Collaborative Governance Arrangements Research Articles

Digital Accountability in Collaborative Public Governance in Times of Crisis: Analysing the Debate in a Polarized Social Forum

Accountability in collaborative public governance initiatives and in digital era governance is under‐researched, especially in the context of crisis and where issues are debated in a social forum. Accountability considerations are considered particularly important in collaborative governance arrangements, which are of growing relevance for delivering public services. This study, anchored in notions of digital accountability, analyzes debate in a social media forum about a collaborative governance initiative implemented during a crisis. The empirical case is the Austrian contact tracing app, a digital innovation considered key in managing the COVID‐19 pandemic. The study makes several contributions. First, it is one of the first to focus on the crucial role of debate in digital accountability in collaborative governance. Second, the study shows that the debate extends beyond the mere content of the innovation, highlighting the need to consider the ‘ecology’ of other (digital) tools, measures, and policies for crisis mitigation in parallel. Third, the study sheds light on the temporal dynamics of accountability in crisis response. The study contributes conceptually to an enhanced understanding of the expertise of actors in delivering and receiving digital public services. It also contributes to a management perspective of digital accountability, which is important given the potential implications for (non)acceptance of public sector innovations in crises and beyond. An enhanced understanding is possibly even more crucial for innovations requiring citizen co‐production in sensitive areas such as health.

Hybridity as a governmental technique for designing and delivering NAPLAN in Australian schools

AbstractThis paper explores the utility of hybrid governance as an analytical lens for understanding policy design and delivery in Australian schooling reform. Using the National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) as a case study, we argue that its design and delivery processes exemplify hybridity in myriad dimensions. In a federal system in which national schooling reform relies upon negotiation and consensus building amongst a multiplicity of government and non‐government stakeholders, we argue that NAPLAN's hybridity serves as a governmental technique for managing and sustaining collaborative governance arrangements. Hybridity also supports the standardised implementation of the assessment across diverse schooling systems and sectors. While NAPLAN's hybridity generates strategic benefits for Australian governments, it also produces risks. A challenge for policymakers is to harness its benefits while ensuring transparent decision‐making and clear responsibilities and accountabilities. To address risks and leverage opportunities, we argue there are benefits to having a convening agency with authority to manage and sustain hybrid networks at the national scale.Points for practitioners Hybrid governance offers productive insights into how Australian governments work collaboratively to design and deliver national schooling reforms. The National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an exemplary case study for examining hybrid governance in the Australian federation. Hybrid governance serves as a technique for managing and sustaining collaborative governance arrangements at the national scale and for ensuring NAPLAN's implementation is standardised across Australia's diverse subnational schooling systems and sectors. Hybridity creates risks and opportunities. A challenge for policymakers is to harness its benefits while ensuring transparent decision‐making and clear responsibilities and accountabilities. There are benefits to having a convening agency with authority to manage and sustain hybrid networks at the national scale.

Collaborative governance arrangements: what makes nature-based solutions endure?

ABSTRACT ‘Nature-based Solutions’ (NbSs) are considered key actions to address urban regeneration and foster greener cities. Such actions are based on collaborative governance arrangements, where public administration, private companies, research and citizens cooperate to test and manage innovative solutions. Reflecting a quadruple helix logic, these arrangements display different actors leading responsibility for maintenance while cultivating collaborative relations. Hence, collaborative governance arrangements can assume the shape of public-led, private-led, research-led or community-led types, addressing specific maintenance challenges. Yet, the conditions that allow different types of collaborative governance arrangements to make NbSs endure are still poorly investigated. Through an in-depth analysis of the proGIreg Urban Living Laboratory in Turin (Italy), this paper analyses different types of collaborative governance arrangements, exploring which challenges, risks and potentials characterise them. Particularly, the paper investigates conditions that make NbSs endure over time. The results outline how legitimacy, institutional leadership and administrative commitment, networking capacities, integration of resources, competencies, co-responsibility, knowledge transfer and empowerment play a pivotal role in making NbSs endure. Overall, this article contributes to contemporary research and practices on urban experimentation, NbSs and maintenance.

