Oslo Inner City Districts: Network Failure in the Face of Policy Success

Abstract

When the Oslo Regeneration Programme for the Inner City Districts was launched, it suggested that a significant step had been taken by Norway’s largest local government towards the often noted ‘shift to governance’. This 10 year, 122 million project was to be co-ordinated by a consortium involving three levels of government — national, municipal and the urban districts. Moreover, it encompassed several branches of the public services, including the school system, the social services and the agency for parks and public spaces, targeting the living conditions of a wide variety of people living in three challenged inner city districts. A network-like structure was established in order to facilitate the coordination of the programme across the levels and sectors of government involved. In addition to the involvement of several levels of government, the Norwegian Parliament signalled strongly that actors representing the local community were to be involved in the network. This is emphasized in one of the white papers:

A strategy involving special efforts by national government over a period of ten years must be set up in order to shift developments in a positive manner … a necessary precondition for such a strategy is close and mutually binding cooperation between Oslo city government and national authorities. In these efforts, the solicitation of active participation by the residents is required. (Innst. S. nr. 174. 1995–1996).