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A Projectified Public Administration How Projects in Swedish Local Governments Become Instruments for Political and Managerial Concerns

Fred, Mats LU orcid and Hall, Patrik LU (2017) In Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift 119(1). p.185-205
Abstract
Over the last couple of decades an increasing use of temporary organizations has been observed in public administration, a development sometimes referred to as projectification. This article explores the political-administrative rationality of pro- jectification by studying the initiation and implementation of a project funding system regarding social investments in a Swedish municipality. In the article it is argued that projectification is driven by the administrative leadership with the aid of devoted civil servants. Projects are also attractive to politicians because of the temporal, forward-looking character of politics itself, i.e. that the time conception of project management and politics is basically similar. The article shows... (More)
Over the last couple of decades an increasing use of temporary organizations has been observed in public administration, a development sometimes referred to as projectification. This article explores the political-administrative rationality of pro- jectification by studying the initiation and implementation of a project funding system regarding social investments in a Swedish municipality. In the article it is argued that projectification is driven by the administrative leadership with the aid of devoted civil servants. Projects are also attractive to politicians because of the temporal, forward-looking character of politics itself, i.e. that the time conception of project management and politics is basically similar. The article shows that the critique against projectification in terms of increasing short-termism is somewhat beside the point, since politicians and top managers rather seem interested to introduce more short-termism in public administration. Projectification, however, does not represent a profound organizational change but rather introduces a new mind-set with potential long-term effects.
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Abstract (Swedish)
Over the last couple of decades an increasing use of temporary organizations has been observed in public administration, a development sometimes referred to as projectification. This article explores the political-administrative rationality of pro- jectification by studying the initiation and implementation of a project funding system regarding social investments in a Swedish municipality. In the article it is argued that projectification is driven by the administrative leadership with the aid of devoted civil servants. Projects are also attractive to politicians because of the temporal, forward-looking character of politics itself, i.e. that the time conception of project management and politics is basically similar. The article shows... (More)
Over the last couple of decades an increasing use of temporary organizations has been observed in public administration, a development sometimes referred to as projectification. This article explores the political-administrative rationality of pro- jectification by studying the initiation and implementation of a project funding system regarding social investments in a Swedish municipality. In the article it is argued that projectification is driven by the administrative leadership with the aid of devoted civil servants. Projects are also attractive to politicians because of the temporal, forward-looking character of politics itself, i.e. that the time conception of project management and politics is basically similar. The article shows that the critique against projectification in terms of increasing short-termism is somewhat beside the point, since politicians and top managers rather seem interested to introduce more short-termism in public administration. Projectification, however, does not represent a profound organizational change but rather introduces a new mind-set with potential long-term effects. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
projectification, Local Government, social investment
in
Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift
volume
119
issue
1
pages
20 pages
publisher
Fahlbeckska stiftelsen
ISSN
0039-0747
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d64c2f9a-2b3c-4556-a01b-27fdff7e91b8
date added to LUP
2017-06-03 17:25:46
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:32:29
@article{d64c2f9a-2b3c-4556-a01b-27fdff7e91b8,
  abstract     = {{Over the last couple of decades an increasing use of temporary organizations has been observed in public administration, a development sometimes referred to as projectification. This article explores the political-administrative rationality of pro- jectification by studying the initiation and implementation of a project funding system regarding social investments in a Swedish municipality. In the article it is argued that projectification is driven by the administrative leadership with the aid of devoted civil servants. Projects are also attractive to politicians because of the temporal, forward-looking character of politics itself, i.e. that the time conception of project management and politics is basically similar. The article shows that the critique against projectification in terms of increasing short-termism is somewhat beside the point, since politicians and top managers rather seem interested to introduce more short-termism in public administration. Projectification, however, does not represent a profound organizational change but rather introduces a new mind-set with potential long-term effects.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Fred, Mats and Hall, Patrik}},
  issn         = {{0039-0747}},
  keywords     = {{projectification; Local Government; social investment}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{185--205}},
  publisher    = {{Fahlbeckska stiftelsen}},
  series       = {{Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift}},
  title        = {{A Projectified Public Administration How Projects in Swedish Local Governments Become Instruments for Political and Managerial Concerns}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/26379350/Fred_Hall_2017.pdf}},
  volume       = {{119}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}