Actor and organization in urban change

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to discuss effects on urban changes of the inauguration of neighbourhood councils (kommundelsnamnder). With an organizational theoretical perspective as point of departure the claims of influence over the physical environment from different central and local actors is discussed. One result is that the decentralization of relevant parts of the municipal administration created a new kind of knowledge within the local actors, and, as a consequence of this, new claims of influence over the physical planning, a concern that remained centralized. The reorganization envisaged an unbalance between an old organization‐structure with established routines for action and the new organization with new perspectives and motives for action. Another result is the strong financial and political embeddedness of a few dominating construction‐companies as a result of years of building‐projects in the commune, a situation that was jeopardized by the decision to allow a number of private companies to bu...