Search

There is considerable geographical overlap between areas set aside for nature conservation and Indigenous peoples’ lands, and the social, economic and political consequences of protected areas have often been extensive for Indigenous peoples. The same is true in Sápmi. In Norway, Sweden and Finland, environmental governance and management has historically been largely centralised, with low levels of local influence and control. In line with global trends, the countries’ environmental policies are moving towards collaborative models as a preferred arrangement for environmental management and are increasingly considering Sámi rights to influence over the governance and management of land and natural resources in Sápmi. However, mechanisms to ensure Sámi influence in conservation governance and management differ considerably between the countries. Moreover, collaborative conservation governance and management arrangements do not always deliver the positive social outcomes expected. In this chapter, we discuss the intersection of conservation and Sámi rights on the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish sides of Sápmi, with a particular focus on collaborative arrangements and the ways in which discourses on conservation, collaboration and Indigenous peoples shape conditions for Sámi agency in relation to the governance and management of landscapes for environmental protection.

Innovative sustainable transport policies are often tested through experiments or pilots. This chapter focuses on how urban transport experimentation is governed, in today’s context where collaboration and partnerships beyond government are often posited as the key to policy innovation. It critically discusses whether experimentation can be understood as a ‘network governance’ process. First, it analyses the claim that the future role of municipal government is to primarily govern by ‘enabling’ activities led by civil society and private actors. Second, it analyses whether voluntary experiment partnerships based on shared normative sustainability goals are particularly effective for co-creating policy innovations. These two propositions are examined against findings from empirical research on 108 sustainable transport experiments implemented in Bristol and New York City between 1996 and 2016. While non-state involvement and network partnerships were in many cases important for realising transformative impacts from experimentation, they were by no means a precondition. Rather than urban transport experimentation being a network governance process per se, we suggest it reflects ‘hybrid governance’ with multiple co-existing governance modes., QC 20231027

This chapter contributes to the understanding of how change within auditing is initiated and formed through collaboration and negotiation between FAR and other actors within the organisational field of municipal auditing in Sweden. The empirical data is based on documents and interviews with actors within and outside the audit profession. Thus, the data represents different perspectives and interests throughout the change process. The analyses show that it was different partial jolts that made the various actors feel institutional pressure to get involved in the change process. At the end of the change process, an additional partial jolt, initiated by an outside actor, facilitated and accelerated the process as it reinforced the understanding of interdependence between the actors involved.

There is considerable geographical overlap between areas set aside for nature conservation and Indigenous peoples’ lands, and the social, economic and political consequences of protected areas have often been extensive for Indigenous peoples. The same is true in Sápmi. In Norway, Sweden and Finland, environmental governance and management has historically been largely centralised, with low levels of local influence and control. In line with global trends, the countries’ environmental policies are moving towards collaborative models as a preferred arrangement for environmental management and are increasingly considering Sámi rights to influence over the governance and management of land and natural resources in Sápmi. However, mechanisms to ensure Sámi influence in conservation governance and management differ considerably between the countries. Moreover, collaborative conservation governance and management arrangements do not always deliver the positive social outcomes expected. In this chapter, we discuss the intersection of conservation and Sámi rights on the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish sides of Sápmi, with a particular focus on collaborative arrangements and the ways in which discourses on conservation, collaboration and Indigenous peoples shape conditions for Sámi agency in relation to the governance and management of landscapes for environmental protection.

Innovative sustainable transport policies are often tested through experiments or pilots. This chapter focuses on how urban transport experimentation is governed, in today’s context where collaboration and partnerships beyond government are often posited as the key to policy innovation. It critically discusses whether experimentation can be understood as a ‘network governance’ process. First, it analyses the claim that the future role of municipal government is to primarily govern by ‘enabling’ activities led by civil society and private actors. Second, it analyses whether voluntary experiment partnerships based on shared normative sustainability goals are particularly effective for co-creating policy innovations. These two propositions are examined against findings from empirical research on 108 sustainable transport experiments implemented in Bristol and New York City between 1996 and 2016. While non-state involvement and network partnerships were in many cases important for realising transformative impacts from experimentation, they were by no means a precondition. Rather than urban transport experimentation being a network governance process per se, we suggest it reflects ‘hybrid governance’ with multiple co-existing governance modes., QC 20231027

There is considerable geographical overlap between areas set aside for nature conservation and Indigenous peoples’ lands, and the social, economic and political consequences of protected areas have often been extensive for Indigenous peoples. The same is true in Sápmi. In Norway, Sweden and Finland, environmental governance and management has historically been largely centralised, with low levels of local influence and control. In line with global trends, the countries’ environmental policies are moving towards collaborative models as a preferred arrangement for environmental management and are increasingly considering Sámi rights to influence over the governance and management of land and natural resources in Sápmi. However, mechanisms to ensure Sámi influence in conservation governance and management differ considerably between the countries. Moreover, collaborative conservation governance and management arrangements do not always deliver the positive social outcomes expected. In this chapter, we discuss the intersection of conservation and Sámi rights on the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish sides of Sápmi, with a particular focus on collaborative arrangements and the ways in which discourses on conservation, collaboration and Indigenous peoples shape conditions for Sámi agency in relation to the governance and management of landscapes for environmental protection.

Innovative sustainable transport policies are often tested through experiments or pilots. This chapter focuses on how urban transport experimentation is governed, in today’s context where collaboration and partnerships beyond government are often posited as the key to policy innovation. It critically discusses whether experimentation can be understood as a ‘network governance’ process. First, it analyses the claim that the future role of municipal government is to primarily govern by ‘enabling’ activities led by civil society and private actors. Second, it analyses whether voluntary experiment partnerships based on shared normative sustainability goals are particularly effective for co-creating policy innovations. These two propositions are examined against findings from empirical research on 108 sustainable transport experiments implemented in Bristol and New York City between 1996 and 2016. While non-state involvement and network partnerships were in many cases important for realising transformative impacts from experimentation, they were by no means a precondition. Rather than urban transport experimentation being a network governance process per se, we suggest it reflects ‘hybrid governance’ with multiple co-existing governance modes., QC 20231027

In this article, we study polarization within civil society. While earlier research on civil society has shown that civil society organizations can be divisive, research on polarization has only paid scant attention to the role of civil society. We bring these two aspects of the literature together to develop a framework for analyzing social capital in a polarized context. The framework helps identify practices that organizations may engage in when shaping social capital and working with others: facilitating the flow of information; providing credentials for actors; influencing agents; and reinforcing identity and recognition. Importantly, while originally developed for a fundamentally positive analysis of the mechanics of social capital, this framework includes inverted practices. In our analysis, we observe a bifurcation of actions depending on what role they play in the polarization dynamic–integrating relations within the poles or separating relations between the poles. In this sense, social capital contributes to intensified polarization. Empirically, the article is based on a dataset of 30 interviews with 24 policy-oriented civil societyorganizations (CSOs), here termed think tanks, in Poland.

