Introduction

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to challenges associated with decisions on location of public services, with a specific focus on how such complex and at times painful decisions can gain public acceptance. This introductory chapter explains what a location problem is and why such problems are particularly difficult to manage in a democratic context. A classification of public services is introduced, taking their relative attractiveness to the local community as a point of departure. The book’s focus on the local level of government is explained and the case of Sweden—which provides many illustrative examples throughout the book—is introduced. The chapter ends with an overview of the rest of the book.