Regionala utvecklingsstrategiers funktion i ett flernivåstyre : En studie av strategiernas genomslag i Hallands kommuners översiktsplaner

Sammanfattning

The study is a case study of Region Halland and contributes to governance research within the Swedish multi-level governance system. The study shows that governance of regional development coordination through development strategies does not achieve the impact expected. Previous research has identified perceived tensions in the relationship between regional development coordination and municipalities. This study demonstrates that these tensions are also reflected in municipalities' actual strategic spatial planning, where municipalities in region Halland relate to the regional strategies in different ways. The study examines how the Regional Development Strategy for Halland and Halland's Strategy for Sustainable Growth 2021–2028 are expressed in the comprehensive plans of the municipalities in Region Halland, to understand to what extent the regional strategies function as a steering mechanism for municipal strategic spatial planning. The study is a qualitative text analysis of the comprehensive plans of all six municipalities. It is analyzed through the operationalization of the theory's dimensions of the collaborative governance regime: principled engagement, shared motivation, and capacity for joint action. The results show that the impact of the regional strategies varies between municipalities. Some comprehensive plans clearly legitimize and integrate regional strategies, positioning the municipality as an actor in regional development work. In contrast, others only display thematic similarities without explicit connections to the regional strategies. The function of the regional strategies in encouraging municipalities to adopt a regional development perspective therefore appears overall not to be functioning within the regional development coordination in region Halland.