Work for a Harmonious World
Collaborative Governance
PARCC faculty examine the processes and structures that enable organizations to work across boundaries to address public problems.
An innovative program designed to discover, examine and communicate best practices in collaborative governance, faculty members of this initiative conduct research on public management, gathering evidence of inter-organizational collaboration and public participation.
"Contrary to most connotations and understandings, conflict is not inherently bad and collaboration is not inherently good." ~ Catherine Gerard, Louis Kriesberg
Selection of Collaborative Governance Research
Environmental Governance and Conflict Management in Belize
Belize is a hotspot for environmental conservation and natural tourism due to its ecological richness and unique coastal reef system, but growing foreign debt and the recent discovery of oil reserves have led to conflicts over the best use for the country’s natural resources.
With a grant from the Oak Foundation, PARCC launched this project to help strengthen the capacity of government and civil society organizations to constructively manage environmental disputes. Working in collaboration with faculty from the University of Belize, a program similar to PARCC's Summer Institute was created to teach skills in collaborative governance, negotiation, conflict management and dispute resolution.
Collaborative Leadership and Governance
Although academics often discuss and study the use of collaborative governance in public management, there are few empirical studies to show when and how managers choose to use collaboration as a tool.
Research for this project focuses on senior executive service members in the federal government in an effort to better understand why senior public managers choose to collaborate, what their perceptions are of the challenges and constraints, and what role personal skill and technology play. The results of this research will provide researchers an opportunity to see how theories of collaboration play out in real-world decision making.
Additional Projects
Conflict and Collaboration: Better or Worse Relations (book project)
Citizenship and Deliberation Working Group (named a Center for Public Life by the Kettering Foundation)
Collaborative Experiment (examines group decision-making dynamics and their impact on collaboration)
Public Deliberation and Public Action: Assessing the Impacts of Deliberation on Policy Choices (a case study of a 21st-century town meeting)
Citizen Engagement and Empowerment in London: Creating Digital Neighborhoods (for the London Council's Capital Ambition program)
Apply for a PARCC Mini-Grant by April 15
PARCC offers mini-grants in two tracks: (1) conflict and collaboration, and (2) the John Burdick mini-grant for social movements and social change. Awards range from $500-$2,500 to support research activities in our areas of focus. The awards selection is based on potential contribution to scholarship, possibility of future funding, consistency with the goals of PARCC and cost-effectiveness. Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF faculty and students are eligible to apply.
E-PARCC
A resource for more than 5,000 users from more than 100 countries each year, E-PARCC is an initiative that publishes resources online, under the Creative Commons license, for those who teach the skills and concepts of collaborative governance around the world.
Materials include case studies of real-world occurrences of public collaborative problem solving in different cultures, simulations that actively engage students in collaborative problem-solving processes, and syllabi from some of the best teachers in the field.
E-PARCC holds an annual competition for case and simulation submissions. The materials provided online are the award winners of this competition. All teaching materials are double-blind peer reviewed by a committee of academics and practitioners.
Training
The Collaborative Governance Initiative is committed not only to the study of collaboration, but to the improvement of its use throughout government and other organizations. As such, we offer group trainings in collaborative techniques, including interest-based negotiation, facilitation, communication skills and establishing collaborative structures.
PARCC in Action
School News
Dec 20, 2024
School News
Dec 13, 2024
