The rationale for the specific theories and practices of collaboration between community and government
Collaboration between communities and governments depends on supporting the principle of diversity within the community and on the idea of combining the efforts of all the stakeholders to develop the community and contribute to its social and economic progress. In this case, collaboration is necessary to promote the effective development of a certain community. Speaking about collaboration between communities and governments, it is important to pay attention to the role of the local governments in the process because the local authorities have opportunities to examine and analyze all the aspects of the community’s development to propose the effective program for improving the situation and reforming the used policies (Rubin, 2002). These reforms can be successful when the idea of collaboration between stakeholders is realized.
Thus, the specific theories and practices of collaboration between the community and local governments are closely associated with the idea of the diversity in communities as the reflection of the equality principle. The theory of community diversity in its connection with collaboration principles can be explained with references to the stakeholders’ possibilities to participate in all the spheres of the community’s life despite their culture, status, and gender (Morse, 2010). Collaboration should contribute to intensifying diversity and the impact of the stakeholders on the community’s progress. As a result, the local governments implement such effective practices as the organization of conferences and meetings during which community dwellers receive the opportunity to communicate with the community leaders and authorities to discuss the programs for the future community’s development. This process can be considered as the fact of empowering dwellers and focusing on their role in reforming the life of the community.
Methods of citizen involvement and advocacy in collaborative efforts
Methods of citizen involvement in collaborative efforts can be different, depending on the objectives of the collaboration. However, the idea of building diversity can be observed with references to many methods used to enhance the citizens’ participation in developing the community. The division of roles between the community dwellers is often typical and depends on determining the leading positions. The community leaders should be discussed as responsible for creating the conditions for the equal participation of the community’s activists in the work of meetings, conferences, and other procedures to regulate the work of communities and realize the idea of collaboration.
Citizens as stakeholders have the opportunities to affect the process of distributing the resources within the community and create the equal environments with the help of regular communications during which citizens can discuss the trends in the community’s development, provide recommendations, analyze the scenarios, and propose improvements. The level of citizen involvement in collaborative efforts is closely connected with the level of diversity within the community and methods used to facilitate communication between the community leaders, authorities, and other community dwellers as equals (Goldstein, 2011).
The focus on the role of citizens in the development of the public as well as private organizations and social institutions is important to analyze the methods of citizen involvement in collaboration. Citizens and governments can collaborate effectively with references to the idea of diversity only when there are conditions for the direct communication between community dwellers and authorities and when the opinions of citizens are discussed with the help of conferences and meetings, promoting not only the collaboration between different social groups but also stimulating the interagency collaboration (Grimshaw, 2010).
Analysis of the community for aspects of problem complexity, stakeholder participation, obstacles, tangible results, and acknowledgement of success
Collaboration between stakeholders and governments to stimulate the progress of a community is associated with the definite problem complexity, the levels of stakeholder participation, certain obstacles experienced by all the parties of the process, results, and acknowledgment of success about the community’s progress.
The main problems which community citizens and governments can face are the ignorance of diversity, discrimination, poverty, inequality in statuses, and unemployment. Effective collaboration should lead to resolving the economic problems about the balance of private and public sectors and the role of the government in regulating the economic problems of the community. Furthermore, collaboration is developed not only to resolve the problems but also to predict them with the help of determining long-term goals and working out the specific projects and strategies (Guarriello, 2010).
Stakeholder participation depends on the role of the diversity concept in the concrete community. It is possible to concentrate on two directions of collaboration when authorities or governments influence the process of collaboration encouraging citizens to participate in the process by providing definite services and when citizens as stakeholders work as volunteers to avoid the uneven distribution and promote the principles of equality within the community.
However, the results of collaboration can be different because of the obvious obstacles when the interests and expectations of stakeholders are not met or they differ significantly. The principle of diversity can be difficult to follow, and the leaders of collaboration activities cannot predict all the possible results (Ferreira, Coimbra, & Menezes, 2012). In this case, the success of collaboration and social partnerships depends on the effective and direct communication between all the parties.
References
Ferreira, P., Coimbra, J., & Menezes, I. (2012). ‘Diversity within diversity’ – exploring connections between community, participation and citizenship. Journal of Social Science Education, 11(3), 120–134.
Goldstein, B. (2011). Collaborative resilience: Moving through crisis to opportunity. USA: MIT Press.
Grimshaw, R. (2010). ‘The outsider’: communication, diversity, and communities. Criminal Justice Matters, 80(1), 44–45.
Guarriello, H. (2010). The community collaboration stakeholder project. Communication Teacher, 24(4), 215-220.
Morse, R. (2010). Public administration and community collaboration for Capella University. USA: Wiley.
Rubin, H. (2002). Collaborative leadership: Developing effective partnerships in communities and schools. USA: Corwin Press.