Sweden has during a long time gone through a change to a higher rate of private providers in welfare services. Due to this change the Swedish government, in 2013, conducted an investigation regarding the monitoring of private providers. The investigation presented a suggestion of a new law to encourage municipalities to have a more structured monitoring. The investigation also proclaimed a need to investigate further how the law could include even the services provided by the municipalities themselves. The investigation saw a need to make the law more neutral between the both forms of providers. The purpose of this paper is to compare the two municipalities Linköping and Eskilstuna and the presence of the Act on System of Choice in the Public Sector and how that affect the monitoring and evaluation of the home care services that is provided by the municipalities themselves. The method chosen for this paper is a comparative case study. In both cases people with central professions have been interviewed and documents related to monitoring have been studied. Given this material, an analysis and a discussion about the results have been made. The conclusion of this is that there is a difference in the monitoring and evaluation of home care service between the both municipalities. The results indicate that the municipality with a higher rate of private providers have a more thorough and structured monitoring of both private providers and the services provided by the municipality itself. The municipality which have had only one private provider in home care services do not use the same material for monitoring both private and municipal providers.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, urbanization has been present on the global scene. The phenomenon urbanization causes people to move from agricultural areas to cities which contain a higher population density. This has an influence on a municipality level in several ways. Sweden is a decentralized unitary nation and therefore the responsibility for different sorts of welfare services are provided by the municipalities. However, population decline in rural municipalities has led to some difficulties. These rural municipalities are facing challenges when trying to provide and afford their citizens with a satisfactory public service. This paper aims to examine this particular social development and reveal which factors have an impact on population growth in Swedish municipalities 2006-2016. It also studies the correlation and level of explanation of these factors by a bivariate correlation analysis and a multivariate regression analysis. The results suggest that agglomeration effects, job opportunities and commuting are the main factors that impact population growth, and which have had a significance during the chosen time period. In conclusion, this study shows that there are several variables that need to be considered regarding social development in rural municipalities in Sweden to ensure the standard of welfare services.

By adopting the United Nations Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, a common path towards a sustainable world is accepted. The Agenda 2030 framework strives towards global sustainability by including all sustainability dimensions. Agenda 2030 reaches worldwide and to all authority levels. To reach the goals, implementation on the local level is central, but the process, which is called localization, is however not always simple. Since the global prerequisites and contexts vary, the implementation process will face different obstacles and challenges, yet the different nations will also see different opportunities. This study aims to examine municipality officials' views on the local implementation of the climate and environmental related goals of Agenda 2030 in order to create a deeper understanding of what makes challenges and opportunities in the process. The analysis is based on focus group interviews in three Swedish municipalities within the same county. Patterns in similar challenges and opportunities for Agenda 2030 localization are identified between the municipalities studied. A general challenge is seen in the complexity of the goals in their unity, by contrast an opportunity is seen within the own interpretation of the Agenda 2030 targets. Adopting the agenda to already existing policies are considered hard as well as the organization structure of municipalities. Yet, opportunities are seen within the local contributions to goal achievement and the use of workforce reserved for the implementation process. No general template for Agenda 2030 implementation can be identified - the process needs to be locally interpreted and adapted.

Magister Legum - LLM / In the South African local government context, municipalities are operationally governed through two arms: the political arm and the administrative arm. Both arms work simultaneously in ensuring that the municipality ‘move[s] progressively towards the social and economic upliftment of communities and the provision of basic services. Even though these arms work together, there has to be a separation of powers and adherence to the rule of law. Each arm must operate within its functions and do so without any favour or prejudice. Municipal managers head the administrative arm of the municipality. They are appointed by the political structure, known as the municipal council, of each municipality. Their role includes accountability and responsibility for, inter alia: the formation and development of an economical, effective, efficient and accountable administration; the management of municipal administration in accordance with the law; the appointment of staff and managing the communications between the municipality administration and its political structures. In consultation with the municipal manager, the municipal council appoints managers directly accountable to the municipal managers. The managers are referred to as section 56 managers (managers). Municipal managers and section 56 managers are the glue that holds the administrative side of municipalities together and are custodians of municipal finances.

The collective bargaining practices among Utah's council-manager municipalities was studied through a review of existing literature and two surveys, one of which· focused upon the policies and practices of Utah's fourteen municipalities governed under the council-manager system and having a population of 2,000 or more . The second survey was a microcosmic study of Ogden City's collective bargaining practices as defined by administrators and employee representatives. The first survey involving the collective bargaining practices of Utah's fourteen council-manager municipalities indicated that two factors were present . They are: (1) formal employee organizations existed in areas with the largest and densest population structures, and (2) all municipalities surveyed had some form of collective negotiation procedure for employees. The amount of bargaining, or number of issues bargainable, appeared to depend on formality of procedure involved and merit service classification . It appeared that the most bargaining took place under a merit-formal combination, and the least under a nonmerit-advisory situation. The Ogden study examined Ogden's home rule government, the current status of existing employee organizations, and various aspects of the bargaining situation . Four employee organizations exist in Ogden--one national union and three independent local associations--with individual bargaining methods oriented toward betterment of the employment situation. Though each employee organization seeks recognition in a different manner and is limited on issues bargainable, all have received noticeable concessions in the past.