Denna rapport är den andra rapporten i forskningsprojektet. Institutionella hinder och möjligheter tillsamordning (Nordic Transport infrastructure planning. Institutional barriers andopportunities for coordination) (2021–2023). Syftet med NORDINFRA är att öka kunskapen om gränsöverskridande transportinfrastruktur i Norden genom att identifiera hinder för gränsöverskridande transportinfrastruktur, peka påmöjligheter och föreslå åtgärder för att underlätta planering av gränsöverskridande transportinfrastruktur. Projektet, som har finansierats av Trafikverket, har letts av Nordregio, och genomförts av forskare från Nordregio och Umeå universitet. I den första rapporten, "Cross-border transport infrastructure planning in the Nordic Region - An introduction" (2023) gavs en bakgrund och fördjupning av hur gränsöverskridande transportinfrastrukturplanering bedrivs inom ramen för de olika planeringssystemen i Danmark, Finland, Norge och Sverige, samt vilken roll den nordiska och EU-kontexten spelar. Den här andra och sista rapporten i projektet bygger på empiri från intervjuer i tre fallstudier av infrastrukturprojekt i tidiga skeden; den fasta HH-förbindelsen mellan Helsingborg och Helsingör, järnvägsförbindelsen Stockholm–Oslo, och länken från Mo i Rana, via Hemavan och Umeå, över Kvarken till Vasa. I intervjuerna med intressenter från fallstudieprojekten har vi ställt frågor om hur de ser på formella och informellahinder för gränsöverskridande transportinfrastrukturplanering, och hur dessa hinder skulle kunna överbryggas. De båda rapporterna är komplementära. Precis som skrivbordsstudierna i den första rapporten visade, bekräftar intervjuerna att gränsöverskridande transportinfrastrukturplanering involverar många aktörer på olika administrativa nivåer, från ministerier och transportmyndigheter på den nationella nivån, till regioner, kommuner, gränsöverskridande organisationer, privata företag och lobbygrupper. Intervjuerna visar också att den nationella nivån och regerin, This report is the second report in the research project titled NORDINFRA –“Nordic transport infrastructure planning – institutional barriers andopportunities for coordination” (2021-2023). The aim of NORDINFRA is to increase knowledge about cross-border transportinfrastructure planning in the Nordic countries by identifying barriers, highlighting opportunities and proposing measures to facilitate the planning of cross-border transport infrastructure. The project has been financed by the Swedish Transport Administration. It was led by Nordregio and carried out by researchers from Nordregio and Umeå University. NORDINFRA –“Nordic transport infrastructure planning – institutional barriers andopportunities for coordination” The first report, Cross-border transport infrastructure planning in the Nordic Region – An introduction(2023) provided background information and in-depth insight into how cross-border transport infrastructure planning is shaped by the different planning systems in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and by the Nordic and EU context. This report is based on empirical data from three case studies of infrastructure projects in early phases, namely the fixed HH link between Helsingborg and Helsingør, the Stockholm-Oslo rail link, and the link from Mo i Rana, via Hemavan and Umeå, across the Kvarken Strait to Vaasa. In interviews with stakeholders from these regions, we asked how they view formal and informal barriers to the development of cross-border transport infrastructure and how these barriers could be reduced. The two reports are complementary. As the desk studies in the first report showed, the interviews confirm that cross-border transport infrastructure planning involves many players at different levelsof government, from national ministries and transport authorities through toregions, municipalities, cross-border organisations, private companies and lobbygroups. However, the interviews in the case study areas also show that governments at the

På flera håll i världen har en politisk polarisering mellan stad och landsbygd vuxit fram. Den har bland annat tagit sig uttryck i form av en landsbygd med minskat förtroende för institutioner och ökat stöd för populistiska partier. Tidigare svenska studier har inte funnit någon tydlig polarisering av detta slag, men det kan hänga samman med vilka frågor som ställts och de geografiska indelningar som använts i dessa studier. I den här rapporten undersöks polarisering mellan stad och land med hjälp av en särskild urvalsundersökning som riktar sig till dem som bor i de allra minst och allra mest tätbefolkade delarna av Sverige. En stor del urvalet är dessutom riktat till 18-åringar, vilket gör det möjligt att få en bild av uppfattningarna hos personer som ännu inte hunnit flytta till en annan del av landet för arbete eller utbildning. Totalt sett baseras analyserna på svar från 2 703 personer. Rapporten har tre frågor i fokus. Den första frågan avser om personer i stad respektive på landsbygd ger uttryck för ressentiment som har sin grund i platsen där de bor. Med det avses en form av agg och bitterhet som grundar sig i uppfattningen att man i det egna området har fundamentalt skilda värderingar och livsstilar än personer i andra områden, att det egna området ignoreras av politiska beslutsfattare, samt att området inte får sin rättmätiga del av resurserna. De resultat som presenteras i den här rapporten ger visst stöd för att det på landsbygden finns ett sådant platsbaserat ressentiment. De som bor där anser att de har andra värderingar än de som bor i städerna och att stadsborna inte bryr sig om landsbygden. De är också av uppfattningen att de politiskt styrande gynnar städer och inte landsbygd. Däremot finns inte stöd för ett sådan ressentiment bland stadsbor. De tycker visserligen också att det finns skillnader i värderingar mellan stad och land, men de anser inte att städerna missgynnas av de politiskt styrande. Tvärtom är de av uppfattningen att det är städerna o

