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Toward projectified environmental governance?

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  • Johan Munck af Rosenschöld
  • Steven A Wolf

Abstract

Projects are often praised for their efficiency, responsiveness to local context, and capacity to spur innovation, especially in comparison to more permanent organizations. Projects – cross-cutting organizational forms chartered to advance well-defined objectives during a specified period of time – have been a staple organizational form in the private sector, but only recently have scholars started to evaluate their relevance to governance within developed economies. In this paper, we explore projectification – i.e. expanded reliance on temporally bounded organizations – as a conceptual frame to advance understanding of environmental governance and as an empirical vehicle to incorporate temporal scales into a literature that has largely been focused on questions of spatial scale and levels of social organization. Through a case study of the United States Department of Agriculture’s recently created Regional Conservation Partnership Program, we critically assess the concept of projectification. Based on interviews with key policy analysts and administrators and a review of policy documents, we critically evaluate prospects for project forms to empower local actors, produce new knowledge, and disrupt the policy field.

Suggested Citation

  • Johan Munck af Rosenschöld & Steven A Wolf, 2017. "Toward projectified environmental governance?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(2), pages 273-292, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:49:y:2017:i:2:p:273-292
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X16674210
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