Karl Löfgren

Democratic Assessment of Collaborative Planning Processes

Collaborative planning is often mentioned as one of the most appropriate planning theories in relation to the network society owing to its focus on creating fair and inclusive institutional settings for deliberations among public and private stakeholders. Even though this theoretical framework discusses potential outcomes, the actual democratic effects of collaborative planning processes are notably overlooked in the literature. The central question raised in this article is: how can we assess the democratic effects of collaborative planning processes? The article presents a tentative evaluative framework for assessing the different stages (input, process and outcome) of collaborative planning processes deriving criteria from democratic theory, as well as from theories on collaborative planning, which can be deployed for empirical studies.

Introduction: New Network Modes of Nordic Local Governance

Abstract This introduction to the special issue on local governance networks in the Nordic countries has got two aims. First, we discuss how local governance networks partly can be conceived as a novel mode of local governance, partly must be seen as a continuation of already existing patterns of governance in Nordic local governance. Second, we discuss how the concept of network governance can be employed for internally comparing the Nordic countries.

Public Sector Reforms: New Public Management without Marketization? The Danish Case

Is it possible to imagine New Public Management without marketization? In Denmark the present liberal-conservative Government has, throughout its 10 years in power, designed and implemented more than 15 major management reforms in the public sector. Although most of the reforms are rhetorically firmly rooted in neo-liberal ideologies they have, in practice, promoted tools and mechanisms of the “traditional,” or Old, Public Management. Based on an empirical study of the reforms, we suggest that the notion of “pragmatic” New Public Management is introduced to enhance the current understanding of New Public Management in the Western industrialized societies.

Is there a Nordic Approach to Questions of Democracy in Studies of Network Governance

Abstract The notion of democratic network governance has attracted growing interest among students of local and regional governance in all the Nordic countries since the 1990s. This article examines whether research in this area reflects a particular Nordic account of democracy. The Nordic countries have strong traditions of local autonomy, local networks and the inclusion of civil society associations. The authors find reason to expect that the Nordic traditions of local and regional governance may have stimulated a common approach to democracy questions with the features of an integrative perspective. At the same time, the differences in the history of democratisation are likely to have urged the approach in different directions. Using evidence from a literature review, the article suggests that, rather than a fully fledged theory, democracy with an intriguing potential and with nuances exists as an issue in the Nordic governance studies.

How Do We Meta-Govern Policy Networks in E-Government?

Since the late 1990s, there has been, in most industrialised states, an explicit policy aim of integrating governmental information and service delivery through the means of informationand communication technologies (ICTs), sometimes under labels such as ‘the 24/7 agency’ or ‘Joined-up governance’ . This aim, which goes beyond the establishment of ‘single’ governmental websites, includes both horizontal, as well as vertical integration, of otherwise separate public agencies and authorities, who are supposed to collaborate towards ‘joint’ and ‘needs-based’ electronic solutions to the benefit of the citizens. While many writers have described this implementation of a policy aim in purely technical interoperability terms, we will here frame this development as a meta-governance policy process of self-regulating networks. This paper is a theoretical think-piece in which we will present a systematised framework of the mechanisms for meta-governing the policy process of electronic government. Our arguments will be supported by empirical illustrations mainly adopted from Scandinavian research.

Research methods in European Union studies

PART I: OVERVIEW 1. Crossroads in European Union Studies Kennet Lynggaard, Karl Lofgren and Ian Manners 2. Methodology in European Union Studies Ben Rosamond 3. European Union History Ann-Christina L. Knudsen PART II: MICRO-ANALYSIS 4. European Identity: Conflict and Cooperation Angela Bourne 5. People and Social Groups in the European Union Michael Strange 6. Single Policy Study: Three Variations in Design Annica Kronsell and Ian Manners 7. Analysing European Discourses Amandine Crespy PART III: MESO-ANALYSIS 8. Agenda-setting Sebastiaan Princen 9. Studies of Bargaining in the European Union Sara Hagemann 10. Implementation Studies: Beyond a Legalistic Approach Karl Lofgren 11. Analysing Networks Jenny M. Lewis and Sevasti Chatzopoulou 12. Visual Primes and European Union Identity: Designing Experimental Research Laura Cram and Stratos Patrikios 13. Europeanisation Theofanis Exadaktylos and Claudio M. Radaelli PART IV: MACRO-ANALYSIS 14. The European Union in Global Politics: Normative Power and Longitudinal Interpretation Ian Manners 15. The Blurred Boundaries and Multiple Effects of European Integration and Globalisation Kennet Lynggaard 16. Hard and Soft Governance Martino Maggetti 17. Political Parties and the European Union Magnus Blomgren 18. Studying European Union Attitude Formation Using Experiments Julie Hassing Nielsen 19. European Union Studies and the New Regionalism Alex Warleigh-Lack 20. Research Strategies in European Union Studies: Beyond Dichotomies Ian Manners, Kennet Lynggaard, and Karl Lofgren

