Suchergebnisse

Avhandlingen behandlar idén om medarbetarskap med utgångspunkt från hur begreppet medarbetarskap tolkas och används. Syftet är att öka kunskapen kring idén och hur den tar sig uttryck i organisationers praktik. I den teoretiska referensramen har nyinstitutionell teori integrerats med teorier kring lärande och implementering. Strukturen i analysen utgörs av en metafor som behandlar hur populära idéer reser in i och genom organisationer. Centrala begrepp i tolkningen av vad som sker i mötet mellan idé och subjekt vid de olika anhalterna på resan är översättning, lärande och ömsesidig anpassning. Studien har genomförts i form av fallstudier vid ett statligt bolag och vid ett landsting där medarbetarskapsprogram bedrivits. Resultaten grundar sig huvudsakligen på intervjuer, vilka kompletterats med observationer och dokumentstudier. Resultaten visar att det skett en ömsesidig anpassning mellan idé och subjekt vid den studerade enheten i landstinget med ökad delaktighet, förståelse för varandra och ett förbättrat arbetsklimat som följd. Idén integrerades i hög grad i den vardagliga verksamheten. Vid det statliga bolaget passerade idén förbi utan några större bestående avtryck i de studerade grupperna och idén integrerades inte i den ordinarie verksamheten. Resultaten kan förstås med grund i hur programmen genomförts tolkat utifrån lärandeteorier och olika perspektiv på implementering. Genomförandet i det statliga bolaget kännetecknades av central styrning och snäva frihetsgrader vad gäller form och innehåll för medarbetarskapsutvecklingen. Vid landstinget var däremot behoven vid de lokala enheterna en grundläggande utgångspunkt för inriktningen på medarbetarskapsutvecklingen där delaktighet i idéutvecklingen och genomförandet av programmet var en ledstjärna. I översättningen av idén om medarbetarskap i ord finns skiljelinjen mellan personer på olika nivåer i organisationen, snarare än mellan organisationerna. Medarbetare vid enheterna ser medarbetarskapsbegreppet i första hand som ett kollektivt begrepp, där gruppens funktion är i centrum, medan de som representerar organisationsnivån i större utsträckning betonar individens ansvar och agerande. Vilket perspektiv och vilka intressen individen har ser ut att ha betydelse för hur idén uppfattas. Vidare kan den spridning och det genomslag som idén om medarbetarskap fått i svenskt arbetsliv, förstås utifrån dess samstämmighet med tidsandan och den generella utvecklingen som skett i samhälle och arbetsliv. ; The aim of this thesis is to increase knowledge of the idea of co-workership and how it is manifested in the practice of organizations. The point of departure is how the concept of co-workership is interpreted and used. The theoretical framework is based on an integration between new institutional theory and theories about learning and implementation. The starting point of the analysis is a metaphor about popular ideas travelling into and through organizations. Central concepts are learning, translation and mutual adaptation. The study is based on a qualitative case study with two cases, a county council and a state-owned company, where co-workership programs have been implemented. The empirical material consists mainly of interviews. In addition observations and document studies have been used. The results indicate that a mutual adaptation between idea and operation occurred in the studied unit in the county council, with consequences in the daily work, while the idea passed without any lasting impressions at the unit level in the state-owned company. These findings may be understood in terms of how the co-workership program was implemented, interpreted through theories of learning and implementation. The co-workership development in the county council was characterized by employee participation in identifying needs and choice of areas of work as well as a high level of integration in the daily operations. In the studied groups in the state-owned company, the employees did not participate in the planning, and the co-workership program was not actively integrated into daily operations. Hence, there were not the same opportunities for a mutual adaptation between idea and operation as we found in the unit at the county council. In translating the idea into words, differences were found mainly between people at different levels in the organizations. At the organizational level co-workership was viewed as an individual concept emphasizing the responsibility and actions of the individual. Employees in the studied units, on the other hand, mainly expressed co-workership as a collective concept, focusing on the team and how it functions. The interpretation of the concept seems to be connected to the perspective of different parties within the organizations. Furthermore, the spread and the popularity of the idea of co-workership in Swedish working life can be understood in terms of the ideas correspondence with the current zeitgeist, and in relation to the general development going on in society and working life.

