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Prof. Dr. Jan Olsson
Örebro University

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0 Institutional Change
0 Public Administration
0 Public policies
0 political analysis
0 sustainabilitiy

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Institutional Change

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Short Biography

Jan Olsson is professor of political science at Örebro University. His research interest is public administration, public policy and planning studies, as well as institutionalism with empirical focus on sustainable development, public ethics and the role of civil servants. Olsson has been the project leader of a large number of research projects over the years and has published many articles in international journals like Environmental Politics, Journal of European Public Policy, and Planning Theory and Practice; books on Palgrave-Macmillan, as well as contributed in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Olsson received his PhD in Political Science at Gothenburg University 1995. He became Associate professor of Political Science at Örebro Univertiy 2001 and professor 2007. Jan Olsson currently teaches mainly on the Masters and Ph D level in line with his research interests.

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Project

Project Goal: Public administrators are increasingly pressured to take judgement in critical value conflicts of great relevance to sustainable development and public ethics. This project explores and elaborates on how this is handled by public organizations and administrators. The project: 1) maps value conflict handling among administrators and how they make sense of and justify them; 2) takes departure in the literature of sustainable development and public ethics to critically assess what normative positions administrators embrace and neglect; 3) develops guidelines for how green public ethics can be applied in practice, which can strengthen the ethical awareness of public administrators. The project contributes to the value pluralism debate in public administration, it cast new light on the nature of green value conflict handling in public administrations and develop elaborated insights on what green public ethics actually mean and could mean in practice.

Starting Date:31 December 2020

Current Stage: Half time. Empirical fieldwork is going on and a first article is published

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Journal article
Published: 05 January 2021 in Sustainability
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Are public pension funds taking sustainability values into serious consideration? This question is addressed by analyzing annual reports of The Council on Ethics in the Swedish public pension system, which has a clear mission from The Swedish Government to consider sustainability values. The council was established in 2007 and supports four funds with advice. This article studies empirically how the council’s expression of words connected to different values has changed over time as well as how it practically reasons in situations of value conflicts. The quantitative data shows that words indicative of “sustainability values” have considerably increased. As a contrast, the critical discourse analysis shows that the council often reasons in a general, loose way about preferable solutions, while more practical claims for action are largely lacking or are vague in relation to sustainable development. The underlying rationale is very much in line with the discourse of economic rationalism. Thus, the quantitative findings suggest an emerging sustainability discourse, while the qualitative analysis clearly indicates that an economic rationale continues to underpin the council’s practical reasoning. However, it is concluded that this is not a simple case of green washing documents but rather a slow train moving towards green institutional change.

ACS Style

Joel Boudin; Jan Olsson. Sustainability in Public Pension Funds? A Longitudinal Study of the Council on Ethics of the Swedish AP Funds. Sustainability 2021, 13, 429 .

AMA Style

Joel Boudin, Jan Olsson. Sustainability in Public Pension Funds? A Longitudinal Study of the Council on Ethics of the Swedish AP Funds. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (1):429.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Joel Boudin; Jan Olsson. 2021. "Sustainability in Public Pension Funds? A Longitudinal Study of the Council on Ethics of the Swedish AP Funds." Sustainability 13, no. 1: 429.

Oxencycl entry
Published: 27 October 2020 in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics
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Institutions have always been of great concern to public administration, in both a practical and an analytical sense. The new institutionalism, developing in different versions from the early 1980s, has contributed new and varied insights on how institutional factors shape the life of public administrations. Instead of mainly focusing on formal rules and organizations, as in traditional (“old”) institutionalism, new institutionalism perceives of institutions in a broader sense, as patterned behavior also following from informal rules, norms, and habits. Different institutional perspectives continue to develop with some mutual borrowing of ideas, but they also specialize, which help us understand how public administrations are shaped by the historical legacies of institutions, institutional rules and norms that socialize organization members; institutions as incentive structures designed to increase trust and compliance; organizational adaption to major institutional trends, and institutions as cultures of communication. These perspectives are specific lenses that bring valuable, complementary insights, particularly when it comes to their varied conceptualizations of agency: strategic calculation, social adaption and imitation as well as social construction in communicative settings. However, it is argued that institutionalism has largely neglected political aspects in the interaction between institution and agency, which needs to be explored and elaborated on in future empirical research and theoretical development. The political character of public administrations is very complex and varies from individual preference falsification in order to adapt to institutions, to subversive actions for trying to undermine or to secure existing institutions when important values are at stake in public administrations.

