Aggravated by rapid population growth, urbanization, and industrialization and most recently by climate change events, the availability of water especially in the third world is reaching critical proportions.  This is aggravated by the non treatment of wastewater (sewage) and discharged of untreated wastewater into water bodies. The study focused on identifying and reviewing four wastewater treatment methods from a sustainability perspective; waste stabilization pond, constructed wetland, up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor and sedimentation/thickening tank systems suitable for the Limbe Urban Municipality (LUM) of Cameroon in Central West Africa with an estimated population of 120, 000 inhabitants and experiencing 4.7 per cent annual growth rate. The attractiveness of these four methods stems from their apparent energy efficiency, simplicity, robustness, low cost effectiveness in situations where as in the LUM, there are huge tracts of available land, warm temperatures, and their capacity to promote effluent re-use opportunities for various sectors. Issues of sustainability of the water supply and wastewater treatment systems, untreated sewage, and their contribution to escalating environmental and public health impacts in LUM (Cameroon) were critically evaluated and discussed with the aid of Kärrman (2000) framework approach that employs different sets of sustainability criteria (Environmental, Health and Hygiene, and Functional), sub-criteria and indicators. Results obtained reveal that water and wastewater treatment systems in LUM do not operate or conforms to sustainability perspectives. Inhabitants do not still have access to clean drinking water (an approximate 45 per cent) especially in the dry periods of the year, low sanitation coverage (with the tradition of sewage treatment in septic tanks and pit latrines), rising yearly public health impacts associated with water-borne (cholera, dysentery, malaria, typhoid fever and diarrhea) infections and 6 deaths reported in LUM. These leading problems are directly or indirectly linked to consumption of contaminated water or foods in different communities such as Mile II, Isokolo, Bonadikombo (Mile four) etc, and New Town areas and flood prone zones in the Limbe urban municipality.

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. / 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.

This paper is about a new organization how to get smaller communities to join together and become much larger. The purpose is to find out why Norra Sandsjö community and Bringetofta and Norra Sandsjö parishes were separated when Sävsjö municipality block was formed. The purpose is further to find out what the councils of Norra Sandsjö, Nässjö and Sävsjö, the church council and the people who lived in the area thought about the decision that was made by the executive organization in this matter (länsstyrelsen in Jönköping). Voting was arranged amongst the people, who lived in the specific area that in the first inquiry was suggested to be connected with Nässjö municipality block. The source material gives the result of this voting and the opinions of Norra Sandsjö, Nässjö and Sävsjö communities in this question. The source material includes inquires made by the executive organization (länsstyrelsen) and records from the meetings of Nässjö, Sävsjö and Norra Sandsjö councils. The theory is based on the case to have enough proximity to a chief town within the municipality block. The question if the south part of Norra Sandsjö commune and parts of Bringetofta and Norra Sandsjö parishes was going to be connected with Sävsjö municipality block instead of Nässjö municipality block is about the question of proximity to a chief town.

Aim: To examine director’s experiences of the process to implement smoke-free working hours and also their need of support to make it feasible in the municipality of Östhammar. Method: A qualitative interview study with a descriptive design was used. Semi-structured interviews were made with six directors who were selected from different levels, localities and administrations in the municipality of Östhammar. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Many positive aspects were pointed out regarding the implementation of smoke-free working hours. The aspects of time and the support which had been offered to the smokers stood out among these. The majority of the directors considered that the support at the time of the implementation had been adequate.  The difficulties that were experienced were mostly related to practical issues. Only a few proposals of support concerning the difficulties that had been experienced were presented. Two of the study’s participants had not experienced difficulties. Two positive effects of the policy were reduction in smoking or quitting smoking. Particularly one director stated that the policy did not function at all up to that point. The requested types of support in the future were continuing existing support, activities connected to the policy and a follow-up of the policy. Conclusion: The experiences of the informants were that the implementation process has functioned well with the exception of a few particular difficulties. Few proposals of support emerged in addition to already existing ones. Some form of activity connected to the policy or a follow-up of the policy is important to once again make it a pressing issue.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze homelessness in a medium-sized municipality from an organizational perspective. Some of the central questions in this study are: How is the cause of homelessness explained? How do different actors in the community address, prevent and combat homelessness? Who is responsible for the homelessness? This study is based on four semi-structured interviews with organizations that work with homelessness. The analysis is based on problem definition theory. The result of this study shows that homelessness is a problem in this medium-sized municipality even if it is not a big one and that it is often closely combined with substance abuse. The responsibility for the homeless is on the homeless themselves and the social service because that causes is, according to this study, individual based.

