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"In a compelling and accessible, grounded and theoretically informed style, this book opens up new lines of research into the micro politics of institutional change efforts, both resistant and transformative. Students of social change will be building upon, debating and extending this book for many years."--Professor John Forester, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, USA. "Jan Olsson's focus on subversive action - the hidden political activity that operates against institutional rules, norms, and practices - highlights an important but neglected mechanism in new institutionalist theorizing. Both the authority and clarity of the argument developed will make this valuable contribution to the new institutionalist literature, appealing to both scholars and students alike."--Professor Ian Bache, Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, UK. "In this Pivot, Jan Olsson studies 'institutional subversion, ' i.e. actions which break institutional rules and norms. Institutions will only shape political and social behavior as long as its rules are followed. Subversion helps us better understand institutional stability and change. The Pivot will be of interest to students of institutions."--Professor Jon Pierre, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. This book theorizes subversive action, a neglected mechanism in the new institutionalism literature. Subversive action is political in nature, secretly undermining some institutions to open up alternative ideas or to secure existing institutions by secretly undermining adversaries. An example is a politician who promises change in public, but does something else behind the scenes to preserve the status quo. The book addresses the nature and meaning of subversive action and the contexts that give rise to it, as well as how it can work as an important mechanism behind institutional change and continuity. The book will interest students and scholars of public policy, public administration and political science. Jan Olsson is Professor of Political Science at Örebro University, Sweden. His research focus is on policy analysis, public administration, and planning. He has published articles on policy-making, implementation, multi-level governance and inside activism in journals such as the Journal of European Public Policy, Planning Theory and Practice, and Environmental Politics.

Zsfassung in engl. Sprache u.d.T.: The political economy of local economic development

"Inside Activism: Political Agency and Institutional Change" published on by Oxford University Press.

With this paper we aim to further our understanding of local environmental governing by analysing green inside activists who use expert-based authority, networks, and a professional position within public administration to green government policy and action from the inside. Using new survey data, we identify and analyse who these actors are and whether they matter for local environmental governing in Sweden. The results show that green inside activists operate within 23% of the Swedish municipalities and that these municipalities score higher on three different measurements of environmental governing performance, which supports the conclusion that green inside activists do make a difference. We also show that green inside activists differ from other public officials working with environmental issues in that they are more frequently involved in policy making, have more extensive horizontal and vertical networks, and promote societal changes to a greater degree. We end by raising key questions concerning the democratic legitimacy of these actors.