From austerity to abundance? : creative approaches to coordinating the common good / edited by Margaret Stout (West Virginia University, USA).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Margaret Stout -- Are social movements prefiguring integrative governance? / Jeannine M. Love and Margaret Stout -- Unsettling the memes of neoliberal capitalism through administrative pragmatism / C.F. Abel and Karen Kunz -- Cross-sector collaboration for public value co-creation : a critical analysis / Alessandro Sancino, James Rees and Irene Schindele -- Tackling maternal health through cell phones : evaluating a collaborative framework / Nidhi Vij Mali -- Clarifying collaborative dynamics in governance networks / Margaret Stout, Koen P.R. Bartels and Jeannine M. Love -- A typology of coproduction : emphasizing shared power / Victor Burigo Souza and Luis Moretto Neto -- Get talking : managing to achieve more through creative consultation / Nicola Gratton and Ros Beddows -- Joining the citizens : forging new collaborations between government and citizens in deprived neighborhoods / Imrt Verhoeven and Evelien Tonkens -- Encounters with an open mind : a relational grounding for neighborhood governance / Koen P.R. Bartels.

This volume explores the ways in which civil society and governments employ transformative tactics of direct engagement in coordinating efforts toward the common good. The chapters highlight alternatives that are philosophically and pragmatically different from neoliberal austerity measures, which reduce coproduction to a cost-saving tactic. Instead of simplistic load-shedding and unfunded partnerships, collaborative governance and coproduction increasingly take on characteristics of social movements, wherein direct citizen engagement in public policy making and administrative implementation are seen as the collective pursuit of human flourishing and abundance. These approaches counter the status quo - both in terms of power dynamics and standard operating procedures. Civil society is increasingly reclaiming its roots in the more informal mechanisms of social movements. As governments reach out to engage these groups, they must develop a new stance toward collaboration - one that sees power as a generative force when shared rather than held through hierarchical or competitive dominance. This book shows how, through this transformation, genuine public value can be produced.