The thesis explores what is meant by multiculturalism in today's Sweden based on burial grounds and funerals in a minor municipality. This is done through an ethnographic case study of the municipality of Vara. The study aims to investigate how multiculturalism looks and is responded to. The study maps which aspects are placed on multiculturalism in a minor municipality and which adaptations and compromises are highlighted. This is done within the framework of theories concerning multiculturalism and social identity, and the result of the empirical case study is presented by applying the theories to the material. From burial places and funerals, social collective and individual identities are analysed based on the social categories of religion/faith/secularity and place belonging, based on the perspectives of rituals and traditions as well as the location of the grave. The study finds that there are several aspects of multiculture in the burial grounds, as multiculture not only includes cultural influences from immigrants but also the different preferences of the local villages, in combination with the development of society, and Sweden in general.

Urban planning is not only a matter of architectural trends; it is first and foremost political. This thesis seeks to understand the links between political ideas and visions for the city and the physical structure of the city. The study aims to construct a model to help understand these links, a helpful tool in analysing a city, focusing on the one hand at the physical structure of what I call "The City as a Welfare Provider" and on the other hand at "The City as a Growth Engine". It also sets out to test this model in an empirical study of Stockholm and the soon-to-be built district of Norra Station in the same city.The analysis shows that Stockholm has ambitions to be a welfare provider to its citizens, but have also adopted to a discourse of interurban competition which stresses the importance for the city to enhance economical growth. What is interesting is that the physical structures promoted in the planning documents of Stockholm are nearly exclusively those associated with the model of "The City as a Growth Engine"..

In the beginning of 2009 The County Administrative Boards assumed the responsibility of animal welfare, a task previously performed by the individual municipalities. This transfer was made with the aim of achieving more efficient and equivalent animal welfare controls across the country. Previous studies among animal owners have shown a somewhat negative image of animal welfare controls. This study focuses on investigating the experiences of the horse keepers in the County of Halland concerning animal welfare. The study is based on a questionnaire which was sent to 423 horse keepers in Halland, of which 130 were returned with information that laid the foundation of this study.

The public sector is a major purchaser of goods and services. By setting requirements for environmental and social considerations in public procurement, an authority has the possibility to use consumer power to influence the actors in a market. The purpose of this paper is to investigate public procurement of textile products in a municipality, in order to gain knowledge about factors that may be important for the use of environmental and social criteria. Håkan Hydén´s (professor in sociology of law) norm model was used as the basis of the analysis, where the conduct was investigated along three dimensions of the norm ? willingness, knowledge and system conditions ? in order to identify underlying factors that can influence the process.The results ? analyzed by using interviews and documents ? show that the procurer's willingness, motivation and knowledge are important factors in this context, as well as the political priority of the municipality.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate whether there are differences between big cities and small cities in adventure tourism. The cities that are studied are Stockholm and Visby.Methodology: The study is based on a qualitative method. We have done interviews and observation. We also used books and internet when collecting information.        Conclusions: The study has shown that differences exist between large and small cities. People seek out the opposite, whether you're from a big city or small town.

This master thesis is about art activity in the public library. The essay takes its starting point from Government cultural political directives and my purpose has been to study how these are followed up in the municipal level. My survey takes place at the main library of Flen in the county of Södermanland. What I am looking for is, what the art activity looks like, what is decided regarding it and what the strategies are. Furthermore I look into how library visitors understand and participate in the art activity.

The aim of this paper was to study incoming complaints to The County Administrative Board in Västra Götaland during 2011 and examine if it was possible to see a connection between warranted and unwarranted complaints and informer, animal species and type of inadequate. In Västra Götaland, a complaint is classified as warranted if the inspection leads to a reprimand, whether it regards what was reported or not. Data were collected during three weeks through The County Administrative Board´s record system Platina and a total of 456 complaints were studied. The parameter ?complainant? was categorized into four groups according to The County Administrative Boards own division; public with the subgroups anonymous and non-anonymous, animal health staff and others.

