Weak concepts as direction of operation : A study of how Tillväxtverket’s project Stronger local appeal for municipalities has been translated on local level

The overall aim of this essay has been to study how Swedish municipalities translate politics to hands-on action. More specifically by analysing how participating pilot municipalities within Tillväxtverket’s project Stronger local appeal in effect translated the project to local efforts. A second, underlying, aim was to identify the local projects understanding of fundamental but inadequately defined concepts included in the policy they were translating. This was done through a qualitative interview research approach with the pilot project leaders from each participating municipality. The empirical data was analysed through thematical analysis. The study concludes that the project leaders’ interpretation and understanding of fundamental concepts vary. The understanding of method, bond to be developed by the participating pilots, was lacklustre. Appeal within municipalities, however, was generally interpreted to be varying different things, e.g. conflicting focus on already existing occupants versus attracting new ones. Analysis show that local efforts had a few different themes, establishing central groups with focus on the constellation of the group as well finding the right dialogue with or to whomever was targeted, was one. Working with different types of plans and strategies or visualizing what you as a municipality can offer presumptive developers, to mention a few others. Generally speaking, translation helps the study explain that there is no right or wrong in the different types of local efforts, as also proven by the many type of different themes and local efforts. Further research should focus on why the national level use weak concepts as direction of operation, the intention of it specifically.En examination, inte en presentation.