TITLE:
The Relationship between Pre-Collaboration and Community Resiliency: A Case of Housing Renewal Project in New Zealand
AUTHORS:
Zohreh Karaminejad
KEYWORDS:
Foundations of Collaboration, Pre-Collaboration, Local Community, Adaptation and Resiliency
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.9 No.2,
June
22,
2021
ABSTRACT: While collaborative governance and planning are
often criticized for exacerbating power imbalances, failing to be inclusive
and/or impartial, and for ignoring historical conflict, some scholars have
found an informal but foundational phase/pre-collaboration critical in
mitigating contextual and historical factors that often lead to marginalization
during more formal negotiations. Building such foundations is considerably
money and time intensive, so this paper aims to investigate outcomes of
pre-collaboration on the ground and whether it contributes to long-term
community adaptation and resiliency. Using qualitative methods and based on a
case study of housing renewal project in a community described as “deprived”,
we found a direct connection between informal pre-collaboration, community
resiliency and long-term adaptation. We argue that the pre-collaboration phase
may shape the ultimate success or failure of the endeavour as it enables
communities to become “collaboration-ready” in a situation where the context is
hostile, and there are power and capability inequalities. This research shows
that the benefits of pre-collaboration arguably
outweigh the costs, particularly over the long-term.