Mundane dynamics

Understanding collaborative governance approaches to ‘big’ problems through studying ‘small’ practices

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6113178
AutoresYvonne La Grouw (0000-0002-8404-5251, Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance, Utrecht University School of Governance, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, autor de correspondencia), Oemar Van Der Woerd (0000-0002-1160-8164, Erasmus University Rotterdam), E Lianne Visser (0000-0003-0590-7237, Institute of Public Administration, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands), Wieke Blijleven (0000-0003-0973-3035, The Netherlands Institute for Social Research: SCP, Den Haag, Netherlands)
Año2024
Volumen39
Número3
Páginas412-435
Fecha de publicación2024-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPublic Policy and Administration (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0952-0767 • E-ISSN: 1749-4192
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/09520767241244981
OpenAlexW4394813514
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas68

Collaborative approaches to governance, policymaking, and administration are believed to provide means of adequately handling wicked problems. Simultaneously, many scholars have acknowledged the difficulty of collaboration in practice. In this article, we argue that understanding the ‘small’ practices of collaborative governance and actor-positioning processes illuminates why collaborative governance is such a challenging response to wicked problems. Instead of focussing on ‘big’ collaborative approaches to ‘big’ wicked problems, zooming in on mundane dynamics demonstrates the continuous work that governing and positioning processes require, exposing the provisional nature of elements that have been argued to be vital, such as mutual trust, reciprocity, long-term commitment, authority, or autonomy. Lastly, the mundane uncovers the importance of the material, spatial, and temporal organisation of actor-positioning processes and the potential of language to inhibit or enable collaborative governance. The article ends with a reflection on how analyses of mundane dynamics may help scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and citizens to understand their own processes of engagements in collaborative endeavours and possibly temper expectations

Autonomy · Collaborative governance · Corporate governance · Economics · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Knowledge management · Management · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Public Policy and Administration Research · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance