During the last couple of decades, we have witnessed a proliferation of the project as an organizational solution in sectors as diverse as IT, housing, social services, education and culture. Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon, we know surprisingly little of how processes of public sector projectification unfold in practice, especially at local government level. This article uses an institutional logic perspective to illustrate and argue that public sector projectification can be understood and conceptualized as the enactment of multiple, co-existing institutional logics, but where one particular logic is of growing importancethe project logic. It is argued that even though the project form is often perceived as more flexible than that of the bureaucracy, the practical outcome seldom represents a radical break with traditional, bureaucratic management models. Rather, it appears to aid a rediscovery and reuse of central bureaucratic practices and procedures such as reporting, documentation and standardization.
The local governments of EU member countries are attracted to the possibility of receiving EU funding. However, as the governance structures of EU funds are complex and dynamic, municipalities are increasingly drawing on the knowledge and resources of 'EU experts' who mediate and provide project support. This article contributes to our understanding of how EU cohesion policy is translated through EU projects, with a specific focus on the processes of preparing and applying for project funding. Drawing on education policy, this study analyses a tool which has been developed to facilitate and increase the number of EU projects in the Swedish region of Scania. The analysis shows that regional mediation -and the ambition to reframe local policies into EU projectsentails substantive as well as organizational changes in two aspects. First, the policy content shifts from the realm of education policy to the realms of collaborative development policy, social cohesion and innovation, and second, the translation entails an organizational shift from permanent public education administration to temporary project organizations. These processes are conceptualized as the re-compartmentalization of local policies.
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