| Summary: | This article addresses those processes that generate contingency in the institutionalisation of public policies, using as an illustration, the implementation of a policy establishing a partnership between the government and community-based organisations in Quebec. Theories of policy networks as well as actor-network theory lead us to propose, at the centre of the policy implementation process, a concept of strategic actors rooted in networks and issues beyond the boundaries of the policy. The article presents two case studies in two different sectors, based on in-depth interviews with key actors, analysing the policy’s implementation process. A secondary analysis of these cases illustrates the way in which actor-networks, originating more or less outside the policy field, manage to decenter the local policy context as the principal framework determining the contingent outcome of the institutionalisation process.
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