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The paper elaborates on the contingency of leadership, referring to specific circumstances that require deliberate interventions, while challenging efforts to implement concerted action. This applies particularly when issues are at stake. The paper suggests that the notion of trajectory, which lies at the heart of the pragmatist Anselm Strauss' interactionist theory of action, merits further consideration. Empirically, the paper draws on experiences from a case study of an innovative project consisting of the building of premises for a library and a concert hall, called 'Stormen', in Bodø municipality, located in Northern Norway. Several controversial issues bore on the process. Although the municipal leadership managed to bring the project to a successful conclusion, trajectory management was rather demanding. The paper should consequently serve the analytical purpose well of discussing how and why contingencies, anticipated as well as unanticipated, challenge the performance of leadership.

The balancing of efficiency, effectiveness and democratic control is an ever-recurring problem when designing governance structures more or less disconnected from the formal democratic institutions. As far as the relationship between these considerations is concerned, much of the theoretical as well as the practical discourse revolve around the issue of whether synergy emerges or whether there is just a matter of trade-off. By applying primarily empirical observations from local-to-local cooperation in some Norwegian regions the article attempts to investigate how the relationship turns out. The article argues that at least three models are available, one balanced and two imbalanced variants. The notion of synergy highlights a model in which input-processes of democratic participation and output-processes of performance reinforce each other. The others, on the contrary, are imbalanced, implying either a democratic deficit or a deliberative surplus. By comparing the models to experiences from local-to-local cooperation a pattern of divergent features emerges. Nevertheless, a trade-off where the regard for local democracy and autonomy seems to dominate at the sacrifice of performing efficiently and effectively, thus the article is rather pessimistic as to what may be gained by pursuing the intermunicipal cooperative strategy further.

The balancing of efficiency, effectiveness and democratic control is an ever-recurring problem when designing governance structures more or less disconnected from the formal democratic institutions. As far as the relationship between these considerations is concerned, much of the theoretical as well as the practical discourse revolve around the issue of whether synergy emerges or whether there is just a matter of trade-off. By applying primarily empirical observations from local-to-local cooperation in some Norwegian regions the article attempts to investigate how the relationship turns out. The article argues that at least three models are available, one balanced and two imbalanced variants. The notion of synergy highlights a model in which input- processes of democratic participation and output-processes of performance reinforce each other. The others, on the contrary, are imbalanced, implying either a democratic deficit or a deliberative surplus. By comparing the models to experiences from local-to-local cooperation a pattern of divergent features emerges. Nevertheless, a trade-off where the regard for local democracy and autonomy seems to dominate at the sacrifice of performing efficiently and effectively, thus the article is rather pessimistic as to what may be gained by pursuing the intermunicipal cooperative strategy further.

The article focuses on a kind of innovation trajectory, based on the reemployment of assets that belong to the legacy of the past. Thus, it argues for the importance of utilizing know-how and social capital accumulated over the years in organizations' efforts to launch a new course. The concept of bricolage appears especially clarifying in throwing light on innovations emerging through bottom-up processes, utilizing what is at hand or embedded locally. However important breakthrough and pioneering entrepreneurs might be, what really matters in the long run is more incremental processes of problem solving. In elaborating this view on innovation, the article addresses organizational devolution and partnership. According to the article, top-down steering or strategic determination do not suffice to account for the processes underlying the application of these tools. Innovative processes of bricolage based on a bottom-up mobilization appear pivotal for releasing creativity.

The article focuses on new forms of governance involving partnerships between public and private actors. As several scholars have noticed, organisational hybrids at the intersection of the public and private sectors play an important part in the implementation of collective action. Local economic development in particular has provided a fertile ground for building coalitions across traditional divisions, and encouraging partnerships. This applies to Norway as well as to other liberal Western democracies.Obviously, the formation of partnerships reflects efforts to design more efficient and flexible instruments for founding new firms and for supporting local entrepreneurs. The article, however, raises the question of whether these arrangements may entail a far more expanded role and domain, opening up new channels for participation and mobilisation. By expanding their agenda and integrating new segments of the local community, public–private partnerships appear to be an innovation in local democracy.Analytically, the article utilises elements of regime theory. Although the partnerships studied hardly constitute stable coalitions dominating local politics, they nevertheless illustrate how the building of coalitions including both private and public actors is crucial to coping with the problems and challenges of local restructuring and revitalisation. Case studies carried out in Norwegian municipalities provide the main empirical source. The article does, however, build on experience from other European countries.