Avhandlingen behandlar idén om medarbetarskap med utgångspunkt från hur begreppet medarbetarskap tolkas och används. Syftet är att öka kunskapen kring idén och hur den tar sig uttryck i organisationers praktik. I den teoretiska referensramen har nyinstitutionell teori integrerats med teorier kring lärande och implementering. Strukturen i analysen utgörs av en metafor som behandlar hur populära idéer reser in i och genom organisationer. Centrala begrepp i tolkningen av vad som sker i mötet mellan idé och subjekt vid de olika anhalterna på resan är översättning, lärande och ömsesidig anpassning. Studien har genomförts i form av fallstudier vid ett statligt bolag och vid ett landsting där medarbetarskapsprogram bedrivits. Resultaten grundar sig huvudsakligen på intervjuer, vilka kompletterats med observationer och dokumentstudier. Resultaten visar att det skett en ömsesidig anpassning mellan idé och subjekt vid den studerade enheten i landstinget med ökad delaktighet, förståelse för varandra och ett förbättrat arbetsklimat som följd. Idén integrerades i hög grad i den vardagliga verksamheten. Vid det statliga bolaget passerade idén förbi utan några större bestående avtryck i de studerade grupperna och idén integrerades inte i den ordinarie verksamheten. Resultaten kan förstås med grund i hur programmen genomförts tolkat utifrån lärandeteorier och olika perspektiv på implementering. Genomförandet i det statliga bolaget kännetecknades av central styrning och snäva frihetsgrader vad gäller form och innehåll för medarbetarskapsutvecklingen. Vid landstinget var däremot behoven vid de lokala enheterna en grundläggande utgångspunkt för inriktningen på medarbetarskapsutvecklingen där delaktighet i idéutvecklingen och genomförandet av programmet var en ledstjärna. I översättningen av idén om medarbetarskap i ord finns skiljelinjen mellan personer på olika nivåer i organisationen, snarare än mellan organisationerna. Medarbetare vid enheterna ser medarbetarskapsbegreppet i första hand som ett kollektivt begrepp, där gruppens funktion är i centrum, medan de som representerar organisationsnivån i större utsträckning betonar individens ansvar och agerande. Vilket perspektiv och vilka intressen individen har ser ut att ha betydelse för hur idén uppfattas. Vidare kan den spridning och det genomslag som idén om medarbetarskap fått i svenskt arbetsliv, förstås utifrån dess samstämmighet med tidsandan och den generella utvecklingen som skett i samhälle och arbetsliv. ; The aim of this thesis is to increase knowledge of the idea of co-workership and how it is manifested in the practice of organizations. The point of departure is how the concept of co-workership is interpreted and used. The theoretical framework is based on an integration between new institutional theory and theories about learning and implementation. The starting point of the analysis is a metaphor about popular ideas travelling into and through organizations. Central concepts are learning, translation and mutual adaptation. The study is based on a qualitative case study with two cases, a county council and a state-owned company, where co-workership programs have been implemented. The empirical material consists mainly of interviews. In addition observations and document studies have been used. The results indicate that a mutual adaptation between idea and operation occurred in the studied unit in the county council, with consequences in the daily work, while the idea passed without any lasting impressions at the unit level in the state-owned company. These findings may be understood in terms of how the co-workership program was implemented, interpreted through theories of learning and implementation. The co-workership development in the county council was characterized by employee participation in identifying needs and choice of areas of work as well as a high level of integration in the daily operations. In the studied groups in the state-owned company, the employees did not participate in the planning, and the co-workership program was not actively integrated into daily operations. Hence, there were not the same opportunities for a mutual adaptation between idea and operation as we found in the unit at the county council. In translating the idea into words, differences were found mainly between people at different levels in the organizations. At the organizational level co-workership was viewed as an individual concept emphasizing the responsibility and actions of the individual. Employees in the studied units, on the other hand, mainly expressed co-workership as a collective concept, focusing on the team and how it functions. The interpretation of the concept seems to be connected to the perspective of different parties within the organizations. Furthermore, the spread and the popularity of the idea of co-workership in Swedish working life can be understood in terms of the ideas correspondence with the current zeitgeist, and in relation to the general development going on in society and working life.

