Learning from Local Government Research Partnerships in a Fragmented Political Setting

Abstract

Research partnerships between scholars and local governments offer promise to advance scholarly understanding of local public administration and to improve the lives of people living and working in local communities. Yet political fragmentation complicates the prospect of broader learning from these partnerships and creates the risk that research partnerships will amplify disparities in local government performance. If scholars and practitioners are attentive to these risks, they can design research to facilitate learning across local government settings. Lessons from policy diffusion, program evaluation, and team science inform a set of recommendations for the conduct of local government research partnerships and the distribution of results.