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The European Commission expects the use of biomass for energy in the EU to increase significantly between 2010 and 2020 to meet a legally binding target to cover at least 20% of EU's total energy use from renewable sources in 2020. According to estimates made by the member states of the EU, the direct supply of biomass from forests is expected to increase by 45% on a volume basis between 2006 and 2020 in response to increasing demand (Beurskens LWM, Hekkenberg M, Vethman P. Renewable energy projections as published in the national renewable energy action plans of the European Member states. ECN and EEA; 2011. http://https://www.ecn.nl/docs/library/report/2010/e10069.pdf [accessed 25.04.2014]; Dees M, Yousef A, Ermert J. Analysis of the quantitative tables of the national renewable energy action plans prepared by the 27 European Union Member States in 2010. BEE working paper D7.2. Biomass Energy Europe project. FELIS Department of Remote Sensing and landscape information Systems, University of Freiburg, Germany; 2011). Our aims were to test the hypotheses that European private forest owners' attitudes towards supplying woody biomass for energy (1) can be explained by their responses to changes in prices and markets and (2) are positive so that the forest biomass share of the EU 2020 renewable energy target can be met. Based on survey data collected in 2010 from 800 private forest owners in Sweden, Germany and Portugal our results show that the respondents' attitudes towards supplying woody biomass for energy cannot be explained as direct responses to changes in prices and markets. Our results, furthermore, imply that European private forest owners cannot be expected to supply the requested amounts of woody biomass for energy to meet the forest biomass share of the EU 2020 renewable energy target, at least if stemwood is to play the important role as studies by Verkerk PJ, Anttila P, Eggers J, Lindner M, Asikainen A. The realisable potential supply of woody biomass from forests in the European Union. For Ecol Manag 2011;261: 2007-2015, UNECE and FAO. The European forest sector outlook study,II 2010-2030. United Nations, New York and Geneva; 2011 [abbreviated to EFSOS II] and Elbersen B, Staritsky I, Hengeveld G, Schelhaas MJ, Naeff H, Bottcher H. Atlas of EU biomass potentials; 2012. Available from: http://www.biomassfutures.eu [accessed 14.10.2013] suggest. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The European Commission adopted the European (EU) Forest Strategy in 2021, where forests and forest management practises such as closer-to-nature forestry (CNF) are identified as a key in solving the two crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. This interview study analyses the attitudes of different forest stakeholders towards CNF and their preferred regulation method of it. Seven stakeholders participated in the interviews, representing three stakeholder groups: forest owners, environmental organisations, and industry organisations. Two environmental organisations and one of the forest owners' organisations had their own definition of CNF, which entailed mainly natural regeneration and an avoidance of clear cuts. Their perceived purpose of CNF was the same as that of the EU Forest Strategy, as a forest management method aiming to promote climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation and timber production. Those who did not have a definition, two of the forest owner's organisations and two industrial organisations, explained that the definitions of CNF varied depending on the purpose of using it. The three organisations that had a definition of CNF, were also in favour of an EU regulation of CNF. The four organisations that were opposed, argued that the conditions across Europe vary too much to have a common regulation. Instead, they preferred market solutions and other ways of reaching the same goals. The results might depend on a larger inclination of believing in legislation if you have a clear definition of it, but also on the attitudes towards legislation varying in general between stakeholder types. During the finalisation of this study, the European Forest Institute released a report with seven principles of CNF, which calls for further research.