Assessing Drivers of Sustained Engagement in Collaborative Governance Arrangements

Abstract The formal engagement of diverse stakeholder groups in policy design and implementation has become a mainstay governance strategy. While much has been learned about collaborative governance arrangements in terms of their structure, processes, and participant dynamics, one particularly salient dynamic has been relatively underexplored: the factors contributing to sustained participation in collaborative venues. Public administration and policy have developed a variety of conceptual theories which draw attention to interpersonal interactions and the ability of stakeholders to garner political wins as important contributing factors to sustained participation. In this paper, we test four theoretically rooted hypotheses to investigate stakeholder attendance in the collaborative governance case of an environmental justice council. We analyze council meeting minute data using computational text analysis tools and a Stochastic Actor-Oriented Model to assess: (i) conflict and concord, measured in terms of repeated (dis)agreement with others; and (ii) interest advancement, or the extent to which a stakeholder makes positive, neutral, and negative comments towards topics which become the council’s annual objectives in relation to an individual’s attendance. Our interpersonal interaction results show increased positive relationships are associated with increased attendance, and increased negative relationships are associated with decreased attendance, but, for both cases, only when interactions are repeated and not one-off. Our interest advancement results show: (1) an increase in supported annual objectives is associated with decreases in attendance for an individual stakeholder, but (2) increased oppositional and neutral annual topics are associated with a greater likelihood of attendance. This paper contributes to existing scholarship on collaborative governance by offering additional insights into individual factors associated with sustained engagement in the collaborative venue. Furthermore, the paper offers a generalizable methodological approach for analyzing these dynamics drawing on computational text analysis of meeting minute data.

Everyday politics in collaborative governance of (non)networked water infrastructures in rural and small towns of Ghana

Following the increasing failure of participatory governed planning interventions in attaining inclusive outcomes, critical governance scholars have articulated the need to pay attention to politics, especially in the global South. Motivated by this pertinent scholarly invitation, this study examines the politics in a state-community collaboration involving the provision, operations and maintenance of water infrastructures in rural and small towns of Ghana. By drawing on everyday politics and the qualitative case study, we explore the actors involved and their roles, the rules guiding the collaboration, the power relations, and how activities were performed; and offer a reflection on the implications for inclusive governance. We showed that though state-community collaboration holds the potential for joint deliberation towards the operations and maintenance of water projects, instead, it manifested more of a representation in practice, where rules and principles of the collaboration were pre-defined by state actors and served non-state actors in the implementation (provision of labour, financial/material inputs and meetings). These were shaped by the diverse interests and uneven power relations between state and non-state actors and among community-level representatives, including experts’ power of dominance by knowledge, and the quest for incentives in the collaboration. The findings suggest that the constellation of actors and the uneven power relations inherent in collaborative governance arrangements tend to empower actors with the “powers over” and “powers to” empower non-state actors. Therefore, we recommend that planners and policy-makers pay attention to power relations and dynamics among actors by conducting power dynamic mapping toward building partnerships for inclusive governance.

Disparities in the impacts of co-management on fishers’ livelihoods

AbstractNatural resources are widely managed through collaborative governance arrangements (e.g., co-management) which often result in the uneven distribution of costs and benefits among fishers. Discrepancies in how a fisher is impacted by co-management relative to other fishers or others in the community (i.e., disparity) can negatively affect fishers’ wellbeing, their support for management, and subsequently, ecological outcomes. Yet, disparities in the distribution of social impacts from co-management have rarely been assessed. We address this gap by examining disparities (losses and gains) in perceived livelihood impacts from co-management. Losses (or gains) occur when a fisher experiences a more negative (or positive) impact on their livelihood relative to other fishers or others in the community. We used data from interviews with 1191 fishers associated with 48 coral reef co-management arrangements across Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea to examine how socioeconomic and institutional characteristics were associated with losses and gains from co-management. Overall, we found that more fishers perceived equality than disparities in the distribution of co-management impacts. Of those that perceived disparities, more fishers perceived losses than gains. We also found that disparities could be predicted by a range of socioeconomic characteristics, including distance to markets and wealth, and institutional characteristics of the co-management regime, such as gear, access, and area restrictions. This study provides insights on potential entry points that could be used by managers and policy-makers to promote equitable co-management of small-scale fisheries, such as the reduction of losses by increasing participation in decision-making processes, fostering conflict resolution mechanisms, prioritizing gear restrictions over area restrictions, and reducing poverty.

