This study aims to increase our understanding of how co-operation in inter-municipality policy networks in a Swedish region is established and maintained regarding emergency management. We discuss how a network of five municipalities emerged and took shape. Overall, we conclude that co-ordination and co-operation in municipal emergency management are probably relatively easy to develop, because it is easy for the involved actors to see the benefits. Sharing resources is seen as crucial when establishing and, not least, financing efficient, high-quality emergency management. The municipalities' lack of resources to provide effective emergency services, as required by law, makes them dependent on each other. Limits for co-ordination were connected to distance and other geographical factors. Other limits of equal importance were linked to factors such as culture/tradition, mutual understanding, size of partners, and unwillingness to give up authority as well as a prior barrier for co-operation between small and bigger municipalities.The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com:Jenny Palm and Elina Ramsell, Developing Local Emergency Management by Co-Ordination Between Municipalities in Policy Networks: Experiences from Sweden, 2007, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, (15), 4, 173-182.http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2007.00525.xCopyright: Blackwell Publishing Ltdhttp://www.blackwellpublishing.com

Purpose This study aims to explore recent public sector trends, inter-organizational and cross-sector collaborations, and analyzes these in terms of implications for participative development of information systems (IS). These trends are understood as being part of emerging forms of e-government. Initial suggestions for how to develop IS in the new contexts are provided. Design/methodology/approach Three cases involving the trends described above, taking place in the Swedish emergency response system, are studied and used as basis for identified participative IS development challenges and suggested adaptation needs. Data collection involves semi-structured interviews, focus groups and future workshops. Findings The identified challenges concern balancing ideological versus practical needs, lack of resources, lack of know-how and design techniques and tool challenges. Some practical implications for participative IS development include more extensive focus on stakeholder and legal analysis, need for interdisciplinary design teams, merging of task and needs analysis for yet-undefined user tasks and using on-line alternatives for interacting with users. Research implications/limitations The study is exploratory where the three cases are in different, but at the same time interrelated, collaboration contexts. The identified implications and challenges provide proposals that in future research can be applied, formalized and integrated when developing practically feasible participative IS development approaches. Originality/value It is argued that the results point toward a current emerging form of e-government initiatives directed toward certain demarcated groups of citizens actually carrying out certain tasks for their co-citizens and society rather than the broad masses, having far-reaching practical implications and complicating the issue of IS development.

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There are increased demands to prepare for and coordinate of crisis management in public administrative bodies. Governmental organizations and authorities have responsibility for providing systems and structures of coordination before, during, and after crises. Among these are the technical information systems which create the structuring arena for coordination and integration that is analyzed here. There are several technical information systems to choose from for municipalities, which are responsible for local crisis management in Sweden. One technical information system, known as web-based information system (WIS), was a national initiative, but due to the local autonomy mandated in the Swedish constitution it was complicated to get municipalities to choose the national system and alternative local technical information systems were developed. The study builds on a bottom-up analysis of how municipalities choose technical information systems within crisis management. The main conclusion points out the importance of organizational structure in governance and the demand of flexibility in technology.