A constructivist understanding of policy production as a struggle of meaning in which ideas and actors interact is the point of departure of this thesis. Prostitution policy is a salient example of such a struggle and is thus a suitable case for exploring the role of ideas in politics. The purpose of the thesis is threefold: to explain the process preceding the Swedish ban on the purchase of sexual services in 1998, to understand the dynamics in gendered policy and to develop a framework for policy analysis. In the first part of the thesis a dynamic model of frame analysis is developed consisting of three dimensions to analyze: the politically relevant ideas in terms of policy frames (in this case related to gender and power); ideas as restricting and facilitating for actors; actors' framing strategies and the consequences of strategic framing in terms of risks and limitations. This comprehensive and dynamic model of frame analysis fills a gap in previous policy research. In the second part of the thesis the dynamic frame analysis is applied to explain Swedish prostitution policy. The empirical analysis contains a study of the policy process preceding the ban of 1998, a micro study of the actors' involvement at a critical juncture and an analysis of the actors' strategic framing. The thesis concludes that the process was path dependent in the sense that the institutionalization of different ideas, at different points of time, was important for the final outcome. However, the thesis also concludes that the involvement of the actors', mostly women, was a decisive factor. In relation to previous research the analysis provides a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the policy process both with regard to the ideas from which the client criminalization claim emanated and also with regard to the actors' role.

During the last decades, the public sector in Western democracies has undergone drastic changes. These changes have meant privatization and a more diverse service provision. Because of privatization, activities that were previously reserved for the public sector can now be conducted by the private sector. This has led to the traditional hierarchical model to be challenged by a new governing style throughmarket mechanisms, which was introduced during the 1980s. Both the hierarchical model and market model have since been supplemented by the network model that was introduced in the 1990s. The new organization has meant that steering is currently done in a complex environment with varying outcomes. In the foreground of the theoretical concepts that captures the development describedearlier is governance. The starting point of the governance perspective is that the traditional bureaucracy model for governing is challenged by new forms of organization and steering. In the early 1990s, it became possible, due to a change in legislation, to startindependent schools with public funding. This legislation change has had a major impact on the Swedish school system in terms of organization and steering issues. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the ideals of hierarchy, market andnetworking appear in the municipal steering of the local school system, and how these ideals affect the development and the intensity of the conflicts in the surveyed municipalities. The focus of the empirical study is three municipalities from the northern parts of Sweden, which are equal in terms of population, number of school pupils, the number of independent schools and with the samepolitical majority. The overall result of the thesis is that different governing ideals affect the levels of conflict in different ways. The municipality governed by marked ideals exhibit thehighest degree of conflict and the municipality governed by the network ideal exhibit lower levels of conflict. The municipality governed by the hierarchical ideal in the middle of the conflict scale.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the implementation of a political aim – formulatedfrom a context of sustainable development. In 2006 both the Swedish national Parliament andthe municipality of Växjö (among others) stated that 25% of publically served food wouldstem from organic production by the end of 2010. The thesis investigates the outcome of theimplementation of this policy in a local perspective - looking at one part of the public sectorby focusing on four differently organized schools within Växjö municipality. School food in Sweden has a specific institutional setting. It holds the almost unique statusas a non-charged, legal right to all pupils in the compulsory school system. School food as apublic good is affected by the EU legislation of public procurement. The thesis studies theoverall institutional framework (i.e. legislation and regulations) fundamental to school food.With the institutional framework in mind the thesis also describes different organizationalactivities connected to school food. Thus the thesis involves four geographical levels: Theregional (EU), the national, the local and the individual level. The latter is defined in theorganized context from a number of individual professionals. Some of these individuals arefurther considered as so called street level bureaucrats – officials sandwiched between superiorsand their clients. The thesis builds a conceptual framework based on institutional, organizational and streetlevel theory together with policy analysis. Methodologically the thesis is formed around andcarried out as a local case study through a number of semi-structured qualitative interviews.The empirical and analytical part of the thesis is further structured around the three theoreticalconcepts. From the thesis´ purpose three guiding questions were outlined. The main implications of the thesis are that a number of factors were found to be involvedin the policy implementation. The most significant factors for the policy implementation arefirstly the formulation of the political goal, and secondly the individual professionals actuallybuying the food for the schools. As long as the policy of the school food is non-forcing (i.e. anaverage aim of the public sector, and not included in the legislation) the final outcome of thefood depends on the decisions made by the buyer. There is disagreement of the policy intention and of whether organic food is more sustainablethan other food. Thus I end the thesis by suggesting a change of concepts if the politicalaim is to reach sustainability. I encourage a system to control the food´s total ecological footprint.This would be achieved by formulating the policy around a suggested level of the ecologicalfootprint. The level would be calculated and set where experts say it´s in accordancewith sustainable development. From this the street level bureaucrats can sum up the componentsof the lunch they buy and serve. No matter if the individual product is labeled organic,local, conventional, or… This would – according to me – improve the chances for Växjö actually to live up to itslogo: the greenest city in Europe. At least this idea could awake a debate. ; Opposition kl. 13.15

