Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

This is the latest version of this item.

Abstract

This study has its starting point in two archipelagoes in two municipalities in two countries. It examines civil society and the municipalities and the relationship between them. This by examining what it means to be a citizen in the archipelago, and how engaging in civil society forms this citizenship. It also investigates how the municipalities relationship towards civil society is manifested. This by examining how the municipalities work vis-à-vis the associations in the archipelago and how they view civil society’s role in contributing to local development. The study further investigate methods the municipalities use to this end and how these shape civil society.

The conclusion is that civil society has an important role on the islands, and what has been found are three important aspects that build a local citizenship. The associations nurtures and passes on their islands history and traditions, they gather people and build community, and they mobilize in dealing with challenges, such as an absence of public or commercial services or a declining population and the challenges that this entail.

At the same time, the study has shown that both the representatives of the associations and the municipality's officials believe that the associations vis-à-vis the municipality needs to stand on its own two feet, even if the municipality is expected to have a supporting role. In both municipalities, this support mainly consists of grants to the associations. It has also been shown that the municipalities have a similar outlook on the problems that these grants in part could be a solution to, which can be summarized as a problem with declining populations in the archipelagoes. The difference that proved clear was in the perception of the dialogue with the municipality by the associations representatives. In Brändö, as a significantly smaller municipality than Norrtälje, dialogue was characterized by short and quick contact channels and a higher level of trust, while some of the associations in Norrtälje expressed a lower trust in the dialogue and the municipality's presence in the archipelago. In the study, the associations view of the municipality's role emerged, although implicitly, when they talked about when the municipality did not do what was expected of it, such as maintaining public services such as schools on the islands.

Finally, the question about the grants and whether these have cultivated a certain self-image among the associations was also discussed. Although it was found that representatives of the associations often presented a self-image of being independent and able to act, no further conclusions whether this could be linked to the municipality’s method of distributing grants could be established.