The purpose of this study was to examine social workers working process in social assistance with focus on the child´s perspective. We were interested in learning about the existence of variations in approach and attitude between two municipalities. Question to be answered about what methods and approaches used by social workers to include the child´s perspective in the process of social assistance. Another question to be answered about what the manner in which social workers took into account the child´s perspective when the families apply for social assistance in relation to the operations and requirement. To fulfill the purpose, qualitative methods were used.

A growing need to strengthen ones position on the market, even as a city in competition with other cities, has resulted in an increasing number of municipalities developing brand platforms. When the city of Umeå developed their platform, they identified decision makers and investors as one of four important target groups.The aim of this study is to explore the portrayed image of the city of Umeå in two Swedish trade journals which addresses the specific target group decition makers and investors in both public and private sector. The aim is also to compare the image of Umeå in the two papers, to the ambition of the municipality, expressed in the brand platform.In order to make the observations as firmly established as possible, the method of the study is a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis. The study draws on the theories of Eli Avraham and Philip Kotler, concerning how to improve city images and how to market a specific city among others. The study shows that the city of Umeå in large extent is portrayed in accordance to the ambition which the municipality expressed in the brand platform.Umeå is displayed as an expanding city.

This study aims to analyze the risks with building new households between railroads and shore, the focus of the study lays on Öbacka strand in Umeå municipality. The study also investigate if a land use conflict has taken place and how it was handled.The paper is based on different documents that was central for the work of planning the households and some interviews with operators that was highly involved with the planning of the area.The results shows that there is several risks with establishing new household between railroads and shores. Mainly because of the exposure of noise from the railways, though the risk for impact on the living environment for animals were low in this case there is a generally risk that it could get negative effects. It also a very important that the availability to the shore is secured. Planning in this type of area involves a great number of operators can easily cause a conflict due to the different perspectives on how the land should be used in the future, and also because of protecting different interests.

AbstractHudiksvalls coordinating model - a model to make cooperation easierCamilla Andersson and Åsa GradinThe purpose of this study was to examine the experience each one of the administrators have of their own new model in Hudiksvall to make cooperation easier for the three different administrations in Hudiksvalls municipality. The study will focus on the administrators experiences of Hudiksvalls coordinating design. Questions of the study were: How is the influence of the model on the rules? How is the influence of the model on expectations and parts? What kind of influence did the model have on the responsibility distribution? What kind of influence has the model on the responsibilities at the transfer of costs? To answer the questions of the study we applied a qualitative method, it was made through a standardization interview guide and open questions, with six of the dealing officers who works with the model. Some of the results wich can be discern are by an economic character, andfor the clients that they won`t be passed around the administrations in the community, they get the right help, quick and safe.Key words: cooperation, coordination..

Children's library's primary task is to encourage children to read. Promoted readingleads to increased reading skills. A common method for this purpose is booktalk. This studyaims to examine how children?s librarians work with booktalk aimed towards children andhow it can be developed as a working method to support the library's reading promotionactivities.

This thesis suggests an explanation for how it is possible for individuals living in an unsafe neighborhood to expressa highlevel of security. Araby is the district in Växjö municipality withthe highest level of insecurity. Within the district, there is acategory of individuals in security-measurements showing a high degree of security. Inhabitants living in house in Araby also seem to show a higher level of security than inhabitants in the same accommodation in other neighborhoods in the municipality.The study's purpose is to understand how individuals belonging to an unsafe neighborhood can experience a high degree of security.Qualitative data were collected from an observation in Araby and from interviews with individuals living in house in the district.Previous research has shown that security in the surrounding area depends on several factors, such as disorders, the degree of social control and personal opinions. Thestudy shows how a distinction to places and people in the district can explain the degree of security.

A growing need to strengthen ones position on the market, even as a city in competition with other cities, has resulted in an increasing number of municipalities developing brand platforms. When the city of Umeå developed their platform, they identified decision makers and investors as one of four important target groups.The aim of this study is to explore the portrayed image of the city of Umeå in two Swedish trade journals which addresses the specific target group decition makers and investors in both public and private sector. The aim is also to compare the image of Umeå in the two papers, to the ambition of the municipality, expressed in the brand platform.In order to make the observations as firmly established as possible, the method of the study is a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis. The study draws on the theories of Eli Avraham and Philip Kotler, concerning how to improve city images and how to market a specific city among others. The study shows that the city of Umeå in large extent is portrayed in accordance to the ambition which the municipality expressed in the brand platform.Umeå is displayed as an expanding city.

