Making democracy work through the logic of practice : a study of the bureaucracy at the Nordic Council of Ministers and the art of acting by producing texts

Sammanfattning: We live in an increasingly globalized world in which we humans are linked to each other within and across transnational and national social fields that make up totality of modern societies. Governance and democracy are enacted on various levels, from districts up to international levels, such as the European Union (EU). All these levels affect and mediate the lifeworld’s of residents in Sweden. The Nordic Council of Ministers fills a function as an intergovernmental organisation. Compared to the EU, the Nordic Council of Ministers is less federal as an intergovernmental organisation, with less authority as it is not supranational. Less conspicuous to the public, however, are all bodies, organs, councils and committees where decisions are being prepared, elaborated and formulated. Such entities tend to constitute black boxes in Latour’s sense of the term, i.e. essential organs for the political and bureaucratic systems whose function nonetheless are concealed, or at least opaque, to residents who do not directly interact with these bodies. The Nordic cooperation is an extensive regional partnership. It is politically, economically and culturally anchored to the Nordic countries, playing a part of European and international cooperation. The ambitions of the Nordic Council of Ministers are both high and vague at the same time. They position themselves in the centre of the political arena wanting to take responsibility by being a mediating institution, but the actual work is relatively unknown for the residents in the Nordic countries. I have chosen to explore the practical work carried out at the institution by interviewing a selected number of advisors within the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Council, to understand how ideas and projects are elaborated on, i.e. to study the working processes of the institution.