The collaborative governance networks literature: A comprehensive and systematic review

Collaborative governance networks became increasingly popular in the practice and scholarship of public administration and policy in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In this paper, we present the results of a comprehensive review of the journal publications about collaborative governance networks between 1977 and 2018. The results of our analyses show that in the first two decades of the 21st century the number of publications increased sharply. The studies were conducted in widening areas and fields of study and in an increased number of countries. The leading areas and fields were environmental studies, healthcare/public health, local/urban/community/regional studies, business/finance, and public affairs. The leading countries in the studies were the US, the UK, Canada, China, the Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden. The results also show that the publications were mostly a-theoretical, and in only a minority of them a recognizable empirical research method was used.