Workshop on Networks and Collaboration in Local Government

Purposes and Objectives

In November, 2008, approximately a dozen local government scholars will gather at the University of Kansas for the Workshop on Networks and Collaboration in Local Government (hereafter the Workshop). Local government scholars are very active in a wide range of academic associations such as the American Political Science Association, the Public Management Research Association, and the American Society for Public Administration. It is almost always the case that there are several papers and one or two panels on local government at the meetings of these associations. But there are few opportunities for local government scholars to focus together for an entire day on their collective interests. So, the first and primary purpose of the Workshop is to bring local government scholars together.

Because local government is very large subject area, the Workshop will concentrate on bringing together scholars working on research having to do with interjurisdictional collaboration, networks, and cooperation, particularly in metropolitan areas, and on empirically-based scholarship on and related to these subjects. So, the second purpose of the Workshop is to facilitate extended discussion on current efforts at empirical research and theory building regarding the use of networks, collaboration and cooperation in local government.

Inasmuch as these scholars are generally known to each other, are familiar with each other’s work, and participate together in presenting papers in the panels held at academic association meetings, organizing the Workshop around the presentation of research papers would be duplicative of these activities. Instead, the third purpose of the Workshop is to provide a venue at which each of these scholars can describe, in summary form, their research program, their empirical approaches, their data, and the theories they are testing. A general discussion of the state of research on networks, collaboration and cooperation in local government is sought and it is expected that each scholar will discuss his or her plans to contribute to this research area in the future.

In summary and in light of these purposes, the objectives of the Workshop are to:
• bring together local government scholars actively working on these topics;
• have each scholar describe his or her research program;
• provide a setting in which these scholars can engage one-another on research and theoretical perspectives;
• ask the group of scholars to identify common research patterns and themes, identify opportunities for further research and possible collaboration, identify gaps in research and theory; and • ask the group to consider the future of research on networks, collaboration and cooperation in local government and opportunities for research collaboration.

 

Workshop Invitation
Networks and Collaboration in Local Government?
November 13-14, 2008
Lawrence Kansas

Organized by
George Frederickson (KU) , Rick  Feiock (FSU) and Jered Carr (Wayne State)

 

Scholarly and practitioner interest in intergovernmental service delivery networks has increased dramatically in the past decade. Empirical studies of interlocal service cooperation, once largely absent in the journals of public administration, have come hold a prominent position in the literature. Theory and empirical research have begun to improve our understanding of the conditions that foster cooperation among politically fragmented, yet functionally interdependent, local governments. Nevertheless, the answers to many questions are incomplete and some of the most important questions about the emergence, maintenance and impacts of collaborative service arrangements remain unanswered. This workshop will provide an opportunity for the leading scholars in this area to take stock of the progress that has been made, share their own research, and identify the critical questions for future work. The workshop is scheduled at University of Kansas all day Thursday November 13 and the Morning of November 14, 2008. Participants will not present a research paper, but will instead review for the attendees their research agenda, the questions they are working on, and how they are researching those questions.
We include the initial list of participants:  George Frederickson (KU) , Rick  Feiock (FSU) and Jered Carr (Wayne State), Simon Andrew (UNT), Doug Ihrke (UW-Milwaukee), Sung-Wook Kwon (Texas Tech), Kelly LeRoux (KU), David Matkin (FSU), Karen Mossberger (UIC), Rebecca Hendrick (UIC), Edgar Ramirez (ASU), Manoj Sherstha, (Idaho), and Eric Zeemering (SFSU).  Student participants are Shanthi Karuppusamy (Wayne State) and In-Won Lee (FSU).

Please join us!