Trends and Dilemmas in the Utilization of Renewable Energy Sources.Due to the efforts in the interests of achieving the sustainable development several legislation have been born supporting the utilization of the renewable energy sources and within that the usage of biomass as a conditionally renewable energy source. At the time of creation of the directives there were less available practical experience. After consulting the studies published in our country and abroad in this line in this article we presented the changes of attitudes and opinions due to the expansion of knowledge.The purpose of this study is to present the local and global consequences of em-phasizing the utilization of the biomass as a conditionally renewable energy source and how much does it affect the fulfilment of the originally set goals.To prepare the study we used international and national publications as well as legal and statistical data published by the European Union and the United Nations on this subject. ; Trends and Dilemmas in the Utilization of Renewable Energy Sources.Due to the efforts in the interests of achieving the sustainable development several legislation have been born supporting the utilization of the renewable energy sources and within that the usage of biomass as a conditionally renewable energy source. At the time of creation of the directives there were less available practical experience. After consulting the studies published in our country and abroad in this line in this article we presented the changes of attitudes and opinions due to the expansion of knowledge.The purpose of this study is to present the local and global consequences of em-phasizing the utilization of the biomass as a conditionally renewable energy source and how much does it affect the fulfilment of the originally set goals.To prepare the study we used international and national publications as well as legal and statistical data published by the European Union and the United Nations on this subject.

In the past century, European agriculture has undergone profound changes. Through technical advances and structural changes, productivity is snowballing while farmland ecosystems are increasingly affected. These changes are taking place not only at the field scale through increased inputs and outputs, but also at the landscape scale through landscape simplification, with ecological effects being attributable to changes at both scales. While the decline of many farmland organisms in response to agricultural intensification is the most apparent effect, many of the biological functions provided by the systems biodiversity (so called ecosystem services such as pollination, nutrient cycling etc.) are also threatened, which could have great economical implications. To counter negative effects of agricultural intensification, EU Member States are using agri-environmental schemes (AESs) to incite farmers to use environmentally friendly practices. However, the effects of these schemes have been questioned both on the uncertain effects on biodiversity and on farmers' reluctance to participate. Many studies have tried to relate AES participation to characteristics of schemes, or demographics of farms and farmers including attitudes. Farmers seem to prefer schemes with flexible contract terms that only infer small changes in farm management. However, linking AES participation to farm characteristics is problematic, and studies often reach opposing results. Regarding ecological effects, lack of clearly stated objectives and the low scientific quality of the CMEF evaluations cloud the assessment of measures. Further, the effects of AESs have been found to vary with landscape composition (cleared/complex) and between taxa. With a deeper understanding of how AES effects interact with the landscape and how farmers relate to conservation initiatives, there are opportunities to improve scheme design. Collection of baseline data, evidence‐based measures and result-­based payments are examples of ways to advance AESs. To increase farmer engagement in AESs, participatory approaches play an important part in bridging the attitudinal gap between conservationists, legislation and farmers.

