Research on sustainability, multi-level governance, and public transport has shown increasingattention to how the purpose of the transport system is framed and has generally advocatedshifting the focus of transport planning and policy from physical infrastructure to mobility andaccessibility on the local scale. Using multi-level governance theory, this research examines theimpact of multi-level governance on potential problems of public transport by analysing theinteraction between public transport's formal/informal actors, policy-making arrangements, andexisting institutional structures. The article argues that, starting from the local scale, solutionscan be proposed with multi-level governance to the governance problems in a city and regionaltransport unit in Sweden. It also explains that the role of the local scale in multi-level governanceneeds to be defended, and how planning decisions from the local scale shape the economic andsocial framework of public transport. Due to the limited literature on multi-level governance andpublic transport, it is also intended to contribute to literature and research in this field.Thus, understanding and managing a range of multi-level governance issues involves solving anddiscussing many transport issues from a multi-level governance framework that requires workingwith and/or seeking assistance from, public, private, civil society or others. The findings alsopoint to the benefits of this approach, although some challenges remain. Multi-level and multiactor governance is known to apply to local challenges, including a municipal-scale meetings tounderstand Sweden's public transport dynamics and approaches. The findings show that localauthorities use multi-level governance theories and positively affect public transport socially andeconomically

Humanity is facing massive sustainability challenges, such as climate change and the associated loss of biodiversity, water scarcity and food insecurity. Capitalist urbanisation drives furthermore profound transformations in rural and urban areas and thus in the agriculture and food systems, presenting both challenges and opportunities. Urban agriculture as a part of a local food system, where food is produced in an urban area and sold to consumers in that area, presents a new food production model, generating innovative tools to lower agricultural land use, improving resource use efficiency and biodiversity. Consequently, great potential can be attributed to a sustainable transformation of the agri-food system through urban agriculture.  Like many cities around the world, Malmö has recognised the need for sustainable development. Therefore, the city of Malmö has been addressing environmental, social and economic challenges for several years and is committed to a holistic and sustainable urban development. Although the city is aware of the benefits of small-scale urban agriculture, there are no policies that enable the upscaling of urban agriculture in the city. Botildenborg, a sustainable urban farm and meeting place in Malmö, on the other hand, has recognised the potential for sustainable business and development through urban agriculture for several years, by setting itself the goal to increase the local and ecologically produced food within the city through this form of agriculture. Botildenborg serves therefore as a case study of this research.  In order to be able to provide indications for policies to shape the transformation steps towards sustainability within the agri-food system in Malmö, structures and patterns, as well as possible drivers and potential obstacles of a sustainable transition, are examined in the course of this research. The empirical results from qualitative and quantitative data are systematically processed using the multi-level perspective in combination with the urban political ecology.  The results indicate that the identified barriers tend to be structural and are predominantly located in the economic and especially the political sphere. It seems that the non-monetary added value from urban agriculture is not perceived to its full potential by the city of Malmö. Botildenborg is stabilising itself mainly through knowledge sharing and network building, and thus will sooner or later be able, through the movement behind the network, to change the dominant agri-food regime. The rapidity of the transformation depends on the political ii willingness of the city of Malmö to explicitly integrate urban agriculture into its policies and regulations.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the communicative and discursive practices used by Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) networks when marketing their network to women as both a business opportunity and as a sisterhood, in order to start and contribute to the conversation regarding the relatively unsupervised communicative practices and their potential effects of MLM distribution networks. By conducting an extensive qualitative analysis on eighteen group call videos posted publicly on YouTube by affiliates of six different MLM networks, this thesis examines the marketing practices used to appropriate feminist values in order to recruit women and sell products. The analysis is done through a theoretical framework of Feminist Media Theory with a focus on feminist values, femvertising, and corporate feminism, in combination with the concept Relational Agency. These theoretical frameworks are used to critically analyze the discursive practices used in the videos. The analysis shows that MLM contractors are utilizing discursive practices such as advertising feminist values to market products and opportunities to potential recruits and downlines. Some of the feminist values communicated are, for example, inclusivity, empowering messages, financial gain, and independency. The findings further suggests that the marketing practices used may have an effect on individuals involved, and on the greater feminist movement at large.

