Appropriating the commons

Appropriating  the Commons (ACTWEL) is funded by the Norwegian Research Council, Nord University is project-owner, Guro Wisth Øygard is project-leader.

ACTWEL focuses on the cultural resilience and adaptability of the Scandinavian welfare model in facing new challenges. Understanding how to cope with these changes will be crucial for long-term social sustainability. Developing a new theoretical framework and critical vocabulary for conceptualizing the cultural transformation of welfare and charity, ACTWEL aims to explore how the cultural configuration of individual autonomy and the management of the commons are changing.

ACTWEL begins with a scoping and literature review, which will provide insight into current trends as well as into historical developments in the field. When mapping social policies related to civil society (WP1), we will be using Bacchiʼs (1999) WPR approach to policy analysis, which asks “whatʼs the problem represented to be?” In our media analysis (WP2) we will employ mixed methods to examine how civil society and volunteer work are represented, and to explore social media platform-related work by voluntary organizations. Fieldwork on three cases of voluntary/civil organizations (WP3) will involve participatory observations as well as in-depth interviews. WPs 1–3 will furnish the insights and input for WP4, which will involve developing a conceptual framework and vocabulary for understanding how the cultural configuration of individual autonomy and the management of the commons are changing. WP5 Project management will secure project coordination, objectives, and deliverables.