<p>This thesis focuses on the territorial dimension of democracy by studying the division of Swedish municipalities. It consists of two parts focusing on two types of changes to the division of municipalities: amalgamation and secession.</p><p>The consequences of a series of amalgamation reforms are the starting point for the first part. The question is if the new structure of the municipalities following from amalgamation, e.g. increased size, changed centre-periphery relations and an increased number of urban areas within municipalities, has had any importance for local democracy. The structural factors are looked at in the light of three aspects of democracy: municipalities as community units, their democratic legitimacy and political participation. This study shows that amalgamations can have negative effects for democracy and the conclusion is that the optimal division, from a democratic point of view, is one of small municipalities with only one dominating urban area in each municipality.</p><p>As for secession, the study shows that few citizens want their part of the municipality to secede, except for those who live in parts that have had an application for secession rejected in recent years. The most important reason for supporting secession is that it would improve democracy. The main reason for opposing secession is that it would lead to decreased efficiency. The study also shows that certain conditions may change the attitude to secession, but these conditions cannot explain why a higher proportion than average is positive to secession in municipality parts that have applied for secession in recent years.</p>

This thesis focuses on the territorial dimension of democracy by studying the division of Swedish municipalities. It consists of two parts focusing on two types of changes to the division of municipalities: amalgamation and secession. The consequences of a series of amalgamation reforms are the starting point for the first part. The question is if the new structure of the municipalities following from amalgamation, e.g. increased size, changed centre-periphery relations and an increased number of urban areas within municipalities, has had any importance for local democracy. The structural factors are looked at in the light of three aspects of democracy: municipalities as community units, their democratic legitimacy and political participation. This study shows that amalgamations can have negative effects for democracy and the conclusion is that the optimal division, from a democratic point of view, is one of small municipalities with only one dominating urban area in each municipality. As for secession, the study shows that few citizens want their part of the municipality to secede, except for those who live in parts that have had an application for secession rejected in recent years. The most important reason for supporting secession is that it would improve democracy. The main reason for opposing secession is that it would lead to decreased efficiency. The study also shows that certain conditions may change the attitude to secession, but these conditions cannot explain why a higher proportion than average is positive to secession in municipality parts that have applied for secession in recent years.

An atom, a cell and a solar system have very little in common. My science teachers from high school will confirm that I am very far from being an expert on the matter but nontheless, I have studied these three systems in separate classes: chemistry, biology and astronomy. So I believe they must be fairly unrelated from each other! All they have in common is that they are studied through a magnifying lens by people who are better than me in maths. But onceyou look through the lens, you should see a main body and smaller objects rotating around it. The electrons around the protons, the cytoplasm around the nucleus and the planets around the sun. The key element they have in common is structure. Perhaps this is too abstract, even for an abstract, so let’s bring things back to earth. Structures play a fundamental role in shaping the world around us and this thesis aims to understand to what extent and how they influence people’s daily lives. The case study is based on the new town of Arborea in Sardinia, originally designed and owned by a private company to make an efficient and innovative industrial food production system. It aims to show how the ambition to produce was ingrained in the buildings and societal structures and how the surroundings affected the people who moved there. Everything was studied in detail:from the road grid to the houses, the church’s positioning and even selecting people from the north of Italy who were deemed most suitable to work there. The use of structuration theory will be key to uncover the different layers and relations that still shape the community today. 35.000 cows, 3800 people, a history of cultural clashes, a productive system, a very fascist background, a ’sex patrolling’ priest, a dozen volunteering organisations will all feature in thethesis and together enable to draw a picture of the new town.