Everything should come together, and everything should permeate everything. Trends in governance and policy areas have come to encompass increasingly broader and more diverse issues. For example, sustainable development should guide all parts of government, but there is often little guidance on what this means in practice and how organizations should tackle the diverse issues and challenges of sustainability. Overall, much indicates that the challenges and problems faced by decision-makers in public administration have become increasingly difficult to manage. Some of these problems are particularly challenging and cannot be solved with a short term solution, by a single actor, or by an established method. These problems can only be managed and are referred to as "wicked problems" in the literature. The dissertation focuses on two wicked problems: sustainability and a pandemic. The analysis address how these wicked problems are handled by local public authorities in Sweden. Both problems have an unclear scope, a vague definition, and no definitive solution within reach. The overshadowing argument is that wicked problems need to be framed to be managed through policy mechanisms and implementation processes. The thesis argues that a frame determines and delimits the issue at hand, thus configuring what becomes manageable or not in practice. The dissertation is based on a selection of empirical case studies aimed at observing how governments translate the problems they face by handling both the need to become more sustainable and balancing the needs during a pandemic through changes and modifying the discourse. The study employs an interpretive and constructivist analysis of document studies and interviews with key stakeholders. The overarching conclusions indicate that framing is a central process necessary to move wicked problems forward on the political agenda and make them manageable. In this way, framing helps to delimit the problems; the framing becomes crucial fo, Allt ska gå ihop, och allt måste genomsyra allt. Styrtrender och politikområden har kommit att omfatta allt mer och allt bredare frågeställningar. Sammantaget pekar mycket på att de problem som beslutsfattare och verksamheter ställs inför har blivit svårare att hantera. Några av dessa problem är särskilt svåra för offentligheten, och de kan inte lösas på traditionella sätt. Dessa problem kan endast hanteras och kallas i litteraturen för lömska problem. Avhandlingen tar sig an hållbarhet som ett sådant lömskt problem, med fokus på hälso- och sjukvård samt COVID-19-pandemin. Båda fallen har en oklar omfattning, en vag innebörd och det finns heller inget definitivt slut som är nåbart inom en snar framtid. Det övergripande argumentet är att lömska problemen behöver ramas in för att kunna hanteras av organisationer. Ramen avgör och avgränsar sakfrågan, och vad som blir hanterbart eller inte. Analyserna utgår från och bygger på ett urval av empiriska studier om hållbar hälsa samt COVID-19-pandemin. Forskningsdesignen för att studera hanteringen av dessa två lömska problem bygger på en tolkande och konstruktivistisk analys av dokument och intervjuer med nyckelaktörer. De övergripande slutsatserna pekar på att inramning är en central process som gör lömska problem hanterbara. Genom inramning avgränsas problemen; inramningen blir avgörande för vad som blir hanterbart och vad som lämnas utanför. Resultaten visar att organisationer använder olika strategier för att rama in lömska problem. Strategierna bygger på befintliga institutioner och organisatoriska handlingsmönster, med följd att det ursprungliga lömska problemet antingen förbinds, förenas och/eller förändras. Slutsatserna understryker behovet av att fortsätta synliggöra lömska problem inom olika policyområden, att uppmärksamma de större och mer komplexa aspekterna av vissa politiska frågeställningar, samt att fortsätta identifiera olika hanteringsmekanismer.

The relationship between the Swedish government and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) has sparked debates, particularly regarding the agreements established in the healthcare sector. These agreements strive to ensure national equivalence while allowing municipal influence in governance. However, the agreements entail closed negotiations and bestow decision-making authority upon SALAR – a non-public employers’ and interest organization funded by tax money – representing the municipalities. Despite their significance, limited research has explored the utilization and repercussions of these agreements, especially concerning their democratic implications. This knowledge gap is striking given the regional authorities’ substantial management of tax revenues and primary responsibility for healthcare, as regional democracy has received scant attention in political science research and society. Therefore, this thesis aims to bridge this gap by mapping and evaluating the democratic legitimacy of the agreement development process between the government and SALAR. The focus of analysis is on the 2023 agreement relating to maternity care and women’s health. The empirical material includes accessible documents, as well as interviews with individuals knowledgeable about the decision-making process and those anticipated to have gained insights. Through reconstructing the decision-making process and employing two contrasting democratic ideals – the traditional representative model and the network-based multi-actor model – this study uncovers the challenges encountered in upholding these ideals during the agreement development. Notably, the democratic values of accountability, openness, and transparency were significantly compromised. Therefore, the decision-making process can be assessed as lacking full democratic legitimacy.

The 2030 Agenda and its integrative and indivisible sustainable development goals (SDGs) challenge traditional ways of governing. Hence, collaboration across sectors, actors, and levels is fundamental in SDG localisation, where subnational levels (actors at regional and local levels) play key roles in forwarding societal transformation. The paper sheds light on the complexity of collaboration by exploring the early stages of developing multi-actor collaboration for SDG implementation at a county level in Sweden. The analyses depart from interviews and observations. One of the main conclusions is that it is important to discuss the involved organisations understanding and ambitions more in-depth early on in such collaboration processes. To be able to do so, the actors need to have the capacity to see beyond their traditional roles. Moreover, the study indicates that leadership is essential in this context, but this leadership needs to be based on neutrality, which, in practise, is a challenge., Funding Agencies|FORMAS [2017-01099]

In times of economic hardship, local governments often resort to school closures. These are often directed towards struggling rural communities, already experiencing substantial depopulation. The affected communities often react with fierce protests against responsible politicians. However, the political effects of school closures have mostly been overlooked in previous research. By using a novel geocoded dataset on all rural school closures in Sweden between 2013 and 2020, this study explores their political ramifications. The results show that school closures decrease the trust in municipal politicians and have negative effects on the support for the incumbent, an effect that is most pronounced for left-leaning parties. This study contributes to the literature on rural school closures and welfare retrenchments and expands previous research on social decommissioning in rural areas to include educational policies., Funding Agencies|Lansforsakringars Forskningsfond [P7/20]

Even though Sweden has well over half a century’s experience with migration, recently strengthened master narratives of migration and migrants as social problems are generating an impact on policies and practices at the local level. Previous research has identified how narratives of migration and migrants impact policy making and interventions related to migration, integration and accommodation of migrants. This study widens the scope as it identifies how narratives of migration and migrants impact policies and practices in general. Adopting a theoretical framework based on racialisation, decision making and narrative theory, 17 interviews with local government administrators and police officers from a district in Stockholm are analysed. The results show how narratives of migration and migrants are embedded in the causal argumentation of present problems in the district. When practically every problem is argued to have migration as a root cause, policy and practices for solving them tend to target migrants. The article describes how this takes place and the final discussion addresses several risks that follow. First, the quality and efficiency of policy and interventions is at risk when the causality behind a problem is simplified and inaccurate. Second, targeting migrants when addressing the districts’ problems also risk omitting those natives impacted by a problem from benefiting from the solution or relief provided by the local government. Third, there is a risk that the local government strengthens the master narrative of migration and migrants as causing society’s problems. Given the results, an ending theoretical contribution is provided, arguing that a local government is a racialising bureaucracy. Not only is it racialised in its structure, as previous theory has stated, it also actively contributes to the reproduction and development of racialised structures in society at large.

