On the first of January 2012, a new public authority was formed in Värmland, due to a new legislation on public transport. The first task for the new public authority was to produce a plan for the development of public transport. In order to do so, it had to execute an extensive consultation process about the long-term goals of public transport. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate how a public authority can use a consultation process as a means to clarify accountability and produce unified goals. To answer that, I have done a case study about how the new regional public authority in Värmland for public transport has acted in the process of writing a plan for the development of public transport.

This thesis examines the effects of electricity visualization in an office building. The subject was investigated through the creation of a web based visualization tool that was made accessible to the about 1500 employees in a large office building. The visualization was available for three weeks. During this period interviews, user studies and observations took place in order to evaluate what, if any, effects the visualization had on the attitudes and behaviors in the office. Electricity use data was collected and analyzed to see if the project had a statistically significant effect on the electricity consumption in the office.The results from the interviews and the data analysis indicate that no reduction in electricity consumption took place, and a number of factors that could increase the chances of success were identified.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to, from a users perspective, investigate which factors affect the library use for six persons with disabilities or visual handicaps. My method has been a case study and the methods applied are interviews and observation. As a theoretical framework I use Tom Wilsons theories and models about information behaviour and transform them to a model about library use. Answers are sought to the following questions: - What does the library use look like for six persons with disabilities or visually handicaps? - How do they experience the library in their own municipality? - Which factors affect the disabled persons library use and experience of the library? All interviewees showed a very positive attitude towards the library and the majority of them visited the library regularly or received audio books by mail.

Norden är i dagsläget en framstående del av världen när det kommer till hållbar utveckling och hållbar turism. Många satsningar görs för att förbättra de tre dimensionerna, ekonomiskt, socialt och ekologiskt som ingår i begreppet hållbarhet. Uppsatsen har syftet att undersöka hållbar turism och utveckling ur ett nordiskt, svenskt och regionalt perspektiv där Sigtuna kommun står i fokus på det regionala planet. I denna kvalitativa undersökning visas exempel på bra och mindre bra satsningar som görs på nämnda nivåer. Även hur hållbar turismutveckling kan tillämpas ur ett nätverksperspektiv är ett huvuddel.

I have studied the suburban municipality of Botkyrka, south of Stockholm, from a rural perspective. Through that I`ve compared how countryside comes into being with the planning and building of suburbs. I have looked for a definition of Countryside, and found that it is often explained or defined in negative terms, as what it is not. In that it says nothing about what it really is, or about the qualitiies it has to it. Botkyrka is a suburb, but it does in large parts consist of countryside. Apart from defining countryside and rural I´ve been searching for a definition of suburbia, of it´s structure and the mental picture we have of it as a cultural phenomena. In order to understand the role that suburbs have in planning I describe their history from Italian renaissance villas to sprawl. By opposing urban and rural, modern urban planning and how rural areas are created, I´ve come to a definition of rural planning and the making of countryside. To make countryside, planning and building should come from individual needs and desires. A relationship to the surroundings based on continous interaction between the human beeing and it´s environment, a constant process of shaping and reshaping. To put my thoughts to the ground I have collected examples of projects and ideas, that fits into my view of what rural planning and making countryside is all about. They are put in different categories according to the possibilities of influence and to what degree it is put into private hands. The first category is ?allemansrätten?, every mans right. That is the rigt to use private land as long as you don´t disturb or destroy.

Kevin Roberts has extended the comprehension of strong consumer brands to a higher level where loyalty beyond reason is established. He calls this new status Lovemarks. As the concept of Lovemark has only been applied in B2C markets, this thesis is directed to find out the applicability of Lovemarks in B2B context. In order to fulfill the research purpose, three main questions are answered based on a cross-sectional research approach: What role do intangible factors play in B2B branding? Is the idea of B2C Lovemarks transferable to B2B context? How should a B2B Lovemark be characterized? The results of the qualitative interviews indicate insights of high investment and involvement, integrated brand communication, balance between function versus emotion, brand?s trustworthy personality, customer partnership, and finally, the potential establishment of B2B Lovemarks.

En av samhällets viktigaste frågor idag rör den framtida energitillförseln till den byggda miljön och dess koppling till miljö- och klimatfrågor. Energitillförseln sker idag till 80% genom fossila bränslen och bygg- och fastighetssektorn står idag för 40% av världens energianvändning. De CO2-emissioner som förbränning av fossila bränslen genererar påverkar jordens växthuseffekt. EU-direktiv rörande en effektivisering och minskning av energianvändningen har implementerats för att minska belastning ur energi- och miljösynpunkt på jorden. Sverige har satt som mål att minska energianvändningen med 20% till år 2020 och 50% till år 2050 i jämförelse med värden från år 1995.

