The edge or the fringe of the city is often the first part of the city we encounter, and our perception of it will probably color the image we make in our minds of the city as a whole. Even though the fringe of the city is important to the image of the cityscape it has not very often been the direct object of attention either in planning, building or even in the heads of the masters, when big ideas were formed. More often than not the fringe seems like something that just happened over time due to separate landowners, businesses or actions of other financially strong operators. The aim of this essay is to try to describe the history of the city edge in Sweden, from the very first town in the 10th century until today?s expanding mosaic of different ideas and styles as well as to bring some clarity and order into some of the different ideas and ideals in the planning of the edge in different eras and to review how the edge has been shaped and used.

To thoroughly think with safety and security in mind is an important issue in planning of public city spaces. Spaces intended to be available to all inhabitants of a city should have a welcoming appearance. Unfortu-nately, this is not the situation in many pedestrian walkways, parks and such spaces, possibly due to lack in safety and security. This master thesis intend to examine questions at this issue ? what makes you feel safe and what causes insecurity in public city spaces. The safety aspect treats the human psychological and sociological ways of perceiving her milieu and other humans in it, and how the physical shape of her surroundings can affect the sense of safety.

The number of new estate agent offices is increasing yearly and each year many hundred new estate agents graduate. The comparing of estate agents by sellers has perhaps been most common in larger cities, but as competition has increased even in smaller towns we experience that it has become a common phenomenon even there. We both come from a small town but are not afraid of the idea of moving to a larger city as newly qualified estate agents. We ask ourselves, which are the determining factors in the choice of a estate agent in a large city as opposed to a small town? Can we see any differences? The purpose with this essay is to give us added knowledge about which factors private persons consider to be important in their choice of an estate agent when selling a house.The body of information is based on two parallel surveys, one in Hudiksvall and one in Stockholm, together with interviews of people in this line of business.

In 1998 the Swedish Socialist Government initiated a project in order to promote economic growth and to end the discriminating social and ethnic segregation in the greater city regions of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. One of the goals of the project was and still is to promote political participation in 24 of the poorest areas of the three cities. In a quantitative analysis I evaluate whether or not the project so far has been successful in promoting a specific part of political participation, i.e. electoral participation in communal elections. The results of the 24 poor city areas are compared with a group of 14 likewise poor city areas of major swedish cities.According to my hypothesis, general improvements of the socio-economic status of poor city areas ought to generate positive effects on electoral participation in communal elections.

This is an essay concerning the density of the city. An increasing amount of today?s cities have a shortage of space available for the erection of new buildings and settlements, especially in areas close to the city-centre. New buildings and settlements are therefore often found in the outskirts of the city, resulting in long distances between work and living for many people. These long distances are a waste of limited resources and are inconsistent with the vision of the sustainable city.The challenge for the future is to insert new buildings and settlements in the existing city-structure and in this way reduce the distances between different city-functions.The density of the city can be increased in two different ways; by inserting new buildings between existing ones or by extension existing buildings, for example by an additional floor.

A new shipyard on the island of Beckholmen consisting of a new ship hall and complementary workshops. The program is extended with rentable industrial space for other smaller companies to take advantage of synergies with the yard and to create an active maritime cluster around Beckholmen. By building a marina and a port at the northern shoreline of the island the shipyard can expand their potential customers to non-commercial and larger recreational boats that are becoming increasingly common in Skärgården. The port is also supplemented with a combined naval fuel station, harbor office and a small café. The boat traffic in the region gets a additional stop at the end of the port and act as an additional gateway to Djurgården. Several small retail spaces with direct access to the water is created along the promenade between the port and Djurgården. The shipyard gets a modern and efficient industry building, while the island is made available to the public again, and Beckholmen will hopefully take an equal place in the city's consciousness as it does visually in the inlet to Stockholm..

A growing need to strengthen ones position on the market, even as a city in competition with other cities, has resulted in an increasing number of municipalities developing brand platforms. When the city of Umeå developed their platform, they identified decision makers and investors as one of four important target groups.The aim of this study is to explore the portrayed image of the city of Umeå in two Swedish trade journals which addresses the specific target group decition makers and investors in both public and private sector. The aim is also to compare the image of Umeå in the two papers, to the ambition of the municipality, expressed in the brand platform.In order to make the observations as firmly established as possible, the method of the study is a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis. The study draws on the theories of Eli Avraham and Philip Kotler, concerning how to improve city images and how to market a specific city among others. The study shows that the city of Umeå in large extent is portrayed in accordance to the ambition which the municipality expressed in the brand platform.Umeå is displayed as an expanding city.