This paper develops a decision-based approach to meta-governance by drawing on insights from studies of organization outside of formal organizations. We argue that meta-governance can be analyzed as a form of partial organization of interactive arenas. Meta-governance has become an important concept in theorizing the role of government in contemporary governance, particularly in the context of shaping and providing guidance to different interactive arenas, such as networks and quasi-markets. Meta-governance is, however, also a broad and ambiguous concept, which limits its ability to guide empirical research on the actual practices of governing and the actors involved. Rather than presenting a new perspective on meta-governance, the framework of partial organization enables analysis of the processes behind the formation of meta-governance strategies. By focusing on decision-making, it offers a dynamic understanding of the stepwise development of meta-governance, reflecting an emerging, rather than predefined, rationality of governance arrangements.

Everything should come together, and everything should permeate everything. Trends in governance and policy areas have come to encompass increasingly broader and more diverse issues. For example, sustainable development should guide all parts of government, but there is often little guidance on what this means in practice and how organizations should tackle the diverse issues and challenges of sustainability. Overall, much indicates that the challenges and problems faced by decision-makers in public administration have become increasingly difficult to manage. Some of these problems are particularly challenging and cannot be solved with a short term solution, by a single actor, or by an established method. These problems can only be managed and are referred to as "wicked problems" in the literature. The dissertation focuses on two wicked problems: sustainability and a pandemic. The analysis address how these wicked problems are handled by local public authorities in Sweden. Both problems have an unclear scope, a vague definition, and no definitive solution within reach. The overshadowing argument is that wicked problems need to be framed to be managed through policy mechanisms and implementation processes. The thesis argues that a frame determines and delimits the issue at hand, thus configuring what becomes manageable or not in practice. The dissertation is based on a selection of empirical case studies aimed at observing how governments translate the problems they face by handling both the need to become more sustainable and balancing the needs during a pandemic through changes and modifying the discourse. The study employs an interpretive and constructivist analysis of document studies and interviews with key stakeholders. The overarching conclusions indicate that framing is a central process necessary to move wicked problems forward on the political agenda and make them manageable. In this way, framing helps to delimit the problems; the framing becomes crucial fo, Allt ska gå ihop, och allt måste genomsyra allt. Styrtrender och politikområden har kommit att omfatta allt mer och allt bredare frågeställningar. Sammantaget pekar mycket på att de problem som beslutsfattare och verksamheter ställs inför har blivit svårare att hantera. Några av dessa problem är särskilt svåra för offentligheten, och de kan inte lösas på traditionella sätt. Dessa problem kan endast hanteras och kallas i litteraturen för lömska problem. Avhandlingen tar sig an hållbarhet som ett sådant lömskt problem, med fokus på hälso- och sjukvård samt COVID-19-pandemin. Båda fallen har en oklar omfattning, en vag innebörd och det finns heller inget definitivt slut som är nåbart inom en snar framtid. Det övergripande argumentet är att lömska problemen behöver ramas in för att kunna hanteras av organisationer. Ramen avgör och avgränsar sakfrågan, och vad som blir hanterbart eller inte. Analyserna utgår från och bygger på ett urval av empiriska studier om hållbar hälsa samt COVID-19-pandemin. Forskningsdesignen för att studera hanteringen av dessa två lömska problem bygger på en tolkande och konstruktivistisk analys av dokument och intervjuer med nyckelaktörer. De övergripande slutsatserna pekar på att inramning är en central process som gör lömska problem hanterbara. Genom inramning avgränsas problemen; inramningen blir avgörande för vad som blir hanterbart och vad som lämnas utanför. Resultaten visar att organisationer använder olika strategier för att rama in lömska problem. Strategierna bygger på befintliga institutioner och organisatoriska handlingsmönster, med följd att det ursprungliga lömska problemet antingen förbinds, förenas och/eller förändras. Slutsatserna understryker behovet av att fortsätta synliggöra lömska problem inom olika policyområden, att uppmärksamma de större och mer komplexa aspekterna av vissa politiska frågeställningar, samt att fortsätta identifiera olika hanteringsmekanismer.

The term "Islamist" and the way it is used has gained a decisive importance for the discourse on Muslims and Muslim organization in Sweden. This paper is an analysis of how the term “Islamist” is used in six official texts from the department of Psycological Defense at the Swedish Authority for Civil Contingencies (from 2022 the Authority for Psycological Defense). Here, we examine the concept of Islamism through a critical discourse analysis based on a previously performed thematic analysis of six texts produced within the departments knowledge project on Islamist information influence in Sweden, 2017-2022. We show that the term "Islamist" is used fluidly in the examined texts. A precisely defined, anti-democratic and dangerous ideology of “Islamic hooliganism” is defined as entirely distinguished from “ordinary Muslims”, and yet applied to very broad swathes of the population, including people with a Muslim identity, or people who are motivated by their Muslim faith to perform charity work. We have found that, as a result of a plastic and rhetorically malleable conceptual definition, the examined texts have formulated a larger narrative about Islamism in Sweden as virtually synonymous with Muslim organization in general. Islamism is depicted as something foreign, as well as physically, socially, and ideologically threatening, incompatible with democracy and therefore something that needs to be monitored and defunded. The term Islamism thus becomes a tool to defund Muslim organizations and deplatforming Muslim individuals from the public sphere.

Förutsättningar för krisberedskap och totalförsvar i Sverige ger en beskrivning av hur totalförsvar och krisberedskap har utvecklats och inriktats, från 1901 och fram till idag. Fokus ligger på förändringar i lagstiftning, systemutveckling och hotbildsuppfattning. Läsaren får en inblick i de kriser, katastrofer och politiska skeenden i Sverige och i andra delar av världen som har påverkat utvecklingen av svensk beredskap. Nyheter i denna utgåva inkluderar att aktörers ansvar har uppdaterats utifrån strukturreformen, kapitel om hybridhot och våldbejakande extremism samt en bilaga om Natos övergripande organisering och styrning. Med skriften,som ingår i uppdragsutbildningar och i högskolekurser, vill Försvarshögskolan/CTSS stödja kunskapsuppbyggnaden inom svensk beredskap., Viktoria Asp är redaktör. Ett stort antal medarbetare har bidragit till arbetet med rapporten. Rapporten uppdateras ungefär vartannat år.

