Föreliggande studie tillkom i samverkan med Rädda Barnen och Aktiv Ungdom i Uppsala. De båda ideellt drivna verksamheterna bedriver årligen ett kostnadsfritt sommarlovsläger för barn i låg- och mellanstadieåldern i ett socialt- och socioekonomiskt utsatt område i Uppsala. Studien undersökte vad det betyder för familjer att barnen ges möjlighet att delta på sommarlovslägret ur föräldrars perspektiv, ledares perspektiv och Rädda Barnens lokalförenings perspektiv. Studien bygger på kvalitativ forskningsmetod, semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes och resultatet analyserades genom en tematisk analys. Den utvecklingsekologiska modellen var studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt, modellen tydliggör hur interaktioner eller förändringar inom barnets olika system aldrig är fristående utan i ständig växelverkan med varandra. Resultatet visar att deltagande i sommarlovslägret har en positiv påverkan på barnet, föräldern och familjen. Deltagandet bidrar till att minska barnens isolering och att minska föräldrastress som är avhängig familjens ekonomiska förutsättningar och begränsningar i vardagen. Detta resultat går i linje med tidigare forskning som tydligt framhåller den organiserade fritidens betydelse för barns utveckling och hälsa. Studiens slutsats är att barn i socialt- och socioekonomiskt utsatta områden ofta missgynnas de många hälsofrämjande aspekter som deltagande i organiserade fritidsaktiviteter medför. Det är av stor vikt att kostnadsfria fritidsaktiviteter genomförs inom socioekonomiskt utsatta områden för att möjliggöra deltagande som annars kan hindras av begränsade ekonomier och transportmedel.

This dissertation aims to extend entrepreneurship theory to also comprise entrepreneurship in non-profit organizations in civil society. Entrepreneurship is claimed to be highly relevant also to this non-profit setting. Since entrepreneurship theory is highly embedded in an economic discourse and a business setting there is, however, a need to elaborate on the two different frameworks. The analysis of this study is grounded in an empirical study of the entrepreneurial process of Attac Sweden. The study has been conducted with a narrative approach. In this dissertation entrepreneurship theory is re-contextualized in the framework of non-profit organizations. The paradox of profit versus non-profit is elaborated on as well as the dilemmas of opportunities, legitimacy and the bounding of the new organization. The analysis of this study shows that the discussion on opportunities in entrepreneurship theory is highly relevant also in the case of Attac Sweden. However, this study suggests to supplement the discussion on opportunities with a discussion of ‘necessities’ to relate to perceived convictions to engage and to act. This study further shows and elaborates on the close connections between the process by which entrepreneurship becomes and other group formations in society. The organization created through the entrepreneurial process becomes an actor in civil society challenging established practices and norms. However, the entrepreneurial process also reaches beyond the creation of an organization. In this dissertation an alternative framework for entrepreneurship, based on a social process of organizing, is developed. This framework connects the entrepreneurial process to group dynamics as well as to social movements and articulation of disclosing stories in society.

Avhandlingen är en nutidsanalys av delar av den svenska välfärden. Samverkan mellan myndigheter och organisering av socialt arbete i frivilliga organisationer är två samtida tendenser i det svenska välfärdssystemet. Båda studierna fokuserar på arbetslivsinriktad rehabiliteringför personer utanför arbetsmarknaden en längre tid. Den första studien beskriver samverkan mellan olika offentliga myn-digheter i form av ett samverkansteam (ReSamprojektet), medan den andra studien beskriver och analyserar en delvis brukarstyrd form för arbetslivsinriktad rehabilitering, den så kallade klubbhus-modellen (Fontänhusrörelsen).Den första studien var en processinriktad utvärdering med olika me-toder för datainsamling som intervjuer, fokuserade gruppdiskussioner, samt dagboksanteckningar. Den andra studien gjordes utifrån en deltagarbaserad forskningstradition där författaren arbetade med en forskarcirkel bestående av medlemmar från klubbhuset. Syftet var att närma sig rehabiliterings-processen på ett så utforskande sätt som möjligt. Data samlades in som detaljerade anteckningar, officiellt material och inspelade intervjuer.Resultat från den första studien visar att det var möjligt att samarbeta över myndigheternas gränser men att det fanns hinder som handlade om kulturella och organisatoriska skillnader mellan myndigheterna, olikheter när det gäller engagemang och begränsa-de resurser för att kunna möta klienternas komplexa behov. Samtidigt var en viktig lärdom att ju mer kunskap handläggarna hade om varandra och sina respektive organisationer destolättare blev samar-betet. Resultat från den andra studien visar att genom det dagliga arbetet formas, fördjupas och åter-upptas relationer och den stödjande omgivningen. Förstärkande mekanismer var en uttalad ideologi, en tydlig struktur för möten, återkommande arbetsgrupper ochcertifiering. Det var också viktigt att arbetsuppgifterna betraktades som nödvändiga och att de gjorde en skillnad om de utfördes. Å andra sidan beskrevs rörelsen som begränsande för vissa medlemmar.I diskussionen används tillit somett begrepp som spänner över individ-, grupp-och samhällsnivå. Tillit blir ett sammanbindande begrepp mellan de båda studierna och