Collaboration

Collaboration is a process in which the state engages with business and civil society to shape policy agendas, and to design and implement policy programs. Sometimes this is interpreted as meaning that the public policy process reflects the principles of deliberative democracy, in which actors engage in a rational debate with the intention of seeking a consensus solution. Other literatures place more emphasis on collaboration arising from resource interdependencies and complex problems that require a multisectoral response. A more critical understanding of collaboration is as one of the mechanisms through which the state subjugates populations via new mechanisms of self-governance.

Despite definitional differences, there is general agreement that collaboration is different from cooperation and coordination. All, however, are points on a continuum from organizational independence to organizational integration. Cooperation involves sharing information or expertise in a context where organizations remain autonomous from each other, for example, in client referrals in social welfare networks. Coordination involves a process of independent organizations introducing a degree of integration by undertaking mutual adjustment to produce a better overall outcome. This takes place when organizations agree to redesign their procedures so that, for example, clients can use a single point of contact to access services from a variety of agencies. Collaboration is the next step in the continuum. It involves organizations recognizing that they are interdependent and creating a greater degree of integration of procedures, policies, and structures. Such collaboration might involve the creation of an overarching board to make strategic decisions that are binding on the constituent organizations.

Collaboration is often regarded as an activity that takes place at the subnational level, and there is a large literature on partnership and other forms of collaboration at city or neighborhood level, for example, in urban regeneration and sustainability. However, it would be incorrect to privilege these spatial scales. In an era of multilevel and global governance, it is important that the discussion of collaboration also take into account interactions at national and transnational level, as well as interactions between these and other levels of governance. This is because collaborative mechanisms engaging government with civil society and business have become the preferred delivery mechanisms for many aspects of European and national policy, including those related to economic restructuring, social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and the knowledge society. These policy initiatives stimulate activity at the subnational level and in some cases (as in a number of European Commission initiatives) become the instrument through which specific policy intentions are expected to be realized. In the field of international relations, the creation by states of instruments of global governance can be regarded as the outcome of a process that is intended to lead to greater collaboration, for example, through the regulation of standards or economic, environmental, or social policies. Collaboration, therefore, involves both horizontal and vertical forms of interorganizational engagement.