Governing Compact Urban Development and Green Mobility in the Metropolitan Towns Around Oslo - Through Strategic Hybrid Governance at Different Scales

Cities are central arenas and actors in enabling climate transformation, resilient and low-carbon urban development. Key urban strategies for achieving such transformation involve compact city development combined with land use planning, promotion of green mobility and attractive urban qualities. Informed by collaborative governance theory, this paper analyses the implications of metropolitan spatial planning (in particular as it relates to land use and transport) for the municipal governing of three regional towns around Oslo (Ski, Sandvika, Lillestrom). These towns are part and parcel of a new strategic plan for land use and transport aiming to enhance climate and low-carbon development in the metropolitan region. The focus of the paper is on the choice of governance strategies by these regional towns in enabling compact city development and green mobility through engagement of the private sector and civil society. This paper starts from the theoretical assumption of New Public Governance theory where it is assumed that government agencies in Scandinavian municipalities, confronted with complex and unruly problems (‘wicked problems’) turn to collaborative networking as a means of involving both private developers and business – and citizens – in urban development. The aim is to find joint goals and solutions and pursuing collaborative exchange and pooling of resources in networks based on interdependency, reciprocity and trust. The paper argues that, while there might be some evolution in the governance approaches towards increased collaboration and networking, it is more striking how the municipalities operate under various mixes of hierarchical, marked-based and network modes of governance; the hybrid mix depending on the public problems and scale at hand. By comparing the three municipals’ choice of strategies, we reveal that they draw upon a mix of hierarchy (in applying regional planning guidelines), public-private partnerships (in compact area development), and collaborative governance (in dialogue with business and citizens on green mobility and liveability). Embedded in these strategies is a tension between what modes of governance are chosen at regional scale and those employed in dealing with citizens. Based on our empirical findings, we argue that such layers or hybrid mixes of governance strategies in general make sense from the perspective of the municipalities, since the governance of compact urban development and green mobility in these towns require different approaches to a diversity of public problems. These problems need to be addressed in parallel or in sequence with different actors at different scales. Each of the issues might represent a complex public problem and require a specific mix of modes of governance, tools and mechanisms to be resolved. The municipalities also negotiate firmly with regional- and state-level authorities and agencies to promote their own interests in land use and urban development planning, sometimes at the expense of low-carbon urban development.