Facts

Contact person:
Jennie Gustafsson
Financer:
  • Formas
Responsible at MaU:
Jennie Gustafsson
Project members at MaU:
Collaborators :
  • Linköping University
  • Lund University
Time frame:
01 February 2026 - 31 December 2029
Faculty/department:
Research environment :
Research subject:

About the project

The full impact of the privatisation of community service properties, such as elderly care homes and children’s daycare buildings, on municipal welfare is, to this date, insufficiently understood. This project addresses this research gap.

Purpose

The project’s purpose is to examine privatisation, re-municipalization and municipal governance of community service properties in Sweden, 2013-2025. Its purpose is also to develop empirically and theoretically grounded guidelines for societal actors regarding the municipal governance of community service properties.

Research tasks

The project has five research tasks with five respective aims.

  • RT1 aims to examine the privatisation and remunicipalization of community service properties through transaction and ownership data analysis, creating a new database that includes municipal types, ownership types, and services affected.
  • RT2 aims to collaborate with municipal and public stakeholders to identify critical issues and lacking resources through a one-day workshop with stakeholders.
  • RT3 aims to examine the municipal governance of public assets, including its impact on the municipal welfare provision, through in-depth qualitative methods.
  • RT4 aims to elaborate theoretical perspectives on privatisation and re-municipalization within the field of economic urban geography, focusing on municipal governance and social reproduction.
  • RT5 aims to develop a policy brief with guidelines for socially sustainable municipal governance of public real estate.