Both authors of this study have been involved in the School of Business at Umeå University Student Association (HHUS) and is due this discovery deficiencies and problems within the association. The pressure to engage in HHUS is compared with other financial organizations around the country very low. This led us to consider why this is the case. From experience we know that communication between the association and its members are not functioning optimally. Communication itself is essential for motivating students and for that motivation should be high for the students to experience good quality on the engagement.   The purpose of this study is to identify lines of communication and motivational factors that affect students who are members of HHUS to get involved or not. By demonstrating and explaining any shortcomings of this study, we show how these deficiencies affect engagement in HHUS. In carrying out this study we have used the theories in communication, motivation and service quality.   The study has been conducted in an objective manner with a positivistic approach. Through a deductive research approach with elements of induction, we start from theories in the above areas that concern our problem. Based on these theories, we have created a questionnaire that we distributed to all members of the HHUS group at Facebook, 113 of them completed the questionnaire. Based on the collected data received the survey have been analyzed by using SPSS.   Our study shows that the communication channels that work least well for HHUS is the plasma screen, closely followed by the website. Best working channels was communication through Facebook and friends. We also discovered weakness in communication between HHUS and their members, which affects the ability to motivate students. What motivates students to become involved proves to be both to develop personally, but also to sharpen their resume. The biggest reason that students choose not to get involved is because they perceive the work environment within HHUS to be bad.   Finally, we also examined how the quality of service commitment HHUS delivers. Through the use of a gap analysis, we investigated whether there were any deficiencies in the service. There has revealed that HHUS not really know what students want to engage in and as a result of this, they are also poor at adapting their entries by students' preferences.

I denna uppsats redovisas en studie av hur svenska idrottsföreningar på landsbygden påverkas av de samhällsförändringar som intåget i det postmoderna samhället har medfört. Det studerade datamaterialet har samlats in genom kvalitativa intervjuer och därefter analyserats genom forskningsmetoden grundad teori. De informanter som deltagit i studien är alla själva verksamma inom idrottsklubbar på små orter, och denna uppsats ger en inblick i deras erfarenheter som förhoppningsvis kan bidra till en ökad kunskap om hur svenska idrottsföreningar på landsbygden kan komma att utvecklas inom de närmaste åren. Resultaten avslöjar att de studerade föreningarna upplever stora problem vid rekryteringen av såväl nya medlemmar som ideellt engagerade tränare och styrelseledamöter. Dessutom påvisar studien en pågående konflikt mellan stad och landsbygd som i synnerhet berör resursfördelning och politisk prioritering. / In this thesis, a study of how Swedish sports associations in rural areas are affected by the societal changes which the advent of the post-modern society has brought is declared. The studied data has been collected through qualitative interviews and thenceforth analyzed through the research method grounded theory. The informants who have participated in the study are all active in sports clubs in small villages themselves, and this thesis provides an insight in their experiences which hopefully can contribute to an increased knowledge about how Swedish sports associations in rural areas may develop in the next few years. The results reveal that the studied sports clubs experience severe problems in the recruitment of new members as well as voluntary trainers and members of the board. Moreover, the study proves an ongoing conflict between urban and rural areas which in particular concerns allocation of resources and political priority.

Cette thèse porte sur l'engagement de la société civile dans les relations franco-allemandes entre 1989 et 2013, avec une ouverture portant jusqu'à l'année 2017. Son objectif est d'étudier le rôle, l'organisation et le caractère transnational de six initiatives franco-allemandes face à l'intégration européenne et à la mondialisation. Tout en démontrant l'importance de l'engagement citoyen, cette thèse s'interroge sur la place de la relation franco-allemande dans nos sociétés actuelles. L'interdisciplinarité du travail nécessite la mobilisation de plusieurs méthodes de recherche. L'exploitation des archives propres à chaque association se révèle particulièrement importante, pour pouvoir illustrer l'évolution des initiatives citoyennes sur la base de données empiriques. Dans un premier temps, l'analyse procède par catégories : (1) communication, (2) conception des programmes/orientation thématique, (3) réseautage et (4) professionnalisation/potentiel d'innovation. Ensuite, la thèse explore l'importance du capital social individuel (Bourdieu) des personnalités clés au sein d'une association ainsi que le capital social collectif (Putnam) généré par ces associations. Les relations que les associations entretiennent au sein du réseau franco-allemand et les liens qu'entretiennent les personnages clés avec d'autres acteurs situés en dehors de cet espace binational sont deux éléments importants pour la visibilité, le poids et l'utilité sociale des initiatives (Gadrey). Enfin, le travail pose la question de savoir si ces associations constituent des hétérotopies (Foucault) qui suscitent un habitus particulier tout en créant une conscience franco-allemande. Ainsi, cette thèse s'emploie à démontrer l'importance d'un réseau associatif transnational. / This thesis discusses the civil society engagement in the relationship between France and Germany between 1989 and 2013, with an outlook until 2017. Its objective is to study the role, the organisation and the transnational character of six Franco-German associations in the face of European integration and globalisation. By showing the importance of civil society engagement, this thesis questions the place of the Franco-German relationship in our contemporary society. The multidisciplinarity of this thesis demands the application of different methodological approaches. The analysis of empirical data through the examination of the associations' archives is particularly important in order to show the development of the initiatives. First, the material is analysed by the categories (1) communication, (2) program conception/main topics, (3) networking and (4) professionalization/innovation potential, which reveal different challenges such as the ageing of the members. Then, the thesis explores the importance of individual social capital (Bourdieu) for an association disposed by key personalities as well as the collective social capital (Putnam) generated by these associations. Not only the relations the associations are maintaining within the Franco-German network but also the connections key personalities have outside of the binational space are important for the visibility, wages and social utility of the initiatives (Gadrey). Finally, the thesis asks if these associations could be characterized as heterotopy (Foucault), which evokes a particular habitus by creating a Franco-German self-conception. The analysis therefore attempts to show the importance of a transnational association network.