Smart nedgångstrategi och medborgligt engagemang i planeringen : en studie av krympande kommuner

In the last decade, many Swedish municipalities have faced population decline and thereby eco-nomic stagnation, in fact more than half of all 290 Swedish municipalities are shrinking today. Shrinking is a phenomenon that has been noted in a great deal of international research literature, where its causes and consequences have been examined. In recent years, a growing research interest for the concept of “Smart decline” concept as an alternative planning tool has emerged. The concept is based on the discussion reflecting social justice in the planning processes, and on observations from implemented strategies of “Smart decline” that have showed a better response to shrinkage problems than the growth-oriented strategies. Based on that, the aim of this paper is to examine the planning documents in three shrinking Swedish municipalities, and use the principles of “Smart decline” to analyze whether or not these shrinking municipalities comply with smart decline ideas as well as include civic engagement in the planning processes. The results indicate that the planning processes in all three municipalities comply somewhat with the principles of smart decline, and mention the importance of including the citizens in the planning in order to overcome shrinking challenges. However, it has also identified that all three municipalities show weaknesses in several of the principles, both in terms of perception and implementation of the planning