This thesis is the result of two studies concerning children’s independent mobility, which means the freedom for children to walk or bike on their own or together with friends but without being escorted by parents. The studies are accomplished in four different areas and are also searching for different environmental qualities. The areas differ concerning traffic planning and architecture but also concerning commercial and cultural choice. The aim is to understand and describe how places are constructed and designed when they are used and experienced in a positive – or a negative – way by children. I emphasize, that we – through the responses in meeting with other people – learn hidden and visible rules and also how to change perspective and roles. I therefore focus on the meeting between children and other people but also on meeting between children and places. The issue is: What do places look like – what qualities or qualifications – can be notified as important to children to perceive coherence that consequently make them learn to control their environment and develop to harmonious grown-ups. The main questions are: In what degree can children’s independent mobility be related to the planning and design in the four areas? Why do some neighbourhoods/places appear as more important to children than others, making children use them in a varied way? Is it possible to describe qualities in neighbourhoods in a way that can be interpreted as meaningful for children’s development? In the first study 732 children in grade two and five in compulsory school, filled in a questionnaire and the questions focused on how they got to school, to friends, to activities etc. The results showed that in the area with more traffic than the other three areas, children were more often taken by car to school and to leisure activities. Even international research in the nineties did show that children had lost the accessibility to their neighbourhood. In the second study, 32 children in the same areas guided me around in their environment showing me the way to school and places they used to visit. At the same time they told me what they liked or disliked in their neighbourhood. Afterwards they were interviewed and they also had the opportunity to fill in so called “mobility maps”. The content in this text mainly focuses the second study. From the children’s statements, a summary of the most important differences looks as follows: I The accessibility in neighbourhoods and places: i.e. children’s independent mobility – or if they had to be escorted by grown-ups – and if they could fiddle about. II Children’s play and activities: i.e. if they had something to do, if they played in pairs or in groups and if play could take place without planning. III Children’s experiences of places and people: i.e. if they had something to show me and to tell me, if there were any meetings with other persons, if the children talked about their own yard and appreciated green areas, if they had fun or not, if they were afraid being out and if they told me any memories from some places. The theoretical framework is based on Johan Asplund’s theory on social responsivity and G. H. Mead’s theory on social relations and his view of the importance of objects. The study also is based on three different place theories as expressed by David Canter, Christian Norberg-Schulz and Clarence Crafoord and Asplund’s view of place and placelessness. This study has made it clear that everything children do in their neighbourhood can be related to concrete places and things but it differed concerning what and how they played, what they experienced and what the meetings looked like – if any. Environmental qualities arise, as I have interpreted my results, when neighbourhoods and places are safe, when there are landmarks, places for meetings, possibility of orientation and sense of locality and when the places are varied and challenging. Conclusions are drawn regarding differences in social responsivity, if there is a sense of having a place of one’s own – that in the same time is shared by other people – and if places are responding. From these statements place identity can be seen as a merging of the qualities in places and the perceived sense of place as described above. To have opportunity to investigate the neighbourhood is also an important part of children’s informal learning. They learn how to read the surroundings and how to find the way in a town or in an environment. They get to know the neighbourhood and the world outside and so they also learn how to behave and how to control themselves and even the life. Results showed though that the children in the four areas made those experiences but, certainly, in different ways.

