<p>The purpose of this study is to ascertain how present methods in branding, used in private sector companies, are or could be transferred to the public sector organizations.</p><p>It is done by means of a case study of Micasa Fastigheter done through participating observation. It also includes a survey of key decision makers included in the branding process, on different political and administrative levels.</p><p>Swedish municipalities’ and county councils spend over 50 percent of the Swedish gross national product, their operations affect most individuals just about every day and information and advertising from and about the operations of public sector organizations (PSOs) is vital for the existence of the citizens. How the PSOs communicate what they spend the tax payers’ money on has its own set of rules. The operations of PSOs are controlled by quite a number of laws and regulations. None of the laws apply directly to the methods of communication, yet PSOs have historically been very strict with most types of marketing. The results show that in the last couple of years this has changed and municipalities in particular have started to actively work on and communicate its brands. Stockholm is no exception. The reason for the change is the development of marketing in non-profit organizations, the occurrence of social marketing and image marketing and possibly the globalization and Internet.</p><p>Micasa Fastigheter is a municipal company that has gone through a branding process during the past 2.5 years. The company has step by step passed through the same stages in its branding process as a private company, the only exception being the very little advertising. It is thus possible for a municipal company to brand itself without clashing with the laws and regulations that govern the public sector. A result that, according to my survey, is due to a maturity in marketing issues amongst decision makers in the City of Stockholm, a general focus in the Swedish society on branding and, the people in charge of the branding process.</p><p>A look at the municipality of Stockholm is a good start since most trends start in the capital but a more thorough look at a substantial number of Swedish municipalities would be interesting for future study.</p>

<p>The purpose of this essay is to investigate and analyze the term diversity in five Swedish municipality’s combined gender equality- and diversity plans. The purpose is also to investigate who or whom of the employers that are included in the term diversity and if gender equality is included in the diversity work. The material is analyzed on the basis of theory of intersectionality and discourse analysis. The outcome of the analysis indicates that the municipalities use the term diversity in many different ways in the combined gender equality- and diversity plans. The municipalities usually use the term diversity for all of the employers and all groups of people are included in the work with diversity. Gender is included in the term diversity but gender quality work is often not included in the diversity work. In this essay the term diversity seem to be a difficult term for the municipalities to use and they often uses the term in different contexts.</p>

<p>Sustainable development includes environmental, social and economic dimension, which has become an accepted concept at all levels of society. There is also a need for these dimensions to integrate with each other. To attain a sustainable development it has to be seen as a whole. The environmental objectives were established by Swedish parliament in 1999; however these objectives are only one of the steps in achieving a sustainable society. Swedish municipality are forced to use the environmental objectives for guidance in planning society. Municipalities have a responsibility to integrate environmental issues into political processes and at the same time contribute to an increase of the awareness about these issues. There is no guidance in the work with the environmental objectives and municipality have to work on the basis of their own environment and conditions.</p><p>The aim of this essay was to study the work of implementing environmental objectives in one municipality, with the focus on the objectives four and fifteen; towards an ecological sustainable development with support of the environmental work of another municipality. The focus of the work lays on the formulation of environmental objectives four and fifteen in order for them to be achieved without difficulty.</p><p>One conclusion is that none of the chosen environmental objectives are reached. The theoretical discussion highlights the importance of a communicative work between different participants and also information about the environmental issues on the individual level.      </p><p>This work was considered to contribute to future research concerning municipalities work with environmental objectives. </p>

<p>The purpose of this degree project is to study if there is a intentional work with technology in the elementary school, preschool to fifth grade, in a municipality. The work will also study what conditions there are in the schools in order to work with technology. 95 questionnaires were distributed to the responsible teachers in all primary schools in the municipality, from preschool to fifth grade. The results of the survey show that more than half of the respondents do not consider themselves to work with technology in the school. The conditions, in order to work with the school subject technology in the municipality, are primarily external such as: material, facilities and the ability to divide students into smaller groups. The primary school teachers are experiencing a lack of knowledge within the subject technology and primarily desire further education to be able to work more with technology. One conclusion that emerged in the survey is that technology is a subject with low priority mainly because of lack of knowledge and competence among the teachers.</p> / <p>Syftet med examensarbetet är att studera om det på ett medvetet sätt arbetas med teknik i grundskolan, år F-5 i en kommun. Arbetet ska även studera vilka förutsättningar det finns på skolorna för att arbeta med teknik. 95 enkäter delades ut till ansvariga klasslärare på samtliga grundskolor i kommunen med ålderspannet F-5. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att mer än hälften av de svarande lärarna inte anser sig arbeta medvetet med teknik i skolan. De förutsättningar som finns för att arbeta med skolämnet teknik i kommunen är främst yttre förutsättningar, dvs. material, lokaler och möjlighet att dela in eleverna i smågrupper. Lärarna upplever en brist på kunskap inom teknikämnet och önskar främst fortbildning och kunskap för att kunna arbeta mer med teknik. En slutsats som framkommit i undersökningen är att teknik är ett lågt prioriterat ämne främst på grund av bristen på kunskap och kompetens hos lärarna.</p>

