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Definitions and assessments of social vulnerability are commonly based on systemic relations and processes on a macrolevel. There is a danger of ascribing vulnerability to someone, regardless of their individual circumstances; thus, microlevel information regarding everyday life is also needed. Experiences of risk and attitudes towards vulnerability were explored in five group interviews. Related to instrumental aids, bodily endurance and external causes, vulnerability was found to be a ubiquitous primer in everyday decision‐making. The disabled individual's interpretative framework for risk and vulnerability is shaped by objectifying his/her own body, and by being accustomed to everything taking a long time. The interpretative framework helps in decision‐making and in managing any 'contextual inertia' involved in stressful situations.

Systemet för samhällsskydd och beredskap i Sverige har sedan 1990-talet genomgått en rad förändringar gällande juridik, organisering och ansvar. Framför allt har kommunernas ansvar inom området ökat och systemet har kommit att bli mer beroende av aktörer i lokalsamhället. Dessutom har den enskilde individen fått ett ökat ansvar och är idag en självklar aktör i systemet. De i området styrande principerna om ansvar, likhet och närhet föreskriver att störningar i kommunal verksamhet ska hanteras av de roller som bedriver verksamheten i normala fall. Det innebär att störningar eller kriser i en verksamhet som exempelvis den kommunala omsorgen ska hanteras och lösas av den ordinarie personalen. Systemets ordning i kombination med principerna gör därför att frågor om säkerhet och trygghet för den enskilda omsorgstagaren hamnar i gränssnittet mellan individen och organisationen. Avhandlingens syfte är att fördjupa kunskapen om relationen mellan funktionshindrade personer och kommunens organisation för samhällsskydd och beredskap gällande trygghet och säkerhet. Fyra separata empiriska delstudier från Sverige inkluderas. Den första undersöker kvantitativt vilka riskuppfattningar personer med funktionshinder har och om kan de förklaras av funktionshindret. Övriga tre delstudier är kvalitativa och studerar i tur och ordning: hur risk- och sårbarhetsfrågor manifesteras, erfars och hanteras av funktionshindrade; hur kommuner organiserar för samhällsskydd och beredskap på lokal nivå och vilken roll kommunen har på det lokala verksamhetsfältet för detta; hur en faktisk krisartad situation hanterades på olika nivåer av den kommunala vård- och omsorgen. De två studierna om funktionshindrade visade att tillit är central för hur riskuppfattningen formas och att den vardagsnära säkerheten är viktig. Personerna utvecklar strategier för att hantera sårbarhet genom att undvika vissa situationer, att visa eller dölja sina behov och att lära sig stå ut med att saker och ting tar lång tid. Detta formar ett interpretationsramverk för trygghet och säkerhet där kroppen speglas som objekt och social representation. Därmed kan kroppen likställas med andra sociala representationer och försvaras, riskförebyggas och skademinimeras. Den första kommunstudien visar att den lokala organiseringen av samhällsskydd och beredskap sker på liknande sätt över landet. Däremot har den kommunala funktionen för skydd och säkerhet att hantera olika organisatoriska relationer med distinkt skilda karaktärer. Relationen till den kommunala organisationen i stort är labyrintartad till följd av rationalitetsproblem inom ändamålsenlighet, mål, ansvarsförläggande och uppföljning är oklara eller helt enkelt saknas; relationen till de kommunala förvaltningarna präglas hierarkiproblem genom brist på auktoritet, legitimitet och exekutiv makt; relationen till externa aktörer uppvisar problem med identitet till följd av brist på resurser och tydlig organisation. Den andra kommunstudien visar att den tid-rumsliga inramningen av en störning i det kommunala dricksvattnet skilde sig åt mellan olika organisatoriska nivåer och att störningen hanterades genom en aktiv agens där tillit och handlingsutrymme var avgörande. Avhandlingens övergripande analys utifrån tillitsteori landar i att medan det tidigare systemet för samhällsskydd och beredskap präglades av en instrumentell tillit med vertikalt riktad makt och en problemlösningsförväntan, är dagens system mer beroende av en humanitär tillit med horisontell maktfördelning och med förväntan på att hantera sårbarhet. De tre teoretiska sårbarhetsformerna beroende, oförutsägbarhet och oåterkallelighet föreslås på den lokala samhällsnivån kunna reduceras