This article examines the relationship between a meta‐governing role of government and processes of network formation, based on a study of a governance initiative for improvement of refugee 'activation' services in Sweden. Meta‐governance is centred on supporting the development of self‐regulatory capacity within discretionary spaces of action and has, so far, primarily been associated with a specific type of interdependency‐driven networks. This article focuses on an alternative scenario, where uncertainty under such governance arrangements, rather than interdependence, becomes the driver of network formation. The relevance of this 'uncertainty approach' is demonstrated in the Swedish case, where meta‐governance resulted in networks that were formed on the basis of identification rather than organizational complementarity, and contributed to increasing homogenization rather than local adaption of activation services. The result suggests that theories of meta‐governance should include a more diversified understanding of network responses.
AbstractOrganizational reform has become a recurring solution to problems of social exclusion and unemployment. In Europe, and other parts of the world, there is a trend towards policies of 'activation' in employment and social policy. The idea of flexible, individualized and tailor‐made services is coupled with managerial and market‐based reforms as well as collaborative governance. In these complex structures of service provision, coordination and inter‐agency co‐operation have become key concerns. Based on a study of a recent reform of programmes for newly arrived refugees in Sweden (Etableringsreformen), this article seeks to contribute to the literature on governance of 'activation' by examining the consequences of mixed modes of governance (market and collaborative) on local inter‐agency co‐operation. Drawing on data from in‐depth case studies in two municipalities, it is demonstrated how the coupling of managerial practices and quasi‐markets with existing collaborative arrangements has created barriers for inter‐agency co‐operation. The results indicate that institutional tensions between governance forms represent an important factor for explaining governance failure in this policy area.
Den här avhandlingen undersöker vilken inverkan styrning som "governance" och interorganisatorisk samverkan har på lokala integrationsprogram inom det svenska flyktingmottagandet. Fokus ligger på att studera hur organisationer på lokal nivå förhåller sig till ett institutionellt förändringstryck om att etablera ett interorganisatoriskt och arbetsmarknadsinriktat program. Syftet är också att bidra till den teoretiska förståelsen av "governancemisslyckanden" och den mångfald av processer som styrning genom icke-tvingande mekanismer och decentraliserat beslutsfattande kan ge upphov till på lokal nivå. Den empiriska studien bygger på intervjuer med företrädare för myndigheter och andra aktörer på olika nivåer inom integrationsområdet. Fallstudier av lokalt utvecklingsarbete har genomförts i fyra kommuner. Avhandlingen visar att styrningen baserad på icke-tvingande mekanismer hade svårt att få genomslag när den stod i konflikt med etablerade arbetssätt och professionella normer. Den har också inneburit vaga och svårförenliga riktlinjer för arbetet på lokal nivå. Inom det lokala flyktingmottagandet har utvecklingsarbetet karaktäriserats av erfarenhetsutbyte, jämförelser och en vilja till gemensamt lärande inom ramen för professionella nätvek. Denna typ av samverkan har bidragit till ökad likformighet, eller isomorfism, inom de lokala insatserna, vilket står i kontrast till målet om ett mer differentierat och flexibelt program. ; This thesis examines the impact and significance of governance and inter-organizational collaboration in the policy area of local refugee reception and immigrant integration in Sweden. The study focuses on how local actors respond to institutional pressures to engage in collaborative efforts in order to make service provision more differentiated and more orientated towards employment. The aim also is to contribute to the theoretical understanding of 'governance failure' and the multiplicity of outcomes that are possible when non-coercive mechanisms are applied rather than formal 'command-and-control'. The empirical study is based on interviews with representatives from agencies involved at different levels. At the local level, case studies of integration programme development were carried out in four municipalities. The analysis shows that the governance strategies, based on non-coercive mechanisms, had a limited significance because they were in conflict with professional norms and practices at the local level of service provision. They also failed to provide more detailed guidance on how the differentiated services should be realized in practice. Instead, programme development at the local level was characterized by collaborative learning and imitation in professional networks, or 'communities of practice'. This type of collaboration contributed to processes of increased homogenization, or isomorphism, which stands in contrast to the goal of a more de-standardized and flexible programme.
In this paper theories of network governance are applied to the area of immigrant integration in Sweden, and the coordination of introduction programmes for newly arrived immigrants, to be more precise. With a pronounced goal of getting people employed, introduction programmes and similar efforts aim to enhance social inclusion through employment. These efforts are characterized by major interdependencies between public actors, governmental levels, and between state, civil society and market actors. Recently, central agencies have responded to the coordination problems plaguing this area for decades with initiating voluntary cooperation at different administrative levels. These arrangements were to include both state and municipal actors as well as NGO:s, unions and market organizations. Although successful in the sense that the strategy has been adopted in many regions and municipalities, coordination problems remain, participation from external actors is low and cooperation is hampered. The aim of the paper is to analyze some of the institutional conditions for managing through networks in this type of context. Network governance, here, is analyzed from a sociological institutional perspective.