Young people's view of nuclear power and democracy since the 1980s: attitude epidemics, path dependencies and technical-political cultural revolution. In the wake of the leftist wave, young people's criticism of the system has diminished, both in terms of criticism of the nuclear-based energy system and of the nature and workings of the political system. Baby-boomers (people born in the 1940s and '50s) in particular have changed their attitude and become less hostile to the establishment. But how did this change in attitudes occur? How has young people's view of technology and democracy changed during the past few decades? Based on data from the SOM Institute gathered between 1987 and 2005, this final report presents the results of one of the two studies conducted in the project "Towards activism or indifference? How Swedish young people view democracy and the environment, science and technology in an international and longitudinal perspective". First a theory and a method are proposed for analyzing what is called in this report "attitude epidemics", referring to the fact that attitudes spread like wildfire or epidemics, leading to what societal researchers call "path dependencies". Then age-versus-generation differences are studied, as well as a large number of other factors, with regard to attitudes to technology, nuclear power and democracy in particular, or the way democracy works in Sweden. Younger people are found to be the most critical of nuclear power, while they are most satisfied with democracy, even though gender, risk perceptions, party affiliation and political positioning are some of the factors that also influence these analyses on the individual level. The "epidemic effect" and path dependencies do not show their strength in these individual analyses, but all the more in the analysis of time series where the computer and IT revolution is found to be very strongly linked to the strong growth in acceptance of nuclear power. Using new communication technologies is somehow associated with a decline in hostility toward technology and nuclear power. But many cause-and-effect relationships in this attitudinal and technical-political "cultural revolution" still remain to be explored. ; I vänstervågens svall har ungdomens systemkritik avklingat, både i bemärkelsen kritik mot det kärnkraftsbaserade energisystemet och mot det politiska systemets väsen och funktionssätt. Främst 1940- och 1950-talisterna har ändrat inställning och blivit mindre systemfientliga. Men hur gick denna förändring i attityder egentligen till? Hur har synen på teknik och demokrati bland ungdomar förändrats senaste årtiondena? Med användning av SOM-institutets data 1987–2005 presenterar denna slutrapport resultat från en av de två delstudierna inom projektet "Mot aktivism eller ointresse? Svenska ungdomars syn på demokrati och teknologi i ett internationellt och longitudinellt perspektiv". Först föreslås teori och metod för att analysera det som i denna rapport kallas "attitydepidemier", att attityder sprider sig lavinartat, och genom dem etablering av vad samhällsforskare kallar "stigberoenden". Därefter studeras ålders- kontra generationsskillnader, liksom ett stort antal andra faktorer, med avseende på attityder till framför allt tekniken kärnkraft och demokrati eller demokratins funktionssätt i Sverige. Yngre visar sig vara de mest kritiska mot kärnkraften men de mest nöjda med demokratin, även om kön, riskuppfattningar, partianhängarskap och politisk positionering är några av de faktorer som också spelar roll i dessa analyser på individnivå. "Epidemieffekten" och stigberoenden visar inte sin styrka i dessa individanalyser, men desto mer i analysen av tidsserier där dator- och IT-revolutionen visar sig mycket starkt förbunden med den starka tillväxten i kärnkraftsacceptans. Att använda nya kommunikationstekniker hänger på något sätt samman med minskning av teknikfientlighet även till kärnkraften. Men många orsakssamband i denna attitydmässiga och teknisk-politiska "kulturrevolution" är fortfarande outforskade. ; "Mot aktivism eller ointresse? Svenska ungdomars syn på demokrati och teknologi i ett internationellt och longitudinellt perspektiv"

In the face of climate change, the urgent need for sustainable food systems has brought agroforestry under the spotlight in the Global North, for its provision of ecosystem services. Despite being less known in the Danish and Swedish context, the traditional practice of managing livestock in the semi-natural pastures, similar to the cut-and-carry systems in the tropics, is undeniably a form of agroforestry system. With an agroecological perspective, the study adopted a quantitative statistical analysis, and identified the perceptions of farmers in Denmark and southern Sweden towards temperate agroforestry systems via an online survey. Moreover, the study conducted a qualitative document analysis on grey literatures to review national policies related to agroforestry under the framework of the European Union Common Agricultural Policies (CAP). The connection of motivating and discouraging factors to adopt agroforestry pointed out by the farmers were examined along with the current policies. Farmers' behaviour and attitude were further analyzed by conducting logistic regression modelling to distinguish the tendencies within Danish and Swedish farmers. The results revealed that 'animal health and welfare', 'landscape aesthetics', 'soil erosion', 'microclimate moderation', 'pollination', and 'carbon fixation' were perceived as positive factors by farmers from both Denmark and southern Sweden; while 'administrative burden' and 'regulation' were regarded as hurdles to include trees and bushes on farmlands. The study further identified the practice of organic operations and high diversity of livestock to be common indicators observed amongst farmers' positive attitude towards agroforestry, regardless of the discrepancy between attitude and behaviour amongst Danish farmers. At the policy level, Denmark offered many agroforestry-related financial support schemes, while the similar schemes in Sweden were generally more restricted in practice and options, except for the diverse and detailed schemes for semi-natural pastures. It was thus concluded that the silvopastoral systems had a great potential amongst Danish and Swedish farmers if the density restriction was withdrawn. To establish more agroforestry systems, 'pollination' and 'carbon sequestration' could also be further promoted in both regions, while 'soil conservation' and 'microclimate moderation' should be included in the Swedish financial support schemes. Other suggestions followed the two streams to increase landscape heterogeneity and to have more pollinators, fruits and berries. An interdisciplinary collaboration between agriculture and forestry policy makers, and farmers' participation in the policy-making process were further recommended.