The public sector is becoming increasingly complex. As complexity leadership theory has been formulated in order to understand leadership in such a context, it thus seems appropriate that it should inform public leadership research. However, the applicability of complexity leadership theory and the concomitant adaptive leadership practices have thus far been underexplored empirically in a public sector context. To address this omission, this article uses a qualitative case study to exemplify how adaptive leadership practices may manifest themselves in a public sector context. The article’s findings indicate that adaptive leadership practices that reduce, rather than induce, tension within the dynamics of actors’ interactions may be a more viable route to handle challenges within a public sector context. Future research could beneficially pay greater attention to the public sector context when studying how adaptive leadership practices might manifest themselves in public sector organizations, as well as when assessing the merits of complexity leadership theory in informing public leadership.

Many professions in the public sector, such as healthcare staff, social welfare officers and teachers are experiencing a heavier workload and an increasing number of work tasks of growing complexity. This study examines the policy tendency to introduce a stricter division of labour, by delegating lower status tasks professionals preform to assistants, as a key to reduce public sector workload. In contrast, the public sector has been subject to organisational reforms the past 20–30 years resulting in a reduced division of labour among professions. This article explores the reversibility of the division of labour within a local public sector context, and it demonstrates how different micro-level factors may promote or counteract changes in the division of labour at the workplace. A main contribution is the prospect to rethink the capacity of organisational work-related reforms in professional settings directed at processes of division of labour in local public organisations.

The relationship between the Swedish government and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) has sparked debates, particularly regarding the agreements established in the healthcare sector. These agreements strive to ensure national equivalence while allowing municipal influence in governance. However, the agreements entail closed negotiations and bestow decision-making authority upon SALAR – a non-public employers’ and interest organization funded by tax money – representing the municipalities. Despite their significance, limited research has explored the utilization and repercussions of these agreements, especially concerning their democratic implications. This knowledge gap is striking given the regional authorities’ substantial management of tax revenues and primary responsibility for healthcare, as regional democracy has received scant attention in political science research and society. Therefore, this thesis aims to bridge this gap by mapping and evaluating the democratic legitimacy of the agreement development process between the government and SALAR. The focus of analysis is on the 2023 agreement relating to maternity care and women’s health. The empirical material includes accessible documents, as well as interviews with individuals knowledgeable about the decision-making process and those anticipated to have gained insights. Through reconstructing the decision-making process and employing two contrasting democratic ideals – the traditional representative model and the network-based multi-actor model – this study uncovers the challenges encountered in upholding these ideals during the agreement development. Notably, the democratic values of accountability, openness, and transparency were significantly compromised. Therefore, the decision-making process can be assessed as lacking full democratic legitimacy.

På flera håll i världen har en politisk polarisering mellan stad och landsbygd vuxit fram. Den har bland annat tagit sig uttryck i form av en landsbygd med minskat förtroende för institutioner och ökat stöd för populistiska partier. Tidigare svenska studier har inte funnit någon tydlig polarisering av detta slag, men det kan hänga samman med vilka frågor som ställts och de geografiska indelningar som använts i dessa studier. I den här rapporten undersöks polarisering mellan stad och land med hjälp av en särskild urvalsundersökning som riktar sig till dem som bor i de allra minst och allra mest tätbefolkade delarna av Sverige. En stor del urvalet är dessutom riktat till 18-åringar, vilket gör det möjligt att få en bild av uppfattningarna hos personer som ännu inte hunnit flytta till en annan del av landet för arbete eller utbildning. Totalt sett baseras analyserna på svar från 2 703 personer. Rapporten har tre frågor i fokus. Den första frågan avser om personer i stad respektive på landsbygd ger uttryck för ressentiment som har sin grund i platsen där de bor. Med det avses en form av agg och bitterhet som grundar sig i uppfattningen att man i det egna området har fundamentalt skilda värderingar och livsstilar än personer i andra områden, att det egna området ignoreras av politiska beslutsfattare, samt att området inte får sin rättmätiga del av resurserna. De resultat som presenteras i den här rapporten ger visst stöd för att det på landsbygden finns ett sådant platsbaserat ressentiment. De som bor där anser att de har andra värderingar än de som bor i städerna och att stadsborna inte bryr sig om landsbygden. De är också av uppfattningen att de politiskt styrande gynnar städer och inte landsbygd. Däremot finns inte stöd för ett sådan ressentiment bland stadsbor. De tycker visserligen också att det finns skillnader i värderingar mellan stad och land, men de anser inte att städerna missgynnas av de politiskt styrande. Tvärtom är de av uppfattningen att det är städerna o

Corruption risks in a mature democracy: Mechanisms of social advantage and danger zones for corruption

Everything should come together, and everything should permeate everything. Trends in governance and policy areas have come to encompass increasingly broader and more diverse issues. For example, sustainable development should guide all parts of government, but there is often little guidance on what this means in practice and how organizations should tackle the diverse issues and challenges of sustainability. Overall, much indicates that the challenges and problems faced by decision-makers in public administration have become increasingly difficult to manage. Some of these problems are particularly challenging and cannot be solved with a short term solution, by a single actor, or by an established method. These problems can only be managed and are referred to as "wicked problems" in the literature. The dissertation focuses on two wicked problems: sustainability and a pandemic. The analysis address how these wicked problems are handled by local public authorities in Sweden. Both problems have an unclear scope, a vague definition, and no definitive solution within reach. The overshadowing argument is that wicked problems need to be framed to be managed through policy mechanisms and implementation processes. The thesis argues that a frame determines and delimits the issue at hand, thus configuring what becomes manageable or not in practice. The dissertation is based on a selection of empirical case studies aimed at observing how governments translate the problems they face by handling both the need to become more sustainable and balancing the needs during a pandemic through changes and modifying the discourse. The study employs an interpretive and constructivist analysis of document studies and interviews with key stakeholders. The overarching conclusions indicate that framing is a central process necessary to move wicked problems forward on the political agenda and make them manageable. In this way, framing helps to delimit the problems; the framing becomes crucial fo, Allt ska gå ihop, och allt måste genomsyra allt. Styrtrender och politikområden har kommit att omfatta allt mer och allt bredare frågeställningar. Sammantaget pekar mycket på att de problem som beslutsfattare och verksamheter ställs inför har blivit svårare att hantera. Några av dessa problem är särskilt svåra för offentligheten, och de kan inte lösas på traditionella sätt. Dessa problem kan endast hanteras och kallas i litteraturen för lömska problem. Avhandlingen tar sig an hållbarhet som ett sådant lömskt problem, med fokus på hälso- och sjukvård samt COVID-19-pandemin. Båda fallen har en oklar omfattning, en vag innebörd och det finns heller inget definitivt slut som är nåbart inom en snar framtid. Det övergripande argumentet är att lömska problemen behöver ramas in för att kunna hanteras av organisationer. Ramen avgör och avgränsar sakfrågan, och vad som blir hanterbart eller inte. Analyserna utgår från och bygger på ett urval av empiriska studier om hållbar hälsa samt COVID-19-pandemin. Forskningsdesignen för att studera hanteringen av dessa två lömska problem bygger på en tolkande och konstruktivistisk analys av dokument och intervjuer med nyckelaktörer. De övergripande slutsatserna pekar på att inramning är en central process som gör lömska problem hanterbara. Genom inramning avgränsas problemen; inramningen blir avgörande för vad som blir hanterbart och vad som lämnas utanför. Resultaten visar att organisationer använder olika strategier för att rama in lömska problem. Strategierna bygger på befintliga institutioner och organisatoriska handlingsmönster, med följd att det ursprungliga lömska problemet antingen förbinds, förenas och/eller förändras. Slutsatserna understryker behovet av att fortsätta synliggöra lömska problem inom olika policyområden, att uppmärksamma de större och mer komplexa aspekterna av vissa politiska frågeställningar, samt att fortsätta identifiera olika hanteringsmekanismer.