Distributive Justice in Collaborative Outputs: Empowering Minority Viewpoints Through Deliberation

Abstract This article explores how deliberation affects distributive justice for minority view participants in policy decisions made through collaborative governance. It also examines whether the quality of deliberation (i.e., willingness to accept opposing viewpoints) and quantity of deliberation (i.e., length of discussion) can be an effective tool for minority view participants to overcome power imbalances in such collective decision-making processes. I use agent-based modeling, a computer simulation experiment method, to examine interactions among participants in a collaborative governance arrangement. I develop a series of theoretical propositions based on the simulation results, which are robust to various changes in the parameters and assumptions of the model. First, both the quality and quantity of deliberation may enhance the decision acceptability of participants with minority views. Second, the quality of deliberation may be more effective at empowering underrepresented minority view participants than the quantity of deliberation. Third, the quantity of deliberation may better promote minority views than the quality of deliberation when minority view participants are overrepresented. These findings indicate that interpersonal justice in collaborative processes may enhance distributive justice for minority viewpoints in collaborative outputs, even when procedural justice in the design of collaboration is weakened by an underrepresentation of minority view participants. I conclude with suggestions for future research that can further improve the external validity of the theoretical propositions.

Exploring Collaborative Governance Processes Involving Nonprofits

Nonprofits are increasingly involved in collaborative governance mechanisms, on the premise that their proximity to end users and better understanding of the local contexts can lead to better policy outcomes. Although government–nonprofit relations have been theorized and explored by several studies, few studies have examined specifically collaborative governance, instead focusing on other phases of policy development or service delivery. In this article, we present a realist evaluation of data gathered from in-depth semi-structured interviews ( N = 41) and four focus groups with stakeholders involved in collaborative governance arrangements within “Strategic Public Social Partnerships” in Scotland. Our findings indicate that collaborative governance processes involving nonprofits can potentially lead to improved services through mechanisms such as the development of trust and the establishment of new learning dynamics, and when knowledgeable leadership and mutuality drive collaborations. However, this is only true if the long-term sustainability of these processes translates into the mainstreaming of both the resulting services and their underlying collaborative principles.

Environmental governance in the Russian federation: firms and regulator perception of environmental NGOs

ABSTRACT Against the backdrop of increasing public awareness of global environmental challenges, this paper examines the potential for collaborative environmental governance in the Russian Federation. To do so, we examine regulators’ and firms’ perceptions of, and collaborations with, environmental non-governmental organizations (eNGOs) in three Russian regions. Our findings highlight that Russian firms rarely collaborateor include eNGOs in environmentally-focused activities because they perceive them to be ineffective, invisible, or irrelevant. Russian regulators do engage with eNGOs, but not as equal partners in the form of collaborative governance arrangements; regulators reduce eNGOs to the positions of subordinates and/or assistants.