In the context of increasing car ownership in Stockholm, this thesis explores the emergenceof e-scooters in the city and what role they could play in achieving a transition away from carusage.This is explored using theories of sustainable transitions: the multi-level perspective,transition management and strategic niche management. These theories are used to guide theempirical enquiry of this research project and to suggest areas of further research and possiblepolicy recommendations. Empirical Findings This study used a mixed-method strategy consisting of interviews with key stakeholders andan e-scooter user survey (n=408). The interviewees from Stockholm Region and two e-scooter operators were broadly inagreement that e-scooters could have a positive impact going forward, whilst acknowledgingchallenges. The interviews highlighted a good level of both private-private and public-privatecooperation in the industry and signalled that this cooperation is key if e-scooters are to be asustainable aspect of Stockholm’s transportation system. The survey indicated that e-scooters are a poor substitute for private (self-owned) car use i.e.only 4% of recorded journeys shifted away from self-owned car use. However, e-scooterswere found to be a much stronger substitute for taxi/ride-hail journeys with 10% of e-scooterjourneys shifting away from them. Survey findings were used to compare the GlobalWarming Potential (GWP) of e-scooters with the modes people used otherwise. It found thatthe modes people would have used had a GWP of 64g per km travelled, which compared to131g (Moreau et al, 2020) and 125g (Hollingsworth et al, 2019) for e-scooters reported in theliterature and 35g reported in a study conducted on behalf of Voi - an e-scooter company(EY, 2020). For a discussion on these figures please refer to sections 2.2.1 and 6.2.3. The timing of the survey gave a unique opportunity to explore the impact of Covid-19 on escooter journeys. A statistically significant difference between the modal shift of journeystaken before and after the Covid-19 outbreak (P-value= 0.027) was found, with journeystaken during the Covid-19 pandemic more than twice as likely to have shifted away from anytype of car use than journeys taken before the outbreak. The discussion was framed using theories of sustainable transitions. It argued that e-scooterswill not achieve a transition away from mobility on their own. However, if there is a moregeneral switch from ownership to usership in the Stockholm transport sector, e-scooters (andother micro-mobility) could substitute an increased number of taxi/ride-hail journeys whichwould see them contribute to a more environmentally sustainable transportation system. Thefinal part of this thesis discusses policy options that would help e-scooters find a space withinStockholm’s transportation systems where they can best achieve environmental sustainabilitygoals including the importance of using a multi-actor approach, a flexible cap on the numberof e-scooters, environmental merit-based tender processes, e-scooter parking charges andminimum prices. / Denna mastersuppsats handlar om framväxten av elsparkcyklar i i Stockholm, och utforskarvilken roll detta nya färdmedel kan spela för att minska bilanvändning i en situation med ökatbilägande. Detta utforskas med hjälp av teorier om hållbarhetsomställning: "multi-level" perspektiv,transition management och strategisk nisch-management. Dessa teorier används för attvägleda den empiriska undersökningen och föreslå områden för ytterligare forskning ochpolicyrekommendationer. Empiriska resultat Studien har utförts med hjälp av en ”mixed method”-ansats, och grundas bl a i intervjuermed viktiga intressenter och en undersökning med elsparkcykelanvändare (n=408). De intervjuade intressenterna från Stockholmsregionen och två elsparkcykelföretag var i stortsett överens om att elsparkcyklar kan ha en positiv inverkan på hållbart resande, samtidigtsom det finns utmaningar. Intervjuerna belyste en god nivå av både privat-privat ochoffentlig-privat samarbete i branschen och signalerade att detta samarbete är avgörande omelsparkcyklar ska kunna bidra till en hållbar utveckling av Stockholms transportsystem.Undersökningen visade att elsparkcyklar inte ersätter privat (egenägd) bilanvändning i någotstörre avseende: endast 4% av de idenitfierade resorna ersatte privat bilanvändning.Elsparkcyklar visade sig dock vara ett mycket starkare substitut för taxi / "ride-hail" resor:10% av elsparkcykel-resorna ersatte en sådan transport. Undersökningsresultaten användesför att jämföra den globala uppvärmningspotentialen (GWP) för elsparkcyklar med de medelsom användes annars. Det visade sig att de färdmedel som folk skulle ha använt om de intehade åkt elsparkcykel hade en GWP på 64g per km per resa, vilket jämförs med 131g(Moreau et al, 2020) och 125g (Hollingsworth et al, 2019) för elsparkcyklar rapporterade ilitteraturen och 35g rapporterade i en studie utförd på uppdrag av Voi - ettelsparkcykelföretag (EY, 2020). För en djupare inblick i dessa siffror hänvisas till avsnitten2.2.1 och 6.2.3 i uppsatsen. Tidpunkten för undersökningen gav en unik möjlighet att utforska effekterna av Covid-19 påresor med elsparkcyklar. Här visar studien på en statistiskt signifikant skillnad iöverflyttningspotential gällande resor som gjordes före och efter covid-19-utbrottet (P-värde=0,027). De resor som gjordes under covid-19-pandemin hade mer än dubbelt så storsannolikhet att ersätta bilanvändning än resor som gjordes före utbrottet. Diskussionen av studiens resultat tar sin utgångspunkt i teorier om hållbarhetsomställning. Idiskussionen framhålls att endast elsparkcyklar inte kommer bidra till en omställning. Men ihändelse av en mer allmän övergång från ägande till användning inom Stockholmstransportsektor, skulle elsparkcyklar (och annan mikromobilitet) kunna ersätta ett ökat antaltaxi-/"ride-hail" resor, vilket i så fall skulle innebära ett bidrag till ett mer miljömässigthållbart transportsystem. I den sista delen av uppsatsen diskuteras policyalternativ somskulle hjälpa elsparkcyklar att hitta en tydlig nisch inom Stockholms transportsystem, där debäst kan bidra till att realisera övergripande miljö- och hållbarhetsmål. Vidare diskuteras behov av att inkludera flera typer av aktörer, att använda ett flexibelt "tak" på antaletelsparkcyklar, anbudsprocesser som styrs av miljökrav, samt tillämpning avparkeringsavgifter och minimipriser för elsparkcyklar.

