AbstractEssay in Political Science, autumn 2010. ?ALBA ? A regional integration project with good conditions?? Autor: Anna Sjögren. Course: Political Science, C-level, Tutor: Sten Berglund An essential part of the political science research on regional integration has been about why states join economic unions and what forces drive the process of integration. This essay is a case study on the Latin American regional integration project called ALBA.

For the past decades, culture has been given a role as a factor for local and regional development. But what is meant by development and in what ways culture can be of importance in this aspect can be unclear. This thesis examines the perception of the role for local and regional development of one specific cultural place and network ? the cultural cooperative Not Quite in Fengersfors, Sweden. I study the way the role as developer is expressed and interpreted in the discourse of the cultural workers who are members of the network and in the discourse of public cultural policy in the region Västra Götaland and in Åmål municipality.

Rapporten är ett examensarbete på 20 poäng och utgör avslutningen på min utbildning till teknologie magister i fysisk planering (180p). Arbetet har gjorts under hösten 2000 och vintern/våren 2001. Inledning Samspelet mellan stad och land är en förutsättning för ett långsiktigt hållbart samhälle, men ofta framställs landsbygden med sina mindre tätorter som oviktiga och betydelselösa och de flesta små kommuner kämpar hårt mot stagnation. För den breda allmänheten är dessa kommuner främst en temporär rekreationsplats. Utredningen vill medverka till att stärka och medvetandegöra landsbygdskommuners betydelse i allmänhet och Torsås kommun i synnerhet. Utredningen har valt att analysera hur landsbygdskommunen Torsås kan uppnå en positiv framtidsutveckling och arbetsmetoden är även tillämpbar för andra kommuner. Arbetet belyser även den krassa verklighet som idag råder vid nya detaljhandelsetableringar, där marknadskrafterna i princip har fritt spelrum och där resultatet ofta blir stagnerande stadskärnor och landsbygdskommuner. Syfte Syftet har varit att utreda vilka förutsättningar som finns för en framtida handelsutbyggnad i Torsås kommun och att belysa det komplexa samspel mellan olika faktorer som krävs för att nå en positiv handels- och samhällsutveckling.

Arbetet har syftat till att fallstudiepröva rutnätskonfigurationen som grund för en strukturplan med avsikt att möjliggöra en övergripande strategi för utbyggnad av ett exploateringsområde.

We live in an exciting society, characterized by continuous changes and challenges. The effects of the globalization are widespread. The continuous flow of people, capital and goods follows in the wake of advances in communications, transport and information technology, resulting in a changed situation for different stakeholders in the society. This situation leads to increased cooperation and exchange, but also increased competition. The primary means of collecting empirical data for this study was interviews and a document study.

The name of the study means ?The short arm - a study in diversity and arm?s length in the cultural collaboration model?. Right now there is a reform in the Swedish cultural administration where the responsibility for handing out state funds and grants to cultural organizations is changing from the state government to the local regional governments. The purpose of this study is to map the organisational changes caused by the reform and investigate how this affects the regional policies concerning cultural diversity and the arm?s length principle.

Platser med höga globala respektive lokala integrationsvärden har, enligt Space syntax-teorin, visats bli välbesökta. Handelshamnen i Karlskrona är en plats som innehar dessa egenskaper. Ett nytt promenadstråk längs med kajen har därför potential att bli välbesökt samtidigt som det finns potential att skapa ett attraktivt bostadsområde på platsen. Examensarbetet ger förslag på en utformning av bostäder längs med Handelshamnen samt även hur de lokala- och globala korrrelationsvärdena på platsen kan höjas för att bidra till ett välbesökt promenadstråk. Detta utan att de bostadsmiljöerna drabbas av den förväntade ökade andelen gångtrafikanten längs med kajkanten..

AbstractThe aim of this thesis is to examine Interreg as an instrument for regional policy in the European Union. Interreg is an initiative designed to strengthen economic and social cohesion throughout the European Union by fostering balanced development through cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation. But how does it work in practise? Three main questions are asked to answer this:How well does the implementation in the programmes work?How does the programme management look and how well does it work?What degree of efficiency does Interreg show in financial and physical effectiveness?With evaluation and implementation as theories the questions are answered together with a qualitative method. The conclusions that can be drawn is that Interreg strengthen European unions economic and social cohesion in form of integration and regional development that in many ways make it easier to travel and trade over the borders.

