Rörelse i upphandlingsfabriken

Public procurement is growing consistently in the public sector, both in spending and in organization. Interconnected to this expansion exists an optimism that public procurement can steer the market and societal development as a policy instrument. An attempt to develop public procurement in Sweden has been the policy public business (offentliga affärer) in which the focus shifts from legality and administration to also include business. But how are these ideas translated into municipal practices? Drawing on actor-network theory and Callon's (1984) definition of translation, the study explores how different actors, technologies and knowledge are assembled to constitute public business as a policy in a Swedish municipality. Based on interviews and participant observation, the studies identify two initiators who criticize the municipal work for lacking a businesslike approach. The initiators created a network of actors in the municipality around the identified problem by: changing the procurement role, hiring new roles and creating new technologies. The findings of the study challenge previous studies on how policy travels in general, as well as how policies within public procurement travels. In addition, the study adds a practice-oriented description of the work of public procurers in a Swedish municipality.