Women resource centres : a quattro helix innovation system on the European agenda

• In the early 1990s public funds were initiated by the Swedish government, channelled through the County Administrative Boards, to encourage the establishment of Women Resource Centres (WRCs). Since then, WRCs all over the country have worked to increase women's participation in regional development. According to an earlier study, WRCs have systematically organized innovation systems at the local, regional and national level in Sweden by linking actors from different spheres of society around topics such as new technology, culture and service industry.2 Gradually, the Swedish innovation system of WRCs has expanded internationally through funding from various European Union funds encouraging transnational cooperation. In 2006 the European association WINNET Europe was formed, gathering WRCs from 21 countries. In this paper, we set out to analyse how WRCs have organised an innovation system on the European level, gathering actors from different spheres of society encountering both support and resistance. We describe this process of internationalisation in the light of theories of innovation systems and triple helix. The questions we try to answer are: Which actors have been mobilised and what resistance and successes has been encountered? How might these factors be related to the ambition of gender mainstreaming in Sweden and EU? The answer to the first question is that in order to properly analyse the European innovation system of WRCs a new category of helixes has to be introduced. Our suggestion is that this new helix is to be called ‘Quattro helix', exposing the crucial roles of the private, public and academic sector, as well as of the civil sector. Regarding the second question, we have distinguished how WRCs have experienced problems with mobilising organisational and economic support at the regional level, simultaneously being attended to and encouraged by actors on European level.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Man Machine Relation Focusing Gender

Människa-maskin med inriktning mot genusforskning

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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