This master thesis explores the nature of public participation as a central and most current subject in the field of urban planning. A first impression exposes a seemingly unanalyzed consensus on the values and benefits which public participation provides the process of urban planning. The city may be a concern to all its inhabitants; hence knowledge and opinions of the local public are of great importance for the urban development. But is there really something new to these assumptions, and are the advantages of increased public participation in urban planning always obvious?  By using action research as a main method, I have put myself into the context of the Swedish municipality of Nacka and their projects dealing with the development of public participation.

Kvarteret Tjället, vid Stadshagens tunnelbanestation. Där tunnelbaneuppgången möter den kuperade marken föreslås bostäder enligt Stockholms stad. Anvisningen inrymmer kring 30 lägenheter, och enligt kommunen är det i princip klart att det handlar om bostadsrätter som ska byggas. För att motverka den ökade likriktningen i klientel föreslår detta projekt att tomten upplåts till ett blandat boende.Två punkthus som inrymmer 109 lägenheter, blir bostäder åt seniorer och studenter. Två grupper som lätt slås ut från den i Stockholm mycket hårda marknaden för boende.

Passivhus är en vidareutveckling av ett energisnålt hus, där man genom extra tjock isolering,hög kvalitet på dörrar och fönster samt husets planlösning minimerar beroende att köpa energiför uppvärmning. Passivhus har krav på uppvärmningsbehovet samtprimärenergiförbrukningen. En princip för passivhus är att de inte ska vara krångligare ellerobekvämare att bo i än vanliga hus.Lindås Park är ett bostadsområde som består av 20 st. radhus som ligger en bit utanförGöteborg. Radhuset klarar kraven för ett passivhus, det enda värmesystem som är installeratär en eftervärmare till FTX-systemet på 900 W.De passiva hus som byggts i Sverige har gemensamt är att de ligger i södra delen av Sverigeeller nära kusten, dvs.

This paper aims to broaden the discussion on how press freedom can be a powerful tool in the war on corruption. Previous studies have shown a significant relationship between more press freedom and less corruption, it also shows that the causal link runs from press freedom to corruption and not the other way around. There are quite a few studies on the impact of a free press on corruption and therefore there is a lot more to be published on this issue.This paper looks at press freedom as one of the most important parts of a democratic society and that it plays a vital role in reducing corruption as both an informant on key issues and also as a ?watchdog? on society. But press freedom cannot be seen as an ?easy fix? in a country or the international community's struggle to reduce corruption.

The County Administrative Board is an authority with big variations in their work. The fact that the County Administrative Board work with so many different issues makes it difficult for the general public to get an insight in what they do and what kind of archival material they create. This handbook is made to illustrate what the County Administrative Board do and how you can find your way to the archives and its documents, both as an employ and as a public visitor.The Handbook begins with a historical overview of the County Administrative Board, from the 17th century to today, with focus on the County Administrative Board of Uppsala. As the Handbook is made for both employees and for the general public several ways to enter the archives are described.Since the employees at the County Administrative Board of Uppsala have access to the archives them self the Handbook also provides detailed descriptions about how to find the way to the records. These descriptions both explains the way to archives organized in dossier and archives organized in chronological order, both provided at County Administrative Board of Uppsala.All the records that the County Administrative Board of Uppsala has generated though the years are not available in the building of the County Administrative Board but at The National Archive in Uppsala.

This master thesis examines the copyright law with the purpose of sorting out the consequences and the effects of the law impacted on libraries. The theories used are mainly discourse analysis and public domain theory. At the centre of the examination is the effects that copyright law bring to libraries and their ability to perform their work. A major part of this thesis is gathered around the analysis of the presumptive key words that give the structures of copyright law the possibility to claim rightfulness. This is an outspoken strategy to illustrate the discourse of copyright law.

The current study aimed to test the public self-consciousness impact on creative performance. An experimental design was used in which 40 participants were randomly assigned to two groups, one of which was the experimental group and the other was the control group. A mirror was used in the experimental group to induce public self-consciousness among the participants while they performed creativity tests. A consequence test was used where the participant had to give suggestions for the given scenario "What would happen if everyone became blind?" which was then measured in the number of proposals (fluency).