Bakgrund: Den 16 januari år 2020 upptäcktes ett nytt coronavirus i den kinesiska staden Wuhan. Risken för att spridningen av smittan skulle nå Sverige bedömdes vid den tidpunkten som mycket låg. Med anledning av pandemin, har distansarbete under den senaste tiden haft en snabb tillväxt, vilket leder till förändringar av arbetsmetoder där framväxten av digital teknik underlättat utvecklingen av distansarbete. Digitaliseringen bidrar till att flertal anställda kan arbeta när och var de önskar. Distansarbete kännetecknas av den rumsliga och tidsmässiga flexibiliteten. Flera faktorer påverkar medarbetares gemenskap och samarbete och i föreliggande studie kommer fokus ägnas åt hur distansarbetet påverkar medarbetares gemenskap och samarbete. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att beskriva medarbetares uppfattning om distansarbete och specifikt distansarbetets påverkan på medarbetares gemenskap och samarbete under Covid-19 pandemin. I föreliggande studie undersöks offentlig verksamhet. Metod: Då studiens syfte är att ge en djupgående beskrivning av det valda problemområdet är studien baserad på en kvalitativ metod. Studien baseras på tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med medarbetare tillhörande kommunal verksamhet. Slutsats: Studien visar att gemenskapen är fortsatt lika god av anledningen att medarbetarna hade en bra sammanhållning redan innan pandemin. Medarbetarna har bibehållit den goda gemenskapen och de upplever känslan av tillhörighet och trivsel då de med hjälp av digitala verktyg kan fortfarande träffa varandra. Kommunikationen har bibehållits trots att den numera sker virtuellt. Medarbetarna upplever att närkontakten och den sociala interaktionen har minskat, vilket kan leda till att de upplever social isolering, då den naturliga närheten till varandra var mer naturlig på arbetsplatsen. Samarbetet har bibehållits tack vare övergång till digital form, dock visar studien att samarbetet inte blivit bättre. Digitala arbetsplatsträffar har införts och sker i ungefär samma frekvens som innan, vilket innebär att arbetsplatsträffarna bevarats trots distansarbete. Medarbetarna fortsätter därmed att genomföra gemensamma aktiviteter trots distansarbete, vilket kan leda till att risken för att medarbetarna upplever social isolering minskar. / Background: On the 16th of January 2020, a new coronavirus was discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan. At that time, the risk of the disease reaching Sweden was assessed as very low. Due to the pandemic, teleworking has experienced rapid growth, leading to changes in working methods where the emergence of digital technology has facilitated the development of teleworking. Digitization contributes to the fact that most employees can work anytime and anywhere they want. Teleworking is characterized by spatial and temporal flexibility. Several factors affect employees' community spirit and cooperation and in the present study the focus will be on how teleworking affects employees' community spirit and cooperation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the employees perception of telework and specifically the impact of telework on employees' community spirit and cooperation during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the present study, the public sector is examined. Method: To give a descriptive picture of the chosen area the study is based on a qualitative approach. The study is based on qualitative interviews with employees belonging to municipal services. Conclusion: The study shows that the community spirit is still just as good for the reason that the employees had a good cohesion even before the pandemic. The employees have maintained good community spirit and they experience the feeling of belonging and well-being as they can still meet each other by using digital tools. The communication has maintained despite the fact that the employees now meet virtually. Employees experience a decrease of close contact and social interaction, which can lead to them experiencing social isolation, as the natural closeness to each other was more natural in the workplace. The cooperation has maintained through the transition to digital form, however, the study shows that the cooperation has not improved. Digital workplace meetings have been introduced and now take place at approximately the same frequency as before, which means that the workplace meetings have been preserved despite teleworking. By that means, they continue to carry out joint activities despite teleworking, which can lead to a reduction in the risk of employees experiencing social isolation.

