<p>In this undergraduate thesis you will venture on a journey through the land of democratic values and urban planning. My research question is stated as: whether or not urban planning can show effects on democratic values and whether or not the municipalities in Sweden takes these possible effects into account when planning their city centres. You will in my theory part of this thesis be able to read about different views on urban planning and on democracy. Famous authors like Robert D. Putnam and Richard Florida will be examined as well as other theorists on democracy and urban planning. To be able to map whether or not urban planning matter I have done a thorough research on two cases of urban planning in two of Sweden’s smallest municipalities. Both of them have fairly recently rebuilt their urban centres and my research will try to show how this new urban planning has influenced the democracy in those regions. This research will show to you that thoughts, that urban planning affects the democracy, actually exist and affect the ones who execute and plan the urban centres in the municipalities. On the question whether or not there exist a correlation between urban planning and a well functioning democracy this research will show that no such link is recognizable and that urban planning, for the two cases, did not matter.</p>

The purpose of this master thesis is to describe and analyse the development of the library history in the municipality of Karlsborg. This is done with a comparison to the library development in Sweden as a whole and in particular to the cities of Lidköping and Halmstad. I have worked according to the following questions: 1. How did the libraries develop before the municipality took over? 2. How did the libraries develop after the municipality took over? The library history of Karlsborg started in 1862 with the foundation of a parish library which lasted until 1899. The next step was the foundation of the Workers of the Munitions Factory Library Association in 1907. This association ran a library on the factory grounds until forced by security measures to close down in 1915. In the same year the IOGT-lodge The Star of Lake Wättern started a library. The two libraries continued to work alongside each other since the Workers reopened their library in 1921. There were several talks about merger but nothing came about until 1956 when the two libraries were merged and taken over by the municipality. The two libraries financed their activity by several means. The main source of income was the subsidies given by the state and the municipality. Other important sources were the Munitions Factory and Trade unions. The librarians were volunteers and were not paid before the 1940s. The stock of books did show a steady but small increase, as did the lending figures. When the municipality took over there was a considerable boost to the whole library activity with funding and lending etc. In 1969 the first purpose-built library building in Karlsborg was inaugurated. The library development in Lidköping and Halmstad was much the same as in Karlsborg. The library activity did however start earlier and was on a larger scale. Since both Lidköping and Halmstad are much bigger than Karlsborg this is hardly a surprise. Halmstad is somewhat different since the municipality did take over the library activities already in 1933-1934 some twenty years earlier than in Karlsborg and Lidköping. In the later case the municipality took over in 1951. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This thesis focuses on how location-based games can be used to experience places of cultural heritage in new ways. A prototype game was created in which players follow a day in the life of a sergeant while walking to different locations at Karlsborg fortress and unravel a plot about the plan to steal Sweden’s gold reserve. To analyze how well a location-based game worked in this setting gameflow theory was used to measure the player experience, focusing on how concentration and immersion was handled. Since players will switch their focus a lot between the game and their surroundings it is important that the game helps them know what to concentrate on and stay immersed during the game. A small testing session was conducted at Karlsborg fortress which showed an indication that players were able to stay immersed while playing the game and that the social interaction between players played an important role in their experience.

In this undergraduate thesis you will venture on a journey through the land of democratic values and urban planning. My research question is stated as: whether or not urban planning can show effects on democratic values and whether or not the municipalities in Sweden takes these possible effects into account when planning their city centres. You will in my theory part of this thesis be able to read about different views on urban planning and on democracy. Famous authors like Robert D. Putnam and Richard Florida will be examined as well as other theorists on democracy and urban planning. To be able to map whether or not urban planning matter I have done a thorough research on two cases of urban planning in two of Sweden’s smallest municipalities. Both of them have fairly recently rebuilt their urban centres and my research will try to show how this new urban planning has influenced the democracy in those regions. This research will show to you that thoughts, that urban planning affects the democracy, actually exist and affect the ones who execute and plan the urban centres in the municipalities. On the question whether or not there exist a correlation between urban planning and a well functioning democracy this research will show that no such link is recognizable and that urban planning, for the two cases, did not matter.

This paper concerns the creation and evaluation of a branching story written by the author. Branching storylines are unique in that each branch delivers a different experience, wherefore this paper poses and attempts to answer the question, is it possible to offer similar learning experiences regardless of which story path is taken in a branching story structure? As a case study, the story is written for a pervasive game, an application for Android phones. Due to the game’s design and wishing to motivate the players to move around on their own, it was written to be segmented and yet have linear, branching storylines. The case study consisted of creating a game set at a historical site, specifically Karlsborg fort, where the story would give the players an idea of how a day in the life of a sergeant could have looked in 1865. After testing and knowledge-based questionnaires, the data body proved minute, wherefore no significant conclusions are reached; however, it is suggested story nodes are useful for giving each player equal possibility of gleaning specific knowledge from the game, gathering all storylines in event scenes where the specific knowledge is presented.