med de tre tillitsmekanismerna autenticitet, legitimitet respektive transparens. Det är en typ av tillit som är bättre anpassad för det gränssnitt mellan den enskilda individen och organisationen där vi hittar mycket av ansvaret för trygghets- och säkerhetsfrågor idag. ; The Swedish system for civil protection and preparedness has undergone fundamental shifts in legislation, organisation, and responsibility since the 1990s. Most prominently, the responsibility for municipals has increased and the system has become more dependent on actors in the local community. Individuals have also become integral actors in the system with increased responsibility. The guiding principles for this system, formulated by the national authorities, are responsibility, similarity, and proximity. These principles prescribe that disruptions in any regular operations shall be handled by the structure already in place. This means that disturbances or crises, for instance within the local healthcare, should be solved by the regular personnel. The combination of the new location of responsibility and the guiding principles locate the issues of safety and security at the interface between the single individual and the organisation. The aim of this dissertation is to gain knowledge about the relationship between people with disability and the municipal administrative function for civil protection and preparedness regarding safety and security. Four empirical investigations from Sweden are included. The first is a quantitative study investigating the risk perception among disabled people and whether this perception can be explained by their disability. The three remaining studies are qualitative, studying respectively: how risk and vulnerability are manifested, experienced, and managed in everyday life by disabled persons; how local authorities arrange civil protection and preparedness at the local level, and how an uncertain, adverse event was managed at different levels of the local health care. The two studies with disabled persons shows that trust is central to understand how risk perception is shaped and that the safety in everyday life is important. Individuals develop certain strategies in order to deal with vulnerability. The strategies include avoiding certain situations; to show or not to show their needs, and being accustomed to everything taking a long time. These strategies form a framework for interpretation of safety and security where the body is objectified as a social representation. The body thus is comparable to any other social representation and can be subject for defence, mitigation or damage reduction. The first study of local administrations shows that the local civil protection and preparedness is arranged in the same manner all over the country. However, the administrative function for safety and security must deal with distinctly different characteristics in organisational relationships. The relationship with the local administration in general is labyrinthine because of rationality problems regarding adaptation, aims and objectives, assessment and evaluation, and with the allocation of responsibility. The relationship with the different departments within the authority suffers from problems with hierarchy in that the function lacks an authoritative centre, legitimacy, and executive power. The relationship with external entities exhibits problems with organisational identity due to a lack of resources, a distinct organisational character, and autonomy. The second study of local administrations shows that the temporal-spatial framing of a disturbance in the local fresh water system differed between the different organisational levels. Primarily the human agency in terms of trust and a pre-established sphere for action of the personnel was decisive in managing the disturbance. Theories of trust are used to conduct the analysis of the four studies. While the former system for civil protection and preparedness was characterized by an instrumental trust signified by vertical power and expectations of solving concrete problems the present system is more dependent on a so called humanitarian trust signified by horizontal division of power and expectations of managing vulnerability. The conclusion is that at the local level authenticity, legitimacy, and transparency can reduce the three forms of vulnerability: dependency, unpredictability, and irreversibility respectively. This type of trust fits better with the individual-organisation interface in which much of the responsibility for safety and security is allocated today

