Many people in Sweden live in displacement, from refugees, migrants, unemployed, homeless, lonely elderly or other socially vulnerable groups. The current built environment in Sweden, especially the rural environment, is segregating different social classes including people of different ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds. On top of that there is a lack of social meeting points where these different types of people can meet for interaction. A vicious circle of segregation with invisible borders is created. This obstacle makes social sustainability weak. There should be more places like Folkets hus where people are naturally interacting with people of other backgrounds during an activity. This would strengthen Swedish integration and social sustainability. However today most of the Folkets hus are “sleepy” due to the results of Swedish individualism and the aftermath of the pandemic. A new post-pandemic Folkets hus is needed. The question is “how can Folkets hus work as an architectural social meeting point within rural Swedish contexts and contribute to improved integration and help displaced people?” and “what is the future of the post pandemic Folkets hus in Swedish small towns?” Today’s Folkets hus still represents the previous interests from the second epoch of Folkets hus with buildings adjusted for activities based on culture and art through dances, concerts and parties. A change is needed. Folkets hus should reflect the interests of today’s population, not the interests of the people livingin the past. More current interests are nature based due to the results of the pandemic but also health and work-out based due to the Swedish individualism which is representedin the Inglehart- Welzel cultural map. We are currently living in an important tipping point to soon go into the fourth epoch of Folkets hus, the post-pandemic version Folkets hus.

The Convention of the Rights of the Child has become law in Sweden, entailing municipalities to adapt to the pillars of the convention, one of them being children’s right to participate. Due to the Swedish planning process, the convention is overruled by other planning- and building laws, meaning that municipal practitioners are free to adapt the convention on their own terms. This thesis aims to explore through qualitative comparative analysis how children are included in planning processes in an urban, municipal and regional context. By interviewing practitioners from eight municipalities in Skåne, this thesis identifies what enables or challenges practitioners to purposefully initiate and perform urban transformation with children as active participants in decision-making in urban development projects. The results show that evaluation and feedback-loops are important to acknowledge throughout projects, not only as a final subsequential step. Municipal practitioners have to identify strong intentions early on in projects and have to decide upon what role children should have in projects. Children can either have consulting roles for specific projects, or the approach could have a more soft-value focus, highlighting the democratic learning process for children and empowering them to become future community-builders as they grow up. The results also show that networks are a crucial component to working towards more participatory activities and projects with children as active stakeholders. This embraces collaborative planning ideals and strengthens the case of including more stakeholders and agents in planning processes.

Drexel University, a private university in Philadelphia, is expanding its campus to attract more students, faculty, and researchers. The current President, John Fry, envisions transforming West Philadelphia into an innovation district. The university is working with real estate developers on a $3.5 billion real estate project at Schuylkill Yards, in addition to mixed-use student housing and projects. The development goals of the university will impact the social conditions of the long-term residents of the two neighboring communities, Mantua and Powelton Village. In addition to the larger developers who are working with Drexel, numerous small-scale developers are developing market-rate student housing around the periphery of the two communities. In the process, the developers are disrupting the character of the neighborhoods and changing the racial demographics of the Mantua community from a predominantly African American community into one that reflects predominantly White and Asian demographics of the university. The combination of Drexel University and the developers is threatening to “studentify” the Mantua community. In the process Mantua, is at risk of losing the cultural elements that have defined the neighborhood for decades, in addition to their sense of belonging in the neighborhoods where the residents have lived for generations. This research is a qualitative assessment of the social changes to the two communities as a result of Drexel’s expansion activities. A social sustainability framework was developed based on the results of a cultural landscape assessment and structured and semistructured interviews of long-term residents, business owners, community leaders, and university officials. / Geography

Understanding the financialization of rental housing across space becomes increasingly important as residential listed real estate operating companies (REOCs) like Heimstaden expand their investments beyond their national borders. Especially as this comes at a time when there is a growing shortage of affordable housing in several European cities. Despite Heimstaden's growing portfolio in several European countries and its emphasis on a socially sustainable investment strategy, there has been insufficient research on its investment trajectories in practice. This study, therefore, examines Heimstaden's investment narratives and the impact of its practices on tenants in Berlin against the backdrop of a tense socio-political climate, i.e., a shortage of affordable housing, a strong tenant base, and regulatory pressure on rents. Multiple methods of data collection, including document analysis, interviews, and a tenant survey sent to the critical mass of Heimstaden's tenants, enabled the study to explore tenants' experiences with Heimstaden in Berlin, as well as how the local political context influenced Heimstaden's investment trajectories. The results of the study show how Heimstaden found a gap in Berlin’s rental market by securing financial gains through extensive marketing, an investment approach based on more affordable rent setting, and increasingly bowing to local socio-political pressure. Although, Heimstaden does not fully live up to its claims, a more tenant-centred approach helps Heimstaden to maintain positive legitimacy and reputation with stakeholders and shareholders to avoid becoming a target of criticism. In other words, the study suggests that after intense criticism of the aggressive practices of previous financial landlords, Heimstaden is adapting to a higher level of social sustainability in their investment narratives and practices to ensure continued and long-term accumulation of financial assets in the Berlin rental market.

