Goda grannar - mellankommunalt samarbete ur den lilla kommunens perspektiv

This thesis deals with co-operation between municipalities viewed from the perspective of the small municipality. It poses two questions: How and why does small municipalities co-operate? and Which is the place of the small municipality in a larger organization?. To examine this three Scanian municipalities have been studied and one Norwegian municipality is used to provide a perspective on the Swedish discussion. Four theoretical topics guide the thesis. Firstly the core values of municipalities; democracy, autonomy and efficiency. The second topic is the significance of territory and boundaries. Thirdly the synergies that can be expected from cooperation and lastly different forms of co-operation. The results of the essay are that small municipalities co-operate to gain economically and get a higher competence based on the view of the municipality as a provider of services. Small municipalities use co-operation as a way of avoiding merger. The small municipality engage in different organizations of co-operations and is in that way independent. But one of the large problems for small municipalities is the lack of resources as personnel. So at the same time the contact within the existing co-operational organizations deepens