Governance and learning: Policy tools and capabilities for better governance design

All three empirical work packages have undertaken document studies, literature reviews and interviews, and results have been communicated through speeches and publications (and more are forthcoming). The work package on urban development and architecture has reviewed Norwegian and international research literature, studied national policy documents, and interviewed national sector/policy experts in academia, in the public sector and in the private sector. For the Barcode case (Bjørvika, Oslo), the work package has studied documents (planning documents, public debate) and done interviews with representatives from project architects and HAV eiendom. The most recent result from the work package is: Bengt Andersen & Per Gunnar Røe. The social context and politics of large scale urban architecture: Investigating the design of Barcode, Oslo. Accepted for publication in European Urban and Regional Studies. The work package on regional research and development has reviewed Norwegian and international research literature, studied national policy documents, interviewed national sector/policy experts in academia and in the public sector, and participated/observed the annual conference for regional research funds. For Oslofjordfondet, Fondsregion Nord-Norge and Fondsregion Vestlandet additional document studies and interviews have been undertaken. An electronic survey about regional research has been sent to regional council members in Norway. The most recent result from the work package is: Kristoffer Kolltveit & Jostein Askim: Decentralization as substantial and institutional policy change: Scrutinizing the Regionalization of Science Policy in Norway. Accepted for publication in Science and Public Policy The work package on immigration and integration has reviewed Norwegian and international research literature, and done extensive literature reviews of national policy documents and governing documents in the relation between BLD (ministry) and IMDI (agency). Interviews have been conducted with national sector/policy experts, leaders in BLD and KS, and with IMDI leaders on national and regional level. A national electronic survey to municipal leaders was submitted spring 2015. The most recent result from the work package is: Anton Steen: Deciding Refugee Settlement in Norwegian Cities: Local Administration or Party Politics. Accepted for publication in Journal of Refugee Studies. Askim, Kolltveit and Røe have as part of the project edited a book that will be published with Universitetsforlaget during the first half of 2017. The book is entitled En smartere start: Hvordan håndtere vanskelige samfunns-utfordringer. It contains chapters from each of the project?s thematic three working packages and chapters from policy sectors not covered by the project, written by other colleagues. This gives the book gives a broader and better approach to discussing and giving practical advice on developing policies and steering within the context of multi-level government.

Addressing 'wicked' policy problems necessitates coordination, meaning that mutually dependent parts are arranged, spontaneously or structured, in a form of order. The project studies the design and performance of governance structures that surround the f ollowing policy issues - Integration of immigrants, regional research and innovation and urban and regional planning. The project aims to describe the content of these governance structures, and to explain why the governance designs in the three selected policy areas have their current character and content. Further, the project will evaluate what consequences governance designs have for policy control and policy learning. Our perspective is that the success of a governance structure depends not only on t he centrally defined overall structure but also on how local actors like municipalities and counties adapt to it, individually and collaborately. Data about the governance of our three policy issues will be collected through document studies, surveys of municipalities and county councils, interviews with topical experts and stakeholders, and interviews with administrative and political practitioners at national, regional and local levels. The project will have a nationwide coverage as well as covering se lected regions in more depth. On basis on the project findings, we aim to identify possibilities, drivers and obstacles for more effective coordination, both vertically across central and local levels of government, horizontally between actors at regiona l and local levels, and diagonally, meaning how policy tools used for vertical policy control influences the structuring of horizontal relations locally. The project springs out from an interdisciplinary group of researchers at University of Oslo's Facu lty of Social Sciences. Dutch and Danish collaborators contribute to a comparative perspective in the project. Se prosjektets hjemmeside: http://www.sv.uio.no/isv/forskning/prosjekter/nettverk-kontroll-laering/