visade sig vara den viktigaste komponenten för att etablera hållbara relationer på gruppnivå. Slutligen följer en mera framåtblickande diskussion som handlar om hur utanförskap kan bemötas genom samverkansaktiviteter respektive frivillig organisering och vilken roll verksamheterna kan få i välfärdssystemet / The thesis is a contemporary analysis of parts of the Swedish welfare system. Co-operation between agencieswithin the welfare system and provision of welfare services by organizations within the voluntary sector are two contemporary tendencies. Both studies are focusing on the rehabilitation process for individuals who have been excluded from the labour market for a longer time period. The first study describes and analyzes co-operation in a three year project as a strategy for provision of complex welfare services (the ReSam project). The second study describes and analyzes the club house model of rehabilitation (the Fountain House movement).The first study is based on a process evaluation, where different kinds of data were collected through interviews, focus groups and diaries. These data were subsequently analyzed with qualitative methods. The second study isparticipant oriented, which means that a group of members conducted the study in co-operation with the re-searcher. The study isexplorative and research data were collected in a variety of ways including detailed notes, taped interviews and cognitive maps.The results of the first study show that it was possible to co-operate across the organizational boundaries of the different agencies involved, but there were obstacles related to organizational and cultural differences between the agencies, divided loyalties of the officials involved, and limited resources available to deal with the complex needs of the clients. The most important factor was that the officials learnt more about each other and the agencies involved. The result of the second study reveals that daily work tasks forms, deepens and reinvents both relationships as well as the supportive environment. Supportive mechanisms were an explicit ideology, plain structure of the meetings, frequent held working groups and thecertification process. Furthermore, it was important that the taskswere considered as necessaryand made a dif-ference. On the other hand, the members described the clubhouse environment as restricting for some. In the discussion, trust is used as a concept which spans over individual, interpersonal and organizational levels and becomes a useful tool as a theoretical concept binding the two studies to-gether. Trust was revealed as the most important ingredient as it comes to establishing sustainable relationships on a group level. Finally, some possible future scenarios are drawn up and discussed concerning the roles and relations between the welfare system and contemporary new forms of orga-nizing welfare services.

The aim of this thesis is to create knowledge on processes of change in the contemporary organizing of Swedish voluntary sport and the systems of meaning at work in these processes. The thesis proceeds from the assumption that the contemporary public sport policy climate is characterized by a pressure on organized sport to change in order for sport to better serve as an implementer of non-sport goals. In attempting to capture the possible ramifications of this pressure on the organizing of voluntary sport, the thesis work relies on the argument that processes of change are best captured in instances where new and established ideas are confronted with one another. Following this argument and drawing upon the concept of theorization, the first research question treated in the thesis concerns how legitimacy is established for a new practice (reported in Article 1). The second research question addressed is how, why, and with what consequences new ideas on organizing are implemented in sport organizations (reported in Article 2 & 3). In relation to this question, the concepts of translation and organizational identity are mobilized in the analysis. Empirically, these two questions are addressed using data from 29 interviews covering the emergence and organizing of organized spontaneous sport, so-called Drive in sport, in four Swedish municipalities. The analysis relating to these two questions shows that the same systems of meaning invoked to legitimize and specify Drive-in sport as a practice that has the potential to remedy problems being faced by both the Swedish society and the Swedish sports movement, also made Drive-in sport an unlikely developmental direction for the majority of implementing sport clubs. This process is understood with reference to a mismatch between the organizational identity of the clubs and the cultural material of the idea of Drive-in sport. This insight is brought into the formulation of the third research question treated in the thesis, which is concerned with sport clubs’ readiness, willingness, and ability to respond to policy changes (reported in Article 4). Building on data from short, qualitative interviews with representatives from 218 randomly selected sport clubs, 10 organizational identity categories are constructed. Between these categories, there is a variety of clubs’ core purposes, practices, and logics of action. The implications of this heterogeneity, in terms of sport clubs’ role as policy implementers, are discussed with reference to what clubs in each category might "imagine doing." The analysis provided in the thesis as a whole suggests that at stake in processes of change in the contemporary organizing of Swedish voluntary sport, is the very definition and meaning of sport.