This Master?s thesis is about the public library development in a rural district, in this case Bergunda, a large rural district in Kronoberg?s County in Småland in Sweden, existing 1952 ? 1970. The main question is; how the public library develops in Bergunda large rural district 1951-1970. The main question is divided up in sub-questions: the district uniting in 1952 and 1971; personnel; lending; library housing and the public library structure. In 1952, there is one public library, Bergunda public library, and four study circle libraries.

Underso?kningens huvudfra?ga a?r hur den ura?ldriga torghandeln kan fortsa?tta existera i det svenska samha?llet da?r logik, ordning och va?lsta?nd ofta ga?r pa? tva?rs med torghandelns flyktighet, kortsiktighet och umba?randen. Oordning och informellt a?r tva? nyckelord i beskrivningarna av torghandeln historiskt och i den aktuella internationella forskningen. Praktik, uto?vare, materialitet, fo?resta?llningar och plats samverkar o?ver tid i en sta?ndig fo?ra?ndring av handeln.

The purpose of this study is to achieve a greater understanding of the perception of the use of Special Educational Needs Coordinators? (SENCOs?) competence in school. The informants of this study are the director of the school district, two principals and six teachers in two schools in a municipality in Sweden. The method used for this study is qualitative interviews, and the results have been analyzed using perspectives on special education. The results show that the director of the school district has one ideal view of SENCOs working close to the principals with supervision of teachers, school development, administrative tasks etc.

The aim with our study has been to examine how preschool-staffs resonate about the notification requirements according to Chapter 14, section 1, The Social Services Act, when a child fare badly or is suspected to fare badly: first, in relation to the municipality´s policies, but also in relation to the preschool staff´s actions in individual cases. Our study was conducted by qualitative research with semi-structured interviews. Total has two child´s nurses and six preschool-teachers, active within Växjö´s municipality, been interviewed. The result showed that the municipality´s guidelines on the one hand, underpinned by giving a prescribed pattern of behavior for preschool staff on how to act if the suspected that a child to fare badly. On the other hand preschool staff also experienced the guidelines diffuse as there were nothing described of the transition of how much they should document and observe before a notification could be initiated to the headmaster.

This study raises the question how the implementation of the balanced scorecard in the municipality of Gotland has been influenced by the way of communication. A case study is made in the administration of Social-and care management on Gotland. We have been focusing on two different ways of communication. The first one is Shannon and Weavers model where communication is explained as a transmission of a message through a channel to a receiver. The other one is sensemaking where it is focal to give the information meaning.

Municipalities with a higher amount of female representatives has been shown to be more gender equal. Earlier reasearch has also shown that female politicians are more likely than male politicans to represent immigrants and refugees interests. However, the effect of female representation has not been tested on other subordinated groups than women. Swedish municipalities have full autonomy regarding refugee reception and local politicians are responsible for the decision on the amount of refugees that the municipality accept. The variations of female and male politicians in the local assemblies are expected to have different outcomes on the refugee reception, according to females social backgrounds and experiences.

This report is a result of a first survey of Halland?s gravel pits as an assignment from the County Administrative Board of Halland. The focus has been on Apalus bimaculatus, since the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency are creating a restoration program as it is red listed as Near Threatened. The purpose was also to get an overview of the pits since the County Administrative Board wants to continue this project. Apalus bimaculatus is easy to overlook since it is a short-lived beetle and it lives early in the spring.

The City of Stockholm has decided to invest in renewable energy and especially in photovoltaics. The objective of this thesis is to investigate the photovoltaic potential on roof areas that the city possesses and to further investigate some buildings of the Property Management Department. The thesis also compares some existing photovoltaic plants with the solar irradiance map which shows available roof area on each building in Stockholm. The report ends with a literature study about the climate impact and greenhouse gas emissions of photovoltaic.The total available roof area suitable for photovoltaic plants is estimated to 700 000 m2, with a potential electricity production of 110 GWh per year. This corresponds to 17 % of the City of Stockholm?s yearly electricity consumption.