As “Sweden´s first change maker in residency” program, the small village of Röstånga announced an open call for “social entrepreneurs and change makers in Europe to apply for a residency with the social enterprise Röstånga Development CO (RUAB) in the South of Sweden”, sponsored by Goethe-Institut Schweden, RUAB and the Social Innovation Skåne platform.

I was selected to spend a month in Röstånga – “a place acclaimed both for its scenic setting and its progressive rural community development”, based on my interest in the links between (sub)urban and rural change movements in Sweden, and how local innovation connects to scales of national-global development.

I used my time in Röstånga for in-depth interviews with various change makers in the community, and visits to local schools, museums and nature. I also attended regional events in Malmö and Röstånga on topics of social innovation on a broader scale, as well as democratic innovation in rural Sweden.

Towards the end of my stay, I synthesized my key learnings into a large collage, where I mapped theoretical and social connection points between various change movements and actors across various scales, placing my experiences in Röstånga and Malmö in the larger context of the very diverse environments and institutions I carry within my biography. The result a (still very open) vision of a future local-global innovation platform based in Sweden, focused on exploring and lifting the role of “the human” and local innovation in connection to the organizational culture within the public sphere.