Strengthening climate adaptation in the northern region of Ghana: insights from a stakeholder analysis

ABSTRACT Climate change significantly impacts agriculture. Building an informed and collaborative process among stakeholders remains vital in minimizing climate risks and building climate-adaptive and resilient agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, stakeholders’ involvement and collaboration in agriculture decision-making are framed by institutional, power, and resource dynamics, often ignoring vulnerable stakeholders most susceptible to climate shocks. These collaborative dynamics are less studied in the climate adaptation literature, especially in the context of Ghana and SSA. This study promotes stakeholder engagement and collaboration in climate-adaptive and conservation agriculture (CA) by examining the influence of and relationship dynamics among key stakeholders in the northern region of Ghana (NRG). Drawing from the normative stakeholder theory and literature on climate adaptation intervention, we use multiple qualitative research methods (e.g. brainstorming, semi-structured interviews, and focus group sessions) to profile and explore stakeholders’ roles, interests, and collaboration in CA and adaptation interventions. Our findings suggest that collaborations in CA in these smallholder farming communities are often fragmented, providing few collaboration advantages to smallholder farmers. Where collaboration occurs, it is often characterized by redundancy or duplication of roles and functions performed by stakeholders, poor coordination among key government actors, or by conflictual relationships among non-governmental organizations (NGOs); relationships amongst stakeholders are often driven by conflicting interests and asymmetric power differentials. These findings suggest that measures to engage stakeholders must carefully consider aligning stakeholders’ interests and addressing power differentials, which are necessary to minimize conflicts in collaborative governance arrangements for adaptation and CA. Key policy insights Conservation agriculture (CA) creates resilient agricultural systems for enhanced food security and poverty alleviation. Stakeholder roles, interests, and collaborations should be identified to understand who should be included to establish a collaborative connection for adaptation planning. Policymakers should actively engage stakeholders, including smallholder farmers, in the design and implementation of climate adaptation planning and interventions. As the principal resource for adaptation planning and decision-making is the people themselves, engaging them will leverage their knowledge, experiences, and expertise for the design of effective adaptation policies and ensure effective implementation. Collaborative action involving stakeholders can promote effective action on climate change by fostering consensus and building local ability and expertise to collectively adopt adaptation measures.

Evaluating Change in Representation and Coordination in Collaborative Governance Over Time: A Study of Environmental Justice Councils.

Collaborative governance involves convening of government and non-government actors in policy formulation and implementation. Motivating collaborative governance is the expectation that engagement of diverse arrays of stakeholders in the public policy process allows policymakers and administrators to draw on the expertise, resources, and perspectives of these stakeholders to develop more contextually appropriate and effective policies. Since collaborative governance is fundamentally premised on the representation of diverse stakeholders in collaborative processes, assessing the extent to which representation is actualized is paramount. This paper adds to recent scholarship that examines representation dynamics in collaborative governance arrangements, focusing specifically on: (i) how diverse stakeholders included in collaborative governance arrangements are descriptively and substantively represented; (ii) how substantively represented stakeholders are coordinating on informational and relationship building activities; (iii) how representation and coordination dynamics change over time; and (iv) the extent to which representation and coordination dynamics are indicative of collaboration life cycle stage. Additionally, in responding to this latter aim, the paper presents a novel approach for measuring life cycle stages. The paper reports on a comparative case study of environmental justice councils, which are collaborative governance arrangements convened by states to assist in the design and implementation of policies aimed at reducing environmental harms within low income and minority populated communities.

NGOs and Environmental Governance in the Russian Federation: Perceptions of Firms and Regulators.

Against the backdrop of public awareness of the environmental challenges, this paper examines the potential for collaborative environmental governance in the Russian Federation. We examine regulators and firm perception of, and collaboration with, environmental Non-governmental Organisations (eNGOs) in three Russian regions. Our findings highlight that Russian firms rarely include eNGOs in their environment corporate social responsibility (eCSR) activities because they perceive them as ineffective, invisible, or irrelevant. Regulators do engage with eNGOs, but not as equal partners to form collaborative governance arrangements but utilise them merely as their subordinates and/or assistants.