Sverige anses regelmässigt tillhöra världens bäst fungerande demokratier. Med det sagt tillsätts återkommande statliga utredningar med uppgift att granska demokratins funktionssätt. Inte sällan uppmärksammas problem och utvecklingsområden. Ett område som regelmässigt uppmärksammas är den ökande koncentrationen av uppdrag i händerna på några få individer ute i de svenska kommunsektorn. Mot denna bakgrund syftar föreliggande rapport till att undersöka uppdragskoncentration i svenska kommuner. Den gör det genom att kartlägga koncentrationen av politiska uppdrag samt utforska kopplingen mellan organisationsstruktur och uppdragskoncentration. Författarna uppmärksammar bland annat att uppdragskoncentration har begränsningar som indikator på maktkoncentration då måttet inte tar hänsyn till ojämlikhet i fördelningen av uppdrag mellan politiker inom en given kommun. Vidare är sambandet mellan kommunstorlek och uppdragskoncentration inte lika tydligt som det kan verka vid första anblick. Författarna framhäver att uppdragskoncentration inte bara är kopplad till kommunstorlek, utan är starkt korrelerad med hur en kommun väljer att organisera sig. Ett viktigt och delvis nytt resultat jämfört med tidigare forskning är sålunda att kommunerna själva har en betydande möjlighet att påverka koncentrationen av uppdrag. För att stärka demokratin och öka inslaget av maktdelning i kommunsektorn bör därför lokala partiorganisationer se över sina interna nomineringsförfaranden och kommuner bör noggrant granskar sin egen organisationsstruktur. Båda dessa faktorer påverkar förekomst av uppdragsojämlikhet och koncentration av makt inom kommunen., GranskningRapporten är före publicering internt granskad på institutionen.

BackgroundThe initial responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark and Sweden differed markedly. Balancing disparate concerns was crucial to generate trust in the COVID-19 restrictions. The aim was to investigate the extent to which there was trust in the handling of the pandemic by the Danish and Swedish governments and public health authorities in each country. A further aim was also to investigate the characteristics of those in Denmark and Sweden who expressed the lowest degree of trust. MethodsCross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2021, using web panels that are nationally representative of the socio-demographic characteristics. The population consisted of 2619 individuals from Denmark and 2633 from Sweden, representative of the age, sex and region of residence of the populations aged ≥ 18 years. Trust in government and health authorities was captured in two separate trust questions on a 5-point Likert scale and dichotomized into low trusters and non-low trusters for analysis. ResultsApproximately, 61% of the Danish respondents expressed moderately large or very large trust in the government’s handling of the pandemic. The corresponding proportion for Sweden was 42%. The proportion of low trusters was 11% in Denmark and 34% in Sweden (p < 0.001). Moderately large or very large trust in the public health authority’s handling was expressed by 83% of the Danish respondents and 74% of the Swedish respondents. The proportion of low trusters was 5% in Denmark and 17% in Sweden (p < 0.001). In both countries, trust was lower among men than among women. Age and education were associated with trust but differed between countries (p < = 0.011). ConclusionsIn this study, differences in trust between Denmark and Sweden and both overall and within socio-demographic factors were observed. However, given the limitations and bias in the study, it is difficult to determine the cause and true size of these differences. With that in mind, we still believe specific, Funding agencies: Open access funding provided by Royal Library, Copenhagen University Library. This study was funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark.

I den här rapporten undersöker vi olika sätt att dela och återvinna resurser online och på plats i Ydre kommun, en liten och glest befolkad svensk kommun i Region Östergötland med cirka 3,700 invånare. Digitala lösningar och delningsplattformar har presenterats som ett sätt att dela begränsade resurser, i det som kallats smarta samhällen. Men delningsplattformar har framför allt studerats i storstäder, vilket motiverar studier av små och glesat befolkade samhällen. Utöver att vara känd för sin litenhet är kommunen också känd för sina många föreningar och ett mycket starkt civilsamhälle. Syftet med rapporten är att utforska det ekosystem av varor och information som cirkulerar i en Facebook-grupp, med både kvalitativa och kvantitativa data. Frågorna som har ställts är: vem är engagerad i Facebookgruppens interaktioner? Vad säljer de, byter de, återvinner de? På vilket sätt möjliggör Facebook som plattform återanvändning av varor och delning? Totalt samlades 1,137 inlägg in under tre månader från en offentlig Facebookgrupp med över 4,500 medlemmar där människor säljer och byter begagnade varor samt söker och utbyter information. Insamlingen av inlägg gjordes manuellt och en kvalitativ kodning av innehållet gjordes inspirerad av frågor som lyfts inom delningsekonomi och cirkulär ekonomi: kläder, bilar och fordon, ge bort gratis, hemelektronik, hobbyer, husgeråd och möbler, utomhusredskap och reparation, offentlig information inklusive från lokala föreningar och företagare. Den metod som tillämpats i studien kan liknas vid digital etnografi, med intresse för det vardagliga. För att tolka resultatet av kartläggningen av vad som erbjuds, byts och säljs via Facebook-gruppen är det relevant att notera att det till exempel inte finns reguljära klädbutiker i kommunen, och att närmsta fysiska butiker för att köpa nytt är belägna i omkringliggande kommuner. Vår kartläggning visar att invånarna ger uttryck för en känsla av gemenskap och samarbetar i stor utsträckning via delning

