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In recent international educational policy discussions, the importance of schools and teachers dealing with controversial societal issues has been highlighted as the role of such issues in the liberal democracies has been discussed. However, we do not know much about the present situation in schools; which controversial issues that teachers choose to bring up in teaching, and how these are related to the curriculum. In this article, we present, based on 80 teachers’ survey answers, which controversial issues are being dealt with in Swedish social studies subjects in grades 7–9, and we analyse them comparatively between the subjects and in relation to the curriculum. The study shows that teachers in different ways combine topical problems with curriculum objectives in their transformation of contents into classroom teaching. Based on how the findings of this study can be related to previous discussions about controversial issues education, we argue that to be able to explain the teachers’ choices, we need to develop the conceptual and educational theories on this matter to more involve what takes place among the students and in everyday classroom realities.

Second homes have increasingly gained academic attention, not least within tourism research. Nevertheless, most studies have addressed the topic from the perspective of the second home owners, highlighting issues such as motivation for second home ownership, use patterns, geographical location, and meanings of second homes. Even the impacts of second homes have mainly been addressed as the accumulated outcome of their owners’ decisions. Hence, second homes have mainly been conceptualized as personal/family projects. Relatively little research has been done on the ways local communities cope with second home tourism. This is the departure point for this paper, with the purpose of analysing coping strategies among public and private stakeholders regarding second home tourism. It is argued that communities have various ways of coping, ranging from resistance to resource utilization. The proposed conceptual framework is empirically applied to the case of the Swedish West Coast. In an interview survey of public and private service providers, different strategies are identified. The results of the survey indicate that second home owners are increasingly seized on as a resource that can be utilized for business development. Ultimately, institutional preconditions imply that second homes remain a challenge for local municipalities.

De kunskaper som utvecklas med stöd i de nationella examensmålen för värderingsförmåga och förhållningssätt är de som ligger närmast den professionella identiteten. Denna kunskapskategori ges begränsat utrymme i de förväntade studieresultat som examineras inom samhällsplanerarprogrammet vid Umeå universitet. Trots detta får studenterna anställning som planerare, ofta kort efter att de tagit sin kandidatexamen. Syftet med denna studie är därför att undersöka hur kunskapsmässig progression underbyggs avseende värderingsförmåga och förhållningssätt i en planerarutbildning med kulturgeografi som huvudområde. I denna artikel redovisas en analys av samhällsplanerarprogrammet. De kurser i kulturgeografi som ingår i programmet analyseras utifrån förväntade studieresultat, läraktiviteter och examinationsformer i syfte att spåra den planerade progressionen. Särskild uppmärksamhet ägnas kunskapskategorin värderingsförmåga och förhållningssätt. Resultaten diskuteras utifrån en modell för att förstå vilka typer av kunskaper som används vid avvägningar och beslut i planeringsprofessionen. Analysen visar att samhällsplanerarprogrammets planerade progression följer principen att först ge studenterna breda ämneskunskaper, därefter utveckla metodfärdigheter och mot slutet utveckla mer komplexa och handlingsinriktade kunskaper. Den visar också att den planerade progressionen är begränsad i att underbygga normativa aspekter av studenternas värderingsförmåga och förhållningssätt.

The integration or mainstreaming of adaptation to climate change, while highly emphasized in the literature, is often operationally both very complex and places high requirements on resources for coordination in organizational units. This study reviews the development of integration of adaptation in the regional and local risk and vulnerability analysis processes, in the cases of the counties of Norrbotten and Västerbotten in Northern Sweden. The study concludes that adaptation as a non-binding and not specifically resourced policy area risks limited integration with existing measures. The Swedish distribution of authority and resourcing on adaptation, focusing on integrating adaptation within the municipal authority without specific funding, will thus constitute a limitation to integration and mainstreaming in particular in sparsely populated municipalities that despite limited tax bases are required to maintain the same municipal services as a larger municipality.

Northern Sweden is increasingly influenced by competing social interests striving for advantages and claiming territorial influence through "scalar politics". The strategic deployment of scalar conceptions is an integral part of policy making and implementation. Increasing use of varying scalar conceptions follows from "new spatial planning" practices. Set territorial delineations and administrative responsibilities are opened up to complex associational relationships with varying spatial claims. Focusing on territorial policies, this paper examines what orientations there are in territorial policy development in and for northern Sweden. The 29 municipalities embraced by the two northernmost counties Norrbotten and Västerbotten are the geographical delimitation of the study. As the analysis shows, the dominating scalar constructs relate to national and EU territorial policies rather than to competing constructs focused on Nordic, Barents and Arctic territorialization.

The Canadian Community Futures Program and the European Union program for rural development, LEADER, are similar in their ambitions to boost rural development at community level through state intervention. Each program offers universal coverage, external funding and a set of regulations to be adjusted to local circumstances through local action. Economic development and an increased local capacity to act are important ambitions. When comparing the two programs differences become evident. The Community Futures focus on short term business development through revolving loans, counseling and community projects, whereas LEADER have a mid- to long term perspective in creating development oriented networks through project funding. In evaluating and learning from these programs, this paper argues that mainly core objectives (economic and employment outputs) are measured and accounted for whereas outcomes such as community performance, leadership development, community cohesion, confidence building and youth engagement often are neglected. The latter are of greater importance for the continued pursuit of establishing learning communities.