Civil Society Organisations in National and Local welfare: Investigating three metropolitan areas in Sweden

• Voluntary organizations as well as market based for-profit actors have generally held a marginal position in producing welfare services for the larger population and in Sweden the main role and function for voluntary sector organizations has been to act as political agents (Lundström & Svedberg 2003; Svedberg & Olsson 2010; Wollebeak & Selle 2008; Selle & Wollebaek 2010). Recent research however stresses that this balance is changing in terms of gradual shifts ‘from voice to service’ or ‘from members to volunteers’ and an increase in professionalization among voluntary organizations (Wijkström & Einarsson 2006; Papakostas 2004; Svedberg & Olsson 2010). Financial support has been steered towards fulfilling public goods and politically defined usage (‘value for money’) and less as support for organizational development (Danielsson et al 2009). Whereas such model changes are discussed in several European countries few studies seek to investigate changing governance mo dels and state-voluntary sector relations at local level, despite it is at local level policies are put into practise. In this paper we explore local welfare systems as reconditions for the structure, size and roles of civil society organizations operating within the social welfare field. A specific aim is to analyze how local governments affect the local settings for civil society organizations, which includes providing explanations on variations among municipalities. The paper draws on case studies in the three metropolitan cities in Sweden (Stockholm, Gothenburg and M almö) and shows similarities between the cities local policies and governance arrangements, yet quite different policies and governance arrangements regarding their role as producing social services. The City of Malmö follows a Social democratic model with limited outsourcing and contracting out and involvement of CSOs as service providers. The City of Gothenburg follows a coportaist model in which a few CSOs are selected as providers. The City of Stockholm has developed a liberal market-oriented model in which CSOs are expected to compete with companies. The results of the case studies illuminate that importance of supplementing the national level analysis with analysis of local welfare systems. The article contributes to our understanding of local governments role as orchestrators of the CSOs and also to our understanding of the development of local welfare systems.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Civil Society Organizations

Local Welfare System

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