The purpose of this research is to understand factors contributing to successes and challenges in community participation especially in waste minimization initiatives; in order to inform policies and contribute to improve the design of the initiative. The objectives of the research are: firstly, to understand the current state of public participation in waste minimization at Emfuleni Local Municipality. Secondly, it is to determine the extent of willingness of the community to participate in waste minimization initiatives. Thirdly, to determine strategies on how to promote public participation in waste minimization. Fourthly, to identify constraints and challenges of public participation in waste minimization and what kind of support is required for the community to participate in waste minimization initiatives at Emfuleni Local Municipality. Respondents were drawn from fifty households within the community of Bophelong Extension 13, Emfuleni Recycling groups, Waste Management officials, Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment stake holder participation unit and Waste Buyers in Vanderbijlpark. The researcher employed mainly a qualitative research design and data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. Quantitative study was done on officials and responses were ranked according to the importance of the factors influencing community participation. The findings of this research indicate that the community is willing to participate in waste minimization initiatives. 42% of respondents are currently NOT participating in waste minimization initiatives. It was noted that all community respondents promised and are willing to participate in waste minimization strategies. The research further indicates that there is a considerable number of constraints and challenges prohibiting successful community participation in waste minimization. The constraints include lack of knowledge especially regarding composting initiatives to minimize organic waste and the separation of waste, lack of infrastructure to exchange waste for cash, lack of time, lack of transport, lack of political support, lack of starter packs to initiate own waste minimization plant and lack of financial support to ensure that waste minimization initiatives create opportunities for job creation. This study recommends, amongst others, that the community requires support to participate meaningfully in waste minimization initiatives in the form of: awareness and education, infrastructure for reclaimed waste, waste recycling bins, project funding, community involvement and support from the Emfuleni Local Municipality and the private sector. / Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

The importance of human resource development as a means of ensuring that the organisation and institution maintain their competitiveness cannot be over-emphasised. Training and development of employees are critical to organisations, because it ensures the acquisition of required skills, which is paramount for the provision of effective service delivery, in particular local sphere of government. The Workplace Skills training that refers to the strategic human resource training and development, aims at developing the workforce, labour skills capacity, thereby achieving the institutional goals, policies and objectives of the institution. The Workplace Skills Plan is the key strategic planning document relating to workplace training, career pathing and employment equity for the Municipality. It details the training planned by a municipality in a given financial year as legislated by the Local Government Sector Education Training Authority (LGSETA). Workplace Skills Plan, through LGSETA, the Skills Development Legislative framework and the Employment Equity Act, makes provision, ensuring that employees in the public service should enhance their skills in order to deliver effective services to its customers, the public. For quality and effective service delivery at the Nigel Local Municipality to take place, the implementation of the Workplace Skills training is imperative for the enhancement of a skill workforce that will be able to ensure that the customer is satisfied with the product and service rendered by the employees. / Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain how present methods in branding, used in private sector companies, are or could be transferred to the public sector organizations. It is done by means of a case study of Micasa Fastigheter done through participating observation. It also includes a survey of key decision makers included in the branding process, on different political and administrative levels. Swedish municipalities’ and county councils spend over 50 percent of the Swedish gross national product, their operations affect most individuals just about every day and information and advertising from and about the operations of public sector organizations (PSOs) is vital for the existence of the citizens. How the PSOs communicate what they spend the tax payers’ money on has its own set of rules. The operations of PSOs are controlled by quite a number of laws and regulations. None of the laws apply directly to the methods of communication, yet PSOs have historically been very strict with most types of marketing. The results show that in the last couple of years this has changed and municipalities in particular have started to actively work on and communicate its brands. Stockholm is no exception. The reason for the change is the development of marketing in non-profit organizations, the occurrence of social marketing and image marketing and possibly the globalization and Internet. Micasa Fastigheter is a municipal company that has gone through a branding process during the past 2.5 years. The company has step by step passed through the same stages in its branding process as a private company, the only exception being the very little advertising. It is thus possible for a municipal company to brand itself without clashing with the laws and regulations that govern the public sector. A result that, according to my survey, is due to a maturity in marketing issues amongst decision makers in the City of Stockholm, a general focus in the Swedish society on branding and, the people in charge of the branding process. A look at the municipality of Stockholm is a good start since most trends start in the capital but a more thorough look at a substantial number of Swedish municipalities would be interesting for future study.