ACS Style

Jan Olsson. Institutionalism and Public Administration. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Jan Olsson. Institutionalism and Public Administration. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jan Olsson. 2020. "Institutionalism and Public Administration." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics , no. : 1.

Reference entry
Published: 30 October 2019 in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics
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The theoretical concept of inside activism brings fresh light on institutional change by upgrading the importance of political agency within public organizations. Inside activism captures a specific empirical phenomenon, namely, public officials being committed to the agendas of civil society networks and organizations, and acting from inside public organizations to induce policy and institutional change. Inside activism upgrades political aspects of public organizations, recognizing the importance of authority, power, and combative action. Public organizations are institutionally shaped by continuous processes of consolidation and fragmentation. This means opportunities for inside activists to act politically, preferably in secret and subversive ways, and to further strengthen the fragmented nature of public organizations. Strategically, inside activists can work for institutional change by expanding their agency through the development of collective power and networking, using combative subversive strategy, working for cumulative effects and combinative solutions as well as to bend and break constraints on their actions (the 5C model). To induce change, they further exploit institutional ambiguities like “weak spots” of institutions and discrepancies between institutional rules and practices on the ground. The neglect of inside activism within institutional theory likely means that the possibility of institutional change has been underestimated and there is thus a need for a comprehensive research agenda on inside activism, political agency, and institutional change, which in this article is termed “new political institutionalism.”

ACS Style

Jan Olsson; Erik Hysing. Inside Activism: Political Agency and Institutional Change. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics 2019, 1 .

AMA Style

Jan Olsson, Erik Hysing. Inside Activism: Political Agency and Institutional Change. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. 2019; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jan Olsson; Erik Hysing. 2019. "Inside Activism: Political Agency and Institutional Change." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 09 January 2019 in Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore and elaborate on how institutional conditions work to the advantage and disadvantage of disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies on different levels in two countries. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study design is used to study empirically two countries with very different traditions when it comes to political-administrative institutions: Argentina and Sweden. Findings As expected, the institutional foundations of DRR policy in Sweden are shown to be more consistent and stable than in Argentina. However, this difference is of less importance when considering the crucial role of local practices. National institutional foundations can function as support – but is not a necessary condition – for building disaster preparedness on the ground. The authors argue that national governments cannot do without institutionalized praxis-based preparedness, which is vital for both effective emergency management and learning. Originality/value This paper contributes to the disaster research debate by elaborating on institutional arrangements that can facilitate or hinder DRR strategies in a multi-level context. The main argument is that institutional practices on the ground are important to compensate for insufficient national institutions, either because they are weak or too distant from practical DRR. The authors also elaborate on how institutional practices can function as a source for learning and for building legitimate practical authority from the bottom up.

ACS Style

Veronica De Majo; Jan Olsson. Institutional foundations of disaster risk reduction policy. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal 2019, 28, 245 -257.

AMA Style

Veronica De Majo, Jan Olsson. Institutional foundations of disaster risk reduction policy. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal. 2019; 28 (2):245-257.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Veronica De Majo; Jan Olsson. 2019. "Institutional foundations of disaster risk reduction policy." Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal 28, no. 2: 245-257.

Review
Published: 28 November 2018 in Sustainability
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Continued unsustainability and surpassed planetary boundaries require not only scientific and technological advances, but deep and enduring social and cultural changes. The purpose of this article is to contribute a theoretical approach to understand conditions and constraints for societal change towards sustainable development. In order to break with unsustainable norms, habits, practices, and structures, there is a need for learning for transformation, not only adaption. Based on a critical literature review within the field of learning for sustainable development, our approach is a development of the concept of transformative learning, by integrating three additional dimensions—Institutional Structures, Social Practices, and Conflict Perspectives. This approach acknowledges conflicts on macro, meso, and micro levels, as well as structural and cultural constraints. It contends that transformative learning is processual, interactional, long-term, and cumbersome. It takes place within existing institutions and social practices, while also transcending them. The article adopts an interdisciplinary social science perspective that acknowledges the importance of transformative learning in order for communities, organizations, and individuals to be able to deal with global sustainability problems, acknowledging the societal and personal conflicts involved in such transformation.

