New Trends in Societal Security research in the Nordic countries 26 - 27 November 2014 in Stockholm

1. Organizing for Societal Security and
Crisis Management: Building Goverance
Capacity and Legitimacy (GOVCAP)
New trends in societal security research in
the Nordic countries
Stockholm, November 26-27 2014
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2. The research project
• Funded by the Norwegian Research Council
• Four year project. 2014-2018. Started
September 1 2014
• Overall budget: NOK 10 millions (1,3 mill EUR)
• Project administrator: Uni Rokkan Centre, in
collaboration with Department of
administration and organization theory,
University of Bergen
• Project leader Per Lægreid, project manager Lise
H. Rykkja
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3. Project participants
• Jacob Aars, Dag Arne Christensen, Tom
Christensen
• International partners: Werner Jann,
Potsdam, Martin Lodge, LSE, Arjen Boin,
Leiden; Martin Marcussen, Copenhagen,
Fredrik Bynander, Stockholm
• Affiliated: two PhD students, master
students,
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4. Main focus
• Public adminsitration
• The authorities capacity for crisis
management and the citizens’ trust in
government
• A comparative design: Norway, Sweden,
Denmanrk, Netherland, Germany, UK
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5. Research questions
• What makes a well performing governmental
system for societal security and crisis
management?
– How to manage and build capacity and
legitimacy to handle transboundary crises?
– What are the relations between government
capacity, performance and public perceptions?
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6. Theses
• Organizational capacity as well as legitimacy is
needed for a well performing administrative structure
• Organizational arrangements will affect performance
• There is no one best organizational solution for crisis
management
• Context matters for crisis response
– type of crisis
– country features (polity, administrative culture)
– Risk and vulnerability assessments
– Citizens’ perceptions of governance performance
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7. Typology of crisis
Terrorist attack Natural disaster
Mitigation/prevention
Preparation
Response/consequence
management
x x
Recovery/resilience/accountability
Aftermath politics, learning
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8. Organization of the project
• Module 1: Governance capacity
– Organization, coordination, specializations,
multi-level governanc
– Comparative case studies: Crises: Terrorist attack,
natural disasters
• Module 2: Governance legitimacy
– Citizens perceptions and attitudes, trust
– Surveyes to citizens
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9. Module 1
• What arrangements are there for crisis managment
and societal security in different countries and how
has it changed over time? (mapping)
– Is there a convergence or divergence?
– Complexity and hybridity
– Hierarchy and network arrangements
• What can explain how different arrangements for
dealing with crisis develop and change?
– Instrumental and cultural explainations
• How do the arrangements work in practice? What are
the perceived effects? Under what conditions can
crisis be handled in a satisfactory manner?
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10. Module 2
• How to balance individual freedom and societal
security
– To what extent is security and civil liberties traded
off against each other in different contexts?
• Governance representativity. Citizens trust in
government
• How do crises affect the legitimacy, reputation
and trust in the relevant government
institutions?
• What can explain variations?
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11. Focus
• Multi-level, with a core focus on national
institutions
• Meso-level – focus on organizations
• Strategic level more than operational level
• Focus on natural disasters and terrorism but also
other crisis might be included
• Focus on crisis management, but also other
phases
• Focus on performance mor than on societal
outcome
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12. Litteratur
• Fimreite, A.L., P. Lango, P. Lægreid og L.H. Rykkja, red. (2014). Organisering, Samfunnssikkerhet og krisehåndtering. 2. utgåve. Oslo:
Universitetsforlaget.
• Fimreite, A.L., P. Lango, P. Lægreid and L.H. Rykkja (2012). «»22.juli kommisjonen. Organisering, styring og ansvar». Nordiske
Organisasjonsstudier, 14(4): 49-58.
• Lango, P., P. Lægreid and L.H. Rykkja (2013). «Samordning for samfunnsikkerhet: Utviklingen av Justisdepartementets
samordningsansvar». Nordiske Organisasjonsstudier , 15 (3): 7-33.
• Christensen, T., P. Lægreid and L.H. Rykkja (2013) «After a Terrorist Attack: Challenges for Political and Administrative Leadership in
Norway». Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management., 21 (3)167-177.
• Fimreite,A.L., P. Lango, P. Lægreid and L.H. Rykkja (2013). «After Oslo and Utøya: A Shift in the balance between Security and Liberty
in Norway?». Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 36 (10): 839-856.
• Christensen, T., P. Lægreid and L.H., Rykkja (2014) «Ambiguitets of Accountability – analyzing the Failure of a Preventive Security
Project in Norway». Under review.
• Christensen, T., P. Lægreid and L.H. Rykkja (2014). «The challenges of Coordination in National Security Management – the case of
the Terrorist Attack in Norway». International Review of Administrative Sciences (forthcoming).
• Christensen, T. and P. Lægreid “Reputation management in times of crisis – how the police handled the Norwegian terrorist attack in
2011” . In M. Major and A. Wæraas, eds. Organizational Reputation in the Public Sector. London: Routledge (forthcoming).
• Christensen, T., O.A. Danielsen, P. Lægreid and L.H. Rykkja: “The Governance of Wicked Issues: A Comparative analysis of
Coordination for Societal security in Europe,). Presented at the IPSA World Conference in Montreal, July 20-24 2014.
• Christensen, T., P. Lægreid and L. H. Rykkja: ” Organizing for Crises Management: Building Governance Capacity and Legitimacy”
Paper prsented the International Conference on ‘Next Steps for Public Administration in Theory and Practice: Looking Backward and
Moving Forward’, November 16–18, 2014 Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
• Lægreid, P. and L. H. Rykkja: “Governance for Complexity – How to organize for the handling of wicked issues. The case of internal
security and the welfare administration in Norway”. Paper presented at the Policy & Politics Conference, Bristol September 16-17
2014.
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13. Project Home Page
• http://rokkan.uni.no/sites/govcap/
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