Sweden. The interviews were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. The result is divided into two content areas. The analysis of the first content area, care givers experiences of meeting people with dementia and acting out behaviour, resulted in three categories, which deals with the approach.

The project has sprung out of my imagination. I wanted to find out what happened to my creativity, and my way of making product design if I used the method of putting myself into a fictive world. The project has taught me to rely on myself and my knowledge as a designer.I have made a chair which closes out sounds and gestures in public places. A chair which provides you with peace and quiet in a busy environment..

SummaryIntroductory: Since the mid-90s, the numbers of places in psychiatric inpatient settings have decreased and accommodations for individuals with schizophrenia have become increasingly common. In addition to the basic needs that we humans have, individuals with schizophrenia may be in need of special support. Social support can be seen as a protective factor for maintaining health and the recovery of the individual. Lack of social support has shown to be linked to mental illness. The extent of need and support of individuals with mental disabilities may be such that they live in a special accommodation where such assistance can be provided by staff.

The outdoor environment at Children's hospital, the University Hospital, Uppsala, is used by sick children at the Children's hospital, their families and the hospital staff. The staff at the Children's hospital wanted to render the site more attractive and available. This graduation thesis is a proposal about how the outdoor environment at the Children's hospital can be improved. The aim is to design an environment for the sick children, their families and the hospital staff that will serve as a place for relaxation and privacy, as well as for play and movement. In order to find support for the redesign of this site I read literature about theories concerning healing environments, healing gardens, children's play and designs for children.

The aim of the study was to examine prerequisites for the changes that are taking place within working with Intimate Partner Violence in Va?stra Hisingen (a municipal district in Gothenburg, Sweden). My research questions concerned incentives for the new features, their practical consequences and prerequisites for implementation. The study has been performed by three focus group interviews with different parts of the organization represented. The work material has then been analyzed using Implementation Theory, Human Service Organization Theory and theories on breaking up.

How do you build cities that are exciting and nice to live in? What factors in the physical environment is it that make you feel comfortable in some of the places in the city, but in other places not comfortable at all? Why do some cities have a rich public life in their public realm, while the public realm in other cities is abandoned and empty? How do you plan environments that support people?s physical and mental health? These are questions that I put to myself, and that people who are interested in or working with physical planning should ask themselves. That is why I have been studying an authority on the subject, the Danish Professor Jan Gehl, who has been researching and working with peoplefriendly public realms for 50 years. He is best known for his book Life between buildings that has been a text-book in the education of architects for more than 30 years, and to have initiated Copenhagens most famous pedestrian street, Strøget, to show his theory of how people will use the public realm, if it?s only got the right qualities.