Collective action across boundaries: Collaborative network initiatives as boundary organizations to improve ecosystem services governance

In this study we explore the concept of boundary organizations in the context of collaborative network initiatives which aim to achieve collective action to improve ecosystem services governance at landscape scale. We are specifically interested to analyze how the boundary, which exists between actors with mainly economic interests, related to producing provisioning ecosystem services, and actors with mainly ecological interests, related to preserving regulating, cultural, or supporting ecosystem services, can be overcome for collective action. The analysis is based on empirical research conducted in a case study area from Eastern Germany, the Biosphere reserve Spreewald, where two collaborative governance approaches are compared: a citizen foundation and a water management board. For data collection we use face-to-face interviews based on the participatory Net-Map method. For data analysis we combine social network analysis and qualitative content analysis of the interview transcripts. Results show that both governance networks display the typical structural and procedural characteristics of boundary organizations. We further discuss how single design characteristics can potentially affect ecosystem services provision as a collective benefit of the collaboration. Overall, the concept of boundary organizations provides a useful lens to study collaborative governance arrangements.

Collaborative governance or state regulation? Endless efforts but little capacity for sustainability transformation of the German textile sector

AbstractCollaborative governance is increasingly demanded in multiple sectors and considered promising to address wicked sustainability challenges. Whether it meets these expectations remains uncertain, particularly as such initiatives take place within a broader landscape of public and private policies and projects. We explore how collaborative governance initiative is shaped by its broader landscape to deliver on its goals. To do so, we provide a framework for analysing governance modes and social interactions in collaborative governance. We use an exploratory case study of the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (hereafter: Textiles Partnership). The partnership is a multi‐stakeholder, collaborative governance initiative that links to a variety of different initiatives, and highlights barriers and transformation potential both within and outside its boundaries. Based on qualitative interviews, analysis of policy documents and a focus group discussion, we show that the complexity of the landscape field is accompanied by capacity constraints for all actors involved. Such complexity raises questions about whether this governance mode influences actual change on the ground, or diverts energies into navigating and proliferating complexity with low levels of meaningful outcomes. There is a growing call from actors within the partnership towards more state‐centred regulation, resulting in a Due Diligence Act in 2021, to regulate corporate action across national borders. The evidence we present shows the need to reconsider the balance between state regulation and collaborative governance arrangements.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Why Participants Leave Collaborative Governance Arrangements

AbstractWhat drives collaborating participants to leave collaborative arrangements? Collaboration is a dynamic and emergent process rather than a static condition. Previous studies focus on collaboration’s emergence and performance; few empirical studies examine why participants stop collaborating. We address this question by studying how the history and structure of the Illinois enterprise zone program relate to local governments’ renewing enterprise zone arrangements. We formulate hypotheses and provide empirical analysis at both the collaboration and individual participant levels to understand what relates to dropout. Using probit models, we provide evidence that participants of collaboration are less likely to drop out if the previous performance has been high when controlling for observable factors. Collaboration’s resource balance, stability, and participant similarity also relate to a lower likelihood of a participant’s dropping out of a collaboration. These findings shed light on the development of collaborative governance life cycle, particularly relating to later stages of collaboration.

English

The study adopted a qualitative approach and relied enormously on primary data obtained through interviews and focus group discussions to assess the type of interaction and its effects in the implementation of the REDD+ initiative in two forest districts in Ghana. The country’s involvement in REDD+ began in 2008 and received approval in 2010. Many partners from civil society, private sector, government, communities, and traditional leaders have contributed to its evolution and efforts towards realization of its goals in its pilot projects located in two forest districts in the Western and Ahafo regions, respectively. Both projects are being managed through a collaborative governance arrangement among the Forestry Commission (FC) of Ghana and other public agencies, local farmers, community groups, and interested non-state actors/non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Picking from the literature, this study adopted a framework which combines trust among collaborators, leadership, and social learning for relevant sections of the analysis. Responses were analysed using inductive thematic analysis based on issues that emerged from the observations and data gathered. An appreciable level of interaction between the communities, regulatory agencies, CBO/CSOs, local farming communities and other stakeholders was observed. What seems to engender constant interaction between the groups is the level of trust established among them and the seemingly effective facilitating and coordinating role being played by the Forestry Commission of Ghana. Key words: Ghana, Forestry Commission of Ghana, REDD+, stakeholder interaction, social learning, sustainable livelihood, environmental resources, collaborative governance.

