Dilemmas of engagement: local government officials’ perspectives on roles and responsibilities in climate change adaptation in rural and remote Nordic municipalities

As climate change impacts intensify across the Nordic countries, calls for deeper and more sustained citizen engagement in adaptation efforts have become increasingly prominent in both national and local policy agendas. This shift has spurred growing scholarly interest in how citizen responsibilisation is reshaping the roles and responsibilities of local government officials. While existing research has predominantly focused on urban contexts, this article examines local government officials in remote rural municipalities in Denmark and Norway. Drawing on interviews with local government officials, we analyse how processes of citizen responsibilisation are experienced, interpreted, and enacted at the local level. Here, the narratives reveal responsibilisation as an emergent and negotiated process. In their accounts, the local government officials oscillate between positioning themselves in technical advisory roles and facilitative roles. We argue that, in remote rural Nordic contexts, citizen responsibilisation unfolds gradually and remains fragmented, shaped by contested interpretations of roles and responsibility.