Collaboration: key concepts

Abstract

This chapter examines the basic concept of collaboration and how it has developed over a range of cognate discussions in the fields of public policy, public administration and governance. Rather than beginning with a single overarching definition, the chapter draws out how the concept of collaboration is anchored in at least eight different but overlapping ‘images’ of collaboration. Many of these discussions contrast collaboration to other modes of governance-and notably to markets and hierarchies. The chapter then investigates how the distinctions between collaborative, market, and hierarchical relationships might be understood as continuous rather than categorical in nature. The chapter also draws a distinction between collaboration as the property of a relationship and collaborative governance as the property of a regime. Finally, the chapter investigates how these ideas relate to the typology set out in the introductory chapter.