Territorial political orientations in Swedish city-regions

ABSTRACT

This article is concerned with local political orientations of citizens living in city-regions. Initially, a typology is developed in which three orientations are identified—metropolitan, intermunicipal, and municipal. This is followed by an empirical analysis of the occurrence of intermunicipal and municipal political orientations in two Swedish city-regions and how they vary. The analysis shows that the variation to a large extent can be explained by a combination of civic voluntarism, territorial identity, and city-regional integration. In addition, intermunicipal orientations turn out to be most common among suburban dwellers in large city-regions. The results of the study are significant for our understanding of citizenship in city-regions, as well as policy implications because they emphasize the need to develop democratic measures that make it possible for citizens to exert influence over collective matters in the city-region as a whole.

Acknowledgments

The research for this article has been carried out within the project “Swedish City-Regions—Citizenship and Political Institutions,” financed by the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond between 2009 and 2011.

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Notes on contributors

Anders Lidström

Anders Lidström is a Professor and the Head of Department at the Department of Political Science, Umeå University, Sweden. His main research focus is on local, urban and regional politics and governance. Current research includes comparative studies of local government systems and studies of democracy and political participation in city-regions. Among his recent publications is the co- edited Oxford Handbook of Local and Regional Democracy in Europe (2011).