In this thesis, the results of a survey regarding grade progression between secondary and upper secondary school in a municipality in the north of Sweden serve as the starting point for a study of the experiences and expectations of a number of 16 year old girls who are in the first year of upper secondary school. The study is performed by means of focus group interviews with female pupils from the three largest upper secondary schools in said municipality in an attempt to gauge their experiences of grades, grade assessment, teacher practices and perceived differences in how boys and girls are treated. The results show that most of the girls are disappointed with upper secondary school so far. Many of them feel that secondary school was both more fun and more rewarding in a sense of learning. Their appreciation of how this more rewarding atmosphere affected their grades differed between the various groups.

Sustainability and the traffics impact on the environment have become increasingly central within spatial planning. For many years, planning has been focusing on building new roads - this has resulted in increased use of automobiles, which many believe is unsustainable in the longer term. Therefore, authorities at national, regional and local level want to increase the use of alternative transport modes ? such as walking, cycling and traveling by bus.The thesis intends to study if the Municipality of Umeå?s policies for sustainable development have led to an increased use of public transportation. The use of public transport in Umeå is also compared with developments at national level, in order to see if there are differences in the level and trend.

The aim of this study was to explore refugees experiences of an introduction program in a small Swedish municipality. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with six refugees and was conducted to explore how the introduction program contributed or has not contributed to feelings of being integrated. Our informants have got different backgrounds but have all been forced to flee their home country to Sweden. The interview data was interpreted through earlier research, theories about social exclusion and concepts which were relevant for our study. Our study showed that the informants felt kindly received in the small municipality.

Urban planning in Sweden goes back to a prolonged tradition, and even since the beginning of the 16th century there´s been general plans for urban planning for cities in Sweden.Nowadays every municipality has a directive from the government to establish or re-new the general master plan covering the whole municipality every 4th year.The aim of this paper is to illustrate and shed light on the extent for the planning document and guidelines, and how they change from every active period and in what extent the provisional planning reaches its visions regarding the outcome of the actual city growth. This study was completed by studying the position of every apartment building that?s been constructed for the chosen area over the years of 2000 - 2014 and draw comparisons between the current master plan main visions regarding constructions ? and comparing the two separate visions to pin out the differences in the same subject.The result shows that there are some deviations from the plans but not as much as one would have thought in the city growth, and some deviations from the different planning documents. Some of the deviations was greater than others but overall the visions was about the same..

Food waste from grocery stores - An analysis of municipal management inSweden and a detailed study of the situation in Umeå municipalityThe objective of this thesis was to analyze the municipal management of food waste fromgrocery stores in Sweden in general and in Umeå municipality in particular. Furthermore theobjective was to account for the different waste treatment methods that can be used and toevaluate them from an environmental perspective. In order to analyze the municipalmanagement a survey was sent to all of the municipalities/municipal waste companies inSweden. A general comparison of treatment methods was carried out on the basis of ascientific review and a system analysis was performed in order to compare three differenttreatment alternatives for the food waste generated in grocery stores in Umeå. The surveyshowed that the legal definition of food waste from grocery stores is unclear and variesbetween municipalities.

The focus of this thesis is a specific part of Swedish library policy called library plans. A library plan is a political document created with the purpose of constituting a platform for co-operation between different library systems within a municipality, e.g. through determining and analysing the needs for library activities within municipalities in Sweden.This thesis´ aim is to investigate whether library plans are, or can be used as, a tool for change and thereby increase legitimacy for public libraries in Sweden.We have examined aspects of library plans using theories from change management to determine whether these plans include tools focusing on conditions in organisations that could result in an improved and stronger position in the society for public library. Through the use of theories from new institutionalism we opted for an understanding of the interaction between the libraries and the context in which they are part of.Upon examining 23 library plans, we discovered similarities as well as diversities among them. From our study we have drawn the conclusion that it is important to analyse the specific needs of each different municipality and to consider these individual conditions and needs when developing and composing the library plan.

This essay aims to explore the possibilities for elderly in nursing homes in Örebro municipality toreceive other treatments besides medication in case of depression or anxiety. Issues associated withthe object in this paper and which are discussed are prevalence of drug usage, opportunities forelderlies to receive other treatments, prevalence of other treatments and the elderlies own power orinfluence over the choice of treatment. The survey has been conducted with questionnaires sent outby post to nurses at every nursing home for elderly in Örebro municipality. The results showed thatdrugs are used extensively when treating depression or anxiety among the nursing home residents,and other treatments are never or only occasionally being discussed at more than half of the nursinghomes in this study. The results also show that reminiscence therapy and problem-solving therapyhas been used occasionally, while alternative therapies are used more frequently.

