This study describes how consumers and providers of transportation services in a sparsely populated area valuate different transportation characteristics and estimates how these valuations might affect the total goods flows and the flows on individual Origin-Destination links. It also tests Stated-Preference methods as a tool for valuating transportation characteristics. The hypothesis was that transportation consumers in sparsely populated areas are more sensitive to changes in the transportation characteristics cost and frequency than they are to changes in goods safety, time accuracy, and delivery time. The reason for this assumption was that the supply of transport modes and transport operators in these areas is limited in comparison to more urban areas. Acceptable transportation costs, in the sense that transportation is economically feasible, and possibilities to obtain a certain minimum transportation frequency are essential. It might, therefore, be necessary to renounce demands for time accuracy, goods safety, and delivery time. The results indicate that the consumers were most sensitive tp lowered distribution frequency. The probability of accepting a transportation service dropped by .19 when frequency decreased from three times to once per week. Changes in the characteristics delivery time and time accuracy were also significant. Reduced frequency would, from a consumer perspective, also result in the largest impact on the total goods. However, a cost increase of 25 percent and lower goods safety would result in a greater reduction of the total goods flow than would longer delivery time and lower time accuracy. The providers, on the other hand, were very sensitive to increased costs and lower revenues. A drop in quantity from 90 percent to 40 percent vehicle utilization was also significant. However, respondents in the strata 'private trucks' assigned more importance to changes in frequency and quantity. The largest effect on the total goods flow would be caused by a 25 percent cost increase. High demands on time accuracy would affect the goods flow more than would lowered revenue. A significant conclusion is that the Stated-Preference method used is an adequate tool in valuating transportation characteristics. However, great care must be taken in formulating the characteristics and levels used. Also, in addition to the characteristics tested in this study, there may be other characteristics that help explain the probability that consumers and providers in sparsely populated areas will accept a transport / digitalisering@umu

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web.

Klimpfjäll is a mountain village in the south of Lappland. In the middle of the 1970's a mine was set up in Stekenjokk about 20 km west of Klimpfjäll. A new housing estate was built, as an extension of Klimpfjäll, to accommodate the miners (about 170 people) and their families. This new part of Klimpfjäll was named, by the local inhabitants, Nybyn (The New Village), and the original village became known as Gammelbyn (The Old Village). For many of the people, the move to Nybyn was not just a case of being provided with the opportunity to earn a living. It was part of a life-objective. However, this way of life had an obstacle; the mine had a limited lifespan. A number of Nybyn's inhabitants could possibly remain in the village, even after the closing of the mine, but for the majority this was an impossibility. Nevertheless, the people still believed in the possibility of "saving" Nybyn as a whole, despite the unreasonableness of that belief. This was also the belief held by the local council, the state and the mining company. I have named this phenomenon "mystification". The future of Klimpfjäll became a mystery. The people would rather not discuss the future of Klimpfjäll because they know that it does not exist, they, nevertheless, want to believe in it. It is this mystification that made the establishment of the mine possible, and which holds Nybyn together socially. The Social Welfare Service in Vilhelmina had, for a long time, regarded Klimpfjäll as a social problem. The problem was defined as being traditional social problems, due partly to addiction and partly to loneliness. For this reason an action research project was started. But the real problem for the people of Nybyn was the uncertainty of the future. The project was doomed to fail. Why should the people of Nybyn "go to evening classes" when their village was being threatened with closure? The project became just one element in the continuing mystification. It was not possible to redefine the project as a "survival project", since everyone wanted to believe in a continue future for the mine. In this study I have attempted to understand why it was impossible for the action research project to succeed. In understanding its failure I believe that we can also understand the people of Klimpfjäll. / digitalisering@umu

This report deals with some problems in connection with the school situation of children from sparsely populated areas. 515 pupils at the middle level of the 9-year compulsory school ir. Västerbotten took part ir. the investigation. 