Isolationist Automorphism, Relentless Isomorphism, or Merciless Idealism. The Cultural Context of City Management in Warsaw, Stockholm and Rome

Abstract

This paper employs some results of a study of city management in Warsaw, Stockholm, and Rome by setting them in a cultural context. Contrary to the common opinion, the difficulties in effective city management in Warsaw at the end of the 1990s did no stem from its communist past, but from a veneered sedimentation of a rationalist-legalist frame of action. This contrasts sharply with a pragmatist attitude typical for the city management in Stockholm, but is similar, to a degree, to management processes in Rome. While all three cities follow the same models, the necessity of fitting them into a local frame produces quite local versions of management practices