This thesis describes the non-profit sector in Czechoslovakia in 1945 - 1951 period. In this pivotal period, the independent non-profit organizations were partly revived during the post-war reconstruction, but they have been gradually limited by the state pressure, aiming to achieve their ultimate liquidation. This study examines the causes and transformation tools of the NGO sector until its abolition, as well as their subordination to direct government oversight. This work views the topic especially in terms of financial and managerial aspects of the organizations during this period. Due to the fact that this is an unexplored issue, the theoretical knowledge related to the topic is presented first, and the terminology and legislative developments of this type of organization are subsequently clarified. The practical part uses the example of three socially oriented associations: YMCA, Czechoslovak Red Cross and Charita (Caritas), their specific economic issues and the examples of contemporary management.

Ce triptyque d’essais présente le caractère versatile et évasif du concept moderne de capital social à plusieurs niveaux – global, national et régional, ainsi que dans le présent et dans le passé. Le premier article conteste l’hypothèse prédominante selon laquelle il y a une cohabitation entre l’engagement civique et la démocratie. Malgré sa validité au niveau général, la relation n’est pas confirmée si les catégories hétérogènes sont désagrégées. Pour les pays post-communistes de l'Europe, la relation entre le type de régime et la tendance de s'associer ressemble à celle des démocraties latines consolidées si la participation dans les associations volontaires est choisie comme mesure de la vitalité du capital social. Par conséquent, la vie civique moins intense ne prédit pas de difficultés pour la démocratie. Le deuxième article est une compilation originale de plus de 100 organisations classifiées selon les standards contemporains et une collection de présentations d'une douzaine d'organisations bulgares, les plus populaires depuis le XIXème siècle. Cette contribution importante à l’historiographie de la vie associative bulgare jusqu’à 1944 est le résultat d'un travail qui combine des entrevues avec des historiens et une recherche dans les archives. Le panoptique organisationnel sert de réfutation empirique de l’hypothèse qui attribue la faiblesse organisationnelle présente du poste-communisme à la pénurie de vie organisationnelle développée par le passé. ii Les mérites du troisième article sont doubles. Au niveau empirique on démontre que l’organisation culturelle la plus importante en Bulgarie a apparu comme une institution nationaliste imitant les organisations similaires des autres pays Européens. Elle s’est développée graduellement par une adaptation des expériences étrangères aux conditions locales. La collection des références bulgares est unique et représente le produit d’un travail méticuleux sur les documents et les entrevues. Au niveau abstrait, on confirme l’applicabilité de la théorie du transfert de la politique publique à un cas historique existant avant la théorie elle-même. Finalement, l’analyse détaillée des précurseurs du cabinet de lecture bulgare représente une contribution à la sociologie politique de l’histoire de la lecture. Mots clés: Europe de l’Est, poste-communisme, démocratie, société civile, engagement civique, organisations volontaires, troisième secteur, affiliation, transfert d'idées, apprentissage organisationnel. / A triptych of essays presents the versatility and the evasiveness of the trendy concept of social capital on several planes – global, national, and regional, as well as in the present and in the past. The first article challenges the influential hypothesis that there is cohabitation between civic engagement and democracy. While valid at a general level, the relationship is not confirmed once heterogeneous categories are disaggregated. For the European post-Communist countries, the pattern of the relationship between the regime type and the propensity to associate closely resembles the one in Latin mature democracies, provided that membership in voluntary associations is chosen as a measurement of social capital. Less intensive civic life does not bode for predicaments in democracy. The second article is an original compilation of more than 100 organizations classified according to contemporary standards and a collection of narratives about a dozen of the most popular organizations in Bulgaria since the 19th century. This invaluable contribution to the historiography of Bulgarian associational life until 1944 is the result of field work which combined personal interviews with historians of the organizations and archival research of original documents. The organizational panopticon serves as an empirical refutation of the hypothesis inferring that present organizational weakness of post- Communism is due to the lack of developed organizational life in the past. The merits of the third article are twofold. On empirical level it is demonstrated that the most important cultural organization in Bulgaria emerged iv as a nation-building institution modeled initially by imitating similar ones in other European countries and later by adapting foreign experiences to the local specific conditions. The collection of original Bulgarian references is unique and it is again a product of meticulous work with documents and personal interviews. On a more abstract level it confirms the applicability of the voluminous and unstructured theory on policy transfer to a historical case existing before the appearance of the theory itself. Last, but not least, the overview of the major European precursors of the Bulgarian reading club represents a modest tribute to the less known field of political sociology of history of reading. Keywords: Eastern Europe, post-Communism, democracy, civil society, civic engagement, voluntary organizations, Third sector, membership, transfer of ideas, lesson-drawing.

