This master thesis examines technical requirements for small hydro power plants (HPP) to operate proximate parts of the power grid in island mode. The work examines how small hydropower can be modified and complemented with additional technologies to achieve sufficient frequency control capabilities. A case study was performed within the concession area of power grid operator Ålem Energy. One of the HPPs, located in Skälleryd, is owned by Ålem Energy and became the focal point of the study. Relevant parts of the concession area were surveyed for properties such as system inertia, electric load and available power. Furthermore, a model of Kaplan turbine 1 in Skälleryd HPP was created with the purpose of studying the benefits of bypassing regulation control from the wicket gates directly to the runner. The method was tested in an off-grid islanding test. Frequency control of the turbine was tested powering electric heaters and, using a new method, controlling a virtual power grid. Finally, a theory was developed to estimate the transient disturbance resilience (TDR) of a power grid. The theory was applied to the HPP in Skälleryd to suggest modifications for the plant to achieve sufficient islanding capabilities. The survey of the power system revealed a promising potential for the HPPs to operate in island mode, especially at later stages when the grid spans several HPPs for more system inertia. The available power from the HPPs was however strongly seasonal which imposes flexibility on a future plan of action for engaging the grid in island mode. The method of controlling the turbine power from the runner proved to have several difficulties. Firstly, the current hydraulics system was not able to freely control the runner as the hydrodynamic forces on the runner blades were too large. Secondly, the method was found to be unstable due to inherent amplification of speed deviations. Furthermore, the low inertia at Skälleryd is likely detrimental to the lone frequency control of the turbine. Therefore other methods for improving frequency control were suggested. The developed theory for TDR was used to create charts describing the TDR for various combinations of system inertia and regulation speed. By studying the proprieties of Skälleryd HPP in the charts the necessary modifications could be rationally chosen. A frequency regulating dummy load was found to be the simplest option. A control scheme was suggested with the dummy load performing primary frequency control and the turbines at Skälleryd performing secondary control, restoring the dummy load to its nominal state.

When collective action for community is defined as local development or as a struggle for survival different understandings are in focus. Politically, this kind of community action is defined as local development and understood in terms of growth and economics. An economic approach to community action is also emphasised in the EU-programmes that support local development groups and projects. On the other hand local groups describe their activities as a struggle for community and community survival. Inspired by feministic research approaches and with an interest in human aspects and values this study investigates meanings of community action as experienced and expressed by rural inhabitants and activists. The study is based on fieldwork that was carried out in a small rural community in the northern inlands of Sweden: Trehörningsjö. Since the middle of the 1990s, the women in Trehörningsjö have driven collective action to uphold the community. With its point of departure in the community and expanding into the arenas of reserach and politics, the study takes on the form of a reflexive research process in which the researcher's former knowledge and new understandings are made visible and discussed parallel with the interpretations made. The main focus of the study is the activist's demand of voice, visibility and worth. The first chapter presents the local community and provides a background to the study. The chapter includes an account of the reflexive approach that widened the field of research from a local to a translocal study of community action. In chapters two, three, four and five the struggle for community is reflected through fieldwork experiences in Trehörningsjö and other arenas beyond the village. Situated events and instances of collective action such as the fight for the local health care centre, are analysed as symbolic expressions of community values and rural importance. From chapter two and onwards, the study follows the footsteps of the leading female activist in and beyond the community itself; that is, the day-to-day work, meetings, conferences and other places where community action is acted out. The struggle for community is proven to focus on translocal rather than local action. In chapter six the fieldwork experiences - that tell about resistance and a struggle for community values and perspectives - are placed in the wider context of the rural development movement, local development research and governmental rural policy in Sweden. On all these arenas community action tend to be interpreted as local development in line with a growth perspective, rather than as community protests and struggles that expresses other meanings. Chapter seven takes the analyses and discussion further, and relates community struggle to concepts such as civil society and social economy. Anthony Giddens concept of life politics and Alberto Meluccis concept of collective action are used to deepen the analysis on how humane meanings and relation based aspects of community action are made invisible on the political "growht and development" agenda. Community struggle presents a possibility for rural inhabitants to (re)define and reclaim their community and themselves as important and valuable. However, to be able to understand what the concept of community struggle expresses, and demands, it needs to be acknowledged as a form of action that has the potential to challenge established bureaucratic and political defintions, which, in practice, proves to be difficult.