This thesis aims to create an understanding of how structures affect grain producers' work with sustainability, and to investigate if perennial grains can be part of the future grain production in Sweden. The agricultural sector is facing a dilemma, both to ensure that ecosystem services are kept intact but also to keep up the global food supply for the growing population. Today's efficient industrial agriculture has contributed to increased emissions and the sector needs a sustainability transition. The food and agriculture industry has a strongly institutionalised structure, which means that fundamental changes take a particularly long time. Swedish grain producers are affected by structures from different levels within the sector which affect their possibility to act sustainable within their business. The current cultivation systems with annual grains requires a lot of tillage which contributes to a lot of emissions. Perennial grains are used in other countries but not yet integrated into the Swedish agricultural sector. The ongoing research development of perennial grains in Sweden is to adapt the crop to the Nordic climate and to develop a perennial grain that can be compared with the current yield and profitability of annual grains. The data collection in this thesis has been conducted through semi-structured interviews with six grain producers in Skaraborg, Västra Götaland. The theoretical framework in the thesis consists of structuration theory and sustainability transitions. The concept duality within structuration theory with structures and actions are applied on the different MLP-levels within sustainability transitions to analyse how the selected grain producers are affected by structures from the different levels and how their individual agency is affected. The results reveal that the institutionalised structures affect the grain producers' attitude towards sustainability within their business through both change inertia and the fear of lowered profitability. Joint structural changes within politics, research and development, consumers, and the grain producers themselves; are needed before the respondent perceives an opportunity to act more sustainably within their day-to-day operations. Most of the respondents consider perennial grains to be more interesting if they had better characteristics such as higher profitability, higher yield, and a higher market demand. The attitude towards perennial grains is positive but the perceived risk of low profitability inhibits implementation. By analysing the grain producers' own context with selected theoretical framework: This study shows that a supporting system is needed that enables increased profitability for sustainable initiatives and sustainability through all levels. Researchers and retailers are important actors in creating resources and structures that make it easy for grain producers to act sustainably. The grain producers themselves need to take risks when they are in situations where they have a choice to act sustainably.

Public catering can have a considerable environmental and educational impact. A scenario of more legume and less meat consumption in Sweden was in the present study used as a tool to explore the possibilities of Swedish public school meals to become more sustainable. Strong structuration theory provided a focus on organisational structure and stakeholder influence, enabling a holistic view of the issue at hand. A literature review, on the topics of successful implementation of sustainability projects within public catering and individual agency within school meals, provided a knowledge base from which an online survey and a guide for complementary interviews were built. The survey was aimed at municipal dietary managers and assessed their experiences of working with sustainable school meals and their attitudes towards the dietary scenario. Furthermore, the survey tried out a way of measuring how much legumes and meat are served in school canteens. The complementary interviews focused on individual actors' perceived agency to act for sustainable change. The results suggest that the study participants in general have both the knowledge and interest to make school meals more sustainable. They also saw the more legumes dietary scenario as desirable. Complicating factors are that the priorities of catering organisations and schools are often not well aligned, and resources are lacking to work on collaborations to improve this. It is also often unclear who has the responsibility to make sure teaching on sustainability is carried over from the classroom to the canteen. Individual agents with a high motivation to make positive change can be important drivers of sustainability projects, but for a change such as significantly greener school meals to take place, a whole food culture needs to change. Educational efforts and finding ways of engaging multiple stakeholders in the decisions are needed to this end. Unambiguous political goals, with adequate action plans, would give structure to the work on more sustainable school meals. Finding ways of quantifying and comparing sustainability efforts between municipalities would draw attention to the importance of the matter. The approach that was tried out in the present study however proved to be too impractical to use.

