Speakers
Description
Objectives:
Almost all Dutch municipalities have a Local Sport Agreement (LSA). The LSA can be regarded as a form of ‘collaborative governance’. The main principle is that constructive collaboration between the local administration, voluntary sport clubs and other public and/or private organisations leads to outcomes that could not otherwise be accomplished. The aim of this study was to trace opportunities and constrains for collaborative governance that could explain differences between municipalities.
Methods:
Using the Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance (Emerson, Nabatchi & Balogh, 2011), we conducted a study on local collaboration and implementation of the LSA. The Framework includes: system context, external drivers, collaborative dynamics, actions and impacts. With a focus on the system context, we diffused a questionnaire under 157 Dutch municipalities and carried out six local case studies.
Findings and conclusion:
We identified five important components of the local setting: policy frameworks, resource conditions, networks, and drivers (leadership and consequential incentives). These components affected the ‘collaboration dynamics’ and implementation of the LSA. For example: when ambitions of the LSA aligned the local sports policy, the implementation was furthered. The collaborating partners could build on existing experience and knowledge and make use of available resources and networks. When these resources and networks were absent, it took quite some time to build the structures and recourses for co-operation and implementation. In those cases the LSA was an important incentive to reconsider the local conditions and sport policy and for strengthening networks. This shows that collaborative governance is not only affected by, but also affects the system context.