Abstract In my study I have investigated how a constructed outdoor green environment can be used, managed and how it works. The study also investigates the concept of social sustainability, where, for example, civil dialogue is a method to promote this. This investigation mainly gives account for the inhabitants viewpoint but also a gardeners perspective. The study focuses on the planning process of the study object, what the outcome has been and how the users of the green environment, think about the result. In the process there has been a strong concern of involving the residents and others using the area. I also discuss the results concerning plantation problems, which I can see may influence the site identity and the quality of green areas, which in turn also can affects the residents relationship to it. The result also suggests that there still are possibilities for improvements in the dialogue and the participation of the residents of the area under the concept that’s been named "Dynamic habitat". The outdoor green environment can also further provide life quality for the inhabitants and other users, while it hopefully at the same time, promote the knowledge of ecosystem services. / Sammanfattning I min studie har jag undersökt hur en grön utemiljö kan planeras samt hur den kan användas, fungera och förvaltas. Studien undersöker även hur medborgardialog kan genomföras i ett projekt. Egen inventering av områdets gröna ytor samt intervjuer med brukare och personer som har varit med i planering och genomförande av platsen, ligger till grund för arbetet. Resultatet visar att de områden och funktioner som planerats och gestaltats; nya stigar, grillplatser, lekytor och sittplatser, används och uppskattas av de boende. Resultatet visar även att det finns möjlighet för de boende att påverka och engagera sig i utemiljön men att uppkomsten av växtrelaterade problem påverkar de boendes upplevelse av platsen. Här kan eventuellt förvaltningsformen vara av betydelse, där personliga relationer med den som sköter platsen kan bidra till ökad förståelse och kommunikation. En slutsats är att utökat deltagande och engagemang hos de boende gällande de gröna ytorna i området, kan både främja platsens identitet, social inkludering och ge kunskap och förståelse om olika ekosystemtjänster.

The purpose of this study is to research how residential segregation is described within a municipalities municipal planning document. Furthermore, proposed strategies to prevent and work against residential segregation will also be researched in the same documents. The chosen area for the research is Malmö municipality, Hyllie and Rosengård which are neighborhoods within Malmö municipality.  The research represents how residential municipality is described in the chosen areas of the studies. In addition, the research also represents the suggested approaches to prevent residential segregation. The informational for the research has been collected by examining relevant documents provided by the Malmö municipality. The result of the study shows that there are several keywords that are used to describe the phenomenon residential segregation. With the help of previous research, it was not difficult to determine such keywords. Social sustainability, mixed housing, integration, equality are examples of terms used to describe residential segregation.

This study aimed to investigate, analyze, and illuminate the perception and experiences of elite male handball players on toxic leadership in sports. The sport handball was chosen as a study object with a phenomenological approach. 9 individual interviews were conducted with 9 different elite male handball players who play in 9 different clubs in Handbollsligan, the top male division in Sweden. The chosen leadership theory was the toxic triangle theory, which entails that there need to be three different dimensions to toxic leadership: the destructive leader, the susceptible followers, and the conducive environment.  The results show that players have experienced toxic leadership. Three different aspects of toxic leadership were found and analyzed in this study. Firstly, destructive leaders exhibit abusive behavior, striving for personal power and manipulating other people within the organization. Secondly, players/followers who obey and conform to the leaders’ actions, experience negative emotions like anxiety, worry, and loss of self-esteem. Thirdly, the conducive environment that enables the leader’s destructive behavior has been discovered to be isolated, had a lack of communication, and was under the total rule of the destructive leader. In summary, this foretells the experiences of elite male handball players with toxic leadership.

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The hotel industry is characterized by high staff turnover rates and it seemingly struggles to keep its talented employees. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify central factors relevant for the development of Sustainable Talent Management in the hotel industry. To understand why employees in these departments either left or stayed with an organisation four different focus groups were conducted. The four focus groups consisted of 14 participants total who all either were or had been employed in the Swedish hotel industry as recently as three years prior to this study. Another criterion for participation was that they had to have been employed within one of the three departments with the highest annual staff turnover rates in Europe. Front of house, food and beverage or housekeeping. The data from the focus groups were analysed using a thematic analysis. It was concluded that sustainable talent management in the hotel industry should contain instances of retaining and developing talent in an organisation, whilst taking an internal social responsibility for parameters regarding employees’ health and factors that the organisation can control. As well as instilling a sense of purpose for the employees. While also viewing the employee as a form of human capital, valuing them for their knowledge and capabilities whilst also including them as the most important internal stakeholder. All without the intent of financial maximization. The reasons why employees within the stated departments left an organisation was predominantly due to job dissatisfaction with aspects such as a lack of safety through insufficient work-life balance, no clarity in what was expected of the employee and no work autonomy, issues with development including unclear career paths and a lack of advancement opportunities. Why these employees stayed were job satisfaction regarding the same aspects. What also emerged from the results was that the satisfaction of safety and development job aspects would outweigh the monetary aspects of employment. Indicating that loyalty to the organisation had been made through the creation of incentives to stay. If loyalty can be created through incentives to stay, then sustainable talent management actions could possibly lower the turnover rates in the hotel industry.

Using the alternative currency concept of a timebank, this qualitative study aims to evaluate attitudes towards community life on Gotland using three distinct island communities: the Uppsala University Campus Gotland, the city of Visby and the countryside of Gotland. Focus groups and expert interviews have been used to create a holistic understanding of community life on the island, with relation to concepts of timebanks. A thematic analysis with comparative characteristics in combination with theory of social capital and collective action has been used to analyze the collected data. Following the theory, the three communities have been identified as “Transitory Kinship” (Campus), “Family Unit” (City), and “Collective Dream” (Countryside), each characterizing their inherent uniqueness. This research shows that identity, belonging, trust, value, and reciprocity as themes for a thriving community are present within all Gotlandic communities. Another outcome of this study is the alignment of the values of timebanking with Gotlandic community perceptions, within the social capital framework. The findings indicate differences between the three communities such as mentalities around value and trust. We find the communities of Visby and the university as the biggest beneficiaries for the possible foundation of a timebank.