The use of meta-governance mechanisms to fight social segregation in Copenhagen: Experiences with municipal cross-sector integration

In 2011 Copenhagen City Council adopted a citywide Policy for Disadvantaged Areas in Copenhagen to combat geographically specific vicious circles of social deprivation and physical deterioration in the city. The policy was a result of an inter-departmental learning process, designed to come up with meta-governance mechanisms to better coordinate area-based interventions across all seven city departments in the municipal administration, integrating these with mainstream municipal welfare pillars. The process is reported in (Engberg & Larsen 2010). This paper revisits the policy in a qualitative study five years after adaptation of PDAC. The paper investigates how practices of joint leadership and meta-governance across city departments and between city officials and local stakeholders have been institutionalized as coordination mechanisms as a result of the new policy.