Rapid urbanisation is putting strains on both the landscape and the city dwellers and the pressure on planning for sustainable and equitable cities is crucial. As many cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are expanding, city planning has trouble keeping up to meet the needs of the growing amount of urban dwellers. Many cities have also been planned with the cars in focus and the needs and comfort of the pedestrians have been overlooked. The capacity of institutions is limited due to centralized government and bureaucracy, as well as corruption. Planning is erratically implemented and it is difficult to know what will happen.

This project in an in depth exploration about the basics of creating space in the form of an experimental investigation using my own perceptions as reference. Within a method, especially outlined for the project using descriptive words of opposites, my interpretation of the words has been formed into models of rooms. Four workshops with restrictions and rules acted as a platform for the striving towards the aim of a wider understanding of how space can be experienced. Through analysis I have formulated the different parameters influencing space itself and my perceptions of it. During the project a language for visualizing the interpretations of a room has been further evolved.

Everyday life mobility of elderly people ? opportunities, restrictions and sustainable urban visions aim to examine and describe elderly people?s movement patterns, their opportunities and restrictions of reaching high mobility and accessibility, and their attitude towards various sustainable urban visions. This paper is based on an approach of time-space geography as it covers the topic of movements in time-space, explained and developed using the concepts of mobility and accessibility. To examine elderly people?s attitude towards sustainable urban visions, this paper also takes approach on theories such as New Urbanism, mixed-use and the compact city.The method used in the study is an interweaving of a time geographic diary and qualitative interviews, where the respondents are six retired people between 68 and 77 years old living in Gothenburg city.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and increase the understanding of a present function of today´s public library, namely the function of meeting place; here called the social function or social space. Two small town libraries are included in the study, and the questions examined are:How is this function described at the two libraries and what similarities and differences are there between the two? How can one describe the relation between how the library as social space is described in research and at the libraries? The theoretical framework used in examining these questions, consists of three different discourses in culture policy (the discourse of state, market and civil society) and theories on civil society and the public library. A summary of current research makes visible eight different aspects of the public library as a social space. These aspects functions as parts of the theoretical framework as well.

The purpose of this master thesis is to attract attention to the undefined spaces of our urban landscape and emphasize the need of these spaces in the city. The different values of these spaces are here clearly presented so that they can be considered when real estate developers show a particular interest in any one of these undefined spaces. The term undefinied spaces can mean a lot of things. The spaces that I now choose to define as undefined spaces are neither planned nor designed. It could for instance be a piece of leftover land in between two residential areas, or as times change, a formerly planned area might be forgotten and left to its own.

The purpose of this thesis is to bring forward and discuss the American vision for space exploration found at NASA's homepage, how the vision is popularised and why. NASA's homepage is analyzed as popularized science and the theoretical perspective emanates from the field of popular science and especially the work of Johan Kärnfelt. The historical reference is made up by Howard E McCurdy and he's thoughts about space and the American imagination. The analysis is based on a number of documents that popularize the vision for space exploration and is intended for the public. These documents describe the future plan for NASA and US space exploration..

In the 1940s the Swedish town planning was inspired by the English city development with the concepts of neighbourhood and community planning. In order to promote democratic development and solidarity the ideal would be to create community centers with full service. Community centers are part of the building of the suburbs during the postwar period. The buildings in Sweden from 1940 - and -50s were built with the intentions to be good homes for all regardless of income, class and status. Collective solutions to individual problems were characteristic of the Swedish policy during this time.

The purpose of this paper was to look at the perception of self-determination for adults with intellectual disabilities from their perspective. We wanted to examine the experience of the space available for self-determination in some key areas of life, and how their own thoughts and ideas have been addressed by others. Through interviews with six people with intellectual disabilities, we have found that a single definition of self-determination is elusive. The key seems to be that you get the opportunity to do what you want, to have your voice heard and to receive and take responsibility. The space for self-determination is perceived by respondents as both large and small.

The purpose of this ideology critical study is to investigate the hidden content in the reform Gy11 and compare it with the concept new public management. After the clarification of the hidden content, we compare the structure of the organization in Swedish high schools with the structure in public sector called new public management. The main questions of this study are the following: Is it possible to see the foundation of new public management in the Swedish high schools when it comes to the views of knowledge and the formation of goals? Which similarities can we find when we look at the organization new public management and the Swedish high school?The result showed many similarities, both regarding the views of knowledge and the formations of goals. The structure of new public management has been largely implemented in the Swedish high schools and the schools now focus more on instrumental knowledge rather than universal knowledge based on understanding.This is not surprising due to the social progress.

The functional connection between the building and the streetscape affects the city and its attractiveness. Stores located in shopping malls with their entrances facing internal walkways, creates segregation between the mall and the streetscape. This segregation implies that the shopping mall loses some of its attractiveness, which may result in a so-called Greyfield mall. The expression Greyfield mall is used for shopping malls that have lost its visitors. Competition from new modern malls and a lack of investments are examples of factors that influence the development of Greyfiled malls.

The state of our society is frequently changing. Due to various factors, the pressure of creating a changeable city is high and necessary to adequately supply the needs for its inhabitants. But making these changes and adapt to the fast shifting state of the city is not always physical possible. Young adults and students is a group that often seeks to move to intensely growing city regions. The reason for this is a more promising job market and more attractive educations, but coincidentally the shortage of housing is extremely high in these areas.

What causes people to move within and between certain places and not within and between others? How do physical outdoor environments affect the way people act and move? Do different environments generate different body language and mimics in the bodies that inhabit them? In my pursuit for answers to these questions I studied literature and initiated and took part in dialogues in the form of workshops, all of which has resulted into this thesis. My questions have initially arisen from reflections of my own environment and how it not only affects my mental condition, but also my actions. Drawing upon the hermeneutic term ?preconception? I trust that what we label ?truth? is constructed by our lived experience and the society we grow up in.

Previous research has indicated that intellectual disabilities and parenting is not socially accepted and compulsory care of children often occurs in families where one or both parents have an intellectual disability. This study aims to, thru a document analysis, investigate ideas and representations of parents with intellectual disabilities that emerge in Swedish legal cases. The legal cases is about children who are taken care of according to LVU § 2, where one or both parents have a intellectual disability. The results of the study revealed that people with intellectual disabilities are seen as not capable of developing parenting ability, in some cases aroused concerns about parenting during pregnancy, these suggesting stereotypes of parents with intellectual disabilities. Of the documents reveals that social workers word overrides in the decision-making, this leads to a position of power where the parents are at a disadvantage..

Good conditions in the workplace, fairness in the workplace and the social differences contribute to a general improvement in public health. A health-promoting leader is working to create a workplace that promotes health, supports its employees and contributes to their wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to investigate the first-line managers in the city of Västerås experience and deal with their conditions and obstacles in the health-promoting leadership. A qualitative approach was chosen and the selection was six first-line managers working in three different areas of the City of Västerås. Managers were interviewed by an interviewguide and the material was analyzed with a manifest content analysis, with an inductive approach.

Entrepreneurship is considered essential for the Swedish economy, as well as globally. Accordingly,massive efforts are put into creating environments that successfully can support new ventures. The business incubator is a prominent part of these efforts and is important especially for the knowledge shared within its internal network. The aim of this study is to further explore how different activitieswithin the incubator can influence the interaction, and thereby the construction of social capital,among the incubatees. Using a qualitative case study of three incubators, and the framework of theincubator model, it is concluded that three distinguishing components within the framework influence the interaction, namely infrastructure, mediation and business support.