Introduction: Injuries due to accidents are an underlying cause for a large proportion of the number of health care visits in Sweden every year. According to statistics from the National Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden (socialstyrelsen.se) between 1308,25 and 1405,66 health care visits per 100.000 residents are generated each year for the period 2001-2014 due to accidents, and falling is the largest underlying category. Falling can in turn be studied through a number of subcategories, where fall from equipment on playground is one of them, and this is the subcategory studied in this paper. Statistics from the National Board of Health and Welfare show an increase of the number of health care visits per 100.000 residents in Sweden due to this category during the period 2001-2014, despite the fact that since 1999 there are European standards with the purpose of raising the safety of playgrounds. The statistics also show that in Sweden there are large regional differences in injury prevalence for this category of accidents, which is the reason why this became the focus of this study.   One of the reasons this is an important area for injury prevention work is that it’s a shared societal responsibility, another reason is that the studied population has the largest statistical life expectancy left, so injuries that affect their health can also affect the future wellbeing of the society.  The municipalities’ work regarding this area is dictated by European Standards to ensure the safety of playgrounds. Beyond the specifications for the equipment itself, the standards dictate that a series of inspections of varying degrees are preformed throughout the year to ensure the standards are met.   Aim: The aim of this study is to examine if there are any identifiable and differing factors in the way that municipalities work with playgrounds and playground safety, both practically and theoretically, based on if they are located in a region with high injury prevalence or in a region with low injury prevalence of this type of injury.   Method: The study was designed as a qualitative interview study where representatives of 11 different municipalities were interviewed with the purpose to map out how they worked with playgrounds and playground safety within their municipality. The data collected was then analysed using thematically/ phenomenological content analysis to see if any differing factors between the two groups could be detected.   Results: No major unambiguous differences were discovered between the two compared groups included in the study, but certain tendencies could be found in the material. Four themes were uncovered, enabling factors for the practical work, hindering factors for the practical work, enabling factors for the theoretical work and hindering factors for the theoretical work. These themes in turn produce a number of categories and subcategories. The results show a wider range of both hindering and enabling factors of both the practical and theoretical work in the municipalities from regions with high injury prevalence, compared to the municipalities from regions with low injury prevalence.   Conclusion: The result indicates that there are differences in how the municipalities from regions with low injury prevalence work regarding playground safety compared to municipalities from regions with high injury prevalence. However, further research will be required to fully uncover and explore which these factors are. / Inledning: Skador till följd av olyckor ligger bakom en ansenlig andel av vårdtillfällen i Sverige varje år. Enligt Patientregistret (Socialstyrelsen.se) uppgår dessa skador till mellan 1308,25 till 1405,66 vårdtillfällen per 100 000 invånare och år, under åren 2001–2014. Den olyckstyp som är orsaken till att högst antal personen uppsöker vård är fallolyckor.  Fallolyckor delas i sin tur in i flera underkategorier, varav en är fall från lekredskap på lekplats, vilket är vad denna studie kom att fokusera på. Orsaken till att denna kategori är intressant är att det i statistiken i Patientregistret går att se en ökning av antalet vårdtillfällen per 100 000 invånare för åren 2001–2014, detta trots att det sedan 1999 finns europeiska standarder med syfte att höja säkerheten på lekplatser. I statistiken går också att utläsa att det finns stora regionala variationer i skadeprevalensen för denna olyckskategori i Sverige, vilket är huvudområdet för denna studie.   Något som gör detta till ett viktigt område för skadeprevention är dels att det är ett samhällsansvar, ansvaret för barnens hälsa och välmående kan inte läggas varken på barnen själva eller uteslutande på deras föräldrar; dels på grund av att skador i denna population kan få stora effekter på sikt då barn är den grupp som statistiskt sett har flest levnadsår kvar och i framtiden kommer bära ansvaret för det gemensamma samhället. Kommunerna idag är ålagda enligt de europeiska standarderna att se till att lekplatser följer vissa standarder för att lekplatserna ska anses säkra. Utöver de specifikationer som finns för själva utrustningen så utförs uppdraget genom att ett antal inspektioner och besiktningar görs för att säkerställa att standarden på lekplatserna löpande efterses.   Syfte: Målet med studien är således att undersöka och försöka kartlägga om det finns skillnader i arbetssätt, både praktiskt och teoretiskt, mellan kommuner som ligger i län med hög skadeprevalens inom denna olyckskategori jämfört med kommuner som ligger i län med låg dito som kan förklara skillnaderna i fallskadeprevalens mellan de båda grupperna.   Metod: Studien utfördes som en kvalitativ intervjustudie där representanter för totalt 11 kommuner intervjuades kring hur de inom den egna kommunen arbetade med lekplatser och lekplatssäkerhet. Insamlade data analyserades sedan med tematisk/ fenomenologisk innehållsanalys för att se om några skillnader kunde upptäckas.   Resultat: Inga större, konkreta skillnader kunde upptäckas mellan de två grupperna som jämfördes i studien, däremot kunde vissa tendenser skönjas. Fyra teman vaskades fram genom analysen, vilka var goda förutsättningar för det praktiska arbetet, faktorer som hindrar det praktiska arbetet, goda förutsättningar för det teoretiska arbetet samt faktorer som hindrar det teoretiska arbetet. Dessa teman är i sin tur indelade i ett antal kategorier och underkategorier. Resultatet visar att bland kommuner som ligger i län med hög skadeprevalens är en större spridning på hindrande och underlättande faktorer för såväl det praktiska som det teoretiska arbetet med lekplatssäkerhet, jämfört med kommuner från län med låg skadeprevalens.   Slutsats: Resultatet indikerar att det finns faktorer kring arbetet med lekplatssäkerhet som skiljer sig åt i hur kommuner från län med hög skadeprevalens arbetar kring lekplatssäkerhet, kontra kommuner från län med låg skadeprevalens. Dock krävs vidare forskning för att se en tydlig kartläggning av dessa faktorer.