Research Strategies in European Union Studies: Beyond Dichotomies

The contributing chapters of this book all illustrate the richness and diversity of problem-driven research in EU studies. This concluding chapter draws together the insights of this rich diversity in order to move the study of research strategies beyond the dichotomies of the past towards a new agenda for research on Europe. The crisis gripping the EU in the 21st century is not just an economic crisis, it is a crisis of belief in the EU. Research on the EU is deeply implicated in this crisis, not least because of the questions it does not ask, but also because of the perceived weakness of demonstrating the methods and evidence used. A new agenda for research on Europe needs to acknowledge these weaknesses of the past and move beyond dichotomies towards greater openness and awareness of the importance of research strategies, designs and methods. In many respects this agenda has its origins in Rosamond’s (2008) call for ‘open political science’ in EU studies, as has been discussed here in his Chapter 2 on methodology in EU studies. Hence, the new agenda for research on Europe should be ‘open’ in the sense that it respects a plurality of methods; it is inclusive of the broadest range of single-, inter- and transdisciplinary EU studies; and it embraces critical and normative thinking about the EU and EU studies (Rosamond, 2008: 603; Manners, 2007; see also Warleigh-Lack’s Chapter 19 in this volume).

Crossroads in European Union Studies

EU studies is at a crossroads where the many disciplinary interests in Europe meet, as well as temporally where the past weaknesses of methodology meet the future challenges of a new research agenda on Europe. These weaknesses emanate from a number of traditional research design dichotomies in EU studies: Research ontology. Do we approach our research through rationalist or constructivist assumptions about EU affairs? Research epistemology. Is our ultimate knowledge ambition to formulate explanatory theories capturing EU affairs? Or is our research a process of conceptual (re)constructions aimed at understanding EU affairs? Research methodology. Do we best capture EU affairs through positivist and deductive research strategies, or through interpretative and inductive processes? Research methods. Do we prefer quantitative or qualitative research methods and data? We need to deal with, and seek to overcome, such traditional dichotomies to meet the future challenges of a new research agenda on Europe. Scholars within EU studies have thus become increasingly preoccupied with epistemological issues when conducting research on EU affairs (for discussions, see Manners, 2003; Jupille, 2006).

Innovation Policy as Performativity : the Case of Sweden

ABSTRACT This article analyzes how the idea of “innovationism” in Sweden has generated a new kind of idea-driven policy around the creation of innovative regional policy. In contrast to similar policies in this area, this policy does not manifest itself through traditional instruments, but evolves through symbolic and ritual performances, in particular through events and conferences. The article asks how this emerging idea has changed the existing institutional formation of sponsoring industrially relevant research. The vision of concerted action between decision-makers within modern innovationism reinforces territorial identity, but it also tends to devolve responsibility to the regional level since concerted action on the national level is hard to obtain. What emerges is a system of governing at a distance where different actors perform their roles according to often academic ideas of innovationism. The study is based on two qualitative studies in Sweden entailing both documentary sources and semi-structured interviews.

Implementation Studies: Beyond a Legalistic Approach

Notwithstanding the importance of decision-making processes in Brussels among politicians, eurocrats and lobbyists, the ‘travelling’ of EU policies to the national member-states, or the implementation process, constitutes a particular kind of research challenge. Most standard textbooks, whether on domestic or European policy, revolve around a basic definition in which implementation is about the process stage in which a policy decision comes into action. As put forward in one of the more influential definitions by Mazmanian and Sabatier: Implementation is the carrying out of a basic policy decision, usually incorporated in a statute but which can also take the form of important executive orders or court decisions. Ideally, that decision identifies the problem(s) to be addressed, stipulates the objective(s) to be pursued, and in a variety of ways, ‘structures’ the implementation process. (Mazamanian and Sabatier, 1983: 20–1) On the basis of research traditions of domestic implementation, students of EU studies have since the 1980s developed a whole industry of implementation studies (for reviews see Treib, 2006; Toshkov, 2010; Angelova et al., 2012). We can identify at least two chief reasons for this (Svedrup, 2006). First, by studying the implementation of EU policies we are endowed with a critical perspective into how, and to what extent, the European integration process affects and transforms the member-states of the EU.