200 of these we*-e children from sparsely populated areas according to the following definition: children having no friends of their own age except in their families closer than one kilometre from their homes. School performance was measured with standard tests in the subjects Swedish, mathematics, English and with marks in grade 6. School adjustment and maturity were measured with teacher estimates. The attitudes of the pupils to school, friends, home and leisure time were studied with questionnaire« in grades 3 and 6 and for the latter ones with a questionnaire in grade 7 as well. Children from sparsely populated areas obtained as good a result as other pupils on the standard tests. In B-schools, above all in grade 6, the children from sparsely populated areas tended to perform better than teir class-mates. Boys from sparsely populated areas obtained somewhat worse results in A-schools in grade 6. Girls performed better than boys throughout. The teacher's estimates of school adjustment and maturity favoured the group from sparsely populated areas compared with other pupils. The attitudes of the pupils to school and school work were somewhat more positive and stable in B-classes. When they reached the senior level of t.he 9-year compulsory school the pupils from B-schools were more insecure in the school situation whereas they seemed less stressed by marks and competition than pupils from A-schools. Children from sparsely populated areas have positive altitudes towards forming new contacts both at the middle level of the 9-year compulsory school and in grade 7. The results indicate on the whole that both B-schools and life in sparsely populated areas favour performance in school. The same is true of school adjustment and comfort in spite of the fact that children from this environment are considered to be a negative sample according to prevalent social group norms. / <p>Författarens förnamn är på titelbladet skrivet: Anna Greta (alltså i två ord), medan i alla delrapporter skrivs förnamnet: Annagreta.</p> / digitalisering@umu

Over the past decades, the concept of ‘co-working’ has spread rapidly across the globe – however, mainly in urban areas. By contrast, this study focusses on the potential of co-working places in sparsely populated inland municipalities in Västerbotten, a region in northern Sweden with uneven population patterns. Aiming to explore whether co-working places would have the potential to contribute to altering the negative population trends by increasingly attracting teleworkers and by decreasing the need for long-distance commuting, the study is based on three research questions, concerning: 1) the potential of co-working places as an alternative workplace from the perspective of large organisations; 2) the potential of co-working places as a strategy for local development from the perspective of sparse municipalities; and 3) the potential of co-working places to contribute to the various aspects of sustainability. Nine semi-structured interviews were carried out with respondents from municipalities, large organisations and existing co-working places. Although the literature supports the theoretical merits of co-working places in sparse areas, the interviews show that the potential of co-working places in practice heavily depends on the number of potential co-working users, local conditions and time-specific trends in the society, including the Covid-19 pandemic. Ultimately, this exploratory study demonstrates that co-working places in sparsely populated areas is an increasingly relevant research area that deserves further attention. / Under de senaste decennierna har begreppet ”co-working” spridit sig snabbt över världen, vilket också avspeglas i den akademiska litteraturen. Arbetshubbar, eller co-working places som de i studien kallas, förekommer dock främst i urbana områden. Denna studie fokuserade i stället på potentialen hos arbetshubbar i glesbefolkade inlandskommuner i Västerbotten – en region som sedan länge upplevt ojämn befolkningsutveckling. Syftet med studien var att undersöka huruvida arbetshubbar dels har potential att bidra till att vända de negativa befolkningsmönstren genom att göra glesbygdskommunerna till ett mer attraktivt alternativ för den växande gruppen distansarbetare, dels har potential att bidra till ökad hållbarhet, exempelvis genom att minska pendlingsberoendet. De frågeställningar som studien utgick från var följande: 1)    Kan arbetshubbar ses som ett alternativ till den ordinarie arbetsplatsen bland stora arbetsgivare i Västerbotten, och i så fall, under vilka förutsättningar? 2)    Har arbetshubbar potential att bidra till lokal utveckling i glesbygdskommuner i Västerbotten, och i så fall, under vilka förutsättningar? 3)    Har arbetshubbar potential att bidra till att de olika hållbarhetsmålen nås? Eftersom det inte var de befintliga strukturerna som utvärderades, utan snarare potentialen hos en alternativ arbetsplatslösning, antog studien en utforskande form för vilken en kvalitativ metod bedömdes som den mest lämpliga. Nio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med företrädare för tre inlandskommuner, fyra större organisationer och två befintliga arbetshubbsprojekt utanför Västerbottens inland. I likhet med tidigare studier pekar intervjuerna på att arbetshubbar på flertalet sätt kan bidra till ökad hållbarhet. I synnerhet finns fördelar ur ett hälsoperspektiv, där arbetshubbar å ena sidan motverkar pendlingens negativa hälsoeffekter och å andra sidan minskar risken för social isolering kopplad till hemarbete, samt fördelar ur ett inkluderingsperspektiv, där arbetshubbar kan främja inkluderande tillväxt genom att göra det lättare att bo och verka i glesbygden. Dessutom har arbete från lokala hubbar troligen klimatfördelar tack vare minskat pendlingsberoende, även om denna aspekt endast berördes flyktigt i intervjuerna. Vidare kan arbetshubbar gynna företag genom att vara en plattform för kunskapsöverföring, men troligen främst om hubbens användare har liknande kompetens. Väl så viktigt ur ett företagsperspektiv är det förmodligen att vara lyhörd på vilka arbetssätt som medarbetarna efterfrågar, eftersom detta har påverkan på företagets roll som attraktiv arbetsgivare. Trots att såväl dessa intervjuer som tidigare studier pekar ut många teoretiska möjligheter med arbetshubbar i glesbygden, blir den sammanvägda bilden från intervjuerna att arbetshubbarnas potential i hög grad beror på det potentiella användarunderlaget