The purpose of this thesis is to focus on the way in which power is exercised by housing policy, in the form of environmental visions and procedures in a context where governmental, municipal and local structures and participants cooperates towards a specific residential area. The study is based on the ecological project in Navestad, a suburb area in Norrköping, that is a pilot project in the local investments programs that the government established to create an ecologically durable society.

The great visions about Navestad during the 1960s that focused a positive alterity for the people of the future, was transformed during the 1970s to a negative alterity that can be analysed from four different aspects: social, economical, physical and political. Through the ecological project a discourse of normalization arrived. When Navestad was defined as negatively different a need of governing was created in order to normalise the difference. The different residents in the area shall be "normal citizens". The municipality of Norrkoping and the housing company had visions of a total change in the area with the ecological project, where illness, unemployment and anonymity should be decreased. This process also creates a new discourse; a discourse of (new) alterity. It is again people of the future that shall live in Navestad, ecologically interested, engaged and active groups.

This government practice is modified during this process, from focusing a durable society with good lives and a durable economy (government), to focusing on a municipality with a better economy (municipal) and to focusing on a solution for Navestad's specific problems (local). Ecologism is transformed from visions for a good ecological life and a strong nation to a governing of problematic individuals. This governing also resembles functionalism and its governing by experts. Ecologism is a "green knowledge", a technology of governing, with its local investments programs as technique of governing. Ecologism is created by a discourse of environment, that focuses on green life styles, and by a discourse of housing policy, that focuses on governing through housing policy. The visions of the government focuses on both The Good City (an active municipality) and The Good Life (an active citizenship). Ecologism becomes life politics where unwanted groups of residents (old residents) are normalized or excluded and where wanted groups of residents (new residents) are included. This new life politic wants to create active residents, instead of the passive and depending lives they were livingbefore that shall with help of the ecological project live good, active and healthy lives. The question is if it is possible to plan happiness and welfare.

I alla tider har människor drömt om att leva ett gott liv. Men vad som är ett gott liv har minst sagt varierat under olika epoker och varierar fortfarande i olika kulturer. Ett asketiskt liv i en ökengrotta framstår knappast som ett gott liv för en modern västerländsk människa. Men för en djupt troende kristen några hundra år efter Jesu födelse, eller för en stridande muslim i dagens Afganistan framstår det kanske som något gott. Vad som är gott och vad som är ont i livet kan därför både diskuteras och analyseras. I denna bok behandlas Det goda livet av forskare, lärare och doktorander knutna till forskarskolan Civitas vid Linköpings universitet. Civitas bygger på ett samarbete mellan filosofer, historiker och sociologer och därför finns här många olika infallsvinklar till temat, både vad gäller historisk förankring, skarpa analyser och samtida samhällsfrågor. Boken spänner från Aristoteles uppfattning om det goda livet, över olika goda (och onda) liv från medeltiden och framåt till den moderna förortens roll i och alkoholens betydelse för ett ont eller ett gott liv för människo

This thesis deals with children and young people who grew up in the Swedish countryside during 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and who embarked on an educational journey. It is about young people who, through the Young Cultivators and JUF, the Young Farmers' Association, changed theireveryday life and prepared for a future they expected. They were individuals who did not share the dark picture of the countryside that was predominant in the contemporary debate and in literature.

On the whole the dissertation shows that education was needed in Tengene for four reasons. Firstfy, there was the goal to better oneself as a human being, that is, the ideal to improve oneself by education. The concept is broadened here to also include the more entertainment-oriented elements. Secondfy, there was the objective of taking responsibility for collective development in a local, a national and even an international context, that is, an ideal directed towards citizenship. Thirdfy, another goal was to preserve and pass on the cultural heritage in a new humanistic spirit. Cultural heritage should be interpreted here ina broader sense, more than just that of "high society". In addition, there was another ideal: the importance of educating oneself, to improve one's skill in agriculture.

This dissertation has provided new and different perspectives on the modern Swedish democratic welfare state. The great eagerness of the Tengene youth to take part in the building of society was met by a purposeful and energetic state. Due to this interaction Swedish agriculture changed, and the countryside became linked to national economic and social development. This interaction consolidated a fragile democracy during the decades following the 1920s. A dualistic model never existed in Sweden with an underdeveloped and marginalized countryside. Many people moved to towns and larger cities, but many also had the opportunity to remain in the agrarian environment and at the same time become part of the modern welfare state.

I alla tider har människor drömt om att leva ett gott liv. Men vad som är ett gott liv har minst sagt varierat under olika epoker och varierar fortfarande i olika kulturer. Ett asketiskt liv i en ökengrotta framstår knappast som ett gott liv för en modern västerländsk människa. Men för en djupt troende kristen några hundra år efter Jesu födelse, eller för en stridande muslim i dagens Afganistan framstår det kanske som något gott. Vad som är gott och vad som är ont i livet kan därför både diskuteras och analyseras. I denna bok behandlas Det goda livet av forskare, lärare och doktorander knutna till forskarskolan Civitas vid Linköpings universitet. Civitas bygger på ett samarbete mellan filosofer, historiker och sociologer och därför finns här många olika infallsvinklar till temat, både vad gäller historisk förankring, skarpa analyser och samtida samhällsfrågor. Boken spänner från Aristoteles uppfattning om det goda livet, över olika goda (och onda) liv från medeltiden och framåt till den moderna förortens roll i och alkoholens betydelse för ett ont eller ett gott liv för människor.