Clark (2008) analyzed the role of provocation on dating partners’ level of aggression and found they were more aggressive in jealousy-provoking situations. Using the couple-level dataset collected by Clark, we examine the relationship of gender and setting on provoked interpersonal violence, and compare the accuracy of several analytical approaches on interpreting dyadic data. Results indicate some findings from Clark are extremely robust. For instance, consistent with previous findings, the significant role of provocation on aggression in a dating context is further supported in the current study (Bettencourt & Miller, 1996; Jacquin et al., 2006). Clark suggested gender symmetry in levels of aggression. However, results show a significant effect of gender, in that females were more passive aggressive than males. One implication of this study is that when analyzing dyadic data, a multi-level modeling (MLM) approach best represents the relationship between the outcome and predictors when compared to other analytical approaches.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Tunnelling in urban areas is one of the most challenging engineering activities, as it has relatively high “risk” due to various uncertainties and the intensity of the possible consequences. Numerous studies have been conducted to address the tunnelling risk, by mainly focusing on the “identification” of the causes and how to control or mitigate the risks. However, limited work has been done on how to quantify the risk by considering the multi-level uncertainties encountered in different phases of the project. The primary objective of this work is to develop a multi-scale risk management (RM) framework to address and quantify the risk of ground surface settlement, induced by tunnelling, in soft clay in urbanized areas. The specific focus is placed on quantifying the risk of tunnel-induced settlement for existing buildings, by taking into account multiple uncertainty levels (e.g. uncertainties of parameters, uncertainties of models, etc.). The framework addresses the tunnel-induced settlement risk, both during the construction of the tunnel as well as after its completion, for buildings with shallow and deep foundations. It offers different classes of assessment to quantify the risk, according to the structure’s current condition and the corresponding limit-state function, that is designated to each class. The RM framework is aligned with ISO 31000 risk management act, consisting of “risk identification”, “risk analysis” and “risk evaluation”. Risk identification includes studies on tunnelling technical reports, field observations, etc., in order to identify the causes of short-term and long-term tunnelling-induced settlement. The risk analysis involves a series of fault tree, event tree and consequence tree analyses to estimate the likelihood of the ground subsidence and subsequent events. For risk evaluation, different probabilistic methods (e.g. first-order reliability method, second-order reliability method and Monte Carlo sampling) are utilized to estimate the risk of surface buildings with shallow and deep foundations. The framework has been implemented in an example problem, to demonstrate the procedure and to address the main influential parameters in each class of assessment using the alpha importance measure. Rt risk tool has been utilized to perform reliability calculations and FORM has been used as the primary method due to its valuable balance between computational cost and accuracy. The outcomes of this RM framework are risk registers and colour-coded risk maps including the exceedance probability of a predefined settlement threshold for each building in the affected area. This framework receives technical data and provides risk-based information for higher-level managers and decision-makers to prioritize their actions and allocate their resources in the most effective way. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / The aim of this study is to provide a multi-level risk management (RM) framework to address and quantify the risk of surface building settlement induced by tunnelling in soft clay in urbanized areas. The focused is placed on quantifying the risk of tunnel-induced settlement of existing buildings, by taking into account multiple uncertainty levels. The framework addresses the tunnel-induced settlement risk, both during the construction of the tunnel as well as after its completion, for buildings with shallow and deep foundations. It offers different classes of assessment to quantify the risk, according to the structure’s current condition and with respect to specific limit-state functions designated for each class. The proposed framework was implemented in an example to demonstrate the procedure and outcomes.