lokalt, kommunernas specifika förutsättningar och pågående samtidstrender. Flera kommuner var intresserade av att satsa på en lokal arbetshubb, men menade samtidigt att osäkerheten kring hur stort intresset bland lokalbefolkningen var fick dem att tveka. Att en arbetshubb bör anpassas till de lokala förutsättningarna var de tillfrågade överens om. Enligt tidigare studier kan arbetshubbar förekomma i många olika former, vilket dels bekräftades av kommunernas olika bild av hur en eventuell arbetshubb skulle se ut i deras kommun, dels exemplifierades av företrädarna från de två arbetshubbsprojekten. Arbetshubbarnas potential påverkas också av andra trender och händelser i samhället, exempelvis digitalisering, distansarbete till följd av en pandemi och ruraliseringstrender. Bland länets stora arbetsgivare diskuterades främst frågan om distansarbetets vara eller icke-vara vid en återgång till ”det normala” efter Covid-19-pandemin. Ingen av de tillfrågade organisationerna hade gjort något offentligt ställningstagande angående arbetshubbar: flera menade att frågan om huruvida de anställda distansarbetade hemifrån eller från en arbetshubb hade mindre betydelse, så länge arbetsmiljön var tillfredsställande och de anställda var nöjda. Däremot vittnade organisationerna om att pandemin för dem inneburit en testperiod för distansarbete, som på det stora hela hade fallit väl ut. I studien diskuterades också om arbetshubbar i glesbygden behövs eller om ökningen av distansarbete är tillräcklig för att fler ska överväga att bo kvar i, eller flytta till, glesbygden. För att svara på den frågan krävs vidare undersökningar av hur medborgarna ställer sig till distansarbete, samt om deras inställning påverkas av om distansarbetet bedrivs hemifrån eller från en delad arbetsplats. Vidare konstateras att även om tillgången till arbetshubbar och distansarbete generellt skulle göra glesbygden till ett möjligt boendealternativ för fler, är det inte givet att den negativa befolkningsutvecklingen vänder – detta är till syvende och sist en fråga om ifall människor föredrar att bo i täta eller glesa miljöer. Slutligen visar denna studie att arbetshubbar i glesbygden är ett forskningsområde som blir alltmer relevant och förtjänar uppmärksamhet därefter.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to examine ongoing restructuring and its impacts on sparsely populated areas in Sweden and Finland. In the context of sparsely populated areas, the global processes have great local impact because of their poor capacity to adapt to rapid economic changes. The focus here is on tourism and forest-related employment, however amenity motives for mobility and migration are also considered in relation to restructuring. A major part of the information used in this thesis comes from a database collected and stored by Statistics Sweden.</p><p>Results show that employment in tourism in the Swedish mountain municipalities is largely seasonal in character. The seasonality of tourism has caused seasonal in-migration or long-distance commuting of young people, first and foremost to the southern mountain municipalities. The success of tourism as a regional development strategy is affected by the structure and characteristics of the local labour force. The importance of tourism for development also depends on other regional characteristics such as infrastructure, demographic composition, experience and education of the local labour force, as well as on attributes of the tourism industry. The assumed and almost automatic positive relationship between nature conservation and tourism is challenged. Tourism employment does not automatically follow from unemployment in forest sectors, accentuating differences in the characteristics of the labour force needed in tourism, forestry and related activities and the difficulty of enforcing restructuring and diversification towards tourism.</p><p>In the last article, analyses of the forest-related employment are in focus. It is concluded that there is no significant effect of climate change on employment. Instead other global, national and local processes and interrelationships, such as supply and demand and productivity increase, have a greater impact on employment. Forestry and related sectors have shifted towards a more capital intensive management, which means that the productivity rate of the each worker is so high that the increasing amount of harvestable forest due to climate change does not involve the employment of more people. The relative unimportance of forestry and forest-related employment in the research area has also been highlighted.</p><p>In conclusion, the economic restructuring processes in relation to tourism have been limited in a majority of the mountain municipalities. This is clearly demonstrated by the high level of seasonal labour mobility to some parts of the mountain area. However, there is evidence suggesting a positive relationship between seasonal tourism employment and permanent migration. To the north, there are fewer large resorts with high seasonal pressure than in the south. This means that tourism can be a way of maintaining work opportunities and sustaining local service. In the south and in the larger resorts, tourism might be a way to ensure more employment, albeit on a seasonal basis. Local diversity through place-dependent activities like tourism and resource-based recreation, as well as resource extraction, might offer opportunities for economic diversification. However, if the demographic structure is unbalanced there will be difficulties in pursuing economic restructuring and diversification. Add to this a peripheral location and there are many obstacles to increasing population, even temporarily. Thus, tourism development must be carefully considered on a local basis.</p>