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..

Guaranteed cohabitation of elderly couples is a new law that gives elderly couples the right to live together in special housing. Even if only one of the spouses has an administrator?s decision to live in special housing. The aim of this study is to describe and understand how three municipalities materialize the social rights guaranteed for the elderly couples? cohabitation.

The purpose of this study is to determine if and how municipal consultative entities through influence may affect the legitimacy of the Swedish democratic model. The study aims to do this through analysing the opportunities for influence present with the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality, to determine how the councils may affect political participation and the role of elected representatives. To do so, the study asks the following primary research question:"What requisites for influence are present for participants of municipal consultative entities, as found for the representatives of the youth and the retired within the framework of their participation in the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality?"The study answers this research question by dividing it into one question of policy and one question of democratic perspective, and investigating these matters through nine snowballing interviews with the decision makers, organisational actors and participants of the councils. The information from the interviews is then analysed per council through a framework of democracy theory, policy process theory and organisation theory.

Every municipality in Sweden is responsible for offering its citizens adequate childcare. Parents hand in a preliminary schedule to the preschool for when their child needs to be in childcare, and based on this the preschool staff is scheduled. Some municipalities measure the actual time a child is in childcare. The essay idea comes from when I heard that one municipality was thinking of register the children's actual time in preschools. I started thinking on how to solve such a task.

We are currently in the midst of the current information revolution and it is increasinglyimportant to allocate and utilize the resources spent on IT. To accomplish this, one solutioncould be to work together with IT. For municipalities, this can be a complicated process whenyou are dependent on the resources that are given and subject to laws regarding procurement,this places great demands on the Swedish municipalities.One solution could be to work collaboratively with IT across municipal borders, this studyexamines the advantages and disadvantages of this. The study was conducted using interviewand survey of various municipalities in the Gothenburg region. The study shows that there isjoint work across municipal boundaries but that communication sometimes fails, this provesamong other things that some communities feel they have a partnership with a municipality,while the other sees that they have no partnership.With the results from the study are discussed and problematized the current conditions thatexist between the municipalities today, and how they could change.

 AbstractAttractiveness may be defined by a variety of factors but you should see it in the public planning as it is to have a positive population growth and economic growth, through working with communications, service, housing, to name a few. This is done primarily through direct projects both within the municipality and through various partnerships between local and regional level. The progress we have seen in recent years has gone more towards a clear shell level, particularly a regional level where these have had a much greater freedom with clear geographical boundaries in between each other. Within these regions there are also clear regional groupings that have common interests and competing between each other. In my thesis, we have been distinguished including three levels of scale levels.

The purpose of this study is to understand the knowledge of the school counselor and their room for manoeuvre regarding cyberbullying among students. We have used a qualitative method, which consists of eight semi-structured interviews with six middle school student counselors and two high school student counselors, in a middle-sized municipality in Sweden. Our study showed that the school counselors have limited knowledge about cyberbullying due to the fast development of the internet, and limited time in their work. The limited knowledge affects the school counselor?s way of work, and how they use their room for manoeuvre on cyberbullying.

The work examines geographical variations of bicycle use in Trondheim municipality with the aim to create an understanding of what influences the use of bicycles and explain the geographical travel pattern for cycling. The work focuses on the how physical structures generates different transports effects. Where bicycle travels in Trondheim municipality are undertaken is described by using network analysis in ArcGIS, based on aggregated data from the travel habit survey (RVU) in 2009/2010. Trondheim municipality is divided into smaller geographical units (zoner) whose characteristics are described by 19 variables, categorized into 6 groups; Distance, Land use, Topography, Bicycle Facilities, Road characteristics and Demographic factors.By linear regression analysis in SPSS and ArcGIS Spatial Analyst, an explanatory model is elaborated. The variablesdistance to the regional center, workplace density, percentage separate bike paths and hilly terrain explains 78 percent of where cycle journeys are undertaken.