| 1. |
- De Majo, Veronica, 1974-
(författare)
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Institutional conditions for building proactive flood management : Lessons from santa Fe in Argentina
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. - : Elsevier. - 2212-4209. ; 81
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although national disaster risk reduction policies in Argentina are still incipient and fragmented, the city of Santa Fe managed to adopt flood-risk management strategies after a major flooding in 2007. This involved a shift from reactive measures to a proactive policy approach to manage one of the city's main problems. Employing insights from institutional theory, this paper explores and elaborates on the institutional conditions that enabled policy change in Santa Fe. A qualitative case-study design is used, and the analysis builds on previous empirical studies of Santa Fe, policy documents and in-depth interviews. Three institutional conditions were identified as fundamental contributors to policy change: place identity, policy publics, and practical authority. These conditions were used and developed by the new administration elected after the flooding. This paper argues that the new administration took advantage of the 'legitimacy vacuum' of the old administration, following from its passivity and reactive handling of the flooding. The new administration mobilized and strengthened pre-existing institutional conditions, and reconfigured power relations through its practical authority. Instead of a partisan strategy, the new adminis-tration expanded agency in terms of a community-based approach (collective action), expert knowledge, and problem-solving skills, which underscores the importance of informal institutions to complement and reinforce formal ones. This article provides lessons for local communities with similar conditions as the city of Santa Fe, showing that local actors can develop proactive disaster risk reduction also in unfavourable national contexts.
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| 2. |
- Lundberg, Erik, 1980-
(författare)
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A pluralist state? : civil society organizations’ access to the Swedish policy process 1964-2009
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Including civil society organizations in the policy process is a distinctive trait of democratic governance. But, while being highly valuable from a democratic point of view, not all civil society organizations are represented in the policy process. This dissertation draws attention to the role of the government in shaping the representation of civil society organizations in the Swedish government consultation referred to as the ‘remiss procedure’. The overall aim is to increase empirical and theoretical understanding of civil society organizations’ access to the national Swedish policy process. Drawing on various empirical data sources, it analyzes how access has changed during the second half of the 20th century, the factors influencing access, and the significance of the access provided by the government.The results are based on four empirical studies, and show that the government has encouraged an increasing number and more diverse types of civil society organizations to be represented in the remiss procedure. In addition, organizations with plenty of resources, such as labor and business organizations, are not overrepresented. However, access is slightly skewed in favor of civil society organizations with an insider position within other access points at national government level, which is consistent with a privileged pluralistic pattern of interest representation. In addition, civil society organizations seem to be invited into an arena for political influence of less relevance. Theoretically, the dissertation moves beyond the neo-corporatist perspective that dominated Swedish research during the second half of the 20th century by drawing attention to five different theoretical lenses: pluralism, neo-corporatism, political opportunity structures, policy network theory, and resource exchange theory. It concludes that a variety of theories are needed for access to be understood.
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