Connecting Nature: The Potential of Australian Dairy Initiatives in Collaborative Biodiversity Governance

The dairy industry can be considered a contributor to biodiversity loss in Australia. To address this, many forms of governance can be enlisted, including traditional legislation and regulations, persuasive techniques such as publicly funded subsidy programs or education, and participation in voluntary stewardship programs. This paper explores the benefits of collaborative governance programs, which have international applications to reduce the impact of the dairy industry on biodiversity loss. However, as the Australian sector is unique, the specific opportunities and present challenges are discussed. This paper reports three important objectives that could underpin industry-led initiatives by supporting improved biodiversity conservation on dairy farms: (1) Increase the personal and financial capacities of individual farmers to operate profitable, biodiverse farms; (2) Facilitate market rewards to incentivise pro-conservation behaviours; and (3) Improve the effectiveness of the implementation of biodiversity protection laws and regulatory objectives via collaborative governance arrangements. Existing environmental programs that have been developed by the dairy industry could be suitable for incorporation into more formal co-governance structures sympathetic to biodiversity conservation. However, to be successful in addressing sustainability issues, including biodiversity loss, strengthening the integrity mechanisms around farmers’ self-reporting of performance is required to ensure that the industry can credibly refute claims of greenwashing and defend their environmental credentials in the global marketplace.

Having it all: can collaborative governance be both legitimate and accountable?

ABSTRACT Collaborative governance arrangements are frequently criticized for achieving collaboration at the expense of legitimacy and accountability. We explore the conditions under which legitimacy and accountability can occur in collaborative governance, ultimately aiming to discover whether collaborative arrangements can ‘have it all’, simultaneously being both legitimate and accountable. We leverage the Collaborative Governance Case Database to analyse a diversity of cases, employing a rich, qualitative comparative analysis. We find that legitimacy and accountability do co-exist in some cases and identify competing sets of conditions for this concurrence. Based on this exploration, we formulate propositions for future research.

Managing National Food Security in the Global North: Is collaborative governance a possible route forward?

AbstractMany countries in the “Global North” that have enjoyed relative food security for a number of decades now face challenges that may lead to disturbances in food supplies. Global markets and global flows are not as self‐evident as they were a few years ago and new modes of governance for managing national food security during crisis are required. Recent events such as the COVID‐19 pandemic have further showed that global production systems and communications are fragile to a range of different disturbances. This article examines the possibility of managing national food security through collaborative arrangements between public authorities and private food companies through a case study of the Swedish approach to food security. The analysis is based on a theoretical framework that highlights the importance of motivation, leadership, shared understanding, and trust as four dimensions that evaluate collaborative governance in precrisis situations. We conclude that although a broader understnding of the importance of food security has emerged, collaborative governance arrangements run the risk of creating only an illusion of readiness, due to unclear mandates and clear leadership not able to advance trust, legal structures, or concrete agreements for ensuring national food security.

Governance arrangements shaping driverless shuttles in public transport: The case of Barkarbystaden, Stockholm

Based on an understanding of automation as various technological and organisational configurations in the making, this article aims to deepen insights into the governance arrangements shaping how automation is being introduced in public transport. Using a qualitative case study, we analyse the introduction of automated shuttle buses in Barkarbystaden, in the north-west of the Stockholm region, Sweden. Participant observation and qualitative interviews have been used to explore the governance arrangement forming automation in this case. We use planning literature on ‘soft spaces’ to discuss how automation emerges in connection to established processes and actors. Our findings show how the governance arrangement in this case transferred existing roles and responsibilities to the collaboration involving driverless shuttles, something which gives the bus operator a new and influential role in smart mobility in public transport. The article concludes with a discussion about the need to think critically about the ways in which roles, relations and responsibilities may be shaped and reshaped in collaborative governance arrangements around smart mobility, and to develop a more clearly articulated policy and planning agenda which clarifies the long-term public vision for automation in infrastructure and transport planning.