På Nationaldagen år 1992 utnämndes steelpan till Trinidad och Tobagos nationalinstrument. Världens yngsta akustiska instrument har på några få decennier gjort en klassresa. Syftet med denna uppsats är att utifrån de gällande teorierna om subkultur analysera steelbandkulturens ursprung och dess utveckling från en gräsrotskultur till en representant för en hel nation. Vilka faktorer bidrog till subkulturens uppkomst? Hur var det möjligt för steelbandkulturen att inta en så framträdande position i ett multikulturellt samhälle där den europeiska kulturen värdesattes högst av alla? Och vad händer med en subkultur som blir accepterad av resten av samhället?.

The foremost objective of business organizations is to generate value for shareholders and to opt for strategies which optimize it. Hence it is of key concern for business leaders to appreciate how operations best are run to maximize value creation. This study explores how financial theory can reveal the link between one particular business strategy and the corresponding effect on shareholder wealth. The question in focus is whether construction companies can enhance their value creation by implementing shift-work to increase the weekly production rate. The thesis particularly targets apartment block projects in Sweden and has the construction company Peab AB as primary object of study.

In this study my aim has been to discover what connections can be made between the way of creating a library building and the general values concerning the library activities and the library users. What kind of ideology could possibly be reflected in a library room? My study includes two different parts. First of all there is a theoretical section based upon literature relevant for the subject. Here I try to focus on the libraryÕs role in society as a public room.

This study includes several purposes which are to describe the concept of working environment, explain who is responsible for its functioning and how the working environment should look like. Other purposes the study have is to investigate how the working environment is in both Swedish and the two investigated companies construction sites and to share some operators proposing measures for the shortcomings and problems that exist in the construction sector working environment. To achieve these purposes was a qualitative study made with unstructured observations, interviews and survey where three construction sites were observed. The result shows that the concept of the working environment cover many aspects and is essentially about the environment we live in and experience in our work and this environment can be both an indoor as an outdoor environment. In this work, the concept is divided into four areas; it is the physical, the ergonomic, the psychosocial and the chemical.

During the years of development in the 60s and 70s the need for new housing in Sweden arose. Sweden was going to be the most modern country in the world. This period has later been called ?the time of the big programmes?. One of the parts in this building of a welfare society was a large policy of building politics with few counterparts in history.

Problem: The main problem this thesis brings up is what impact factors like trust, commitment, communication between a company and its costumers and value can have on costumer satisfaction on the basis of a relationship perspective.Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to describe the importance of factors that can have an impact on customer satisfaction on the basis of a relationship perspective. To do this the author has looked into a company called Q-steps and conducted an investigation on their costumers opinion of their relationship with the company.Method: An interview was held with Q-steps CEO Sören Levén as the basis of the thesis, as well as a questionnaire that was sent to the company?s existing costumers over the web.Theory: In the thesis the author uses a model that describes factors that can have an impact on costumer satisfaction on the basis of a relationship perspective. This model is based on theories within relationship building in service companies.Conclusion: To be able to develop good relationships to their customers and as a result of this increase the level of costumer satisfaction, Q-steps has to take different variables into consideration. The main focus in this matter should lay on the variables that to a great extent affect the level of costumer satisfaction.

The construction process which is used today while constructing residential buildings has for along time remained unchanged. Unfortunately the development process has gone away frombecoming industrialized and instead most of the work is done at the construction site. In thisrespect this is a worse alternative because the project outcome will be more expensive and theconstruction time will be longer. Skanska?s vision is to have a process which is more like the oneused in small residential buildings which is fully industrialized.The constructing process for residential building involves more parties and therefore it becomesmore complicated.

The purpose of this BA-study is to analyse articles about blood selling and blood donations in the Chinese daily newspaper People?s Daily between 1985 and 1998.With publications of popular scientific material, reports from rallies and portraits of blood donating ?heroes? etc., the People?s Daily, i.e. the Chinese Com­mu­nist Party, actively addresses the underlying cultural reluctance to give blood by different means. People?s Daily and the CCP resolutely aims to transform negative Confucian and other traditional notions of losing blood into represen­tations of courage, honour, duty, etc.