Housing shortage is an on-going challenge young Swedes face when moving from home trying to get their own accommodation. The vast majority of municipalities have reported a housing shortage in last years housing market survey carried out by Boverket. This study seeks to find out how the housing supply for students in Umeå have developed during the last five years. To achieve this literature studies and statistics from mainly SCB (Statistics Sweden) have been used. Additionally, interviews with the municipality and companies on the housing market have been held to understand their point of view and how they work with the matter. The study shows that the mutual opinion from all parties is that the conditions for students housing supply is better today then five years ago. One of the reasons being the growth of the housing supply while the students themselves have remained at almost the same amount. Although the study suggests a better situation for the students it reveals another present challenge, how todays housing stock might be a mismatch with what students needs and wishes for in their dwellings.

The purpose of this thesis is to present and analyze population developments within Umeå municipality during the period 1992 to 2012. The study also aims to discuss growth trends presented in previous papers to seek common factors and get a deeper understanding. Data for 1992, 2002 and 2012 on a sub area level supplied by Umeå municipality was used. The study shows a continued positive development across almost all sub areas, but a differing growth rate from centre to periphery, and also a diversified medium age among the inhabitants. While the city center continues to have the highest growth of population during the studied years, a recent trend seems to point to a growing popularity to settle in the outskirts of the municipality, primarily near the coast. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att presentera och analysera befolkningsutvecklingen inom Umeå kommun för tidsperioden 1992 till 2012. Studien syftar även på att diskutera befolkningstrender presenterade i tidigare studier för att hitta gemensamma faktorer och få en djupare uppfattning. Undersökningen bygger på kvantitativ data för nyckelkodsområden under åren 1992, 2002 och 2012 som erhölls från Umeå kommun. Undersökningen visar en fortsatt positiv utveckling över nästan alla nyckelkodsområden i kommunen, men en skiftande trend i tillväxttakt mellan kommunens center och periferi, samt en diversifierad medelålder bland befolkningen. Medan Umeå stad har den fortsatt högsta tillväxten under de studerade åren verkar en ny trend peka mot en ökad efterfrågan att bosätta sig vid utkanten av kommunen, primärt i närheten av kusten.

This study aims to identify how cultural development and the European cultural capital event applies within the context of city development in Umeå. Furthermore, the study aims to examine how the European cultural capital event affects the local cultural actors. The analysis is a case study based upon how local and municipal cultural actors use culture to develop the municipality of Umeå and how the European cultural capital event has affected their work. To answer the aim of the thesis six semi-structured interviews was performed with cultural actors both within the municipality and private sector. This was to get wide-ranging information about cultural development in Umeå. The method to extract information was through thematic analysis of the preformed interviews, this allowed me as researcher to fully analyze the extracted material.   The results of the study reveal that culture permeates city development in Umeå. Primarily the municipality makes great effort to make the city development rich with culture. Despite the effort culture is not a certainty in urban development and it is a constant political struggle to maintain and emphasize the importance of culture in city development. The study revealed that some actors feel that culture has become too commercialized in the municipality’s effort to generate urban growth, especially in the wake of the European capital event. All interviewed actors indicate that the European cultural capital event has had a great impact on their work and working methods. Primarily internal collaborations between the municipality and private cultural actors have been identified as meaningful, due to the many possibilities it brought, for all actors and the lack of collaboration in the post cultural capital Umeå is missed. There is an underlying understanding that all actors want to collaborate again but the lack of resources and common goals interferes.

Population growth is something that many Swedish municipalities strive for. Out of the 290 municipalities in the country, 115 of them have population targets and 103 state that they are targeting an increased population. Umeå in the north of Sweden is one of those municipalities and has a vision to have 200,000 inhabitants by the year of 2050. This study aims to critically exam Umeå municipality’s likelihood on fulfilling its vision to have 200,000 inhabitants. Furthermore, the aim is to illustrate the municipality’s planning regarding the spatial distribution of this population growth. This is done by comparing historical average growth data with population projections and the average growth which is required to fulfill the vision. Neither the historical average growth, latest ten years or the population projection done by Umeå is sufficient for the municipality to reach 200,000 inhabitants. Among other growth processes, the number of employments in the municipality need to increase to be able to reach the population target. The municipality estimates that 94,000 jobs are required, which is an additional 33,800 from current levels. Neither the historical growth rate last 32 years or the more current last ten years’ rate is sufficient for the number required year 2050.The assessment is that it is unlikely that the municipality will achieve its population target as the rate of growth required is that much higher than both current growth levels and the projected levels in the near future. Even if the goal would to be unattained, the question can be asked if it should be considered as a failure since the municipality still is projected to be under growth, just not to the extent of the targeted levels.

