In the recent debate on megaprojects (MPs), greater attention is devoted to the functioning of the interorganizational and multiactor networks that are one of the most innovative features in recent years. The complexity of these structures brings out governability issues for an MP’s management. Mutual recognition and consent become elements capable of inaugurating more collaborative processes and practices to reduce organizational and management criticalities in MPs. This paper focuses on a neglected relational dimension, namely legitimacy. We argue that legitimacy is instead the central dimension that attributes effectiveness and capacity for action to the organizations involved. Legitimacy regulates the relationship between various organizations—and especially—between organizations and the public sphere. Institutionalist theory assigns a central role to legitimacy in the construction of social processes, defining it as a generalized form of social acceptance toward an actor, an idea, or a project. In this paper, we hypothesize that the legitimacy attributed and “held” by the stakeholders is a crucial element in countering three critical aspects of MPs, namely the uncertainty, complexity, and conflict acting on the construction of public consensus and the quality of relationships between the participating stakeholders. We verify our hypothesis by analyzing a cross-border MP, the Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link between Germany and Denmark. The paper concentrates on the mechanisms with which stakeholders can acquire legitimacy using the Eriksen discursive legitimation scheme. These mechanisms are different (evidence-based, public participation, and legislators’ command) and produce different outcomes in terms of increasing or containing these three criticalities.

中文翻译：

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弥合“同意差距”：跨境大型项目的合法化机制

在最近关于大型项目 (MP) 的辩论中，人们更加关注组织间和多方网络的运作，这是近年来最具创新性的特征之一。这些结构的复杂性给国会议员的管理带来了治理问题。相互承认和同意成为能够启动更多协作流程和实践的要素，以减少 MP 中的组织和管理关键性。本文关注一个被忽视的关系维度，即合法性。我们认为，合法性反而是将有效性和行动能力归因于相关组织的核心维度。合法性规范了各种组织之间的关系，尤其是组织与公共领域之间的关系。制度主义理论赋予合法性在社会过程构建中的核心作用，将其定义为社会对行为者、想法或项目的普遍接受形式。在本文中，我们假设利益相关者赋予和“持有”的合法性是应对国会议员的三个关键方面的关键因素，即不确定性、复杂性和冲突对公众共识的构建和关系质量的影响。参与的利益相关者。我们通过分析跨境 MP，即德国和丹麦之间的 Fehmarnbelt 固定链路来验证我们的假设。本文重点关注利益相关者使用 Eriksen 话语合法性方案获得合法性的机制。这些机制各不相同（循证、公众参与、