Abstract

Local governance has rapidly increased in many western countries in the last decades. However, sociologists and political scientists agree on the difficulty to single out sufficient (or even necessary) conditions that have to be met to build efficient local forms of governance. The present article is based on a sociological empirical research conducted with qualitative techniques in the petrochemical site of Porto Marghera (Italy). It aims at giving a contribution to public policy and local governance literature by providing an explanation of the factors that led the public and private sector to build jointly the SIMAGE device for the protection of the population from industrial risks, resulting in a peculiar form of local governance based on intersectoral scientific and technical expertise and excluding participatory processes and consultations with the population.