ABSTRACT

Studying collaborative governance has become abooming business. However, the empirical literature still struggles to produce robust generalizations and cumulative knowledge that link contextual, situational and institutional design factors to processes and outcomes. We still have not mustered the broad and deep evidence base that will really help us sort fact from fiction and identify more and less productive approaches to collaboration. The current empirical evidence in the study of collaborative governance consists chiefly of small-N case studies or large-N surveys. The challenge is to move from case-based, mid-range theory building to more largeN-driven systematic theory-testing, while also retaining the rich contextual and process insights that only small-N studies tend to yield. This article, and the articles in the accompanying special issue, introduces an attempt to provide this middle ground– the Collaborative Governance Case Database. The database has been developed to serve as afree common pool resource for researchers to systematically collect and compare high-quality collaborative governance case studies. This article is an introduction to the database, exploring its design, opportunities and limitations. This article is also an invitation; inviting all researchers to freely use the cases in the database for their own research interest and to help strengthening the database by adding new cases there are eager to share with colleagues.

摘要

研究协作式治理已成为令人兴奋的业务。然而，经验文献仍然难以产生强有力的概括和累积的知识，这些知识将情境，情境和制度设计因素与过程和结果联系起来。我们仍然没有聚集广泛而深入的证据基础，这将真正帮助我们从小说中对事实进行分类，并确定越来越少的富有成效的合作方式。合作治理研究中的当前经验证据主要包括小样本案例研究或大样本调查。面临的挑战是从基于案例的中端理论构建过渡到更大的N驱动的系统理论测试，同时还要保留只有小N研究倾向于产生的丰富的上下文和过程见解。本文以及随附的特刊中的文章，引入了尝试提供这种中间立场的尝试-协作治理案例数据库。该数据库已开发成为免费的公共资源库，供研究人员系统地收集和比较高质量的协作治理案例研究。本文是对数据库的介绍，探讨了数据库的设计，机会和局限性。这篇文章也是一个邀请；邀请所有研究人员出于自己的研究兴趣自由使用数据库中的案例，并通过添加新的案例来帮助加强数据库，这些案例都渴望与同事共享。该数据库已开发成为免费的公共资源库，供研究人员系统地收集和比较高质量的协作治理案例研究。本文是对数据库的介绍，探讨了数据库的设计，机会和局限性。这篇文章也是一个邀请；邀请所有研究人员出于自己的研究兴趣自由使用数据库中的案例，并通过添加新的案例来帮助加强数据库，这些案例都渴望与同事共享。该数据库已开发成为免费的公共资源库，供研究人员系统地收集和比较高质量的协作治理案例研究。本文是对数据库的介绍，探讨了数据库的设计，机会和局限性。这篇文章也是一个邀请；邀请所有研究人员出于自己的研究兴趣自由使用数据库中的案例，并通过添加新的案例来帮助加强数据库，这些案例都渴望与同事共享。