Effective collaborations in emergency management is the Holy Grail for practitioners in Sweden and elsewhere. More than mere coordination, interorganizational collaboration is deemed by many as the most optimal arrangement to share resources and respond to emergencies more quickly and efficiently. It is also considered to be the source of a broadly and rather vaguely defined concept of greater good. Such collaborations tend to be uncritically accepted as innovative, especially in instances of large-scale disasters or planned events while routine emergency management arrangements tend to be under researched. This research is an in-depth case study of an interorganizational collaboration in the greater Stockholm region in Sweden concerning routine emergency management. The collaboration comprises the physical relocation of one operator each from seven organizations in the area and the establishment of the "Collaboration Cluster". Rather than attempt to define the concept of "greater good" we set out to evaluate the quality of collaboration from the perspective of each member organization. We build a multi-dimensional model to assess the expectations of each organization at the political, managerial, and operative level. What is more, we view the Collaboration Cluster as a network at the operative level and for this reason we employ formal Social Network Analysis (SNA) to tease out network variables that have an effect on the quality of collaboration.

This study focuses on the bureaucratic reforms in Sweden which resulted in the creation of the Secretariat for Crisis Management and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. We investigate the mechanisms that lead to divergent change through the critical juncture analytical approach. The study's findings suggest that the bureaucratic reforms were the result of the critical juncture between 2001 and 2009, which included, inter alia, the release of a commission of inquiry report, a major political crisis and a national election. Moreover, we situate entrepreneurial agency in this analysis while we contribute to the theorization of institutional entrepreneurship by focusing on the implementation stage of institutional change. In order to overcome the institutional resistance stemming from an attempt to preserve the existing power structures, institutional entrepreneurs use the following three strategies: (i) the strategy of listening; (ii) the strategy of advertising early success and (iii) the strategy of picking up the phone.

This study focuses on the bureaucratic reforms in Sweden which resulted in the creation of the Secretariat for Crisis Management and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. We investigate the mechanisms that lead to divergent change through the critical juncture analytical approach. The study's findings suggest that the bureaucratic reforms were the result of the critical juncture between 2001 and 2009, which included, inter alia, the release of a commission of inquiry report, a major political crisis and a national election. Moreover, we situate entrepreneurial agency in this analysis while we contribute to the theorization of institutional entrepreneurship by focusing on the implementation stage of institutional change. In order to overcome the institutional resistance stemming from an attempt to preserve the existing power structures, institutional entrepreneurs use the following three strategies: (i) the strategy of listening; (ii) the strategy of advertising early success and (iii) the strategy of picking up the phone.

A policy entrepreneur is a distinct political actor aiming to affect change. The theoretical narrative regarding policy entrepreneurs is underpinned by their commitment to a policy solution, the multi-dimensional strategies they use to promote that solution, and a suite of attributes and skills facilitating their actions. Policy entrepreneurs reveal themselves through their attempts to transform policy ideas into policy innovations and, hence, disrupt status quo policy arrangements. Indeed, policy entrepreneurs share sensibilities with entrepreneurs in the market, whose conceptualisation serves as a heuristic for their counterparts in policy and politics. The emphasis on change borne out of innovative solutions distinguishes policy entrepreneurs from many other actors who aim to maintain current institutional settings and power relations. The growing scholarship on policy entrepreneurship assumes intentionality as inherent to the policy entrepreneur and their actions, foregrounding the image of the tenacious political actor set on steering their a priori pet policy to a suitable problem. This article draws from the market theory on entrepreneurship, contrasting proactive policy entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship by opportunity) and reactive policy entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship by necessity). We conduct a comparative social network analysis of three municipalities in southern Sweden focused on flood risk mitigation. We demonstrate two different logics of policy entrepreneurship (as a result of seizing opportunities versus as a reaction to vertical pressure), and we explore the consequences for enhancing our understanding of policy entrepreneurship.

