Research

Civil society and its organisations have a special position and important roles to play in every society. These organisations exhibit unique features and they are often understood as a distinctive sphere or sector in society.

Within this extensive and long-term research program, developed at the Centre since the early 1990s, two main contributions can be noticed. Firstly, combined theoretical and empirical efforts – in close cooperation with several international academic partners – have been instrumental in bringing the nonprofit sector (den ideella sektorn) and its various fields of organisations into the scholarly and academic arena as well as the more public debate in Sweden; thus “putting the sector on the map”. In a second step, a number of in-depth studies focused on strategic and organisational issues are conducted with the explicit aim and ambition to contribute to a better understanding of how civil society organisations are governed, led and operated.

Information about the main research projects in the Civil Society Program can be found in the menu to the left.