The major aim of the thesis is to study various issues regarding the supply of services in the rural areas of Northern Sweden characterized by sparse population. Localities in these areas represent the lowest hierarchical units in the urban-place-system. With the help of different analyses of regio­nal development, a strategy to obtain a long-term, consolidated and socially acceptable standard of services is presented. Indispensable commercial ser­vices have been chosen for special examination. More precisely, the central question in the thesis is: How can households in sparsely populated areas, re­mote from major service centres, maintain an acceptable level of service ac­cessibility primarily through the use of existing social capital? The thesis is divided into ten chapters. It starts with a chapter on the growth of regional policies in Sweden. A survey of the urban-place-system with special reference to conditions prevailing in the four northernmost counties in Sweden between 1950 and 1980 is presented in the following chapter. The third chapter deals with theoretical premises and central con­cepts about service distribution. The main characteristics of the historical development of permanent services in rural areas are presented in the fourth chapter. The fifth chapter contains a survey over the central and local governments' measures to support the commercial services in such areas. In the second half of the thesis two separate approaches have been used. The first approach, which is used in chapters six and seven, analyses changes in the accessibility to services during a given period of time. A municipality and a county are made the subjects of such an analysis. The second approach is developed in the reamining three chapters of the thesis. It is focused on a pre­sentation of a knowledge-base and ideas for a planned contraction of servi­ces, which should lead to a minimum loss of social welfare for the popu­lation. The eighth chapter discusses a method for co-ordinating transport and service planning at the municipal level and the ninth chapter contains a policy-model concerning services in relation to other economic activities within a municipality. The final chapter contains a general discussion about possibilities for developing a long-term consolidated urban-place-system for sparsely populated rural areas. / digitalisering@umu

The purpose of this thesis is to examine ongoing restructuring and its impacts on sparsely populated areas in Sweden and Finland. In the context of sparsely populated areas, the global processes have great local impact because of their poor capacity to adapt to rapid economic changes. The focus here is on tourism and forest-related employment, however amenity motives for mobility and migration are also considered in relation to restructuring. A major part of the information used in this thesis comes from a database collected and stored by Statistics Sweden. Results show that employment in tourism in the Swedish mountain municipalities is largely seasonal in character. The seasonality of tourism has caused seasonal in-migration or long-distance commuting of young people, first and foremost to the southern mountain municipalities. The success of tourism as a regional development strategy is affected by the structure and characteristics of the local labour force. The importance of tourism for development also depends on other regional characteristics such as infrastructure, demographic composition, experience and education of the local labour force, as well as on attributes of the tourism industry. The assumed and almost automatic positive relationship between nature conservation and tourism is challenged. Tourism employment does not automatically follow from unemployment in forest sectors, accentuating differences in the characteristics of the labour force needed in tourism, forestry and related activities and the difficulty of enforcing restructuring and diversification towards tourism. In the last article, analyses of the forest-related employment are in focus. It is concluded that there is no significant effect of climate change on employment. Instead other global, national and local processes and interrelationships, such as supply and demand and productivity increase, have a greater impact on employment. Forestry and related sectors have shifted towards a more capital intensive management, which means that the productivity rate of the each worker is so high that the increasing amount of harvestable forest due to climate change does not involve the employment of more people. The relative unimportance of forestry and forest-related employment in the research area has also been highlighted. In conclusion, the economic restructuring processes in relation to tourism have been limited in a majority of the mountain municipalities. This is clearly demonstrated by the high level of seasonal labour mobility to some parts of the mountain area. However, there is evidence suggesting a positive relationship between seasonal tourism employment and permanent migration. To the north, there are fewer large resorts with high seasonal pressure than in the south. This means that tourism can be a way of maintaining work opportunities and sustaining local service. In the south and in the larger resorts, tourism might be a way to ensure more employment, albeit on a seasonal basis. Local diversity through place-dependent activities like tourism and resource-based recreation, as well as resource extraction, might offer opportunities for economic diversification. However, if the demographic structure is unbalanced there will be difficulties in pursuing economic restructuring and diversification. Add to this a peripheral location and there are many obstacles to increasing population, even temporarily. Thus, tourism development must be carefully considered on a local basis.

