"Save Our School!" What kinds of impact have protests against school closures in Swedish local ploitics?

Abstract

People have opposed the closures of local schools in many municipalities all across the Sweden. While some campaigns succeed in stopping or post-postponing the decision, other actions fail and pupils are sent to new school. The impact of citizens’ participation on policymaking is a core issue for democracy, but it has been little studied. How and in what conditions some local groups succeed and other fail in stopping the school-closures? Is protesting in the rich, urban or native-Swedes dominated areas more successful than the struggle in the poor or immigrant dominated communities? Does it matter who participate in such actions and what kind of strategies they use? This project will answer these questions by combining the theories of policy-process and social movement outcomes. The empirical analysis will use data on all Swedish municipalities that have discussed the question of school-closure during the last twenty years.