Kommunalt självstyre och regional fysisk planering i Region Värmland : En studie om hur kommuner kan påverkas av regional fysisk planering i Region Värmland

What is studied in this essay is how municipal self-government and the municipal planning monopoly can be affected for municipalities in Region Värmland if physical planning were to be regionalized in Värmland. There is a power shift going on in today´s situation, where the local is being moved more and more to the regional level. It is also a power struggle between who should control different thing. The purpose of the work is to find out how municipalities in Värmland will be affected if the physical planning were to be regionalized. Also how civil servants and their work regarding planning may be affected. This can be seen based on two dimensions that are applied in the study, the dimension of power and the dimension of activity, which can show differences and similarities exist between municipalities. The questions to be answered are: - What effects and perspectives (pros and cons) do you think the working method can have for the interviewed municipalities if spatial planning is regionalized? -Does it matter if it is a smaller or larger municipality? -How is planning affected by this, what would be the consequences/problems for the businesses from more regional physical planning in Värmland? Through qualitative interviews, respondents from eight municipalities in Värmland have been interviewed to answer how they think they will be affected if regional spatial planning were to be used in Värmland. The respondents work with relevant professions within community planning. The results show, based on four themes, divided unconditionally based on the respondent´s answers, how the municipalities and their respondents would be affected. Among other things, the respondents lack responsibility from the region, resources and the municipalities conditions look different and depending on whether it is a small or large municipality it can look different. The local knowledge a municipality has is also important for municipalities, and municipal self- government is also something that municipalities think is important. Politics and democracy are important parts of how things should work. The conclusion shows that different effects and perspectives with pros and cons will affect the interviewed municipalities if spatial planning is regionalized. An important perspecitve is that power between municipality and region plays a role and also that municipalities today work in different ways and are therefore affected differently depending on their size, small or large municipality. The planning and activites will have several different consequences, both good and bad, knowledge and cooperation is something that will be able to improve the planning.