The Challenge of Collaborative Governance

TLDR

Partnerships increasingly shape policy implementation in localities, making it essential to understand how they add value to modern governance. This action‑research article seeks to develop a conceptual framework of factors inherent in collaborative governance and evaluate their practicality as governance tools. The authors review varying interpretations of collaborative governance and examine how structural complexity and diversity influence its effectiveness. The study concludes by outlining the conditions required to make collaborative governance work.

Abstract

Partnerships increasingly play a major role in determining and implementing major policy drives in localities. Under-standing how they may provide value is therefore essential to understanding modern governance principles. This article describes action research aiming to develop a conceptualization of fac-tors inherent in collaborative forms and, hence, about their practicality as governance tools. Different interpreta-tions of what collaborative governance is intended to achieve are first reviewed. Two areas that seriously affect the ability of collaborations to deliver their potential, structural complexity and diversity are then reviewed. The article concludes by considering what is needed to make collaborative governance work.