To Örebro University

One way to analyze globalization is to highlight a reordering of spatial scales. Traditional territorial units such as nation-states are not necessarily replaced but rather complemented by other kinds of units. One such unit that has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of geopolitics is the urban area and the city. The urban space can be both a geopolitically important arena where for instance war takes place, but urban space can also be constructed for various purposes and sometimes has great symbolic value on its own. The purpose of the paper is to explore the geopolitical importance of cities, compared to other territorial entities and to build a bridge between traditional geopolitics and urban studies. The paper explores images of the city as a geopolitical arena and the city as a space for everyday life. The paper furthermore scrutinizes the link between urban politics and identity, drawing from discussions on the city as; 1. a symbolic space, 2. a contested space and, 3. a space for identity politics. Empirical illustrations will be taken from earlier studies within this field but also from a field study performed in Jerusalem 2007. This paper contributes to an ongoing discussion on the gap between more ”traditional” geopolitical analyses and critical-constructivist approaches.

Jerusalem is the declared capital of Israel, fundamental to Jewish tradition, and a contested city, part of the Israel–Palestine conflict. Departing from an analysis of mainly interviews and policy documents, this study aims to analyze the interplay between the Israeli identity politics of Jerusalem and city planning. The role of the city is related to discursive struggles between traditional, new, and post-Zionism. One conclusion is that the Israeli claim to the city is firmly anchored in a master commemorative narrative stating that Jerusalem is the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel. A second conclusion is that there is a constant interplay between Israeli identity politics, city policy, and planning practice, through specific strategies of territoriality. The goals of the strategies are to create a political, historical and religious, ethnic, economic, and exclusive capital. Planning policies are mainly focused on uniting the city through housing projects in East Jerusalem, rehabilitating historic heritage, ancestry, and landscapes, city center renewal, demographic balance, and economic growth, mainly through tourism and industrial development. An analysis of coping strategies shows that Jerusalem planners relate to identity politics by adopting a self-image of being professional, and by blaming the planning system for opening up to ideational impact. Depending on the issue, a planner adopts a reactive role as a bureaucrat or an expert, or an active role, such mobilizer or an advocate. One conclusion drawn from the “Safdie Plan” process is that traditional Zionism and the dominant collective planning doctrine are being challenged. An alliance of environmental movements, politicians from left and right, and citizens, mobilized a campaign against the plan that was intended to develop the western outskirts of Jerusalem. The rejection of the plan challenged the established political leadership, it opened up for an expansion to the east, and strengthened Green Zionism, but the result is also a challenge to the housing needs of Jerusalem.

The purpose of this paper is to overview the planning history of Jerusalem, followed by an analysis of the relation between the planning of Jerusalem and Israeli identity politics from two perspectives; the construction of the planning system and the role of planning actors. What is the connection between the policy area of planning and Israeli identity politics? How does the Jerusalem planning structure relate to the identity politics? How do planning actors deal with the role of Jerusalem in Israeli identity politics and in the larger Israel-Palestine conflict?

Jerusalem is one of the main features of the Israel-Palestine conflict and as such part of a narrative battle. There is no common and accepted truth about the history, the everyday life, the administration, or the future of the city. The identity politics of Jerusalem contains a number of narratives and one main characteristic is that they are based on so called commemorations that play a large role in the construction of Jerusalem. The commemorative narratives are used and produced in order to state a claim. This paper will focus on the narratives regarding territory and more specifically how these narratives affect administrative processes in a contested city. These collective memories are created in schools, in the military system, by politicians, by authors, etc., through acts of commemoration. Commemorative narratives could be connected to a larger framework – a so-called master commemorative narrative. This master narrative gives a wider picture of the collective memory. Memories and narratives are rarely undisputed. Where we find memories we also find counter-memories and counter-narratives causing a narrative battle and in the case of Jerusalem these narratives have the capacity to ignite the conflict. It is therefore necessary to better understand the role of these narratives within a conflict and within specific administrative processes. The aim of this paper is twofold; 1.) to distinguish the commemorative narratives of Jerusalem in political speeches, statements and similar, and what role they play in city planning policies and processes, and 2.) to discuss narrative method as a tool to understand central claims in a protracted conflict. The paper is based on the analysis of a selection of texts and an extensive interview material. 