SammanfattningTitel: Studie av sociala medier på Arbetsplatsen.Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i Informationssystem, 15 Högskolepoäng.Författare: Tobias LarssonHandledare: Bengt NilssonExaminator: Bengt NilssonProblemområdeProblemområdet i studien är det eventuella sambandet mellan sociala medier och samhörigheten på en arbetsplats. Genom att studera detta undersöks vilken effekt sociala medier kan ha på samhörigheten och vilka teoretiska modeller som går att koppla till det som framkommer under analysen av studien.MetodStudiens intresse och fokusområde finns i att studera det som går att studera via en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod. Det som undersöks i en kvalitativ undersökning är de människor och grupper som studeras genom dessa undersökningar. Kvalitativ undersökningsmetod har sin grund i sociala antaganden och hur man studerar det som de vill beskriva som verklighet. Kvalitativundersökningsmetod innebär att studien undersöker beteende samt mönster genom intervjuer eller observationer av eller med de berörda personerna.ResultatUtifrån den studie som presenteras menar författaren att sociala medier påverkar samhörigheten. Respondenterna förklarar att sociala medier fungerar som en arena och dörröppnare. Den initiala och viktigaste kontakten sker muntligen. Däremot fungerar sociala medier som en plattform där de kan utbyta idéer, tankar och information. Sociala medier skapar en ny kontaktväg mellan kollegorna. En kontaktväg som enligt respondenterna är lättillgänglig och effektiv. Resultat visar att motivationsfaktorer och det symboliska värdet av lek och humor är essentiella på arbetsplatsen och påverkar samhörigheten.Vidare ForskningUtifrån denna studie kan följande förslag ges till vidare forskning: En längrelongitudinell studie bland anställda på en arbetsplats med kontinuerlig uppföljning under olika skeden av ens anställningstid. Ytterligare fördjupning inom området angående vilka sociala medier som använts och varför. Det går likaså att göra en jämförande studie inom olika typer av arbeten likaså en experimentell studie där sociala medier först tillåts använda sociala medier och sedan inte eller vice versa och slutligen är ett förslag vi vidare forskningen en liknande studie som denna fast i avsevärt större omfattning för att skapa en större förståelse inom ämnet.Uppsatsens bidragDen tidigare forskningen och de undersökningar som har skett inom området har inte fokuserat på det som denna studie gör. Det som denna studie vill undersöka och försöka utröna är om sociala medier påverkar samhörigheten bland de anställda på en arbetsplats. Denna studie lämnar och bidrar kunskap om ämnet som rör sociala medier och vilken betydelse det kan tänkas ha på en arbetsplats. Studien är av intresse då sociala medier beskrivs som något som blir allt viktigare och mer centralt i arbetslivet, vilket även stöds av den tidigare forskningen. Slutsatsen och analysen av studien kan användas i syfte att försöka förstå dessa faktorer och vad de egentligen har för betydelse. Studien kan vara intressant för arbetsplatser för att förstå den tänkbara effekten som betydelsen av sociala mediers användande kan ha för deras organisation.NyckelordSociala medier, Facebook, Twitter, blogg, vlogg, samhörighet, symbolik, humor och lek / AbstractTitle: A Study of Social Media in the WorkplaceLevel: Bachelor thesis in Information Systems 15 Hp.Author: Tobias LarssonAdvisor: Bengt NilssonExaminer: Bengt NilssonProblemThe problem area in this study is the possible link between social media and community spirit in the workplace. By studying the impact of social media and what effect it can have on the affinity using the theoretical models. The analysis part of the study should describe this connection.MethodThe essay´s interest area is to examine what can be studied through a qualitative research method. Qualitative research methods indicate that it is people and groups that are observed by these studies. Qualitative research method has the focus area of social assumptions and how you study what they want to describe as their reality. Qualitative survey methodology means that the study examines the behavior and patterns through interviews or observations.ConclusionsBased on the presented study the author explains how social media affects affinity. Respondents explain that social media works as an arena and door opener. The initial and most important contact is made orally. However, they believe that social media is a platform where they can share ideas, thoughts and information. Social media opens and also creates a new contact route between colleagues. A contact route that the respondents mean is readily available and effective. Results show that motivational factors and the symbolic value of fun and humor are essential in the workplace, creating a strong community.Further researchFrom this study, the following suggestions are given for further research: A longer longitudinal study at a workplace with continuous monitoring during the different stages of the individuals employment. Investigate further factors such as policies and social media to be or not be in a workplace. A further deepening in the area of social media, why it is used etc. It is also possible to make a comparative study of different types of work, an experimental studies in which social media first would be allowed to use and then not, or vice versa. A similar studie as this can be made but in greater extent, in order to create a greater understanding of the subject.ContributionsThe earlier research which is presented in the essay has not examined what this study is meant to do. What this study would investigate and attempt to discover is if social media are affecting the community spirit among employees in a workplace. This study leaves and contributes knowledge about the subject social media and what impact it may have in the workplace. The study is of interest because social media is described as something that is becoming increasingly important and more central in the workplace, which is also supported by the earlier research. The conclusion and analysis of the study can be used in an attempt to understand these factors .The study may be of interest to workplaces as a help for understanding the potential impact of social media usage in their organization.Key WordsSocial media, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Vlog, Affection, Community spirit, Symbolism, Humor and Fun