In pursuit of an actor-centric understanding of policy integration. Theorizing on the sustainability coordinators in local governance

Policy integration is a key strategy for promoting sustainability, yet recent research calls for more actor-centric approaches to understand it in practice. This article addresses this gap by theorizing on systemic, organizational and individual-level factors that influence how Swedish Sustainability Coordinators engage with critical tasks to integrate sustainability in local governance. Our framework demonstrates how sustainability and governance ideas and norms, organizational positioning, and individual role perceptions influence their use of five key action strategies to integrate sustainability: connecting, problem-solving, protesting, leading and subversive actions. By better understanding what conditions these actors’ courses of action, we add important pieces of the theoretical puzzle for understanding processes of policy integration, bring broader insights on local environmental governance, and promote critical reflection among practitioners.