ACS Style

Magnus Boström; Erik Andersson; Monika Berg; Karin Gustafsson; Eva Gustavsson; Erik Hysing; Rolf Lidskog; Erik Löfmarck; Maria Ojala; Jan Olsson; Benedict E. Singleton; Sebastian Svenberg; Ylva Uggla; Johan Öhman. Conditions for Transformative Learning for Sustainable Development: A Theoretical Review and Approach. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4479 .

AMA Style

Magnus Boström, Erik Andersson, Monika Berg, Karin Gustafsson, Eva Gustavsson, Erik Hysing, Rolf Lidskog, Erik Löfmarck, Maria Ojala, Jan Olsson, Benedict E. Singleton, Sebastian Svenberg, Ylva Uggla, Johan Öhman. Conditions for Transformative Learning for Sustainable Development: A Theoretical Review and Approach. Sustainability. 2018; 10 (12):4479.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Magnus Boström; Erik Andersson; Monika Berg; Karin Gustafsson; Eva Gustavsson; Erik Hysing; Rolf Lidskog; Erik Löfmarck; Maria Ojala; Jan Olsson; Benedict E. Singleton; Sebastian Svenberg; Ylva Uggla; Johan Öhman. 2018. "Conditions for Transformative Learning for Sustainable Development: A Theoretical Review and Approach." Sustainability 10, no. 12: 4479.

Articles
Published: 30 November 2015 in Environmental Politics
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Green radicalism among local environmental officials in Sweden is examined with the aims of theoretically elaborating on different dimensions of Green radicalism in the context of public administration, exploring the dimensionality of Green radicalism among officials, and examining the extent to which Green radicalism is associated with policy influence. Three types of Green radicalism are identified: Green ethics, Green institutional change, and Green activism. Survey data (N = 701) show that the three theoretical dimensions are present among officials, and that there is no negative association between radicalism and influence. It is primarily officials with Green activism beliefs who perceive themselves as able to influence policy. These findings suggest a need for more nuanced understanding of and further studies into the role of public administration in the quest for more radical Green reforms.

ACS Style

Erik Hysing; Jan Olsson; Viktor Dahl. A radical public administration? Green radicalism and policy influence among local environmental officials in Sweden. Environmental Politics 2015, 25, 535 -552.

AMA Style

Erik Hysing, Jan Olsson, Viktor Dahl. A radical public administration? Green radicalism and policy influence among local environmental officials in Sweden. Environmental Politics. 2015; 25 (3):535-552.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Erik Hysing; Jan Olsson; Viktor Dahl. 2015. "A radical public administration? Green radicalism and policy influence among local environmental officials in Sweden." Environmental Politics 25, no. 3: 535-552.

Journal article
Published: 30 March 2014 in The British Journal of Social Work
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In this article, we call into question evidence-based practice as a working strategy for relevant applied knowledge in social work. We argue that evidence-based practice suffers from a dilemma whereby a narrow view of evidence is prioritised at the cost of relevance to social work. Instead, we suggest that praxis-based knowledge informed by different forms of knowledge is a better option with a greater potential to enhance the use of knowledge in social work practice. The article takes its starting point from Aristotle's knowledge triad of episteme, techne and phronesis, and further incorporates Flyvbjerg's perspective on a phronetic knowledge, which is value-based, context-dependent, sensitive to power relations and grounded in practical experience. We argue that phronesis is important for making social science matter in practice, and that this holds in particular for social work. The praxis-based knowledge approach can offer a wiser solution to the evidence–relevance dilemma by using a broader knowledge view and thereby taking practical relevance more seriously. This article pays particular attention to ways of making the extensive evaluation activity in social work more relevant and useful from a phronetic evaluation perspective.

ACS Style

Anna Charlotta Petersén; Jan Ingvar Olsson. Calling Evidence-Based Practice into Question: Acknowledging Phronetic Knowledge in Social Work: Table 1. The British Journal of Social Work 2014, 45, 1581 -1597.

AMA Style

Anna Charlotta Petersén, Jan Ingvar Olsson. Calling Evidence-Based Practice into Question: Acknowledging Phronetic Knowledge in Social Work: Table 1. The British Journal of Social Work. 2014; 45 (5):1581-1597.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Anna Charlotta Petersén; Jan Ingvar Olsson. 2014. "Calling Evidence-Based Practice into Question: Acknowledging Phronetic Knowledge in Social Work: Table 1." The British Journal of Social Work 45, no. 5: 1581-1597.