<p>The purpose of the study is to investigate and elucidate how and why municipalities cooperate across municipal boundaries with destination development. To answer the purpose the authors chose two research questions:</p><p>What are the incentives of cooperation between the municipalities in Roslagen? What are the possibilities and difficulties of cooperation? In order to answer the research questions interviews with local business managers, administrative director, the acting Head of destination and tourist office staff were made. Municipalities have signed a cooperation agreement in October/November 2008, where they will work more formal together to strengthen the destination Roslagen. The result of the study shows that the main motive for municipal cooperation is the sharing of financial resources to promote and develop the destination Roslagen together. The possibilities are that Roslagen can market themselves both nationally and internationally through its partners Stockholm Visitors Board, Visit Skärgården and Visit Sweden. Difficulties in the cooperation are that the destination Roslagen lacks a major commercial operator who can control the development by coordinating the private and public sectors.</p>

The aim of this study is to describe and partially explain how management is shaped in female-dominated social care and education services and male-dominated technical services, and how this contributes to creating and reproducing a gender system in municipal organizations. This was achieved by interviewing male and female operative managers in social care and education services and technical services. The managerial work of operative managers was also problematized in relation to activities at other organizational levels – the operational versus the strategic. The theoretical fields used in the study are primarily those having to do with organization and gender. I describe how power structures like sex and gender influence the construction of management; for example, genderized environments generate managerial action patterns, resources, and organizational prerequisites. The analytical results show that managerial work in social care and education services differs in practice from managerial work in technical services. Social care and education services have poorer organizational prerequisites for social interaction among organization levels than do technical services. The discrete prerequisites for managerial work make it more difficult for operative managers in social care and education services to support and interact with staff at the operative level than it is for operative managers in technical services. Operative managers in social care and education services also find it more difficult to actively influence the decision processes than do operative managers in technical services. When operative managers in social care and education services are cut off from strategic decisions and prevented from showing and explaining their needs and activities, the gender system in municipal organizations can be reproduced in the shadows.

The purpose of the study is to investigate and elucidate how and why municipalities cooperate across municipal boundaries with destination development. To answer the purpose the authors chose two research questions: What are the incentives of cooperation between the municipalities in Roslagen? What are the possibilities and difficulties of cooperation? In order to answer the research questions interviews with local business managers, administrative director, the acting Head of destination and tourist office staff were made. Municipalities have signed a cooperation agreement in October/November 2008, where they will work more formal together to strengthen the destination Roslagen. The result of the study shows that the main motive for municipal cooperation is the sharing of financial resources to promote and develop the destination Roslagen together. The possibilities are that Roslagen can market themselves both nationally and internationally through its partners Stockholm Visitors Board, Visit Skärgården and Visit Sweden. Difficulties in the cooperation are that the destination Roslagen lacks a major commercial operator who can control the development by coordinating the private and public sectors.

They leave everything behind in the Netherlands;friends, family, jobs and careers in order to start a new life in what theycall the land of opportunities, namely Sweden. Here, in the county ofVärmland in a little, rural town named Hagfors they see a chance to a brighterfuture and the possibility of accomplishing a better quality of life. They wantto buy houses, start companies and explore a new way of life in this land ofpromises. While people are migrating from the Netherlands, inhabitants ofHagfors are moving out to big, urban cities that can offer more possibilities.This is the reality for many rural areas like Hagfors, they lose populationthrough out-migration. Despite the negative population trend, the municipalityregains some of its lost inhabitants through the international migration fromlarge Dutch cities. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the practiceof place marketing has been used by Hagfors municipality in order to attractnew inhabitants from the Netherlands. Which place marketingstrategies have been utilized by Hagfors, how can the effect of theseapproaches be measured and how is the Hagfors brand perceived by the Dutch immigrants?These are the research questions that have been answered through qualitativeinterviews with municipal employees and Dutch immigrants. The results implythat Hagfors have marketed themselves through the internet and the EmigrationExpo in Utrecht but these strategies have not had any effect on the immigrants’motives for moving to the area. Instead of actively tryingto receive more immigrants to the area Hagfors municipality should invest timeand money on the Dutchmen who are already living in the area.The conclusion that Hagfors has not developed a brand platform has preventedthe Dutch immigrants from creating a uniform image of the brand.

Approximately one out of every seven Canadians over the age of 15 years (3.4 million people) has some level of disability. The increasing prevalence of disability in our aging society is commonly accepted as fact with both disability and the severity of disability gradually increasing with age (Statistics Canada, 2001). Recognizing that persons with disabilities often face "barriers" to full participation in society, some provinces have enacted human rights or accessibility planning legislation to remove these barriers. This study examines the process of accessibility planning for persons with disabilities within Canadian municipalities with a population of between 50,000 –500,000, otherwise referred to as mid-size cities (MSC). The underlying assumption of this research is that mid-size Canadian municipalities are carrying out some form of accessibility planning using planning instruments [or other tools] to remove barriers and improve accessibility for persons with disabilities. The purpose of this study is to determine: first, what planning instruments are being used in the design of open space and built environments in MSCs to remove physical barriers, and what other tools are available to attain greater accessibility for persons with disabilities living in mid-size urban settings. Secondly, to consider who is involved in the implementation and use of planning instruments and other tools, and to determine what are their respective roles. Third, to discover the conditions under which planning instruments and other tools are being applied, to learn what financial or other resources are being allocated and how are they being allocated in the short and long term. This study concludes that planning instruments are being used to improve accessibility for persons with disabilities in mid-size Canadian municipalities. Planning tools are not the only way to remove barriers to persons with disabilities. Furthermore, the effectiveness of those tools is clearly contingent upon available human and financial resources. Nevertheless, the study finds that municipal planners and others are using these essential planning tools in a variety of ways to remove physical barriers to accessibility. Inherent in all efforts to remove barriers is the active involvement of persons with disabilities. Thus, involving persons with disabilities in the development and application of planning instruments and other tools has the potential to build the foundation of successful accessibility planning efforts in Canadian mid-size communities. These conclusions have implications for research in the area of accessibility planning and recommendations for Canadian planning practice.