Why do people transgress legal borders on beaches by the lakes and the coastline, despite thefact of a Swedish law defending the beach and a rigorous administration mirroring it? Nationalstudies show great differences in regional and local practice regarding the administration ofthe law of beach defense, Strandskyddslagen.This licentiate thesis explores the administration of Swedish beaches from both an actorand a structural point of view. It was carried out as a case study of three municipalities situatedby the southeast part of the Baltic and inland. The interviewed actors were regional andlocal civil servants including local politicians. The purpose of the thesis was to reveal whatimplications daily practice among civil servants and local politicians have on the forms ofhow beaches are appropriated and dominated. The thesis focus on the dualism of the privateand the public space. Drawing on structural and poststructural theory and qualitative methodologythe importance of methodology is argued. The author use a triangulation of differenttheories and methods. Grounded on interviews, five areas were thematized; ideology, power,professional cultures, communication and mirroring. The thesis reveals that chains of causesto the heterogeneity of the local and regional beach administration, can be investigated moreefficiently by using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology.The author found that the administrators personal ideology in relation to the ideology expressedby the law is of importance in the daily practice. He also show how the two mainparts of Strandskyddslagen contribute to the development of two identifiable approaches inthe civil servants practice. This finding he connects with the development of professional staffcultures. Eventually the thesis discuss the importance of interior communication betweendifferent levels of the administration and underpin the rising cost problem when municipalitiesare delegated the main responsibility for mirroring the beaches. This leading to a tendencyof a growing appearance of corporate influence on local public politics regarding exploitationof land close to beaches.The author propose a closer communication between regional and municipal environment-and building administrators. He emphasizes the importance of transparency, communicationand education at both the regional, local administrative and political level of the beachadministration.