State-building processes and democracy can be highlighted in relation to different spatial scales. Traditional territorial units such as states are not necessarily replaced in contemporary social science but rather complemented by other kinds of units. One such unit that has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of Political Science, Sociology, Human Geography etc. is the urban arena. The urban space can be both a geopolitically important arena where for instance wars takes place, but urban space can also be constructed for various purposes and sometimes has great symbolic value on its own. At the same time, many studies on local democracy show that minority groups are often excluded from or have less influence over important urban policy areas. When the city and its territory is particularly important for the identity of one group and for a state-building process based mainly on that group, there is a serious risk that the interests of other groups are overlooked in the policy process. This kind of identity bias is traceable in documents, legal texts and political debates. The purpose of this paper is; 1. to explore the importance of cities in the state-building process and 2. to examine the connection between the state-building process and urban planning policy. The theoretical approach is to connect the concept of identity and policy analysis, more specifically to discuss the relation between the constructivist perspective and rationalism. One way to further explore the relation between state-building and democracy is to apply a comparative perspective. Empirical examples in the paper is taken from earlier studies within this field and from a recently performed field study in Jerusalem. The conclusions in the paper are drawn from various planning policy documents and interviews. The paper contributes to the discussion on the relation between state- and nation-building on one hand and the city and its policy processes on the other. The paper contributes to a d6iscussion on the connection between state-building and democracy. 

Allt fler människor koncentreras till städer och andra urbana samhällen. Stadsmiljön är attraktiv och efterfrågad samtidigt som den innebär sociala, psykiska  och fysiska påfrestningar för invånarna. Förändrade villkor för utvecklingen av städer och regioner har lett till en ökad efterfrågan på mångvetenskaplig kunskap och kompetens. När det FORMAS-finanserade forskningsprogrammet Staden som livsmiljö - vision och verklighet formulerades tod vi fasta på den motsägelsefulla bilden av staden med plats för både visionerna och verkligheten. Den teoretiska ramen kring projekten kombinerar statsvetenskapligt förankrad regimteori med vardagslivsteori som hämtat inspiration från strömningar i kulturgeografi, sociologi och andra discipliner. Detta utgör slutrapporten för projektet.

The idea that climate change adaptation is best leveraged at the local scale is a well-institutionalized script in both research and formal governance. This idea is based on the argument that the local scale is where climate change impacts are "felt" and experienced. However, sustainable and just climate futures require transformations in systems, norms, and cultures that underpin and reinforce our unsustainable practices and development pathways, not just "local" action. Governance interventions are needed to catalyse such shifts, connecting multilevel and multiscale boundaries of knowledge, values, levels and organizational remits. We critically reflect on current adaptation governance processes in Victoria, Australia and the Gothenburg region, Sweden to explore whether regional-scale governance can provide just as important leverage for adaptation as local governance, by identifying and addressing intersecting gaps and challenges in adaptation at local levels. We suggest that regional-scale adaptation offers possibilities for transformative change because they can identify, connect, and amplify small-scale (local) wins and utilize this collective body of knowledge to challenge and advocate for unblocking stagnated, institutionalized policies and practices, and support transformative change.

Jerusalem is at the center of the Israel/Palestine conflict. The escalating violence that the city has witnessed during 2015 is a reminder of the fragile situation. The state of Israel de facto annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 and the Palestinian population has since accused Israeli authorities for discriminatory actions and regulations regarding planning issues. Some Israeli NGO:s have during the last decade worked within the Israeli planning system and legal frameworks to create a better situation for the Palestinians regarding for instance building permits and infrastructure (Interview 2007; Ron & Blankshtain, 2011). This is an alternative approach in order to bring Palestinian planning issues onto the agenda. On the other hand it is problematic for Palestinians to participate in these projects as it risks legitimizing an occupation. The purpose of this article is to scrutinize the role of Israeli NGO:s working with planning rights in Jerusalem. The purpose is to understand these NGO:s as potential peace-builders but also to understand the challenges of working in the context of a protracted conflict. The article is based on interview studies performed in Jerusalem in 2007 and 2009 with public planners, private planner and NGO:s, as well as a follow-up survey sent to planners and NGO:s in 2015.

