In Finland, the rural areas have been most affected by the developments threatening the survival of the welfare state as well as by conflicting efforts to save it. However, there are rural communities that have-as a response to the mainstream policy emphasizing economic efficiency and individual responsibility-developed innovative solutions to secure their welfare. Based on a case study focusing on two of such communities, these local welfare innovations are a result from a combination of external causes and local resources including the sense of community and a diverse enough community structure. The authors argue that in the context of welfare policy, the promotion of local welfare innovation calls for a comprehensive approach, which considers the broader viability dimension of the communities and works towards it in tight collaboration with various actors from different policy fields and societal sectors. K E Y W O R D S associations, government policy, clubs, committees, provision and effects of welfare programmes, regional economic activity: growth, development, and changes, social choice, welfare economics

The article discusses the issues of social services in rural areas from a theoretical view point of sustainability paradigms of social work. The ecological crisis existing beyond the ongoing global economic crisis is not separated from the increasing urbanization and weakening perspectives in rural areas. The paper is based on results from a participatory action research project in Finland, which aims at strengthening social service provision in rural areas through citizens' participation and community-orientation. The neoliberal politics of centralization, marketization and privatization are heavily transforming rural regions also in the Nordic welfare states right now. The debates in the rural citizens' forums could be concluded in three tasks of the project's further agenda: a renewed democratic governance of social services, a radical turn towards the involvement of and respect for service users, and practical steps towards citizens as coproducers, especially in the form of village cooperatives. The results encourage participatory approaches in order to create practicable models for social services not only in rural areas. Conceptualizing sustainability can be especially productive in the rural contexts where interdependency of different life areas is more evident.

This article examines how do municipalities aim to promote well-being in sparsely populated rural villages, and how are villagers involved in the measures of well-being undertaken in their municipality. The main analysis is based on the interviews of municipal representatives in the case study of North Karelia, Finland. The analysis of well-being and participation, and their relation to the social inclusion of rural inhabitants is executed under the themes of mobility, services, democratic involvement and civic action. The policy measures seek to improve liveability of the environment and the villagers' quality of life. Participation, as a means and an end of well-being and inclusion, involves the dimensions of structural inclusion, as well as genuine participation and citizen engagement.Abstrakti: Artikkelissa tarkastellaan, kuinka kunnat pyrkivät edistämään harvaan asuttujen alueiden ja kylien hyvinvointia, ja kuinka kunnissa tuetaan kyläläisten osallisuutta palveluissa ja muissa hyvinvointia tukevissa toiminnoissa. Pääanalyysi perustuu kuntaedustajien haastatteluihin, jotka on toteutettu case-tutkimuksena Pohjois-Karjalan alueella Suomessa. Hyvinvointia ja osallisuutta, sekä kytköksiä kyläläisten sosiaaliseen osallisuuteen, on analysoitu liikkuvuuden, palvelujen, demokraattisen osallistumisen ja kansalaistoiminnan näkökulmista. Politiikkatoimet pyrkivät parantamaan elinmahdollisuuksia ja elämänlaatua kylissä. Osallisuuden edistäminen hyvinvoinnin toimenpiteenä ja tavoitteena sisältää sekä rakenteellisen osallisuuden ulottuvuudet että aidon osallistumisen ja kansalaisten osallistamisen muodot.