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.

This paper examines the challenges to the Swedish welfare state after the credit crunch of 2008 focusing on several major challenges: the government’s reaction to the fiscal and economic crisis and its outcomes, the (re)balance of welfare policies addressing risks and opportunities. While the situation is almost excellent from a purely fiscal point of view, the outstanding private debt, unemployment, especially among youth, pressures on the pension, health and education systems are prominent concerns. They have led to the revitalization of the social investment paradigm, strict budgetary policies, increased number of welfare-to-work programmes and focus on using tax reductions as a means of stimulating the labour market. In this context, the main demographic concerns and social integration have come to the fore to an unprecedented extent.

During recent decades, the Swedish welfare state has weathered several crises, while its economy and public finances still perform strongly. However, the ways in which it is governed has transformed substantially since the 1990s. This chapter focuses on the processes of re-regulation and recalibration that Swedish social policies have undergone since 1995, focusing specifically on funding and administration and overall performance in such areas as pension policy, labour market and unemployment policy, education policy, healthcare and family policy, housing, social assistance, and migration policy. We argue that through mostly incremental implementation of privatisation, financialisation, and administrative overhaul, Sweden was led to the top rankings in inequality and segregation in the developed world.

Lisa Kings artikel studerar individer som fungerat som så kallade brobyggare mellan äldre civilsamhällesorganisationer och en ny förortsrörelse i Sverige. Materialet utgörs primärt av intervjuer med professionellt verksamma i tre etablerade civilsamhällesorganisationer. Analysen visar att brobyggarnas roll och position har använts för att stödja förortsrörelsens uppstart, men att brobyggarnas kamp i förlängningen handlat om att förändra och (re)vitalisera den egna organisationen. I ljuset av detta illustrerar behovet av brobyggare den distans och asymmetriska relation som finns mellan civilsamhällets centrum och periferi. Avslutningsvis diskuteras det om betydelsen av brobyggare kan ses som en övergripande trend som bottnar i ett alltmer uppdelat civilsamhälle i Sverige.

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.

This article analyzes representations of urban space by exploring city planning during the last half century in Stockholm and Leningrad/Saint Petersburg. City plans that constitute the empirical foundation of the article were enforced during the nodal points—1950s–1960s and early 2000s—of the historical development of both countries and reflect specificities of their ideological and sociopolitical heritage. Our study explores how representations of space—crystallized as ideas about goals and possibilities for spatial planning—have changed over time and how they reflect larger political, economic, and ideological transformations in Sweden and Russia. Two overarching themes are identified in our analysis. First, the ideal of equality, which dominated both the socialist and social democratic ideologies in the 1950s–1960s and provided opportunities for extensive normative control and manipulation of social life by means of a planned physical environment. Second, the ideal of the“European/global” city is distinguished in the early 2000s as a means of promoting economic development by incorporating new actors and shifting the focus to a more market-oriented approach to planning.

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.

The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze the conditions and strategies for creating a critical and decolonial social work in the urban periphery. IIn this article we explore Save the Children’s program ”On equal terms”, that during the past decade created a space for local mobilization in several areas in Sweden, with the purpose of resolving communal problems. The article identifies three elements as central for their critical social work: the empowerment of a new generation of social organizers grounded in the urban periphery; the forming of alliances for the purpose of developing new languages and strategies to address problems and solutions in alternative ways; and the construction of counter-publics through the appropriation of space for the establishment of citizen-driven meeting places. Through these strategies and conditions, a decolonial social work was formed. Inspired by theories of resistance and mobilization, we interpret the work of ”On equal terms” as an expression of the politics of public-making and border work that transcends the separation between activism and social work, giving space for new alternatives and horizons.

This chapter discusses the 2013 riots in Stockholm in the perspective of a range of urban rebellions in disadvantaged metropolitan neighbourhoods of the North-Atlantic region over the past three decades of neoliberal transformation. The authors examine consequences of securitisation and police repression, institutional racism, the corrosion of citizenship and the structuring of inequality in Swedish cities and they ask whether the Stockholm uprising could possibly open space for new political voices.

This article examines the 2013 riots in Stockholm in the context of other urban rebellions across disadvantaged metropolitan neighbourhoods in the North-Atlantic region over the past three decades of neoliberal transformation. The authors discuss the consequences of securitisation and police repression, institutional racism, the corrosion of citizenship and the structuring of inequality in Swedish cities. Beyond the violence of the recent riots, contemporary Sweden reveals the emergence of an autonomous, non-violent and organisationally embedded movement for social justice among young people contesting urban degradation and reclaiming the nation in terms of an inclusive citizenship, social welfare and democracy. The article asks whether the Stockholm uprising could possibly be read as a sobering moment of self-examination in Swedish politics that could open space up for new political voices.

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.

I Nazem Tahvilzadeh och Lisa Kings artikel diskuteras orsakerna till den uppståndelse, eller ”kaos” för att använda aktivisternas egna ord, som organisationen Megafonen skapade inom ramen för stadsutvecklingsprojektet Järvalyftet i Husby. Med inspiration från teorier om hur samtycke till ojämlikhet grundläggs på fabriksgolvet utvecklas två begrepp för att synliggöra den politiska ordningen i förorten och dess konkreta aktiviteter: urbana styrregimer och demokratiska spel. Studien visar hur Megafonens avhopp och sedermera kritik av Järvalyftet och förortspolitiken bröt mot den etablerade politiska ordningen i relationerna mellan stat och civilsamhälle i den urbana periferin. Aktivisternas handlingar kom därför att betraktas som ”skandalösa” av delar av det politiska etablissemanget. Megafonen vägrade att spela enligt spelets regler och synliggjorde således ojämlikheterna i förortspolitikens demokratiska spel med medborgarna. Underlaget för studien baseras på processpårande och etnografisk metod som empiriskt återskapar den förortspolitiska satsningen Järvalyftet och dess logiker samt Megafonens roll 2006–2013.

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.