Shared understandings transformed : A field-level analysis of changing state-civil society relations

Abstract: The relationship between state and civil society organizations is often debated in contemporary societies and it has also been the subject for scholarly attention for a long time. Deeply enbedded in the popular movement  tradition and the corporative model in Sweden, the proximity between government and civil society has at times been so close, that it has been difficult to tell the two spheres apart. Studies have however shown that civil society and its relationship to the state are under transfomation.The dissertation presents a multiple-case study of the on-going transfomation of the shared understanding of this particular relationship between state and civil society. By applying Fligstein and McAdam's original work on Strategic Action Fields on cases from the two fields of sports and popular education in Sweden the author shows how the shared understanding of the relationship is being constructed and through which mechanisms it is transformed.It is concluded that the transformation has important field-level implications for the processes and principles for how the game of securing and dividing resources is played, for how the field boundaries are being drawn, and for the role and nature of the particular governance units internal to both fields. The study contributes to the development of the Strategic Action Field framework by providing two of its key concepts - 'shared understanding' and 'internal governance unit' - with substantially more detail and depth than in earlier research.