Civil society, collaborative governance platforms and local climate change policy

Background

Over the past decade, different types of platforms for collaboration between civil society and municipalities have been developed. There are broad collaboration processes such as the development of local agreements between municipalities and civil society, and there are more issue-oriented collaboration platforms.

The study

In this study, we approach the phenomenon of local collaboration platforms from the perspective of one of the major contemporary societal issues, namely the issue of climate change. People's engagement in the climate issue has given rise to new social movements and civil society organizations with a focus on societal transformation to counteract climate impact. In parallel, the climate issue has also been picked up by existing civil society organizations that incorporate climate-related issues into their existing agenda, such as the Church of Sweden, which has decided on its own climate roadmap. The climate issue has also given rise to collaboration platforms at the municipal level.

Based on this background, in this project we ask the research questions:

• How do collaborative platforms for climate work affect civil society organizations involved in climate issues?
• What working methods, approaches and strategies for collaboration, as well as visions for the development of future working methods, have been developed in the organizations studied?

Civil society potentially plays a variety of roles in society's climate transition. As a starting point for our study, we present a preliminary typology of the roles civil society organizations can take in relation to the climate issue, and the project aims to study how these roles are affected when organizations participate in collaborative platforms.

Previous research indicates several possible effects on civil society organizations of participation in sectoral collaboration. Does collaboration drive towards the professionalization of civil society? Does collaboration drive towards the depoliticization of the organization's work? Does collaboration drive towards increased access to various resources in the form of information, legitimacy or financial support? These different types of possible mechanisms all have the potential in different ways to influence the role participating organizations take in climate work.

Method

The study object is the participation of three civil society organizations in Uppsala Municipality's collaboration platform for climate issues: Uppsala Climate Protocol. The platform is initiated by the municipality and brings together both public actors, civil society and the business community.

Our research method means that we will ethnographically, with observations and interviews, follow the climate protocol based on three strategically selected civil society organizations: We have chosen an organization where the climate issue is the organization's primary purpose (Climate Action Uppsala) and an organization where the climate issue is secondary to the organization's main purpose (Church of Sweden). We have also chosen to follow in parallel an organization with active climate work but which is outside the platform (Hela Sverige ska leva) in order to be able to compare their relationship to the municipality in climate work. As a complement to the ethnographic approach, we will also work with a series of workshops where we initiate and process-lead the exchange of experience between the three organizations to answer our other practical research questions and make practical knowledge visible about how the collaboration platform can be a tool for participating organizations from their respective perspectives.

Aim of the study

The project highlights the existence of climate-focused platforms for collaboration between civil society, municipalities and business, and the possible roles of civil society in these forums, and contributes knowledge about how collaboration platforms can influence (enable and limit) the civil society organizations that participate in collaboration - knowledge that is beneficial to both civil society organizations and municipalities and regions as support for strategic considerations when designing and acting on collaboration platforms.

The project also contributes a more practical report with civil society actors as the primary target group. The intention is that this report, based on the experiences of the organizations studied, will address the following questions:

• When to collaborate?
• Why collaborate?
• How to collaborate?