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Do women municipal politicians encounter the same level of media bias as their national counterparts? This question guided a study of how three daily and three community newspapers portrayed women and men council candidates during the 2007 Alberta municipal election. Using content and discourse analysis, the study compared how journalists covered female and male candidates personal traits, campaign platforms, public utterances, and electoral viability as well as how visible both groups of candidates were in newspaper election coverage. Results from the study indicate that while aspiring women councillors do face a subtle sexism, the media environment they encounter while campaigning is generally more gender-neutral and hospitable to them than the one awaiting women competing for elite national office. Thus, scholarly belief that the media act can as a barrier to womens candidacy are largely unfounded at the municipal level.

False Creek has been both the poster child and the ground zero of Vancouver’s acclaimed ‘urban renaissance’ – the transformation of the city from resource town to world-class metropolis. This study explores the interplay between urban redevelopment and the loss of industrial land and blue-collar work in False Creek in the 1970s. I investigate how city officials, urban experts, local workers and business owners viewed and made sense of the transformation of False Creek from an industrial site to a commercial, recreational and residential district. An examination of the testimony of local workers and businessmen as well as of the visions of municipal authorities is necessary to demystify the loss of inner-city industrial land as a natural and inevitable process. I demonstrate how the demise of the industrial sector in False Creek resulted in part from state policy, and from changing understandings about the place of industry in the socio-economic life of the city. Finally, I make the case that while the redevelopment project incorporated innovative planning practices, and brought countless benefits to many Vancouverites, the transformation of the area is inextricably linked to a story of displacement. / Graduate

The diploma thesis studies specific features of the local politics in the Czech Republic. The focal point of this case study is the village Dolni Lhota and local elections in 2014, during which a change of the local political elites has occurred. The main aim of this thesis is to understand the factors having led to the victory of a new local representatives and to ascertain whether the citizens are satisfied with chosen political elites so far. The content is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter there is paid close attention to local democracy, local administration and to the introduction of Dolní Lhota. In the second chapter there are interpreted the results of the questionnaire survey, moreover it provides the reader with the analysis of interviews with the executive representatives elected in 2014. Finally, in the third chapter the research questions are evaluated.

The purpose of this paper is to study women's representation in the Swedish municipal boards. The result and conclusion will be able to contribute with knowledge about women’s quantitative representation in the boards and also the variation and content of it. The problem reads: How does women's representation look like in the municipal boards? To figure this out I have chosen to use variables like gender, city, party, and boards to consideration, which gives me an opportunity to study both women's vertical and horizontal representation. The study is a quantitative study and uses a statistical analysis to analyze the material. The boards have been categorized into soft and hard political questions, for purpose to see if there is any female over- or underrepresentation in any area. I have chosen to study the 12 largest municipal in Sweden for this study, based on previous science, which shows that women's representation are higher in more highly populated cities. Because of the previous science, the studies hypothesis projects a low female representation and with the studies strategic sample the case is a least likely case. All the material is gathered from the municipal own websites and compiled in a statistical analysis. The result shows inter alia that women are underrepresented as a total in the municipal boards. The result also revealed a considerable underrepresentation when it came to hard political questions, and even in the fields where women were predicted to have a high representation, men have taken majority. For conclusion my hypothesis were for the most part verified, even with the study being a least likely case.

The thesis examines the process of recruiting new political elites, which is considered as an essential prerequisite for the restoration of a democratic society in the Czech Republic. The work examines the civic society and its involvement in the political life and activities on the municipal political level. The case study concerns the village of Dolní Břežany where the significant processes have taken place since the year 2002 in order to strengthen the transparency of politics. A questionnaire was distributed in Dolní Břežany where the questions dealt with the citizens´ life satisfaction in the village, their participation in public life and it investigated whether their involvement is or is not connected with an interest in politics or it is just connected with the existence of problems and their solution. Furthermore, the interviews with the executive representatives (between the years 2002 and 2014) gather their views on politics, the public and political participation in general. The aim was to find out what inspired the new political elites to enter the politics and stay politically active for such a long time. The work confirms a hypothesis that a goal of the new political representatives, who were elected in Dolní Břežany in 2002, was to improve their life conditions in the village. The elites remained politically active due to their clear conception of the future village development. The citizens´ confidence in political leaders and a high satisfaction with the community life increased also their interest in politics and public affairs.

