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For several years, the development of the Swedish public sector has been accompanied by a discussion about inter-organizational collaboration, which has been examined in several national experiments. The experience, however, indicates significant difficulties in implementing collaboration in local authorities' regular activities. This article argues that organizing inter-organizational collaboration in projects tends to be counterproductive, since the purpose of this collaboration is to increase the integration of local authorities. This article is based on case studies of three different collaboration projects. Each project is analyzed in relation to the way collaboration is organized within the project and how the relationship to the local authorities' activities is designed. The outcome of these studies shows that while collaboration projects increase integration between the responsible authorities, the integration stays within the projects. This is due to the fact that the projects were designed as units separate from the responsible authorities. As a result, the collaboration that occurs in the projects is not implemented in the local authorities' activities, and the viability of the increased integration of different responsible authorities does not extend beyond the projects.

It has become increasingly common to use the project as a form of organization when implementing public policies. Previous research has identified political, administrative and organizational motives behind this trend towards more project-based organizations within the public administration. The problem is that project-based organization carries inherent problems and special challenges when these projects are supposed to be implemented in permanent agencies and organizations. The purpose of this paper is to identify problems and challenges that public administrations face when ‘the project organization’ is used as a structural form of organization in implementing different kinds of public policies. The article takes its starting point in the policy implementation research and especially in Matland’s conflict-ambiguity model. This research tradition is complemented by a review of research on temporary organizations, which draws attention to some inherent and significant characteristics of project organizations, that is the concepts of entity, relationship and time. Our analysis shows that the use of project organization puts special demands on the players involved, and if these are not taken into account, there is a high risk that projects designed to bring about social change will not produce the effects that policymakers and citizens expect.