In the national agenda for e-health, Sweden set the vision to be world-leading in applying e-health solutions to enable health and welfare by 2025. However, without clear governmental action plans, the fulfillment of Sweden’s e-health vision is largely dependent on local communities taking action for themselves. Solutions and services developed together with citizens are more likely to address local needs and therefore serve a useful function in communities and promote health. As access to wired internet (fiber) supports continued inclusion into society, the rural community of Djursdala in the South of Sweden decided to invest in fiber. When connected, they wanted to make the most of their new connectivity. 

This presentation explores the co-production of this digitalization in the form of a pre-study that was initiated by the inhabitants of Djursdala, and completed in close collaboration with researchers from Jönköping University.  The community and researchers formulated the purpose of the pre-study: to identify and lay the foundation for implementing digital solutions that promote the health and well-being of the population as well as the attractiveness of Djursdala. Our guiding research question was: “how can digital development in rural communities be co-productively pursued?”  

This case study depicts the journey from initial contacts of various actors to the formulation of a shared mission and purpose that was formalized into a project proposal and funded by an EU LEADER fund. Today the Djursdala case study is part of the SAMSKAPA program (Kjellström et al., 2019) and is informed by Action Research methodologies facilitated by Service Design tools.  

Kjellström, S., Areskoug-Josefsson, K., Andersson Gäre, B., Andersson, A.-C., Ockander, M., Käll, J., … Robert, G. (2019). Exploring, measuring and enhancing the coproduction of health and well-being at the national, regional and local levels through comparative case studies in Sweden and England: the ‘Samskapa’ research programme protocol. BMJ Open, 9(7), e029723. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029723