Purpose: Social media is a global phenomenon that has developed from an opportunity of contact between people, into a platform for contact between organizations and people. This essay aims to investigate the public relation strategies of one organization on a popular social network.The main question that this study aims to answer is how the travel agency Ving chooses to create and preserve relationships to the public on Facebook in order to maintain a good reputation. Asub-question explores whether any patterns exist in Ving?s approach of interaction with its stakeholders.Method/Material: This study consists of a quantitative content analysis in which the interaction between the organization and the audience has been studied. Posts published by the public as well as replications from Ving have been categorized and then analyzed using two analytical models.

This thesis investigates all aspects of quality and evaluation issues concerning collections of Internet links in public libraries today and in the future. We have studied central theories concerning quality in general as well as quality aspects regarding the Internet and Internet links. In addition to this we have made three case-studies involving the development of collections of Internet links in public libraries of different sizes. The case-studies were made as interviews with professionals responsible for selection, quality assurance and evaluation of electronic information for inclusion in the libraries collections of Internet links. In addition to this we made an e-mail interview with a librarian responsible for one of the most advanced collections of Internet links among Swedish´ public libraries.

Objective: In recent years there has been an increasing interest within the clinical (medical) science in measuring people?s health. When estimating quality of life, present practise is to use the EQ-5D questionnaire and an index which weighs the different questions. The question is what happens if the individuals estimate there own health, would it differ from the public preferences? The aim is to make a new prediction model based on the opinion of patients and compare it to the present model based on public preferences.Method: A sample of 362 patients with unstable coronary artery disease from the Frisc II trial, valued their quality of life in the acute phase and after 3, 6 and 12 months.

In Abisko National Park there are a numberof weather stations. To be able toretrieve the data from the nodes in thefuture a Quadrocopter-prototype has beendeveloped during this master thesisproject as a first step. A quadrocopter isa helicopter with four rotors placed in across formation. The quadrocopter cannavigate autonomous between different GPSpositionsthat are updated during flighttrough Xbee-modules. All levels fromsources code, design of the electronics todevelopment of the chassis was performedduring the project.

The purpose of this study was to examine leadership in the public sector based on leadership models, organizational factors, conditions and health of employees. The study was divided into sub-study one and two. In sub-study one the design was an observational study using cross sectional design in which 67 first line managers in the public sector answered a survey about conditions and leadership models. Sub-study two was an observational study using case-control design focusing on a health promoting leadership intervention in the municipal sector. Two semi-structured interviews and 41 surveys were collected.

In this composition we will treat issues about intercultural approach and managing diversity in Swedish municipal/public school. This survey includes several theories and conceptions as ethnicity, culture, multiplicity/managing diversity and intercultural approach/multiculturalism.We studied two different schools and their awareness concerning intercultural approach and managing diversity . The study is concentrating on two schools in two different communities. One of the schools had a greater ethnic multiplicity than the other school, and therefore, we thought, it seemed easier for them to accept an intercultural approach and managing diversity. But that was not the whole truth.

It may seem obvious that the urban space in our northern cities should be design to function and inspire throughout the whole year. This is not always the case. The urban space is often designed on a summer basis and the winter is regarded more as a problem then a resource and its potential remain unused. I have in this master thesis studied the impact of the winter on people and spaces and ponder on how to design functional and attractive places for winter. The project ends in a design concept for Broparken in Umeå on the theme "everyday winter day". The work with this thesis has given me, as a landscape architect, valuable experiences and filled a gap of knowledge that I had in this subject. I hope that this thesis can inspire Umeå kommun and others who are interested in how northern cities can benefit by its climate and develop towards a more complete city. The thesis begins with a chapter that present the subject from four different perspectives.

The purpose of this study was to understand whether there is a difference in how the Swedish police work with Facebook in two municipalities with different criminal records. The methods used were qualitative interviews with the ones responsible for the Facebook-sites and quantitative content analysis of different Facebook-posts, both from members of the Facebook-site and from the police themselves.Among the theories used in this study were the ?four-step relations process? by Cutlip, Allen and Broom, theory around public relations and theory around the public sphere by Habermas.The results showed that there is a difference in how the police uses Facebook between the municipalities and one of the conclusions is that this is mainly because of the ways that the police choose to work with Facebook rather than the difference in criminal records. Another conclusion is that the police get positive feedback from the members on their Facebook-site, and that how much the police uses Facebook as a tool depends a lot on how much resources they have to spend since the ones writing on Facebook are policemen and policewomen, and that the police do not have someone who works with the Facebook-site as a primary task.Keywords: Facebook, police, social media, qualitative interviews, quantitative content analysis, authority, public relations..