Rollkonflikt och rollsamverkan i ett flernivåsystem- en intervjustudie med svenska ledamöter i Regionkommittén

The notion of a subnational role conception is frequently absent in the literature of role conceptions within the European Union (EU), despite that the perspective of multilevel governance has acknowledged the importance of subnational actors within the governance process of the EU. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with members of the Swedish delegation to the Committee of the Regions to explore how a subnational role conception is expressed, and interacts with a national and supranational role conception. The aim of the study is to understand how role conceptions interact in a system of multilevel governance and to bring deepened knowledge about the Committee of the Regions which historically have been torn between national and supranational loyalties. The literature of role perceptions is applied together with sociological institutionalism, Europeanization, and the notion of role conflict and the merging of roles. The result illustrates how a combination of formal and informal institutions within the committee and within the Swedish delegation, shape a subnational role which to a large extend merges with a national role conception, and to some degree with a supranational role conception. Additionally, it produces a role conflict between national and supranational role conceptions