Uncovering the Social Fabric of Urban Governance : A Social Network Analysis of Actors in a Road Expansion Project in Kristiansand

Abstract

Urban development is a complex process that requires the participation of many stakeholders, such as government officials, developers, and community groups. These actors often have different interests and priorities, which can lead to conflicts and delays when making decisions. Moreover, increasing urbanization in Norway, as in other countries, raises the stakes for decision-making in cities with large and often more diverse populations. Against this background, fair and inclusive participation plays a pivotal role in ensuring the sustainability of urban development endeavors. Previous studies have predominantly focused on individual-level characteristics as predictors of participation in urban development decisions. Limited attention has been given to the structural aspects of the relationships and networks among decision-makers and their influence on participation processes. In this dissertation, I attempt to fill this gap and provide practical insights for urban development. It aims to improve the understanding of how interpersonal relationships and interactions among stakeholders unfold and investigate their implications for decision-making. To achieve these goals, this dissertation examines the influence of social networks among decision-makers on the decision-making process in local urban development initiatives. It addresses three key questions: How can social networks contribute to inclusive decisionmaking? How do power relations among decision-makers impact decisionmaking? How does the structure of social networks contribute to decision-making delays? This study will equip urban planners, policymakers, and professionals involved in urban governance with the knowledge to navigate these challenges effectively.

The sample for this study comprised participants in decision-making for the Gartnerløkka road expansion project in Kristiansand Municipality. The project started in 2011 and aimed to enhance traffic flow by expanding the E18/E39 Gartnerløkka-Kolsdalen from two to four lanes, spanning approximately 1.4 kilometers. After 12 years of deliberation, construction commenced in 2024 with an expected completion date of 2029. Although not an outlier in urban development decisions in Norway, this project faced significant controversy within the municipality compared to similar projects due to the large number of individuals affected by it, leading to a prolonged decision-making process. This dissertation draws on social capital theory and advanced social network analysis (SNA) methods to examine original data from official documents and interviews with key stakeholders in the project. By combining these data sources, this study analyzed the interactions among actors and their effects on power relations, information sharing, and decision-making timelines.

The results are presented in three research papers that comprise this dissertation. The papers are the results of independent studies but contribute to an overall understanding of the Gartnerløkka project in Kristiansand by focusing on different aspects of the urban development decision-making process. In the first paper, “Rethinking urban futures,” I present an overview of analytical and practical contributions of SNA to inclusive urban development decisions. In this study, I explored the potential of SNA to identify patterns of exclusion and inclusion in urban development processes and suggest strategies for promoting inclusivity. In the second paper, “Uncovering the web of influence in urban governance,” I employed SNA to examine the case of the Gartnerløkka urban road expansion project in Kristiansand Municipality. In this paper, I aim to investigate how power relations among the actors influence decision-making and identify central and influential actors in decision-making, thus revealing patterns of inclusion and exclusion. This paper exemplifies the added value of SNA methods, as it uncovers latent patterns and underlying forces that shape decision-making processes in urban development. In the third paper, “Tortoise in the urban development network,” I explored the impact of social connections among the actors in the Gartnerløkka project on decision-making time in the project. The results from the paper demonstrate that extended communication lines, low network density, and high centralization hinder effective collaboration and timely decision-making, suggesting a need for more distributed decision-making networks to improve efficiency. By reconstructing information flows in the project, the paper identified privileged actors and “information brokers” who can steer (and delay) crucial decision-making.

Overall, this dissertation contributes to a growing body of literature that focuses on relational perspectives to understand social phenomena. Specifically, it shows the importance of considering social networks in urban development decisions. It thus adds to current debates in urban sociology, urban planning, and social science methods. In addition to being an academic endeavor, the findings have the potential to provide practitioners in local development projects with essential insights into the sometimes concealed network dynamics that drive concrete decision processes.