Public participation in urban planning is meant to increase democracy in the planning process. Even though all citizens have the option to participate in urban planning debates, few seize their chance to partake. This thesis describes a study on how user needs are met and prioritized in design processes concerning urban planning. The aim was to determine whether user-centered design (UCD) methods could be used as an avenue for public participation in urban planning and ultimately invite more citizens into the planning process.The thesis details a design process where a team worked to develop Farsta, a suburb of Stockholm. The design problem was the question of how Farsta could become an attractive business location.

Regional identitet är ett begrepp som ofta nyttjas då man talar om regioner som sociala och politiska rum. Det är dock svårt att definiera vad identiteten egentligen består av och hur den påverkar människans handlingar. Den regionala identiteten kan exempelvis ta sitt uttryck i lokalbefolkningens inställning och attityd gentemot turism. Detta har i viss utsträckning betydelse för resmålets framgång samt för relationerna mellan de lokala aktörerna. Föreställningarna kring regional identitet präglar således turismen och destinationens turistföretagare.

The purpose of this essay is to study how the local creators of a "master plan" for the swedish city Kristinehamn, the years between 1940 to -43, looked on their planning. It is an analysis of ideas case study. A hypothesis is upheld for the research: that the local physical planning had largely extended ambitions what regards central state control in a way that is similar to planned economy. Questions that are asked include: Was the planning assumed to be a tool for the state to regulate the environment? Can the planning be seen as a mean to control the society in time and space? The essay search for verification of the hypothesis by a theoretical analysis apparatus made upp of ideal types.

Municipalities in Sweden are responsible for physical planning by developing a general plan. This plan contains intended land and water use for the area. This study aims to investigate the level of integra­tion of environmental issues in the general plan of Arboga municipality and also how well adapted the municipality is for climate change. Further on, the study intends to examine the focus of the gen­eral plan and at what rate the national environmental strategies are implemented in the local physi­cal planning of Arboga municipality. Methods used for this study are interviews and reviewing of the general plan itself and other key documents.

The aim of this Bachelor´s thesis is to describe the phenomenon ofmarketing. Four public libraries in the County of Kalmar have beenstudied in the aim to obtain information on their current marketingin the autumn of 2004, as well as their view of marketing and itssignification in connection to a vision that the Regional Library inKalmar has established. The vision is that the County of Kalmar isgoing to be the best Region of Libraries in Sweden in the year of2010. Target markets for the vision is the general public, studentsand entrepreneurs. The study has done a landing at an early stage ofthe vision, the starting point of which was in the year of 2001.

Title Becoming involved in the planning process - from the construction workers perspective.University/Institution Halmstad UniversityKeywordsEmpowerment through participation, construction workers involvement in decision making in the planning process, knowledge management and communication in the planning process, partnering, human resource managementAimThe aim of this bachelor thesis is to provide knowledge and examine how construction workers perceive involvement in the planning process of partnering projects, what they can contribute and what they get out of the planning process.Methodology The study was conducted with a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews.          The interview studie consist of 10 interviews with construction workers who are specially educated in participating in the planning process at the company ByggDialog AB.ConclusionAll respondents are positive to be involved in the planning process. The main advantages they can see is that they are able to influence technical solutions and methods that will be used later on in the production. Therefore it is important to consider when construction workers should be involved in the planning process so that they get the chance to influence in this decisions.When it comes to the decision making the construction workers should be involved in the decisions that are related to their tasks in the production such as technical solutions, choice of methods and materials. Their main duties and working hours should be in the production.Involvement in planning does not automatically mean that the construction workers are involved in the decision making, it is up to them how much they participate.

Detta arbete har tagit fokus på en ännu outforskad företeelse i svensk kommunal planeringspraktik, nämligen något som här kallas ?konsultplanering?, det vill säga konsultmedverkan i den kommunala planeringen. Uppsatsen har avgränsats till att handla om ?planeringskonsulter? och konsultuppdrag som konkret handlar om planering och inte olika utredningar etc. som i och för sig också ingår i planeringsprocessen och ofta utförs av konsulter. Ämnet är intressant eftersom det idag är vanligt i de flesta av Sveriges län att kommunerna använder sig av konsulter. Studiens syfte är att studera den ökande konsultplaneringen i den svenska kommunala planeringspraktiken, samt dess positiva respektive negativa konsekvenser för planeringssystemet.