The purpose of the thesis was to study price differentials of housing in and outside of Swedish cities. When doing so, the average price of detached houses in every Swedish municipality and city was taken. The prices were based on the purchasing sum (köpeskillinen) while the investigated time period was 1995 and 2005. To separate between the different areas in Sweden, the country itself was divided into two separate regions; south, and north. South was used twice, once with the three major city areas (Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö/Lund) included and once when they were not. Within each region two groups of locations could be differentiated; economic centres (Stockholm as an example) and sub-municipalities (Danderyd as an example). Economic centers represented “in cities” and sub-municipalities “outside of cities”. In addition to the main purpose, we also wanted to examine what variables that are affecting the price of housing. Therefore; according to our theoretical background, income, working opportunities and availability of teachers were the important factors. The empirical analysis signified that there is a clear average price differential between economic centers and sub-municipalities in all three regions. Detached houses in economic centers have become more expensive relative to sub-municipalities. The largest difference can be observed in the three major city areas, where the most extreme price changes have occurred. Consequently, it can be said that working opportunities had the foremost effect on house prices in the majority of our research areas. It was also found that income had a significant influence at several locations. Teachers per 100 students had on the other hand little or no effect at all on house prices. Moreover, where it was significant it affected houses prices negatively.

Sustainable development includes environmental, social and economic dimension, which has become an accepted concept at all levels of society. There is also a need for these dimensions to integrate with each other. To attain a sustainable development it has to be seen as a whole. The environmental objectives were established by Swedish parliament in 1999; however these objectives are only one of the steps in achieving a sustainable society. Swedish municipality are forced to use the environmental objectives for guidance in planning society. Municipalities have a responsibility to integrate environmental issues into political processes and at the same time contribute to an increase of the awareness about these issues. There is no guidance in the work with the environmental objectives and municipality have to work on the basis of their own environment and conditions. The aim of this essay was to study the work of implementing environmental objectives in one municipality, with the focus on the objectives four and fifteen; towards an ecological sustainable development with support of the environmental work of another municipality. The focus of the work lays on the formulation of environmental objectives four and fifteen in order for them to be achieved without difficulty. One conclusion is that none of the chosen environmental objectives are reached. The theoretical discussion highlights the importance of a communicative work between different participants and also information about the environmental issues on the individual level.       This work was considered to contribute to future research concerning municipalities work with environmental objectives.

This bachelor thesis is written as a part of the geography program at Stockholm University, Sweden, and the study was conducted from April to June 2012. Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne disease and one of the most widespread infectious diseases in the world with more than nine million new cases each year (SMI 2012, digital source). The disease is a major source of death and suffering in many places and the number of deaths remains high despite the availability of highly efficacious treatment. To control and prevent further spread of TB, the mapping of the disease spatial distribution is of essential importance. In this study, maps were produced that shows the spatial distribution of TB between the years 2002 to 2011 in the municipality of Stockholm. These maps allow an analysis of the spatial distribution at a local scale over time. The aim of this paper is to study how the spatial distribution of TB has looked like in the municipality of Stockholm the last 10 years and to analyze why the spatial distribution of the disease looked like it did. This study is based on the hypothesis “drift”. The hypothesis imply that individuals with certain conditions for a particular state of health or disease is passed (drift) to a certain location or become concentrated there through various social processes. The processes would therefore lead to fact that specific qualities or health attributes become more common in certain geographical places than others (Schæerström et al, 2011:110). The maps of the disease prevalence between the years 2002-2011 illustrates that TB was more concentrated in specific geographical areas of the municipality of Stockholm. The result of the analyzed factors in the different neighborhood areas in 2002, 2006 and 2010 reveals that there are individuals with certain socio-economic conditions which are largely concentrated in the areas mentioned above. The results provide a basis for an assumption that the cause of the spatial distribution of TB during the studied period largely depends on what the drift hypothesis implies. Drift is therefore a likely contributing factor to the fact that particular characteristics and health manifestations were more common in certain geographical places than others in the municipality of Stockholm between the years 2002-2011.