This thesis focuses on the territorial dimension of democracy by studying the division of Swedish municipalities. It consists of two parts focusing on two types of changes to the division of municipalities: amalgamation and secession. The consequences of a series of amalgamation reforms are the starting point for the first part. The question is if the new structure of the municipalities following from amalgamation, e.g. increased size, changed centre-periphery relations and an increased number of urban areas within municipalities, has had any importance for local democracy. The structural factors are looked at in the light of three aspects of democracy: municipalities as community units, their democratic legitimacy and political participation. This study shows that amalgamations can have negative effects for democracy and the conclusion is that the optimal division, from a democratic point of view, is one of small municipalities with only one dominating urban area in each municipality. As for secession, the study shows that few citizens want their part of the municipality to secede, except for those who live in parts that have had an application for secession rejected in recent years. The most important reason for supporting secession is that it would improve democracy. The main reason for opposing secession is that it would lead to decreased efficiency. The study also shows that certain conditions may change the attitude to secession, but these conditions cannot explain why a higher proportion than average is positive to secession in municipality parts that have applied for secession in recent years.

"There has been a lot of controversy among the Hungarian jurisprudence regarding the creation of the new Hungarian Criminal Procedure Act. It was also raised whether there was a need for a new code of procedure at all, whether it was not enough to adapt the existing regulations of the old Criminal Procedure Act to the new Criminal Code.
The Criminal Procedure Act, which has been in force since July 1 2018, may seem a distant start compared to Ferenc Finkey's work, but we will see that knowledge of the legal history and the processes involved are essential to understanding the changes in the present.
This is specially true for changes that affect the principles on which criminal proceedings are based. One of the biggest changes in the new Criminal Procedure Code – at the level of the priciples – is undoubtedly the relegation of the principle of official proceedings to the background, as it often turns to opportunism rather than officiality in order to increase simplification and efficiency.
In fact, in his work, Finkey has already perfectly described the mechanisms that we can discover in today's changes. Perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that his work may have provided a basis for fundamental changes in the new Criminal Procedure Code. His theories presented in this study shed excellent light on the dynamics that have permeated all areas of legal history in law and on the processes that, if we recognize them help us understand why it is necessary for our laws to be recreated sometimes.
All in all, we can see that the principles are never of absolute value, but their meaning is constantly changing, as the legislatorial ways breath in the spirit of the current age. When these principles are no longer able to keep up with change, they must be re-formed. And if we are to form such an important principle, we need to enforce a new vision throughout criminal proceedings that makes it necessary not only to make amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure but also to create a whole new law.
In order to see the real effects of the present innovations and the actual processes it has initiated in our criminal procedural law, a comprehensive analysis of the practice will be needed. We need to examine how quickly law enforcement can respond to the loss of space in centuries-old traditions. It may also be a question of whether we can talk about a real loss of space at all, as it is also conceivable that the principle of officiality has narrowed at the level of the normative text, but the old routine, attitude, and instincts live on in the application of law. The outcome of this examination may also raise important questions, including legal certainty. It is essential that once our procedural law has reached the point where it had to be born again, the application of the law be reborn with it."

