Samarbete och nätverksbyggande över kommunens gränser
En studie om Norrköpings kommuns medlemskap i Sweden Emilia Romagna Network utifrån ett aktör-nätverksperspektiv
Social networks have increased significantly during the latest decades, but what does the cooperation include and how does the network processes look like? Networks are not specific for communities in the 2000?s or for that matter human organisations, but the ability to build networks and introduce more actors to the organisation have become easier with today?s communication technology. The study is about the Norrköping Municipality membership in the transnational network Sweden Emilia Romagna Network (SERN). It gives an insight into how networking and cooperation can be seen by politicians and officials, based on mission statements and the reason why a municipality choose to participate in transnational networks. The study aims to examine how Norrköping Municipality uses the SERN network and what the network have resulted in since the beginning of the municipality membership in 2005. It is a qualitative study which involves interviews with officials and politicians from the Municipality of Norrköping and textual material from SERN?s strategy documents and policies. The empirical material has been analyzed from the theoretical and methodological traditions Actor-Network Theory and Discourse Theory. The study has shown that the cooperation have given an opportunity to establish contacts with other municipalities and organisations on a regional, national and international level, where members of the network can form European projects together. At the same time, emphasizes the importance of discussing each other?s work and approaches in the design of the network process. The network processes, the dimensions of cooperation and the motivations for cooperation are discussed in the analysis.