I medborgarnas tjänst?:En studie om avregleringens effekter på ansvarsfördelningen mellan offentliga och privata aktörer inom tre samhällsviktiga serviceområden i samband med orkanen Gudrun

Sammanfattning: The essay's aim is to explain how responsibility distribution between private and public bodies, primarily within three important service areas, can be visualised in light of the fact that they have experienced different forms of readjustment. We have chosen to study this by looking at the restoration work taking place after the hurricane Gudrun swept across southern Sweden on January 8-9, 2005; and we have chosen to concentrate on the service areas of electricity- and telephone supply, and public transport. The responsibility distribution has been depicted by carrying out qualitative interviews with employees within both private and public bodies included in the restoration work. The conclusion produced is that there were obscurities in the formal responsibility distribution between private and public actors taking place in conjunction with the hurricane restoration work. In a deeper analysis, the result can be explained by a ?several hands? problem arising since the number of actors has increased as the public sphere has adopted leadership forms influenced by the private business sector. As a result of this, public organisations have taken on a assumed a less important role form, meaning that informal networks have taken on enhanced significance in handling extraordinary events within important service areas.