This research is concerning about the viability of independence and autonomy within the European Union. The most recent Scottish and Catalan pursuits for referendum and the reality of such endeavours will be the main focuses of the following study. Firstly, the definition of autonomy and the attitude of the European community toward the notion will be discussed and evaluated, while later the Scottish and Catalan autonomy movements and campaigns will also be analyzed. This research, relates autonomy to self-governance instead of self-determination and the economic environment appears to be an important determining factor for the appearance and viability of pursuits for autonomy. Based on economic indicators, the emergence of autonomous endeavors has a positive correlation with economic growth. Therefore, individual European states" improving economic indicators might change the relationship between minorities and majorities which tendency can lead toward absolute separation as the furthest outcome. ; A cikkben megvizsgálom, hogy mit is jelent az autonómia, miért vált ki az európai államokban erős érzelmeket, milyen kisebbségi jogi tartalommal tudjuk kitölteni. Az autonómiát az önigazgatás és nem az önrendelkezés fogalmával kívánom összeegyeztetni. Vizsgálni kívánom, hogy ezek a mozgalmak, milyen gazdasági környezetben jelennek meg, illetve erősödnek fel. A vizsgált gazdasági mutatók alapján kijelenthetjük, hogy az autonómia törekvések felerősödése a gazdaság növekedésének következménye. Az adott államban a többség kisebbség viszonya a javuló gazdasági mutatók alapján változhat, ez akár a teljes elszakadás gondolatához is elvezethet.

The foundation for a national economy's positioning and strengthening in global competition is the permanent support of its innovation and research and development activities. Of this, R&D funding is of paramount importance, which is directly or indirectly one of the most important tools for increasing corporate competitiveness. The study examines trends in domestic R&D expenditures over the past one and a half decades. It focuses on the extent to which the financial crisis has affected the amount of funding resources and their structure. From an international comparison, Hungary and the European Union spend much less on research and development thant hose in the global competition. The impact of the crisis is reflected in the decline in the growth dynamics of R&D expenditures, but it has not been solved solely as a result of the crisis. Changes in the domestic structure of expenditures in recent years are encouraging and are in sync with the change in attitude that is considered desirable in R&D funding. However, from trends in data from recent years, it becomes apparent that neither Hungary nor the European Union will achieve the 1.8 and 3.0 per cent of GDP R&D spending by 2020. ; A nemzetgazdaság globális versenyben való helytállásának és erősödésének alapja az innovációs és kutatás-fejlesztési tevékenységének permanens támogatása. Ebből kiemelkedőjelentőséggel bír a kutatás-fejlesztés, annak finanszírozása, ami közvetlenül vagy közvetetten a vállalati versenyképesség növelésének egyik legfontosabb eszköze. A tanulmány megvizsgálja a hazai K+F ráfordításainak elmúlt másfél évtizedben végbement alakulását, annak tendenciáit.Kiemelten vizsgálja azt, hogy a pénzügyi válság mennyiben befolyásolta a finanszírozó források összegét és azok struktúráját. A nemzetközi összehasonlításból kiderül, hogy Magyarország és az Európai Unió is lényegesen kevesebbet költ kutatás-fejlesztésre, mint a globális versenyben élenjáró országok. A válság hatása megnyilvánul a K+F ráfordítások növekedési dinamikájának mérséklődésében, de az nem kizárólag a krízis következményeként lanyhult. A ráfordítások hazai szerkezetében az utóbbi években bekövetkezett arányváltozások biztatóak, szinkronban vannak a K+F finanszírozásában kívánatosnak tartott szemléletváltozással. Az utóbbi évek adatainak tendenciáiból azonban nyilvánvalóvá válik, hogy sem Magyarország, sem pedig az Európai Unió neméri el a 2020-ra kitűzött kutatás-fejlesztési ráfordítások GDP-hez mért 1,8, illetve 3,0 százalékos arányát.