This mainly deductive study examines what factors explain the variation of e-democracy and if, why a causal pathway exists. The deductive feature is carried out through examining the predictions of the modernization theory, testing hypotheses concerning the link between economic development and wealth in relation to e-democracy. Deriving from a theoretical point of departure where e-democracy is conceptualized with the help of democratic theory, this phenomenon is studied in three different but linked empirical parts. A cross-sectional global study did establish a relationship between some of the indicators derived from the theory; however, the magnitude of the explanatory power was lower at the level of e-democracy than at the level of democracy. A cross-sectional national study of all Sweden's municipalities did show that especially high levels of education were clearly related to high levels of e-democracy. Approaching the questions of causal mechanisms and deviations from the found pattern, case studies did emphasize that the linkage between the structural conditions and actor's-orientated explanations largely could verify what is deducted from theory. However, the importance of economic possibilities and internal prioritizations inside the political organization was essential for the development of e-democracy and was found through more inductive approaches. The main contribution of this thesis is the results that, both on an aggregated and a micro level, verify the theory but also add other important explanations. Another important conclusion is the creation of a model for e-democracy where a complete e-democracy is linked to democratic theory and not only maintains information, discussion, and decision-making processes through information and communication technology but also does this while strengthening political participation and political equality. ; PECOI

The size of a country's police force is of great public and political concern. In the 2006 national election campaign the opposition coalition promised that if they would be elected the number of police officers in Sweden would increase from about 17 500 to 20 000 by the year 2010. The coalition was elected and the political goal was achieved. The main question in this report is: What impact will such an increase of the number of police officers have on the crime rate? In this report previous research, mainly from the United States, is reviewed and thoroughly analyses of the relationship between police strength and domestic burglary, robbery, homicide and car related offences in Sweden are made. The data consists of a random sample of 145 municipalities studied between the years 2001 and 2008. A complementary data set consists of all 21 police forces in Sweden between 1995 and 2009. Through panel data analysis it is concluded that an increase of the local police by 10 percent would possibly reduce domestic burglary by 3 to 4 percent. No impact is found on robbery, car theft or homicide, however. More police officers also means that more drug offences are being registered and more crimes in general being cleared-up. The allocation of police officers is also briefly investigated in this study. About 30 percent of all police officers in Sweden are allocated to Stockholm County. This proportion has been fairly stable over the last 15 years. However, the population in this metropolitan area has increase by 20 percent since 1995, compared to about 3 percent in the rest of the country. One consequence is that the surplus of police officers per capita in Stockholm in relation to the number of officers per capita in the rest of the country has decreased substantially.

