Civil society between void and action – the case of refugee support on Lesvos

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Greek island of Lesvos, a holiday destination, became the main entry point for forced migrants to Europe in the fall 2015. The role that civil society has played in tackling the forced migration crisis on Lesvos, like in many other places in the EU, has been immense. However, the sheer number of refugees arriving, the interplay between local and international initiatives, conflicts between actors, the specific, and often one-sided, attention of the media, the clash between the holiday location and the humanitarian- ecological disaster and the fact that volunteers were the frontline response at the border of Europe for quite some time makes this a special case. Geuijen et al. [2016. “Creating Public Value in Global Wicked Problems.” Public Management Review 19 (5): 621–639. doi:10.1080/14719037.2016.1192163] explored if the Public Value theory by Moore [1995. Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government. Cambridge: Harvard University Press] could be useful in guiding analysis and action with respect to situations as experienced on Lesvos. Bryson et al. [2016. “Towards A Multi-Actor Theory of Public Value Co-Creation.” Draft submission to Public Management Review. Accessed November 2017. https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2433237/Sorensen.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y] has called for a modification of the theory of public value, in particular the strategic triangle framework, to adapt it to a more complicated world and building a more general theory of public value creation. In this article a conceptual model will be presented that builds on Moore's Public Value but, extended to help deal with the complexity of situations like on Lesvos.