Increased possibilitiesof choosing one’s school of preference hasbeen raised as a key factor in many countries to promote equal opportunitiesand higher quality of education. This has been endorsed by policymakers whoassume that students make well-informed rational choices and that students only stress academic quality whendeciding which school to attend. If this is true, it will benefit schools ofhigh academic quality, rendering improved school quality overall. To date,little research has examined the validity of these assumptions despite theprofound effects they have had for changing the school systems in manycountries. This study employs an experimental approach to investigate therelative importance of attributes in school choice. Specifically the study isbased on experimental data from 587 prospective high school students inHalmstad, Sweden. The purpose is to contrast the principal school qualityattributes behind the policy change (academic reputation and programfeasibility), with the presence of friends and geographical attributes such asdistance, location and accessibility, while controlling for individualcharacteristics. The results are disturbing as they reveal flaws in theassumptions that motivated the school choice policy reform. The study presents evidence of differencesin preferences and that grades are the most important background characteristic for this difference. The study also shows that all studentsare not rational to the same extent as theory predicts. Hence theSwedish school reforms have been based on a slightly biased theory. Finally, the study indicates that differentgeographic contexts (e.g. where the studentslive) affect students' preferences.

Studien utfördes som en kvalitativ fallstudie av en vindkraftsetablering som inte fick tillstånd att genomföras i Sollefteå kommun. Syftet var att undersöka samhällsacceptans med fokus på interregional rättvisa och regionalt ansvarstagande. Nationella rättvisefrågor behandlas när det kommer till relationen mellan norra och södra Sverige och stad och landsbygd. 19 intervjuer användes för att samla åsikter från fyra olika respondentgrupper: lokalbefolkning, kommunpolitiker i Sollefteå kommun, tjänstepersoner för kommunen och samer med rennäring i området. Studien visar på att det finns en upplevd orättvisa i området orsakad av en hög andel vindkraft och förnybar elproduktion jämfört med andra delar av Sverige. Vindkraftens påverkan lokalt ansågs vara övervägande negativ. Ersättningen för etableringarna ansågs inte tillräcklig för att kompensera för den negativa lokala påverkan. Det skapar en upplevelse av interregional orättvisa där vissa regioner tar större ansvar för den förnybara elproduktionen. Upplevelsen av ett för högt regionalt ansvarstagande utan tillräcklig lokal nytta försämrar samhällsacceptansen. Studien påvisar att den lokala nyttan i samband med vindkraftsetableringen är en avgörande faktor för samhällsacceptansen ur ett rättviseperspektiv mellan regioner. Även förtroende till etableraren och både förståelse och kunskap bland etablerare visade sig vara betydande för den upplevda påverkan av en vindkraftsetablering.

