Civil society and public dialogue in Värmland Region

Sammanfattning: The thesis looks at the process of setting up a platform between civil society and public sector where the intention is for stakeholders to have a dialogue around different solutions to societal issues. The second component involves the legal arrangement where government uses public procurement to buy a service from a civil society organisation. The thesis explores what motivates this process and what some of the consequences are for the stakeholders. The discussion takes its stance in the conflict between civil society as a voice bearer of specific societal issues or as a service deliverer towards government. It also looks at whom partake in this process and whom gets left out. The thesis looks at the policy documents at a national and regional level and as well compare two regions with one being considered the “best practice” region. Informants from the Värmland region where interviewed and their impressions where compared to the policy documents and some keywords.  The thesis concluded that the stakeholders partaking in general are positive towards the process but that there are institutional setups that could be better dealt with to handle issues of power imbalances and exclusion.