This paper analyzes through qualitative and quantitative analysis of European Union (EU) policy documents the framing of EU policy on energy-efficient buildings from the 1970s to 2022. We find that it has been framed in different ways over the decades and the framing has expanded to include more and more benefits. Through this expansion, energy efficiency has been linked to other policy areas, such as security, environmental, economic, and social policy. The shifts in framing can be seen as responses to external events. The expansion can also be explained using two metaphors to analyze how the framing differs depending on political positioning. One where policy is seen as a Swiss knife, able to solve multiple political problems, and one where policy is seen as a Trojan horse, where new policy domains are snuck in by policymakers disguising it as energy efficiency policy to increase EU competency in relation to national governments., Funding Agencies|Swedish Energy Agency [P2021-00238]

Bokinfo: Människobehandlande organisationer är en antologi som ger en bred överblick över välfärdens kärnverksamheter, vården, skolan och omsorgen, och beskriver vad som utmärker och skiljer dessa verksamheter från privata företag och organisationer när det gäller uppdrag, organisation, ledarskap och förändringsarbete. I den första utgåvan från 2015 var utgångspunkten de förändringar som globaliseringen, teknikutvecklingen och marknadiseringen i form av New Public Management (NPM) medfört för de människobehandlande organisationerna. I denna andra utgåva har författarna, förutom att uppdatera och förnya innehållet utifrån aktuell forskning, även tagit hänsyn till andra betydande händelser i omvärlden, som flyktingkrisen i mitten av 2010-talet och coronapandemin. Dessutom har de följt upp det ökande intresset för granskning och kontroll och den växande kritiken mot NPM. Är alternativet en mer tillitsbaserad ledning och styrning inom välfärdssektorn? Sex nya kapitel har tillkommit. De tar upp kunskapsbildning och forskning om människobehandlande organisationer, migration och flyktingmottagande, hur man hanterar hög belastning inom grässrotsbyråkratier, standardisering och horisontell kunskapsstyrning, chefers roll och vardag inom socialtjänsten samt tillsyn inom social barnavård. Människobehandlande organisationer vänder sig till studerande på socionom-, läkar-, vård- och lärarutbildningar liksom studerande inom ekonomi, statsvetenskap, psykologi, sociologi och offentlig förvaltning. Den är även avsedd för praktiskt verksamma i människobehandlande organisationer. Bokens redaktörer Staffan Johansson, Peter Dellgran och Staffan Höjer är professorer i socialt arbete vid Göteborgs universitet. Övriga författare är forskare inom socialt arbete eller angränsande områden vid ett flertal svenska universitet.

In this article, we study polarization within civil society. While earlier research on civil society has shown that civil society organizations can be divisive, research on polarization has only paid scant attention to the role of civil society. We bring these two aspects of the literature together to develop a framework for analyzing social capital in a polarized context. The framework helps identify practices that organizations may engage in when shaping social capital and working with others: facilitating the flow of information; providing credentials for actors; influencing agents; and reinforcing identity and recognition. Importantly, while originally developed for a fundamentally positive analysis of the mechanics of social capital, this framework includes inverted practices. In our analysis, we observe a bifurcation of actions depending on what role they play in the polarization dynamic–integrating relations within the poles or separating relations between the poles. In this sense, social capital contributes to intensified polarization. Empirically, the article is based on a dataset of 30 interviews with 24 policy-oriented civil societyorganizations (CSOs), here termed think tanks, in Poland.

This study aims to examine the diffusion and implementation of trust-based management (TBM) in Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). TBM is a novel “anti-New Public Management (NPM)” innovation within the realm of New Public Governance (NPG), which asserts that leadership and control in public sector organizations should be practiced and designed based on the assumption that civil servants and employees in general are trustworthy. The research questions are as follows: How has TBM been diffused and implemented in Scandinavia? To what extent can the institutional logics framework increase understanding of similarities and differences between the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden)? Design/methodology/approachThe authors designed and submitted surveys to the municipal directors of the three Scandinavian municipal populations, thereby producing a unique cross-country dataset on TBM diffusion and implementation in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). FindingsThe authors' study shows that TBM has diffused widely among Scandinavian municipalities and has developed into a municipal-level concept across policy fields and sectors. While Denmark stands out as an earlier and more decisive TBM reformer, the results show that similarities in the diffusion and implementation of TBM in Scandinavian countries are more apparent than the differences. Originality/valueThis study contributes to the public management literature and research on anti-NPM and NPG concepts by being the first wide-scale empirical study of TBM diffusion and implementation in the Scandinavian municipal sectors.

This study aims to examine the diffusion and implementation of trust-based management (TBM) in Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). TBM is a novel “anti-New Public Management (NPM)” innovation within the realm of New Public Governance (NPG), which asserts that leadership and control in public sector organizations should be practiced and designed based on the assumption that civil servants and employees in general are trustworthy. The research questions are as follows: How has TBM been diffused and implemented in Scandinavia? To what extent can the institutional logics framework increase understanding of similarities and differences between the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden)? Design/methodology/approachThe authors designed and submitted surveys to the municipal directors of the three Scandinavian municipal populations, thereby producing a unique cross-country dataset on TBM diffusion and implementation in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). FindingsThe authors' study shows that TBM has diffused widely among Scandinavian municipalities and has developed into a municipal-level concept across policy fields and sectors. While Denmark stands out as an earlier and more decisive TBM reformer, the results show that similarities in the diffusion and implementation of TBM in Scandinavian countries are more apparent than the differences. Originality/valueThis study contributes to the public management literature and research on anti-NPM and NPG concepts by being the first wide-scale empirical study of TBM diffusion and implementation in the Scandinavian municipal sectors.

