Kommunikation, medborgarskap och deltagardemokrati

This is a study of civic communication in a municipal setting. In the south Swedish municipality of Helsingborg operated Civic Committees between 2003 and 2006. The Civic Committees organized different kinds of activities together with the citizens out in the different neighbourhoods of the municipality, such as open meetings, neighbourhood walks, workshops for the future and meetings with specific interest organizations. The alleged purpose of these meetings was to create a constructive and respectful dialogue between politicians and inhabitants. Problematic issues and concerns for the future development of the neighbourhood were to be defined and discussed. The aim of the study is to understand the Civic Committee, their establishment, their communicative practices as well as citizens motivations for participating in their activities. The research is particularly focused on understanding the increasing importance of dialogue in the Civic Committee practices, and the construction of citizenship in those. The Civic Committees positioned the citizens as rationally communicative, rather than instrumental consumers of municipal services. The instrumental rational focus on self-interest has been attacked from different directions, not least from ideas of deliberation and the transformation of interest through political discourse. Attracted to deliberative ideals of dialogue, the Civic Committees aimed at reorienting civic political engagement back towards the parliamentary municipal institutions. Thus a discursive struggle between instrumental and communicative conceptions of citizenship was taking place in Helsingborg.In the activities organized by the Civic Committees, the politicians and the municipal officials emphasized the future, everyday life, active participation and unselfish engagement. By using these storylines, the politicians and the municipal officials wanted to raise citizens’ horizons to issues of a broader and a more visionary character, and to facilitate a constructive dialogue with a deliberative character. How did citizens themselves create meaning with their participation in the Civic Committees activities, and construct themselves as citizens? Prominent positions that were used were; being an established resident, with a sense of belonging to, and being proud of the neighbourhood, interested in its history, parent, middle aged, seeking security and paying taxes