The ongoing construction of Kristianstad is a trade mall in the city center, the City Hall and the railway station neighborhood is rebuilding, new residential projects are planned and "The healthy garden", "Accessibility for everyone" and "ERA-farms" are also current. Kristianstad has always a sustainable way of thinking in the background during the development and they are trying to meet all three perspective of sustainability: economical, ecological and social. The municipality seeks knowledge both by sharing their own and takes part in other municipalities in the development process..

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.

There are numerous questions to be asked when your task is to plan a small community?s future development. Is it possible to suggest something new and modern? What considerations should be taken concerning the existing situation? What is an appropriate size for the new development? Where is it possible to build and what is the most appropriate method to use?In this master´s thesis I have tried to develop and describe a working-process where I execute a complete landscape character analysis for the whole community in question to get the answers to where and how it would be most appropriate to develop a village like Flädie without destroying its current character.Flädie is a typical small village in the countryside of Skåne, Sweden. It is strongly effected by the expansive and urban region it?s located in but is still rural in character.

This thesis explores the narrow spaces between closely built houses in the over 300-year-old wooden town center of Mariestad, Sweden, and their potential as time capsules and sources of knowledge in cultural-historical building investigations. By interpreting well-preserved carpentry work on a facade in one of these spaces, the study aims to provide an example of how these preserved spaces can serve as a source of knowledge and understanding of craftsmanship and the history of the place. The thesis also addresses the municipality of Mariestad's work with cultural heritage, as well as maps out more of these potentially interesting interstitial spaces. Old Swedish wooden towns possess a high degree of uniqueness both nationally and internationally; nevertheless, they are subjected to relatively significant threats of demolitions and substantial changes, often in the form of many smaller restorations or changes over a long period of time. The focus of the case study is a window from the 16th or 17th century and the facade's old, hand planed wooden cladding.

The local politicians in Sweden are responsible for a great deal of the welfare system why one would assume that there are a lot of demands put on them - demands for certain skills or a certain level of competence. I have in this study tried to find out how the demands on the local representatives concerning the demands for competence and the actual level of competence among the politicians are affecting the local politics. This was done through investigating how the local politicians are perceiving their level of competence and the demands put on them, but also how the employees are perceiving the demands and the level of competence put on the politicians. The study was made in the municipality of Gislaved in Southern Sweden. I was using both quantitative method (an opinion poll among the politicians and employees in the municipality) and qualitative method (interviews with three politicians and three employees and literature studies).In order to investigate the demands for competence I split the concept into ?soft? competence (socially and emotionally based skills), and ?hard? competence (skills based on knowledge, education and experience).

For several years has there been a leading line from the government and the municipalities in Sweden to invest in schools and school grounds. The outdoor environment of schools has been rediscovered and given a greater importance. Investments have been made both practically with reconstruction and in a research context. Although, my work started with an assumption that these investments were mainly made at primary schools, and that secondary schools were set aside. The thesis This is my schoolyard.

The little steel industrial community Hofors is situated in Gästrikland on the border to Dalarna and its population is decreasing every year. The biggest housing operator is in a place where they must tear down a lot of buildings because they do not have enough tenants. But what do people really want in an apartment and in the surroundings? What is needed to make it attractive? That is something that this study will discuss and in the end it will lead to a proposal of an area that is suitable for a new housing and a few proposals to make the existing apartments more attractive..

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC) was incorporated into the Swedish legislation in 2004 through the ordinance Förordningen om förvaltningenav kvaliteten på vattenmiljön (SFS 2004:660). The objective is that all water bodies shall reach a good status by the year 2015. In Sweden the comprehensive plans of the municipalities can play a large role in reaching these goals. A comprehensive plan deals with the long term water and land use of the municipality, which can facilitate an early consideration of water management in the planning process of the municipality. In Sweden five river basin districts have been established in accordance with the Water Framework Directive.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to get a comprehensive understanding for the thoughts behind Visby?s sustainable tourism planning. Focus will lie on how far Visby has come in their planning and implementing towards a sustainable tourism development. Methods: This study is preceded from a hermeneutical and constructive perspective. The methods used are induction and qualitative research in the form of deep interviews with four key figures working within Gotland?s municipality and tourism industry.

