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 care for the elderly in the Municipalities has recently seen the need for a formalized system for quality assurance. Under increasing demands for monetary efficiency while bound by law to retain acceptable standards in health care, there is need for efficient and at the same time quality-assured management. The Municipalities often solve this puzzle by introducing systems and standards influenced by theory-clusters such as NPM (New Public Management), TQM (Total Quality Management) or other quality management theories.This essay focuses on how the public administration in the Municipalities defines quality and designs and implements system for formalized quality assurance. Our basic view of organizations is institutionalist and our theoretical framework includes theories about quality, NPM and TQM..

The daily travel, and especially travel between home and work i.e. commuting, is increasing every passing year. More than 90 000 people commute from their home municipality to work in Gothenburg. One of the aims of the regions of Västra Götaland and Halland is to interconnect Municipalities and towns within the region, thereby creating growth, faster freight and passenger transports as well as a more attractive business climate. However, while the goal is to create growth, there are several Municipalities in the study region with negative ongoing trends.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to evaluate bookmobile service as a decentralised library service. I have made a qualitative interview survey, with seven Swedish Municipalities participating, all providing bookmobile service in their rural parts. The purpose with the interviews is to examine their bookmobile service. I have also studied articles on bookmobile service, and decentralisation through small library units in library journals, to get an insight into how the work with decentralised library service is done in Swedish Municipalities. In this thesis answer is sought to the following questions: - Which decentralised library services are suitable for inhabitants and institutions in sparsely populated areas, considering factors such as number of inhabitants, proportion of old people and children, demographic changes, economy, possibilities to cooperate with other Municipalities? - What is the current bookmobile service situation in Sweden, taking seven Municipalities in the region of Småland as a starting point? My conclusions are that each municipality must decide which decentralised library services that best suites their needs.

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 purpose of this paper is to examine how the revised Planning and Building Act (SFS 2010:900) have influenced the comprehensive planning in Swedish Municipalities. A focus is directed at examining how the new law regulates a greater consideration to climate aspects and the what consequences this results in regarding the implementation of the law in Swedish Municipalities comprehensive plans.The paper is a case study, containing both quantitative and qualitative methods. The case study is based on three municipal comprehensive plans. Based on quantitative material three Municipalities have been selected to constitute the sample of this study. These Municipalities are A?lvsbyn, Sollentuna and Olofstro?m.

Our social lives and where we live shape our choices in life. One of those choices is which party we vote for in the general election. The aim of this thesis is to see if there are any connections between the Swedish general election of 2010, demography, socioeconomic factors and geography. This is done with regression analysis and chosen variables. Another aim is to see where in Sweden the chosen variables aren?t enough to explain the results of the election.

Public participation is a key aspect in the planning of Swedish Municipalities. It is probably the most important tool of them all in the planning towards a sustainable future within the cities and the Municipalities as a whole. Participation from the public can take on several different forms. In this paper I focus to research and discuss in and around the usage of a web-based 3D platform called City Planner. The tool allows the user (the public) to view the Municipalities planning in a fairly new (but quickly growing) environment.

In 1999 the Swedish Parliament decided about 15 environmental goals aimed to be achieved in time for the next generation. For example physical social planning must be based on programs and strategies how cultural-historical values has been attended, so called programs of cultural heritage. By law the Swedish Municipalities are responsible for reaching these goals by creating program of cultural heritage. But only a few of the Municipalities have these programs, meaning that many Municipalities need to create programs of cultural heritage in the next five years.The aim of this report is to present a model of analysis on programs of cultural heritage in Municipalities for preservation and development of cultural environments. By testing the model on the Municipalities of Osby and Tomelilla methods on how to create a new program of cultural heritage or how to complete existing documents are formulated.One of the conclusions is that one document, program of cultural heritage, functions as landscape analysis, model of cultural valuation and strategy of developing cultural values.

The aim of this investigation was to determine if, and in that case how, the resources of personne1 in what in this essay will be referred to as the department of students' health in four industrial Municipalities had changed from 1999 until 2004. The establishment of the department of students' health could be discussed and analys ed in regard of a few concepts from new institutionaI organizational theory and studies on implementation. The investigation answers the following questions:What differences were there between the Municipalities regarding the children's accessibility to the department of students' health?What differences were there between pre-school, compulsory school and upper secondary school within the Municipalities regarding the children's accessibility to the department of student's health?The Municipalities were commissioned by the government to combine school health service, student welfare and the field of remediaI teaching in order to establish a new section, the department of students' health. The study was carried out quantitatively.

This study is mostly based on previous research, which includes Sub-national actor?s attitudes and regional action towards the European Union. The purpose of the study is to investigate if four Swedish Municipalities in Värmland operate internationally towards the European Union and deepen an understanding of their actions. The main research question is: - How can we increase our understanding of municipal action against the European Union? The research questions of this study are answered through qualitative method and semi-structured interviews were conducted.

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.

This thesis examines the Municipalities of Västra Götaland and the way they are prepared for crisis communication towards people with a foreign background. Over the past years there have been several studies that have examined the issue of crisis communications towards minorities but these are often focused on the target group. In this study, I focus on the authorities' actions. The theoretical approach is primarily an intersectional one and in this way the thesis is centred on the creation of different categories, the relationship between these categories and the possibilities working with these at the Municipalities.On behalf of Region Västra Götaland, this investigation began with a survey that went out to the communications officers in charge of the crisis communication in each municipality. The ambition was to clarify the preparedness of each one and show how they relate to one another.

In 1974 the three Municipalities of Åsele, Dorotea and Fredrika were amalgamated despite of hunger strikes, mass protests and a serious threat of violence. But after six years the marriage shattered as Dorotea left the other two after years of continued struggle. In 2005 the idea of an amalgamation of Åsele, Dorotea and Vilhelmina Municipalities was brought to life by an older and ever declining population.By creating a democratic ideal type consisting of the three variables ? legitimacy, participation and identity ? this study assesses what impact an amalgamation of the three Municipalities might have on local democracy.Combining a qualitative and a quantitative approach this study concludes that amalgamating the Municipalities today could create a democratic unit lacking legitimacy, having a weak identity and impeding participation. But the study also brings forth that the impact of an amalgamation upon the variables of the ideal type as defined is not written in stone.

The starting point for this thesis has been the great process of change that Swedish Municipalities now arefacing due to the political directive of offering full-time employment to all part-time employees. The aimof the research is to create a decision support model for Swedish Municipalities, which simultaneouslyintroduce the offer of full-time employment and an internal personnel pool. The factors that mayinfluence the personnel?s choice of employment level and the quality of the outcome, thus the financial result,are we also aiming at explaining. The empirical observations were found through secondary data as well asobservations from the municipality of Göteborgs Stad.