References

Ron A. & Cohen-Blankshtain G., (2011) ”The representative claim of deliberative planning: the case of Isawiyah in East Jerusalem” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 29:4.

Interview representative of BIMKOM 2007

Vision Zero was established in 2014 as the foundation of the New York City road safety policy. The purpose of this chapter is to understand why and how Vision Zero was introduced as well as by whom and with what tools. The chapter focuses on understanding this policy change in New York City and is based on a document study and 18 semi-structured interview with 19 respondents city administration staff, researchers, media, and NGOs. The analysis is made by looking closer at the state of four aspects by the time of the establishment of Vision Zero – problem framing, policy formulation, political actors, and proposed solutions. This theoretical framework is mainly based on the work of John Kingdon (Agenda, Alternatives, and Public Policies. Little, Brown, Boston, 1984) and Michael Howlett (Public Policy Adm 34(4):405–430, 2019). The chapter states that there were several factors leading to the adoption of Vision Zero. First, the road safety problems were not as serious as in many other regions of the USA, but compared to other major cities in the western world, the fatalities and serious injuries in New York City were deemed unacceptable by politicians, NGOs, and the public. The imminent problem on the ground was further emphasized by several high-profile cases of child fatalities in traffic crashes. Second, the Vision Zero policy or philosophy was a coherent and above all a successfully tested policy based on a scientific foundation. The credit for introducing Vision Zero in the New York City context is given to non-governmental organizations such as Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets and specific public administrators in key positions. These actors were all searching for new solutions, and as the politicians placed road safety high on the agenda, a window of opportunity was opened to Vision Zero. In addition, politicians, with the support and pressure from NGOs, established a policy program based on Vision Zero, and this program further established a belief in Vision Zero as a credible way forward. There was and is criticism directed towards the policy based on equity and that Vision Zero risks strengthening discriminatory structures. The basic idea of adapting the physical infrastructure to accommodate human mistakes is challenging in many American contexts, but in a diverse city such as New York, this approach may be able to address equity, according to several respondents, if based on solid crash data. The Vision Zero in New York City differs from the original Swedish version in mainly two ways: the focus in New York on law enforcement and on the behavior of the individual road user.

Jerusalem is one of the main battle grounds in the Israel-Palestine conflict and as such part of a narrative and commemorative battle. There is no common and accepted truth about the history, the everyday life, the administration, or the future of the city. The identity politics of Jerusalem contains a number of narratives and one main characteristic is that they are based on so called commemorations that play a large role in the construction of Jerusalem. The commemorative narratives are used and produced in order to state a claim. This paper focuses on identifying these narratives, and particularly the narratives of place connected to for instance commemorative sites and cultural heritage. The paper will furthermore analyze how these narratives are used as a base for political claims and how they affect administrative processes in a contested city. Commemorative narratives could be connected to a larger framework – a so-called master commemorative narrative. This master narrative gives a wider picture of the collective memory. Memories and narratives are rarely undisputed. Where we find memories we also find counter-memories and counter-narratives causing a narrative battle and in the case of Jerusalem these narratives have the capacity to ignite the conflict. It is therefore necessary to better understand the role of these narratives within a conflict and within specific administrative processes. The material analyzed in this paper consists of political speeches, documents and statements as well as 63 semi-structured interviews performed in 2007 and 2009 and a follow-up survey performed in 2015. 

