The aim of this thesis is twofold. First, from a life course perspective I´m going to study thetiming of a number of life course events in sparsely populated areas and urban areas in acohort of people born 1968-1971. The second part of the aim is to analyze how the timing ofthe life course events in a later stage of life affects the residential choice, with special focuson owning the dwelling, in the above mentioned geographical areas.The life course events in focus are; leaving the parental home, the first cohabitation or thefirst marriage, the first childbearing and the first separation or divorce.The results state that there are significant differences between sparsely populated and urbanareas in the cohort, in timing for at least three out of the four life events. The difference inaverage age between sparsely populated and urban areas is biggest for leaving the parentalhome and for the first cohabitation or marriage with the rural individuals being the youngest.The same pattern is also visible for the first child but the difference in timing between the twogeographical areas are less distinct for that event. For separations and divorces there are noclear differences in timing.Linear regressions show that educational level is of crucial importance for the timing ofthe life events. An increasing level of education leads to a later life event. Different economicvariables such as income support, unemployment allowance and disposable income also havean influence on the timing of the events. But the significance of the effect of these variableson the average age is stronger in the urban areas than in the sparsely populated districts. Itseems that in sparsely populated areas there are other variables that play an essential rolewhen it comes to the timing of the events in the life course. One possible aspect, but not investigatedhere, could be the impact of the wider family context.Finally, a control for how the different timing of the life events in the two geographicalcontexts affects the residential choice at least ten years after the events has been done. Itshows that the general pattern concerning the residential choice of the cohort is that 90 percentin sparsely populated areas and 70 percent in the urban areas defined as suburbs lives inowned villas. It seems that, in this cohort, house owning is an overrepresented way of residenceregardless the individuals geographical identity.The results also shows that people in the cohort, regardless if and when the four life eventshas taken place in the younger ages, to a large extent in the later life still lives in the sametype of municipality (sparsely populated or urban). In other words, it is not possible to findany strong correlations between the timing of the life events and residential choice in a laterstage of life.

Sweden has seen a reversal in marriage trends, from mainly declining marriage rates since the 1960s to increasing rates from 1998 and onwards. By applying event-history techniques to Swedish register data, this study examines whether the trend reversal is related to compositional changes in various socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the population, with special focus on childbearing. Only first marriages of women are studied as these largely represent the general marriage trends. The results show that the trend reversal only partly can be ascribed to compositional changes, more specifically to changes in labor-market attachment and childbearing. Thus, there is evidence of a new marriage trend in Sweden that does not conform very well to that of generally declining marriage rates as is often depicted in demographic literature. Furthermore, there is evidence of pro-cyclical marriage and childbearing trends. These patterns are especially interesting because Sweden is a country that in many aspects has been a forerunner in the development of new trends in family-demographic behavior and a country where childbearing and marriage are not necessarily seen as very closely interrelated.

Detta projekt handlar om hur vi kan bo nära varandra i en stad och samtidigt ha tydliga gränser kring de ytor vi delar. Var möts vi i staden? Var är vi tillsammans i bostaden? När övergår den privata sfären till gemensam? Kommunikationen i dagens bostadshus har reducerats till minsta möjliga vilket helt tar över dess utformning. Att istället se denna som en social yta har potential att skapa ett levande atmosfär där mer privata funktioner delas med kommunikationen. Delandet handlar också om de saker vi har i hemmet, är delning av kökmaskiner och städredskap ett möjligt sätt att spara energi? Hur kan vi bygga för att främja detta? I processen har jag försökt definiera vad som skapar ett attraktivt boende i stadskontext och se hur detta går att applicera i morgondagens Stockholm. Jag har gjort detta genom att skissa i modell och analysera dessa i jämförelse med exempel på lyckade bostadshus. Utformning av kommunikation och vad vi kan dela i ett bostadshus är de två frågor jag har fokuserat på i detta projekt. Hur kan bostadshuset vara en förlängning av staden och samtidigt signalera en privathet? / This project is about how we can live near each other in the city, while having clear boundaries around the areas we share. Where do we meet in the city? Where does the private sphere become commune? Communication, such as stairs and corridors, in residential houses has been reduced to a minimum. The result of this is that the balance between architecture and function is very unstable. To instead see this as a social area has the potential to create a vibrant atmosphere where more private functions are shared with the communication. How can we share space? What can the house share with the city? What can the user share with each other? Sharing is a potential way to save energy. How can we build to promote this? In the process, I have tried to define what creates an attractive residential building in a city context. I have done this by model sketching and analyze these in relation to examples of successful residential buildings. The formation of the communication and what we can share in a residential building are the two main questions in this project. How can the dwelling house be an extension to the city while signal a private sphere?