The Swedish Social Insurance Agency is an important part of the Swedish welfare state. The Agency has recently made a number of major changes, such as establishing a new internal organization and reforming processes for decision making. Many of these changes have been controversial. Critics have complained that the Agency shows a lack of efficiency, has failed to make payments on time, and has been too harsh in its application of eligibility rules. The changes have put the agency at a number of crossroads, many of them recurring from earlier reforms, in dealing with problems such as regional differences in the application of rules. In this article, some of these choices are discussed. The discussion departs from four dichotomies: uniformity-local adaptation; centralization-decentralization; specialization-generalist approaches; and closeness-distance. These dichotomies are illustrated with examples from the agency. The general conclusion is that although the change process has taken a rocky road, there has been a great deal of internal consistency in the combination of measures taken.

Cities are growing in terms of economic activities, space and population thus over spilling in peri urban areas. Low population densities and land values have made the peri urban areas the target for land acquisition to accommodate planned expansion processes. In Tanzania, the Government initiated the 20,000 Plots Project in 2002 to among others, address critical shortage of planned and surveyed plots in the city and check proliferation of informal settlements. The Project was implemented in 12 areas in the City of Dar es Salaam, one of them being Wazo-Mivumoni. This study explored the processes and impacts of land acquisition on the livelihoods of peri urban households. It also built an understanding of peri urban areas in the Tanzanian context and further contextualized peri urban livelihoods in Wazo-Mivumoni. Data was collected through official, households and key informants interviews, likewise documentary review. An overarching understanding was drawn from the National Constitution (1977) that provides for the right of residents to own properties, the right to protection of their properties and payment of fair and adequate compensation subject to lawfully acquisition. Although the principal legislations for land acquisition recognize market values, government-regulated rates were instead used in Wazo-Mivumoni. The implementation process was characterized by lack of appreciation of the drivers of peri urban livelihoods, non-adherence to legal provisions and non-observarance of professional ethics. Further, the laws were found to be insufficient to adequately respond to present social and economic conditions. The implementation of the project amidst these conditions resulted to loss of assets, disruption of social networks and family ties. All these undermined household's capacity to sustain livelihoods after project implementation. Among the strategies adopted to overcome these impacts include intensification and increased innovation on farming and animal keeping; reliance on family support as well as reduction of family sizes. Despite the shortcomings, some positive gains including establishment of new economic activities (private schools, retail business and access to planned and surveyed plots) were realized. Residents participation and awareness creation during and after implementation is seen as paramount considerations for successful interventions. Others include establishment of a land cadastre to realise effective and efficient land administration system, establishment of a neutral body to verify valuation reports as well as provision of alternative plots as a measure to restore affected households to same condition as prior to acquisition.

The main purpose of this essay was to study whether niche parties that were represented in municipal councils in Sweden during the 2007-2010 term of office were politically relevant. Furthermore, factors that might facilitate political relevance for niche parties were studied. Political relevance was studied using two theoretical perspectives. The objective model of political relevance presents four categories of relevance based on the relations between political parties in a political assembly; governing parties, coalition parties, blackmail parties and isolated parties. The subjective model of political relevance relies on the party representatives' own judgments of the relevance of their parties. To study objective and subjective political relevance, party representatives were interviewed. The results showed that seven out of eight niche parties were politically relevant according to the objective model, and six out of eight niche parties were relevant according to the subjective model. For the study of possible facilitating factors, a comparative table was formed using statistics and official data. Percentage of seats and type of majority coalition seemed to affect the possibilities for niche parties to become governing parties. A large percentage of seats and being represented on the municipal executive board and committees seemed to facilitate subjective political relevance.