The main objective of this thesis is the identification and understanding of the mechanisms of recruiting local political elites and their role in the process of democratization of local politics, and in the process of strengthening local civil society on concrete example selected municipality. The case study concerns with the municipality Semily, which was chosen to work as a community with exemplary transparent and open manner of governance. In 2006 there was a significant change in political representation when recruiting new political elites was a top down process led by a particular person according to predetermined priorities.

Studien undersöker kvinnors representation, samt om det existerar några könsmönster inom kommunalpolitiken. Studien illustrerar hur könsfördelningen ser ut i Borås stad. En kartläggning utav kvinnliga förtroendevalda kommunpolitiker har genomförts för att åskådliggöra hur situationen angående könsmönster ser ut i dagsläget. Utöver detta har vi även utfört semistrukturerade intervjuer med respondenter från de olika partierna som är verksamma inom kommunalpolitiken i Borås stad för att få förståelse för hur situationen ser ut för de kvinnliga politikerna. Intervjuerna konstruerade vi utifrån referensramen, som vi därefter kopplat ihop med våra respondenters personliga upplevelser med hjälp utav vår analysmodell.De områden vi undersökt är kvinnorepresentation, vilka hinder de möter inom politiken, samt horisontell- och vertikal könsarbetsdelning. Vår undersökning visar att det finns en brist på kvinnlig representation inom kommunalpolitiken i Borås stad till viss del, samt vilken betydelse detta har. Dessutom visar undersökningen att både en horisontell- och vertikal könsarbetsdelning existerar i Borås stads kommun. Studien är skriven på svenska. / The study examines the representation of women, and the existence of any gender patterns in municipal politics. The study also illustrates gender distribution in the city of Borås. A survey of the female elected local councilors has been conducted to illustrate how the situation regarding gender patterns look like in the current situation. In addition, we also conducted semi-structured interviews with respondents from the various parties active in local politics in the city of Borås to get a comprehension in the situation of female politicians. We constructed the interviews on the basis of the reference framework, and then coupled with our respondents' personal experiences with our analysis model.The areas that we have examined are the representation of women, the barriers they face in politics, as well as horizontal and vertical gender division of labor. Our survey shows that there is a lack of female representation in local politics in the city of Borås, to some extent, and also what impact this has in the political situation that exists. Moreover, the survey shows that both a horizontal and vertical gender division of labor exists in the municipality of Borås.The study is written in Swedish.

<p>Who runs the development? A comparative study of the construction of residential buildings in Nacka and Södertälje.</p><p>The aim of this study is to identify actors involved in the initiation and implementation of residential house construction in two Swedish municipalities. This means who is taking initiative for new residential buildings, who affects the planning process, who finances these new buildings and who builds them. By exploring empiric material from the municipalities of Nacka and Södertälje, the above questions will be answered and by referring to pluralism, growth machine theory and regime theory a link to general theories of political science is made. The results found show that the analysed municipalities have quite different possibilities for acting and that these backgrounds are also important for which actors will take initiative for new residential buildings and which actors will be allowed to state their opinion during the planning process. Due to these differences I claim that the empirical material from the two municipalities are best described by two different theories from the above mentioned.</p>

Author: Gabriella Agné and Helena Larsson Title: Disability policy program – a case study of a municipals implementation of UNs Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Supervisor: Marianne Westring-Nordh Assessor: Ulf Drugge This study aims to examine how a small municipal in southern Sweden works with the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and examine the assistant officers knowledge about this work and user organizations inclusion and user involvement. The study operates from a qualitative approach based on the results of nine semi-structured interviews with local politicians, assistance officers and representatives from three different user organizations. The results show that the municipal has chosen to work with the implementation of the convention by creating policy programs for their departments through dialogue with user organizations, and by mapping the accessibility to public places. The results also show that the assistant officers have been given no information regarding the convention or the policy programs from their employers and instead operate from national legislations and prepositions. The user organizations feel that they were initially included in the process, but that their impact has later been removed due to structural reorganization.