Transformations of state and society over the last 3 decades have increased the importance of various forms of collaborative and network governance in forming and implementing public policy. Collaborative and network forms of governance take place in networks (including collaborative arrangements like partnerships and arrangements to foster coproduced public services), and engage public, private and civil society actors at transnational, national, regional and local scales in shaping the future of our societies. These networks or collaborative arrangements however may fail due to many causes. Managing network and collaborative arrangements is considered essential as a means to mitigate the risk of failure and enable networks to achieve desired outcomes in terms of more effective and democratic governance, more innovation policy making and delivery of public services.

Research into collaborative and network governance is now firmly established all over the world. It offers important opportunities for theoretical and methodological development, and for the generation of new knowledge with both academic and policy relevance. National and local differences demonstrate the need for theoretically and methodologically sound comparative research. The course will provide both an overview of the state of the art and a platform for discussing collaborative and network theories and students individual contributions.

This course is offered by the Netherlands School of Governance (NIG) in cooperation with the International Research Society of Public Management (IRSPM) and hosted by the Department of Public Governance & Management at Ghent University. in Belgium. Main lecturers are professor Erik-Hans Klijn (former IRSPM-president and co-chair of the Special Interest Group ‘Complexity & Network Governance’) professor Joris Voets (co-chair of the Special Interest Group ‘Complexity

& Network Governance’), supported by guest lectures by professor Jenny Lewis (current IRSPM-president) and dr. Rianne Warsen. This course creates a learning community in which PhD students will:

• Develop their analytical understanding of collaborative and network governance;
• Strengthen their theoretical and methodological knowledge;
• Test their ideas and conclusions through dialogue with leading researchers;
• Contextualize their research in a comparative, multi-national setting;
• Have a chance to present and gain feedback on their research;
• Build an international network of young researchers in the field.