A major challenge for teachers in crowded classrooms is to adapt the teaching to different pupil’s needs and abilities. Previous research shows that learning for pupils in the Swedish primary school has somewhat become an individual project. An increase in the individual work has been at the expense of whole class teaching. This has had a negative impact on pupils' academic performance. However, previous research also indicates that individual adaptation may affect results positively when the teacher is active, has knowledge of pupil’s needs and abilities and also a willingness to meet them. In the last few versions of the Swedish curriculum it is mentioned that teaching should be adjusted based on each pupil's abilities and needs. The purpose of this study is to investigate, describe and analyze how today's teachers in primary school (grades 1-6) handle individual adaptation in teaching, what strategies they use and what dilemmas that occurs. The study focuses on how work is carried out in practice. Qualitative interviews and participant observations are used in the data collection. This study has been conducted in two parts. The first part addresses five teachers and their classes in four different schools. In the second part the study has been extended with one of the above teachers whose classroom work was followed during a period of seven weeks. The results show that teachers are working hard to find methods that promote communication and interaction. They use different strategies to adapt teaching to each student. Individual work is still present but does not dominate the classroom work. Teachers individualize teaching by variation and interaction, by working together with tasks, with active relationship-oriented work and through continuous adjustments in the moment. The study also shows that teachers face several dilemmas when they individualize teaching in the classroom. One dilemma is among the ideal adaptation that teachers have a vision of, versus the time- and efficiencydriven adaptation that is possible to accomplish in the classroom. There is a tension between overall ideal images and teachers' practical everyday reality.

Järnvägsstationer är att betrakta som offentliga platser och regleras av transportpolitiska målsättningar om jämställdhet och tillgänglighet för alla (Prop. 2008/09:93). Trots det saknas forskning om hur genus påverkar resenärer vid deras vardagliga vistelser på järnvägsstationer. Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är därför att ur ett genusperspektiv undersöka hur manliga och kvinnliga resenärer i sin vardag använder och upplever järnvägsstationer som fysiska platser och sociala rum. Det empiriska materialet baseras på resedagböcker, intervjuer med resenärer, deltagande observationer och intervjuer med planerare och förvaltare av järnvägsstationer. Kimstad pendeltågsstation, Norrköpings järnvägsstation och Stockholms Centralstation ingår i studien. I avhandlingen kombineras olika teorier som gör det möjligt att betrakta genus som rytm. Genom detta teoretiska ramverk undersöks hur genusmaktordningen återverkar i tid, rum och mobilitet. Resultaten av studien visar att resenärer är påverkade av genusmaktordningen, som återfinns såväl i kollektiva föreställningar som i materialiserade objekt som möter resenärer när de vistas på järnvägsstationerna. Sammanfattningsvis visar studien att såväl manliga som kvinnliga resenärer påverkas av denna maktordning. Även om denna ordning påverkar alla tycks kvinnor vara de som påverkas mest negativt, eftersom de genom en manlig normerad blick betraktas som antingen ärbara eller sexuellt tillgängliga objekt, därutöver att de är tvungna att förhålla sig till risken att utsättas för sexualiserat våld från män. Av dessa anledningar tenderar kvinnors livsrum att inskränkas, oavsett ålder och plats. / Railway stations are perceived as public spaces and are regulated by national transport goals of equality and accessibility for all (Prop. 2008/09:93). However, hardly any research has looked at how gender affects commuters in their daily life at railway stations. The overriding aim of this study is to examine how male and female commuters use and experience railway stations as gendered physical places and social spaces, during their daily travels. The empirical material is based on travel diaries, interviews with male and female commuters, participant observations inspired by auto-ethnography and interviews with planners and managers of the railway stations. Stations included in the study are Kimstad commuter rail station, Norrköping railway station and Stockholm Central station (all in Sweden). In this thesis this combination of theories makes it possible to define gender as rhythm. Through this theoretical frame the thesis analyses gendered power relations of bodies in time, space and mobility. Results from the study show that individuals are affected by gendered power relations that dwell in collective believes and in shape of materialized objects that encounter the commuter when visiting the railway station. In conclusion the study shows that both female and male commuters are affected by gender power relations while visiting railway stations. Even though they affect all, women seem to be most negatively affected by these power relations, since women by gender as rhythms are considered as either objects of decency or as sexually available to heterosexual men. Further, female bodies negotiate the risk of encountering sexual violence therefore gender as rythm tend to decrease the extent of women’s everyday living spaces, regardless of age and place.