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This study revolves around cultural heritage as a resource for tourism and within a placemaking. The chosen purpose is to study how an individual municipality relates to its specific cultural heritage and to investigate how cultural heritage can be used as a tourism resource and within a place-making. Hässleholm municipality is the subject of the study and the cultural heritage is the history about the guerrilla fighters and outlaws called snapphanar. The questions at issue are: How is the history of snapphanarna in Hässleholm municipality valued as a cultural heritage and as a tourism resource? How can Hässleholm municipality use its cultural heritage as a tourism resource and in a place-making? The theoretical understanding is mainly based on Jonas Grundberg's material on cultural heritage tourism and Lotta Braunerhielm's study on cultural heritage in place-making. A case study has been conducted using semi-structured interviews, unstructured interviews and observations. Interviews have been conducted with the responsible destination developer from the municipality, the castle manager at Hovdala Slott, the responsible at “Tourism in Skåne”, and ten locals. The results show that there is a discrepancy in how local residents value the cultural heritage of snapphanar versus how municipal responsible value them. Among other things, locals want the Snapphane heritage to bring more to life in the municipality and be used in tourism, something that is now not present. Furthermore, it is clear that the municipality does not see Hovdala Castle for all its values. The study provides tools for how Hässleholm municipality can use the cultural heritage of the history about Snappahanarna, together with Hovdala Slott, to create a more locally based tourism and as a way for a place making. / Denna studie kretsar kring kulturarv som en resurs för turism och inom ett platsskapande. Det valda syftet är att studera hur en enskild kommun förhåller sig till sitt specifika kulturarv samt att undersöka hur kulturarvet kan användas som en turismresurs och inom ett platsskapande. Hässleholms kommun är föremålet för studien och kulturarvet är snapphanehistorien. Frågeställningarna är: Hur värderas snapphanehistorien i Hässleholms kommun som ett kulturarv och som en turismresurs? Hur kan Hässleholms kommun använda sitt kulturarv som en turismresurs och inom ett platsskapande? Den teoretiska förståelsen utgår främst från Jonas Grundbergs material om kulturarvsturism och Lotta Braunerhielms studie om kulturarv inom platsskapande. En fallstudie har utförts med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer, ostrukturerade intervjuer samt observationer. Intervjuer har gjorts med ansvarig destinationsutvecklare från kommunen, slottschefen på Hovdala Slott, ansvarig på Tourism in Skåne samt tio lokalinvånare. Resultaten visar att det finns en diskrepans i hur kommuninvånarna värderar kulturarvet snapphanar kontra kommunansvariga. Lokalinvånarna vill bland annat att snapphanearvet ska levandegöras mer i kommunen och användas inom turism, något som nu inte är gällande. Vidare framgår att kommunen inte ser Hovdala Slott för alla dess värden. Studien ger verktyg till hur Hässleholms kommun kan använda sig av kulturarvet snapphanehistorien tillsammans med Hovdala Slott för att skapa en mer lokalt förankrad turism och som en väg för ett nytt platsskapande.

Regional differentiation is a complex phenomenon concerning all countries of the world, which is analyzed by countless studies, but without a generally accepted theoretical anchorage. The Thesis deals with the transformation of Turkish regional image at multiple levels from 1975 to 2018. This transformation is analyzed by a set of selected demographic and socioeconomic indicators. The main objective is to document and evaluate Turkish regional demographic and socioeconomic differentiation, which leads to the country's polarization. The Thesis is based on statistical data from the Turkish Statistical Office. The geographical concentration of demographic and socioeconomic indicators was illustrated by tabular and map outputs. Sigma convergence evaluating the evolution of differentiation of individual indicators Gini coefficients are shown by graphs. The multiple regression analysis method examined the impact of geographical aspects on selected demographic and socioeconomic indicators. Significant part of the Thesis also deals with Turkish political- geographical context and the theoretical approaches on which it is based.

Detta är en kvalitativ intervjustudie med en abduktiv ansats. Studien undersöker hur två geografiskt närliggande kommuner, Gävle och Uppsala kommun, agerar innan, under och efter en kris när det gäller kriskommunikation och hur respektive kommun förhåller sig till upprättade kommunikationsnätverk. Datamaterialet har främst analyserats enligt Ahuja, Sodaoch Zaheers (2012) fem dimensioner i ett nätverk och Garnett och Kouzmins (2007) fyra linser inom kriskommunikation. I studien identifierades både strukturella skillnader och likheter mellan kommunerna. Uppsala kommun har till exempel två arbetsroller: kommunikatör i beredskap och tjänsteman i beredskap, vilket Gävle kommun inte har. Där utöver ändrar båda kommunerna sin rapporteringsstruktur från en linjeorganisation till en matrisorganisation under en kris. Båda exemplen visar på vikten av det relativa avståndet i kommunerna, det vill säga avståndet mellan anställda/aktörer i kommunerna. Om det relativa medelavståndet mellan aktörerna i kommunerna minskas kan felinformation och problem lättare hanteras. Möjliga aspekter för framtida studier som har identifierats i studien är valet av att ha kraftigt decentraliserade grupperingar i nätverken samt det begränsade antalet plattformar som kommunerna använder under en kris.