Jerusalem is one the most contested and discussed cities in the world. It is a city of religion but it is also a central part of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Every stone, every road, every tree is part of someone’s identity construction. Land use planning is therefore a very delicate policy area. This article is devoted to understanding how land use planning interplays with identity politics. The article also explores the role and coping strategies of planners in various roles in relation to identity politics. The conclusions are based on 63 semi-structured interviews. The article shows that there are clear bureaucratic problems with the land use planning decision-making system that could lead to planning policies based on the interest of only one group. The coping strategies and roles of the planners could be divided into two groups, those who are more active, such as the entrepreneur or the advocate, or those who are more reactive, such as the expert or the bureaucrat. The diversity of roles is related to the lively private planning sector alongside the public. This leads to a lack of transparency in how the system works and how to influence planning policy. The study shows that it is quite difficult for a planner who wants to work equally with all groups in the Jerusalem society. In the current political atmosphere, such a stand often leads to being stigmatized in different forms. Territory is a crucial ingredient in the conflict over Jerusalem and land use planning policies have the potential of bringing hope but also to destroy any chances of coexistence.

Road safety has during the last decades developed into a fully recognized global policy area through for example, the WHO road safety report from 2004, the declaration of the Decade of Action in 2011, and the inclusion of road safety in the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Despite the progress made, being killed in road traffic is the 9th leading cause of death in the world and the leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 15–29 (WHO, 2015). Therefore it is crucial to continue to develop the global and national management of this policy area as well as to further improve the communication of best practice and make sure that enough resources are allocated to this policy area on both the international and national level.

Research is scarce regarding the global governance of road safety. Most studies are related to specific measures, issues, or countries. The article presented is based on a study performed in 2016 and 2017 with the purpose to; 1) identify the main events, actors, policies, and measures on the global level, and 2) analyze the main opportunities and obstacles in the global management of the policy area for making progress. The study shows the importance of having many actors complementing each other in the work ahead. On the other hand, the study also shows that there is a need to further the knowledge about the role and work of different actors in order to progress as efficiently as possible. In addition, the study concludes that the vast number of actors can hamper the coherence regarding a common philosophy or model on how to work with road safety.

Establishing one-stop shops is an ongoing global trend and research on the topic has been published since early 00s until today (c.f. Shahaida, Jayasimha, and Nargundkar, 2005; Bhatti et al., 2011; Poddighe and Ianniello, 2011; Turner, 2012 & Bernhard and Wihlborg, 2014). This management trend focused in the beginning to a great extent on the e-perspective and has shifted more and more towards a broader service perspective and face-to-face interactions.

In Sweden, we are now witnessing the fast spreading of municipal service centers (MSCs) also called contact centers, customer service, and citizen centers. Today there are at least 76 centers and more are opening shortly. The municipal service center is a particular form of one-stop shop on the local level, with the aim to create a new kind of local government-citizen interaction. The two main motives for establishing MSCs are to provide equal opportunities for all citizens to obtain high-quality service and to make citizen–government interaction more efficient and cost-effective. The central idea is to gather all arenas for interaction, in one geographical location accessed via one phone number and one website, etc.

The question is why this trend is spreading quickly in Sweden at this point in time. Is it something qualitatively different than other one-stop shops in other national contexts or more or less the same trend? Policy diffusion could be a conscious or a more subtle process of incorporating innovative ideas into an ordinary public sector activity There are at least three main mechanisms such as; (i) calculations of economic and other gains and consequences of adopting a certain policy innovation, for instance benchmarking (ii) sheer imitation; and (iii) more direct and sometimes coercive ways to incorporate ideas into a specific context (Marsh & Sharman, 2009). It is quite clear that we are witnessing a diffusion of an idea and this article concentrates on describing and understanding the diffusion process in the establishment of service centers in Sweden. Theories on policy diffusion, learning and transfer are used to frame the topic. What happens when a seemingly global reform trend lands in the Swedish urban context? Does it take a different shape, does it involve learning from similar processes, or is it simply a question of imitating other proclaimed success stories?

The article is based on a survey sent to the 76 service centers mentioned and on a case study in the municipality of Örebro performed during 2014-2015.

