13. Local State–Society Relations in Iceland

This chapter explores the following networks of local state–society relations in Iceland: the neighborhood councils, school boards and youth councils. Organized civic participation is a relatively young phenomenon in Iceland. The findings show that participation is top-down driven and local elites have a lot of say in how civic participation is organized as they decide if they “accept” suggestions from the civic consultation platform. The neighborhood councils are ceremonial networks, and while the youth councils communicative, the school boards are self-reflective. Thus, institutionalization of civic participation in Iceland is rather low and networks do not score high on the participatory ladder.