This study examines the changes of total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations in 20 Swedish lakes throughout Sweden using pre-industrial (1860) TOC0 inferred from near-infrared spectrometry (TOCNIRS) of lake sediments to determine if land use change over time could be a plausible explanation for changes in lake water TOC. The study also focuses on the importance of using inferred pre-industrial data of lake water pH and TOC for acidification assessment, in particular ANC0. Most lakes in this study show a long-term decreasing trend of TOC from 1860 up to -0.45 mg/l/yr-1 to an identified breaking point where the TOC turns from decreasing to increasing. Fifteen of the lakes have a breaking point in the mid to late 20th century (1950-1980) while five lakes do not display a clear breaking point. The magnitude of the increasing trend of TOC after the breaking point is up to 0.16 mg/l/yr-1 . Changes in land use were studied by comparing historical maps with present databases of land use. Land use changes in the catchment area show substantial differences in forest cultivation; for instance the coniferous forest has increased by 26% on average. This increase is due to removal of native forest (deciduous forest) and removal of wetlands. Two major conclusions can be drawn from the effects of land use change on TOC levels: (I) No direct correlation between land use change and long-term trends of TOC could be identified in this study. Previous studies have identified the effects of land use change on the carbon storage in the catchment area that corresponds well with the findings of this study. (II) the character of the forest land plays an important role when discussing the effects of land use change for long term TOC trends. The change from open-ended forests with large trees to intense managed forest is considered as an important driving force for TOC. To determine reference conditions there is a need to make good estimations of ANC0 for acidification assessment in Swedish lakes. This study examines the precision of MAGIC model ANC0 calculations (ANC0-MAGIC) against ANC0 calculated with TOCNIRS, diatom-pH and calculated pCO2 (ANC0, diatom-NIRS). ANC0, diatom-NIRS shows a mean difference of (-31µeq/l) when comparing it with ANC0-MAGIC. In comparison, when using contemporary TOC (TOCt) mean lake value 1990-2005 (ANC0,diatom-TOC) the results show a mean difference of (-0.45 µeq/l) in comparison with ANC0-MAGIC. A better fit is generated with TOCNIRS then TOCt. This could be an indication that ANC0- MAGIC overestimates the acidification of Swedish lakes. The European Union's "Water 8 Framework Directive", which Sweden has implemented, requires that all surface waters within the Union's authority have achieved good ecological status by 2015. According to the ecological quality standard the differences between the pre-industrial pH and contemporary pH, i.e. ΔpH=pH0-pHt, should not be more than 0.4 units. This study shows that the long-term trends have to be accounted for when calculating reference conditions and ecological status for acidification

The European Union (EU) is committed to conserving biodiversity, both in terms of natural and cultural legacies, and also to limiting biodiversity loss. Relevant policies have underlined the importance of considering ecological and social issues, as well as the complex relations between the two spheres in conservation of biodiversity. These policies have clear implications for all sectors responsible for planning for biodiversity conservation. In order to be consistent with international legislation, it is necessary to move beyond protected areas and include biodiversity conservation considerations in planning activities of various sectors, and also to involve relevant stakeholders in the planning process. This is in line with the landscape approach to planning that has recently been advocated in research and practical planning. The landscape approach has a holistic perspective that encompasses both ecological and social considerations. This thesis focuses on the implementation of policies regarding biodiversity conservation and public participation; that is, the ecological and social dimensions of spatial planning in landscapes. In particular, I examine the role of people, such as planners implementing policies and other stakeholders who might influence biodiversity conservation. The studies within this thesis concern Poland and Sweden, and three sectors: regional, road and forestry planning. The thesis is comprised of four papers. Paper I deals with planners working to implement biodiversity and public participation policies. Paper II concentrates on the issues of stakeholder involvement in the Environmental Impact Assessment of road planning. Paper III investigates a specific conflict that influenced the conservation of biodiversity in an important biodiversity hotspot. Paper IV is a conceptual paper that discusses the tools used to integrate ecological and social dimensions when implementing the European Landscape Convention. The studies included in this thesis reveal that successfully implementing biodiversity conservation and public participation policies may require more than just ecological knowledge about how biodiversity should be maintained, and more than just formal guidelines regarding how the public should be treated in the planning process. In addition, the role of people who may influence the planning and decision making processes is crucial. Accordingly, there is a need for two key developments. Firstly, planners and the general public should be properly educated about conservation-related issues. Secondly, various incentives should be introduced that influence the behaviour and, in the longer term, the attitudes of the people who may affect biodiversity.

