How Swedish municipalities are utilizing their crisis management committees during the Corona pandemic

How has crisis management in the Swedish municipalities been carried out during the Corona pandemic? This is one of the issues being addressed in a study where CNDS researchers at Karlstad University together with their colleagues at Mid Sweden University are examining which municipalities have activated their crisis management committees and which have not.

The Center for Societal Risk Research, CSR, at Karlstad University, together with the Risk and Crisis Research Center, RCR, at Mid Sweden University, have been granted funding by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) to conduct a research study on if and how Swedish municipalities are activating their crisis management committees during the Corona pandemic.

By collecting information and conducting interviews in six municipalities, the researchers will investigate when, how, why and how long the crisis management committees have been activated. Research questions include: which issues and local factors correlated with activation, which decisions have been taken by the crisis management committees, and how  decision-making processes have been carried out. Collecting and analyzing this knowledge is valuable for theory development and can be used for the improving municipal crisis management.

- In a first step, we will gather information about which municipalities in Sweden activated their crisis management committees in 2020 as a result of the corona pandemic as well as details regarding when, how and why the committees were activated. "This information will then be analyzed to identify possible links with the spread of infection as well as the municipalities' demographics, political leadership and previous activation of the crisis management committees," says Mikael Granberg, professor of political science and director of CSR.

In the next step, interviews will be conducted in three municipalities where their crisis management committees have been activated and in three municipalities which have not activated them. 

Autonomous Swedish municipalites lead to different crisis management processes and strategies

"The Swedish municipal crisis management committees play an important role in the municipal crisis work and this is regulated by the Act on Extraordinary Events. However, the fact that there is a great deal of municipal autonomy means that the municipal crisis management committees are activated at different times, for different reasons and over different periods of time. There is no research-based knowledge of how this flexibility is used and how it is beneficial at the municipal level," says Jörgen Sparf, researcher at RCR.

The study was launched in June and the information gathering will take place throughout the year.