Articles
Published: 30 April 2012 in Planning Theory & Practice
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To further our understanding on policymaking and policy change we need to recognize the significance of individual key actors in policy and planning processes. This article theorizes on the characteristics and policy influence of inside activism in which individual public officials act strategically from inside public administration to change government policy and action in line with a civic engagement and value commitment. Based on initial empirical findings from Swedish local government, we argue that inside activism is empirically relevant but not satisfactorily covered by other key actor concepts. We theorize that inside activism is 1) dualistic: open, deliberative, consensus-seeking and tacit, tactical, power-driven; 2) influential through informal networking inside and outside of government; and 3) dynamic as it varies over time and between critical situations. Due to current trends in society and public administration (e.g. governance), we expect inside activism to be increasingly relevant and we encourage further theoretical, empirical as well as normative research and discussion on this phenomenon.

ACS Style

Jan Olsson; Erik Hysing. Theorizing Inside Activism: Understanding Policymaking and Policy Change from Below. Planning Theory & Practice 2012, 13, 257 -273.

AMA Style

Jan Olsson, Erik Hysing. Theorizing Inside Activism: Understanding Policymaking and Policy Change from Below. Planning Theory & Practice. 2012; 13 (2):257-273.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jan Olsson; Erik Hysing. 2012. "Theorizing Inside Activism: Understanding Policymaking and Policy Change from Below." Planning Theory & Practice 13, no. 2: 257-273.

Research article
Published: 01 January 2011 in Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy
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With this paper we aim to further our understanding of local environmental governing by analysing green inside activists who use expert-based authority, networks, and a professional position within public administration to green government policy and action from the inside. Using new survey data, we identify and analyse who these actors are and whether they matter for local environmental governing in Sweden. The results show that green inside activists operate within 23% of the Swedish municipalities and that these municipalities score higher on three different measurements of environmental governing performance, which supports the conclusion that green inside activists do make a difference. We also show that green inside activists differ from other public officials working with environmental issues in that they are more frequently involved in policy making, have more extensive horizontal and vertical networks, and promote societal changes to a greater degree. We end by raising key questions concerning the democratic legitimacy of these actors.

ACS Style

Erik Hysing; Jan Olsson. Who Greens the Northern Light? Green inside Activists in Local Environmental Governing in Sweden. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 2011, 29, 693 -708.

AMA Style

Erik Hysing, Jan Olsson. Who Greens the Northern Light? Green inside Activists in Local Environmental Governing in Sweden. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy. 2011; 29 (4):693-708.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Erik Hysing; Jan Olsson. 2011. "Who Greens the Northern Light? Green inside Activists in Local Environmental Governing in Sweden." Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 29, no. 4: 693-708.

Articles
Published: 01 June 2009 in Planning Theory & Practice
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This article contributes to an understanding of policy change. Exploring a local land planning case, it investigates how an environmental advocacy coalition effectively challenged road and housing plans, with the result that an area was instead developed into a nature reserve. In the course of the article, the value and practical effectiveness of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) is examined and developed with the help of two central concepts—the “value network” and “inside activist”. The outcome of the case is explained by the powerful influence of a value network of ornithologists, with particular inside activists of that network playing important roles in presenting a challenge to development of the area. Instead of trying to build an abstract theory of the ACF, the article argues the need to develop the ACF as a framework, opening it up to insights from policy network and social constructionist research as well as from practical processes.

ACS Style

Jan Olsson. The Power of the Inside Activist: Understanding Policy Change by Empowering the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). Planning Theory & Practice 2009, 10, 167 -187.

AMA Style

Jan Olsson. The Power of the Inside Activist: Understanding Policy Change by Empowering the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). Planning Theory & Practice. 2009; 10 (2):167-187.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jan Olsson. 2009. "The Power of the Inside Activist: Understanding Policy Change by Empowering the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF)." Planning Theory & Practice 10, no. 2: 167-187.

