This thesis aims to explore teachers’ and students’ experience and perception of outdoor teaching and learning. Further, it aims to explore influences of outdoor teaching on academic performance in biology and mathematics. The contexts for the thesis are a Swedish high school and Australian environmental education centres. The empirical material comprises student and teacher interviews, and questionnaires and tests answered by students. Theoretical frames of reference are theory of place and three dimensions of learning: content, social and emotional dimensions of learning. The results reveal that the extended physical space had the potential to improve social relations and increase participation, collaboration and on-task communication. However, teachers witnessed a period of up to three months before the students adjusted to outdoor teaching. During that time disciplinary issues were a concern. Teaches’ perceptions were that experience of specific places such as local natural environment was fundamental to forming a sense of belonging and environmental concern. However, teachers described children and students as unfamiliar with local natural environments. Teacher’s perceptions were that media provides knowledge about nature rather than direct experience and children and students were often uncomfortable or afraid in nature. Mathematics followed by language education were the subjects most regularly taught outdoors. Two studies compared classroom education with partly outdoor education in biology and mathematics. Results reveal that students’ performance was equally good, or more developed as a consequence of outdoor teaching. An overarching conclusion is that the possibility to appeal to cognitive, social and emotional dimensions of learning all at the same time has the potential to concretize and broaden the often theoretical approach of high school education, and to contribute to long term episodic memories and a desire to learn. / Denna avhandling syftar till att utforska lärares och elevers erfarenheter av, och uppfattningar om undervisning och lärande utomhus. Vidare syftar den till att undersöka vilken inverkan undervisning utomhus har på elevers resultat i biologi och matematik. Studierna är utförda i en svensk högstadieskola samt vid australiska miljöutbildningscentra. Det empiriska materialet består av elev- och lärarintervjuer samt enkäter och tester besvarade av elever. Det teoretiska ramverket utgår från platsteori samt ett lärandeperspektiv inkluderande tre dimensioner: innehållsliga, sociala och emotionella dimensioner av lärande. Resultaten visar att utemiljöns utvidgade fysiska rum har potential att förändra sociala relationer positivt och leda till ökat deltagande, samarbete, och kommunikation i ämnet  Lärares erfarenhet var dock att det tog upp till tre månader innan eleverna var helt införstådda med utomhusundervisningens innebörd. Under den tiden var oordning i klassen ett hinder. Erfarenhet av specifika platser såsom lokal natur sågs av lärarna som väsentligt för elevernas platstillhörighet och miljöengagemang. Lärare vittnade dock om många elevers främlingskap inför lokala naturmiljöer. Kunskaper om naturen härstammade snarare från media än från egna erfarenheter och eleverna var ofta obekväma eller rädda i naturen. Matematik följt av språk var de ämnen som med störst regelbundenhet undervisades utomhus. I två delstudier jämfördes klassrumsundervisning med undervisning delvis utomhus i biologi och matematik. Resultaten visar på likvärdiga, eller mer utvecklade kunskaper som en följd av utomhusundervisning. En övergripande slutsats är att utomhusundervisningens möjligheter att samtidigt appellera till kognitiva, sociala och emotionella dimensioner av lärande kan konkretisera och vidga högstadieundervisningens teoretiskt inriktade innehåll samt bidra till långlivade episodiska minnen och en lust till lärande.

Preventing the environmental impacts of economic growth is an important goal in today’s marketplace. This concern for a sustainable future incentivises marketing based around sustainability. The food and beverage industry had its fair share of criticism as its production uses more natural resources than most industries. One industry that has been ahead of other food processors in adopting environmental practices is the wine industry. The close relationship between wine and places is undisputable and so strong that people frequently visit places of wine production in the form of wine tourism contributing significantly to regional economies. For wine to be associated with sustainability, regional stakeholders would be required to represent similar values. The branding of places is far more intricate than branding of products and needs the support of those stakeholders involved. Such support is often discussed as a shared place identity. Only limited previous research has addressed whether the communication of sustainability enhances business performance. No research to date has empirically tested whether a shared stakeholder identity influences the relationship between sustainability branding and business success. To close this gap, a sequential mixed methods procedure was specified using quantitative questionnaires with 420 subjects and 20 qualitative interviews. A model with consequences of sustainability branding and a shared place identity was established using extant research. Mostly existing scales were adapted to fit this research context and tested with a structural modelling approach among Australian and German wineries. It was found that practicing and communicating sustainability significantly influences performance on an individual winery and regional destination level. Furthermore, a shared place identity has been established as a critical success factor in the relationship between sustainability branding and place performance. Both theoretical and practical implications can be drawn from this research. The results have provided empirical evidence on the direct relationship between sustainability and performance, in addition to the moderating role of a shared place identity. These findings extend the tourism literature which states that businesses practicing sustainably, enhance their own performance as well as the overall regional performance. It also extends stakeholder theory by establishing that a shared place identity strengthens this relationship even further, highlighting the need for regional management to initiate a shared sense of identification. Practically, regional managers who are eager to enhance economic performance should be actively involved in developing relationships between the individual wineries and the regional management in order to foster a shared place identity. Furthermore, it is of major importance to establish positive attitudes toward sustainability among winery owners. This can be done by building the confidence of winery owners by offering infrastructures for learning and support about sustainability.

In this essay, J.R.R. Tolkien´s novel The Hobbit is analysed from an Ecocritical perspective. How environments/places are described, and what meaning can be attributed to these places is analysed using second wave ecocritical theory. This means that the relationship between what is seen as human and what is seen as non-human isdiscussed in relation to meaning and agency. The main theme of the novel is a journey, and there is a reoccurring motif of longing which forms a framework of safety against which the dangerous journey through the Wild is contrasted. This framework has been used to decide which scenes to analyse. Further, Buell´s theory of place-connectednessis used to describe the relationship between the characters and the places. The placeconnectedness affects how meaning is created in the interaction between the human and the non-human. Lastly, a previous essay using an ecocritical framework is LoboJansson´s Master´s thesis “Lord of the Rings, Lord of Nature: A PostcolonialEcocritical Study of J.R.R Tolkien´s The Lord of the Rings and Its Implications in the EFL Classroom.”. One suggestion for further research in the thesis is to apply an ecocritical framework to other books by Tolkien, such as Silmarillion or The Hobbit(47-48). One aim of this essay is therefore to answer the question whether the environmental descriptions in The Hobbit can indicate the environmental concerns described in Lobo Jansson´s study.

This study presents an analysis of human encounter with place. It examines the personal and cultural importance of an attachment to place, focusing on the reciprocal relationship between cultural heritage and a sense of place. Place is constructed out of mutual meanings between people and their environment. The study begins with an indepth look at the theory of place. In a series of heritage management case studies, the theory is applied in order to illustrate how meanings of place may be expressed. Place as a normative concept provides a role for resource managers in finding the meanings people associate with places, and in nurturing and enhancing these meanings. This involves the recognition of different values and 'stories' that are associated with place. Recognising these differences helps shift resource management away from the simplicity of grand narratives and totalizing discourses, towards a respect for intangible and multiple meanings in place. To a certain extent an understanding of place is already informing both natural and cultural management decisions in New Zealand, although this may not be explicitly recognised. To approach cultural heritage management from the perspective of place, however, challenges the current directions that heritage management is taking in this country. The study proposes a way of taking up that challenge, and concludes that the importance of place should not be overlooked.