Abstract Political parties are an important part of the institutional framework for migrants' political integration, but remain an underdeveloped area of research in the literature on political opportunity structures (POS) for migrants. Departing from the POS framework, this article addresses the question of what role the intra-party structure of candidate recruitment has for enabling the political career path of people with migrant background. It focuses on the case of Sweden, which has one of the most open POS in terms of formal political rights. Based on an interview study with party officials and political candidates with migrant background, we identify a number of party-internal factors in this POS. The empirical analysis combines two approaches in institutional theory in order to differentiate between 'thresholds' related to strategic considerations and short-term vote-maximisation, and 'barriers' embedded in roles, identities and organisational practices. In addition to making a contribution to research on the responsiveness of political systems in open-POS countries, the article discusses how the institutional approach can be useful for identifying possible solutions for supporting the political career of immigrants.
Political parties are an important part of the institutional framework for migrants' political integration, but remain an underdeveloped area of research in the literature on political opportunity structures (POS) for migrants. Departing from the POS framework, this article addresses the question of what role the intra-party structure of candidate recruitment has for enabling the political career path of people with migrant background. It focuses on the case of Sweden, which has one of the most open POS in terms of formal political rights. Based on an interview study with party officials and political candidates with migrant background, we identify a number of party-internal factors in this POS. The empirical analysis combines two approaches in institutional theory in order to differentiate between 'thresholds' related to strategic considerations and short-term vote-maximisation, and 'barriers' embedded in roles, identities and organisational practices. In addition to making a contribution to research on the responsiveness of political systems in open-POS countries, the article discusses how the institutional approach can be useful for identifying possible solutions for supporting the political career of immigrants.
In the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), policy entrepreneurs are primarily defined by their ability to promote and seek support for policy solutions. Recent research, however, points to the importance of policy entrepreneurs as "arena shapers" who attempt to create favorable conditions for their solutions in conflictual policy settings. In this paper, we seek to incorporate such strategies into the MSF by drawing on the organizational foundations of the original garbage can model. The main question is what role do policy entrepreneurs play in "organizing out" opposition from pre-decision processes, as a way of advancing contested policy solutions. We answer this question in a case study of a controversial hospital "mega-project" in Stockholm healthcare that shows how a small but influential team of entrepreneurs used the project as an opportunity for policy change. The study helps to identify three different organizational strategies: 1) regulating participation in order to neutralize opponents: 2) specializing attention to limit the "searchlight" and 3) sequential attention in order to reduce complexity and build commitment. While effective for advancing solutions in the face of conflict and entrenched positions, organizational strategies also have important democratic implications for the legitimacy of pre-decision processes and the prospects for broad deliberation.
While integration policies as such are not new, and in some countries date back to the 1980s and beyond, there have been important shifts in the debates on integration and in related re-configurations of integration policymaking in the past decade or so. One of the main recent trends is the linkage of integration policy with admission policy and the related focus on recent immigrants. A second trend is the increasing use of obligatory integration measures and integration conditions in admission policy, and third, integration policymaking is increasingly influenced by European developments, both through vertical (more or less binding regulations, directives etc.) and through horizontal processes (policy learning between states) of policy convergence. An increasing number of EU Member States have, in fact, adopted integration related measures as part of their admission policy, while the impact of such measures on integration processes of immigrants is far less clear. In addition, Member States' policies follow different, partly contradictory logics, in integration policy shifts by conceptualising (1) integration as rights based inclusion, (2) as a prerequisite for admission residence rights, with rights interpreted as conditional, and (3) integration as commitment to values and certain cultural traits of the host society. The objective of PROSINT is to evaluate the impact of admission related integration policies on the integration of newcomers, to analyse the different logics underlying integration policymaking and to investigate the main target groups of compulsory and voluntary integration measures. The project investigated different aspects of these questions along five distinct workpackages,. These analysed (1) the European policy framework on migrant integration (WP1), (2) the different national policy frameworks for the integration of newcomers in the 9 countries covered by the research (WP2), the admissionintegration nexus at the local level in studied in 13 localities across the 9 countries covered by the research (WP3), the perception and impacts of mandatory prearrival measures in four of the nine countries covered (WP4) and a methodologically oriented study of the impact of admission related integration measures (WP5). The countries covered by the project were Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Apart from individual cases project reports generally cover the period until end of 2010. ; Promoting Sustainable Policies for Integration (PROSINT)
This paper develops a decision-based approach to meta-governance by drawing on insights from studies of organization outside of formal organizations. We argue that meta-governance can be analyzed as a form of partial organization of interactive arenas. Meta-governance has become an important concept in theorizing the role of government in contemporary governance, particularly in the context of shaping and providing guidance to different interactive arenas, such as networks and quasi-markets. Meta-governance is, however, also a broad and ambiguous concept, which limits its ability to guide empirical research on the actual practices of governing and the actors involved. Rather than presenting a new perspective on meta-governance, the framework of partial organization enables analysis of the processes behind the formation of meta-governance strategies. By focusing on decision-making, it offers a dynamic understanding of the stepwise development of meta-governance, reflecting an emerging, rather than predefined, rationality of governance arrangements.
The constraining impact of bureaucracy on creative problem solving has been a recurring theme in research on public innovation, and public actors increasingly seek to "steer" innovation through interactive spaces for collaboration and competition. This article examines this form of "meta-governance" in the case of the Swedish Transport Administration and reveals a pattern where the initial opening of arenas for innovation is followed by a countermovement toward organization. Findings suggest that the introduction of elements of organization, such as hierarchy, rules, and membership, in governance spaces is a key strategy for coming to grips with a new innovation promoting role.