Sub Saharan Africa has during the last decade become the world?s fastest urbanizing region. This change is concentrated to a few metropolitan areas one of them being Dar es Salaam, the largest city of Tanzania. Since the 1960s Dar es Salaam has grown from being a relatively small coastal city of approximately 300 000 people to become a bustling urban centre of four million inhabitants. This development has had a major impact on the city structure, which in turn has affected people?s welfare and the surrounding environment. One such consequence is the detrimental loss of urban vegetation and open areas in the city.

A growing need to strengthen ones position on the market, even as a city in competition with other cities, has resulted in an increasing number of municipalities developing brand platforms. When the city of Umeå developed their platform, they identified decision makers and investors as one of four important target groups.The aim of this study is to explore the portrayed image of the city of Umeå in two Swedish trade journals which addresses the specific target group decition makers and investors in both public and private sector. The aim is also to compare the image of Umeå in the two papers, to the ambition of the municipality, expressed in the brand platform.In order to make the observations as firmly established as possible, the method of the study is a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis. The study draws on the theories of Eli Avraham and Philip Kotler, concerning how to improve city images and how to market a specific city among others. The study shows that the city of Umeå in large extent is portrayed in accordance to the ambition which the municipality expressed in the brand platform.Umeå is displayed as an expanding city.

The purpose of this study is to explain the development of the first higher technical education in Trollhättan, with the added perspective of Trollhättans strong industrial profile as a city. The interesting thing being that the city did not try to first and foremost get a regular higher education, but a technical higher education instead. The study describes the political twists and turns the question took from its most early stage in the year 1940 and how the city's industrial profile did indeed have an impact on the development of the first higher technical education. Especially because there was a need for educated engineers in the city, as well as the country of Sweden in large during this time. The study also tries to explain the problems related to such a development, primarily by describing the lack of sufficient housing for schools during the 1950's, this meant that the higher regular school and the higher technical school had to cooperate in finding said housing.

The City is filled with signs of life. It teems with human traces waiting to be discovered. Street art of different kinds prevails behind traffic signs, on posts and electrical boxes. Personally con-structed dogs guard roundabouts all around Sweden and small gardens spire underneath window ledges. In this work I want to identify these phenomena and find out what thoughts inspired these creations.

In my opinion, the city is a place fit as much for children as for grown-ups. I have noticed, however, that this is not a view shared by everyone. Does not the urban space belong as much to children as to other people? Yes, of course. Today and in the future most people will live and grow to be adults in cities. I would even take it as far as to say that without children, there will be no real city.

Background: Today small business firms represent a considerable part of swedish economy, and the number of small firms has steadily increased the last ten years in relation to the total employment. The fact that there are firms willing to grow, it ought to be interesting observing their motives of growth, and what kind of strategies that can be identifiable in these firms. Purpose: To examine the motives of growth in small business firms, and to study which growth strategies the firms use when expanding their business. Realization: The study is accomplished through telephone interviews with six small business firms in the province of Jönköping. The firms contain between 10-49 employees.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to investigate how value creation influences consumers´ choice of market place. We have chosen to focus on how inner city centers can compete with external shopping malls by examining what values consumers find essential in shopping areas. The development within the retail market with more external malls outside cities has resulted in impoverished city centers; therefore, new strategies towards more attractive servicescapes in the inner city are crucial. The study is based on a qualitative approach due to deeper understanding and closeness to the subject, where Kalmar city is chosen as a case. We have completed a focus group study where respondents from each target group where represented.

This essay describes some factors that may effect small business survival in relation to becoming a supplier for bigger companies that may implement the use of EDI for electronic invoicing.The purpose of this study is to analyse and evaluate what impact may occur during the introduction of EDI between small and big business.Following on from the introduction of methods used in this study there will be a complete analysis made detailing results.From our research we have found that most small business have developed a professional working relationship between themselves and their clients.The adoption of EDI by big business has revolutionised the day to day dealings between both supplier and consumer in that EDI has empowered both chains to collaborate data in real time.In conclusion our research illustrates that in order for small business to survive the must implement EDI. The results of our study have shown that the introduction of EDI to both small and big business has had a positive outcome..