This article advocates for better implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) framework as applied to wind power development, with a particular focus on improving compensatory restoration scaling. If properly enforced, the environmental impacts hierarchy "avoid - minimize - compensate" provides the regulated community with incentives to prevent wildlife and habitat impacts in sensitive areas and, if necessary, compensate for residual impacts through restoration or conservation projects. Given the increase in legislation requiring resource-based environmental compensation, methods for scaling an appropriate quantity and quality of resources is of increasing relevance. I argue that Equivalency Analysis (EA) represents a transparent and quantitative approach for scaling compensation in the case of wind power development. Herein, I identify the economic underpinnings of environmental compensation legislation and identify weaknesses in current scaling approaches within wind power development. I demonstrate how the recently-completed REMEDE Toolkit, which provides guidance on EA, can inform an improved scaling approach and summarize a case study involving raptor collisions with turbines that illustrates the EA approach. Finally, I stress the need for further contributions from the field of restoration ecology. The success of ex ante compensation in internalizing the environmental costs of wind development depends on the effective implementation of the environmental impacts hierarchy, which must effectively encourage avoidance and minimization over environmental restoration and repair.

The aim of the study is to examine the extent to which Muslim congregations in Sweden cooperate with organizations in the public and voluntary sectors and to identify the internal and external organizational factors that favour or disfavour such cooperation. The study is based on a nationwide survey of local Muslim congregations (n = 105), and is the first survey of its kind in Europe. Like many other voluntary organizations, Muslim congregations work in cooperation with other voluntary organizations, but also with various institutions run by the local authorities. In Sweden, cooperation between different organizations is strongly encouraged, which results in a system that provides the congregations with opportunity structures. Other factors that influence the degree of cooperation include whether the congregation feels support or opposition from the surrounding community and the local demographic and socio-economic situation: there is a higher degree of cooperation in small municipalities with many social problems. Ethnic heterogeneity is one of the major organizational factors that affect the degree of cooperation. congregations that have an open attitude towards different Muslim traditions, which essential for a multiethnic congregation, are also those most interested in cooperation with other organizations and institutions. Irrespective of whether they belong to a national umbrella organization or not, Muslim congregations in Sweden are in priciple independent local organizations. It is therefore difficult for Islam in Sweden to operate on a national level, in the way that other more established voluntary organizations do. On the other hand, this study shows that while they lack a united voice on the national arena, they have the advantage of flexibility arising from their local autonomy.

The number of pastoralists maintaining production systems with small numbers of traditional breeds of cattle decreased dramatically with the modernisation and industrialisation of agriculture in Europe during the twentieth century. While these pastoral systems were not compatible with agricultural industrialisation policies, they provide a far better match to current European Union (EU) policy with its emphasis on high nature values and various cultural heritage protection measures. Today, these farms can obtain EU funding for preserving natural and/or cultural heritage values rather than producing agricultural goods. Although such EU subsidies make a welcome contribution to the livelihood of traditional farmers, the critical definitions that have to be made regarding what is considered traditional or non-traditional can be problematic. This paper provides an example from Swedish fäbodbruk, a smallholder system of forest pasturing with traditional breeds of cattle, goats and sheep in northern Sweden. As policymaking and agricultural subsidies during the twentieth century reflected the contemporary political agenda of that time, farmers have been subjected to many changes in priority in political decision making. The contemporary push for traditional farming and heritage has made policymaking potentially even more difficult, e.g. as regards the question of what should be considered traditional and what makes up natural and cultural heritage. This paper examines how farmers are affected by valuations and assessments made by the relevant authorities on whether they are producing natural and/or cultural heritage.