The Rural Municipality as Developer - Entrepreneurial and Planning Modes in Community Development

Abstract

The planning orientation and the entrepreneurial orientation are traditionally portrayed as opposites in analyses of local development. Based on a survey of developmental activities in Norwegian municipalities, the authors argue that municipal leaders apply planning tools also when engaged in local development projects. The mechanisms at work when planning practices and entrepreneurial-type actions intersect are analysed by case studies. There is no uniformity in the ways municipalities handle the planning-entrepreneurialism nexus; only in one instance a classical “planning-first” case is found. A bottom-up approach, in which a multitude of initiatives elicits coordination by planning, seems to be a more apt description. Keywords: • planning • entrepreneurialism • leadership • community development