References

Bernhard, Irene Cecilia & Wihlborg, Elin (2014) Policy entrepreneurs in networks, International journal of entrepreneurship and small business, 21 (3): 288-302.

Bhatti, Yosef; Olsen, Asmus Leth; & Pedersen, Lene Holm (2011) Administrative Professionals and the Diffusion of Innovations: The Case of Citizen Service Centers, Public Administration, 89 (2): 577–594.

Marsh, David & Sharman, J.C. (2009) ‘Policy diffusion and policy transfer’, Policy

Studies, 30 (3): 269-288.

Poddighe, Francesco & Ianniello, Mario (2011) Lean Production and One-Stop Shop for Municipal Services, Public Administration & Management, 16 (1): 1–20.

Shahaida, P, Jayasimha, K. R & Nargundkar, R. (2005) Bangalore One: A One Stop Shop for Government Services, South Asian Journal of Management, 14 (4): 138–154.

Turner, Mark (2012) Decentralization, Politics and Service Delivery. The introduction of one-stop shops in Mongolia, Public Management Review, 12 (2): 197–215.

Jerusalem is one of the most discussed and disputed cities in the world, primarily because of its symbolic and physical importance for three monotheistic religions, but also due to theongoing Israel–Palestine conflict, which has implications for international relations and political interactions in the Middle East. Political discussionsregarding Jerusalem are often conducted in a trial-like way, with accusations, defence, argumentation, and counter-argumentation. This article shows that the history of Jerusalem is the main ingredient in the commemorative narratives constituting the foundation of the Israeli identity politics of Jerusalem and for legitimizing Israeli claims on the city. These narratives are used as common references in the daily vocabulary of Israeli society and politics. They furthermore connect to a number of city policies and strategies of territoriality regarding what Jerusalem should be in the future. For every Israeli narrative there is a Palestinian counter-narrative. There is thus no common and accepted truth about the history, the everyday life, the development, or the future of the city. This article focuses mainly on the Israeli Jerusalem narratives as the city is controlled and de-facto annexed by the state of Israel. The purpose of this article is threefold; 1. to identify commemorative narratives related to the city, 2. to analyze the relation between these narratives and the construction of city policy and strategies of territoriality, 3. to discuss commemorative narratives as an analytical tool to understand claims in a conflict situation.

Jerusalem is one of the main components of the Israel-Palestine conflict and as such part of a narrative battle. There is no common and accepted truth about the history, the everyday life, the administration, or the future of the city. The identity politics of Jerusalem contains a number of narratives and one main characteristic is that they are based on so called commemorations that play a large role in the construction of Jerusalem. The commemorative narratives (Zerubavel, 1995) are used and produced in order to state a claim. This paper focuses on narratives regarding territory and more specifically how these narratives affect planning policy-making regarding a contested city, particularly inspired by Margaret Somers idea on public narratives (2000). These collective memories, closely incorporated in national identity, are created and reproduced in schools, in the military system, by politicians, by authors, by civil servants, etc., through acts of commemoration. Commemorative narratives could be connected to a larger framework – a so-called master commemorative narrative. This master narrative is a wider statement of the collective memory. Narratives are rarely undisputed. Where we find narratives we also find counter-narratives causing a narrative battle and in the case of Jerusalem, narratives have the capacity to ignite the conflict. It is therefore necessary to better understand the role of these narratives within a conflict and within policy processes. The aim of this paper is twofold; (1.) to distinguish the narratives of Jerusalem in political speeches, statements and similar, and (2.) to examine the role they play in city planning policies and processes. The paper is based on the analysis of a selection of texts within the time frame 1967-2015, as well as an extensive interview material from 2007 and 2009. In addition, a follow-up survey was performed in 2015.  

References

Somers, Margaret, R. (1994) “The narrative constitution of identity: A relational and network approach”. Theory and Society. Vol. 23:605-649.

