by Jacob Torfing et al.
In a recent article published in Policy & Politics, entitled A systematic review of conflict within collaborative governance, authors Jacob Torfing, Reza Payandeh, Seyed Mostafa Jalili and Masoud Banafi provide a comprehensive overview of how conflict emerges and is managed within collaborative governance processes. Their systematic review draws on 62 peer-reviewed studies with the aim of identifying where, when, and how disagreements surface in collaborative governance initiatives—and what strategies are employed to deal with them.
The authors argue that, while collaborative governance has become an increasingly popular response to complex public policy challenges, it has often been presented as more consensual and harmonious than it is in practice. By contrast, this review centres conflict as a core, recurrent feature of collaborative processes. The article explores not only the types and stages of conflict, but also the institutional strategies that support constructive disagreement and how these influence short-, medium- and long-term governance outcomes.
The review is structured around three questions: (1) at what scale, stage and in which domains do conflicts most commonly occur in CG? (2) what strategies have been used to manage or resolve them? and (3) what effects do these conflict management strategies produce?
The findings show that conflict is most likely to arise at the local scale, particularly during the early stages of collaboration, when issues are being framed and roles negotiated. Environmental and ecological contexts dominate the literature. Many of the conflicts reviewed concern minor disagreements—over responsibilities, language, or priorities—rather than more fundamental ideological clashes.
In response to these findings, the authors identify six broad strategic approaches that collaborative governance actors use to manage and resolve conflict:
- Persuading engagement strategies
- Structural and institutional strategies
- Constructive communication strategies
- Steering and leadership strategies
- Alignment and harmonisation strategies
- Cumulative learning and co-creation strategies
These strategies are mapped onto three overarching stages in the collaborative governance process: motives, dynamics, and resolution. The article finds that while collaborative governance frameworks are often effective in managing smaller disagreements through facilitation, consensus-building and adaptive learning, they struggle to cope with fundamental conflicts rooted in divergent worldviews or systemic power imbalances.
A key contribution of this article is its identification of a significant blind spot in the literature: a lack of attention to fundamental conflicts. These include deeply embedded ideological, structural or historical differences that cannot easily be negotiated. The authors call for greater integration of insights from other policy frameworks—such as the Advocacy Coalition Framework and polycentric governance—to better understand and address these deeper disputes.
The study also points to a need for more longitudinal and comparative research on the long-term impacts of conflict resolution in collaborative governance, particularly beyond the local level and beyond single case studies.
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You can read the original research in Policy & Politics at
Torfing, J., Payandeh, R., Jalili, S. M., and Banafi, M. (2025). A systematic review of conflict within collaborative governance. Policy & Politics (published online ahead of print 2025), available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2025D000000070>
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