Regional Partnerships and their Constructions and Implementations (Paperback)

This book addresses regional partnerships in the Norwegian context, a theme that the author has explored in depth through a doctoral thesis. In Norway, the use of regional partnerships in regional planning and development, whose main inspiration stems from the EU's concept of regional partnership, is a new phenomenon. The comparative analysis of the three case counties has shown that they have implemented regional partnerships as institutional constructions but they have understood it as three different concepts. The conclusion is that partnerships can appear in different forms as they develop in stages or steps in an institutionalising process. This study indicates that regional partnerships as institutional constructions exist as hybrid forms, situated between what the author has designated as "weak" or "strong" partnerships. The analysis of agreements and contracts as regulatory mechanisms at the regional level has shown, furthermore, that agreements and contracts move the locus of directing from a traditional democratic model to an "output model," which creates certain dilemmas. At regional level in Norway, governance as policy exists "in the shadow of government."