Ce triptyque d’essais présente le caractère versatile et évasif du concept moderne de capital social à plusieurs niveaux – global, national et régional, ainsi que dans le présent et dans le passé. Le premier article conteste l’hypothèse prédominante selon laquelle il y a une cohabitation entre l’engagement civique et la démocratie. Malgré sa validité au niveau général, la relation n’est pas confirmée si les catégories hétérogènes sont désagrégées. Pour les pays post-communistes de l'Europe, la relation entre le type de régime et la tendance de s'associer ressemble à celle des démocraties latines consolidées si la participation dans les associations volontaires est choisie comme mesure de la vitalité du capital social. Par conséquent, la vie civique moins intense ne prédit pas de difficultés pour la démocratie. Le deuxième article est une compilation originale de plus de 100 organisations classifiées selon les standards contemporains et une collection de présentations d'une douzaine d'organisations bulgares, les plus populaires depuis le XIXème siècle. Cette contribution importante à l’historiographie de la vie associative bulgare jusqu’à 1944 est le résultat d'un travail qui combine des entrevues avec des historiens et une recherche dans les archives. Le panoptique organisationnel sert de réfutation empirique de l’hypothèse qui attribue la faiblesse organisationnelle présente du poste-communisme à la pénurie de vie organisationnelle développée par le passé. ii Les mérites du troisième article sont doubles. Au niveau empirique on démontre que l’organisation culturelle la plus importante en Bulgarie a apparu comme une institution nationaliste imitant les organisations similaires des autres pays Européens. Elle s’est développée graduellement par une adaptation des expériences étrangères aux conditions locales. La collection des références bulgares est unique et représente le produit d’un travail méticuleux sur les documents et les entrevues. Au niveau abstrait, on confirme l’applicabilité de la théorie du transfert de la politique publique à un cas historique existant avant la théorie elle-même. Finalement, l’analyse détaillée des précurseurs du cabinet de lecture bulgare représente une contribution à la sociologie politique de l’histoire de la lecture. Mots clés: Europe de l’Est, poste-communisme, démocratie, société civile, engagement civique, organisations volontaires, troisième secteur, affiliation, transfert d'idées, apprentissage organisationnel. / A triptych of essays presents the versatility and the evasiveness of the trendy concept of social capital on several planes – global, national, and regional, as well as in the present and in the past. The first article challenges the influential hypothesis that there is cohabitation between civic engagement and democracy. While valid at a general level, the relationship is not confirmed once heterogeneous categories are disaggregated. For the European post-Communist countries, the pattern of the relationship between the regime type and the propensity to associate closely resembles the one in Latin mature democracies, provided that membership in voluntary associations is chosen as a measurement of social capital. Less intensive civic life does not bode for predicaments in democracy. The second article is an original compilation of more than 100 organizations classified according to contemporary standards and a collection of narratives about a dozen of the most popular organizations in Bulgaria since the 19th century. This invaluable contribution to the historiography of Bulgarian associational life until 1944 is the result of field work which combined personal interviews with historians of the organizations and archival research of original documents. The organizational panopticon serves as an empirical refutation of the hypothesis inferring that present organizational weakness of post- Communism is due to the lack of developed organizational life in the past. The merits of the third article are twofold. On empirical level it is demonstrated that the most important cultural organization in Bulgaria emerged iv as a nation-building institution modeled initially by imitating similar ones in other European countries and later by adapting foreign experiences to the local specific conditions. The collection of original Bulgarian references is unique and it is again a product of meticulous work with documents and personal interviews. On a more abstract level it confirms the applicability of the voluminous and unstructured theory on policy transfer to a historical case existing before the appearance of the theory itself. Last, but not least, the overview of the major European precursors of the Bulgarian reading club represents a modest tribute to the less known field of political sociology of history of reading. Keywords: Eastern Europe, post-Communism, democracy, civil society, civic engagement, voluntary organizations, Third sector, membership, transfer of ideas, lesson-drawing.