From service provider to network node: Does the Counties' coordination role contribute to goal attainment and public sector innovation?

The past year has included a continuation of the County council?s unique role as social developers. Countynode. Countynode aims to identify the conditions for the county councils to act as a network node, a type of work that is vital to the county councils as social developers. We published a report for KMD in 2015: «Samfunnsutviklerrollen til regionalt folkevalgt nivå: Videreutvikling av rollen gjennom partnerskapsbasert regional utvikling og planlegging» (see the 2015-report). This report was reported as part of the publications from Countynode as it came as a consequence of Countynode. Additionally, the report is based on, and further develops Countynode-data. In the wake of this report, Gro Sandkjær Hanssen and Hege Hofstad has held a host of presentations for national and regional actors circulating around the theme county council?s role as social developers. Often these presentations has been combined with further Countynode interviews that will form the basis for the last Countynode publications. In this project period, KS took contact and wanted, as KMD, a report on the county council?s as social developers. This time, though, the social development role was analyzed according to regional size. Thus, it relates to the on-going debate on regional size as part of the regional reform. The KS- report has the following title: Implikasjoner av større regioner for den regionale samfunnsutviklerrollen. This report led, as the first one, to presentations for national and regional actors. The project, then, has proved to be topical for the political process with the regional level. In addition, Hege Hofstad, Gro S. Hanssen and Anders Lidström will contribute to a Swedish anthology on regional development policy, coordinated by Ulf Tynelius from Tillväxtanalys (Swedish authority). The invitation is a consequence of the special number in SJPA in 2015. The anthology will be published in 2017. The project members has in addition worked with finalizing the last publications from the project. These scientific articles were discussed on the last international researcher workshop October 13.-14 2016. Three of them has been sent to relevant journals: - Elisabeth Fosse og Marit Helgesen: Advocating for health promotion policy in Norway: Therole of county municipalities. Sendt til Societies. - Marthe Indseth: Who governs? The role of the regional level in the EU multilevel system, sendt til Scandinavian Political Studies. - Asbjørn Røiseland, Hege Hofstad og Gro Sandkjær Hanssen, High ideals and scarce resources: Necessary conditions for network coordination at the regional level, sendt til Urban Research and Practice. One will be sent in the near future: - Hege Hofstad og Gro Sandkjær Hanssen, Betingelser for samfunnsutviklerrollen på regionalt nivå: hva kan man forvente av nettverksstyringen? (Norsk statsvitenskapelig tidsskrift).

The project address how the Counties - the democratically governed regional level- act as a multi-level node to handle complex environmental, social and economic goals involving a broad array of stakeholders from the public, private and civil sector, resi ding at various governance levels. The project will study how the Counties perform their coordination roles in the three distinct policy-fields of water management, health promotion and regional development, and assess how this performance contributes to national goal attainment and policy innovation. In all three focus areas, planning is a main coordination tool. The project therefore shed light on the condition for sustainable planning at the regional level. The project has a multi-level perspective wh ere the Counties' coordination role and strategies is focused. The coordniation role is captured through a processual study of the coordination measures used to coordinate international, national, regional and local actors. Such measures can be based upon hierarchical-, market- and/or network coordination-rationalities. The effects will be highlighted through a output study focusing on the implementaion of national goals in three policy-fields and development of public policy innovation. The project wil l study the Counties' coordination role and strategies from three angles: First, by further analysing and combining existing and new quantitative data highlighting the Counties' role in water management, health promotion and regional economic development. Second, by conducting three case-studies of Hedmark County, Møre and Romsdal County and Østfold County. These counties are chosen because they represent new and innovative use of coordination instruments. Third, by making a comparative analysis of corres ponding activities at the regional level in Denmark and Sweden by integrating Scandinavian partners that have conducted similar studies in their countries.