Civil Society and Social Movements
The research area conducts research linked to changes in the public sector and civil society with a special focus on welfare policy and social work. Research projects in the field study the changing conditions and organization of welfare, as well as how civil society is affected by, affects, and is involved in the development of the welfare state. In the area, comparative analyzes are made of civil societies in different countries and studies on how Europeanisation affects Swedish civil society.
First formed in the autumn of 2008, CSSA is a research group focusing on civil society from the social work perspective, lead by professors Anna Meeuwisse and Håkan Johansson. The group builds on a tradition at Lund University's School of Social Work to conduct research on voluntary social work. One overall area of interest is the study of changing conditions of welfare systems and organisation and how NGOs are affected by and involved in shaping the development of the welfare state. The group includes researchers associated with the School of Social Work, as well as PhD students and researchers from other universities.
Research themes:
The affiliated researchers work with a variety of research projects that relate to the voluntary sector / NGOs for development at local, national and international level. Primarily, NGOs are analysed in light of a changing welfare state and what consequences this has for organisations, such as how the welfare state reforms affects organisations' roles as the advocates and service providers.
Several research projects also have an international focus and study, for example, sharing ideas and organisational models between countries and comparing the voluntary sectorss structure and organisation of the different types of welfare states. A central theme is how an increased supranationalisation affect the voluntary organisations on a national level. This means, for example, various EU initiatives with the objective of influencing the member states' social policy, a new political opportunity structure for NGOs representing disadvantaged groups?
Latest publications within the area
Encounters with Individuals Expressing Shame in Situations of Acute Food Need: Informal Strategies Employed by Professionals
Mötet med människor som uttrycker skam vid akut behov av mat: Informella strategier bland professionellaTranslated title...Contentious framings: Swedish civil society actors’ experiences of hate speech, threats, and harassment from multiple perpetrators
Contentious framings: Swedish civil society actors’ experiences of hate speech, threats, and harassment from multiple pe...Rhythms of debt: Lived temporalities of over-indebted young adults in Sweden
Rhythms of debt: Lived temporalities of over-indebted young adults in SwedenDavidsson, T. & Eriksson, E., 2025 Jun 11, (...Governing Street-Level Bureaucracies: The Organizational Shaping of Caseworkers
Governing Street-Level Bureaucracies: The Organizational Shaping of CaseworkersJohansson, H. & Jacobsson, K., 2025 Apr 2...Mobilizing Knowledge: Framing Gender-based Violence and Negotiating Social Protection for Migrant Women with Precarious Legal Status
Mobilizing Knowledge: Framing Gender-based Violence and Negotiating Social Protection for Migrant Women with Precarious ...
Research Portal
Read more about our research, researchers and research output.
Civil Society Elites?
Comparing elite composition, reproduction, integration and contestation in European civil societies
DigRep – Representation in the digital era
Democratic consequences of changing engagement in the Swedish disability movement
In debt – Young adults and the dimensions of guilt
Over-indebtedness amongst young adults creates difficulties when entering adulthood and tends to be a long-term problem.