The interest in further expansion of wind power has increased significantly during the last decades, as it is an environmentally and financially competitive energy source. Wind power is an important part of achieving energy goals and climate commitments in several countries, not least in Sweden. The localisation of the wind turbines has, however, appeared to be controversial and local resistance occurs more frequently as the energy source expands. This creates a complex environmental conflict where various actors struggle to obtain differing goal settings. Such a situation occurred in Ödeshög municipality, when wind power entrepreneurs expressed their interests in establish wind turbines in forest and transition areas of the municipality. This thesis aims to emphasise how wind power expansion became such a controversial environmental conflict in Ödeshög. To be able to do this, the conflict is analysed from an Actor-Network Theory perspective. This theoretical framework has been used with the ambition to describe how the involved actors strategically have acted to possibly influence the outcome of the conflict. The situation in Ödeshög have much to say about how these conflicts occur and by learning from this situation several similar conflicts may be avoided.

Corruption is widespread, and exists more or less in all countries in the world. It is today high on the international political agenda as a result of globalization and is seen as a serious impediment to development. In 2011, Sweden scored 9,3 out of 10 on the Transparency International corruption index which gave the country a 4th place of 182 on the list. This refers to a rather low corruption. Although Sweden is a country with low level of corruption that does not mean that it is completely corruption-free. During the last decade corruption scandals in Sweden has been revealed. At the national level is the bribe scandal with Systembolaget in 2004 where a total of 92 persons were prosecuted, by foremost the largest. On the municipal level is the bribe scandal in Gothenburg maybe the one freshest in mind. There is a reason to not completely dismiss corruption as an existing problem in Sweden. Often the measurements on corruption in Sweden are made at a national level. Therefore, this paper is made to complement national research with a study on the municipal level, to determine if there is a variation in the case of Sweden. The paper is based on the theory that a favorable temptation structure can serve as an explanation for the appearance of corruption. Potential underlying variables to the favorable temptation structure is also examined. A qualitative method is used in the study of corruption in municipalities in the form of a comparative case study. Two municipalities with corruption are examined and one without. A quantitative method is used in the study of the potential underlying variables to the temptation structure. Result show that corruption is a complex problem and that there is hard to find a general explanation to why corruption exists in municipalities.

<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>

<p>The aim of this thesis is to examine the environmental work of the municipal of Växjö and to investigate how the leaders have worked with this action program; a fossil fuel free Växjö. To accomplish this propose the following question was used:</p><p>• How did the leaders of this successful action program a fossil fuel free Växjö work?</p><p>The empirical part is based on the years reports, written by the municipal it self. Also reviewed articles were use for the empirical framework. The outcomes that were discovered during the writing of this thesis were that the cooperation between the actors was very strong. Since the aim of the program for a fossil fuel free Växjö was clear and the cooperation between the leaders within the program was so good, were the outcomes also positive. To sum up was the will to get a better environment that gave Växjö attention for its good work.</p>

ABSTRACT During the last decades, environmental impacts have increased significantly, much due to the great traffic flows within cities. Therefore, to reduce these impacts and encourage a healthy way of living, it has in recent years become vital to generate safer and more sustainable and flexible modes of transportation. In order to do so, authorities and physical planners must work together to find viable solutions to incorporate in the infrastructure and offer alternative transport modes – such as walking, cycling and public transportation.  The purpose of this thesis is to examine the development of the cycling infrastructure in the city of Västerås and whether it is possible to expand bicycle commuting alongside public transportation. The thesis consequently aims to study how different physical planners within Västerås municipality work with traffic related questions. The thesis is based on interviews with relevant physical planners, data from scientific literature and different strategy documents intended for Västerås municipality.  The results are based on a thematic coding system to analyse specific categories frequently mentioned during the interviews. These results have later been put into context with related literature regarding sustainable cycling infrastructure.  The results show that there is a common goal for traffic planning within the municipality, even if the authorities express different actions concerning its development.