In the Perspective of a Regional Support Structure

People want something in a place – this desire is our outset. These words are spoken by Caroline Bergmann who is a coordinator in the architecture of everyday life in Västra Götalandsregionen (VGR, Sweden’s West coast region), and the region’s process facilitator for local initiatives. The will power and motivation of a local community is the biggest asset in the place-based development process. The tools and methods Bergmann uses in her practice, are all aimed at harvesting this drive and ambition that emanates from the local community. Västra Götalandsregionen has over time developed a six-step model based on experience from ten years of place-based architecture and development in the region. A model that has supported a number of places and initiatives around the region. The process facilitator tool brings a local initiative from a local process of establishment, mapping and analysis, to articulating a local development plan with various stakeholders and finding financing and meeting organizational needs. In the assisted process, the region helps both the civil society and the local authorities to navigate through the field of responsibility.

Hyper-local rural development

Before her role as process coordinator in the regional level, she learned the ropes from a local perspective of her hometown Uddebo, a village in the rural extensions of Göteborg. There were dire needs in the local community, and also big opportunities, and to this day Uddebo stands out as one of Sweden’s finest examples of a hyper-local development, with a deep involvement of the village population, to turn a financial downward spiral upside down, and reversing the movement pattern from going out to going in to the community of Uddebo. But turning the local development around from a negative to a positive development is one thing, to get to a level of resilience is next level. Over a long time, how will the local community deal with changes to the demographic pattern, or the bus routes changing, or the loss of a local service provider?

The regional process facilitator tool

In a similar way to GNIST, the regional process facilitator tool is a method to respond to an initiative coming from a local community and assist in navigating through the development process initiated from the local perspective. This kind of local initiative is based on a resolution to maintain a long-term engagement, and to own and manage the local development. Historically, a great independence has formed the rural landscape, with great local knowledge comes great possibilities. The place-based development in the facilitated projects all have a high degree of local involvement and engagement, with a focus on the local identity and the power of the initiative and the organization behind it. Along the way there may be challenges, such as communication, in which the region can assist. With competence and expertise comes a terminology that might be excluding. The process support can bridge the gap and bring the discussion to an informative level for all stakeholders in the process.