This is a study of establishment and development of conveniencestores. The test specimens are two stores established in the northern parts ofSweden during the second half of 1975.The study consists of two parts. In the first part the interest is concentratedon the establishment of the stores and their development during the firstbusiness year. The development afterwards, i.e. up to and included the stores'sixth business year, is taken up in part two.In the first part a model is produced on variables of importance when stores insparsely populated areas are established and developed (chapter 2). Theoreticallythe model is based partly on the marketing mix approach, with theinterest concentrated on the design of marketing mix measures in order to meetthe households' demands, and partly on establishment studies.The empirical studies of the first stage have mainly consisted of personalinterviews with the store owners and their potential customers. Eurther, thestores' potential customers have replied to an inquiry on two occasions. Theplanning and realization of the empirical studies are shown in chapter 4.The results of the first studies are shown in chapters 4-8. In chapter 4 the testareas are presented. The establishment and development of the stores duringtheir first business year are accounted for in chapters 5 and 6. The households'buying behavior, with emphasis on store loyalty and attitudes towards the newstores, is taken up in chapter 7. The results of these studies, which aresummarized in chapter 8, show that the establishment processes of the newstores were in no way unique. An important factor in this connection is the useof local resources. Eurther, the results showed that the two stores differed intheir development of the marketing mix. Here the aim of the activities was ofimportance. There was also a certain connection between the marketing mixpolicy and the households' store loyalty.In the second part the theoretical reference frame is extended to include alsothe social aspects of food supply in sparsely populated areas (chapter 10). Theplanning and realization of the empirical studies, which on the whole agreedwith those of the first stage, are shown in chapter 11. The results of thesestudies show that the development of the stores' marketing mix as well as thehouseholds' store loyalty and attitudes towards the local stores, only hadchanged marginally (chapter 12). The social exchange between sellers andbuyers were of great importance in this connection (chapter 13).In the final chapter (chapter 14) the results are summarized and analyzed. Theimportance of developing the social exchanges between sellers and buyers isstressed here. However, these social exchanges can change over time. In thischapter the importance of continued research in this field, also includingdensely populated areas, is commented on. Einally some alternative perspectiveson food supply in sparsely populated areas are shown. / digitalisering@umu

The aim of this study was to investigate and analyze what is required for the environmental quality objective Good built environment to be fulfilled by 2020 in the Swedish county Jämtland. The focus of the study was to gain an understanding of the work that the local government does and further investigate the problems that the officials face with implement these questions in themunicipal planning. The study is based on semi structured interviews with officials in the municipalities of Jämtland county. General plan and programs for the municipality have been reviewed, based on how the plans highlights these issues linked to sustainability and Good built environment. The results of the study show that there are major problems with the formulations of the environmental quality goal in itself and its specifications. The environmental quality goal is formulated to suit the entire Sweden. But as it turns out in the analysis it does not work on the basis of the conditions inJämtland with sparsely populated areas and scattered dwellings. The environmental quality goal needs to be formulated after the conditions that the county has to be measured and fulfilled by 2020. The officials agreed that a regional vision is needed, adapted to Jämtland conditions.