Articles
Published: 14 January 2009 in Local Environment
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This article makes a comparative analysis on how the global idea-complex of sustainable development is interpreted and institutionalised on the local level. Local institutionalisation is analysed from the theoretical framework of new institutionalism's theme of policy diffusion and adaptation. From a most different case-study design, the article analyses four Swedish local governments in the region of Örebro: Hällefors, Karlskoga, Lekeberg and Örebro. The results show that the four local governments adapt to sustainable development in quite different ways, from local translation processes (Hällefors and Örebro) to resistance and ignorance (Karlskoga and Lekeberg). This variation is interpreted in relation to the importance of local contexts. There is no intra-regional spreading of ideas leading to convergence among the cases. However, not only the local context matters, but also policy areas and development projects constitute contexts, indicating the importance of intra-local differences.

ACS Style

Jan Olsson; Jan Olsson. Sustainable development from below: institutionalising a global idea-complex. Local Environment 2009, 14, 127 -138.

AMA Style

Jan Olsson, Jan Olsson. Sustainable development from below: institutionalising a global idea-complex. Local Environment. 2009; 14 (2):127-138.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jan Olsson; Jan Olsson. 2009. "Sustainable development from below: institutionalising a global idea-complex." Local Environment 14, no. 2: 127-138.

Journal article
Published: 06 November 2008 in Environmental Politics
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ACS Style

Erik Hysing; Jan Olsson. Contextualising the Advocacy Coalition Framework: theorising change in Swedish forest policy. Environmental Politics 2008, 17, 730 -748.

AMA Style

Erik Hysing, Jan Olsson. Contextualising the Advocacy Coalition Framework: theorising change in Swedish forest policy. Environmental Politics. 2008; 17 (5):730-748.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Erik Hysing; Jan Olsson. 2008. "Contextualising the Advocacy Coalition Framework: theorising change in Swedish forest policy." Environmental Politics 17, no. 5: 730-748.

Original articles
Published: 01 August 2005 in Environmental Politics
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This article assesses the possibility of implementing biodiversity policies using voluntary, informative policy instruments. The case is the Swedish forest sector, a policy area where vital national economic interests as well as important ecological values are at stake. The results show that informative policy instruments affect the behaviour of forest owners by providing advice and raising awareness but do not change underlying values and preferences. Sustainability through good advice is an important practice with limited effects, at least in the short run. Private regulations (certifications) have a relatively powerful influence on forest owners and complement the public informative policy instruments, implying that the forest sector can be depicted as private governance with government.

ACS Style

Erik Hysing; Jan Olsson; Jan Olsson. Sustainability through Good Advice? Assessing the Governance of Swedish Forest Biodiversity. Environmental Politics 2005, 14, 510 -526.

AMA Style

Erik Hysing, Jan Olsson, Jan Olsson. Sustainability through Good Advice? Assessing the Governance of Swedish Forest Biodiversity. Environmental Politics. 2005; 14 (4):510-526.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Erik Hysing; Jan Olsson; Jan Olsson. 2005. "Sustainability through Good Advice? Assessing the Governance of Swedish Forest Biodiversity." Environmental Politics 14, no. 4: 510-526.

Original articles
Published: 01 January 2003 in Journal of European Public Policy
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This article examines the EU structural fund system from a democratic point of view and starts theorizing on the nature of basic democracy problems. The analysis is guided by a parliamentary, a pluralistic and an élite-democratic model. None of these models seems to fit well with how the system works in practice, summarized as top-down and technocratic with important vertical co-ordination between administrative levels, which tends to marginalize the role of democratic institutions. Five types of fundamental problem are identified and analysed in terms of democracy paradoxes (multi-level, vertical, economic, horizontal, multi-demos). It is difficult to dissolve these paradoxes because they reflect existing structural fund institutions. In order to democratize, they need to be challenged, either by regulating partnerships in a more democratic way or by challenging the partnership principle with the parliamentary principle.

ACS Style

Jan Olsson; Jan Olsson. Democracy paradoxes in multi-level governance: theorizing on structural fund system research. Journal of European Public Policy 2003, 10, 283 -300.

AMA Style

Jan Olsson, Jan Olsson. Democracy paradoxes in multi-level governance: theorizing on structural fund system research. Journal of European Public Policy. 2003; 10 (2):283-300.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jan Olsson; Jan Olsson. 2003. "Democracy paradoxes in multi-level governance: theorizing on structural fund system research." Journal of European Public Policy 10, no. 2: 283-300.