Introduction

Governments all over Northern Europe have placed public innovation high on the political agenda and pursuing public innovation through multi-actor collaboration such as public-private partnerships and governance networks appears to have particular potential.

Collaborative Governance and Public Innovation in Northern Europe draws up the emergent field of collaborative public innovation research and presents a series of cutting-edge case studies on collaborative forms of governance and public innovation in Northern Europe. The edited volume offers scholarly reflections, empirical testimonies and learning perspectives on recent transformations of governance and the way in which new public policies, services and procedures are formulated, realized and diffused. Through the empirical case studies, the book discusses some of the wider political and social drivers, barriers, promises and pitfalls of collaborative public innovation initiatives in some European nations.

Collaborative Governance and Public Innovation in Northern Europe will stimulate debates among scholars and decision-makers on how new forms of collaborative governance might enhance the capacity for public innovation and help in developing solutions to some of the most acute and wicked governance problems of our time.