Short text presenting a study of Swedish civil society organizations and their work during three different extraordinary situations (or crises): the European Refugee "crisis" of 2015/16, the COVID pandemic and the refugee situation emerging as a consequence of Russias war against Ukraine. In the study we focus on the organizational learning as well as the mobilization of resources.

Att barns och ungdomars socioekonomiska levnadsvillkor påverkar deras möjligheter att delta i fritidsutbudet framgår av flera tidigare studier. Vad kan då den kommunala förvaltningen göra för att erbjuda en meningsfull fritid för alla barn och unga? I denna rapport diskuteras frågan om en jämlik fritid utifrån en analys av Malmö stads Fritidsförvaltning. 

This chapter presents the conceptual framework of resourcefulness that brings together the contributions to this volume; it also establishes Poland, Russia, and Sweden as particularly relevant cases for understanding transformation in the relationships between civil society, the state, and the market. Here, we explore the organizational realities of civil societies in the three countries and their shared history of a strong state. We posit resources as a contrast medium, allowing us to distinguish between different types of resourcefulness in civil society organizations’ responses to various pressures. Finally, the overall thematic structure of this book and each of its contributions are highlighted.

Highlighting several theoretical and empirical contributions of the preceding chapters, the epilogue presents a relational typology for understanding the roles of different types of resources for civil society organizations. This chapter explores variations in the generalizability/specificity and convertibility of economic, symbolic, and human resources and suggests approaching civil society as a landscape of organizations that coexist but have different origins, futures, and interdependencies. The constellations of relationships among organizations and between organizations and their environments are hierarchical and dynamic. They are constantly shifting, closing, and opening spaces that a broad variety of organizational forms and missions can inhabit.

The Swedish universal welfare state has transformed since the 1990s into a mixed welfare model with increasing deregulation, recommodification, and reverse distribution from the public to the private sector where capital and influence have concentrated. In major cities such as Stockholm, this has resulted in a polarization where groups in the city centre and residential areas have accumulated wealth and resources while groups in marginalized suburbs and neighbourhoods have faced increasing social exclusion and marginalization. Public sector social work has long focused on individual case work, whereas this development calls for increasing community work initiatives. In this article, we analyse the rise of urban social movements mobilizing for inclusion, influence, and social justice as important aspects of contemporary community work in the Swedish urban periphery. Through analysis of semi-structured interviews with community workers and activists as well as media articles, reports, and web-based materials, the results show how the mobilization of the organization Megafonen has contributed to the development of new social institutions and urban commons.