The networked bureaucracy: reinventing formalization in the context of collaborative governance

Abstract

Based on a critical appraisal of current literature on Collaborative Governance, this article addresses the predominant way of dissociating public networks and bureaucracy as opposing forms of organizations. Drawing upon data collected from three governance networks in Sweden, the study displays how the studied actors seek to establish hierarchical relations, formal interaction channels, and designated offices to enable and facilitate collaborative governance networks in response to what is perceived as irrational and ad-hoc organizing. The analysis outlines how and why governance networks need not inevitably be transcending bureaucracy, but constitute a distinct and deliberate declaration of just that: The Networked Bureaucracy.