With soap, water, and diligence discusses attitudes and practices around cleanliness and health at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At this time, scientific findings on how diseases spread had rendered both the body and the home as particularly risky in terms of the health of an individual. However, the zeal for cleaning was more than just a health issue – it also contributed to societal change at large. This book aims at deepening our understanding of cleanliness in relation to social class, gender, work, consumption, and space, viewed from a Nordic perspective. The battle against dirt was fought on a broad front, and on different levels of society. The book at hands offers glimpses of the long and complex societal process which was required for the Nordic societies to grow cleaner over time. Behind the gradually increasing interest in soap and lather lay challenges, negotiations, and disagreements about the ways in which cleanliness should be advanced, and who would be the ones advancing it. To establish the supremacy of soap required a lot of hard work. The ten chapters shed light on the interaction between debaters, voluntary associations, institutions, and individuals. How was cleanliness promoted and what was the reception like? Who and what was to be cleaned, and on which terms? What did cleanliness mean in different contexts and for different individuals? The book makes both ideals and practices visible by exploring the ways in which the gospel of cleanliness was presented, propagated, understood, questioned and renewed, and also by showing that in some cases people's quest for cleanliness had motivations other than those intended by the promoters. The chapters have been written by economic historians, ethnologists, social historians, and historians of ideas from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The book is intended for students, scholars and the general reading audience interested in a social historical perspective on cleanliness

With soap, water, and diligence discusses attitudes and practices around cleanliness and health at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At this time, scientific findings on how diseases spread had rendered both the body and the home as particularly risky in terms of the health of an individual. However, the zeal for cleaning was more than just a health issue – it also contributed to societal change at large. This book aims at deepening our understanding of cleanliness in relation to social class, gender, work, consumption, and space, viewed from a Nordic perspective. The battle against dirt was fought on a broad front, and on different levels of society. The book at hands offers glimpses of the long and complex societal process which was required for the Nordic societies to grow cleaner over time. Behind the gradually increasing interest in soap and lather lay challenges, negotiations, and disagreements about the ways in which cleanliness should be advanced, and who would be the ones advancing it. To establish the supremacy of soap required a lot of hard work. The ten chapters shed light on the interaction between debaters, voluntary associations, institutions, and individuals. How was cleanliness promoted and what was the reception like? Who and what was to be cleaned, and on which terms? What did cleanliness mean in different contexts and for different individuals? The book makes both ideals and practices visible by exploring the ways in which the gospel of cleanliness was presented, propagated, understood, questioned and renewed, and also by showing that in some cases people's quest for cleanliness had motivations other than those intended by the promoters. The chapters have been written by economic historians, ethnologists, social historians, and historians of ideas from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The book is intended for students, scholars and the general reading audience interested in a social historical perspective on cleanliness.

Public concern about pesticide use is very high, although it varies with social, ethical and political factors. In periurban regions, farmers live close to people with other occupations. Thus farming activities such as pesticide spraying may cause tensions. Pesticide use may also cause changes in pest abundances outside the treated field, on plants in neighbouring gardens. The first part of this thesis compared perceptions of pesticide use by farmers and their neighbours in two periurban regions in Sweden. Neighbours reported using pesticides, but perceived pesticide use to be more negative than farmers did. Neighbours also perceived themselves as pesticide non-users to a higher extent than farmers, although both categories used pesticides in their home setting to a similar extent. Perceptions of pesticide use differed between farmers and neighbours but also between groups of farmers, depending on farm size, whether pesticides were used or not, number of crops grown and pesticide safety knowledge. In two field studies, abundances of pests were compared in garden crops adjacent to insecticide-treated and untreated agricultural fields. The garden crops were not subjected to wind drift during insecticide spraying. Despite this, pest abundance and their damage on vegetables and ornamental flowers in nearby gardens decreased with insecticide use in the agricultural fields. The magnitude of this decrease depended on type of insect pests targeted, garden plants tested and timing of pesticide applications. In general, perceptions and attitudes concerning pesticide use differed between groups of people in the periurban society studied, e.g. with social factors such as gender, age and education. The fact that pesticide use in agricultural fields may actually benefit neighbouring garden crops is a novel finding. The findings presented here can be of use for policy makers to avoid conflicts regarding pesticide use in periurban environments, since it is important to address variations in the views of different groups of people in society and to communicate both the negative and positive effects of pesticide use.