The main aim of this licentiate thesis is to examine how local actors in a medium-sized Swedish municipality, Värnamo, in their role as decision-makers at the local arena, describe and explain the preconditions and strategies for local economic and social development. The analysis uses semi-structured interviews to reveal the connections between the local actors representations of social and economic structures and their representations of central and future strategic choices. The local actors are represented by a) firm owners or central firm managers, b) local politicians in the municipal executive board, c) civil servants in central positions and d) key actors connected to local and regional organizations. The methodological approach is based on discourse analysis. The overall aim of the study is to understand how local discourses are constructed and communicated. The analysis is deepened by relating the local discourses to relevant theoretical models in contemporary economic geography. The economic-geographical theoretical models used in the analysis focus on industrial districts, clusters and innovation systems. Path-dependency, social embeddedness and creative class are other concepts of importance to understand the formation of the local discourse. The analysis shows how local discourses are affected by the perceived globalization process while being at the same time linked to a) specific historical and environmental factors leading to predominant behavioral norms and values stating that you should be hard working, economical, cooperative and trustworthy and b) the relative location, which is conceived to be central regarding communications and regional service functions. This is combined with an image of a creative and innovative local/regional production system, based on traditions in manufacturing and trade. The foundations in manufacturing and trade are however challenged by new sectors like logistics, design, and higher education in cooperation with universities in the region.

Water has been classified as an increasingly stress resource, according to the last World Water Development Report. Concerns about clean drinking water and water sanitation are also focal points of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), as well as start-ups, are interested in water management innovation and reaching countries with difficult access. This project is motivated by a desire to identify and classify the challenges of reaching water-stressed regions or people living at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) that are facing water scarcity as well as the aim to recognize approaches of how partnerships - strategic alliances, joint ventures, co-opetition, and buyer-supplier relationship - address some of those challenges. The importance of partnerships, their specific motives, and the assets and activities interchanged in each experience, have been examined through different interviews. By focusing attention on the relation between challenges, partnerships, and business model levels, this paper suggests that partnerships are essential to reach emerging markets, but not all of them are valuable at the earlier stages of a start-up. In addition, according to the challenges that are expected to address, a particular type of partnership should be established, which implies different adaptations in the business model. Therefore, the contribution of this study is to provide orientation to small companies on how to use partnerships based on the challenges to overcome reaching regions with water scarcity. / Vatten har klassificerats som en resurs som allt mer drabbas av vattenstress enligt senaste rapporten från World Water Development. Bekymmer om rent dricksvatten och vattenrening hamnar i fokus i de Globala målen för hållbar utveckling (SDG). Dessutom fokuserar små till medelstora företag och startups är intresserade av innovation inom vatten management och att nå länder där tillgång till vatten är svår. Detta projekt motiveras av en vilja att identifiera och klassificera utmaningarna av att nå vattenstressade regioner och människorna som lever i botten av pyramiden (BOP) som drabbas av vattenbrist och att hitta de metoder som med samarbetspartners, strategiska samarbeten, samriskföretag och leverantörssamarbeten kan hjälpa med dessa utmaningar. Betydelsen av samarbeten, deras specifika mål och tillgångar och aktiviteter som spridits i form av utbyte för varje händelse har examinerats genom olika intervjuer. Genom att fokusera på sammanhanget mellan utmaningarna, samarbeten och olika nivåer av affärsmodeller föreslår denna studie att samarbeten är grundläggande för att kunna nå utvecklingsområden, men inte alla är viktiga i de tidigare skeden i en startup. Dessutom enligt de utmaningar som uppkommer, en speciell typ av samarbete ska etableras som innebär olika anpassningar av affärsmodellen. Därför bidrar denna studie till att ge små företag riktlinjer på hur man använder sammarbetspartnerskap baserat på utmaningarna för att nå de regioner som har vattenbrist.

The thesis aims to give readers a more precise knowledge of how narratives in the information environment, mainly social media platforms, can be created and structured by agents of influence operations to subvert and influence a target audience. As a case study, the thesis focuses on the influence agent “Shuoun Islamiya”, as the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency pointed out, to be the initiator of the influence operation targeting Swedish Social Services and the LVU-act. The research in this paper explores the narratives used by the agentto reveal three central narratives propagated by Shuoun Islamiya: Sweden as a fascist state, Swedish authorities as abusive towards children, and depicting Swedish authorities as targeting Muslim families in particular. The findings suggest that these narratives are strategically designed to weaken the existing narrative of Sweden as a democratic state and evoke strong emotions in the targeted audience to align with the influence agent's objectives. Construction of these narratives involves setting up antagonistic actors, portraying the Swedish state and the social services as villains who unfairly and systematically target families of immigrant and Muslim backgrounds. The families are, on the other hand, depicted as helpless victims,emphasising a conflict between the state and the families by using provocative and inflammatory language related to allegations of child kidnapping and abuse carried out by Swedish authorities. These narratives are conveyed mainly through social media platforms, showing a strong visual component in which non-related visually evocative images are oftenused to elicit emotional responses from the target audience. Further, results show how non-state actors can influence a sizable audience and take advantage of the digital information environment, combining false and misleading content taken out of context. Moreover, the analysis highlights potential security implications, including the risk of undermining social trust and cohesion. The study emphasises the need for a critical mindset among information consumers. It suggests avenues for future research, including examining other actors and assessing a potentially more profound impact of the influence operation.