In 2003 the deciding political council in Bromölla municipality requested that an overhaul on the committee and public administration structure should be conducted. In the report Bromölla was characterized as a traditional organization with a low degree of change. This case study will examine why the organization previously has been reluctant to change its structure and why they are willing to do so now. In the pursuit of this objective I conducted document studies, interviews and observations. I have used theories on, institutional change and organizational culture to enlighten this.My findings shows that the traditionalists within the organization has greatly affected this reluctance towards change, in the deciding council 39 % of the representatives are 60 years or older.

In 2003 the deciding political council in Bromölla municipality requested that an overhaul on the committee and public administration structure should be conducted. In the report Bromölla was characterized as a traditional organization with a low degree of change. This case study will examine why the organization previously has been reluctant to change its structure and why they are willing to do so now. In the pursuit of this objective I conducted document studies, interviews and observations. I have used theories on, institutional change and organizational culture to enlighten this.My findings shows that the traditionalists within the organization has greatly affected this reluctance towards change, in the deciding council 39 % of the representatives are 60 years or older.

This paper aims to present a theoretical understanding of the emergence of extreme right- wing populist parties (ERP), and more specifically the electoral breakthrough of the ERP party, Sverigedemokraterna in the municipality of Karlskrona. By doing so the study is constructed as a theoretical framework, where the empirical material and the theoretical aspects are interwoven. This means that the theoretical framework also functions as an analytical part. The paper shows how Sverigedemokraterna could be understood as an ERP party, based on e.g its populist anti-establishment critique, and its critique towards the ?immigrant issue?.

Background: Municipalities are organizations facing a turbulent environment characterized by social, economical and political changes. It is the responsibility of the topleaders of the municipality (the municipal manager and the chairman of the local government board) to manage the situation and to make sure that the organization continuously develops. Purpose: To explain, from a leadership perspective, how the municipal topleaders'duties have developed during the past 25 years. Results: The municipal topleaders have nowadays got more issues to handle. Cooperation, networks and projects have increased, like international issues.

Titel: Thinking outside the box: Goals and Salary boxes as motivational factorsAuthors: Anna Ceder and  Karin Barwinger PlogareSeat of Learning: Uppsala UniversityPurpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if the imposition of salary boxes in Uppsala municipality has had any influence on the organisation?s employees? to improve their work motivation. The reason for the study was to look deeper into employees? motivational factors, this with a focus on salary as motivational factor in structures of salary boxes where it is possible for the employee to work towards goals which affect their salary. The primary purpose of the study was to look into if employees? ability to advance their performance had any connection to the impostion of salary boxes.Methodology: In order to collect as much data as possible for the measurements one of the largest occupational groups in Uppsala municipality was chosen, which represents the group of pre-school teachers.

Bullying is today a major problem in schools worldwide. Far too many children are forced to undergo bullying day in and day out without anyone seeing or doing something. My purpose with this study is to find out how four F-6 schools in a municipality south of Stockholm are describes their work to get zero tolerance for bullying at their school.My questions are:How does the four F-6 schools' anti-bullying group in a municipality south of Stockholm describes their work to have zero tolerance for bullying?What do the employees in the school anti-bullying groups consider that bullying is?Why do the employees in the school anti-bullying groups think bullying occurs?Who do the employees in the school anti-bullying groups think are bullies or are being bullied?To get my results I have done four interviews with those in charge of the school's anti-bullying group. My theory is based on standards, what is acceptable behavior and normative theory, hypotheses, what is right and wrong as well as desirable or undesirable behavior.

Title: Besparingar inom Barn- och utbildningsnämnden.Seminar date: 29th of May 2009Course: Degree thesis in Business Administration, bachelor thesisAuthors: Amela Smajlovic and Sten SundfeltAdvisor: Leif HolmbergPurpose: Our purpose is to explain the cost-saving process that many municipality organisations face because of the global financial crisis.Limitations: We have limited our study to the municipality of Landskrona and Kristianstad.Method: Our study has a qualitative approach. By using open interviews we have been able to get an open dialog with our respondents.Theory: We have compared with different theories, such as Rombach?s budget-theory and Wildavsky?s role theory.Empirics: The material is based on interviews and conversations with key figures in different levels of the organisations in Landskrona and Kristianstad.Conclusions: The success of a cost-saving process depends on the engagement, awareness and how inclined to changes the persons in the organisations are. Has everybody the willingness to take responsibility fore the organisation and the changes that the surrounding world claims?.

Torstensson, Niklas (2012): Anledningar till olikheter mellan Svenska kommuners skolkvalitet (Causes behind the differences in Swedish municipality´s quality of school) Örebro University.This essay is an explorative case study that will compare four Swedish municipalities quality of local school system against the municipality ´s backgrounddata and a governing document: Skolplan. This study begins in a previous benchmarking study made by one of Sweden?s teachers unions Lärarförbundet. This is a statistical study that ranked the Swedish municipalities against each other?s according to their accomplishments in a number of areas related to their school systems.