Zerubavel, Yael (1995) Recovered roots. Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

The Vision Zero policy was adopted by the Swedish parliament in 1997 as a new direction for road traffic safety. The aim of the policy is that no one should be killed or seriously injured due to traffic accidents and that the design of the road transport system should be adapted to those requirements. Vision Zero has been described as a policy innovation with a focus on the tolerance of the human body to kinetic energy and that the responsibility for road safety ultimately falls on the system designers. In Sweden, the Vision Zero terminology has spread to other safety-related areas, such as fire safety, patient safety, workplace safety and suicide. The purpose of this article is to analyze, through a comparative content analysis, each Vision Zero policy by identifying the policy decision, policy problem, policy goal, and policy measures. How a policy is designed and formulated has a direct effect on implementation and outcome. The similarities and differences between the policies give an indication of the transfer method in each case. The results show that the Vision Zero policies following the Vision Zero for road traffic contain more than merely a similar terminology, but also that the ideas incorporated in Vision Zero are not grounded within each policy area as one would expect. The study show that it is easier to imitate formulations in a seemingly successful policy and harder to transform Vision Zero into a workable tool in each policy area.

The Vision Zero policy was adopted by the Swedish parliament in 1997 as a new direction for road traffic safety. The aim of the policy is that no one should be killed or seriously injured due to traffic accidents and that the design of the road transport system should be adapted to those requirements. Vision Zero has been described as a policy innovation with a focus on the tolerance of the human body to kinetic energy and that the responsibility for road safety falls on the system designers. In Sweden, the Vision Zero terminology has spread to other safetyrelated areas, such as fire safety, patient safety, workplace safety and suicide. The purpose of this article is to analyze, through a comparative content analysis, each Vision Zero policy by identifying the policy decision, policy problem, policy goal, and policy measures. How a policy is designed and formulated has a direct effect on implementation and outcome. The similarities and differences between the policies give an indication of the transfer method in each case. The results show that the Vision Zero policies following the Vision Zero for road traffic contain more than merely a similar terminology, but also that the ideas incorporated in Vision Zero are not grounded within each policy area as one would expect. The study shows that it is easier to imitate formulations in a seemingly successful policy and harder to transform Vision Zero into a workable tool in each policy area.

Local strategies and policies are key in climate adaptation, although research shows significant barriers to progress. Sweden, often seen as progressive in climate change issues, has struggled in adopting a sufficient local climate adaptation organization. This article aimed to describe and analyze the climate adaptation organization in 13 Swedish municipalities from five perspectives: Problem framing, administrative and political agency, administrative and political structures, measures and solutions, and the role of learning. The mapping of these perspectives provides an opportunity to analyze barriers to local climate adaptation. Key policy documents have been studied including climate adaptation plans, crisis management plans, and regulatory documents, as well as documents from private consultants. This study showed that few municipalities have a formal organization for climate adaptation, clear structures, political support, and specific climate adaptation plans. At the same time, many of the municipalities are planning for transformation, due to a push from the county board, a lead agency in climate adaptation. There are also ample networks providing opportunities for learning among municipalities and regions. This study concluded that one key barrier is the lack of focus and prioritization in a majority of the municipalities, leaving the administrators, often planners, in a more activist position. The need for organizational mainstreaming and resources is emphasized.

Representing all citizens, as well as their needs and interests within its territory, municipalities have a unique role in setting a legitimate policy agenda. In times of economic recession, fiscal austerity becomes a huge challenge for local governments to tackle. This challenge has triggered experiments with new forms of citizen-local government interaction.

In some of these experiments citizens have been invited to participate in decision-making or implementation, and new forms of “participatory engineering” have become commonplace, including dialogue forums in social media and elsewhere (Zittel & Fuchs 2007). Citizen participation has been loudly praised by decision-making authorities when it comes to area based interventions and broader programs. There is a belief that including citizens will increase efficiency and legitimacy of government as well as social capital among citizens.

Other experiments are focusing on providing the best possible service with a focus on quality and citizen needs rather than participation or on institutional innovations (Graham, 2009) for alleviating citizen-government interaction.