Aim and questions: The purpose of this paper is to clarify the responsibilities employers have for rehabilitation and to explore how it conforms to an employers' actual condi-tions. Furthermore, the intention is to increase knowledge of how employers interact with other partners in the rehabilitation process and what affects sick people to return to work. The following three questions form the basis of this paper: What are employers? responsibilities for rehabilitation under the law and how is it consistent with an employer's actual conditions? What is the role of employers in the rehabilitation co- operation with other actors? What factors influence sick people to return to work?Method: The paper has used a true scientific and a legal sociological method to examine how the regulated employer responsibility for rehabilitation relates to what is practical in re-ality. To achieve the purpose, four empirical interviews were conducted with Örebro Municipality, Insurance, occupational health Previa and a doctor, which all of them have an important role in the rehabilitation process.

The city of Uppsala and its surroundings are a very expansive area. A prerequisite for a sustainable development of the area is well-functioning supply of drinking water. In Uppsala municipality, the Uppsala esker and Vattholma esker are the groundwater storages for drinking water. Besides the eskers, other sources of qualitative groundwater in the Uppsala municipality are relatively poor and more than half of the area consists of ground conditions with a risk of saline groundwater. The neighbourhood of Vreta-Ytternäs is situated 10 km south of Uppsala, in the area with risk of saline groundwater but outside the municipal water supply.

There are numerous questions to be asked when your task is to plan a small community?s future development. Is it possible to suggest something new and modern? What considerations should be taken concerning the existing situation? What is an appropriate size for the new development? Where is it possible to build and what is the most appropriate method to use?In this master´s thesis I have tried to develop and describe a working-process where I execute a complete landscape character analysis for the whole community in question to get the answers to where and how it would be most appropriate to develop a village like Flädie without destroying its current character.Flädie is a typical small village in the countryside of Skåne, Sweden. It is strongly effected by the expansive and urban region it?s located in but is still rural in character.

The aim of this study was to try to get an overall image of how participation is constituted in the organization of AMA, a Human Service Organization (HSO) that is part of the Vasteras municipality.  With focus on mainly participation but also communication and leadership the goal was to find out more about how the governing parts of the organization was able to communicate and create participation amongst their employees. Did the message come across? Using a triangulation method including interviews, surveys and observation hopefully this question would be answered along with trying to depict an overall image of the participation within the organization. The results indicated that there were both differences as well as similarities between the employees and the management with regards to how they experienced participation. A surprising result was that the geographical location was found to have an impact on how the staff perceived participation.

Abstract Title: From Theory to Practice - A case study of Balanced Scorecard at the disability management in the municipality of Karlskrona Authors: Erica Isacsson and Marthina JohannessonSupervisor: Elin K. FunckExaminer: Lars-Göran AidemarkContact person at the disability management in the municipality of Karlskrona: Claes Wiridén, DirectorSchool: School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, VäxjöCourse: 4Fe03E, Thesis, 30 ECTS credits.Date: 2011-05-27Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe and explain how the Disability Management thinks that their Balanced Scorecard will be used, namely what is the planned use. We will also describe and explain how the balanced scorecard is actually used.Methodology: We have conducted an abductive, qualitative case study. The empirical material is collected through interviews, observations internal as well as external written material. The theoretical framework is based on the published texts in books, scholarly articles and dissertations.

I have investigated how municipalities support children with ADHD. I have interviewed persons responsible in five different municipalities. The persons have had the authority to decide how the support funds are to be shared in the municipality. Mostly I was interested to know if the support was the same in all these municipalities and if the children with ADHD really got the help and support they were entitled to. I discovered that the support varied; in some the children were correctly diagnosed but in others municipalities I was not convince.