The trojan horse of local government

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to illustrate the latent functions of projectification using local government practices as an example and explore organisational consequences of an increasing reliance on a project logic. Inspired by the institutional logic perspective, local government and their organisations are studied as sites where several, coexisting institutional logics are 'available' for civil servants and politicians alike to act upon and translate into practices. The growing importance of the project logic in relation to other logics, and the resulting consequences, are a vital (but often neglected) part of projectification. The project logic, however, is somewhat more elusive than the specific project organisations. It operates implicitly or 'under the radar'-in other words, like a Trojan horse. Where projects often are described as an apolitical method at our disposal, used to deliver predefined objectives, they are here regard as policy instruments that produce specific effects on their own.