The prospects, aims and outcomes of these experiments raise a range of normative, theoretical and empirical questions. In the light of recent literature on social and democratic innovations, the purpose of this paper is to scrutinize two cases of citizen-focused innovations in the mid-size Swedish city of Örebro. The first case is the establishment of a citizen service center where all local government citizen interaction is gathered in one location both physically and virtually. The second is a case of neighborhood renewal, where the municipal housing company plays a vital role, involving residents in the planning process, and offering opportunities of employment. The study contributes to the broader conceptual discussion about citizen-focused innovations and critically discusses the prospects of applying these with regard to citizens with limited resources. To put it brief, are they tools for democracy or rather cases of tokenism?

References

Smith, Graham (2009) Democratic Innovations: Designing Institutions for Citizen

Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Zittel, Thomas and Fuchs, Dieter (2007) Can Participatory Engineering Bring Citizens Back

In? NewYork: Routledge.

Organizational reforms in public administration have been high on the agenda for decades. A popular type is the municipal service center (MSC) gathering citizen–government interaction in one location, physically and virtually. Previous research has mainly focused on the organizational solution and operation of MSCs. This article contributes by using a processual approach to study how priorities are handled during a reform process with fundamental effects and consequences for the organizational solution. The article is based on a deep case study of a MSC in a mid-sized Swedish municipality. The empirical data comprise documents and 29 interviews with politicians, managing directors, and other key actors. We discern a number of process factors and analyze the process in relation to four key priorities: organizational change or organizational solution, efficiency or democracy values, politicians or administrators as key actors, and citizens as customers or co-creators. The article also relates the priorities to more comprehensive public administration perspectives in the literature such as NPM and more citizen-centered perspectives. The results show that the process was characterized by a view of citizens as service-recipients and customers; a focus on efficiency and the MSC as an organizational solution, and a process pushed forward by leading public administrators with a significant influence over vital value priorities. 

Reforms and re-organizations in public administration are today common features in our society. One particularly popular form of re-organization is that of the municipal service center gathering communication activities, such as reception desks and customer services at various administrative units/sectors, in one location, physically as well as on the Internet and social media. Some proponents of this organizational reform point to democratic gains and others to efficiency and effectiveness. The purpose of this article is to scrutinize the process of organizing and implementing a municipal service center in a mid-size Swedish municipality. The empirical data consists of public documents and 29 semi-structured interviews with politicians, managing directors and other key actors. The results show that the studied MSC had a relatively narrow NPM-inspired design, which does not represent the municipality as a political-democratic organization. Values like efficiency and easy access were prioritized, while democratic values were not properly addressed as expected in a democratic organization. The article examines the process from initiation to the opening of the service center, and discerns four essential dilemmas. These dilemmas concern the value-priorities made such as focusing on the re-organization process or the product, customer or citizen, politicians or bureaucrat, and efficiency or deliberation. The process of prioritization led to a municipal service center that lacked some of the main ingredients such as e-services and satellite offices. The MSC can thus be viewed as a boat that will be completed and possibly rebuilt at sea.

One of the basic tasks in governing our society is to identity and to build an efficient and well-functioning system for public administration. Therefore it is rather natural that we see a constant flow of public administration reforms and re-organization trends. These trends can take different forms and the challenges in the implementation and legitimation processes varies depending on which level we are examining. Reforms within the municipal administration are often affected by local preconditions concerning for instance geography, demography, local culture, and local politics. Nonetheless, municipalities are also recipients and producers of ideas in a global diffusion of reform trends.

