The political logic behind projectification of innovation policy

This paper argues for a political understanding of projectification where the sponsoring of projects is conceptualised as a political form of government at a distance. The role of politics is underestimated in studies of... [ view full abstract ]

This paper argues for a political understanding of projectification where the sponsoring of projects is conceptualised as a political form of government at a distance. The role of politics is underestimated in studies of projectification, probably because actual politicians seldom have a direct role in the sponsoring, launching and government of individual projects. However, projects in general are attractive to politicians and top managers since the linear time conception of project management and politics is basically similar and the project form is more visible than ordinary public administration. Thus the project logic is related to the political logic, and the criticism towards projectification as a form of short-termism is somewhat beside the point since short-termism is the intention.
This idea of realising innovation policy by implementing a particular organisational form (the project) is tested on a historical case – the emergence of Swedish innovation policy. Already in the 1980s government agencies started to shift innovation support from specific technological products to organisational collaborations, where the quality of collaboration increasingly became viewed as the most important precondition for “innovation”. The historical study (based on secondary material) is complemented with a contemporary description of a “regional innovation system” in Sweden where the project funding system leads to organisational fragmentation as well as a focus upon applying for new projects. This project-focus is actually mirrored on the national level where different “strategic” national innovation projects have succeeded each other. The value of the paper is to “bring in politics” to the scientific debate about projectification.