Scale is an overlooked issue in the literature on interactive governance. This special issue investigates the challenges posed by the scale and scaling of network and collaborative forms of governance. Our original motivation arose from a concern about whether collaborative governance can scale up. As we learned more, our inquiry expanded to include the tensions inherent in collaboration across scales or at multiple scales and the issue of dynamically scaling collaboration to adapt to changing problems and demands. The diverse cases in this special issue explore these challenges in a range of concrete empirical domains than span the globe.
In: Torfing , J & Hofstad , H 2015 , ' Collaborative innovation as a tool for environmental, economic and social sustainability in regional governance ' , Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration , vol. 19 , no. 4 , pp. 49-70 .
In the Scandinavian countries, the regional level of governance is neither the locus of large-scale policy reforms nor a significant provider of welfare to citizens. Nevertheless, it has some important policy tasks in the area of environmental, economic, and social sustainability. These policy areas are rife with wicked and unruly problems that combine cognitive uncertainties with the risk of political conflict and stalemate. Dealing with these problems requires the construction of network arenas in which a range of public and private actors can collaborate in order to find innovative solutions to common problems. The paper analyses the efforts of Norwegian regions to enhance collaborative innovation through the formation of interactive governance arenas. It compares three different policy areas in order to better understand how different forms of interactive governance enhance collaborative innovation for economic, social and environmental sustainability. The ultimate goal is to assess the ability and potential of Norwegian regions to solve wicked and unruly problems through collaborative innovation. ; In the Scandinavian countries, the regional level of governance is neither the locus of large-scale policy reforms nor a significant provider of welfare to citizens. Nevertheless, it has some important policy tasks in the area of environmental, economic, and social sustainability. These policy areas are rife with wicked and unruly problems that combine cognitive uncertainties with the risk of political conflict and stalemate. Dealing with these problems requires the construction of network arenas in which a range of public and private actors can collaborate in order to find innovative solutions to common problems. The paper analyses the efforts of Norwegian regions to enhance collaborative innovation through the formation of interactive governance arenas. It compares three different policy areas in order to better understand how different forms of interactive governance enhance collaborative innovation for economic, social and environmental sustainability. The ultimate goal is to assess the ability and potential of Norwegian regions to solve wicked and unruly problems through collaborative innovation.
Artikel 3In the Scandinavian countries, the regional level of governance is neither the locus of large-scale policy reforms nor a significant provider of welfare to citizens. Nevertheless, it has some important policy tasks in the area of environmental, economic, and social sustainability. These policy areas are rife with wicked and unruly problems that combine cognitive uncertainties with the risk of political conflict and stalemate. Dealing with these problems requires the construction of network arenas in which a range of public and private actors can collaborate in order to find innovative solutions to common problems. The paper analyses the efforts of Norwegian regions to enhance collaborative innovation through the formation of interactive governance arenas. It compares three different policy areas in order to better understand how different forms of interactive governance enhance collaborative innovation for economic, social and environmental sustainability. The ultimate goal is to assess the ability and potential of Norwegian regions to solve wicked and unruly problems through collaborative innovation.
AbstractThis paper aims to take stock of the European debate on governance networks in order to assess whether or not it has succeeded to develop a new a viable paradigm based on clear concepts, sound theories and methods and an expansive research agenda. The political and institutional conditions for the emergence of the Europe governance debate are analyzed and the notions of 'governance' and 'governance networks' are critically examined and defined. A brief assessment of the empirical significance of governance networks at different levels of governing is followed by a presentation and comparison of the main theories of governance networks that tend to draw on different strands of institutional theory. Finally, the large and expanding research agenda of the new 'second generation' of governance network research is revisited before concluding that, despite of the need for further methodological development, the European debate on governance networks provides a new and important paradigm for understanding the emerging forms of multilateral action and pluricentric governance.
Den stadigt mere velkonsoliderede governanceforskning har påvist, at styringsnetværk spiller en væsentlig rolle i offentlige styringsprocesser, og at netværk mellem offentlige og private aktører i stigende grad betragtes som et effektivt og legitimt styringsredskab. Der råder til gengæld betydelig usikkerhed blandt governanceforskerne om, i hvilken grad styringsnetværk bidrager til at gøre den offentlige styring effektiv og demokratisk. Denne usikkerhed hænger sammen med uklarheden om, hvordan vi måler og evaluerer deres effekter. Artiklen tilbyder nogle kriterier, der kan anvendes i empiriske evalueringer af konkrete styringsnetværks effektivitet og demokratiske kvalitet. Kriterierne kan dels anvendes til at påvise variationer i effekterne af forskellige typer styringsnetværk, ligesom de kan tilvejebringe viden om konkrete netværks funktionsmåde, der kan danne udgangspunkt for tilrettelæggelsen af målrettede effektivitets- og demokratifremmende metastyringsstrategier.
Encouraged by the proliferation of governance networks and the growing demands for public innovation, this article aims to advance "collaborative innovation" as a cross-disciplinary approach to studying and enhancing public innovation. The article explains the special conditions and the growing demand for public innovation, and demonstrates how it can be enhanced through multiactor collaboration. The case for collaborative innovation is supported by insights from three different social science theories. The theoretical discussion leads to the formulation of an analytical model that can be used in future studies of collaborative innovation in the public sector.
The increasingly consolidated governance research has shown that governance networks play an important role in public governance processes and that networks between public and private actors are today regarded as an effective and legitimate management tool. However there is considerable uncertainty among governance scholars about the implictions of governance networks for the effecitiveness and democratic quality of public governance proceses. This uncertainty is related to uncertainties about how to measure and evaluate their effects. The article provides some criteria for empirical analysis of specific governance networks' effectiveness and democratic quality. These criteria can be used to detect variations in the effects of different types of governance networks as well as they provide information about specific networks' behaviour that can form the basis for the organisation of focused effeciency and democracy promoting metagovernance strategies.