The growth of cities is pressuring the extraction of scarce and precarious resources, leading to overexploitation. The international community is calling for a more holistic understanding of climate change responses in the urban context, including notions of gender equality and justice aspects. The case of this study, Umeå, is one of many places that are undergoing a transition toward climate neutrality. Umeå stands out and is renowned due to its take on climate mitigation, as well as on the committed approach to gender perspectives in city planning. The guiding aim of this thesis is to explore how the aims, efforts, projects and strategies of Umeå municipality take into account principles of justice in relation to the transition toward climate neutrality. Another aim is to explore how the findings from Umeå can contribute to further understanding of justice in transition within an urban context, a gap which earlier research has detected. The theoretical framework applied to the study is the Just Urban Transition (JUT) framework. Combining the concepts from environmental, climate, energy and urban justice with feminist and decolonial perspectives on knowledge production is my way of exploring the JUT-framework within an urban context. The data of the study consists of semi-structured interviews and documents. The findings from this study shows that justice aspects can be addressed in relation to transition processes without an explicit formulation derived from justice literature, and that feminist and decolonial perspectives on knowledge production can further strengthen the understanding of justice concepts. Examples where awareness of gender or socio-economic background intersects with climate mitigation have showcased the interconnectedness of how different justice perspectives can be translated into practice. Through a justice lens, this study detected that during the transition toward climate neutrality, Umeå emphasises cooperation through co-creation and dialogue-processes, with the aim to anchor structural change with citizens, civil society and companies operating in Umeå. Challenges when it comes to the transition toward climate neutrality, as shown in this case, are related to behavioural change at the individual and structural level. Competing (gendered) interests and economic incentives are here depicted as imperative to address in order to reach structural change and climate neutrality.

The aim of this study is to examine which communication channels and communication strategies Umeå municipality could use for information concerning outdoor recreation. To achieve this aim the following theories and views have been applied: social communication, communication strategies, two-way symmetrical communication, social media and uses and gratifications. The study was conducted through four focus group interviews and one informant interview. The focus groups consisted of four groups of outdoor enthusiasts in Umeå municipality: outdoor interested students, organized outdoor enthusiasts, active families and active seniors. The informant were the person that is centrally positioned within the business. The material was collected during the 6th and 19th of February 2014. The results and analysis of the study showed that outdoor enthusiasts have acquired new communication habits and that the municipality partially requires changes in their communication strategy. The new media habits has meant that outdoor enthusiasts would like to receive personalized information rather than information that is targeted towards the crowd. Thus, there is a clash between how the municipality communicates and outdoor interested’s approach to dialogue. Outdoor enthusiasts also want to communicate with each other to a greater extent than with the municipality. The result also showed a lack of communication channels that enable outdoor enthusiasts to communicate with each other. Finally, there were also a digital divide that shows that active seniors are distinguished because they have not embraced the new media consumption in the same extent as other groups. This has the consequence that Umeå municipality must use a mixture of communication channels to adapt to the public. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka kommunikationskanaler samt kommunikationsstrategier Umeå kommun kan använda för information som rör friluftsliv. För att uppnå syftet har teorier och fakta om samhällskommunikation, kommunikationsstrategier, tvåvägs-symmetrisk kommunikation, sociala medier samt uses and gratifications använts. Studien har genomförts genom fyra fokusgruppsintervjuer och en informantintervju. Fokusgrupperna bestod av fyra grupper av friluftsintresserade i Umeå kommun: friluftsintresserade studenter, organiserade friluftsmänniskor, aktiva barnfamiljer samt aktiva seniorer. Informanten som intervjuades var den person som är centralt placerad inom verksamheten. Materialet samlades in under tidsperioden 6-19 februari 2014. Resultatet och analysen av studien visade att friluftsintresserade har skaffat sig nya medievanor och att kommunen delvis måste ändra sin kommunikationsstrategi. De nya medievanorna har medfört att friluftsintresserade vill få individanpassad information istället för information som är riktat mot den breda massan. Därmed har det uppstått en krock mellan hur kommunen kommunicerar och friluftsintresserades syn på dialog. Friluftsintresserade vill även kommunicera med varandra i större utsträckning än med kommunen i fråga. Resultatet visade också att det saknas kommunikationskanaler som möjliggör att friluftsintresserade kan kommunicera med varandra. Slutligen återfanns även en digital klyfta som visar att aktiva seniorer särskiljer sig då de inte har anammat den nya mediekonsumtionen i lika utsträckning som övriga grupper. Det betyder att Umeå kommun måste använda en blandning av kommunikationskanaler för att anpassa sig efter medborgarna.