Sissel Hovik

• PhD
• Professor at OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University

This introductory chapter presents the bases for and approach to this volume’s investigation of e-participation in urban governance. We elaborate the linkages between the key concepts of the book—i.e., city and system characteristics, city’s adoption and implementation of digital tools, and citizen participation—and how e-participation can contribu...

This concluding chapter examines the effect on democracy of different approaches to the digitalization of citizen participation. We investigate how well different e-participation models perform on the dimensions of inclusiveness, deliberation and popular control, the models examined being the online direct democracy model in Madrid, the digital cro...

Most cities have introduced digital participatory tools. They, however, introduce these tools in different ways and for different reasons. This chapter investigates the impact of the e-participating strategies of Madrid, Melbourne, and Oslo upon local activist participation and influence in urban development. Data gathered from a survey of local ac...

In accordance with the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), Norway has made the river basin the basis for coordination of sectoral policies. New units of River Basin Districts and Sub-Districts have been introduced. In each district, the joint water management plan and program of measures is formulated by cross-sector and multi-level networks. This...

In 2010, Norway introduced local management of national parks and other large protected areas. Boards comprised of local politicians are delegated extended powers in the management of the protected areas. This paper examines how this system of local management deals with the conflicting dimensions of local interests versus national obligations, and...

To handle the challenge of complex cross-sector and multilevel coordination in the implementation of the European Union Water Framework Directive, Norway has established multilevel governance networks. Observers have pointed to a risk of such governance arrangements being dominated by experts. This article studies the highly complex multilevel gove...

International policy trends are always transformed and translated to fit the political and administrative systems in which they are introduced. An international trend of decentralization has resulted in conservation management systems in Sweden and Norway that differ, both in the choice of institutional solution and in the scope of change. This is...

The paper studies processes of adaptation to a changing climate in the water supply and wastewater sector in five Norwegian municipalities. Our case illustrates that the combination of characteristics of climate adaptation as a policy issue, institutional characteristics related to the vertical organization of the water sector in Norway, and charac...

In order to meet the challenges of an increasingly fragmented public sector and severe wicked problems, network structures have become an important part of contemporary public administration. Thus, managing networks is a central concern for public managers. The article focuses on networks being established in Norway in accordance with the EU Water...

Hva slags innflytelse får kommunene i den nye lokale forvaltningsmodellen for verneområder? Klarer Norge å innfri internasjonale forpliktelser med en slik modell? Hvordan blir rammene for naturbasert reiseliv med ny forvaltning? Finnes det spørsmål som forskerne ikke tar opp, men som bør tas opp? I desember 2012 møttes forskere med ulik bakgrunn ti...

Regional planning in wild reindeer area in Setesdal mountain area. This paper addresses land use planning as a foundation for collective action between planning authorities and wild reindeer authorities in Setesdal mountain area. The recent regional plan for the area aims to balance preservation of the habitat for wild reindeer and regional develop...

Neither Norway nor Sweden has fulfilled international commitments to the principles of direct public involvement in nature conservation, which involve (we believe) the state adopting an ‘enabling’ role, mobilizing governance resources to support decentralized decision-making while retaining powers to intervene when necessary to defend important min...

Local planning is regarded as the most important tool for integrated coastal zone management in Norway, particularly due to the active participation of stakeholders. This chapter presents experiences with stakeholder participation in municipal planning in the coastal zone, focusing on different strategies for participation and the relationship betw...

The government in Norway transfers considerable powers in nature conservation management to local government, hoping to facilitate a wider local involvement in conservation policy. Decentralisation has proven to be a success in welfare policy but is rather controversial in environmental policy. Local councils do act in a double capacity, first as c...

Lokal forvaltning av Blåfjella – Skjaekerfjella/Låarte – Skaehkere nasjonalpark. Forsøket med lokal forvaltning av Blåfjella – Skjaekerfjella nasjonalpark er et av fire forsøk med lokal forvaltning av større verneområder. Forsøket oppfyller i hovedsak de krav som ligger til en forvaltningsmyndighet. Myndigheten utfører en tilfredsstillende saksbeha...

Artikkelen tar for seg hvordan kommunene i to av forsøkene med lokal forvaltning av større verneområder ivaretar bruker- og verneinteresser. Mens statlig naturvern er opptatt av å sikre verneinteresser og det enkle friluftslivet, viser studien at det kommunale naturvernet er mer opptatt av å ivareta interessene til sterke lokale brukergrupper. Repr...

Coastal zone planning at regional level has been introduced in Norway to deal with the problems of integration that coastal zone planning at municipal level has not been able to solve. In particular, this relates to coordination between the relevant sectors at regional level. The present article discusses the effects of different planning strategie...

Integrated coastal zone management is characterized as a complex management situation, demanding integration across geographical borders, different policy sectors and levels of government. In Norway, the county municipalities are encouraged to take responsibility for achieving integration through regional coastal zone planning. Inspired by literatu...

In Norway, traditional nature conservation by government declaration is still the dominant way of protecting nature areas of national and international interest. This article presents some results from a case study of one exceptional case of private–public partnership in nature conservation. Strong opposition among local actors resulted in conserva...

Focusing on democracy, the question raised in this article is whether it is possible for local councils to play a role as democratic meta-governors in situations with cross-border conflicts over interests. According to the authors’ definition, democratic meta-governance implies that the local councils assure that all interests are taken into accoun...

This paper is an examination of Norway's national strategy for developing local environmental policies and institutions from the late 1980s to the present, and how this strategy has been influenced by changes in the dynamic between central government and local political institutions. It is argued that the strategy has changed during the period of s...

Norsk abstract: Paperet presenterer en studie av en alternativ verneforvaltning av barskog, edellauvskog og kulturlandskap på Svanøy i Flora kommune i Sogn og Fjordane. Studien er en del av et et større prosjekt finansiert av Norges forskningsråd under programmet "Marked og samfunn". Enkelte sentrale funn analyseres og drøftes. Det var fremmet fler...

This paper discusses the current trend in Norway of promoting sustainable development by network governance. The challenges of managing network governance (or meta-governance) is discussed with relation to characteristics of sustainable development policies, as combining the promotion of nature resource extraction for the production of private good...

Within the concept of meta-governance, the institutions of representative democracy are looked upon as facilitators for joint action. In this article, the legitimacy of such a role as meta-governor is questioned. The networks studied are established to manage natural resources exceeding the territorial borders of one municipality. One main challeng...