Förutsättningar för krisberedskap och totalförsvar i Sverige ger en beskrivning av hur totalförsvar och krisberedskap har utvecklats och inriktats, från 1901 och fram till idag. Fokus ligger på förändringar i lagstiftning, systemutveckling och hotbildsuppfattning. Läsaren får en inblick i de kriser, katastrofer och politiska skeenden i Sverige och i andra delar av världen som har påverkat utvecklingen av svensk beredskap. Nyheter i denna utgåva inkluderar att aktörers ansvar har uppdaterats utifrån strukturreformen, kapitel om hybridhot och våldbejakande extremism samt en bilaga om Natos övergripande organisering och styrning. Med skriften,som ingår i uppdragsutbildningar och i högskolekurser, vill Försvarshögskolan/CTSS stödja kunskapsuppbyggnaden inom svensk beredskap., Viktoria Asp är redaktör. Ett stort antal medarbetare har bidragit till arbetet med rapporten. Rapporten uppdateras ungefär vartannat år.

In recent years, interest in the different ways in which military employment affects individuals’ work-life balance (WLB) has grown. At the same time, research on military organizations and personnel has increasingly included time-related factors such as deploy-to-dwell (D2D) ratios to help explain adverse health effects of overseas deployments. The aim of this article is to explore connections between organizational systems for regulating deployment frequency and dwell (or respite) time with a particular focus on potential consequences for work-life balance. We focus on personal and organizational factors that shape the nature and outcome of work-life balance, including stress, mental health problems, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. To explore these links, we first provide an overview of research on the impact of deploy-to-dwell ratios on mental health and social relations. We then turn to the regulation and organization of deployment and dwell time in Scandinavia. Here, the ambition is to identify potential sources of work-life conflict and associated effects for deployed personnel. The results provide a basis for further research into time-related effects of military deployments.

The use of strategic visions based on concepts like climate-neutrality, net-zero emissions and energy efficiency is important to align action and build momentum. The agency of transition actors requires clear definitions and explanations of visions, enabling operationalization for action, monitoring and measuring of results. This paper develops a maturity scale for climate-related strategic visions among local governments. Further, the maturity of Swedish municipalities’ climate-related strategic visions is reviewed. The results show that out of Sweden’s 290 municipalities, 256 shows overall low maturity in their strategic visions, not supporting their local, regional and national system actors sufficiently. Furthermore, results from workshops indicate that the roles, mandate and process for working with municipal strategic visions are not clear. There is an ambiguity around visions that is hindering aligned action and progress.

Background: In systems with representative democracy, there is a growing consensus that citizens should have the possibility to participate in decisions that affect them, extending beyond just voting in national or local/regional elections. However, significant uncertainty remains regarding the role of public involvement in decision-making, not least in healthcare. In this article, we focus on citizen dialogues (CDs) in a health system that is politically governed and decentralised. The aim of the study was to evaluate the functioning of citizen dialogues in the Swedish health system in terms of representation, process, content, and outcomes. Methods: This study was conducted using a qualitative case design focusing on CDs at the regional level in Sweden. The regional level is politically elected and responsible for funding and provision of healthcare. The data consist of public documents describing and evaluating the CDs and interviews, which were analysed drawing on a modified version of the Abelson et al. analytical framework for evaluating public involvement in healthcare. Results: Some CDs were an attempt to counteract political inequality by inviting groups that are less represented, while others aimed to increase legitimacy by reducing the distance between policymakers and citizens. The results from the CDs-which were often held in the beginning of a potential policy process-were often stated to be used as input in decision-making, but how was not made clear. Generally, the CDs formed an opportunity for members of the public to express preferences (on a broad topic) rather than developing preferences, with a risk of suggestions being too unspecific to be useful in decision-making. The more disinterested public perspective, in comparison with patients, reinforced the risk of triviality. A need for better follow-up on the impact of the CDs on actual decision-making was mentioned as a necessary step for progress. Conclusions: It is unclear how input from CDs is

Research on road transport has paid growing attention to social equity objectives. However, little work has examined the role of the government officials that are charged to implement -notably how they make sense of and respond to mismatches between expectations and reality in their regulatory mandates. Drawing on a theoretical framing focused on interface bureaucracy and primary data from semi-structured interviews, this paper examines the agency of government officials in Kampala, Uganda. The analysis highlights how they take initiative to address social equity concerns, seeking to navigate implementation barriers through i) lobbying people in power, ii) seeking leverage in conditionalities of external funding, iii) alliance-building with civil society, and iv) proactive use of city level by-laws. This adds one of few empirical studies available on this subject within the transport studies literature and in the context of East Africa. It also offers a contribution towards conceptualizing what the agency of government officials might mean for the operationalization of key policy objectives in the transport sector.

Recent research has pointed to the need for addressing gender equality in parliaments in a broader perspective, focusing on “gender sensitivity” in parliaments in relation to structures, operations, methods and work. Up to now, however, the question of what it takes for this work to be long-lasting and sustainable has received limited attention. This article seeks to address this gap through a case study assessing the sustainability of the internal work of the Riksdag (the Swedish Parliament) with regard to gender equality, focusing on the durability and renewal of early initiatives and reforms. On the basis of Riksdag documents and interviews with MPs during the period 1994–2022, we ask: How sustainable is the internal gender equality work of the Riksdag with respect to the three key areas of representation, infrastructure and culture? We find that the Riksdag has managed to conduct sustainable gender equality work over the course of three decades. Major factors in this success are the institutionalization of a Gender Equality Group, the adoption of Action Plans for Gender Equality every parliamentary term and the legitimacy provided by the support of the Speaker of the Riksdag and the Riksdag Board.

Digital government often addresses how, where, and by whom digital transformation is brought into the complex institutional framed practices of governments and governance of society. However, digital transformation also points at critical demands to address the basic underlying institutional design of governments. The ongoing digital transformation of public welfare institutions opens for a gradual redesign of public institutions. It is important to address core values, such as inclusion, diversity, and literacy, to ensure a reflected transformation and re-design of public institutions. The purpose of this paper is to show how new forms of digital public services may have to be matched with institutional re-design to sustain public values and legitimate governments. We build on Ostrom’s eight design principles for institutional governance of common-pool resources and propose four principles for analyzing potential needs for re-design of institutions. Through a re-analysis of two case studies on automation in Swedish public organizations, we illustrate and discuss the institutional design. Hereby, we identify critical points for further analysis of emerging demands for institutional re-design. The analysis indicates that we must see beyond the organizational changes of digital government reforms and programs. We need to stretch into the institutional and foundational models of the public sector and how to provide equal and resilient welfare in a digital and changing world. We conclude by suggesting an agenda for research on institutional re-design in the digital era.