Collaborative governance in rural regions: an examination of Ireland and Newfoundland and Labrador

Rural communities, residents, and governments at all levels are considering new forms of governance as a mechanism to assist in the revitalization and sustainability of rural regions. This search for new forms of governance is partly fueled by frustrations of residents in rural regions at the lack of central governments’ abilities to respond to regional priorities, challenges, and opportunities. Recognizing this frustration, this dissertation responds to two calls for ‘calls to arms’ for research on rural governance. In the early 2000s Reimer suggested governance was a revolution being missed, leading to lack of understanding of the phenomenon. He suggests additional research is required on this phenomenon in Canada. Further, in the mid 2000s Ansell and Gash encouraged researchers to test their collaborative governance model. This model was constructed from a synthesis of over 100 cases of governance and was designed to advance empirical data collection on collaborative governance. In responding to these calls, this initiative examines the collaborative governance model in two regions: the South Kerry area of Ireland and the Northern Peninsula region of Newfoundland. This dissertation addresses four research questions through an international case study approach: (i) is the collaborative governance model, proposed by Ansell and Gash (2007), appropriate for understanding rural regional governance?; (ii) how do individuals, community-based organizations, and other key stakeholders influence the rural regional governance process or processes?; (iii) how do regional boundaries influence the formation and operation of rural regional governance models?; and (iv) what is the relationship between government(s) and regional governance initiatives? The two governance initiatives convey much of Ansell and Gash’s collaborative governance model components. The examination of the two cases suggests four additions to strengthen the collaborative governance model: definition of region, introduction of differentiating multi-level actors, recognition of power-resource-knowledge a/symmetries in the collaborative process component, and the addition of explicit need for power and/or responsibility sharing. This dissertation advances academic knowledge on collaborative governance and rural regional development. The findings emerging from this dissertation hold relevance to academia, policy, and local/regional development practice