Lokala samhällsutvecklingsprocesser och entreprenörskap

Sammanfattning: In many places in Sweden, there is a continuous struggle going on to maintain and create vitality in communities and regions. One of the regions where this struggle is most apparent is in the inland of northern Sweden, where economic survival often is of highest priority. In many locations practical attempts have also been undertaken to implement economic growth by improving the conditions for entrepreneurship. This dissertation deals with an exposed community in such a region, where a community development project has been carried through in order to create an environment characterized by entrepreneurship, the creation of new businesses, and economic growth. The shape and organization of the project is of a new type, making its process and result a relevant contribution to the knowledge regarding regional development in Sweden, both from a practical and theoretical perspective.The purpose with this dissertation is to study and describe the working procedures within this new type of community development project, as well as how these working procedures contributes to the creation of an entrepreneurial environment. Two other communities have also been used as referential points, meaning that the study also contains comparative features.The approach of the entrepreneurial interpretation has partly its point of departure in the classical theories of Schumpeter. Further and more recent references are also used to more explicitly emphasize the creative processes within entrepreneurship, as well as to create a geographically contextual approach of the theoretical field. To enrich the connection between entrepreneurship and the empirical findings the discussion also takes support in the terms system and life world from the perspective of Habermas. The point of using these terms is to enrich the possibilities of understanding the connection between community development and entrepreneurship. The used method of study is ethnographically inspired, but also includes narrative elements.Regarding the results, the empirical studies show that efficient cooperation between companies, authorities in question, and the civic society, are central in the attempts to create entrepreneurial environments. Theoretical reflections around the local working processes in the studied communities, and the forms of cooperating, show that the possibilities for these forms of cooperation to contribute to the creation of entrepreneurial environments would increase with a clearer merging of the meaning of the terms system and life world.