Referendums are enigmatic in their sense as consolidating— or erosive tools of representative democracy; nonetheless, an upswing in the referenda from below was recently highlighted in the literature. Thus, how local referendums from below are mobilized and whether they affect trust in local government is a significant question to be answered, which mandates bridging social movements to tools of deliberative democracy. Similarly, little is known about urban social movements and local patriotism as tenon and its mortise in a sub-national referendum. Therefore, this paper set sail from the role of local patriotism within collective action and aimed at exploring how locals are mobilized to petition a local referendum regarding the liquidation of a cityscape. Within an exploratory holistic single-case study design, I used QCA to analyse the data gathered through semi-structured interviews with members of The People’s Initiative for the Airport Future and various peculiar secondary data. The evidence was compelling in depicting the respondents’ solid spatial belonging— and an unmistakable altruistic stance towards Västerås manifested through political participation. Along with other conclusions, the evidence advocated a persuasive presence of local patriotism, a tendency to resort to unconventional political participation, and a fragmented trust in local government among the respondents.

This study shows how people create and shape their identity through supportership. I have used oral history as my method and interviewed supporters from the two largest sports clubs in Växjö, which are Östers IF and Växjö Lakers. The main issue for the study is to examine and discuss how the supporters view their own supportership and how it can connect to shaping of identity. The other issues that this study will try to answer is how the culture in each fan club has changed over time and if there is any form of rivalry between them.  The results shows that the supporters view their supportership as a huge part of them self and that their supportership has hade a vital impact in creating an identity. It also shows that there is some kind of rivalry between the two groups and that the culture has changed.