Theme and Research Profile

Theme and Research Profile

New management and organizational forms challenge established arrangements. The group's research will be comparative-oriented and directed toward the relations between the European level, the central government level, regions and municipal levels, and towards new forms of public-private cooperation. We are, amongst other things, concerned with how the organization and management methods come to be and change through organizational innovations in the tension between democratic governance, public administration and markets.

A central theme is the conditions for an active administration policy, with emphasis on the interaction between conscious management and adaptation to international doctrines and established administrative culture and tradition. Furthermore, we draw attention to the political decision-making processes, focusing on how the reforms are designed, implemented and carried out, and what effects various reforms have. The latter also includes how the reforms adopted and carried out at one level, affects other levels in the public administration-system. This deals with both increased integration in the EU and the interplay between national, regional and local administrative agencies.

A particular focus is directed towards the "New Public Management”-oriented administrative reforms and reforms in the wake of such reforms, often called post-NPM or 'whole-of-government' reforms. New regulatory and supervisory policies, new control and audit forms, the emergence of new information and communication technologies, change in trust relations, in responsibility relations, in manners of coordination- and specialization, and tensions between political control and professional autonomy in independent administrative bodies will be studied.

The research group is involved in a larger ongoing evaluation of the Norwegian NAV reform and focuses especially on welfare models and welfare management system within the administration. A recently started comparative research project, studies how reforms in the welfare state affects the balance between political and administrative responsibilities. Another European project in its initial phase, deals with the theme "Coordination of Cohesion in the Public Sector of the Future '. It will among other things, study innovative coordination practices in public administration.

The research group further focuses on European integration processes and what effects these have on political governance, control of the representatives, and accountability. In Europe, changes in local, national and transnational governance forms have a dynamic center of gravity in the European Union, which both affect the member states and are influenced by them. Increased integration in Europe has far-reaching implications for current national and transnational democracy. The Norwegian government and democracy is through membership in the EEA influenced by the EU. European integration involves a complex interplay between specialized boards of professions, politics and law. A main focus is to identify these ongoing processes of change in different policy areas and management levels. European cooperation, Europeanisation, constitutionalism, international integration, juridification and institution-building are key words.

Theoretically, the group is anchored in a wide institutional approach, which combines instrumental models, cultural perspectives and environmental adaptation. An organization theory approach to how formal organizations function, literature on "multi-level governance”, implementation and transformative approaches will be central.

Group Activity

The group is characterized by considerable research-activity with extensive publishing in national and international journals and books. We have in recent years published several textbooks. We have, under the auspices of the Department, organized and run externally funded follow-up studies. We have several externally financed research projects, have recruited a number of PhD candidates and have generally had a ample production of master theses. We have a wide professional network internationally, have organized international conferences, and participate actively in international conferences and seminars.

Several of the group's project is placed at the Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Studies and researchers at the Centre participates in the group.