The characteristics of regional development policy during the past decades have altered dramatically. The trend has changed from central control to an increasingly larger regional independence; from a focus on support and regional equalization to a stronger emphasis on growth in all parts of the country. The general emphasis has been on economic growth, but there is also an ambition to widen the concept with an ecological and social dimension.

The credence of controlling the development of society by means of interventions by the state has for a long time been strong and great resources have been reserved for interventions, not least in the area of regional development. However, the logic behind these interventions has seldom been investigated.

This is done in the thesis in which the logic behind the specific regional policy intervention Resource centers for women is derived. From this perspective it becomes apparent how the regional policy, in the shape of the policy behind the intervention, is based on contradicting logics which the resource centers have to balance. This proves to be an unfeasible balance act where the intrinsic inconsistencies cause organizational problems.  

Resource centers for women is a regional policy intervention that has been present since the mid 1990s and its establishment and formation can be understood by the background described above. The reason for its founding was that observations had been made that women were disfavored in regional policy. As a result of this, a request was raised of a gender perspective, where women’s local and regional terms were given larger attention. This led to the establishment of Resource centers for women in all Swedish counties; many local resource centers were also founded. The actual number of centers in Sweden has varied over time but there have been around 100 regional and local resource centers. In the thesis, two regions have the center of attention; Södermanland and Västmanland with two regional and 17 local resource centers.

The thesis, which is based on a case study of the Resource centers in Södermanland and Västmanland 2004-2006, shows how several of the organizational problems can be understood in relation to a contradicting regional policy. A policy based on three separate and partly contradicting logics that have to be handled in practice by the organization and often is the cause of contradicting requirements.