Networked authority and regionalised governance: Public transport, a hierarchy of documents and the anti-hierarchy of authorship

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the authority of written documents and how these artefacts work as governance devices. Networked authority is introduced as a concept to elucidate how documents accumulate formal power in a collaborative process, where several formally independent but informally interdependent organisations together point out the direction of regional public transport planning in the form of one strategic document. Drawing upon recent research on bureaucracy, authority and documents, the paper empirically explores these connections in the context of public transport in Stockholm, Sweden. Based on this case study, authority was found to be accomplished as the written document reproduced an existing hierarchy of documents, through an anti-hierarchical process where the newly formed Regional Public Transport Authority involved several formally independent but informally interdependent organisations, and by lacking a sole author. These three features are crucial for understanding how a collaborative process erodes individuality and personal responsibility, while producing anonymous, networked authority. These results are discussed in relationship to Foucault's notion of authorship, the author-function, which is derived from legal-institutional networks, much like networked authority. Understanding how networked authority is accomplished through a hierarchy of documents and an anti-hierarchy of authorship contributes with new knowledge on documents and how these work as governance devices in regional governance.

Subcity: Planning for a Sustainable Subsurface in Stockholm

“…urban (sub)surface in constructing transport-related infrastructure (Paulsson and Isaksson, 2019). A key consequence of the PBL is that municipalities must produce an overview land use plan (a masterplan).…”

Planned meetings: Multiplicity, boxed-in dialogues, and deliberative bureaucracy as social form

“…At these meetings, they invite the municipalities to discuss new plans or propose new strategies. A public transport law that entered into force in 2012 also explicitly stated that the PTA's in Sweden must engage in consultation and collaborate with 'relevant authorities' (including the municipalities) and other stakeholders in the process of producing the legally mandated Regional Traffic Supply Program (for an analysis of how authority is networked in this regionalized process, see Paulsson and Isaksson, 2019).…”

The city that the metro system built: Urban transformations and modalities of integrated planning in Stockholm

“…The purpose of this paper is to investigate how housing and public transport planning in Stockholm have been integrated during the past 20 years through multi-level collaboration. Authority over land-use planning and development is dispersed across the City of Stockholm and the other municipalities in the county, whilst the public transport authority (PTA) is under the authority of the County Council (Paulsson and Isaksson, 2019). The County Council collects tax to fund the PTA and municipalities collect tax to fund welfare services, including housing and land-use planning.…”