This article examines the role of policy entrepreneurs in promoting change in flood risk mitigation at the local level in Sweden through a comparative study of two Swedish municipalities with different approaches to flood risk governance; as a technical issue or a social issue. The municipality in which flood risk mitigation is addressed as a social issue exhibits a larger size of the network mitigating flood risk, more diverse actors involved, and a more central location of the politicians and senior management. Moreover, the analysis points to the salience of a bureaucratic policy entrepreneur in promoting this shift toward addressing it as a social issue, and shows how they use relational strategies to frame the issue as relating to climate change action. The article operationalizes sociability and credibility, two of the attributes of policy entrepreneurs, and thus, contributes to the theoretical and methodological discussion of policy entrepreneurs in general, and as they pertain to environmental policy in particular.Related ArticlesDavid, Charles‐Philippe. 2015. "Policy Entrepreneurs and the Reorientation of National Security Policy under the G. W. Bush Administration (2001‐04)." Politics & Policy 43 (1): 163‐195. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12106Shock, David R. 2013. "The Significance of Opposition Entrepreneurs on Local Sales Tax Referendum Outcomes." Politics & Policy 41 (4): 588‐614. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12028Sidha, Zedekia, Patrick Asingo, and Justine Magutu. 2021. "Street‐Level Bureaucrats as Policy Entrepreneurs: The Nexus between Timing of Traffic Enforcement Activities and Road Safety Policy Outcomes." Politics & Policy Early View. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12386

This article examines the role of policy entrepreneurs in promoting change in flood risk mitigation at the local level in Sweden through a comparative study of two Swedish municipalities with different approaches to flood risk governance; as a technical issue or a social issue. The municipality in which flood risk mitigation is addressed as a social issue exhibits a larger size of the network mitigating flood risk, more diverse actors involved, and a more central location of the politicians and senior management. Moreover, the analysis points to the salience of a bureaucratic policy entrepreneur in promoting this shift toward addressing it as a social issue, and shows how they use relational strategies to frame the issue as relating to climate change action. The article operationalizes sociability and credibility, two of the attributes of policy entrepreneurs, and thus, contributes to the theoretical and methodological discussion of policy entrepreneurs in general, and as they pertain to environmental policy in particular.

"This book explores the reasons behind the variation in national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, it furthers the policy studies scholarship through an examination of the effects of policy styles on national responses to the pandemic. Despite governments being faced with the same threat, significant variation in national responses, frequently of contradictory nature, has been observed. Implications about responses inform a broader class of crises beyond this specific context. The authors argue that trust in government interacts with policy styles resulting in different responses and that the acute turbulence, uncertainty, and urgency of crises complicates the ability of policymakers to make sense of the problem. Finally, the book posits that unless there is high trust between society and the state, a decentralized response will likely be disastrous and concludes that while national responses to crises aim to save lives, they also serve to project political power and protect the status quo. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of public policy, public administration, political science, sociology, public health, and crisis management/disaster management studies"--

AbstractExperiments have long been recognized as effective tools in teaching natural sciences and, to a lesser degree, in social sciences. However, understanding the role of immersive simulation experiments in undergraduate degree programmes demands more scholarly attention, given the pace of technological advances and research literacy in immersive simulation. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the potential of integrating immersive simulation laboratory experiments in social science education and specifically in a risk and crisis management undergraduate degree programme. Based on the work of Claire Dunlop, we demonstrate how an experiment with a high degree of experimental realism was a fruitful vehicle for initiating conversations about sensitive subjects in a safe environment and made teaching more inclusive, while high mundane realism made teaching risk and crisis management fun, and, we argue, fostered practical aspects of risk and crisis management.

AbstractThe Swedish response to the pandemic at the national level has attracted considerable international attention, but little focus has been placed on the way municipalities dealt with the crisis. Using Hay's dimensions of politicization, namely the capacity for human agency, deliberation in the public domain, and social context, we analyze the politicization of the municipal response to the pandemic in Sweden. We do this based on the analysis of the decision making process to activate (or not) an extraordinary crisis management committee. We find inter alia, that (i) only a quarter of the municipalities activated the committee while a majority of them had an alternate special organization in place; (ii) support to the existing organizational structure was more salient than creating an extraordinary organization, and (iii) a robust municipal structure was deemed to be one able to withstand shocks without resorting to extraordinary governance arrangements. We find a 'conditioned politicization' of the response, privileging administration over politics.