Understanding Collaboration: Introducing the Collaborative Governance Case Databank

Abstract

Studying collaborative governance has become a booming business. However, the empirical literature still struggles to produce robust generalizations and cumulative knowledge that link contextual, situational and institutional design factors to processes and outcomes. We still have not mustered the broad and deep evidence base that will really help us sort fact from fiction and identify more and less productive approaches to collaboration. The current empirical evidence in the study of collaborative governance consists chiefly of small-N case studies or large-N surveys. The challenge is to move from case-based, mid-range theory building to more largeN-driven systematic theory-testing, while also retaining the rich contextual and process insights that only small-N studies tend to yield. This article, and the articles in the accompanying special issue, introduces an attempt to provide this middle groundthe Collaborative Governance Case Database. The database has been developed to serve as a free common pool resource for researchers to systematically collect and compare high-quality collaborative governance case studies. This article is an introduction to the database, exploring its design, opportunities and limitations. This article is also an invitation; inviting all researchers to freely use the cases in the database for their own research interest and to help strengthening the database by adding new cases there are eager to share with colleagues.

Collaborative governance in handling natural and non-natural disasters based on the perspective of public administration: Evidence from Indonesia

“…Collaborative governance is widely studied in journals of public administration and management and they show that governance practices in many countries change in the formulation and implementation of public policies (Douglas et al, 2020). The existence of collaboration and involvement of various parties in the concept of collaborative governance is a solution to overcome many social problems in a sustainable society (Beyers & Heinrichs, 2020).…”

“…The government is urgently required to collaborate with the community and business actors to solve this problem (Douglas et al, 2020). It means that it is not always the government that starts the collaboration.…”

New development: Walk on the bright side—what might we learn about public governance by studying its achievements?

“…These efforts have been guided by shared frameworks and tools to allow for transparent, systematic and nuanced analysis. For example, we created an open access repository of coded cases of collaborative governance allowing for both qualitative and quantitative forms of focused comparison (www.collaborationdatabase.org; Douglas et al, 2020). We also built on McConnell's (2010) pioneering work to develop a four-dimensional assessment framework covering programmatic (ends-means-impacts), process (fairness and smartness), political (legitimacy and support) and endurance (temporal and adaptive) criteria (Compton & 't Hart, 2019).…”

Collaborative Governance and Unemployment in New Zealand: Two Case Studies

“…This freedom of design contrasts with an approach such as a survey or other quantitative approach, where the scope of the research must be much more clearly defined at the outset. Case studies are common in the collaborative governance literature (Douglas et al, 2020), with Ansell and Gash (2008) relying on 137 case studies to develop their model of collaborative governance described in the previous chapter. In 2020 Douglas et al built a collaborative governance case databank to draw on the plethora of individual case studies and enable more generalisation across the field (Douglas et al, 2020).…”

“…Case studies are common in the collaborative governance literature (Douglas et al, 2020), with Ansell and Gash (2008) relying on 137 case studies to develop their model of collaborative governance described in the previous chapter. In 2020 Douglas et al built a collaborative governance case databank to draw on the plethora of individual case studies and enable more generalisation across the field (Douglas et al, 2020). Within the case studies, focus has tended to be on collaborative governance structures, the skills public servants need for collaboration and the benefits of collaboration (McGuire, 2006).…”