Citizen-local government interaction is one of those areas under constant scrutiny. How municipalities communicate with and deliver service to citizens have always been areas of constant development, influenced by for instance democratic and technological innovations. The interaction has been guided by different organizational trends over the years such as community centers located in different geographical areas, citizen centers located in municipal buildings such as libraries, or reception desks at every administrative unit. These organizational forms have often been combined with a traditional switchboard. In recent years, municipalities have absorbed a new organizational form of communicating and interacting with citizens – citizen service centers – CSCs. The idea is to gather all reception desks, switchboards, and various citizen centers to one geographical location, one phone number and one home page. This is a major re-organization of citizen-government interaction and in such a process a number of choices have to be made, often related to various dilemmas and values.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges and dilemmas during the process of establishing a municipal service center in a medium sized Swedish municipality. What are the main values at stake during the process? What is the relation between problem framing, motives and solutions along the way? The focus of the paper is threefold: to overview the process of establishing a municipal service center; to explore what values prevail during the process and why; and to discuss the dilemma of executing the re-organization without having solved all the relevant problems. This paper aims to contribute mainly to the field of public management reform.

The conclusions are based on 29 semi-structured interviews with municipal politicians on several levels, managing directors of all the administrative units, and other key actors in this process of re-organization. The interviews were performed during 2013 and 2014.

Under de senaste 15 åren har över 80 svenska kommuner gått från en traditionell växelverksamhet till en mer integrerad serviceyta, ofta kallad kontaktcenter, kundtjänst, medborgarservice, servicecenter, kundcenter eller liknande. Denna typ av organisationsform kallas även internationellt för ”one-stop shops” dit en medborgare kan vända sig med en mångfald av frågor och ärenden. Under de senaste 3 åren har forskare vid Örebro universitet arbetat med att utöka kunskapen om den första kontakten mellan medborgare och myndigheter, främst genom att studera kommunala servicecenter i Sverige. Rapporten bygger på en enkätundersökning genomförd under 2015 och 2016 och syftet är att ge en översikt över framväxten av denna typ av kommunala center. Vilka är de underliggande behoven som driver framväxten av dessa center? Hur sprids dessa idéer? Vilka aktörer är de mest framträdande? Varför sprids dessa center just idag? Är framväxten av dessa center inspirerade av liknande organisationsformer i privat verksamhet? Är etableringen av dessa center ett tecken på demokratiinriktade kommunala initiativ och ett tydligare medborgarfokus i offentlig förvaltning? Denna typ av kommunala one-stop shops är en till synes liten del av den kommunala verksamheten men kan således kopplas till en rad viktiga principiella frågor om offentlig förvaltning.

Policy, offentliga organisationers handlingsinriktning - uttalad eller outtalad - som vägleder beslut och handlingar och som medför viktiga värdeprioriteringar, utgör själva innehållet i politiken. Den här boken ger en introduktion till hur policyprocessen fungerar i praktiken och hur policyforskare förstår och analyserar den. 

I boken första del beskrivs och problematiseras policyprocessens olika faser, från att en fråga hamnar på den politiska agendan till att en politisk reform utvärderas. I bokens andra del introduceras centrala teoritraditioner och perspektiv inom policyforskningen. 

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sustainable Development Goals stipulate that persons with disabilities have equal rights to access and safely use transport systems. The aim of the current study is to explore stakeholders' perspectives of the relationship and prioritization between safety and accessibility in the Swedish discussion of disability and transport. The data consist of interviews with 15 informants from the National Council for Disability and Transport and other key stakeholders. Reflexive thematic analysis led to identification of four themes: basis for priorities is a matter of governing; challenges to measuring and evaluating different values; importance of knowledge and building forums; and a universal system of accessibility and safety is a challenge. The results indicate the road ahead for a possible holistic and sustainable governance in the transport systems. However, how this will be put into practise is not yet defined.

Points of interest

• According to several regulations, persons with disabilities have equal rights to safety and accessibility in the transport system. However, there are challenges to combining different concepts and perspectives.
• Lack of mandates for institutions to address both safety and accessibility leads to goal conflicts and a risk that focuses become entrenched with clearly defined boundaries.
• There are challenges in evaluating different values and perspectives in relation to accessibility.
• A facilitating aspect for sustainability regarding safety and accessibility is to create opportunities and systems to allow for the exchange of knowledge.
• Integration of safety and accessibility may be encouraged by the use of existing sets of holistic approaches (i.e. Vision Zero and Universal Design).