This thesis aims to investigate how the City of Lund, and Lund University will provide accommodation for researchers associated with the construction of the research facilities ESS and MAX IV. Furthermore, this paper will study what synergies that exist between housing for researchers, the City of Lund, and its university to attract international researchers.  There is a shortage of housing for students and researchers, especially in municipalities with higher education institutions. To solve this, the Swedish government issued a regulation that enabled universities to offer accommodation to further groups of researchers to strengthen Sweden as a research nation. With the ESS and MAX IV as catalysts for growth, the municipality of Lund will function as an important research hub on an international level. The research conducted a study of strategic documents, such as the City of Lund’s comprehensive plans and in-depth comprehensive plan. As well as a qualitative method that implemented interviews, whereby some of the questions were based on the analyzes of the document study. The interviews were constructed from three groups and will be the perspectives this thesis will discuss its results and analysis by.  The results showed the need for strategic documents to include socio-cultural values and place-based innovations to attract knowledge-intense professionals and further highlight the need for cooperation between Lund municipality and Lund University to maintain its guest researchers.

Aiming to contribute to its collective action in informing about the problem of an organisation-internal weak and amorphous interaction-gap and its recommended solution, this thesis utilises the discussion and conceptualisations of territorial, human and social capital to derive an analytical insight into roles, relations and interactions within a Local Action Group (LAG) and LEADER. The European rural and local development methodology is studied with abductive and deductive research strategies, making use of a NUTS-SE33 case-study, extensive questionnaire and document analytical methods. Findings show the gap in-between the roles of the decision-maker and project-owner/manager, that if closed with a deliberate, purposive interaction could foster, so act conducive, supportive and reinforcing, the result-oriented effectiveness and revert negative implications. These get eminent in not fully exploitable or losses in foundational LEADER principles of participative mobilisation, networking and capacity building, leading to a weakening of development potential through the loss of mutual local knowledge, information and collective sense. Limitations arise by the representativity issues of the response rate and the territorial research-focus.

With the aim of assessing how to develop a socially sustainable mobility, this thesis applies a method of PPGIS (Public Participation Geographic Information System). The method of PPGIS was conducted through a survey aimed towards people who frequently visit the studied area (e.g., living, working, or studying there). The geographical delimitation of the study is set to Lindholmen, Gothenburg and focuses on the ongoing development of realizing the visions of the River City project (Gothenburg, 2012). Mobility in this work is understood as something more than just movement from point A to B and is mainly approached with support from Kaufmann’s (2002) theory of motility – the capacity to be mobile. Mobility that facilitates individual’s constraints and increases people’s motility is considered as socially sustainable. The concept of public participation is central, highlighting the importance of local knowledge and involvement in decision-making (Berman, 2017). The local knowledge, from contributors, was used as the basis of analysis for assessing mobility development. The participatory approach aims to improve neighbourhood quality, and to strengthen social inclusion. The PPGIS-process generated 173 responses. Recurring themes were suggestions for bicycle infrastructure and expanding the ferry lines. Negative inputs revolved around traffic volumes and construction. Future development in Lindholmen could focus on the attitudes and opinions of the contributors. The thesis concludes with a discussion on the collected data, stating that to improve what contributors complained about or asked for – in terms of traveling to, from, and within the area – is to take a step toward a more inclusive and accessible mobility. The contributions lie in the gathered empirical material, with specific suggestions to the mobility development of Lindholmen. Furthermore, the general debate on considering the needs and wishes of a place’s users highlights benefits with mobility development through public participation that should be considered in future projects or academic works.

Public health is an essential urban issue attracting the increasing attention of scholars and decision-makers while urban planning is an important mechanism to promote health since mounting evidence has shown the planning elements, such as urban green spaces (UGS), could have a positive influence. In previous literature, the studies concerning the impacts of UGSs can be divided into two aspects: the first is to reveal the relationships between UGSs and health using statistical models based on self-reported data, while the second is to take their relationships as presumption and visualize the spatial distributions of UGSs in a geographical information system (GIS) to indicate the existence of health inequalities. I attempt to combine the two pathways, using GIS-based analyses to quantify and visualize UGSs, and subsequently employing the quantified indicators of UGSs to calculate their associations with public health by multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis in SPSS. The study describes a detailed methodology that could be taken as a generic approach to analyze other urban elements and services. A case study is conducted in Linköping central urban area with base areas selected as the spatial unit of analysis. As a consequence, although the elaborate relationships between different indicators of UGSs and public health are not directly provided by the regression models, the correlations between them are indicated to be weak and subtle and require larger samples to reveal. Potential improvements, including the application of panel data and other kinds of regression models, are also summarized for further research.