Enabling “Programmatic Formalizations”: How Local Actors in the Public Sector Address Wicked Problems Through External Initiatives

ABSTRACT Society faces wicked problems, that is, complex challenges that require sustained, multi‐actor collaboration. Actors at international, national, and regional levels support local action on wicked problems through various initiatives, which often make available concrete formalized supports that local actors can draw upon in practice. We conceptualize such supports as programmatic formalizations. However, the literature lacks a systematic understanding of how these formalized supports become actionable in local efforts. To address this gap, we draw on enabling control theory as an analytical lens in a qualitative study of actors responsible for preventive work that supports children at risk of not having a safe childhood in municipalities within a Swedish region. We illustrate the challenges these actors encounter and whether, when and how programmatic formalizations help address these issues. We further show how local actors draw on multiple programmatic formalizations to establish an organizational space, adapt local work, and develop routines that support collaboration. These actors also express doubts about sustaining such organizational space over time, given challenges related to financing and political attention. Based on these findings, we reinterpret enabling control by extending its scope from a focus on internally embedded organizational formalizations to a field of multiple, externally developed and non‐mandatory formalizations.